To be near unto God - pagina 532

ments, life with its activities. Thereby you have allowed your heart to be deceived. But it is not the world, nor its activities, but your deceived heart that has turned you aside. It has even turned you aside to this extent, Isaiah adds, that your soul can no longer save itself, i. e. it can no longer escape from its own intoxication. Isaiah declares this regarding the man who has an idol for himself. A tree has been taken home. The knotty parts have been cut off, and of the smooth part the poor soul makes an idol. And it is not the idol that is at fault, but the idolatrous thought in the soul, which had captivated the heart, before he made his idol. That piece of wood, that idol is but the expression of what went on in his heart. Not the idol, but his deceived heart turned him aside, even so effectively'' that at length he no longer sees the difference between a piece of wood and God. Or, as the prophets put it: "He is turned aside so far that he can not come to discover that there is a lie in his right hand" (Isaiah This selfsame evil operates, not only 44:20). among the heathen, but, if in another manner,

among Mohammedans, Jews and Christians. is a human evil. An immediate outcome of

It

our

sinful nature.

How

does this show itself? Very sharply and clearly, as soon as a magnet operates upon the heart, which attracts, interests and holds the

and which involuntarily and of itself and again stimulates the soul and the

attention,

again senses,

fills

the thoughts, animates conversation

and brings one into a

fanatical state of mind. This does not mean the tension and activity of spirit,

when

duty,

business, 528

the

course

of

con-

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