ing on the person of Jesus (blessed necessity !) affliction strikes at that which was the root of selfishness. By bringing before us another and far more glorious self, it absorbs our own miserable self ; till in the person of Jesus, we lose sight of our own selves altogether. There is nothing that so makes us acquainted with Christ himself as sorrow ; and hence, there is nothing so efficacious in eradicating self. It is God's cure for selfishness. It is his way of making us seek not our own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. It is his way of carrying us beyond truth, even to " Him that is true." Truth is precious, but in itself it is cold. But the glory of the gospel is this, that it carries us up beyond truth, to its living fountain-head. Nay, it brings us into the very bosom of him who came out of the Father's bosom, and has now returned to it carrying with him all those whom the Father hath given him, there, with him to abide in happy fellowship, world with- out end.
This, however, is a large subject, and these are but a few hints. We cannot, however, pursue them farther here. We pass on to
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notice the other evil against which the re- bukes of God are directed.
2. Worldliness. We have seen that God's cure for selfishness is the setting before us another self, to absorb our own, in the person of Jesus. We have now to see that his cure for worldliness is the bringing before us another world, more glorious than that which he calls on us to forsake. There is no thorough cure for it but this. It is want of faith that makes us worldlings ; and when the believing eye gets fixed on the world to come, then we learn to set our affections on things above. So long, however, as all here is bright, we are content with them ; we allow ourselves to sink down, and settle quietly among the things of earth. But when God unroofs our dwelling, or tears up its founda- tion by an earthquake, then we are forced to look upwards and seek a better and more enduring portion. Many such shocks, how- ever, are often needed, before our souls are broken off from their cleaving to the dust.
The opposite of worldliness is heavenly- mindedness or spiritual-mindedness. This, the new relish which the Holy Spirit imparts at conversion, in some measure produces.
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But it is feeble. It easily gives way. It ia not keen enough to withstand much tempta- tion. God's wish is to impart a keener relish for the things of God, and to destroy the relish for the things of time. This he effects by blighting all the objects in which there was earthly sweetness, so that by being de- prived of objects to " mind" on earth, it may of necessity be led to "mind" the things above. He dries up all the " nether springs" of earthly joy, that we may betake ourselves to the " upper springs" which can never fail.
There is much worldliness among the saints. There is worldliness in their motives and actings ; worldliness in their domestic life and in their intercourse with society ; there is worldliness in the arrangements of their house- holds and in the education of their families ; there is worldliness in their expenditure, so much being laid out for self, so little for God ; there is worldliness in their religious schemes, and movements, and societies ; there is world- liness in their reading, and in their conversa- tion ; there is, in short, too much of the spirit of earnest worldliness about their whole de- portment, and little of calm, happy superiority to the things of earth. They are fretted, dis-
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tirbed, bustled just like the world. They grudge labor, or fatigue, or expense, or annoy- ance, in the cause of Christ, or in serving their fellow-men. They have much of earth, little of heaven about them. They are not large-hearted, open-handed, — willing to spend and be spent, unmoved and unruffled, as those whose eye is ever set on the incorruptible inheritance on which they so soon shall enter. They are low and unaspiring in the things of God.
Perhaps there are few things against which we require to be more warned than against this spirit of worldliness. The church is very prone to forget her pilgrim character in this present evil world, and to live as a citizen of earth. Her dignity as the eternally chosen of the Fa- ther, is lost sight of ; her hope as the inheritor of the glory and the kingdom of the Son is ob- scured. And oh, how much of sorrow she is preparing for herself, by thus losing sight of her calling ! What desolation may be even now hovering over the tabernacle of many a saint, because they will not come out and be sepa- rate, because they refuse to be " strangers on the earth as all their fathers were." Sad it is, 13*
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indeed, that we should need affliction to teach us this !