he was guided in his choice only by considerations of temporal
advantage. Put his action into words, and it says, 'Grass for my
sheep is more to me than fellowship with God, and a good conscience.'
No doubt he would have had salves enough. 'I do not need to become
like them, though I live among them.' 'A man must look after his own
interests.' 'I can serve God down there as well as up here.' Perhaps
he even thought that he might be a missionary among these sinners.
But at bottom he did not seek first the kingdom of God, but the other
things.

We have seldom the choice put before us so dramatically and sharply;
but it is as really presented to each. There is the shameless
cynicism of the men who avowedly only ask the question, 'Will it
pay?' But there are subtler forms which affect us all. It is the
standing temptation of Englishmen to apply a money standard to
everything, to adopt courses of action of which the only
recommendation is that they promote getting on in the world. Men who
call themselves Christians select schools for their children, or
professions for their boys, or marriages for their daughters, down
in Sodom, because it will give them a lift in life which they would
not get up in the starved pastures at Bethel, with nobody but Abram
and his like to associate with. If the earnestness with which men
pursue an end is to be taken as any measure of its importance in
their eyes, it certainly does not look much as if modern average
Christians did believe that it was of more moment to be united to
God, and to be growing like Him, than to secure a good large share
of earthly possessions. Tried by the test of conduct, their faith in
getting on is a great deal deeper than their faith in getting up.
But if our religion does not make us put the world beneath our feet,
and count all things but loss that we may win Christ, we had better