Leviticus 26:1-2 - Homilies By R.a. Redford

Command to maintain the public worship of Jehovah.

I. PURITY OF WORSHIP . No idols or images.

1 . Spirituality of religion.

2 . Dependence of man on revelation. The deistic position of natural religion untenable.

3 . The worship of God should be the free and grateful remembrance of past benefits received, therefore the leading elements of it should be faith and praise, not, as in heathenism and corrupt Christian systems such as the Roman Catholic, the slavish subjection of man to the fear of Divine wrath and the mediation of priests.

II. CONSECRATION BOTH OF DAY AND PLACE . Sabbath and sanctuary.

1 . As necessary on account of the weakness of our nature. We cannot keep the mind above the world unless we are separated at times altogether from it.

2 . The rallying point of fellowship. In the communion of saints there is special spiritual help.

3 . As maintaining the holy order of human life, giving distinction and eminence to the highest things, predicting the future rest, revealing the dependence of the bodily life on the life of the soul, and of the happiness of earthly toil on the blessing of God.

4 . The Christian sabbath as based on the resurrection of Christ has a new form of obligation and a larger sphere of holy suggestion. It is not so much commanded as vitally connected with the whole strength of Christian motive.—R.