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 worship—namely, their own ideas—and hold up to be worshiped by the world. They are such as are proud of their "originality," as it is termed—as if anything good or true could originate from any other source than the Lord alone. They are men who, having been gifted by their Creator with some talents and abilities, look upon these abilities as self-derived, are proud of them, and take a delight in displaying them before the world, and holding them up to the admiration of mankind. Continually engaged in self-contemplation and self-admiration, every idea that comes forth from their haughty minds, they look upon as beautiful and true, and worthy of all regard. The sparkle of quaint conceits they mistake for the brilliancy of genuine truth; and the gaudy dress of pompous words, they look upon as the expression of lofty thoughts. Such persons are self-worshipers: they are truly gods to themselves; or they are worshipers of the graven images which their own hands have made—that is, they love and admire above all things the ideas which, as they suppose, emanate from their own minds.

These are of the literary class. There are others, men of science, who, proud of their acquirements in astronomy, geology, or some other study, are so puffed up with their knowledges as to think themselves possessed of all wisdom. They admire the greatness of the human mind, which has been able to invent such wondrous instruments as the telescope or microscope; and because by such means they have been able to obtain a glimpse of distant stars, they