was held in the days of Hezekiah. One almost envies the men of that time; we might almost wish that we could be carried back some thousands of years, that we might have been there to see the solemn sacrifices, to behold the priests, as with joyous countenances they sang the praises of God, and to have mingled in that countless throng, which stood for one hour to listen to the Levite, for another hour gathered around the priest; again, at another time clapped their hands for joy at the sound of the golden trumpets, and then surpassed the trumpets by the magnificent sound of their vocal praise. But, beloved, when that scene had vanished, and the multitude had gone to their homes, Hezekiah might have sat down and wept if there had not been a fitting effect from such a great gathering. Isaiah the prophet, undoubtedly, was one of the most glad in all the crowd. Oh, how his noble heart beat for joy, and how eloquent was his seraphic tongue when he preached among the people, and cried, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” But sad indeed would his heart have been, notwithstanding all the delightful excitement of the day, if he had not seen some glorious consequences result from the ministrations and from the great gatherings of the people. In our text we are informed, that the Passover did not end with the seven days twice told of its extraordinary celebration. The Passover, it is true, might end, but not its blessed effects.
2. Now there are three effects which ought always to follow our solemn assembly upon the Lord’s day, especially when we gather in such a number as the present, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving. We should go home and first break our false gods; next, cut down the very groves in which we have been accustomed to delight in, and after that break the altars which though dedicated to the God of Israel, are not according to Scripture , and therefore ought to be broken down, albeit, even though they are dedicated to the true God.
3. I. To begin then, the true result of all our gatherings should be, in the first place, to BREAK TO PIECES ALL OUR IMAGES. “You shall have no other gods before me.” Every place is before God. Everything is before his face and open to him. Therefore by this command we understand that we are in no way, and in no sense to have another god, but the Lord our God. What! do you ask, are we a nation of idolaters? Can this text pertain to us? Would not this be a proper rebuke to address the Hindus, or to speak to the benighted {moral darkness} inhabitants of the centre of Africa? Might we not exhort them to serve Jehovah and to dash the gods of their fathers in pieces? Assuredly we might. But do not imagine that idolatry is confined to nations of a swarthy hue. It is not in Africa alone that false gods are worshipped; idols are worshipped in this land also, and by many of you. Yes, all of us, until renewed by divine grace, worship gods which our own hands have made, and we do not fear, and love, and obey the living God with our entire and exclusive homage. Once however, let grace be received into the heart, let the soul be renewed by the Holy Spirit, once drink in the free life of Jesus, and these false gods must be broken in pieces at once.
4. The first god who is worshipped among us is one called self-righteousness. The Pharisees were the high priests of this god; they burnt incense every morning and every evening before him, but he has ten thousand times ten thousand worshippers still left. Among your respectable classes of society he is the received divinity. If a man is respectable, he thinks it all sufficient. Among your moralists, this is the great god before which they bow down and worship. No, among sinners themselves, men whose character is not moral, there is, nevertheless, found an altar to this god within their hearts. I have known a self-righteous drunkard, for he has declared that he did not swear; and I have known a self-righteous swearer, for he trusted he would be saved because he did not steal. Until we are brought to know our own lost and ruined condition, self-righteousness is the god before which everyone of us will prostrate ourselves. Oh, my dear friends, if we have worshipped God in this house today, let us go home determined to aim a blow, by the help of God, at self-righteousness; let us go home and prostrate ourselves before God, and cry —
Vile and full of sin I am.
“Lord, I confess before you, that I have no good works in which to trust, no self-righteousness on which I can rely. I cast my boastings away; I come to you as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner; ‘Lord, save me, or I perish.’ ” That is the way to dash down this god. Paul once worshipped this mighty one, and worshipped him so well, that, after the “most strictest sect of his religion, he lived a Pharisee.” There never was, in his opinion, so good a man as himself. He served this god with all his mind, and soul, and strength. But, one time, as he was going to Damascus to sacrifice to this god with the blood of believers in Christ, the Lord Jesus looked upon him from heaven, and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul fell prostrate, and down went his self-righteousness too. Afterwards, you might hear him say, “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” May we all go home thus, and pull down our self-righteousness. Stop a moment, I am not quite sure that we can do this all at once. My self-righteousness I feel in my own heart, as something like those colossal statues of Egypt, and when I try to break it in pieces, I can only disfigure it; I manage to break a chip off here and a chip off there, but still there stands the statue, not in all its former symmetry, but still there. At any rate, if you and I cannot completely get rid of our self-righteousness, let us never lay down the axe and the hammer until we have destroyed it. Let us go home today and have another blow at this old foe; let us go home to have another dash at the colossal god, and let us take up the chisel and the hammer, and once more try to disfigure him. This is the proper result of the ministry of God’s Word, to destroy and cut in pieces, and utterly break down our self-righteousness.
5. There are other gods still worshipped in this world, to be execrated with unrelenting indignation. There is one which is certain to be broken, just as sure as a man becomes a Christian: I mean Bacchus , that jolly god whom so many adored in days of yore with mad revelry, and who is still worshipped by tens of thousands of Englishmen. Perhaps he is the great god of Britain. I am certain he has many temples, for there is scarcely a corner of any street in which we do not behold his image, or see his votaries pouring out libations before him. He is a god that is worshipped with reeling to and fro, and staggering. Men become drunk in his presence, and so do him homage. Now, you who are drunkards, if you become Christians, that will turn your cup bottom upwards once and for ever. There will be no more inebriation for you now. By the grace of God you will say, “Those who are drunk are drunk in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober. I renounce this practice of drunkenness, I can have nothing more to do with it.” Bless God there are many here present who have gone out of this hall to demolish this god. Oh! if it would be proper to relate the cases that have been told privately to us, we could tell you this very day, not of one, or two, or twenty but of hundreds, who, as we believe, once made their homes a hell, who treated their wives with brutality and their children with neglect; whose homes were empty, because every article they had was sold for accursed drink. They have heard the gospel not in word only, but also in power, and now their home is a paradise, their house is made glad with prayer, their children are brought up in the fear of the Lord. We have seen the wife’s tear of gladness when she said, “The Lord be blessed for ever, and blessed be the name of the gospel, for a wretched woman has been made happy, and she who was only a drudge and a slave to one who was like a fiend, has now become the companion of one whom she considers to be just a little lower than an angel.” Indeed, may this be the effect with some of you, for there are some such here today undoubtedly, who still worship this all degrading deity, the deity of drunkenness.
6. Let me tell you of another god, which is to be pulled down as certainly by any man who worships Jehovah properly, and that is the god of lust; oh! this world is not so good as it seems to be. You scarcely hear the minister in these days speak of fornicators, adulterers, and such like: but they are not all dead. There are such to be found, such in every congregation, I fear. Our streets have not yet become such as Chastity might pace at midnight, nor are the chief places of the earth become clean and purified. There is much hidden pollution to be dragged forth, and cast into Kishon. Even in high places, sin is tolerated; men are respectable who have sent their fellow creatures to hell, and are going there themselves; but once let grace come into the heart, and away with these: the most darling lust is given up,