2. The word " world " is an expression which is used in the New Testament Scriptures with several meanings, and therefore needs to be interpreted with the utmost care and discrimination. Sometimes it denotes the whole material universe as created by
1 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 18, 21. I COR. — 15
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God, " the maker of heaven and earth." Sometimes it is this world in which God has placed man for a time, the temporary scene of human existence, man's abode, in which he sojourns for a limited period. Sometimes it conveys the idea, not of a material creation of God's fashioning, but of a spirit of worldliness in God's reasoning creatures which is antagonistic to the will of God. Sometimes it is the aggregate of those possessed by this spirit who, having been made by God, rebel against His authority and refuse to heed His commands. Sometimes it is the equivalent of what is known to us by the name of Society, i.e. the environment of persons and things, in the midst of which each one lives his life here, and which, while not evil in itself, must be used, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Christians at Corinth, with caution, "not overusing it," or " using it to the full," as his words really mean.
3. The text implies that this world has its uses. It stands in direct relation to human needs. According to the original purpose of God, it is our friend and not our enemy — a servant to minister to our wants, not a tyrant to oppress or degrade us. Why has God placed us here at all, if our surroundings have not their divinely appointed uses ? It is true that the world may become a dangerous foe to our spiritual welfare ; but this is only when we stand in false relations to it. Even God Himself cannot be to the wicked all that He can be to the " pure in heart." And the world, which is God's minister to us, cannot subserve the purposes which it is meant to fulfil, unless we use it aright. " Worldliness " is simply living as if the visible were all, as if we were merely visible creatures amongst visible things, forgetful that we are spiritual beings, whose abiding home is the eternal. "To use as not abusing": this is the grand principle of the unworldly life. And if we would see how we may and do abuse the world, we have only to consider what are those uses which it is intended to subserve.
(1) This world is designed to aid in revealing God to us. — God is the Eternal Spirit ; we are finite spirits. How is the Infinite to manifest Himself to the finite ? Each human spirit is mysteri- ously associated with a material frame ; and by this frame it is connected with that great world of matter and of circumstance on which God stamps the tokens of His presence, power, and
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character. Whatever other or more direct methods God may have of speaking to cur souls, this is at least one medium of communication. The material world and the human body, linked together by affinity, form a bridge over which the thoughts of God pass into the mind of man. And we may be sure that our relations to the world outside of us have their own distinctive part to play in the revelation of God within us. Humanity is doubtless a better interpreter of God than nature ; but then nature may help to interpret humanity. The highest manifesta- tion which has been given us of God is in Jesus Christ, His incarnate Son : but this Jesus becomes intelligible to us in virtue of His relations to the world outside of Himself. Christ is " the image of the invisible God " ; when we see Christ, we " see the Father." But how do we see Christ, except through the medium of His surroundings ? The character of Jesus becomes visible to us as we behold His attitude and conduct in circumstances which are more or less familiar to ourselves, and the significance of which we can therefore in some measure appreciate. It is because He lived and moved in our " world " that what He did and suffered becomes, through the interpreting power of our own human experience, a revelation of the heart of God.
U What an " abuse " of the world it is when men employ it to conceal God ! The attributes of the Most High are mirrored in the world ; but men look at the mirror from such an aDgle of vision as to see only its glittering surface, and not the reflection of the Divine glory. You have heard of the astronomer who said that what he found in the study of the starry sky was the glory of Newton and his fellow- thinkers, and not the "glory of God."1
^[ That was a fine reply of the astronomer, who, when inter- rogated about the science he had been idolizing, said, " I am now bound for the kingdom of Heaven, and I take the stars on my way."2
(2) TJiis world is designed to aid in the formation and develop- ment of spiritual character. — The material exists for the sake of the spiritual. This earth has been furnished as a school for the education and discipline of man. Labour is the counteractive of lust; affliction, of pride. Our relationships tend to destroy selfishness ; our temptations reveal to us our own weakness. The