The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-12


not think he was losing the great by
grasping at the small. At the mo-
ment the birthright, just because it
was distant, appeared insignificant.
He had no patience to wait, no faith
to believe in the real value of any
thing that was not material, no self
restraint to keep him from instant
surrender to the demand for present
qualification.
This is the power Of all appeal to
passion-that it is present. with US
now, to be had at once. 1t is claim
ant. imperious, insistent, demanding
to be satisfied with what is actually
present. 1t has no use for far-of
good. It wants immediate profit.
This is temutation, alluring to the
eye, whispering in the ear, plucking
by the elbow, offering satisfaction
now. Here and now--not hereafter;
this thing, that red cottage there,
not an ethereal, unsub stantial thing
like a birthright. What is the good
of it if we die? and we are like to die
if we do not get this qualification the
senses demand. In the infatuation of
appetite all else seems small in COM
parison; the birthright Is poor thing
compared with the red pottage.
1t is the distortion Of vision which
passion produces, the exaggeration of
the present which temptation creates,
making the small look like the great,
and discrediting the value Of the
thing lost. The vivid, lurid descrip-
ton in the Proverbs of the young
man, void of understanding, shared
in the street by the strange woman,
gives both these elements of the ef-
feet of passion-the weak surrender
to impulse and the distortion Of Wis
ion which blinds to the real value OF
what is given up for the gratifcation:!
"He goeth straightway. as an OK goeth
to the slaughter, till dart strikes
through his liver: as bird hasteth
to the snare. and knoweth not that
it is for his life"
But it is not merely lack Of self
control which Esau displays by the
question of our text. It is also lack
Of appreciation of spiritual values.
In a vague way he knew that the
birthright meant a religious blessing,
and in. the grip of his temptation that
looked to him as purely sentiment,
not to be seriously considered las on
par with material advantage.
The profane man, the secular man,
may not be just a creature Of i'm
pulse; he may have his impulses in
good control, but he has no place
for what is unseen. He asks, natur-
ally, What shall it profit? Men who
Judge by the eye, by material re-
turns only, who are frankly secular,
think themselves great judges Of
profit; and they, too, would not make
much of birthright If 1t meant only
something sentimental, as they would
call it. The real and not the ideal,
the actual and not the visionary, the
thing seen and not the thing unseen
they would not hesitate more than
Esau over the choice between the
pottage and the birthright. They
Judge by substance, and do not un-
derstand about the faith which is the
substance of things hoped for, the
evidence Of things not seen.
How easy it is for all Of us to drift
into the class Of the profane, the Sec
ular, persons as Esau, to have our
spiritual sensibility blunted, to lose
our appreciation Of things unseen, to
be so taken up with the means Of liv-
ing that we forget life itself and the
things that alone give it security
and dignity! How easy, when soul
wars with sense, to depreciate every
thing that is beyond sense, and let the
whole moral tone be relaxed! There
is much cause for the apostle to warn
us to Look diligently lest there be
among US any profane person as
Esau who for one morsel Of meat
sold his birthright."
We, too, can despise our birthright
by living far below our privileges
and far below our spiritual opportun-
tiles. We have our birthright as
sons of God, born to an Inheritance
as Joint heirs with Christ. We be-
long, by essential nature, not to the
animal kingdom, but to the kingdom
of heaven; and when we forget it and
live only with reference to the things
of sense and time, we are disinherit-
ing ourselves, as Esau did. The Sec
ular temptation strikes a weak spot
in ell of US, suggesting that the spir-
itual life, Gods love and holiness,
the kingdom of heaven and His right
eousness, the life Of faith and prayer
and communion, are dim and shad-
owy things, as in a land that is very
far of. What profit shall this birth
right do to me?"
What shall it profit? seems sane
and sensible question to be consid-
cred in q business-like fashion. 1t
is the right question to ask; but it
has a wider scope and another appli-
cation. What profit the mess Of pot
tage, if lose my birthright? What
profit the momentary qualification
of even imperious passion, If we are
resigning our true life and losing the
clear vision and the pure heart?
What profit to make only provision
for the flesh, if of the flesh we reap
but corruption? What profit the
easy self-indulgence, if we are barter
ing peace and love and holiness and
Joy? What shall it profit a man if
he gain the whole world (and not
merely a contemplate mess of pot.
tage) and lose his own soul?" What
profit if, in the insistence Of appetite,
men go like an OK to the slaughter,
knowing not that it is for their life?
Thus Esau despised his birthright. ,
A Builder Of Character.