Defiled!

Horatius Bonar has written:

These very men were here engaged in the vilest act ever perpetrated on earth, and yet they spoke of being 'defiled'! They hesitated not to deliver their Messiah to the Gentiles, yet were scrupulous lest they be disqualified from eating the passover. So today there are some who are more concerned about the right form of baptism than they are of a scriptural walk; more punctilious about observing the Lord's supper than to bring forth fruit to the glory of the Father. Let us beware lest we also 'strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.' 'These ‘rulers of the Jews' and the multitude that followed them were thorough Ritualists. It was their ritualism that urged them on to crucify the Son of God. Christ and ritualism are opposed to each other as light is to darkness. The true Cross in which Paul gloried and the cross in which modern ceremonialists glory, have no resemblance to each other. The Cross and the crucifix cannot agree. Either ritualism will banish Christ or Christ will banish ritualism.'