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We were not always a set of poor mopes
(Philpot, "Spiritual
Convictions & Heavenly Affections")
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set
your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things
above, not on earthly things. For you died,
and your
life is now hidden with Christ in God." Col. 3:1-3
Men's pursuits and pleasures differ as widely as
their station or disposition—but a life of selfish
gratification reigns and rules in all.
Now it is by this death that we die unto . . .
the things of time and sense;
to all that charms the natural mind of man;
to the pleasures and pursuits of life;
to that busy, restless world which once held
us so fast and firm in its embrace—and whirled
us round and round within its giddy dance.
Let us look back. We were not always a set of poor
mopes—as the world calls us. We were once as merry
and as gay as the merriest and gayest of them.
But what were we really and truly with all our mirth?
Dead to God—alive to sin. Dead to everything holy and
divine—alive to everything vain and foolish, light and
trifling, carnal and sensual—if not exactly vile and
abominable.
Our natural life was with all of us a life of gratifying our
senses—with some of us, perhaps, chiefly of pleasure and
worldly happiness—with others a life of covetousness, or
ambition, or self-righteousness.
Sin once put forth its intense power and allured
us—and we followed like the fool to the stocks.
Sin charmed—and we listened to its seductive wiles.
Sin held out its bait—and we too greedily,
too heedlessly swallowed the hook.
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world has been crucified to
me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14
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