+XI. The acceptance of the Divine invitation is an obedience to the lawful instinct of self-love.+ Self-love is often confounded with selfishness, but they are widely different. The principle of self-love is recognised as lawful and right throughout the Bible. God commands a man to love his neighbour _as_ he loves himself, thereby laying down the principle that self-love is necessary and right. Our Saviour appeals to this Divinely-implanted instinct when He urges men to save their souls, because of the infinite _profit_ which they will thereby gain (Mark viii. 36). And the fact that God has made self-love the standard whereby we are to measure our love to others, and that it is urged upon men as a motive by the Divine Son, at once places a great gulf between it and selfishness. Obedience to self-love leads men to obey Wisdom's invitation and thus to become truly wise themselves. Self-love leads men to desire to make the best of their existence, and no man can do this unless he accepts the call to the feast which Wisdom has prepared. The Hebrew nation thought they could get profit to themselves apart from the acceptance of the Divine proposals. They persuaded themselves that they could do without God's way of life, and that the feast which He had prepared could be neglected with impunity. But they found when too late they had done themselves an eternal wrong by "making light" of the call of the king's servants. (See Matt. xxii. 14). But "Wisdom is justified of her children," and although our Lord likens the men of that generation to children who neither dance to the sound of joyful music nor mourn to strains of lamentation (Luke vii. 31-35), there have always been some who have so regarded their real interest as to be willing guests of the Divine Inviter. Obeying His call they come into possession of a righteous character, the only attainment of real profit which can be gotten out of existence. It is the only end worth living for. The end of a true soldier's existence is not the _keeping of his bodily life._ That with him is quite a secondary consideration. Neither is it his _happiness._ These things are nothing to him in comparison with the attainment of a character for bravery and fidelity to his trust. And so with every man in God's universe. Not ease and comfort, nor fame or high position, but _character_ is that only which will make existence really profitable, which will make it a gain to life. Happiness will, of necessity, follow godliness, but it is not the thing to be aimed at. The attainment of the highest earthly fame, or the amassing of vast riches, will not necessarily make a man a good companion for _himself,_ and if he is not this, he has failed to draw true profit out of his existence. He may be a wise man according to men's judgment, but if he has failed to consult his own true self-interest, he is a fool. A position in heaven would be nothing to such a man if he could obtain it. The blessedness of the heavenly world springs