The Love of the World the Weakness of the Church.
"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John xv, 19.
The antagonism existing between the spirit of the world and the Spirit of Christ, ever since Eden was despoiled of its primeval innocence, is loud in its attestation of the truthfulness of the above utterance of our blessed Lord. The history of the church in all ages of the world, and the conflict still going on between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan, are but the fulfilling of the prophetic annunciation made six thousand years since, that the "seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," and that it in turn shall "bruise his heel." We learn from the declaration of our Lord that the world will love only its own, hence whatever of concord is apparent between the worldly votariat and the aggressive spirit and conquests of the gospel, may safely be taken as a correct index to the spirituality of the church, or in other words, a scale measuring the proportion of worldliness drank in by professed Christians. A pure and unadulterated Christianity neither courts nor receives popular favor. It admits of no compromise with sin. And while with the apostle, the Christian is ever on the alert to avoid unnecessary coming in contact with the prejudices of the ignorant, and is willing to be "made all things to all men" in order to "save some," yet when the principles of his holy religion and the honor of God's name become involved, he is also ready "not to be bound only, but to die for the Lord Jesus." He can cheerfully endure the scorn and obloquy of the world, only for Christ's sake. And the fact that modern Christianity has attained such an unprecedented popularity with the world, and that the masses of Church members so adroitly shape their religious course as to glide along smoothly through life without ever once coming in contact with the powers of darkness, is to the true Christian a source of pain and deepest sorrow. He has learned what the time-serving Christian has never known, that "that they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"—that is, he is opposed at every step, and at every corner meets the rebuffs of the wicked. Because of the civil restraints of enlightened and Christian laws, he may not be hunted from house to house and from city to city, and seal his faith in God at the burning stake, yet if he have an earnest zeal for souls and the prosperity of Christ's kingdom he will find "This world is not a friend to grace,
To help him on to God."
The kingdom of this world will not suffer any encroachments without contesting to the bitter end every inch of ground. The "carnal, or worldly, mind is enmity against God"—mark the phraseology—it is not at enmity, but is enmity itself, the very essence of all hatred and opposition to Him. "It is not subject to his law, neither indeed can be;" hence the injunction to come out from among them and be separate. But it may be asked: May we not lose more than we shall gain by such scrupulous exactness, and would not a more conservative and yielding course be better calculated to secure the good will and co-operation of non-professors, and thus avoid the reproach of "extremists" and "one-idea" Christians? An apostle under the immediate afflatus of the Holy Spirit has summed up the whole matter in these words: "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." No betweens or middle course here—no medium between serving God and serving the Devil; we are for or against him; we gather with him or we scatter abroad. We can have the friendship and co-operation of the world only to that degree that we drink in its spirit and conform to its maxims. And is it not surprisingly strange that in the face of such plain and palpable Bible truths, professors are not found wanting, weak or wicked enough to attempt to blend what God has declared to be irreconcilable antagonisms? Herein lies concealed the cause of our impotency, contrasted with the glorious successes that crowned the labors of primitive Christians. They were dead to the world, having their lives hid with Christ in God. To be thus consecrated, and in such intimate relationship and communion with our divine Lord, we should soon realize that we too have a living God, and that the wonderful effusions of the Holy Spirit that so strikingly marked the ushering in of the gospel dispensation were not peculiar to the apostolic day, but that the PROMISE extends to us, and to our children, and to all that are afar off.—Sel.