many a mechanic at the bench, many a traveller in the
commercial-room, many a student on the college-benches, is doomed to
discover that the world does not love the Church better than in those
days when the fires gleamed in Smithfield, and men and women were
burned to death for loving God. But how sweet to know that all this
verifies the Master's words: Ye are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. 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.

I. WHAT THEN IS THE WORLD?--It consists of those who are destitute of
the life and love of God, as contrasted with those who have received
and welcomed the unspeakable gift which is offered to all in Jesus
Christ. The great mass of the unregenerate and unbelieving, considered
as a unity, is the world, as interpreted by our Lord and His apostles.

The world has its god and its religion, which was first instituted by
Cain at the gates of Eden; its prince, and court, and laws; its maxims
and principles; its literature and pleasures. It is dominated by a
peculiar spirit which the apostle calls a lust or fashion, and
resembles the German _Zeit-Geist_: an infection, an influence, a
pageantry, a witchery; reminding us of the fabled mountain of loadstone
which attracted vessels to itself for the iron that was in them, and
presently drew the nails from the timbers, so that the whole fabric
fell a helpless, shapeless mass into the waves. The votaries of the
world attach themselves to the objects of sense, to the things which
are seen and temporal. They have the utmost horror of poverty,
suffering, and humiliation; these they consider their chief evils to be
avoided at any cost; whilst they regard as the chief good, riches,
pleasure, and honor.

The world is thus a great unity and entity; standing together as a
mighty kingdom; united and compacted together as Nebuchadnezzar's
image; environing the Church, as the great kingdoms of Assyria and
Egypt did the chosen people of God in the days of the kings. It
resembles a pack of wolves. "Behold," said Christ, "I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves." Between such irreconcilable
opposites as the Church and the world, there cannot but be antagonism
and strife. Each treasures and seeks what the other rejects as
worthless. Each is devoted to ends that are inimical to the dearest
interests of the ot