Ownership in the world I have none, but I have an infinite interest in it; for if not my own it is my God's; and so it is mine in a higher than a legal sense. Yes, this is the beauty, this is the whole sublimity, this is the tender delight of life—that it is of God's governing.
The world's history is a Divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian—the humble listener—there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.
WORLDLINESS.
Set not your heart upon the world, since God hath not made it your portion.
Lift thyself up, look around, and see something higher and brighter than earth, earthworms, and earthly darkness.
O my God! close my eyes, that I may see Thee; separate me from the world, that I may enjoy Thy company.
Worldliness consists in these three: attachment to the outward—attachment to the transitory—attachment to the unreal: in opposition to love for the inward, the eternal, the true: and the one of these affections is necessarily expelled by the other.
