"Listen to what the infallible word of God declares and commands on this subject," continued our friend, opening a Bible at the book of Leviticus : 66 6 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord your God.'* "So hateful is idolatry in the sight of Jehovah, that the following express command was laid upon the Israelites, to be strictly fulfilled as soon as they should arrive in the land of Canaan: "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. “ ́Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.' + 66 Again it is said in the 8th chapter of the same book,— 'It shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.' And, again, it is said in the 27th chapter of the same book, -Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman.' And in Jeremiah xvii. 5 it is said, ' Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.' 66 If we turn to the first book of Kings," said Mrs. Gracelove, we there read the awful denunciation of Jehovah against Jeroboam for the same outrage upon the sovereignty of his Maker: *Lev. xxvi. 1. + Deut. vii. 25, 26. "Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; “But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back : "Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, . . . Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat; for the Lord hath spoken it.' * "Hearken, also, to what the royal Psalmist declares, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God:- Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols worship Him all ye gods.'t . . . . "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 66 6 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 66 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 66 6 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 66 6 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.' ‡ "As the last instance I shall adduce, among many others," said Mrs. Gracelove, " pray listen to the following tremendous + Psalm xcvii. 7. * 1 Kings xiv. 7—11. Psalm cxv. 4-8. doom pronounced against the inhabitants of Jerusalem on account of their grievous idolatries. "Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. "Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto OTHER GODS, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 66 6 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. "" And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. "And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. "And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them "And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of hearen, and have poured out drink offerings unto OTHER GODS.' * “And now, my dear Mrs. Sandford," said her friend, “let the appalling doom pronounced against Jerusalem-realized as it was to the very letter-deeply impress your mind with the utter abhorrence of the Almighty against the awful sin of idolatry in all its varied forms. Let also that illustrious servant of God, who is emphatically styled the Evangelical Prophet, furnish a conclusive commentary on the sinful idol worship which we have just been considering. Jehovah here speaks Himself, as recorded by the inspired pen of Isaiah :--Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. 66 6 I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is NO SAVIOUR."'+ "But would you place the Roman Catholics," inquired Mrs. Sandford, with somewhat of a disappointed air, "in the same category with the nations of ancient Canaan ?" 66 66 Truth, I am sorry to say, compels me to do so," replied her guest. Idolatry is as much a sin in the present day as it was in the ancient days of which we are speaking. Its offensiveness to the Supreme Being must ever be the same, however different the forms which it may assume; and as long as the two first commandments of the Decalogue remain unabrogated, which were intended to last the duration of man, does the crime stand condemned, and will be followed, sooner or later, by its condign punishment. "I do not mean to say," she continued, " that, on drawing the parallel, I accuse the Roman Catholics of worshipping 'Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians;' or Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites;' neither that they fall down * Jer. xix. 3-13; see also Zeph. i. 4, 5. ↑ Isaiah xliii. 10, 11. in adoration before Chemosh, the abomination of Moab;' nor before Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.' But this I do say, and with deep sorrow of heart, that they worship saints, and angels, and relics, and give a much more decided religious prominence to their adoration of the Virgin Mary, and to prayers and supplications addressed to her, than to the divine honours they pay to God himself, the Redeemer of the world. Thus, they rob the triune Jehovah of that exclusive homage due alone to Him, who has declared himself to be a 'jealous God,' and will not give his honour to another; who has said, I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.'* “Remember what is so solemnly declared in the first five verses of the 20th chapter of Exodus : "I am the Lord thy God . . . "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.' "Do you not think," rejoined the lady of the house," that there is much of exaggerated statement and prejudiced feeling in what the world imputes as a charge against the Romish Church? Mr. Merton denies that they worship either saints, or angels, or images; and it seems but charitable, my dear friend, to give them credit for knowing better what they really do than others can tell them." "Pardon me," dear Mrs. Sandford," said her honoured * Isaiah xlii. 8. |