1. It is the duty of a Christian, so long as he is a citizen of this world, to take a part in its concerns. “I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world,” &c. (1Co_5:10). How can salt season, or yeast leaven, if it do not come in contact with that which it is to season or to raise?
2. Christ was removed above all the conventionalities and systems of this world; and yet He conformed to them all. He touched on the political questions; He had teachings about Church and State, and gave His authority to the great principle of taxation. And yet how heavenly the tone of every word and act!
I. The believer “uses” the world, which conveys the ideas of--
1. Elevation. What I “use,” I am above. It is the implement I employ, and not the power I obey. That is just what the world is to a Christian.
2. Intention. What I “use” is never final. It is to work up to an end. Say it is an amusement I use it, it is to fit me for something I have yet to do. Say it is money, it is that I may have greater power to do good. Say it is influence, it is that I may the better extend truth. Say it is public life, it is that I may throw weight into the side of good. Or say it is the whole world, it is with an eye to eternity, to make myself or others ready, for a higher state that is coming.
II. What, then, is it to “abuse”?
1. If the world rule you, and you do not rule it--if you do not keep it within fixed bounds which your own conscience lays down--if you have not a further end in every natural thing beyond the immediate gratification--if that end is not worthy--then you are abusing the world.
2. If it separate you from Him to whom this whole world belongs, or if you use any part of it for any other end but the glory of the great Proprietor, you abuse the world.
Conclusion: Now for present duty. In this representative country every man both legislates and governs. Therefore, it is no simple thing to exercise the franchise.
1. You will “abuse” and not “use” the power which the law has given you if you do not accept it as a solemn trust which has been committed to you by God, to be exercised for Him. Great things are at stake, and in your degree God has made you the arbiter of them. Therefore--
(1) Discharge the duty calmly, according to your real conviction, bringing the best reflection you can to bear upon it, as before God.
(2) Pray for a right judgment in this matter.
(3) This done, it will help your decision, as to what line of policy will best promote the great ends that all have in view. Assuredly, the religious aspect of every subject ought to be the first considered. Therefore, regard should certainly be had to the religious character of the man whom you would entrust with power. He who would put first theglory of God, cannot rest in devolving high trust to one who hasno such aim.
2. Let all be done with charity of judgment. Let no personal feeling embitter a great work. And then, whatever be the result, accept it as the will of God to you. And though the course of events may run counter with your wishes, still honour God by taking loving views of man, and trusting views of the future. And be they what they may, be loyal to the powers that be. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The use of the world--
I.is lawful. Its enjoyments, associations, business, &c., must be made subservient to the purposes of life and salvation.
II. May become sinful--
1. By excess.
2. By abuse.
3. By making it the end of existence.
III. Is enforced by the consideration of its vanity.
1. Its fashion changes.
2. Its joys wither.
3. Its glory must ultimately perish. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The use and abuse of the world
I. The reason why we should not abuse this world: the fashion of it passes away; literally, the scene changes.
1. The world itself is a stable thing. Its face changes, but its matter and laws are fixed. The same mountain-tops point toward the sky to-day that seemed to touch it when we were children. The same plain stretches out from the Pyramids that the Pharaohs saw from their summits. The inhabitant is often changed; the habitation remains the same.
2. But it does not remain the same to me. The green grass looks not so lightsome when those whom I loved are laid beneath it. This is not the world on which I trod so lightly when I was a child. It was a brighter world then. That fashion went out, and the one that came in after it, was hard and busy. Faster and faster it moved, and I moved with it, until I became giddy with the whirl. At the next change of fashion the breathless runner is left behind.
3. But, besides those which time inexorably brings to all, there are other changes peculiar to each.
(1) The owner of a beautiful estate was conducting a visitor through his park. At a bend in the path a lofty beech-tree suddenly hove in sight, wanting one hemisphere of its once symmetrical and stately head. In the last winter’s blast one of these twin boughs had been rent off, and the survivor, bare on the side where his marrow grew, seemed a stricken, widowed thing. “See,” said the visitor, “the emblem of a husband standing alone in the world, after death has torn away the wife of his youth!” Then a stifled sigh revealed to the speaker that he had unconsciously hurt, by touching, a wound still green in his companion’s side.
(2) How many living victims are kept in continual torture! Clinging to wealth, when wealth is taking wings; to the trappings of beauty, when the beauty hasgone; to the gaiety of youth, when age, unwelcome, unconfessed, is stealing quietly, quickly on. If you allow your heart-strings to twine around the fashion of the world, you are torn and tortured every day you live; for the fashion of the world is moving past you. The only possible method of living either pleasantly or safely on a shifting scene is to sit loosely on its surface.
II. The abuse of this world which the text forbids. When the gifts are turned aside from their wise and kind intent, the Giver takes it ill (Eze_16:19). The abuses of the world cannot be all named; let two or three suffice.
1. Day and night are precious constituents of “this world.” To shuffle them out of their places is to abuse them. An assembly of dancing men and women in a heated hall, a merchant leaning over his ledger in the counting-house, a student before his lamp in the silent chamber, are all guilty of abusing the world, if they occupy the long dark night, and sleep on the morrow while the sun is running his race rejoicing.
2. The fruitful earth is systematically and to a great extent compelled to minister to the vice of men. Nothing in nature is lovelier than the poppy-fields of India. The best land, in the most sheltered situation, is appropriate to the cultivation of the plant, and its product--opium--is a most precious medicine. But when we presume to use it as an indulgence to an unhealthy craving, and force it upon an unwilling people on whom itseffects can be only baneful, then we abuse it. At home, too, in a similar way, we abuse the world, by converting a large portion of the grain which it brings forth for the food of man, into a stimulant which is chiefly employed in ministering to hisvices.
3. Civilised nations have long abused in the gross a whole continent of theworld. Instead of buying from the Africans the products of the soil, so stimulating arts and industry, we bought the people--the weak from the strong--so stimulating war and rapine.
III. The use of this world which the text permits and enjoins. Observe how God uses this world, that we may fall in with His purpose. He has made it the dwelling-place of creatures formed after His own image, and capable of communion with Himself; but the grandest use of the habitation was made after the inhabitant fell by sin. Leaving behind all the shining worlds, the Son of God lived here; here the sons and daughters of the Lord obtained their birthright, and are prepared for their inheritance. Such arethepurposes for which the Father employs this world; and for these chiefly the dear child values it. This earth shines only in the sunlight: if it were dark it would be also barren.
So, morally for man, the world in which we live owes its beauty and its worth to the light which reaches it from heaven. Christians--
1. May use the world. Practical religion does not consist in denying ourselves the use of temporal good, or in tasting it with terror. Every creature of God is good. A Christian, with a clear mind and a good conscience, tastes more sweetness in this world than he who has no other portion. The relations of the family, e.g.,aretouched in the context. He who has entered the family of God, has not thereby forfeited his place or his rights in the families of men. Make one thing sure, that it is the use of the world, not the abuse of it; and then use it with a will.
2. Must use it. Don’t permit the riches, e.g.,to lie so long still that they shall rust. Whatever God may have given you of personal qualification, or social position, or material means, take the use of it yourself, and let your neighbours participate in the benefit. Conclusion: In vain do you tell a man that the fashion of this world passeth away, if you have nothing more to tell. A drowning man will grasp straws; and you cannot put an end to the useless effort by standing on theriver’s brink and proving that straws will not avail to make his body buoyant. How shall we persuade him to let them go? Heave him a life-buoy, and no persuasion will be necessary. When he feels the contact of the better preserver, he will throw away the worse. So no demonstration of the world’s changefulness will keep a human soul from cleaving to its dust. Nothing but faith’s possession of the better portion can wean our hearts from the worse. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
The use and abuse of the world
To “use” anything is to turn it to account in the direction of those ends for which it is really needed. To “abuse” is simply to turn a thing away from its true and proper use. This “world” has its “uses.” According to theoriginal purpose of God, it is a servant to minister to our wants, not a tyrant to oppress or degrade us. It may become a dangerous foe; but only when we stand in false relations to it. This world is designed to aid--
I. In revealing god to us. “The heavens declare His glory, &c.” What an “abuse,” then, of theworld it is, when men employ it to conceal God! An astronomer once said that what he found in the study of the starry sky was the “glory” of Newton, &c., and not the “glory of God.” And it would seem as if some men deliberately try to forget God, by busying themselves about the things which God has made. They plunge into business and into politics, as if they would forget that the Most High has anything to do either with the growth of cotton or the growth of nations. Even the faces of their little children cease to speak to them of “The Father”; theselfish, worldly love they have for them becomes a pretext for ignoring the claims andcommands of God.
II. In the formation and development of spiritual character. The material exists for the sake of the spiritual. This earth has been furnished as a school for man’s education. The monastic life is just a kinder “playing truant.” The true “use” of a school cannot be to run away from it. On the other hand, there are those who turn the schoolroom into a playground--who seek to convert the means of education and training into the instruments of mere selfish gratification. Some men arelike little children burning their lesson-books for the momentary pleasure of the blaze! Others are like children trying to carve out their names on forms and desks of the school, when they ought to be learning lessons. Others arelike children, with heads bent over their books, making a show of diligence, in order to conceal an indolent frivolity. And others, alas I are like children who, through self-willed folly, break their limbs in the very gymnasium which was intended and adapted to strengthen them! Oh what an “abuse” is here! A whole world made for men--and, all the while, men living as if they had been made for the world!
III. In serving God. He appoints us duties to discharge, and burdens to bear. His holy and loving commandment meets us everywhere--at home and in the market, &c.; and not a day passes in which He does not give us opportunities of expressing our loyalty to His law. Only see, again, how men “abuse” the world! They convert it into a sphere of disobedience. Suppose that, in order to secure a higher kind of service from an employee you were to promote him to a confidential position--giving him full access to your books, and an insight into the secrets of your business; and suppose that he were forthwith to employ the knowledge thus obtained in order to injure your business or embezzle your property! And yet thisis but a faint emblem of your own conduct towards the Heavenly Master! You take the bread which He places on your table; you come out into His sunshine; you breathe His air; and then, with the health and strength you thus obtain, you pollute His air with words that ought never to be spoken, or commit actions too foul to bear the light of His sun. God reveals to you some of those wondrous secrets which He has lodged in the bosom of Nature, and then you go, perhaps, and employ this very knowledge for the retarding of His spiritual kingdom. You take the subtle electricity, and with it you flash your lying, fraudulent message along the wire--breaking God’s own law of truth and justice with God’s own mysterious forces! He gives you wife and children and friends; and lo! you make them do the devil’s work. Here is one man whom God’s Providence places in a position of power. How that man might use his power in the cause of truth and justice and liberty! But, instead of this, he becomes tyrannical. Here is another man who bus been placed in a position of wealth. How that man might multiply manifestations of loyalty to God! But, instead of this, he practically worships his gold, and employs it to corrupt and degrade others, and to supply fuel for his own lusts. Conclusion: “The fashion of this world passeth away.” Let us, then, not live as if the visible were the eternal. And let us remember that we do not necessarily escape worldliness, by belonging to what is called “the religious world.” Men may seem to be engaged in the service of God, and yet all the while be only serving themselves. A selfish ambition does not cease to be worldly merely because it is ecclesiastical. Slander and spite do not cease to be worldly merely because they appear in a “religious newspaper.” “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” do not cease to be worldly, even in a household that is daily summoned to family prayers. (T. C. Finlayson.)
The use and abuse of the world.--
I. Paul’s present observation about this world. That its “fashion” “passeth away.” It passes away--
1. Before our eyes.
2. To our hearts.
II. The use which Paul makes of this fact. That they that use this world should use it as not abusing it.
1. The world is abused when we suffer it--
(1) To supplant in our hearts its Creator;
(2) To banish other worlds from the sphere of our attraction;
(3) To overcome us;
(4) To make us carry the lawful use of it to excess.
2. The world should be used with--
(1) A pilgrim’s;
(2) A godly;
(3) A free and independent;
(4) A generous and holy spirit. (S. Martin.)
On the use and abuse of the world
The world is always represented in Scripture as the great scene of trial to a Christian. The part which is proper for him to act may be comprised in these two expressive words of the text; “using the world, and not abusing it”; the significancy and extent of which I propose now to explain. The subject is of the higher importance, as in the world we must live; and according as we use or abuse it, it will prove either our friend or our greatest foe. It is natural to begin with observing that the Christian is here supposed to “use the world”; by which we must certainly understand the apostle to mean maintaining intercourse and connection with the world; living in it as one of the members of human society, assuming that rank which belongs to his station. No one can be said to use the world who lives not thus. Hence it follows that sequestration from the world is no part of Christian duty. Instead of employing their influence to regulate and temper the pleasures of the world by a moderate participation of those that are innocent, they deliver up all the entertainments of society into the hands of the louse and giddy. It may be assumed, therefore, as a principle justified by the text, and by the whole strain of Scripture, that to use, and in a certain degree to enjoy, the world, is altogether consistent with religion. We shall have a clearer view of the proper use of the world when we contrast it with that abuse of the world which we too often observe. Those abuses manifest themselves in various forms; but in general may be classed under three great heads.
I. They are abusers of the world who intemperately give themselves up to its pleasures, and lead a life of licentiousness, riot, and dissipation. Amidst the wealth and luxury of the present age, it will be admitted that persons of this description are not unfrequent, who, being opulent in fortune, and perhaps high in rank, think themselves entitled to pass their days in a careless manner, without any other object in view than the gratification of their senses and passions. By the train of life which they lead they defeat every purpose for which Providence bestowed on them the blessings of prosperity. They sink every talent which they possess into useless insignificancy. They corrupt the public manners by their example, and diffuse among others the spirit of extravagance and folly. They behave in a manner altogether unsuitable to the condition of the world in which we live. With indignant eyes the sober and thinking part of mankind view the luxury and riot of those abusers of the world. To them are owing the discontents of the poor, their disaffection to their superiors, their proneness to disturb the peace of the world. The conduct of such abusers of the world is not only pernicious to the welfare of society and to the interests of virtue, it is equally ruinous to themselves. At the bottom of the hearts of all men there lies a secret sense of propriety, virtue, and honour. This sense may be so far blunted as to lose its influence in guiding men to what is right, while yet it retains its power of making them feel that they are acting wrong. Hence remorse often gnaws the heart which affects to appear light and gay before the world. Retreat, then, from your dishonourable courses, ye who by licentiousness, extravagance, and vice, are abusers of the world! You are degrading, you are ruining yourselves. You are grossly misemploying the gifts of God, and the Giver will not fail to punish.
II. The world is abused, not only by an intemperate pursuit of its pleasures, but by a sordid attachment to its gains. This respects a set of men of a very different description from the former, more decent in their carriage, and less flagrant in their vices, but corrupted by the world in no less a degree. For the world is often abused by the men of business as much as by the men of pleasure. The world, with its advantages, is a lawful object of pursuit to a Christian. He may seek, by fair industry, to render his circumstance affluent. His care is, not merely to amass and possess, but to use his possessions well, as one who is accountable to God. He is not a slave, either to the hopes or the fears of the world. He would rather forfeit any present advantage than obtain it at the expense of violating the Divine law or neglecting his duty. This is using the world like a good man. This is living in it as a subject of God and a member of the great community of mankind. Very opposite to this is the character of the worldly-minded. To them the mere attainment of earthly possessions is an ultimate aim. They cannot be said to use the world; for to possess, not to use or enjoy, is their object. He is an abuser of the world who cannot occasionally retreat from it to consider what character he bears in the sight of God, and to what issue his conduct will bring him at last. In a word, the world is then properly used when it is generously and beneficially enjoyed; neither hoarded up by avarice, nor squandered by ostentation.
III. The world is abused by those who employ its advantages to the injury or oppression of their brethren. Under this class are included the worst and most criminal abusers of the world, who turn against their fellow-creatures those advantages with which it has pleased Heaven to distinguish them. The licentious, the avaricious, and the insolent, form the three great classes of abusers of the world. Let not those who are in wealthy and flourishing circumstances complain of the restraints which religious doctrine attempts to impose on their enjoyments. For to what do these restraints amount? To no more than this, that, by their pleasures, they would neither injure themselves nor injure others. (H. Blair. D. D.)
The use and abuse of the world
I. A good man may make use of the world.
1. The persons of the world.
2. The things of the world, for they are his own: “All things are yours.” It is an incivility and unthankfulness not to make use of a gift, and the things of this world are God’s gift. We are all travellers to another country, so far therefore as things are necessary for our journey, we may make use thereof.
II. But we must use the world as though we used it not. As wicked men do use the things of God, and of the other world, so a good man should use the things of this world. A wicked man prays as if he prayed not, and hears as if he heard not, because his mind is upon other things. “Set your affections on things that are above.” As good men are where they yet are not, namely in heaven, so they are not where they now are, namely on earth, for your conversation is in heaven. The things of this world are but to serve a purpose, and are not to be enjoyed for themselves. Clothes are but to cover nakedness; meat and drink but to serve hunger and thirst; only God is to be enjoyed; therefore why should we not use the world as ii we used it not? And then the world uses us as if it used us not, and cares for us as if it cared not for us.
III. What are those particular concernments wherein we are to use the world as if we used it not?
1. Our relations (1Co_7:29). Be as zealous for the truth and as ready to suffer forthe cause of Christ as if you had none.
2. Grief (1Co_7:20). It is lawful to grieve, but we must not weep too much, or otherwise it will argue that we have toomuch love to the world. If we are to “rejoice in the Lord evermore,” then surely we are to weep as if we wept not.
3. Joy. Why should I joy much in that which I cannot enjoy? God only is to be enjoyed. There is a crack in the finest crystal.
4. Our possessions (1Co_7:30). How can a man be patient in the loss of things if he be not weaned from them while he hath them. And if good men have greater possessions to mind, and they cannot intensively mind both, then surely they must so possess, as if they possessed not.
IV. What is there in these reasons of the apostle that may ,enforce the exhortation?
1. The time is short. We have a great business to do, and but little time to do it in. If a citizen go into the country about some business that concerns his life, will he run up and down to catch butterflies, when all his time is but little enough for to do his business in?
2. The fashion of this world, it is but a piece of pageantry, a stage--one goes off andanother comes on. As that is a fashion to-day which was not yesterday, that is a fashion to-day which is none to-morrow; so the fashion of the world passeth away. Will you instance a natural, civil, sinful, religious, or comfortable fashion of the world that does not pass away?
V. When may a man be said so to use the world as if he used it not? When a man so uses the world as to walk with God in the use thereof: when one man walks with another he turns as he turns; so when a man walks with God in the world, he turns as God turns. When God calls to joy, he joys; when God calls to grief, he grieves, &c.
VI. Suppose i do not use the world as if i used it not, what then?
1. You do want this character of a good man.
2. You are not dead to the world, and if not dead to the world, then not dead with Christ.
3. You are defiled by the world.
4. Your hearts will reproach you when you come to die.
5. You cannot more prejudice the thing you love, nor wrong yourselves more, than by loving it too much. A man leans upon a slender stick, and both breaks the stick and runs it into his hand.
VII. What shall we do that we may get our hearts into this gracious and holy frame? Note--
1. What that man does that uses the world as if he used it not.
(1) He will be sure to use grace in the use of the world.
(2) He will be ready to give up that part of the world unto God wherein his affections are most engaged.
(3) He will stand at a distance from the world, in the getting as well as in the keeping.
(4) He will not place his religion in a morning and in an evening duty, but in his walking with God in his place.
2. The means.
(1) Labour to possess your hearts much with God’s all-sufficiency (Psa_62:10-11).
(2) Look upon the world with the prospective of the Scripture, not with the world’s multiplying glass.
(3) Never fall in love with any condition for itself, but for the good of the condition.
(4) Take all God’s alarums of death, and mingle those with the consideration of the death of Christ, and then you will die to the world.
(5) Afford the world and the things thereof, so much of your love, as better things do leave.
(6) Let the name of the Lord be very precious in your hearts and in your eyes.
(7) Go to the Lord and beg of the Lord to fulfil His promises.
(8) Consider what a good thing it is to use this world as if we used it not. Thereby--
(a) You shall be able to want and to part with the world with ease: “I know how to want,” saith Paul, and “I know how to abound.”
(b) You shall have more of the world, and have it in a better edition, in a better impression, for it will be sanctified unto you.
(c) you shall have that which is better than all, the mind of Christ. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
For the fashion of this world passeth away.--
The fashion of the world
The words contain--
I. A metaphorical allusion to a public exhibition or a dramatic representation.
1. The state and constitution of things as they now exist pass away; not so much the world itself, as to its material substance, as its fashion with respect to us. Do we now behold a beautiful appearance of nature or art? To us they will soon be as the reminiscence of a giddy dream.
2. Our employments and pursuits here. In these we are as the actors of a drama. Some assume fictitious characters; our possessions and enjoyments change; our feelings change, not only as to their nature, but their keenness.
3. Our present ties and connections. These pass away to assume another fashion. In the world to come “we shall know no man after the flesh.”
II. Doctrine truth.
1. The present world bears evident marks of imperfection; but “God is a rock, His work is perfect.”
2. The present world does not exhibit that discrimination which exists between the righteous and the wicked.
3. The grand end of all revelation is to prepare men for another life. Why have human beings an intelligent existence? Why did Jehovah style Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why select a people and inspire prophets to instruct them? Why send His Son to live, &c.? Why alarm the fears or excite the hopes? Verily there is an after state, &c.
III. A practical application.
1. All are equally concerned in it. Young persons of robust constitution must die as well as thegreyheaded and infirm. The knowing or witty must all pass away.
2. This alone is our state of probation. Fleeting as this state is, when once gone it returns no more; “time is short,” not so eternity. “Behold, now is the accepted time,” &c.
3. The change of worlds, with respect to the righteous, will be highly advantageous.
4. The change of worlds to the unconverted distressing and terrible. What will become of the proud? (Mal_4:1.) Of the worldly person? (Jam_5:1-3.) Of the carnally minded? (Rom_8:6.) Of the vain and giddy? (Luk_6:25.) In a word “If the righteous scarcely are saved,” &c. Conclusion: Does the fashion of the world pass away? Then let us improve every occurrence which may tend to loosen our attachment to this world, and every means to prepare us for a better. (Homilist.)
The passing nature of this world
I. By this world we are to understand the visible, in opposition to the invisible state of existence. For into these two the whole world, or entire system of the creation, is resolved: the world that is unseen, and is in its nature eternal; and the world that is seen, and is in its constitution temporal. And by the attention that every man pays to the one or the other, his character is determined and his lot is fixed. He is either carnally or spiritually minded, and his recompense accordingly, death or life (Rom_8:6). Here things look quite otherwise than they are. Mourning and poverty bear the face of misery; mirth and riches appear to be happiness; fame and preferment are styled honour; slander and oppression are accounted disgrace; hypocrisy has the face of devotion; pride the mask of humility; vanity the air of greatness. In short, truth is currently counterfeited and concealed under false colours; and, as the Psalmist sings, man spends his life in a vain show. Yet, in truth, they may be blessed that mourn--they may be happy that are poor--they may be truly honourable that are in disgrace in this world--they may be great and good who look mean. And, on the contrary, they may be worthless, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked, who are accounted rich, and great, and famous among men. Here things have no solid bottom. All moves in a perpetual tendency to another state, where false appearances shall for ever vanish away, and everything appear as it really is. The whole frame of things here is continually hastening to a dissolution--continually shifting place and time.
II. This world is in its nature a fluctuating and transitory state of things.
1. Time is the element in which all creatures below are calculated to exist; in which they begin, go on, and end: and an element continually changing; always in motion, never resting, never returning.
2. The numberless creatures that exist in time, and compose this world, are continually changing with time, and passing away.
III. The use we should make of this important and extensive truth.
1. To avoid all anxious care and immoderate concern about the things of this life.
2. To be moderate in the use of worldly enjoyments.
3. To be contented with our lot in the world.
4. Here we have read a lesson that redeems poverty from contempt, and reduces riches to little.
5. Hence we may observe the sin and folly of those who trust to their riches for supporting their life, credit, and comfort in this world.
6. From this subject we should learn patience under afflictions. They cannot last in a world continually changing and passing away. A little time longer will either end or amend them.
7. We should study to wean our affections from the things of time; to leave the world as fast as it leaves us; to be more and more indifferent about the pains or pleasures of it, the longer we live in it.
8. What we have heard serves to abate the love of life and the terrors of death, which naturally keep the mind of man under bondage.
9. Here Christians may read consolation under the loss of Christian friends, relations, or acquaintances.
10. Let us bless God with thankful hearts that we have another and a better world to look for, a state that can never know either time or change (Wm. Beet.)
On the fashion of the world passing away
I. The fashion of the world passeth away, as the opinions, ideas, and manners of men are always changing. We look in vain for a standard to ascertain and fix any of these; in vain expect that what has been approved and established for a while, is always to endure. Principles which were of high authority among our ancestors are now exploded. When we read an account of the manners and occupations, of the studies and opinions, even of our own countrymen, in some remote age, we seem to be reading the history of a different world from what we now inhabit. Coming downwards, through some generations, a new face of things appears. As one wave effaces the ridge which the former had made on the sand by the sea-shore, so every succeeding age obliterates the opinions and modes of the age which had gone before it. Let us only think of the changes which out” own ideas and opinions undergo in the progress of life. One man differs not more from another, than the same man varies from himself in different periods of his age, and in different situations of fortune. In youth and in opulence everything appears smiling and gay. But let some more years have passed over our heads, or let disappointments in the world have depressed our spirits; and what a change takes place! The world itself remains the same. But its form, its appearance, is changed to our view; its fashion, as to us, hath passed away.
II. While our opinions and ideas are thus changing within, the condition of all external things is, at the same time, ever changing without us and around us. Wherever we cast our eyes over the face of nature, or the monuments of art, we discern the marks of alteration and vicissitude. We cannot travel far upon the earth without being presented with many a striking memorial of the changes made by time. What was once a flourishing city is now a neglected village. When from the public scene we turn our eye to our own private connections, the changes which have taken place in the fashion of the world must touch every reflecting mind with a more tender sensibility. For where are now many of the companions of our early years?
III. Not only our connections with all things around us change, but our own life, through all its stages and conditions, is ever passing away. As the life of man, considered in its duration, thus fleets and passes away, so, during the time it lasts, its condition is perpetually changing. It affords us nothing on which we can set up our rest; no enjoyment or possession which we can properly call our own.
IV. That the world itself in which we dwell, the basis of all our present enjoyments, is itself contrived for change, and designed to pass away. There are three fixed and permanent objects to which I must now call your attention, as the great supports of human constancy amidst this fugitive state.
1. Virtue and goodness never change. Let opinions and manners, conditions and situations, in public and in private life, alter as they will, virtue is ever the same. It rests on the immovable basis of eternal truth. Every terrestrial glory sparkles only for a little, with transient brightness. But virtue shines with eternal and unalterable splendour. It derives its origin from heaven; and partakes both of the lustre and the stability of celestial objects.
2. God never changes. Amidst the unceasing vicissitude of earthly things, there remains at the head of the universe an Eternal Protector of virtue, whose throne is established for ever. With Him there is no variableness, neither any shadow of turning; no inconstancy of purpose, and no decay of wisdom or of power. How much soever worldly things may change in themselves, they are all united in His plan; they constitute one great system or whole of which He is the author; and which, at its final completion, shall appear to be perfect. His dominion holds together, in a continued chain, the successive variety of human events; gives stability to things that in themselves are fluctuating; gives constancy even to the fashion of the world while it is passing away.
3. Heaven and immortality pass not away. The fleeting scenes of this life are to be considered as no more than an introduction to a nobler and more permanent order of things, when man shall have attained the maturity of his being. (H. Blair, D. D.)
The changing nature of worldly things
I. All things around us are changing. The visible heavens daily vary their appearance, the seasons walk their rounds, and in each we experience a great variety in the temperature. Nature is continually diversifying her dress. Time makes observable changes in the surface of our globe. Every age introduces great alterations in the bounds of empires, in the politics and commerce of nations. Families, as well as nations, are changing. New ones are forming as elder ones pass away. The lands which have been acquired, and the property which has been accumulated, by the industry of the proprietor, are often alienated by the misfortune or folly of the descendants. The condition of every person is in continual mutation. As we advance in life, our Views and apprehensions of men and things, and our taste and inclination for the objects around us, greatly alter. The inhabitants of the world are changing. There is a mighty change which awaits us all.
II. Let us improve the sentiment. The mutable condition of the world may lead us--
1. To contemplate the immutability of the Creator (Heb_1:10-12).
2. To see much of the wisdom and goodness of God.
(1) The mutability of things is on the whole a source of enjoyment. We are formed to love variety. The traveller passing over a level plain where, all along, a train of similar objects meets his eyes, soon finds the scene tedious. Let a man choose his own condition, and place himself in the most agreeable circumstances; will he enjoy it? No, not for a single week. There must be something new, or every pleasure becomes insipid.
(2) As our pleasures are heightened, so our pains are mitigated, by variety. On the roughest roads there is some smooth way where we can walk with ease, Many are the troubles of the world, but they are intermixed with pleasures. And our troubles are not always the same; one passes away as another comes. We find some relief by shifting it from shoulder to shoulder.
3. To direct our thoughts to a future stateof existence. One change leads to another. Each season is preparatory to the next. Youth is preparatory to manhood, and this to old age. We may naturally then conclude that death is introductory to a new state of existence. Pain, in this state, usually precedes high enjoyment; the humiliating circumstances of death are preludes to glory and immortality.
4. To rejoice as if we rejoiced not, andweep as if we wept not.
5. To remember our great change. When we see the fashion of the world passing away, it becomes us to realise that we are passing away also, and have here no continuing city. The seaman, in a feeble bark, tossed on the tumultuous ocean, surely will not imagine himself on firm ground, nor forget his danger of being swallowed up in the deep.
6. To direct our thoughts to heaven, where none of the painful vicissitudes of the present stage will attend us. Changes there will be in heaven, but they will be only changes for the better, from glory to glory, from perfection to perfection. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The world changes
Ah, this beautiful world! I know not what to think of it. Sometimes it is all sunshine and gladness, and heaven itself lies not far off; and then it suddenly changes, and is dark and sorrowful, and the clouds shut out the day. In the lives of the saddest of us there are bright days like this, when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms. Then come gloomy hours, when the fire will not burn on our hearths, and all without and within is dismal, cold, and dark. Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and ofttimes we call a man cold when he is only sad. (H. W. Longfellow.)
The fashion of the world passeth away
The crust of the globe is constantly changing in some form or other in all places. It is true in a material sense that the fashion of the world passeth away. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)
Eternal things and fleeting
Afar off one Can hardly tell which is mountain and which is cloud. The clouds rise with peaks and summits, all apparently as solid, and certainly as glistening, as the snow-clad Alps, so that the clearest eye might readily be deceived. Yet the mountain is unsubstantial as the cloud, and the cloud is never permanent as the mountain. So do the things of time appear to be all-important, far-reaching and enduring, arid eternal things are not always of equal weight to the soul with those nearer at hand. Yet, despite all our instinctive judgments may suggest to the contrary, nothing earthly can ever be lasting, nothing in time can be worth considering compared with eternity. The cloudy philosophies of men may assume the shape of eternal truth, but the wind shall scatter them, while the great mountains of the Divine Word shall stand fast for ever and ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
