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"Know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity against God?"

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

UPON this subject a question naturally arises, What is the actual sense in which we should understand the phrase "The World," the love of which is condemned in the Bible, and with which we are cautioned against encouraging all friendship, or adherence to its allurements and customs?

It is evident that neither our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST or his apostles could intend to warn men from that intercourse with the world which is necessary towards fulfilling the relative and social duties of life, or from labouring in their respective vocations" to provide things honest in the sight of all men;" for these are strictly enforced and enjoined throughout the gospel. Neither can the term "The World," mean the whole race of beings now alive on the face of the earth; since, were this view the allowed interpretation, the inference necessarily drawn would be in favour of monastic seclusion and misanthropic habits, against which the whole tenor of the Scriptures testifies. Nor can the phrase by any means apply to those persons guilty of the more glaring and gross crimes, inasmuch as "The World" is not made up of murderers, adulterers, thieves, and infidels : these, we hope, form but a comparatively small portion of the multitude that do evil; and it would be equally absurd to suppose that it means the created universe, which in itself, though beautiful in all its component parts, is, nevertheless, intended for ultimate destruction. We must, therefore, seek further for the real scriptural meaning of the phrase, and should be careful to take with us in our search a sincere and hearty desire of ascertaining the truth, however it may militate against our private feeling or preconceived notions or opinions. The importance of the inquiry cannot but be conceded by all where so much and such constant warning is given concerning it. In all disputed points connected with religion, it is advisable to keep as much as possible to Scripture itself to the law and to the testimony. Scripture is ever the best interpreter of its own doctrines; and human nature is too liable to err, and too apt to be warped by prejudice, to be admitted as a safe guide. Our Lord says, and his word is infallible, "My kingdom

is not of this world;" and of his followers, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Again, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And again, as if to place the matter in a still more incontestable point of view, he says in that most affecting and sublime prayer immediately before his passion, John xvii. 9, "I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me," &c.; and St. Paul, when addressing the Romans, expresses himself thus, Rom. xii. 2, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." John, the beloved disciple, writes, in his first epistle, chap. ii. 15, "Love not the world, neither the things of the world;" and the apostle James, taking a view of the relative connexion of the world with God, says, "Know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity against God?"

Such then is the language of our Lord and his apostles. The friendship of the world, agreeably to the interpretation of the phrase, has ever been regarded by all serious Christians as enmity with God, and as wholly incompatible with holiness of life. Nevertheless, by many, the ground of argument is still occupied; and by a variety of false but plausible reasonings, the force of these and similar texts of Scripture is studiously evaded or strenuously opposed. The following definition, which our Saviour himself gives, is the most striking and conclusive, Matt. vii. 13, 14, where the world is divided into two classes, the many and the few"Enter in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way," &c. The many walking in the broad way, leading to destruction; the few pursuing the narrow way, that leads to life everlasting; and in Luke xvii., our Lord portrays the character of those who are travelling in the broad road, and who in successive ages would discover the same lineaments of character; "For as it was in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as, in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not till the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. And as it was in the days of Noe, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of man; they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they

drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded: even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."

It is worthy our particular and most serious consideration, that in the characters here drawn by Christ no mention is made of any flagrant and gross crime, nor is a single vice adduced, as having been the exciting cause of producing the just but terrible vengeance that overwhelmed the old world. The fact is the more remarkable, as, in the case of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Old Testament states the crime which brought down fire to consume their sinful inhabitants. Our Lord passes over this circumstance, keeping, it would seem, but one marked and distinct trait in his eye, as that which rendered these people amenable at the bar of sovereign wisdom, and this is, forgetfulness of God, and love to the things of the world. "The world," in the days of Noe and Lot, were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." And let any candid person compare the lives, the habits, and the manners of the great bulk of mankind in the present day, with those of the old world, and say if the general feature, and complexion, and mould, bear not the same precise stamp? Men led then, and they lead now, a life of carelessness as to the things of eternity, and a life of devotion to the things of time. But it is not only in the pages of the New Testament that analogy may be found between the two ages. The same sentiments may be seen in the writings of the prophets. Isaiah, speaking of the enemies of God, says, "And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and the pipe are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands." The prophet Amos says, "Woe unto those that are at ease in Zion, that lie upon beds of ivory, that stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chiefest ointment," &c. In neither of these passages is there any thing more recorded than the general tenor of a worldly life, a life of indolence, luxury, and ease, agreeing with, and according to," the course of this world." Of the end of such an existence the prophet Isaiah subjoins a most affecting description: "Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it."

There are two classes of persons forming that portion of mankind which, if Scripture be our guide, is "the world," whose maxims and opinions we are not to follow; these are the decided votaries of dissipation and luxury, and those who contend warmly for what they term the moderate enjoyment of the world. Of the former, may it not be said truly, Is any slavery like unto their slavery? Fashion, the imperious handmaid of Satan, has drawn her magic circle around them, and out of it they dare not step. Their eyes, their ears, their taste, their senses, are all under her despotic sway, and she rules them with an iron rod. They are sickened to satiety, and weary even to disgust, yet hug the chains that bind them. It would seem as if the insulted Deity, the Author of all that is lovely in creation, had purposely delivered these deluded people over to the influence of a perverted judgment, when we contemplate their habits and mode of life. When spring and summer have arrayed all nature in her verdant and beautiful attire, they repair to the crowded city; and when stern winter has stripped the groves of their leafy honours, they return into the country. Summer is turned into winter, and night into day; the heated air of the thronged assembly is preferred to the fresh breezes of upland mountain' or the verdant plain; and the glare of midnight lamps is more to be desired in their eyes than the brilliancy of "the sun going forth in his strength," or "the moon walking in the brightness of heaven." And it were well if this were all; but when we consider the worse than wasteful expenditure of time, talents, wealth, and health, which the career of fashionable dissipation exhibits, the moral evils that abound in every such life, and to what a dreadful extent the contamination spreads, is it too much to affirm that the garden of Eden is before them, but death and desolation follow in their path? And is it with such characters, such habits, and such pursuits, you seek to associate, O you who strive to reconcile the world and Christ? who by a conscientious adherence to the principles of morality with amiability of disposition and liberality of mind. give promise of better things? Can any approximation of a world so constituted be productive of good, or reconcileable with the character of a Christian? Is "Christ in you the hope of glory?" Then," what concord has Christ with Belial?" Are you" the temples of the living God?" Then "what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?" But it will be said, 'We disapprove of the general course of a fashionable life as much as you do; we abhor it; we shur

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it. We merely contend for the lawfulness of worldly amusements in a sober and moderate enjoyment of them; we do not admit that this is forbidden by Scripture, and we think it inconsistent with the character of the Almighty, to lay such strict restraint on his creatures, whose happiness all his works and ways bespeak him to intend.' This reasoning appears plausible at the first view; but when brought to the test of truth, and to the touchstone of the gospel, its fallacy is soon detected. If the fountain be polluted, so must be the stream; if a tree be corrupt, so must be the fruit. God does indeed will the happiness of his creatures, but that happiness takes its root in holiness, and the less any action or pursuit partakes of that quality, the farther is it removed from that happiness. This life is a state of preparation for the next; and it is here we are to acquire our meetness for heaven. There is no intermediate state, where the heart becomes purified or the dross refined. In proportion as the inward man becomes "a new creature in Christ Jesus," is his distaste for the vanities of worldly pleasures and his love of spiritual things. And, on the other hand, as the mind draws to the world and carnal things, so is the dislike of spiritual things; and consequently these persons constantly endeavour to unite the love of Christ with the love of the world, and to maintain what they term a due medium in religion; but in vain; God and mammon cannot amalgamate. The people of God ever have been a separate people. Such they were under the patriarchal and the Jewish dispensations, and such they have remained under that of the gospel. travellers of the broad and the narrow way can never stop at the same inns for refreshment, neither can the "strait gate" be made wide to accommodate those who would enter in thereat.

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Were it possible, however, to concede the argument in favour of the innocency of the ball-room and the rout, what becomes of the evils attendant on the late hours of the present day? The people of fashion step into their carriages to attend the nightly rendezvous of pleasure, at the hour when their more sober ancestors stepped out of theirs to retire to their pillow. What must be the result of this nightly neglect, and exposure of their households to such a variety of temptations? This last point has, I believe, been entirely overlooked by many possessed of better feelings. Let any candid person traverse at night the fashionable streets and squares of London, during what is called the season,' and judge for himself what must be the demoralization amongst

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