Importance of Small Things in Religion

Spurgeon uses the story of the ark of the covenant being moved on a new cart instead of being carried on priests' shoulders, and Uzzah being struck dead for touching it, to argue that small departures from God's clear instructions are never harmless — God's sense of how serious sin is differs vastly from ours, any change to what God has commanded brings real trouble even when the motive seems good, and one small deviation from Scripture has historically led, step by step, to much larger errors, as when the practice of infant baptism gradually grew into the damaging doctrine of baptismal regeneration. He argues this is why the church today lacks the power of the apostolic church — not because the gospel itself has weakened, but because the church has departed from the original purity and simplicity of Scripture in countless small ways, and only a return to "the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible" will restore her former strength. He closes by turning to anyone seeking salvation, warning them just as urgently against touching the ark with their own merit — trying to mix good works or self-effort with Christ's finished work — since salvation comes only by trusting Jesus completely and is offered freely to "whosoever," with the same right to come as the witness called by name in court, simply because Christ himself has commanded it.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on April 8th, 1860.