an lust in its
grasping {203} character. But this is a mistake. The words are
associated partly, no doubt, because lust so often involves an
'overreaching and wronging our brothers[6]' of their just rights; but
much more because the lawless grasping after gain and the lawless
grasping after pleasure are the two great perversions of the human
soul. Pleasure and mammon are the two typical idols.

[1] Possibly this expression means 'the kingdom of Him who is at once
Christ and God.'

[2] 2 Cor. vi. 14.

[3] 1 Cor. i. 20, 21; iii. 18.

[4] Rom. xvi. 19.

[5] Ecclus. xvi. 21.

[6] 1 Thess. iv. 6.

{204}

DIVISION II. Sec. 4. CHAPTER V. 15-21.

_The Christian life a zealous and deliberate seizing of the opportunity
afforded by surrounding moral evils._

[Sidenote: _Buying up the opportunity_]

The Christian stands awake and in the light. He has a vantage-ground
of spiritual knowledge, and the opportunity afforded by this
vantage-ground he is to use. He is not to live at random but is to
fashion his life with deliberate circumspection and prudence in order
to make the best of the spiritual opportunity, just as the merchant
cleverly seizes and uses to his own advantage a particular commercial
situation. What gives the Christian his spiritual opportunity is the
corruption which surrounds him. Of that corruption St. Paul has
already said enough. The result of it was to leave whatever was good
in man disconsolate and ill at ease. The exhibition of the Christian
light amidst such surroundings could not but arrest men's attention and
attract {205} their hearts. And if we want to be informed, in greater
detail, how to buy up the opportunity, St. Paul's answer is threefold.

First, there must be a positive apprehension of the divine will in
particular cases such as qualifies for decisive action. 'Be not
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.' This is the
sort of wisdom which enables a man to do what our Lord expects of
spiritual leaders, to 'discern the time.' It is a rare quality but,
according to the measure of the gift of Christ to each, it is attained
by spiritual thoughtfulness, singlemindedness, and prayer.

Secondly, there is to be a strong and sociable enthusiasm, expressing
itself in uninterrupted joy, and based upon deep draughts of the divine
Spirit. In St. Paul's day, as in our own, men would seek escape from
the dullness of life and its sense of isolation in the e