Spurgeon: October PM
* 10/18/PM
"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice."
--1 Samuel 15:22
Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites
and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king,
and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the
sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did
it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him
at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an
act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be
printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of
the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the
fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God.
Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the
path of your Saviour's command is better than any outward form
of religion; and to hearken to His precept with an attentive ear
is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious
thing to lay upon His altar. If you are failing to keep the
least of Christ's commands to His disciples, I pray you be
disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of
attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you
may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. "To obey," even
in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice,"
however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes,
incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of His
child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be
burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not
hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall
profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a
little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has
been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many
adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to
obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their
secret.