A Little More Comfort, luxury, or Elegance

A Little More Comfort, Luxury or Elegance

"During supper, a woman came in with a beautiful jar of expensive perfume. She broke the seal and poured the perfume over His head" (Mark 14:3).

"She did what she could!" (Mark 14:8).

Have you, like your devoted sister of Bethany, done what you could? Take an inventory of the means which the Lord has put into your hands for honoring Him, and then look over the list of your contributions.

What proportion does your annual giving to the cause of Christ bear, compared to the cost of your furniture, your wardrobe, your entertainments, your ornaments and decorations, your luxuries?

Jesus did not withhold from you His very precious blood!! What are you will to do for Him? What beautiful jar of expensive perfume have you broken, will you break it for Him?

It is sorrowful to see professing Christians wholly taken up in getting wealth for themselves - either hoarding it up - or spending it in the luxuries that constitute "the pride of life."

Consider, I entreat you, the different results of the money you spend upon yourselves - and that which you spend on Christ. The money you spend selfishly perishes in the using. The money you spend for the cause of Christ acquires an imperishable existence.

What you spend in the comforts and elegances of life - and what you hoard unnecessarily - dies with you, when you die. But the wealth which, under the influence of pure motives, we devote to Christ, will never die. It is immortal and incorruptible.

Oh Christians! how is it that we can cheat ourselves of such heavenly felicity and eternal honor, merely to have a little more comfort, luxury, or elegance here? Why do we impoverish ourselves in the eternal world, to enrich ourselves in this present world?

Oh God! Bestow upon us Your grace, that when we meet you in judgment, we may hear this commendatory testimony from Your gracious lips, "They did what they could!"

~John Angell James~
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A Sublime Fiction

"Their destiny is destruction...their mind is on earthly things." (Phil. 3:19).

This is the description given by the apostle, of the predominant taste and pursuits of the men of the world.

Sadly, this also describes a large proportion of those who have professed to come out from the world, and to be a people separated unto God. How engrossed are they, not only in the business, but in the cares, the love, and the enjoyment of earthly vanities! Who would imagine, to see their conduct, to hear their conversations, to observe their spirit - so undevout, and so worldly - that these were the men, who have heaven in their eye and heart, as their eternal destiny? We would be inclined to think, that to them, heaven is nothing more than a mere name, a sublime fiction, a sacred vision, which, with all its splendor, has scarcely power enough to engage their thoughts and fix their regards! How little effect has heaven to elevate them above a predominant earthly mindedness, to comfort them in trouble, to minister to their happiness, to mortify their corruptions.

Can it be that they are seeking for, and going to glory, honor, and immortality - who think so little about it, and derive so small a portion of their enjoyment from the expectation of it?

"Their destiny is destruction...their mind is on earthly things" (Phil. 3:19).

~John Angell James~