^ 77te Life of Edward Irving, i. 258,
I JOHN V. 21 417
the earthly love will not then by any means injure or impair the heavenly.
I could not love thee, dear, so much
Loved I not honour more.^
^ We cannot know or enjoy or love the world too much, if God's will controls us. Has a mother anything but joy in watch- ing the little daughter's devotion to her doll ? Not until the child is so absorbed that she cannot hear her mother's voice. Did anyone ever love the world more than Jesus did ? Yet was anyone ever so loyal to the Father's will ? Worldliness is not love of the world but slavishness to it.^
III.
Defence against Idolatky.
How are we to guard ourselves against idols ? What is the defence ?
1. We must cherish the vision of the true God and eternal life. — We have that vision in Christ. If I would know God, I must see Him in Christ. And if the God I am worshipping is any other than the Christ who came to reveal Him then the God I am worshipping is not the true God, and I have become an idolater. We cannot see God, cannot apprehend God, save as by the revela- tion that He has made of Himself. In that holy and infinite mystery of incarnation there is an adaptation of God Himself to man's own method of finding God.
2. Another defence will he found in our love of truth. — It is not by learning or by culture or even by worship that we come to the knowledge of God. The utmost that even worship can do is to cleanse us for our higher duties — those duties of common life in which our God reveals Himself, in joy and sorrow, in sickness and in health alike. Even the Supper of the Lord would be a mockery, if Christ were not as near us in every other work of truth we do. Only let us be true, true in every fibre of our being, and truth of thought shall cleanse our eyes to see the truth of God which is the light of life.
' John S. Maver. ' M. D. Babcock, Tlioughtsfor Every-Day Living, 10.
JAS.-JUDE — 27
4i8 THE PERIL OF IDOLATRY
^ The easiest lesson in the school of truth is to do our work in the spirit of truth. Petty as it may seem, it is the earthward end of a ladder that reaches up to heaven. It is a greater work to give the cup of cold water than raise the dead. Our single duty here on earth is to bend all our heart and all our soul and all our mind to the single task of learning the love of truth, for the love of truth is the love of God.^
3. But it is not only our own effort that is needed ; for just a sentence or two before, the Apostle had said : " He that is born of God" — that is, Christ — "keepeth us." So our keeping of our- selves is essentially our letting Him keep us. Stay inside the walls of the citadel, and you need not be afraid of the besiegers ; go outside by letting your faith flag, and you will be captured or killed. Keep yourselves by clinging to " him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless." Seek fellowship with Him who is the only true God, and is able to satisfy your whole nature, mind, heart, will ; and these false deities will have no power to tempt you to bow the knee.
" The Lord thy Keeper," then : 'tis writ for thee, By night and day, wayworn and feeble sheep !
Without, within, He shall thy Guardian be; And e'en to endless ages He shall keep Thy wandering heart.
* H. M. Gwatkin, The Eye for Spiritual Things, 94.
Self-Keeping.
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, i. 395,
Arnold (T.), Sermons, vi. 277.
Bain (J. A. K.), For Heart and Life, 77.
Binney (T.), Sermons Preached in King's Weigh-House Chapel, 1st Ser., 202.
Burrell (D. J.), The Spirit of the Age, 211.
Davies (T.), Sermons, ii. 392, 395.
Garbett (E.), The Soul's Life, 305.
Hoare (E.), Fruitful or Fruitless, 130.
Holland (C), Gleanings from a Ministry, 221.
Hughes (H. P.), The Philanthropy of God, 3.
Jerdan (C), For the Lambs of the Flock, 33, 155.
Jones (J. M.), The Cup of Cold Water, 63.
Macgregor (G. H. C), Praying in the Holy Ghost, 1.
„ „ Babboni, 34.
Meyer (F. B.), Calvary to Pentecost, 52. Mudie (F.), Bible Truths and Bible Characters, 156, 172, 185, 199,
213, 226. Murray (A.), 2^e Full Blessing of Pentecost, 92. Selby (T. G.), The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, 161. Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 189. Watkinson (W. L.), Themes for Hours of Meditation, 150. Waugh (T.), Mount and Multitude, 30. Christian World Pulpit, ii. 24 (Biuney) ; xxviii. 408 (Statham) ; xxxvii.
165 (Brown). Church of England Magazine, xl. 256 (Clayton) ; xliii. 25 (Dwarris) ;
Ixiv. 416 (Champneys).
«w-
Self-Keeping.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.— Jude 20, 21.