The duty of self-denial arises from the unnatural relation which sin has created between us and God.  The first act of disobedience committed by man was a setting up of himself in opposition to God.  It was a declaration that he would regard his own will in preference to the will of his Creator. Self became the supreme or chief object of his affections.  And this is the case with all unregenerate persons.  Their own happiness is the object of their highest wishes.  They pursue their own selfish interests with their whole hearts.  When anything occurs, the first question which arises in their minds is, “How will this affect me?” It is true, they may often exercise a kind of generosity towards others.  But, if their motives were scanned, it would appear that self-gratification is at the bottom of it.  The correctness of these assertions, no one will doubt, who is acquainted with his own heart.  All unconverted persons live for themselves.  They see no higher object of action than the promotion of their own individual interests.  The duty in question consists in the denial of this disposition.  And a moment’s attention will show that nothing can be more reasonable.  No individual has a right to attach to himself any more importance than properly belongs to the station he occupies in the grand scale of being, of which God is the centre.  It is by this station that his value is known.  If he thinks himself of more consequence than the place he occupies will give him, it leads him to seek a higher station.  This is pride.  It is setting up the wisdom of the creature in opposition to that of the Creator.  This was probably the origin of the first act of disobedience.  Satan thought himself entitled to a higher station in the scale of being than God gave him; therefore, he rebelled against the government of the Most High This act of rebellion was nothing more than setting up his own selfish interests against the interests of the universe.  And what would be the consequence, if this selfish principle were carried out in the material universe?  Take, for example, our own planetary system.  If every planet should set up an interest separate from the whole, would they move on with such beautiful harmony?  No; every one would seek to be a sun.  They would all rush towards the common centre, and universal confusion would follow.  God is the sun and centre of the moral universe, and the setting up of private individual interests as supreme objects of pursuit, if permitted to take their course, would produce the same general confusion.  This it has done, so far as it has prevailed.  Its tendency is to create a universal contention among inferior beings for the throne of the universe, which belongs to God alone.  But, the interests of God, if I may be allowed the expression, are identified with the highest good of his intelligent creation.  Hence we see the perfect reasonableness of the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  There can be no selfishness in this, because the best interests of the universe require it.  But, by pursuing our own selfish interests as the chief good, we make a god of self.