THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF IT by Prof. Richard T. Eley, in the Congregationalist.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 22, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 28.

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF IT.

By Prof. Richard T. Eley, in the Congregationalist.

BESIDES the exhibition within the church of the spirit of Christian brotherhood, the life of Christians outside the church, in their dealings with the world, must also conform to Christian principles. Christ calls upon us to choose between him and the world, and he wants no half-hearted followers. A Christian may say, If I love my neighbor as myself, my necessities are as important as his. True, but my comforts are not as important as his necessities, nor are my luxuries and superfluities as important as my neighbor's comforts. Luxury can never be indulged in by a Christian so long as he can minister to the real well-being of others and supply them with material goods helpful for their development, and this forever renders luxury an impossibility for a Christian. Luxury is materialistic and selfish; it retards the mental and spiritual development of a people and tends to impoverish a nation.

Luxury breeds luxury, as sin begets sin. One tries to outvie the other. Men spend more than they can afford. Speculation is fostered as a means of money-getting, and fraud and embezzlement are the legitimate outcome. Wasted fortunes, blighted careers, broken hearts, boundless opportunities forever lost—these are the end of which the beginning is self-indulgence. It is impossible for a Christian carefully to examine the nature of industrial society, or even to look a very little way into social science, without drawing a very close line around personal expenditures which are not sinful. This looks very much like cross-bearing, and it seems to me that we modern Christians have well-nigh forgotten the existence of a cross. Christ meant that we should lead a life of renunciation. He said we must take up our cross. What he did say was this: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Why? Because love renders sacrifice easy; and if we love our neighbor as Christ loved us we will rejoice that it is permitted us to give our goods, our lives, and all that we have for others, and we will account the renunciation of pleasures in which this world delights as but an easy yoke and a light burden.—Prof. Richard T. Eley, in the Congregationalist.