nsual.

I call it _tyranny_, because the evidences of the senses are all
powerful, in spite of the protestations of the reason. In vain you try
to persuade the child that _he_ is moving, and not the trees which
seem to flit past the carriage--in vain we remind ourselves that this
apparently solid earth on which we stand, and which seems so
immoveable, is in reality flying through the regions of space with an
inconceivable rapidity--in vain philosophers would persuade us that
the colour which the eye beholds, resides not in the object itself,
but in our own perception; we are victims of the apparent, and the
verdict of the senses is taken instead of the verdict of the reason.

Precisely so is it with the enjoyments of the world. The man who died
yesterday, and whom the world called a successful man--for what did he
live?--He lived for this world--he gained this world. Houses, lands,
name, position in society--all that earth could give of enjoyments--he
had: he was the man of whom the Redeemer said that his thoughts were
occupied in planning how to pull down his barns and build greater. We
hear men complain of the sordid love of gold, but gold is merely a
medium of exchange for other things: gold is land, titles, name,
comfort--all that the world can give. If the world be _all_, it is
_wise_ to live for gold. There may be some little difference in the
degree of degradation in different forms of worldliness; it is
possible that the ambitious man who lives for power is somewhat higher
than he who merely lives for applause, and he again may be a trifle
higher than the mere seeker after gold--but after all, looking closely
at the matter, you will find that, in respect of the objects of their
idolatry, they agree in this, that all belong to the present.
Therefore, says the Apostle, all that is in the world--"the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but of the world," and are only various forms of one great
tyranny. And then when such a man is at the brink of death, the words
said to the man in our Lord's parable must be said to him. "Thou fool,
the houses thou hast built, the enjoyments thou hast prepared; and all
those things which have formed thy life for years--when thy soul is
taken from them, what shall they profit thee?"

3. The spirit of society.

The _World_ has various meanings in Scripture; it does not always mean
the Visible, as