THERE are many people now who, like the men of Athens in Paul’s day, are “very religious.” In appearance they even go beyond the Bible standard, but this high profession is often merely a cloak for covering up a persistent neglect of plain duty. When these people are confronted with the teaching of the Scripture showing that the Lord has reserved a tenth of our increase as his own, and that consequently we should pay a tithe into the Lord’s treasury for the support of his work in the earth, they at once declare that all they possess belongs to the Lord, and that all the increase is his. This apparently shows a higher degree of consecration and sacrifice than is manifested in paying tithe, but the actual results to the treasury are generally much below what the Lord designates. When there is pressed home upon the consciences of these people the obligation to keep holy the seventh day of the week, “according to the commandment,” they at once reply that all days are holy to them, and that this is the result of the greater spirituality of the gospel as compared with the days of legalism, but experience teaches that the practical result of this claim is that the Sabbath becomes a common day, rather than that all days become holy. There are people who are so pure in their own estimation that they feel at perfect liberty to throw down all the ordinary barriers against the temptations to impurity, and they quote with much unction the statement that “unto the pure all things are pure.” But these very people are usually the first to fall into the excesses of impurity. The truth is that all this ostentatious profession of a lofty degree of piety is merely religious sentimentality. These people are simply builders of religious air-castles. Instead of accepting the Lord’s standard of human conduct, and submitting to his requirements, humanity puts forward an apparently higher standard, which eases the conscience, but does not rule the conduct. This is a latter-day deception. Do not be ensnared by it. “To the law and to the testimony.”