Daniel T. Bourdeau - The Eternal Gospel Church

life. p. 84, Para. 3, [HOLINESS].
Christ in speaking of the last days says, "And because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall was cold."
Matt. xxiv, 12. The Saviour does not here refer to selflove,
or the love of property; for the apostle Paul while
speaking of the same time says, "For men shall be lovers of
their own selves, covetous, . . . without natural
affection." 2 Tim. iii, 1-3. The Saviour must therefore
have reference to the love that we owe to God and to our
fellow-creatures. And the reader is left to judge whether
these predictions of Christ, and Paul are not being
fulfilled before our eyes; whether love is not waxing cold
even among professors of religion generally; whether
natural affection, that sacred tie that used to bind
parents to their children and children to their parents,
and made home so pleasant and attracting, is not departing;
whether self-love and excessive and perverted love for
money, which is the root of all evil, and which is seen in
the unprecedented anxiety and eagerness to get rich, and
lay up treasures on the earth against the prohibition of
Christ, Matt. vi, 19, do not generally predominate. Who
that has given this subject serious and candid attention,
cannot see truth in the following paragraph from Dr.
Griffon: p. 84, Para. 4, [HOLINESS].
"The world! the world! the world! This is the object which
engrosses every care; this is the supreme deity that is
adored. Buy and sell and get gain -- out with the thoughts
of death -- away with the judgment and Heaven -- my farms,
my merchandise; I will have them though the earth trembles
under my feet, and Heaven weeps blood upon my head!" p.
85, Para. 1, [HOLINESS].
The evil of loving things to excess, is seen in the fact
that whatever we love with an inordinate attachment, takes
the shape of an idol in our hearts. And idolatry is not
confined to heathen lands. There are as many idols as there
are objects that are loved to excess, and that steal away
our affections from God, and lead us to disobey him. It
would therefore be difficult to enumerate all the idols or
false gods that are worshiped even in Christian lands. But
among these are fashion, wealth, and fame. Thousands of
professed Christians worship these deities with perhaps
more than heathen idolatry; and value things in proportion
as they further these objects. Think of the enormous
sacrifices that are made to pay devotion to these strange