Selfishness.—How mean, how sinful is selfishness! It sets at defiance the authority of God, and mocks him when he repeats his commands. It studies to frustrate all his benevolent intentions, which come in competition with its own ambition. It raises an arm of extermination against all virtue and goodness which throw any obstacle in its way, and even threatens to demolish the whole spiritual workmanship of God, that it may have no competitors for empire on earth.
Selfishness is at war with all righteousness; it gnashes its teeth at every voice of kindness that rebukes it, and revels amidst the spoils it has torn from the virtues of others. It is the parent of all the disorders that afflict the race of man. Whence the lying, the frauds, the cheating, the slanders, the hatreds, the impurities, the quarrels, the wars, the bloodsheds, the murders, and ten thousand other agents of wrath and misery; do they not all spring from this foul spirit that sits with satanic sovereignty over the heart of man? What havoc has this spirit made of all that is lovely and holy in its character? Had not God in his infinite wisdom set bounds to its ravages, it long since would have been a companion of those who choose to rule in hell, rather than serve in heaven. Selfishness is a principle of depraved desire, appetite, and passion. It stifles the voice of conscience and the law of God; and, being an intelligent moral nature, it justly exposes every soul under its dominion to utter condemnation and wrath of God.
Reader, can you appeal to the great Searcher of hearts, and say: “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee more than silver and gold, more than honors or pleasures, more than houses or lands, more than father or mother. Thou knowest that I am thine, and that for thee I live, and for thee I shall die?” Blessed is the life, and blessed will be the death of that man, that woman, that youth, and that child who can thus appeal.
R.T. [336]
[IV: July, 1867]