What a fine thing it is, they think, to be pious!
Then creeps in the love of the world; the love of money, or power,
or admiration; and they begin to value religion because it helps
them to get on in the world. They begin more and more to love Piety
not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it brings; not
because it pleases God, but because it pleases the world; not
because it enables them to help their fellow-men, but because it
enables them to help themselves.
So they get double-minded, unstable, inconsistent, as St. James
says, in all their ways; trying to serve God and Mammon at once.
Trying to do good--as long as doing good does not hurt them in the
world's eyes; but longing oftener and oftener to do wrong, if only
God would not be angry. Then comes on Balaam's frame of mind, 'If
Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go
beyond the commandment of the Lord.'
Oh no. They would not do a wrong thing for the world--only they
must be quite sure first that it is wrong. Has God really forbidden
it? Why should they not take care of their interest? Why should
they not get on in the world? So they begin, like Balaam, to tempt
God, to see how far they can go; to see if God has forbidden this
and that mean, or cowardly, or covetous, or ambitious deed.
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