(3.) Are the people of God thoroughly faithful in their intercourse with the world? Is not an exhibition of the Lord Jesus Christ so greatly modified in many cases, that the world is never brought into collision with the high standard held up by Him? If our Gospel is softened down to meet the world’s mind, of course it will excite no hostility; and I cannot but fear, that the friendship we so often meet with in the world, may arise from our taking low ground ourselves, and not really shining forth as lights in the world, or exhibiting with sufficient clearness the holy character to which Christ has called His people. But without stopping to dwell on these causes for the absence of the apparent enmity, we must, I think, all admit the clear contrast drawn in Scripture between the world and the people of God; and must conclude, that in the various passages referred to ‘the world’ includes all those who are not in Him, as contrasted with those that are. There are two classes, with a clear line between them—the world and the people of God; the world consisting of those who are not in Christ; and the people of God, of those who are given to Him, called by Him, justified in Him, born again through His Spirit, and preserved in Him as vessels for His glory. Thus the world is not limited to profligate or notorious offenders, but includes all those who are strangers to the covenant of God in Christ Jesus. The world might almost be reckoned as a middle class between the profligate and the people of God; a class having great charms, and many excellencies; a class having a wisdom of its own, exceeding, so far as this life is concerned, that of the children of light; a class including amiable men, moral men, influential men, and intellectual men; including the refined, as well as the unrefined—the gentleman, the statesman, the philosopher, and, I must add, even the clergyman, provided only that one thing is wanting, that one thing being a living union with Christ Jesus the Lord. CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD. FROM this account of the world, we may proceed to examine what is meant by conformity to it; and in this examination we must begin with general principles. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. (1.) Conformity to the world is quite distinct from immorality.