Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a
camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are
full of extortion and excess.--Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all
uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of
the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain
at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our
churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping
a SHEEP-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a
MAN-stealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with
them for it. They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward
forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of
the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They are always ready to sacrifice,
but seldom to show mercy. They are they who are represented as
professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their
brother whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the other side of
the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into
his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and
totally neglect the heathen at their own doors.
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