He did not mention money, fortune,
fame; but he picked out the great things of his time, the things
the best men thought had something in them, and brushed them
peremptorily aside. Paul had no charge against these things in
themselves. All he said about them was that they would not last.
They were great things, but not supreme things. There were things
beyond them. What we are stretches past what we do, beyond what
we possess. Many things that men denounce as sins are not sins;
but they are temporary. And that is a favorite argument of the
New Testament. John says of the world, not that it is wrong, but
simply that it "passeth away." There is a great deal in the world
that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great deal in it that
is great and engrossing; but
It will not last.
All that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the
flesh, and the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not
the world therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life
and consecration of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give
itself to something that is immortal. And the only immortal things
are these: "Now abideth faith, hope, love, but the greatest of
these is love."
Some think the time may come when two of these three things will
also pass away--faith into sight, hope into fruition.
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