at the matter, you will find that, in respect of the objects of their
idolatry, they agree in this, that all belong to the present.
Therefore, says the Apostle, all that is in the world--"the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but of the world," and are only various forms of one great
tyranny. And then when such a man is at the brink of death, the words
said to the man in our Lord's parable must be said to him. "Thou fool,
the houses thou hast built, the enjoyments thou hast prepared; and all
those things which have formed thy life for years--when thy soul is
taken from them, what shall they profit thee?"

3. The spirit of society.

The _World_ has various meanings in Scripture; it does not always mean
the Visible, as opposed to the Invisible; nor the Present, as opposed
to the Future: it sometimes stands for the secular spirit of the
day--the Voice of Society.

Our Saviour says, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own." The apostle says, "Be not conformed to this world;" and to the
Gentiles he writes, "In time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, the spirit which now worketh in the children of
disobedience." In these verses, a tone, a temper, a spirit is spoken
of. There are two things--the Church and the World--two spirits
pervading different bodies of men, brought before us in these
verses--those called the Spirit-born, and those called the World,
which is to be overcome by the Spirit-born, as in the text,
"Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."

Let us understand what is meant by the Church of God. When we speak of