Jeremiah 16:20

Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.

One great persistent sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and today's spiritual inheritors of Israel are bothered with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan's (an Egyptian idol) star shines no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz (a Babylonia diety) , but Mammon (greed personified as a deity) still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them. Favorite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their dear ones.

It is truly said that "they are no gods," for the objects of our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known. We commit two evils if we forsake the living God and then turn to idols. May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!

• "The dearest idol I have known,
• Whate'er that idol be;
• Help me to tear it from thy throne,
• And worship only thee."