And certain it is, there are few human beings who can say in their hearts, that they love, and honor, though they are but too willing to obey, the world to whose bondage they submit. While reading the works of some authors, one would think indeed that the world was a perfect monster, for there is scarcely an opprobrious epithet, or an abusive charge, which has not been thrown out against it by one or another; while none have come forward to defend it, or to prove that it is really worthy of a better name.
For my own part, I have always found it a satisfactory conclusion when judging of the world, that whatever its faults or its abuses may be, it is under the superintending care of One who has the power to overrule its worst elements for good, and who knows, better than I do, what really is good. But when we make to ourselves an idol of the world, when we bow down and worship it, when we sacrifice our best feelings at its shrine, and make its laws the test of all excellence, then, indeed, it is time to cry out against the world; because then it is evident, that instead of regarding it as the theatre in which we are to act for a short season of trial, the garden in which we are to labor in the service of our Heavenly Master, the field in which we are to fight as good soldiers of Christ, we are making it our home — I was about to add, our rest; but never yet was rest the portion of those who made the world their home.
An extreme regard for the approval of the world, and an excessive absorption in the interests of this life, is generally called worldly-mindedness; and this it is which meets us in every path, besets the wise as well as the simple, the rich as well as the poor, and, I had almost said, the good as well as the evil. Should I have been altogether wrong, if I had? For is it not lurking in the sanctuary, when we take our places there; waiting for the minister, when he descends from his desk; busy with the congregation, as they disperse? Does it not meet us at our homes on the sabbath-day, close the door of the closet which should be entered for prayer, and finally send us to sleep with bright visions of the anticipated events or occupations of the coming week? Nor on the sabbath alone, but on every other day and night of his existence, I believe that a spirit
