The one peculiar and characteristic sin of the world is this, that whereas God would have us live for the life to come, the world would make us live for this life. It takes, as the main scope of human exertion, an end which God forbids, and consequently all that it does becomes evil, because directed to a wrong end.
Men seem made for this world; this is what prevails on them to neglect the next world; they think they have reason for concluding that this world is the world for which they are to labour, and to which they are to devote their faculties.
I. There are a number of faculties and talents which seem only to exist in this world, and to be impossible in another. Our aim, men say, must be an aim of this life, our end of action must be in this world, because our talents point that way.
II. Another consideration of the same kind is the existence of national character. This seems to them to be a providential mark of what the world is intended to be. One nation is manly, and another is brave but cruel, and a third is sagacious, and a fourth is energetic and busy. These, then, it is argued, are the qualities of mind for which this life is intended. Religion is for the next world, not for this.
III. Men generally apply this argument to the case of individuals. They go into the world, and they find individuals of this or that character, and not religious; and hence they argue that religion is but a theory, because it is not on the face of society.
IV. Another consideration which the world urges in its warfare against religion is that religion is unnatural. It is objected that religion does not bring the elementary and existing nature of man to its highest perfection, but thwarts and impairs it, and provides for a second and new nature.
V. The strongest argument which the world uses in its favour is the actual success of its experiment in cultivating the natural faculties of body and mind: for success seems a fresh mark of God's will, over and above the tendencies of nature. Men may or may not have the fear of God before their eyes, yet they seem to go on equally well either way. Let anyone betake himself to the world, and go through but one day in it, and he will understand what this argument is which the very face of society presents, namely, that religion is not needed for the world, and therefore is of no great importance.
Let us leave the world, manifold and various as it is; let us leave it to follow its own devices, and let us turn to the living and true God, who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. So that when the end comes, and the multitudes who have joined hands in evil are punished, we may be of those who, in the words of the text, are "delivered."
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day,p. 78.
References: Proverbs 11:21. E. White, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 11.Proverbs 11:22. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 308. Proverbs 11:23. Ibid.,p. 312.Proverbs 11:24. Parker, City Temple, vol.i., p. 37; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 315; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 161.Proverbs 11:24-31. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 295.