"13 Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. 14 For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. 15 I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place. 16 There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind."
Ecclesiastes 4:13-16
W.E. Sangster, of Westminster, gives the following illustration in his book 'The Craft of Sermon Illustration', to show how a Christian can maintain a healthy spiritual life in an alien environment:
'There is a little water spider to be found in our ponds and ditches, who lives beneath the water's surface in a kind of diver's bell.
'This is how he does it. He makes a thimble-shaped case of silk which he anchors by fine threads to the water weeds at the bottom of the pond. The orifice is turned downwards. The spider then goes up to the surface and, by means of hooked hairs which cover the lower part of his body, he entangles (as it were) a little bubble of air which he carries down and releases inside his little home. The air rises to the top of the bell that he has made and displaces a certain amount of water, and immediately he goes up again for more air and liberates it in the same way. Up and down he goes until finally the bell is filled with air and he lives, beneath the water's surface, something of the life above. As his use exhausts the oxygen he goes up for more, and he maintains his life in an alien environment only by a ceaseless vigilance.
'There is a lesson here for us. The life of the spirit can only be properly maintained by a constant correspondence with the spiritual world.'