{"id":7332,"date":"2026-10-22T22:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T22:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=7332"},"modified":"2026-10-22T22:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T22:49:01","slug":"7332","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=7332","title":{"rendered":"That hideous idol SELF in his little shrine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>That hideous idol SELF in his little shrine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(J. C. Philpot, \u201cIsrael\u2019s Departure and Return\u201d 1849)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Never again will we say any more to the work<br>of our hands\u2014\u201d<strong>You are our gods!<\/strong>\u201d&nbsp; Hosea 14:3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The besetting sin of Israel was the worship of&nbsp;<strong>idols<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps, if you have walked into the British Museum,<br>and seen the idols that were worshiped in former days<br>in the South Sea Islands, you have been amazed that<br>rational beings could ever bow down before such ugly<br>monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But does the heart of a South Sea Islander differ from<br>the heart of an Englishman? Not a bit! The latter may<br>have more civilization and cultivation\u2014<strong>but his heart<br>is the same!<\/strong>&nbsp;And though you have not bowed down to<br>these monstrous objects and hideous figures\u2014there<br>may be as filthy an idol in&nbsp;<strong>your&nbsp;<\/strong>heart! Where is<br>there a filthier idol than the lusts and passions of<br>man\u2019s fallen nature?<br>You need not go to the British Museum to see<br>filthy idols and painted images.&nbsp;<strong>Look within!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where is there a more groveling idol than&nbsp;<strong>Mammon<\/strong>,<br>and the&nbsp;<strong>covetousness<\/strong>&nbsp;of our heart? You need not<br>wonder at heathens worshiping hideous idols\u2014when<br>you have&nbsp;<strong>pride<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong>covetousness<\/strong>, and above all&nbsp;<strong>that<\/strong><strong><br>hideous idol SELF in his little shrine<\/strong>, hiding himself<br>from the eyes of man\u2014but to which you are so often<br>rendering your daily and hourly worship!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a person does not see that&nbsp;<strong>the root of all<br>idolatry<\/strong>&nbsp;is SELF, he knows but little of his heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That hideous idol SELF in his little shrine (J. C. Philpot, \u201cIsrael\u2019s Departure and Return\u201d 1849) Never again will we say any more to the workof our hands\u2014\u201dYou are our gods!\u201d&nbsp; Hosea 14:3 The besetting sin of Israel was the worship of&nbsp;idols. Perhaps, if you have walked into the British Museum,and seen the idols that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-j-c-philpot","category-total-depravity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7341,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7332\/revisions\/7341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}