Closely allied with this evil are formality and
hypocrisy in religion. ''They speak one to
another, every one to his brother, saying, Come,
I pray you, and hear what is the word that com-
eth forth from the Lord. And they come unto
thee as the people cometh, and they sit before
thee as my people, and they hear thy words« but
they will not do them: for with their mouth
they show much love, but their hearts goeth after
their covetousness.' ' To the eye of Omniscience
they present the hateful spectacle of so many
pieces of solemn formality going through the at-
titudes and signs of devotion, but destitute of all
corresponding emotions wiihin. He asks for
the heart alone ; but they have brought him all
except the heart. That is far away, in the
mart, the field, the business of the world, ** buy-
ing and selling, and getting gain."
13



140 THB QUILT AND EVILS

In connexion with this formality, therri wiH
necessarily exist a weariness and impatience
under the restraints of the Sabbath. The worldly
professor feels during the sacred hours as if
every thing important were standing still. He
is not sensible of any need for a day of rest, for
the world does not tire him, or tires him only as
a fatiguing pleasure to which he is anxious to
return with renewed zest. And, until he can
so return, the language of his heart, in relation
to the Sabbath, is, *' Behold what a weariness
is it!"

But if religion be irksome to a person because
it interrupts his worldly pursuits, it is but a short
and easy step for him to turn religion itself into
traffic. *^ Godliness .... is gain ; *' but he re-
verses the proposition, and *' supposes that gain
is godliness." Like the ancient Jews, he would
crowd the temple courts with *' the tables of the
money-changers," and convert the sanctuary it-
self into the palace of mammon. 