A Great Gulf by S. S. Times

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 46.

A Great Gulf.

By S. S. Times

THERE is a great gulf fixed between the teachings of the world and the teachings of the gospel, on the subject of easy living. According to the popular view, the one thing worth living for is to have money to spend, fine pictures to admire, pleasant books to read, soft carpets for the feet, easy couches for tired limbs, and delicate dishes for the palate; and yet the God whom we believe in, and worship, has only revealed himself to human eyes and hands as One who was crucified, whose brow was wounded with thorns, and whose side was pierced through with a spear; and the gospel which he brought teaches that all pampering of the body and all undue indulgence of its desires, so far from being the supreme object of life, may be a snare and a stumbling-block to the soul. If there are any of us who really believe in our hearts that personal enjoyment is the true object of our lives, let us honestly acknowledge to ourselves that we are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and so go back to crown with roses the forgotten statues of the kindly pagan gods who loved hot life and the beauty of sense. There ought not to be room in one house for both the cross of Christ and the ivy-crown of the wine-god, or the myrtle of the goddess of pleasure. "No man can serve two masters"—so runs the old saying, but the lesson is hard to learn. Nevertheless, it is one which must be learned sooner or later, when every man must make the deliberate choice whether he will count his own pleasure the chief object of his life, or whether he will yield his will, for pleasure or for pain, to the will of God. And on that one decision hangs every man's destiny, for both here and hereafter.