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SELF!
Spurgeon, "The Shrill Trumpet of Admonition"
Do not many of you who come to our
places of worship live unto yourselves?
This is the end and object of the most of mankind-
to live "respectably," to collect a "competence,"
to provide, as they say, for their families, which
is the Pharisaic cant phrase for selfishness.
Do not the mass of men worship their belly, and
bow down before no other shrine than self?
Is not the life of millions unashamed, grasping selfishness?
The grand object of human desire is-
"What shall we eat, and what shall we
drink, and with what shall we be clothed?"
The religion of the multitude is-
"Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and
continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain."
Gain is the world's highest good, the chief of all
mortal good, the main chance, the prime object,
the barometer of success in life, the one thing
needful, the heart's delight.
And yet, O worldlings, who succeed in getting gain,
and are esteemed to be shrewd and prudent, Jesus
Christ calls you fools, and he is no thrower about of
hard terms where they are not deserved.
"You fool!" said he, and why? Because the man's
soul would be required of him; and then whose would
those things be which he had gathered together?
Ah! you who have been prosperous all your days,
and made money, and risen in the world, and
gathered a competence, and lived to gather wealth,
if this is the one thing you care about, tremble
and expect your doom. O you careless ones, do you
dream that you were made to live for yourselves?
Was it the object of your Maker that you should
live to gather gold for yourselves and for your
children? Did he send you into this world merely
that you might scrape together yellow clay?
Has your Maker no claim upon you?
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