Quote of the Week: Thomas Reade and Calvin

I read this quote recently and it came to mind as I read Chapter 12 of Calvin's Institutes:

“If we are preferring any earthly object, of whatever kind to Jesus Christ, if our affections are placed on any other being in opposition to Him; or if we are seeking our delight in any created thing as distinct from Him and independent of Him, we are neglecting His great salvation; yes, setting up idols in our hearts. We must love the adorable Saviour with a supreme affection; and we must love other objects only for His sake. Our temporal blessings must be enjoyed as flowing from Him; our friends and domestic comforts must be received as gifts coming to us through His redeeming grace. All we possess must be held at His disposal and with a view to that account which we must one day give. Thus Christ must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and ending, of all our desires and affections. “

THOMAS READE

Calvin was dealing more specifically with God as our sole object of worship, the difference between worship and service, and how the Law gives strict boundaries to reign in our human propensity to worship and serve men, but we are so prone to give our affections to earthly possessions and created things.  It was Calvin who said that the human heart is a factory of idols. This is true even for Christians and ought to drive us again and again back to the One who gave His life that we might be reconciled to God!

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Comments

[rosemary]

"The human heart is a factory of idols." Isn't that the awful truth! That stanza of "Come Thou Fount" expresses so well the cry of my heart.