"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John ii. 15--17.) "The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (1 John iii. 1.) "They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." (1 John iv. 5.) "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." (1 John v. 4.) "We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (1 John v. 19.) (_d_) Let us hear, lastly, what the Lord Jesus Christ says:-- "The cares of this world choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful." (Matt. xiii. 22.) "Ye are of this world: I am not of this world." (John viii. 23.) "The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." (John xiv. 17.) "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you." (John xv. 18.) "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." (John xv. 19.) "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John xvi. 33.) "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John xvii. 16.) I make no comment on these twenty-one texts. They speak for themselves. If any one can read them carefully, and fail to see that "the world" is an enemy to the Christian's soul, and that there is an utter opposition between the friendship of the world and the friendship of Christ, he is past the reach of argument, and it is waste of time to reason with him. To my eyes they contain a lesson as clear as the sun at noon day. I turn from Scripture to matters of fact and experience. I appeal to any old Christian who keeps his eyes open, and knows what is going on in the Churches. I ask him whether it be not true that nothing damages the cause of religion so much as "the world"? It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much as the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, and the desire to keep in with the world. This is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck. They do not object to any article of the Christian faith. They do not deliberately choose evil, and openly rebel against God. They hope somehow to get to heaven at last; and they think it proper to have some religion. But they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world. And so after running well and bidding fair for heaven, while boys and girls, they turn aside when they become men and women, and go down the broad way which leads to destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses, and end with Demas and Lot's wife.