_THE VALUE OF REVERENCE_
ROMANS xiii. 1-7.
When I pay honour to honourable ministers I not only honour my God, but I
enrich and refine my own soul. One of the great secrets of spiritual
culture is to know how to revere. There is an uncouth spirit of
self-aggression which, while it wounds and impoverishes others, destroys
its finest spiritual furniture in its own ungodly heat. The man who never
bows will never soar. To pay homage where homage is due is one of the
exercises which will help to keep us near "the great white throne."
I know my peril, for I recognize one of the prevalent perils of our time.
Some of the old courtesies are being discarded as though they belonged to
a younger day. Some of the old tokens of respect have been banished to the
limbo of rejected ritual. Dignitaries are jostled in the common crowd.
"One man is as good as another!" And so there is a tendency to strip life
of all its reverences, and venerable fanes become stables for unclean
things.
My soul, come thou not into this shame! Move in the ways of life with
softened tread, and pay thy respect at every shrine where dwells the grace
and power of God.