I will say, that the state of public morals, the habits of personal and social life, popular amusements, and the policy of governments, so far as they are not under the direct guidance of religion, are examples of the presence and power of that which is properly and truly called the world. And nobody need fear to add, that the tone and moral effect of all these, except when they are especially guided by religion to a Christian use and purpose, is almost always, in a greater or less degree, at variance with God. The laws of every Christian state, the customs of every Christian society, and the practice of families and individuals as contained in them, are, indeed, always professedly based upon the laws of God, and limited by the precepts of Christ. It is not, however, the outline but the filling in that determines the character it is not the letter, but the interpretation that fixes the meaning, and gives emphasis to the sense: so it is with the complex social state of a Christian people. The laws of Christian faith are all there, but so glossed and paraphrased, so interlined by commentaries and lowered by adjustments, that it is no longer the Church warring its way through the world, but the world playing the Christian in a masque. This, then, is the world which in our baptism we renounced. It was no remote or imaginary

notion, but a present and active reality: that very same principle of original evil which, in all ages, under all shapes, in all places, has issued in lust, pride, covetousness, vainglory. It surrounds us in the visible Church now as it surrounded the apostles in the Holy City of old. It cleaves to all things about us. It is in all places of concourse, in all business, in all pleasures, in all assemblies and spectacles, in all homes, in all the circumstances of our personal life. We are not called to separate ourselves from any outward system, as they were, but to be inwardly as estranged from the evil that cleaves to the system around us, as if we were not of it. pray not that Thou shouldest take them out

of the world, but that

Thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

Let

us, then, lay deeply to heart this great truth, that our only safety is in being inwardly dead to the love and fear of the world. Let us go boldly to all lawful work, even though it be in the midst of it; for in that God will keep us pure. However secular our toil may be, whether in trading, or tilling the ground, or in the administration of law, or in the government and service of Christian states, in all these, when God leads us, He will be our shield, and we shall be kept spotless. Only let us watch against craving, or lusting, or hungering after the honours, gifts, and

gains of life. The desire of these things, though we be never corrupted by attaining them, will turn all our work to snares, and make our very

duties to be perilous.

He that loves these things

is to be bought, and

has his price, and all men

66

know it; and even the world despises while it buys him for its own. Let us be on our guard against that basest of all idolatry, the worship of wealth, or rank, or numbers; and against that most hateful of all intoxication, the love of popular applause, and the admiration of men that shall die. The favour of the world is no sign of the saints. The cross is their portion. The voice of the many is no test of truth, nor warrant of right, nor rule of duty. Truth and right, and a pure conscience, have been ever with the few. Many are called, but few are chosen." So it ever has been and shall be. Let us, therefore, pray God for strength to do our work in the world without fear, but to find our rest in Him. Let us not think ourselves safe in a fancied separation from society around us: we cannot escape it any more than the light of day. Nevertheless, let us at least stand aloof from it all we may. Work in the world we needs must; but we need not to feast and revel, to accept its gifts, nor go wondering after its greatness. Let us not take license to taste or to possess all its lawful things, for

"all things are not expedient," "all things edify not." The world has too much craft to thrust upon us at first the offer of forbidden things. Soft things and fair, things harmless and without blame, come first and smooth the way for more subtil allurements. There is but one safeguard for Christ's servants; to be like Him in whom the prince of this world in the hour of temptation had nothing he could make his own. Our safety is not so much where as what we are.

SERMON XIV.

ON MIXING IN THE WORLD, AND ITS SAFEGUARDS.

ST. MATT. xi. 18, 19.

"John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."

T

HERE is a remarkable contrast between the

examples of St. John Baptist and of our Lord. St. Luke tells us of St. John, that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel:" but of our Lord he says, that He went down "to Nazareth, and was subject" to the Blessed Virgin and Joseph, and that He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." There was a difference in them even from childhood. John lived apart from men, a severe, ascetic life, in hardship and solitude. Jesus dwelt in a house, among

St. Luke i. 80; ii. 52.