Newspaper Page Text
8 THE PRESBYTER]
Contributed
DEAD WHILE LIVING.
By Rev. L. W. Irwin.
'She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."
i Tim. 5 : 6.
A philosopher. John Stuart Hill, is reported to have
said, "It was a great discovery to me when I found out
that life is not all fun."' There are many more who
start life with the same idea, hut have it rudely jostled
uui oi tnem?or else under its delusion miss the true
aim and zest of living.
The apostle, in the text, is laying down a principle
which is general. Its particular application happened to
be to women. But it is evident that they are not the
only ones who come under its characterization. Though
perhaps it would seem that they are more liable to the
danger than men?at least in some circles of society.
The meaning is plain : the one whose end and aim
in life is pleasure is dead while yet living. It is true of
the devotee of pleasure, whose idea of life is to extract
as much of pleasure out of it as possible. It is true also
of those who, though they work, do so in order that
the time they are not obliged to work may be spent in
pleasuring. It is also true of the one who pays toll of
good works of charity or church work to mver o i;r?
.. v. U HIV UI
self-indulgence and worldliness. At heart, all these
belong to the same class.
But if must not be thought that Paul condemns all
pleasure or happiness:?or recreation. Pleasure has its
legitimate and necessary place. It is that of relaxation,
recreation. It has overstepped its bounds when it goes
beyond that, to the extent of producing weariness,
lassitude or dissipation. When it's pace becomes killing,
and it rules the life, the river of pleasure has
broken its banks and becomes a raging, destructive
torrent.
For the Christian, when 1?
, nets mure zest tnan
religion, when it detracts from efficiency and influence
for God, and when it effaces the line of separation from
the world, so that the clearness of Christian testimony
is lost, it is casting its deadly upas shadow over the
life.
But why does Paul say that the one who lives in
pleasure is dead while living? The reasons are not far
to seek and they are numerous and weighty.
i. The devotee of pleasure is dead while living because
the springs of life have been atrophied?deadened
by selfishness
Pleasure seeking is essentially selfish. Its thought
is foe self-enjoyment. Its aim is to secure the greatest
amount of that enjoyment for self. It is a reversa1 ' .
the whole machinery of life. Life is designed by its
Maker to be centrifugal?its aim, its effort?to benefit
others, to make others happy, to put as much of happi
ness in the world as possible. The life of pleasure seeking
is centripetal. All that it touches is correlated with
reference to the amount of pleasure it will yield to self.
And thus the whole machinery of fife is reversed in its
action and thrown in upon itself. Instead of giving, it is
getting; instead of diffusion, it is hoarding. Thus its
[AN OF THE SOUTH. March 10, 1909.
growth is stopped, its fruit bearing is stopped and ultimately
its zest of living ceases?because selfishness is
productive of dissatisfaction, wretchedness, unhappincss.
2. The one who lives in pleasure is dead while living,
because the true end and aim of life is forfeited.
The end of life is to "glorify God, and to enjoy him
forever." The eternal enjoyment of God is attained
only through the aim of glorifying him. The aim of the
liver in pleasure is to glorify self. Such an aim can
' never reach the goal of eternal happiness, because it is
contrary to the law of our nature which is the law of
God. It fails necessarily of its very purpose. God has
so created us that in making the prime object and aim
111 1 i f P flin 1-2- ?1
...^ P.u..iUiiuii ui ins giory, in a lite ot unselfishness,
holiness, and service we are to attain our highest,
purest and most lasting happiness. And it can be attained
in no other way. Men have taxed their ingenuity
to invent methods of producing pleasure and happiness
different from God's way, but always they have proved
miserable failures. He who made us, made us just that
way, and to ignore, or rebel against it, is to rebel
against our very nature. Thus the awful blunder of
the liver in pleasure is seen in that the whole end and
aim of life, the very reason of being, is missed, lost.
3. The liver in pleasure is dead while living because
the whole result of life is lost.
Life is given in order that it might bear fruit in good
deed* nnH nnliln ?u:?* - '
?..x. vnai x?v_ici cuuivaica. ine pleasureseeker
is bent upon pleasurable sensations and indulgence,
so that the highest and best qualities of character
are neglected, and being neglected become atrophied
and die without bearing their rightful fruit. Selfrestraint,
purity, kindness, modesty, humility, generosity,
patience, tenderness, meekness, are traits which
are exalted, but they are not fostered or attained
through a life of self-indulgence, of sensual pleasure.
On thp rnntMi-ir I-J-1? ?*
? avu-Hiuuigciite in pleasure kills them
outright. The life of pleasure-seeking is not productive
of a life of good deeds. Its thought and aim are different
; namely, for its own enjoyment. It has no time,
no taste, no desire, no inclination, for the life of doing
good. It is dead, to all the great department of fruitbearing
characteristics of normal life.
4. The liver in pleasure is dead because the life of
pleasure-seeking deals a death blow to the spiritual
life. Its thought, its time, its efforts, its aim, its desire
are occupied with sensatory things?things that
give pleasure to self, but perish in the using. In the
din of the world's pleasures the ear is deadened to the
voice of the Spirit of God. The he?. > is entwined with
the lures of the world and the flesh, instead of having
its affections set upon things above. The mind is the
mind of the flesh, not the mind of Christ. Fellowshin
ry
communion with God is supplanted by the companionships
and affinities of the world. The immortal soul with
its high possibilities of likeness to God, its cravings for
fellowship with God, fs ignored, neglected, and becomes
shrivelled, dry and dead from sheer neglect to
feed upon its rightful food, the Bread of Life. "The
Bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and
giveth life unto the world." "Wherefore do ye spend