Idol worship

“ Thirdly, those are idolaters who choose one idol as their patron, or rather those who, renouncing the worship of idols, become attached to one saint, as Jesus or His Mother, and put themselves under the protection of Guardian Angels. ”

“ Regarding thoughts of idol worship, one should rouse in one's mind and one should accept upon himself to get involved in acts of kindness, and through this, he will be nullified from thoughts of idol worship. ”

“ The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.
So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame:
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb. ”

“ Loving friends, With tears of trembling faith and choking sobs, And prayers to those who judge of mortal deeds, Wrapped this poor image in the cerement's fold That Isis and Osiris, friends of man, Might know their own and claim the ransomed soul An idol? Man was born to worship such! An idol is an image of his thought; Sometimes he carves it out of gleaming stone, And sometimes moulds it out of glittering gold, Or rounds it in a mighty frescoed dome, Or lifts it heavenward in a lofty spire, Or shapes it in a cunning frame of words, Or pays his priest to make it day by day ”

“ Ambition, avarice, love—“the world, the flesh, or the devil,” in some form, is always the idol. Perhaps, love; the first, the most disinterested, self-devoted, of all the forms of idolatry, comes nearest to the true worship. ”

“ They worship an idol also, which resembles a man from the navel upwards, all below being in the likeness of an ox; and this idol delivers oracles, as they believe, and sometimes requires the sacrifice of forty virgins. On this account, the people consecrate their sons and daughters to the idols, even as we Christians dedicate our sons and daughters to some particular order of religion, or to some of the saints in Heaven. They even sacrifice their sons and daughters, so that many are put to death in honour of this accursed idol ”

“ It is a feat of abstraction impossible for the ordinary man, to worship before an idol, and not to worship the idol. The strange, awful fascination which idolatry exercised is perhaps gone now from the civilised world. But the lesson remains ever in season, that it is dangerous work to bring in sense as an ally of devotion, because outward things, which at first may be only symbols and helps, are almost certain to become something more. ”

“ Whether the idol was an image, the work of men's hands, or any created thing, as the sun, moon, and stars, or a human being (for men, both dead and living, were made objects of worship) , the effect was to draw away the spirit from conjunction with God and heaven, and thus to extinguish all spiritual light in the mind, and to render it grossly natural. ”

“ Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. ”

“ I then fell at her feet; she passed her hand kindly over me, and said, 'O ignorant man! what hast thou seen bad in our great idol that thou hast betaken thyself to the worship of an unseen God?' I answered, 'Pray, be just, and reflect a little, whether that God [and He only,] is worthy of adoration, who, out of a drop of water, hath created a lovely creature like thee, and hath given such beauty and perfection, that in one instant thou canst drive into distraction the hearts of thousands of men. What a [contemptible] thing is an idol that any one should worship it? ”

“ Lest, moreover, these worshippers should think that our Scriptures intend only to declare that such affections of the human heart spring naturally from the worship of idols, it is written in the plainest terms, “All the gods of the nations are devils.” [14] And therefore, also, the teaching of the apostles not only declares, as we read in John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols,” [15] but also, in the words of Paul, “What say I then? that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? ”

“ The other idol, likewise known in various ceremonials by tutelary sacerdotal aliases, is the male cultus hero, the fructifying principle symbolized by lightning and personified according to the society, by such supernaturals as Cotokinungwu, Puukonhoya, Tcuatiyo, Lentiyo, and the like. ”

“ It would be of value for the modern religionist who believes that the worship of a deity in our own age is far removed from the worship of an idol by our savage ancestors, to retrace his steps and compare the savage mind worshiping his particular idol and a so-called civilized mind of today worshiping his deity. ”

“ If no law of God had prohibited idols to be made by us; if no voice of the Holy Spirit uttered general menace no less against the makers than the worshippers of idols; from our sacrament itself we would draw our interpretation that arts of that kind are opposed to the faith. For how have we renounced the devil and his angels, if we make them? What divorce have we declared from them, I say not with whom, but dependent on whom, we live? What discord have we entered into with those to whom we are under obligation for the sake of our maintenance? ”

“ Verse 7
There is not in every man that knowledge - This is spoken in reference to what is said, [208] : We know that an idol is nothing in the world; for some with a conscience of the idol, viz. that it is something, eat it - the flesh that was offered to the idol, as a thing thus offered, considering the feast as a sacred banquet, by which they have fellowship with the idol. And their conscience being weak - not properly instructed in Divine things, is defiled - he performs what he does as an act of religious worship, and thus his conscience contracts guilt through this idolatry. ”

“ These illustrations show that the worship rendered to images did not terminate in them as its object, but referred to an unseen Intelligence beyond them, who was supposed to be cognizant of their circumstances and their acts, and to be able to protect them and grant their requests. It proceeded on the assumption that the visible emblem, the graven image, or whatever was selected by individuals or canonized by the priests, and worshipped as an idol—the proper signification of which is, a figure, likeness, or representation—was a medium of intercourse with the Being worshipped. ”

“ No idol can become an object of worship until a Brahmin has said his muntrums, or prayers, for the purpose of bringing down the god to live, as it is said be does, in the image, and until he has drenched it with oil and liquid butter.
The idols, in the great temples, are clothed with rich garments, and adorned with jewels, which are enriched with precious stones of immense value. Sacrifices are constantly made to these idols, consisting of boiled rice, flowers, fruits, etc., but, above all, of lamps, of which many thousands are sometimes seen burning. ”

“ Idol is brought home, a life is inspired in the idol and then it is worshipped. After few days with equal devotion final puja is performed and then the idol is immersed in water. Permanency of Soul and body treated only as a garment is expressed in this practice of Idol worshipping. ”

“ Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church ”

“ His renunciation of idolatry is based, in the second clause, on his experience of what God can do, and on his having heard God's gracious voice of pardon and promise. If a man hears God, he will not be drawn to worship at any idol's shrine. ”

“ The worship of the idol is often more passionate than that of God. People prostrate themselves in ecstasy before the idol, and remain unmoved in the presence of a starry night. A starry night does not provoke hysterics. ”

“ Before a picture an ornamental candle is burning, and also sticks of smoking incense, showing that worship is being rendered to the divinity in which the occupant of the home believes, even though she is not in the attitude of worship, and may be engaged in household duties, or perhaps entertaining a guest. Sometimes an idol is seen, though not always ”

“ In idol worshipping, in inspiring life in the idol and inevitable immersion this idea of permanency of idea of God but the idol as temporary incorporation is stressed. The idea is to test and retest the ideas with changing times and idea of the one Supreme Reality is expressed in many idols in many shapes and sizes. ”

“ Thus things good, things noble, things sacred, may all become idols. To some minds truth is an idol, to others justice, to others charity or benevolence; and others are beguiled by objects of a different sort of sacredness: some have made Christ's mother their idol; some, Christ's servants; some, again, Christ's sacraments, and Christ's own body, the Church. If these may all be idols, where can we find a name so holy, as that we may surrender up our whole souls to it; before which obedience, reverence, without measure, intense humility, most unreserved adoration, may all be duly rendered. ”

“ Here is the exact image and likeness of an idol established through the principal creeds of Christendom, that is, if it is an image at all, or if it makes a shadow at all, it is that of an idol: it is a being that never existed in heaven, earth, or hell ”

“ May the Lord, in mercy to my soul, save me from setting up an idol of any sort in his place; as I do by preferring even a work professedly done for him, to communion with him. How obstinate is the reluctance of the natural heart to love God! But, O my soul, be not deceived; thy chief work upon earth is, to obtain sanctification, and to walk with God. ”

“ The Apostle saith also to the Corinthians, 'We know that an idol is nothing in the world: and there is no god but One.' [Footnote 249] For they who are simple and infirm may easily by an excessive and indiscreet use of images, be perverted to idolatry. ”

“ Do you call them idols? What do you say to Moses who worshipped them and to Israel? Worship is symbolical of honour, and we sinners worship God, and glorify Him by the divine worship of latreia which is due to Him, and we tremble before Him as our Creator. We worship the angels and servants of God for His sake, as creatures and servants of God. An image is a name and likeness of him it represents. Thus both by writing and by engraving we are ever mindful of our Lord’s sufferings, and of the holy prophets in the old law and in the new. ”

“ The saying of the Apostle that "an idol is nothing in the world" means that those images which were called idols, were not animated, or possessed of a divine power, as Hermes maintained, as though they were composed of spirit and body. ”

“ An idol is something that either usurps God's place, or withdraws our thoughts and devotions from him. The very reverse of this was my case. I had an additional motive for continually seeking the Lord, not only in prayer for the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit on behalf of one so dear, but also for grace to walk most circumspectly myself, lest I should cast any stumbling-block in his way, or give him occasion to suspect that my religious profession was a name, and not a reality. ”

“ For although in that ancient and diffused adoration of Idols, unto the Priests and subtiler heads, the worship perhaps might be symbolical, and as those Images some way related unto their Deities; yet was the Idolatry direct and down-right in the People; whose credulity is illimitable, who may be made believe that any thing is God; and may be made believe there is no God at all. ”

“ Now these idols are not to be taken as mere symbols or portraits of deities, but the worshippers mostly imagine that the deity dwells in the image or, so to speak, is embodied in it, whereby the idol becomes a real god capable of giving health and prosperity to man. On the one hand, the deity becomes serviceable to the worshipper by being thus contained and kept for his use, and on the other hand, the god profits by receiving richer offerings, failing which it would depart from its receptacle. ”

“ In such countries, you can contemplate that religion in all its open and unveiled idolatry; it is there you will see more fully exhibited the practice of worshipping images, of bowing down to dumb idols in the shape of pictures, images, saint worship, angel worship, &c., &c. ”

“ In an Eastern temple, an idol, in the image of a god, stood calmly on its pedestal. It was sacrilege to touch it with human hands; but rats having no such feelings of awe in the presence of a deity, began to gnaw about it in various places, yet no one was bold enough to remove it to a place of safety ”

“ She wanted the Prophet she had so unexpectedly met to decide between them. With calmness, solemnity and earnestness, He made a sublime declaration to her, meant for Jews, Samaritans and all men. It was this: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.... The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshipers. God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." ”

“ How beautiful is the mingled wisdom and charity with which the apostle handles the difficulty! It was absolutely none to him. The idol to him was not anything at all. It was a vain imagination of man's vain heart. [124] There could be no conscience of an idol in his mind in dealing with anything created by God, however the idol might have been connected with it by others. Who would recognise an usurper because he occupies the palace and assumes the signet of the rightful king? "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." The creature is the Lord's, every limb, every particle. ”

“ And such idols the whole Christian world is in the daily worship of; and it may be that some of us are sharing in such worship. Let us examine these idols, and see what they are.
Oovetousness, says the Apostle, is idolatry: [7] the love of the world, the love of pleasure, the love of any earthly thing, when it is made a supreme object of regard, is idolatry. For 'worship does not consist merely in bowing down on the knees, or in uttering prayers: these are acts of the body: the essence of worship is to be sought in the heart. Worship means essentially a supreme love for a thing ”