Worldliness by Jos. Clarke

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 10, 1875

Worldliness.

By Jos. Clarke

FEW realize the danger of God's people at the present time. From every point, Satan is rallying his legions to make war upon the saints; and his greatest success is attained where we are least guarded. While we are looking for great events and severe persecutions in the future, Satan is at work most effectually; for if he can now drown the senses in worldly pursuits, he knows well we shall not be among the persecuted ones.

One of our dangers is that of worldliness, which creeps over us while we least suspect it. As we pursue our daily occupations, we become charmed with these affairs, and engrossed in them, and nothing is left for God.

Little by little a love for our employment, or of its profits, crowds out the love of God: and the cares and responsibilities of life, so necessary to be well borne, are so constantly upon the mind, that we often become cold as an iceberg before we are aware that we are drifting away from the port.

The man of business fancies that he is doing a laudable and praiseworthy work in driving his trade or his other interests; and so he is, if God has the highest place in the heart; but alas! how many fatally deceive themselves in this. The pleasure derived from mental toil and success in life is often mistaken for God's approbation. The spirits are light and buoyant from healthful exercise, and Satan steps in, with deceptive charms, and lulls the soul to sleep, while he drives it far away from God. The student, the teacher, the literary man, is peculiarly exposed by reason of the high intellectual enjoyments he experiences, and unless he places a double guard against the enemy, he is led astray, or lost.

It was the practice of a very devoted and learned man, to often turn from his studies to the Bible, to see if his love for the word of God was waning in his intense zeal in the acquisition of knowledge. If he found that his love for human learning was at all drawing him from the love of the Bible, he would leave his studies and read the word of God until his love for it returned, and he was satisfied that his love for God's word was above that of mere literature and science. His was true wisdom.

Jos. Clarke.