How to Overcome the World.
THE things of the world, if we put them under our feet, increase our stature towards heaven; they are means of growth in grace, according to the use we make of them. If a man stands on a pile of gold a foot high, he is a foot taller than other men, and sees farther than they; but if the gold is above him, it weighs him down, and if it is before his vision, it darkens him. If we would use the world as not abusing it, we must stand upon it, we must climb by it towards heaven, not be buried beneath it. The policy is not to annihilate the alluring objects of the world, but bind them to our service; not to make ourselves poor by having no riches, but rich by using them for Christ. Temptation greatly increases and strengthens grace, if it is only used rightly. Hence James says, “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience.” The things of the world, its vanities, its pleasures, its attractions, are like quicksilver, which is dark in itself, and you cannot see through it, but put it behind a plate of glass, and you make a mirror out of it. Just so, if you put the vanities of the world behind the heart, if you put the heart on the right side of those vanities, they make your heart a mirror of heaven; they enable you to reflect the glories of the celestial world, and the radiance of the face of the Redeemer, when you look towards him; the bright uncovered side of the mirror being toward the sun of righteousness, his image is reflected. But if you reverse the process, and put the things of the world before your heart, between your heart and heaven, then you can see nothing through them, and there is no reflection in them to any heavenly object or light; the mirror side being towards the earth reflects only the earth, and the side that ought to be towards heaven is as dark as midnight.—Sel.