Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/33

 good man, a worthy member of society, and preparing to be an angel of heaven. Live for this end, and no other. Then will all things which you really need,—as much earthly wealth as will be for your good,—be sent you by the Lord's providence, while engaged in the faithful and diligent discharge of your duty; for the Lord himself has declared, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all things (needful) shall be added unto you."

Here, then, is one form of idolatry, which is to be guarded against. But there are many other forms of it. There is the love of self, which is still more deeply evil than the love of the world. The love of the world is, indeed, one form of self-love or selfishness; but what is meant distinctively by the love of self, is the love of dominion, ambition, the love of putting one's self above others. This, in all its forms, is the most direfully infernal passion of the human breast; for as the love of others equally as of one's self, or more than of one's self, is the very love that makes heaven, so is the love of self above others, especially in the form of desiring to rule over others, the essential principle of hell. Hence, such love is idolatry of the deepest kind, it blots out God utterly from the soul, and makes men at heart atheists.

But it is not merely in public and political life, that such love of self and of ruling exists: it may be found, also, in private life. Whoever is filled with the thought of himself, with self-esteem and self-admiration; whoever wishes to take the lead in all