Plain Sermons, Preached at Archbishop Tenison's Chapel

Synopsis

Every one who has thoughtfully read that description of the Samaritans in the second book of Kings—“they feared the Lord and served their own gods”—must have been struck with the mockery, the blasphemy, the absurdity of such a fear.  Fear Him, who claims to be the only God, and yet regard many others as equally and independently gods!  Worship Him, all whose service is pure, and innocent, and self-emptying, and righteous and yet worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of licentious pleasure—Moloch, the god of cruelty—Chemosh, and his abominations—Belial, and his worldliness! 

This, my brethren, we all see is not simply a forbidden but an impossible service.  The commands, the sanctions, the promises, the service of Jehovah, and of any one of these others, are so thoroughly opposite, so condemnatory of each other, that the man who attempts to observe them both, is far more impious and more foolish than the benighted heathen who carves an idol out of a block of wood or piece of stone and bows down to it alone in homage, and looks up only to it for blessings. 

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