Seriously engaged about trifles

(Letters of John Newton)

"This world is fading away, along with everything it craves!" 1 John 2:17

God's own people are so shamefully inconsistent with themselves, and with their acknowledged principles.

In the midst of the hurries and changes of this unsettled state--we glide along swiftly towards an unchangeable world. We shall soon have as little connection with the scenes we are now passing through--as we have with what happened before the Flood! All which appears great and interesting in the present life, abstracted from its influence upon our internal character, and our everlasting destiny--will soon be as unreal as a dream of the night!

This we know and confess. But though our judgments are convinced, it is seldom that our hearts are duly affected by the thought. And while I find it easy to write in this moralizing strain--I feel myself disposed to be seriously engaged about trifles--and trifling in the most serious concerns--as if I believed the very contrary!

"This world and all it contains, is passing away!" 1 Corinthians 7:31