The world goes on with its religion and its philanthropy. It does good, builds its hospitals, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and the like; but its inward springs of action are not Christ’s. Every motive that governed Christ all the way along is not that which governs men; and the motives which keep the world going are not those which were found in Christ at all.

The unbeliever acknowledges Christ’s moral beauty, and selfishness can take pleasure in unselfishness; but the Christian is to “put on Christ.” He went about doing good all the day long; there was never a moment He was not ready, as the Servant in grace, to meet the needs of others. And do not let us suppose that this cost Him nothing. He had nowhere to lay His head; He hungered and was wearied; and when He sat down, where was it? Under the scorching sun at the well’s mouth, while His disciples went into the city to buy bread. And what then? He was as ready for the poor, vile sinner who came to Him as if He had not hungered, neither was faint nor weary. He was in all the trials and troubles that man endures, and see how He walked! He made bread for others, but He would not touch a stone to turn it into bread for Himself.

As to the moral motives of the soul, the man of the world has not one principle in common with Christ. He is not in the road to heaven at all, and every step he takes only conducts him farther and farther from the object in view. When a man is on a wrong road, the farther he goes along it, the more he is astray.