Saul had been commanded to destroy the Amalekites utterly—every person, every animal. Instead, he spared the king and let his people take the best oxen and sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it to offer sacrifice to God. But Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices are no excuse for direct rebellion.

These words deserve to be printed in letters of gold and hung before the eyes of this idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship but utterly neglect the laws of God. Burn this into your memory: to keep strictly in the path of your Savior's command is better than any outward form of religion. To listen 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, all the devout actions 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 God requires of his child is obedience. 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 into their secret.