十月十八日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/10/1018.mp3″]
经文: 听命胜于献祭。（撒母耳记上十五：22）
上帝命令扫罗王要灭尽所有亚玛力人和杀死他们所有的牲畜。他没有服从，留下了亚玛力王和上好的牛羊。等到他受到责问时，却宣称留下上好的牛羊乃是为了献给祂。但是撒母耳明确告诉他不能以献祭作为他公然反抗上帝命令的藉口。今晚放在我们面前的话，应当以金字印刷，并悬挂在现今猖獗拜偶像的世代眼前。他们十分喜欢按自己的意愿去行，却完全忽视上帝的律法。要永远记住，严格地保守自己行在救主的命令中，比任何外在的宗教形式为佳。倘若你已不再遵守基督给祂门徒的命令中最小的一条，请不要再背逆了。你对主所显的一切伪装之爱，你所行的一切表面虔敬之事都无法弥补你的背逆。即使在最微小的事上“听命”，也“胜于献祭”，无论所献的祭是多么铺张。不要被华丽的大教堂、奢侈的外袍、香、和旗吸引而偏离正道。上帝向祂的儿女们要求的首要之事乃是听命。即使你将自己献上像殉道者一样被焚，或将你所有一切赒济穷人，却没有顺从主的教训，你所行出来的仍然与你无益。上帝祝福的是如同孩童般受教的心，更蒙祝福的是将所学到的功课实行出来。有多少人是爱慕自己的殿宇却不遵守主的话！但愿我们没有一人如此。
Evening, October 18
Scripture: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”(1 Samuel 15:22)
Saul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king, and suffered his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Saviour’s command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to his precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon his altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ’s commands to his disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. “To obey,” even in the slightest and smallest thing, “is better than sacrifice,” however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of his child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord’s precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their secret.