Selfishness.
I. SELFISHNESS IS THE ROOT OF SIN. Selfishness is living in and for ourselves. It manifests itself in various aspects.
1. In thought. Self becomes the largest figure in a man's conception of the universe. The shadow of self lies across everything else. The merits of self are magnified in pride. Vanity craves the admiration of others for one's self. Self-worship makes a man prejudiced in holding to his own opinions and bigoted in rejecting those of other men.
2. In feeling. Self-love fills a selfish man's heart. He has no grief at another's trouble and no pleasure in another's joy. Instead of feeling as a member of a great body moved by the common pulse of a common life, he is like a solitary cell detached and self-concentrated.
3. In action. Self-will becomes the predominating energy and self-seeking the prevailing motive. In its extreme development this becomes positive cruelty—a pursuit of one's own pleasure through the pain of others. Now, all this is sinful in the sight of God and man, and frightfully injurious to society. War, crime, intemperance, etc., all spring from some form of selfishness.
II. CHRISTIANITY REQUIRES THE ERADICATION OF SELFISHNESS, So long as a man thinks only of himself he has not learnt what the gospel means. He may be seeking what he calls his spiritual welfare—escape from hell, a happy future, or peace here. But all this is selfish. Selfishness in every respect must be uprooted in order that the true Christian life may be established.
1. In thought. This is essential to repentance. Humility and confession of sin are necessary before we can even enter the kingdom of heaven.
2. In feeling. Love to Christ, not the saving of our own souls, is the great motive that should inspire us. Love to our fellow-men, not personal comfort, is the spirit that should pervade our lives. We are only Christian in so far as we follow Christ. And Christ denied himself and "went about doing good." All pretensions of saintly devotion count just for nothing, or for worse than nothing, for hypocrisy, so long as the self sits enthroned in our hearts.
3. In action. Faith pre-supposes self-abnegation; it is the surrender of ourselves to another. It takes two forms—