Charles Finny wrote, “Selfishness is a phenomenon of the will and consists in committing the will to the gratification of the desires (His ability with language and descriptive vocabulary were astonishing).
The desire itself is not selfishness, but submitting the will to be governed by the desire is selfishness. Selfishness commences when the will yields to the desire and seeks to obey it, in opposition to the law of intelligence. The desire is not free, but the choice to gratify it must be free. Selfishness consists of this. It is a ‘Dethroning of reason’ from the seat of (self-government), and an enthroning of blind desire in opposition to it. The very first time a sinner acts or wills reasonably, is when he turns to God or repents and becomes a Christian.
Selfishness is always and necessarily cruel; cruel to the soul and highest interests of the subject of it, cruel to the souls of others in neglecting to care and act for their salvation; cruel to God, cruel to the universe.
When you see any form of sin, know assuredly that selfishness, the ROOT, is there, and expect nothing else if selfishness continues, than to see developed, one after another, evey form of sin as the occasion may present itself.
Selfishness is the ‘rejection of all Obligation‘. It is the violation of all obligation, and if light increases, his guilt must increase, but not otherwise. The sum and spirit of the whole Law is expressed in One Word – LOVE. It consists of ‘CHOOSING THE HIGHEST GOOD OF GOD AND OF UNIVERSAL BEING‘, for it’s own intrinsic value, in a spirit of entire consecration, to this as the ‘ULTIMATE END OF EXISTENCE’. (you’ll have to read this several times thinking deeply. His choice of words seems to be of a gone by era). LET US ALL LOVE, AND COUNTERACT SELFISHNESS IN ALL IT’S FORMS AND MANIFESTATIONS. AMEN.
