WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH IDOLS?

 
SEPTEMBER 7.
 

What have I to do any more with idols?
Hosea 14:8

 
WHAT indeed!
 
What did idols ever do for you?
 
What can they do,
  but disappoint, vex, bewilder, and
  bring us under God's chastening rod?
 
And yet our hearts are naturally set upon idolatry.
 
If God gives us a special mercy,
  we are apt to place it on his throne; and
  in order to save us, it is often necessary to bereave us.
 
Whatever has the heart, is the idol.
 
This is God's claim.    This God will have.
 
If therefore we bestow it on any other,
  we shall surely smart for it.
 
One clause in the covenant is,
   “From all your idols will I cleanse you.”
 
This promise shall be sacredly kept.
 
God will sicken us of idolatry, and
  like Ephraim we shall turn our back upon it, and
  turning to God with all the heart and say,
 “What have I to do any more with idols?
 
Our God is a jealous God, and
  he will not give his glory to another,
  nor allow us to do it.
 
O that the Lord would wean us from all our idols, and
  cleanse the temple of our hearts of every image of jealousy,
  and consecrate it entirely to him yourself
    for his worship and praise.
 

Dear Saviour, thou art true,

Though false from thee I slide;

And wilt thou not subdue

And bind me to thy side?

I would give all my wanderings o’er

Speak Lord, and bid me stray no more.

 
James Smith 1849