THE MIGHTY CONTRAST by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 51.

THE MIGHTY CONTRAST.

By Editor

Love Versus Selfishness.

ONCE man walked with God in Eden. He beheld the undimmed glory of His Maker.

No discordant note jarred the perfect harmony between Creator and created. Life flowed from the great living Fountain to human receptacle, which in turn became a fountain of life to other creatures; for its law was love, and the constant giving of life meant increased capacity and the constant reception of larger life.

But when he who is personified selfishness entered Eden, and man yielded to his suggestions and became his slave, selfishness instead of love took possession of man's heart. Love for God and His creatures was perverted and became self-love. Life was perverted, and became death. Since that time mankind has been led to believe that to be unselfish is to court ruin and death, and that the chief end of existence is to grasp all one can and to hold what he grasps.

The dominant note in the scale of selfishness at the present is greed for gold and what gold will buy for the service of less base and baser lusts. There is noble teaching sufficient, there is law in plenty, but, like Israel of old, men turn from the hearing of that which is good to the worship of the golden calf, to worship at the chief of the shrines of lust, by the gilding of which "the god of this world" blinds the minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine in. (2 Cor. 4:4). Out of this selfish, material worship rises the horrible strife depicted so forcibly, graphically, and truthfully by Mr. Mente on the cover page of our special issue of last week. The class strife of the world to-day is engendering a horrible class hatred which is issuing in world-wide crime and revolution, predicted again and again in the Word of God.

Must the selfishness, the division, the strife with its awful consequences, always continue? Is there no better way? Must conscienceless greed ever triumph over honest toil? Or to check this must labor, stirred by envy, ruled by hatred, seek with an even more vengeful spirit to defeat or destroy its adversary? No; this is not necessary even in this world of sin. God has revealed the better way in His Word and exemplified it in Christ Jesus. The actuating principle of His life was love,—love not merely for His own, but for those outside His own. He knew that while might seemed to make right, that in the eternal verities right is might, and He was willing to wait God's time in its glorious, all-pervasive, eternal demonstration. He gave Himself for others; and by faith looked forward to the "long gain" when He should see of the travail of His soul and should be satisfied. The motive power of His life is expressed in two terms of reproach which his enemies cast upon Him. One was,—

"A friend of publicans and sinners!"

and the other,—

"He saved others; Himself He can not save!"

And both charges were true, literally, gloriously, eternally true. He was a Friend of sinners, those whose sins wounded Him the most deeply; but He was not a friend of their sins, or to excuse them in their sins. Therefore He gave Himself to save them from their sins. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

That was the mission of the loving Christ of God. To save others He must give Himself, and the cross is but an object lesson of His eternal, forth-flowing love. "He was wounded for our transgressions." "With His stripes we are healed." He is the smitten Rock from which flows the healing, life-giving waters. He says to you, O dissatisfied Rich Man, filled with greed; He says to you, O dissatisfied Laborer, filled with envy and hatred; "Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest." "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, . . . from within him shall flow rivers of living water." The believing soul will become a fount of blessing. "Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that [in the day of judgment] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. . . . Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."

O soul in this great world's strife, here are a few of the precious promises of life to you. Make them real and vital to you by believing. If you are "rich" in this world's goods, what does it amount to? God may say to you the very day you read these words, "Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?" The only riches of worth and permanence are the appropriated riches of the grace of Christ. If you are the poorest of the poor in this life, you may be rich in the "exceeding riches of His grace," and heir of His everlasting kingdom.

In a little from this the toil and strife will be over, and the everlasting kingdom of God will open for all those whose hopes center there. Will your lot be cast in the perishing world, or in the everlasting kingdom of God, whose law is everlasting love?