Without God in the World.
By Old Humphrey
A great mistake, it is, to suppose that there are none but daring reprobates and open transgressors who live "without God in the world;" for on the contrary, there are thousands of all classes of society who answer this description, thousands of whom it may be truly said, that "they are without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. ii, 12. There are rich men who strive with heart and mind, with soul and strength, to add to their possessions, who never dream of acknowledging God in all their ways, that he may direct their paths. They think much of their perseverance, but little of their propriety. They praise themselves, but they never praise their Maker. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof," and they who get gain take credit to themselves, sacrificing to their own net and burning incense to their own drag, and living without God in the world, as much as if they were bowing down to stocks and stones. "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith." Prov. xv, 16. There are prosperous merchants doing business in all seas, sending ships to every quarter of the world, and receiving treasures from the East and the West, the North and the South, and who are as regardless of the High and Holy One, in all practical purposes, as the fool who hath said in his heart, "There is no God." They are wealthy, upright, generous, and charitable.—Their word is their bond, and they sit among princes; yet for all this they are living "without God in the world." While they amass earthly treasures they neglect that heavenly wisdom, the merchandise of which is "better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Pro. iii, 14. There are physicians who restore the sick, and raise up those who appear to be at the brink of the grave; but while they attend to other's bodies they neglect their own souls. The structure of the human frame occupies all their attention, and its great Creator has none of their regard. A man may be very wise in temporal maladies, but yet very ignorant in spiritual diseases. By such a one the leprosy of sin is not understood. He lives without God in the world and God is not in all his thoughts. There are great readers who devour every book that comes in their way on arts, science, literature, yet never ponder over those Sacred Scriptures, which given by inspiration of God, are "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness."—2 Tim. iii, 16. What shall we say of these ungodly book-worms? What, indeed, can we say, but that they are acting very unwisely? for those who never read of God, love God, obey God, nor praise God, must be living without God in the world. There are miserly, covetous men who scrape all they can get together of this world's possessions, by the most pinching parsimony. They will not even provide for their own comfort, let alone relieving the wants of the poor. No sense of God's goodness to them moves them to deeds of Christian charity. Truly may they be said to live without God in the world who have no God but gold. "Godliness with contentment is great gain," but gold without godliness is a snare; "For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"—Matt. xvi, 26. There are men, ardent and persevering, ever seeking after some imaginary good. It may not be "perpetual motion," or the "philosopher's stone," but something equally delusive and useless. Disappointment seems only to whet their appetite, to sharpen their desire to grab the phantom they are pursuing. On! on! on! without considering that time is short and eternity at hand.—One half of this ardor after eternal things would yield them a recompense of great reward and altogether relieve them from the deserved reproach of living without God in this world. There are long-headed, far-seeing, deep-thinking men, wise in the wisdom of this world, but knowing nothing about the world that is to come. A lamentable thing it is to be only wise for earth and ignorant for heaven, seeing that "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God."—1 Cor. iii, 19. What is the use of knowing everything else, if we are ignorant of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and know not him whom to know is eternal life.—Wise men can be no other than foolish men, when they thus live without God in the world. But if the rich man, the prosperous merchant, and the learned physician, the reader of many books, the hoarder up of gold, and the close bargain maker, if the ardent pursuer of imaginary advantages, and worldly wise, may thus live without God in the world, how necessary it is to ask ourselves whether we are avoiding the errors we deplore, whether we are guilty of the fault we condemn? The question is one of great weight and of infinite importance, involving light and darkness, life and death, time and eternity, eternal weal and woe: for whether we believe it or deny it, it is a fearful fact that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."—Rom. iii, 23. Whether we receive it or reject it, "it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."—1 Tim. i, 15.