We learn that a divided service is not possible.
"_No man_!" said our Lord Himself, "_can serve two masters: ye cannot
serve God and mammon_." Not that we are not tempted sometimes to try
it. What commoner sin is there amongst professing Christians than the
attempt to make the best of both worlds--to lay hold of this world with
the one hand, while we give it up with the other--to seem other than we
are?
But surely with this old story from the Book of Acts to warn us, we
must see how vain all such divided efforts are. We may deceive
ourselves or others for a while; but the deception cannot last, and in
some hour of searching or of trial our true characters will be laid
bare. Let us see to it, then, that we may take this awful example home
as a very real and practical warning to ourselves--that we not only
"_hate and abhor lying_," but put away from us whatsoever "_maketh a
lie_"! and that the prayer continually on our lips and in our hearts
is, "From the crafts and assaults of the devil . . . from pride,
vain-glory, and hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us."
[1]Dr Oswald Dykes.