SELF-WORSHIP AND ITS END.
MAN must worship; what and whom shall he worship? Man needs a Gospel; whose shall he believe? Here is a sample of the self-gospel taught so much now-a-days, by one of its high priestesses:— Make up your mind this very hour to do something worth while. You know what you can do, or at least what you can try to do. You need ask no advice. No one understands you as well as you understand yourself. . . . Sit down alone with yourself a little while each day and be quiet and listen to the voice within you. It will tell you the truth after a few sittings. Then look in your own soul for light. It is there, and it is the light for you to follow. Whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a pagan, a Protestant, or a Roman Catholic, does not matter so long as you follow your soul's light, nor does it matter that there are shining lighthouses in each of the other harbors. Follow the light which radiates from within. Now all of this is the absolute acceptance of the gospel of Satan,—the will-o'-the-wisp which lures to destruction—and the utter rejection of the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Christ never admonishes man to look to himself, but to Christ. The adversary thus deceived our first parents: "Ye shall not surely die [that is, by following your own way]; . . . your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." Gen. 3:4, 5. Man believed; found the knowledge of evil, and has ever since been seeking in himself the knowledge of good, and finding it not. Thus speaks one who had so sought it, and come back sorrowful from the search: "O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. 10:23. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" Jer. 17:9. And thus speaks another, who had sought diligently, and had returned broken and weary from the quest: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." "They that are in the flesh can not please God." See Rom. 7:14-24; 8:8. And this is the revelation of the Master: "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Mark 7:20-23. That is the gospel of Satan, a false light, which flatters the human, which ministers to human lust, human depravity, human pride, and human ambition, human desire to do some great thing, and which leaves man at last in the wreck of character,—his lust as unsatisfied, unquenched burning; his pride a base humiliation; his selfish ambition a mad, jealous, envious, disappointing dream; his great thing a collapsed balloon, a bursted bubble; and the end of all, death. This is the gospel of self, that at its very best develops only selfish characters, each glorying in himself and envious of the greater fame of others. Believing, undeceived, we may accept the answers given by the prophet as to the One only who knows the heart and can properly correct it. "I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart." "O Jehovah, correct me." Jer. 17:10; 10:24. And God has answered the human longing. The Gospel of God, the good tidings in Christ Jesus, comes to poor, fallen, sinful, impotent man, with this message from the Master of the mighty, this instruction from the Teacher of the taught, this clear pathway from the Prevailer over the prince of darkness, this invitation from the Interpleader: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. 45:22. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30. And knowing man's ever-constant need, knowing all the devices of the enemy to deceive, knowing the natural desire of man to exalt self, in the very closing message of the blessed Book come these words of hope: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. "Ye must be born from above," said the Master to the Jewish moralist. Faith must make connection with the great Fountain of life, and by its constant exercise preserve the constant interflow of life, and light, and love from Jehovah, our covenant God, revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. O soul, why not reject forever every message which ministers of self, and receive Jesus Christ, a personal Saviour, the Way, the Truth, and the Life to every one that believes; the Wisdom, the Righteousness, the Sanctification, the Redemption to every trusting soul?