Church of Christ Studies

The Church: It's Worship

 

I could not be but very much impressed, ladies and gentlemen, by numbers of things that are suggested by this magnificent audience. In the first place, I am thoroughly convinced of the fact that there is a demand in this world for plain, simple, straightforward preaching of the gospel, unmixed and unadulterated by human opinions, theories, and philosophies of men. Furthermore, I am thoroughly convinced that it does not take a whole lot of the world's affairs and drawing cards to get sober-minded men and women to attend religious services. I think this world is hungering and thirsting after some of the real meat of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

For some reason or other, nearly all of us preachers have, for a number of years, yielded to the temptation for little fifteen or twenty-minute sermonettes; and all of that was simply ice cream and dessert, with no turnip salad and hog jowl connected therewith. I regret so much to-night that all of you cannot be seated, and especially the information that numbers have been turned away; and I do trust, my friends, that I may be able to so address you as not only to hold your interest as is the custom, but to provoke the most serious, solemn thought on your part as to what our duty is in the subject that is to be presented.

 

If, I had announced to-night some sensational theme on the society of Nashville or some modern term that appeals purely to the physical passion and the excitement and curiosities of the people, I might not have been surprised at your coming; but since the theme has been in the public press that I would try to talk to you about Christian worship, I believe that you have come because you recognize your responsibility unto God. We are aware of the fact that we are rapid passengers from time to eternity, and that the occasion will after a while come when we have to bid good-by to our friends and our loved ones of earth and launch out into the fathomless depths of the boundless beyond and there give an account for our deeds and our very thoughts while here we dwell.

 

As a text to-night, perhaps there is none more suggestive than is found in Rev. 22:8, 9, where, in the midst of John's experience in viewing the great pictures that were hashed before him, swept oh his feet and enraptured thereby, he said: "When I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God."

 

I believe this audience knows in a general way what it means to worship. it carries with it the idea of reverence, of humility, of bowing down, prostrating ourselves in recognition of our dependence upon a superior power. I have been told by those who have stopped to count that the word in some form or other occurs about one hundred and ninety times in the entire Bible, thus evidencing the fact that the book of God teaches something on this important matter. But I have this to announce to you: that, so far as I know or can now recall, God Almighty has never simply commanded men to worship. That may seem a little strange to you, but I doubt if you know of a passage in which you have that very abstract statement Well, why not? In the first place ladies and gentlemen, such a statement was unnecessary. Man is a worshiping creature. In the absence of authority from the Bible, without commandment, wherever man has dwelt or is dwelling to-night, whether in the midst of civilization or in the very center of heathenism, man's history is that he has bowed down and worshiped some object considered higher than himself. Whether he does that by tradition from the first pair in paradise born, or whether by what is called "intuition" I do not know, neither does it matter; but suffice it to say that in all lands and in all ages, with the Bible or without the Bible, wherever man has made history upon the earth, there is connected with him in whatsoever state he may have dwelt the idea of worship. Hence the Bible does not stop merely to bid us do that thing; but this is what the Bible does emphasize and the purport of its suggestions along that line--namely, God has tried to teach you and me the right object of worship and the proper way and manner in which to render the act required.

 

Keep these thoughts in mind: it is not everybody that worships the right object, and it is not every one that does worship the right object that does it in the right spirit and in the right way—the combination of requirements that are positively necessary in order that the act may meet with Jehovah's approval.

 

It has always been strange to me why John, the last and the most aged of all the apostles, the only one, we are told, who was privileged to die a natural death, his hair hoary, and his cheeks furrowed because of the passing of the years, when swept out from his native land on the barren, rocky waste of the Isle of Patmos —to think that John so far forgot himself as to want to worship an angel. I am not surprised at our failure and our disposition to worship other than the God of heaven. The angel appeared unto John out on the Isle of Patmos and drew aside the curtain that intervened and in splendid pictures and visions granted him panoramic views of that city which hell foundations the eternal home of the soul, across which the shadows never fall, until John was so enraptured and so moved by the grandeur and the glorious presentation of things that transcend the limitations of time and of earth that the record says he fell down to worship at the feet of the angel that showed him those things But the angel said: "John, do it not; worship God."

 

Throughout all the ages men have been disposed to worship other than the God of heaven; and while we look back to-night into the classic myths that adorn the pages of literature and refer to their forgotten state and to how far they wandered from the recognition of the true God let us not forget that perhaps we are not so far removed from idolatry as we imagine.

 

In times gone by and with nations whose civilization lives only in history we are told that they mode their gods and their goddesses galore; that they erected their statues upon splendid marble pedestals, and then gathered around them as humble devotees, bowing down at the shrine unto that image and likeness which was created by their own fancy.

 

Occupying a prominent place in our American life, there is to-night the great Goddess of Pleasure, swaying her scepter, wielding her influence, making her attractions and demands. I think the time has never been when there were more people that were ready to bow down at her feet and to seek her benedictions than now. We are so anxious for the gratification of our physical passions, our animal lusts and desires, that we are ready to make almost any sacrifice in order that this Goddess of Pleasure may smile graciously upon us.

 

But that is not the only one. In another part of the city and upon a different pedestal there, perhaps, stands erected to-night the great Goddess of Fashion, who adorns the courts, directs the affairs of life, and suggests to us that at the cost of being ostracized we must bring forth the royal diadem and crown her in that realm lord of all. When Fashion dictates, you and I must humble ourselves and bow down and do her bidding or else receive the condemnation and practically be ostracized from what the world considers the best element of society. Therefore, at tremendous cost, at outlandish waste and terrible expense, we must buy and spend, and then discard every article or garment that is a few minutes out of date. Strange to say, her influence has not been locked out and barred from the meetinghouses and the places of worship; but all over the land and country are these things so antagonistic and foreign to that simplicity that ought to characterize humble worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Then the time has never been but that the Lord God of Mammon stood swaying his scepter and wielding his influence and authority over the sons and daughters of men. Hundreds, thousands—yea, millions—there are of us who are ready to bow our heads and sacrifice anything under heaven—truthfulness, honesty, uprightness, purity, chastity, even the virtues of manhood and womanhood-upon the altar of this God in order that he may pour into our laps the blessings for which humanity sighs to-night.

 

Worship God rather than any idol, either in marble or stone or in fancy. But I want to suggest to you that there are different kinds of worship outlined to us even in the book of God; so that it is not enough for me to be conscious of the fact that I have simply worshiped, but I must understand and know assuredly as to whether or not the precise act rendered is the one demanded by the God of heaven. I recall that the Savior, talking to the Pharisees, a record of which is found in Matt. 15, said that they were worshiping God in vain. The Pharisees found fault with the disciples of the Lord because after mixing and mingling with the populace they sat down and ate with defiled—that is to say, unwashen-hands; for the Pharisees never did that. They not only washed their hands as a religious rite and ceremony, but many other things of a common nature. Jesus said unto them: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But [now note] in vain they do worship me."

 

The record positively says that those Pharisees worshiped the right object—Jesus, the Christ, or the God of heaven; but what sort of worship was it? God says it is a "vain" worship. But what does the word "vain" mean? Simply empty; of no value; of no merit, worth, or substance. Hence, their worship was vain, empty, a mere formality, without the recognition of God Almighty and his approval. Hence, it was a vain worship; and I presume that none of us covet an act of that sort.

 

Again, when Paul went to the proud city of Athens, a record of which is found in Acts 17:22, in talking with the lawyers, the doctors, the philosophers, the logicians, and the very cream of the scholarship of the world, in a city noted for its schools and for its learning, in which there were students of old Plate, of Socrates, of Aristotle, the center of information, the classical city of all the world, he said to them: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious." Well, why, Paul? "For as I passed by, and beheld pour devotions, I found an altar with this inscription TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." Now note: "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." What were those Athenians doing? Worshiping. Paul said they were doing it in ignorance and in the lack of information. I submit to you my friends, to-night that a man may be a classical scholar; he may have delved into all the departments of learning and have his diploma from Am Arbor, Yale, Harvard, Vanderbilt Peabody, the best schools of the land, and be a regular bureau of information, a walking encyclopedia of knowledge with reference to things material; and yet, with reference to the act of worship, that same professor or postgraduate student may be ignorant as to what is a proper ad of worship to the God of heaven. Many times could you have come more nearly finding out just how to worship God acceptably from perhaps some humble farmer away out in the rural district than from the best business men, the greatest financiers, and the shrewdest scholars of the world. Those Athenians worshiped God ignorantly, and hence Paul sought the occasion and took advantage thereof to declare him unto them.

 

Now, then, friends, this thought: If it were possible— and it was back in the Savior's day—to worship God in vain, what guarantee have you and I that it might not be the same with us in the great city of Nashville? If there were those back in Paul's day who worshiped God ignorantly, on what ground do you base the argument or the thought that some of that class are not still living to-night? I believe I can safely make the statement that people in general know more about almost any other book in all this land and any other line of thought than they do about the simplicity of Christ Jesus our Lord. I can find you plenty of men who can take up the biographies of the great men of earth—old Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Washington, Jackson, Lee, Grant, and others—and go into detail and tell you all about them; and yet those same men, perhaps moving in the highest circles of business life, could not for their lives begin with the Child that was born in a stable and cradled in a manger and give anything like a connected story of his lips, though he Lived but thirty-three years upon the earth.

 

The most important book that God has ever written and the world has ever known is in our midst—the Bible; and it is out of order and absolutely inexcusable for any of us to undertake to worship God other than in the light of the revelations by him made.

 

But I rejoice, friends, not because of the vain worship, not because of the ignorant worship, but because of another thing mentioned in John 4, just after the Savior had had a conversation with the woman at Samaria with reference to the water that was suggested as they stood at Jacob's well. Finally the subject drifted from the living water to the idea of worship; and that woman, true to her teaching true to her history, said this: "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain." There they stood in Samaria She alluded to Mount Gerizim, where the ten tribes had been accustomed to worship. Hence, she said: "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." The Savior, taking occasion from that suggestion, said: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." Hence, there is introduced, not vain, not ignorant, but true worship, and the only one that ought to attract the attention of right-thinking people. Then the Savior went on to announce and to discuss just the elements thereof. Hence, he said to her: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Therein is laid down in the very simplest statement possible what it takes to constitute an act of acceptable and true worship.

 

During the World War, as I recall in various and sundry articles necessary for the carrying on of the affairs, there were certain standards and tests that were used by which things might be properly judged and classified. The War Department, for instance, wanted to buy a number of mules. Those mules had to measure up so many hands high and weigh so many pounds. If a mule fell below that standard, he was rejected. Why? He did not come up to the right standard. Then in the classifying of human beings certain characteristics were put in Class 1, and numbers, possibly, of the young men present were drafted in Class 1; others came under the standard of Class 2; others, Class 3; and still others, Class 4; then when they came to the idiots, the infirm, and the preachers, they put all of them together in Class 5.

 

But the point I want to suggest is this: that God Almighty, in laying down the items on the standard of worship, has as definitely announced just how to test an ad as the government or any man ever dared to do.

 

Now, all of us, I take it, have been to meeting to-day somewhere. If I were to insinuate that you did not worship at the regular service, you would think that I was exceedingly unkind. But, friends, are you right certain that you did, acceptably? As a matter of fact, if some of you went through the process this morning of acceptable worship, it is evidence on its face that some of the rest who went through an entirely different process did not meet with God's approval. How do you know which one did? The Mohammedans, for instance, bowed down and worshiped. Every religious organization in America has gone through with some sort of a process of worship. Was all of it right? Did God accept the rendition of every individual, and did it meet with his approval? Well, what is the test?

 

Now, the beauty about this, like all other great things of the Bible, is its absolute simplicity—not the great theological philosophies that might cluster around it, but, sheared of all that, just the plain, simple statements that any child can understand.

 

First, what does it take, friends, to constitute an act of worship which meets with God's approval? I submit three necessary elements—first, it must be directed unto God, the right object; second, it must be done in spirit, which means prompted by the right motive, actuated by the loftiest purposes, and suggested on the part of the performer by a disposition to meet with the pleasure of high heaven; and, third, that act must be in truth, or according to God's word, which is the truth, for Christ said (John 17: 17): "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

 

So, then, Jesus taught the very simplicity of it when he said to the woman: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." There is the object—in spirit; there is the motive—in truth; there is the way.

 

Now, I suggest to you this, and I know that it is absolutely correct, and from it there is no possible escape. Mark it: If you leave out the object, God Almighty, I care not how sincere you may be, how honest and conscientious, on item No. 2, and how closely you might follow the word of God, whatever you might do, if item No. 1 be lacking, there is a failure on the part of him who tries to do the service.

 

Well, again, you might to-night offer any ad of worship which God's word demands, let it be absolutely in truth, and you may offer it unto the right object, the God of heaven; yet if the right spirit and the pure motive and the right promptings of the heart and the innermost recesses of the soul are not involved in it, it is but an empty form, a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 

Then, if you direct the worship to-night to God, the right object, and have the right spirit and the right motive back of it, unless it be in harmony with God's truth or demanded by the truth, it cannot be an acceptable act of worship, because it fell down in one of the necessary requirements laid down by the greatest of all teachers. But, my friends, render that act to-night unto Jehovah, do it with the right spirit, prompted by the right motive, and then do the very thing that God has commanded to be done, and you have complied with the three demands. You have met the standard and can claim beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is pleased therewith.

 

Now, that leads me to make to you this very significant statement; and as I make it, I am not unmindful nor ignorant of the dissension that perhaps will prevail even on the part of a number of you present; but we come together, friends, to study, and because we chance to differ, I think none the less of you, and perhaps by our mutual association good mag result. But the statement I was about to make is this; hear it: There can be no ad of worship acceptable unto God Almighty unless the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded that special act to be done. But it may seem all right to you. it may be that there is no affirm in the thing itself, but it mud be in truth, which implies that it must come from God's word, the source and the sum total of the truth of God to man. Unless God authorizes it, you and I have no right to tender it unto him, lest Jehovah himself might be insulted by our presumption. Now, all of that is based upon this idea: In an ad of worship, who is it that is to be pleased therewith? If it is to be done according to my fancy and to meet with my approval, then, of course, I have the right to dictate just what is to be done; but if it be some one else to be pleased, then it is not mine to presume to tender something uncalled for.

 

Why, I remember the story in Greek literature of where the Greeks made them an image of old Zeus, their super-God; and as they placed his statue in their presence, they brought various ads and various services and offered them unto this God of their own fancy. Now, I claim, sire, that the Greeks had the right to do that. Why? It is their creature. They made their God, and they had a right to dictate what they would offer to a creature of their own hands.

 

Now, if that be our relationship to the object of our worship, then it is a question, "What does the voice of the people want?" and if we are to be pleased about it, then anything that meets with popular approval would be the proper ad to be rendered. But, my friends, my objective is to worship the God of heaven. That is what the angel said to John: "Worship God." I want, then, to please him in the act rendered. Well, how do I know when a thing pleases God? Some one says: "Hardeman, know this way; how do you like it?" Bless your souls, friends, I know that is not the standard. I like a number of things that I am sure God hates, and vice verse, perhaps, has been the story of almost all of us. it is not a question, therefore, when I come to worship God, for me to decide as to what I want. If the worship were coming to me and you people were so forgetful as to want to do me homage and worship me, then it would be right to say: “Hardeman, now here. We me ready to worship you. What will you have?”' It would be my right then to say: “Gentlemen, I want you to do this and that and the other." Why? Because it is coming to me and for my praise and glory.

 

Just so with reference to the God of our being. If he is the object of our worship, we mud render what he wants. How are you going to tell about that? How do I know whether he wants me to even sing to him or not? How do I know that God wants prayer offered as an act of worship? Is it God's work? Is it just because we have had a little conference and decided that that would be all right? 0, no, no, no! And I say it with all candor to-night and all the earnestness of my being; hear it: I think the man's heart is not right before God unless when he comes to bow down and offer service and worship unto Jehovah he is ready to say: "Lord, not my will, but thine, be done." The man who does not do that is a presumptuous character, and may be guilty, for aught I know, of insulting the God of the universe by tendering unto him something of his own choosing and of his own liking.

 

Friends, I do not know what God wants us to tender him other than what he has said. When he said, "I want this," that is the end of all controversy. I am not his humble disciple if I still halt and refuse to do that by him commanded.

 

But what has God said on the subject? And I suggest to you now that which is generally conceded to be, on the part of men, acts of worship outlined on the pages of God's truth. What is one of them? I submit to you, first of all, that it is our effort to teach all, to preach the gospel of God's Son. I am not spending these three weeks in your city because I have nothing else to do. it is not to me just purely a matter of pleasure, though I do enjoy the fine association. it is not for the purpose of merely entertaining yen, but in the service of God Almighty, with a sincere desire, if I know myself, to honor the God of my being and to worship him, in that I faithfully, boldly, and gladly announce what I believe to be his everlasting message of salvation for mortal man. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel of God's Son. How do I know that this is what God wants? Because through the apostles he has bidden the world to preach the glad tidings of salvation unto faithful men who are able to teach others, and also this glad gospel was handed down by the peerless apostle of the Gentiles and thus perpetuated and continues down the line.

 

Well, before we sang the last song we all stood with bowed heads, and I trust with humble hearts, and we engaged in a word of prayer. Now, was that worship? 0, you might feel offended were I even to question it. But let's put it up beside the standard. Let's see whether it is or not. Likewise let's investigate the preaching to which you have listened. First, was the prayer, and is the effort to teach, directed unto God Almighty? If so, then the first requisite is met. Now, second, is the motive prompting the preaching and the motive prompting the prayer of the purest sort, or was it and is it simply to be heard and noised abroad before our fellows? Third, was that prayer in harmony with God's word? Did it breathe out in actuality the very things commanded by God, for which we are to give thanks and for which we are to pray? Is the preaching according to God's holy word? If so, friends, thus far have we worshiped God.

 

But if, while Brother Garrett led the prayer, I was thinking about something afar off, anxious for the final part to be said, my mind drifting hither and thither upon the transient things of earth, I may have bowed my head, but I didn't have a part in the worship. Though I went through the form and you could not have detected it, yet I did not worship God unless I had the thought centered upon the "Rock that is higher than I," unless my whole soul followed in every word and made it mine by a secret if not outspoken "amen" and "be it so." If that prayer wasn't in harmony with and didn't breathe forth the commandments and the teachings of God's word, it was so much time and so many words spent in vain.

 

But try again. I suppose that nobody will question the Lord's Supper as being one of the items of public worship of the church of the living God. But not every man who eats of the bread or drinks of the wine worships God aright. What is the answer, friends? When we stand to partake of the loaf, or sit, if you please, to eat of the bread, there must, first of all, be item No. 1—this act upon which I am entering and now performing must be directed unto God; second, it must be done with the right spirit, and the right spirit is reflecting, turning backward through the changing scenes of twenty centuries, lingering at the foot of the cross, and then by an eye of faith—the spirit that looks toward the other end of the line until he comes again.

 

Then, again, that act must be the exact thing that the Lord demanded. If we had had this morning, instead of the bread, a piece of cheese and had partaken of that; if we had directed it unto God; if we had done it in all sincerity, it would not have met with Jehovah's approval, because that would not have been in truth, as the Lord demanded. But when all of those conditions are fulfilled, there is the intelligent consciousness-not the mere feeling, but the intelligent consciousness of having worshiped God in that act.

 

But I come to another part; and, brethren, I feel for you in advance. The fellowship or the contribution is an act of worship to God. T wonder if we always worship him aright. or is this the critical point at which we are weighed and found sadly wanting? What does God say about that? Of course it must be directed unto God. it must be done with a cheerful heart and with the right spirit throughout. it must be of truth, which means according to God's word. Now, what does his word say about it? "Upon the first day of the meek let every one of you lay by him in store [or in a separate apartment], as God hath prospered him [according to your ability], that there he no gatherings when I come." God tells us who is to do it and when to do it. God suggests how much for me to contribute. Let me examine just a little while. There is fifty cents that I happen to have still left. Suppose to-day that, according to my obligations and proportionate to my income and all financial relationships—as a matter of fact, just suppose that I was able to contribute one dollar and that would be according to my prosperity; but instead of that I walk up and drop in the fifty cents. I want to ask you, ladies and gentlemen, if in my case God's requirements were met? Brethren, as Colonel Ingersoll used to say, "honor bright," did we worship God acceptably on that proposition? When I put in fifteen cents and was able to put in twenty-five, I haven't measured up to the full responsibilities that God demands at my hands. In that lies a great temptation for us to fall short of duty's demand in the act of worshiping God with our means.

 

But, again, nobody questions tonight but that singing is a part of the worship. Hence, the preacher so often says: "Let us further the worship by singing a certain hymn." Well, is every time a man sings an act of worship? "Why," some one says, "it just depends on what he sings." Well, friends, I think that is true; but the singing of the best song on earth is not always worship. That is a fine old song written by Charles Wesley: "Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly." Suppose I were to sing that to-night, would that be an act of worship? Well, it Just depends on circumstances. Why, I have sung that song and kindred ones many a time when it was not worship. I have sung it out in the country when passing the graveyard at night. it wasn't worship. Just to be plain about it, it is none of your business why I was singing it. But I was singing a spiritual song. Why, I have heard, ladies and gentlemen, in our smaller towns, even on Sunday morning, little negro boys, with their bootblack outfits strapped across their shoulders, going up and down the street singing the very same song that the brethren sang after I got to the place of worship. Now, were they worshiping God? If so, they didn't go to do it; it was purely accidental.

 

So it is not in the mere saying of the words. it is not the mere carrying of the tune that makes the worship, but the other requirements as well.

 

But before furthering that let me inject this idea: Suppose I were to say to Brother Smith now in just a moment: "Let's all stand together, and I want you to lead us in singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' " Some people would be thunderstruck at my suggesting such a song. Why, friends, what is the matter with that song? I think it is a fine one, and I have no objection to singing that song on various occasions. What would you think about it if we were to open up here at our religious service with the splendid song: "Carry me back to old Virginia, where the corn and 'taters grow?" Some one would say: "Brother Hardeman, that does not, somehow or other, sound right." What is the matter with it? Friends, God Almighty has definitely and specifically outlined the service to be rendered in that act; and if you and I will but open our hearts and our minds, we cannot help but see the truth. First, whatever the act is, it must be directed toward God and be for his glory. Second, it must be done in the right spirit; and the right spirit is not simply to show off before our fellows; it is not to display to you that I have a finely trained voice; it is not to show to you that I can go from one octave on up to another and then to another. But the object ought to be to make melody unto God and with a sincere disposition to "praise him from whom all blessings flow." And, last, it must be a spiritual song. That is why "The Star-Spangled Banner" falls short of the requirements; that is why you cannot sing "'Way Down Upon the Suwanee River" in worship of God. Those are patriotic songs and folk songs, and God says worship "in truth," which suggests worship according to his word. God's word authorizes spiritual songs. Therefore a patriotic air or any of the old folk songs will not suffice as an act of worship unto God. Sing unto him with the spirit and with the understanding, and let it be a spiritual song; and when you have so done, you have the assurance that God's blessings will be upon you and his smiles lavishly poured out round about.

 

My friends, I want to ask of you solemnly and sacredly here to-night: Why can't all of us just do those things which the Bible demands? Why does any man want to argue or take a chance or presume that some other thing or some other way will do' Why not be content to worship God just as his word directs?

​

I repeat the first question: How do you know that the very thing that you may offer which God has not demanded is the thing that he wants? What is your assurance of it? Don't tell me because you like it that you are certain that God does. That is no reason at all. Simply because a thing pleases you is no assurance whatever that it pleases Jehovah, and in all of your candor and your honesty and your best endeavor to give God what you think is best you don't know but what that is the very thing that God does not want. There is but one safe course in a matter of this sort, and that is just to say: "Lord, I have come to worship you. Now, Lord, what will you have?" And God says: "Teach my word, pray, eat of the Lord's Supper, contribute of your means, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs." it would be presumption on N. B. Hardeman's part to offer God Almighty anything other than that which he has declared meets with his approval. Life is too short, death is too certain, eternity is too vast, and the issues are too great for me to he trifling with matters of this kind. I know that what God said is safe. I know that it is treacherous and dangerous to presume to do otherwise. Well, hut some one says: "But, Brother Hardeman, there are things in which I can see no affirm." "My goodness alive," friends, is that the conception you have? Because I don't see any affirm in it, therefore what? Therefore God wants it. I meet with men day by day whom if I were to ask about any of their ungodly deeds, what do you suppose would be their excuse? "Why, Brother Hardeman, I don't see any affirm in it." I could meet men around the gambling hall or the popular card party, playing bridge for prizes, and ask them what about it. They would say, with an air of triumph: "Why, Brother Hardeman, I don't see any wrong in it." Well, of course, that settles it, then. I presume if God knows that you, poor finite being, don't see anything wrong with it, that settles it. I speak to the girls and boys and then to some of the grown-ups about dancing in the modern fashion, with a rather reproving statement, as I verily believe I ought to do, and I am met with: "Why, Brother Hardeman, I don't see any affirm in it." Well, all right, then; that settles it. God wants that very thing because you don't see any affirm in it.

 

I take a blind man out, blind as a bat, upon some of your tall buildings, and, with a clear sky, I point him to yonder sun, which has risen from behind the eastern hills and traces his steady course across the arched sky and on to the western sunset, and I talk there to him of the grandeur and glory thereof; but he says: "Brother Hardeman, I don't see any sun." And then, of course, there is not any, because he didn't see it.

 

Friends, that is a ridiculous argument. It is presumptuous, and it smacks of a lack of faith and full trust in the all-sufficiency and the absolute fullness of God's revelation to men. But I must grant you that I think there are many things harmless per se that might be harmful under other conditions. I would truly say to a young Catholic girl or woman in Nashville: "I don't think there is a particle of affirm in your counting beads; and if you have a string around your neck three feet long and have sufficient patience and curiosity to want to find out how many there are, just go home and sit down and count them, even though there be a thousand. I don't think there is anything wrong in that. I would not mind for a time engaging in such an act of counting them." But I say to that same Catholic girl: "When you bring that into the service of God and into the worship of the Most High and impose that act where God has not authorized it, then I must object to your counting beads as a religious rite." And she still comes back and says: "Where is the affirm?" The affirm is this: We are to walk by faith. God never said one word on earth about the counting of beads. Therefore it cannot be an act of faith, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin in God's sight.

 

Why, I do not think there is anything wrong in those Pharisees washing their hands. Of course I do not; and to prove to you that I am sincere about that, I practice hand washing. I never let a week go by but that I wash my hands, and God knows I am not prejudiced against it. As an act of itself, it is absolutely harmless; yet, when made to enter into the service of God, and when they as a religious rite undertook to wash their hands as an act of worship, no wonder Christ said: "In vain do you thus do, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men."