may even point to the man whose whole life is one continued scene of self-sacrificing devotion to the welfare of society, and you will receive the cold and heartless answer, that all these labors are performed and endured for the gratification of a selfish ambition; or if this seems too absurd, for the sake of the selfish enjoyment that is derived from the exercise of benevolence. So entirely is the unregenerate man bound to his idol god—the love of self—and so entirely impossible is it for him to form any conception of any other ruling motive, that he even supposes Jehovah, our Maker, to be an infinitely selfish being,—a God who does all things for the sake of his own glory as an end. With such men,—if fully confirmed in their views, so as to have no disposition to reconsider them,—it is in vain to attempt to reason.—"They are joined to their idols, let them alone."
But the man who has any right views in regard to the nature of heavenly love, cannot fail to know that the love of self is directly opposed to that love, and is therefore the essential principle of hell. This love leads those who are governed by it, to think always of themselves, of their own interest and happiness; or of their children and others, whose welfare they regard as identified with their own. Those who are under the dominion of this love are continually talking of themselves, of what they have done or intend to do, of their wealth and their honors, or perhaps of their poverty and trials, of their very peculiar mental or bodily sufferings,—something always that relates to self as the end and principle thing. They are very tenacious of what they call their rights, and have exalted views in regard to the respect and attention which they suppose to be due to them from others. But in regard to the welfare of their neighbors and society generally, they value it for just what it is worth to themselves. If they do good to others, it is because they suppose that by doing so, a greater good, in some form, will be returned to themselves. It is related of Bonaparte, that he once remarked in reference to certain missionaries in India, that he
