g of
himself, bear witness to the religion of Jesus.

Never let us weary of repeating that while we have ample controversial
resource, while no missile can pierce the chain-armour of the Christian
evidences, connected and interwoven into a great whole, and while the
infidelity which is called scientific is really infidel only so far as
it begs its case (which is an unscientific thing to do), nevertheless
the strength of our position is experimental. If the experience which
testifies to Jesus were historical alone, I might refuse to give it
credit: if it were only personal, I might ascribe it to enthusiasm. But
as long as a great cloud of living witnesses, and all the history of the
Church, declare the reality of His salvation, while I myself feel the
sufficiency of what He offers (or else the bitter need of it), so long
the question is not between conflicting theories, but between theories
and facts. To have another god is to place him beside One Whom we
already have, and Who has wrought for us the great emancipation. It is
not an error in theological science: it is ingratitude and treason.

But it very soon became evident that men could apostatise from God
otherwise than in formal worship, chant and sacrifice and prostration:
"This people honoureth me with their mouths, but their hearts are far
from Me." God asks for love and trust, and our litanies should express
and cultivate these. Whatever steals away these from the Lord is really
His rival, and another god. "What is it to have a God? or what is God?"
Luther asks. And he answers, "He is God, and is so called, from Whose
goodness and power thou dost confidently promise all good things to
thyself, and to Whom thou dost fly from all adverse affairs and pressing
perils. So that to have a God is nothing else than to trust Him and
believe in Him with all the heart, even as I have often alleged that the
reliance of the heart constitutes alike one's God and one's idol.... In
what thing soever thou hast thy mind's reliance and thine heart fixed,
that is beyond doubt thy God" (_Larger Catechism_).

And again: "What sort of religion is this, to bow not the knees to
riches and honour, but to offer them the noblest part of you, the heart
and mind? It is to worship the true God outwardly and in the flesh, but
the creature inwardly and in spirit" (_X. Praecepta Witt. Praedicata_).

It was on this ground that he included charms and spells among the sins
against this commandment