SERMON III.

THE WORLD.

1 JOHN II. 15.

LOVE NOT THE WORLD, NEITHER THE THINGS THAT ARE

IN THE WORLD; IF ANY MAN LOVE THE WORLD, THE LOVE OF THE FATHER IS NOT IN HIM.

ST. JOHN III. 16, 17.

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON..... THAT THE WORLD THROUGH HIM MIGHT

BE SAVED.

THESE two passages of Scripture, thus placed side by side, may serve to illustrate a truth which it is most important, if we would rightly interpret God's will, that we should practically understand. For we have here a striking example that the same word may be used by the same inspired writer in such different senses, as to make one passage (so far as the verbal form goes) seemingly contradict another. It is absolutely necessary, then, wherever such an ambiguous word is met with, to be quite sure of the sense in which it is

employed, before we proceed to draw either argument or precept from the place where it occurs. This rule appears at first so very obvious, that it might seem hardly possible to overlook it; and yet how often do we not see it broken! How often do men, in their anxiety to enforce a favorite doctrine, quote in support of it some sentence of Scripture, which (as far as the mere wording of it goes) may be interpreted so as to confirm their views, but which the context shows to be wholly irrelevant to their argument. From this context, however, they tear it violently away, and thus look at the Bible piecemeal, severing clause from clause, and sentence from sentence, instead of treating it as one great whole, whereof the several parts are meant to throw light on one another. In short, they deal with the books of Scripture as if, instead of connected writings, they had been an assemblage of fragments. So that the Bible, in their hands, is no more than it would have been if the original had been lost, and afterwards made up by gleaning together the various texts quoted by the early christian writers, without knowing their true order or arrangement.

Such a mode of citing Scripture is always delusive, but more especially so when the whole meaning of the passage quoted depends upon a word which is itself misunderstood. And this is most liable to be the case where those terms occur which are used by the inspired writers in several distinct senses, or in a technical sense different from that which they bear in

ordinary language; or, above all, where both these causes of error concur. An example of this is afforded by the term Faith, whose different significations, as used by St. Paul and St. James, have occasioned so much controversy. And in like manner, the several different things signified by the world in Scripture, being confused with one another, and also with the sense of the term in common conversation, have led many into error. It will not, therefore, I trust, be useless, if on the present occasion we examine what is really meant by the world in the New Testament.

Now, it will be found that, besides its common and original meaning of the universe, the term world is used by the inspired writers in three principal senses. 1st, To denote all mankind; 2ndly, To signify earth as contrasted with heaven; and, 3rdly, To stand for unbelievers, as opposed to the christian church.

In the first sense we find it used by St. Paul, when he says, "God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself;" and again, when he declares that "the fall of the Jews was the riches of the world;" by our Saviour himself, when He tells us that "God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;" and in many similar passages. On this meaning there is no occasion to dwell long, since it is little liable to misconstruction. But we cannot fail to remark the consoling testimony borne by many of the passages where it occurs, to the

universality of the christian redemption. Such language at once refutes the notion, that Christ died for a small portion of mankind alone, and distributes the blessings of his coming to all, by declaring the very purpose of His mission to be, that "the world through Him might be saved;" by proclaiming Him to be "the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world.”

The second, and most usual meaning of this term in the New Testament, is that in which it expresses earth as opposed to heaven, things temporal as contrasted with things eternal. It is in this sense that St. Paul employs it, when he exhorts the Corinthians to use the world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away;" and when he declares that, by the cross of Christ the world was crucified to him, and he unto the world. So St. John warns us to love not the world, nor the things that are in the world, and explains these to be, "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;" and these transient pleasures he (like St. Paul) goes on to contrast with the lasting nature of immortal bliss. With exactly the same meaning of the term, St. James exhorts Christians to "keep themselves unspotted from the world;" that is, to beware of contracting any defilement from their necessary contact with earthly things. And, in like manner, by the "friendship of the world," he expresses a devotion to earthly and sensual enjoyments, and in this sense declares, that the friend of the world is the enemy of God; where it is plain, from the context,

that the world stands, not for the greater part of mankind, but for earthly pleasures; since, by the friends of the world spoken of, he explains himself to mean those "adulterers and adulteresses," who "asked amiss, that they might spend it on their lusts." In the same sense we have each of us, in our baptismal vow, renounced the pomps and vanities of this wicked world; that is, we have pledged ourselves to live not as the slaves of earthly pleasure, devoted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; but as the servants of Christ, and, in His strength, triumphant over every fascination by which the things seen strive to cheat us into forgetfulness of the things not seen. We have pledged ourselves to live out our belief of the nothingness of things temporal in comparison with things eternal, to act as those who know that here they have no continuing city, but seek

one to come.

The passages of Scripture where the world is spoken of in the two senses hitherto mentioned, cannot easily be misinterpreted; or, at least, if they are so, it is owing to a misunderstanding of those where it is used in the third sense, namely as denoting unbelievers, in opposition to the Christian Church. An instance of this meaning (which is much less prevalent than the second,) is afforded by our Saviour's warning to his disciples, "Marvel not if the world hate you; ye know that it hated me before it hated you." So the Holy Ghost is described as "the Spirit whom the world cannot receive." With the