  You ask me how you are to cast this unclean spirit out of your heart? I think I can tell you. In the first place, make up your mind that by the grace of God you will overcome the spirit of selfishness. You must overcome it, or it will overcome you. Paul said: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” I heard of a rich man who was asked to make a contribution on behalf of some charitable object. The text was quoted to him—“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.” He said that the security might be good enough, but the credit was too long. He was dead within two weeks. The wrath of God rested upon him as he never expected. If you find yourself getting very miserly, begin to scatter, like a wealthy farmer in New York state I heard of. He was a noted miser, but he was converted. Soon after, a poor man who had been burned out and had no provisions, came to him for help. The farmer thought he would be liberal and give the man a ham from his smoke-house. On his way to get it, the tempter whispered to him: “Give him the smallest one you have.” He had a struggle whether he would give a large or a small ham, but finally he took down the largest he could find. “You are a fool,” the devil said. “If you don’t keep still,” the farmer replied, “I will give him every ham I have in the smoke house.” Mr. Durant told me he woke up one morning to find that he was a rich man, and he said that the greatest struggle of his life then took place as to whether he would let money be his master, or he be master of money, whether he would be its slave, or make it a slave to him. At last he got the victory, and that was how Wellesley College came to be built. In the next place, cultivate the spirit of contentment. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Contentment is the very opposite of covetousness, which is continually craving for something it does not possess. “Be content with such things as ye have,” not worrying about the future, because God has promised never to leave or forsake you. What does the child of God want more than this? I would rather have that promise than all the gold of the earth. Would to God we might all be able to say with Paul—“I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.” The Lord had made him partaker of His grace, and he was soon to be a partaker of His glory, and earthly things looked very small. “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” he wrote to Timothy; “having food and raiment, therewith let us be content.” Observe that he puts godliness first. No worldly gain can satisfy the human heart. Roll the whole world in, and still there would be room. May God tear the scales off our eyes if we are blinded by this sin. Oh, the folly of it, that we should set our heart’s affections upon anything below! “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. . . . Be thou not afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth he shall take nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.”
|
|
