ent
salvation as a thing greatly to be desired. But in the face of this
people fail to see anything desirable in it, because by their unbelief
they hold such a life to be impracticable. By this kind of unbelief the
enemy of souls deprives many of their privileges in Christ and hinders
the world from seeing the real nature of the salvation experience.

How the world is estranged from the principles of righteousness! How it
holds light to be darkness and darkness to be light! Instead of
accounting that there is any reasonableness in such trust in God as is
shown in this lesson they would fain be selfishly taking upon themselves
the responsibility of maintaining their own existence, and thus every
one seek for his own gain. Thinking that they thus have an excuse for
not devoting their time to God's service and their spiritual welfare,
the things of the Lord are forgotten and neglected, and their souls
consequently are lost. When will individuals learn that they have a
spiritual as well as a physical existence, and that the spiritual is the
more important of the two? Seek first the kingdom.

But the fact that we wish to bring out most prominently is that many
Christian professors, who are supposed to be examples of the Christian
life, do not comprehend the import of the test "Seek ye first the
kingdom of God." The mistake is made on the word _first_. They think to
obey this scripture by first gaining the profession of salvation,
presuming then that the blessings of the kingdom will follow, while they
live as selfishly as before and dig deep into the things concerning the
unrighteous mammon. In so doing they fail to experience the blessings of
the kingdom, and also misrepresent the kingdom to the world. The word
_first_ means not only first in time, but first in _importance_; and
this idea of _importance_ must ever be held before us, not only when we
enter the kingdom, but throughout our whole Christian life. We are to
hold the kingdom of righteousness _first_ in all our lives. If we hold
God first in everything and consider what will be to his glory before
we consider our own, we give God a chance to fulfil his word, and his
own good pleasure in us will be accomplished. We then place ourselves in
the order of his plan where it will be possible for him to do as he has
promised.

The salvation life means an unselfish life. We are not to seek selfish
glory in anything, but seek the glory of God _first_--above everything
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