THE INSTINCT OF WORSHIP.
By G.
WHEN man fell, his entire nature passed over to the side of evil. There was no enmity against evil. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7. Deliberate disobedience ("Adam was not deceived," 1 Tim. 2:14) left the man with a carnal mind. But with his acceptance of the Gospel, the Lord gave the pair a new start. He did not leave them and their posterity powerless to will, or to resist temptation. To the serpent the Lord said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3:15. Christ is the Seed that will eventually bruise Satan's head, utterly destroy him. The real controversy is between Christ and Satan, but man's redemption and the recovery of the lost dominion of the earth are the subjects of the controversy. The Gospel campaign is being conducted through human agency, with the backing of the heavenly host; and the race was fortified at the outset with enmity against evil. Just in proportion to man's faith in God will this enmity enable him to resist the wiles of Satan. This enmity is the religious instinct in man, which, if rightly directed, will lead to his salvation. But when not supplemented by faith in Christ, it will lead either to false ideas of the worship of God or to the worship of false gods, the result in either case being idolatry. This was illustrated in the cases of Cain and Abel. Cain was not ignorant of the claims of God upon him; he had been instructed by his father, and felt it a duty to make offerings to the Lord. But he had yielded to a spirit of selfishness, and the religious instinct was perverted until he saw only the necessity of some formality. So he brought that which was more convenient for him. On the other hand, "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Heb. 11:4. But Satan's side of the great controversy has been carried on by imitation and perversion of God's gifts and works. In some men he is able to blunt the instinct of worship that they become atheists or infidels; but the masses retain the disposition to worship some deity. By perversion, or lack of instruction, it becomes a superstition, and the victims of this superstition are led to worship anything that strikes their fancy or their dread. The degeneration of the religious instinct in man through perversion and consequent ignorance is thus portrayed by the apostle Paul:— "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Rom. 1:21-25. The most insidious form of perverted worship is that of Cain's, the nominal worship of the true God7in ways which He has not commanded. This evil is Satan's hold on the professed church of Christ. He has introduced, and to an alarming extent established, the idea that God's law has been abolished; that the Sabbath has been changed; that sprinkling is just as good as baptism; that sprinkling infants makes them Christians; that the Lord is not coming again in person according to His promise; that the dead are conscious, and can communicate with the living; that men can be made righteous by civil law; that human priests can forgive sins, and a score of other false doctrines which contravene the plain Word of God. All such departures from that which is "given by inspiration of God" are sheer perversions not only of the Word, but of the instinct of worship which God implanted in man as a help to sustain him in "the good fight of faith." Again, the adversary is not averse to man's believing that he is a sinner, provided he will try in some way to save himself, or will seek salvation in some other way than by a return to obedience of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He will encourage imitation of any ordinance or commandment of God, provided the ordinance or commandment deviate somewhat from the original. He will encourage any degree of sacrifice, even to self-sacrifice, provided it be in some way not commanded by the Lord. But Jesus says:— "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:23, 24. To worship God in truth, is to worship Him according to His Word; for His Word is truth. Ch. 17:17.