Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/61

, you must also believe in these three things:—

1. The virtue of poverty.

2. The dignity of labour.

3. The excellence of simplicity.

Rank, wealth, and all kinds of ostentation should be to you pitiable—not enviable.

Do you prefer poverty, with a pure conscience, to ill-gotten riches? Would you rather be a faithful servant of Christ or a slave of Mammon? Give the answer to your own soul,—but give it honestly—if you can!

If you find, on close self-examination, that you love yourself, your own importance, your position, your money, your household goods and clothes, your place in what you call "society," more than the steady working for and following of Christ,—. That being the case, be brave about it! Say what you are, and do not pretend to be what you are not!

It ought to be quite easy for you to come to a clear understanding with yourselves. Take down the New Testament and read it. Read it as closely and carefully as you read your cheap newspapers, and with as much eagerness to find out "news." For news there is in it, and of grave import. Not news affecting the things of this world, which pass like a breath of wind and are no more,—but news which treats of Eternal Facts, outlasting the creation and re-creation of countless worlds. Read this book for yourselves, I say, rather than take it in portions on Sundays only from your clergy,—and devote your earnest attention to the simple precepts uttered by Christ Himself. If you are a Christian, you