1 Samuel 15:22

Saul had been commanded to utterly slay all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the king and allowed 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 the intention 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.

Let it always be in your remembrance that to keep strictly in the path of your Savior’s command is better than any outward form of religion; and to heed 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 urge you, be disobedient no longer. All the professions 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.

Do not talk 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 heed the Lord’s precepts, all your formalities will 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, do not come into their secret.