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Chapter 6
16 (
Matthew 9:16
). Manufactured Religion Not Life and
Light
—There are times before us that will try the souls of men,
and there will be need of watchfulness, of the right kind of fasting.
This will not be like the fasting of the Pharisees. Their seasons of
fasting were occasions of outward ceremony. They did not hum-
ble their hearts before God. They were filled with bitterness, envy,
malice, strife, selfishness, and self-righteousness. While their heads
were bowed in pretended humiliation, they were covetous, full of
self-esteem, self-importance. They were oppressive, exacting, proud
in spirit.
Everything in the Jewish service had been misinterpreted and
misapplied. The purpose of the sacrificial offerings had been per-
verted. They were to symbolize Christ and His mission, that when
He should come in the flesh, the world might recognize God in Him,
and accept Him as the world’s Redeemer. But their lack of true
heart service for God had blinded the Jews to a knowledge of God.
Exactions and ceremonies and traditions were the sum total of their
religion.
The Pharisees had yet to learn that righteousness exalts a na-
tion, that form and ceremony cannot take the place of righteousness.
Christ was teaching the people as verily when enshrouded in the pil-
lar of cloud as when seated on the mount. The same compassionate
consideration for the poor was enjoined as in the lessons given to
the disciples. But the responsibility of every individual in the sight
of God, His mercy, love, and compassion, were not included in the
lessons given to the people by the rulers in Israel. Said Christ, “No
man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which
is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made
worse.” The truth, the life, the light, which should characterize true
godliness could not be united with the manufactured religion of the
Pharisees (
Manuscript 3, 1898
).
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