Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.
Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
conformity to environment. "Man's chief end is to glorify God and
enjoy him for ever." And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
salvation because God works in him.
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