Chapter 289—Snares to Shun
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1 John
2:16
.
Pride and the love of the world are the snares which are so great a
hindrance to spirituality and a growth in grace.
This world is not the Christian’s heaven, but merely the workshop of
God, where we are to be fitted up to unite with the sinless angels in a
holy heaven. We should be constantly training the mind to noble, unselfish
thoughts. This education is necessary to so bring into exercise the powers
which God has given us that His name shall best be glorified upon the earth.
We are accountable for all the noble qualities which God has given us, and
to put these faculties to a use He never designed we should is showing base
ingratitude to Him. The service of God demands all the powers of our being,
and we fail of meeting the design of God unless we bring these powers
to a high state of cultivation, and educate the mind to love to contemplate
heavenly things, and strengthen and ennoble the energies of the soul by right
actions, operating to the glory of God....
Unless the mind is educated to dwell upon religious themes, it will
be weak and feeble in this direction. But while dwelling upon worldly
enterprises, it will be strong; for in this direction it has been cultivated, and
has strengthened with exercise. The reason it is so difficult for men and
women to live religious lives is because they do not exercise the mind unto
godliness. It is trained to run in an opposite direction. Unless the mind
is constantly exercised in obtaining spiritual knowledge and in seeking to
understand the mystery of godliness, it is incapable of appreciating eternal
things.... When the heart is divided, dwelling principally upon things of the
world, and but little upon the things of God, there can be no special increase
of spiritual strength.
While worldling are all earnestness and ambition to secure earthly
treasure, God’s people are not conformed to the world, but show by their
410