On Dying to the World

“On the whole, learn by divine grace, to die to the present world; to look upon it as a low state of being, which God never intended for the final and complete happiness, or the supreme care of any one of his children: a world, where something is indeed to be enjoyed, but chiefly from himself; where a great deal is to be borne with patience and resignation; and where some important duties are to be performed, and a course of discipline to be passed through, by which you are to be formed for a better state, to which, as a Christian, you are near, and to which God will call you, perhaps on a sudden, but undoubtedly, if you hold on your way, in the fittest time and the most convenient manner. “

“Refer, therefore, all this to him. Let your hopes and fears, your expectations and desires, with regard to this world, be kept as low as possible; and all your thoughts be united, as much as may be, in this one centre: What is it that God would, in present circumstances, have you to be; and what is that method of conduct by which you may most effectually please and glorify him.”

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) was an English congregationalist minister in Northampton. He was an author and hymnwriter whose most famous book, ‘The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,’ was esteemed by following generations and praised by Charles Spurgeon as ‘that holy book.’

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