FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117  
118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>   >|  
of this world, and to have our hearts in the concerns of this world. I do not know any thing more dreadful than a state of mind which is, perhaps, the characteristic of this country, and which the prosperity of this country so miserably fosters. I mean that ambitious spirit, to use a great word, but I know no other word to express my meaning--that low ambition which sets every one on the look-out to succeed and to rise in life, to amass money, to gain power, to depress his rivals, to triumph over his hitherto superiors, to affect a consequence and a gentility which he had not before, to affect to have an opinion on high subjects, to pretend to form a judgment upon sacred things, to choose his religion, to approve and condemn according to his taste, to become a partizan in extensive measures for the supposed temporal benefit of the community, to indulge the vision of great things which are to come, great improvements, great wonders: all things vast, all things new,--this most fearfully earthly and grovelling spirit is likely, alas! to extend itself more and more among our countrymen,--an intense, sleepless, restless, never-wearied, never-satisfied, pursuit of Mammon in one shape or other, to the exclusion of all deep, all holy, all calm, all reverent thoughts. _This_ is the spirit in which, more or less (according to their different tempers), men do commonly engage in concerns of this world; and I repeat it, better, far better, were it to retire from the world altogether than thus to engage in it--better with Elijah to fly to the desert, than to serve Baal and Ashtoreth in Jerusalem. But the persons I speak of, as despising this world, are far removed from the spirit of Elijah. To flee from the world, or strenuously to resist it, implies an energy and strength of mind which they have not. They do neither one thing nor the other; they neither flee it, nor engage zealously in its concerns; but they remain in the midst of them, doing them in an indolent and negligent way, and think this is to be spiritually minded; or, as in other cases, they really take an interest in them, and yet speak as if they despised them. But surely it is possible to "serve the Lord," yet not to be "slothful in business;" not over devoted to it, but not to retire from it. We may do _all things_ whatever we are about to God's glory; we may do all things _heartily_, as to the Lord, and not to man, being both active yet meditative; and now let
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117  
118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

things

 

spirit

 

concerns

 
engage
 
affect
 

Elijah

 
retire
 

country

 

altogether

 

persons


heartily
 

Ashtoreth

 

Jerusalem

 

desert

 

thoughts

 
reverent
 

meditative

 

repeat

 

commonly

 
tempers

active

 
slothful
 

business

 

indolent

 

devoted

 

negligent

 

spiritually

 
minded
 

despised

 

surely


interest

 

strenuously

 

resist

 

implies

 

despising

 

removed

 

energy

 

remain

 

zealously

 

strength


depress

 

rivals

 

succeed

 

triumph

 

hitherto

 

opinion

 
subjects
 

superiors

 

consequence

 

gentility