By "the world," be it remembered, I do not mean the material world on the face of which we are living and moving. He that pretends to say that anything which God has created in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, is in itself harmful to man's soul, says that which is unreasonable and absurd. On the contrary, the sun, moon, and stars,--the mountains, the valleys, and the plains,--the seas, lakes, and rivers,--the animal and vegetable creation,--all are in themselves "very good." (Gen. i. 31.) All are full of lessons of God's wisdom and power, and all proclaim daily, "The hand that made us is Divine." The idea that "matter" is in itself sinful and corrupt is a foolish heresy. When I speak of "the world" in this paper, I mean those people who think only, or chiefly, of this world's things, and neglect the world to come,--the people who are always thinking more of earth than of heaven, more of time than of eternity, more of the body than of the soul, more of pleasing man than of pleasing God. It is of them and their ways, habits, customs, opinions, practices, tastes, aims, spirit, and tone, that I am speaking when I speak of "the world." This is the world from which St. Paul tells us to "Come out and be separate." Now that "the world," in this sense, is an enemy to the soul, the well-known Church Catechism teaches us at its very beginning. It tells us that there are three things which a baptized Christian is bound to renounce and give up, and three enemies which he ought to fight with and resist. These three are the flesh, the devil, and "the world." All three are terrible foes, and all three must be overcome if we would be saved. But, whatever men please to think about the Catechism, we shall do well to turn to the testimony of Holy Scripture. If the texts I am about to quote do not prove that the world is a source of danger to the soul, there is no meaning in words. (_a_) Let us hear what St. Paul says:-- "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Rom. xii. 2.) "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God." (1 Cor. ii. 12.) "Christ gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from this present evil world." (Gal. i. 4.) "In time past ye walked according to the course of this world." (Eph. ii. 2.) "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." (2 Tim. iv. 10.) (_b_) Let us hear what St. James says:-- "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James i. 27.) "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James iv. 4.) (_c_) Let us hear what St. John says:-- "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.