is incompatible with it, even as light with darkness. And the adoption of the one, therefore, must be the renunciation of the other. "No man," says our Lord, " can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other: ye cannot serve God and Mammon." At the very outset, therefore, of our Christian course, our choice must be made. Our part must be taken. We must display our colours. Neutrality is impossible. The passage from a state of alienation into one of consecration is a passage from one kingdom into another, from one authority to its totally opposite" from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God."

But it is not from "the world" alone. -from earthly-minded men, but from "the things of the world"— from an earthly-minded spirit,-that the Christian is continually in danger. All that is characteristic of the multitude who love not God is so because it is characteristic of the spirit of each individual composing that multitude. The world is

or sticks to us without our knowledge. And the greater the number of our associates, the greater is our danger."- -"Retire into yourself," says Seneca. "And if you cultivate society, let it be the society of those who can assist your self-improvement, and whom you may in turn improve. For this may be reciprocally done; and while we do good, we ourselves are getting good."

Therefore the Apostle neither the things that

only the incarnation of worldliness. And worldliness may, and does, exist, in the private circle, in the solitary chamber, in the hermit's cell, even as in the busy haunts of men. says, "Love not the world, are in the world;" and goes on, in the next verse, to describe these "things that are in the world" as not merely objects existing without us, but imaginations and desires working within us, and by their sympathy with the external temptations conferring on them half their force. For, as instances of the things that are in the world, he mentions "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," which are all inward and personal experiences; fostered, indeed, and drawn out, by the outward objects which may be presented to them, but having their seed and principle in the evil heart of man. And the Apostle's caution, therefore, amounts to this: "Love not the world;" -follow not the multitude around you; "neither the things that are in the world," neither the dispositions which prevail throughout that multitude. For "all that is in the world,"-all those dispositions which characterize the earthly-minded mass of men; such as, for example, "the lust of the flesh"- the desire of sensual enjoyment-"the lust of the eyes”—the longing after the possession of whatever attracts our notice and "the pride of

life," the delight in pomp and splendour and superiority; all these states of mind, however nourished, and by whomsoever possessed, "are not of the Father, but are of the world," set us in inward opposition to God, whatever be our outward profession or society; and are essentially the dispositions of those who know not God, whatever be their external relation to God. Just as St. Paul argues with the Ephesians, after he had been warning them against similar temptations: "Let no man deceive you with vain words," let no one soothe your conscience with the insinuation that you are "saved" persons, and therefore have nothing to fear from a reconciled and lenient Father," for because of these things, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience"- these are the very dispositions and practices for which, and which alone, God will ultimately punish the unconverted; and which therefore he equally abominates and will equally punish in you, whether you be outwardly reckoned among that number, or be not. Renunciation of worldly society is a necessary means to the repression of our personal worldliness; but it is that personal worldliness itself, in all its forms and actings, and in every sphere in which it will develope itself, which we are called upon, as Christians, to renounce. "Dost thou," it was demanded of our godfathers and godmothers in our baptism

"Dost thou, in the name of this child, renounce ....the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same?"

Not, only, then, the men of the world—and not only the things of the world-but the covetous desires of the world, which are in every heart, and which are fostered by those outward circumstances, I pray you, brethren, to renounce. All that longing for possession and enjoyment, which turns every object of admiration into an object of desire— and will, if indulged, proceed from one degree of strength to another, till its habitual cry be like that of the daughters of the horse-leech, Give, give, (Prov. xxx. 15,) and its whole breathing become a sigh for more; -more of pleasure-more of possessionmore of pomp. This it is which converts even things indifferent, or things necessary-nay, and things in certain measures and degrees most good, into the ministers of Evil-soliciting the reproduction of their image in the mind, and enthroning that image in the heart, till it becomes the law and regulator of the will, and is no more contemplated as a means, to be discreetly and warily employed for higher ends, but as itself the end of our existence, the business of our life-at all risks to be pursued, at any price to be made our own.

It was by this "lust of the eyes," therefore, that the Devil allured our first parents into sin. Eve

was placed by God amidst all that could interest without exciting-and please without intoxicating

and answer to the susceptibilities of our nature without cloying and disgusting it. Yet by the eye the image of a something more was thrown upon the mind, and thus she fell. She could even reason with the Tempter on his first address; she could recollect, and declare to him, the solemn prohibition of God. But when the outward sense was pressed into his service-when by means of it he heightened the conception of the thing forbidden into undue vividness, then the proportion of things outward to things inward-of the visible object to the invisible law-of the present good to the future evil, was destroyed, and thus she fell. "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, then she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." And as the Devil began, so has he gone on, abusing the things that are in the world as baits and enticements to draw men away from God and goodness. Thus fell Achan into sin against God. "When he saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, of fifty shekels weight, then he coveted them, and took them, and transgressed the covenant of the Lord."