August 18

The whole world lieth in wickedness. - 1 John 5:19.

THE world here means, First, The world of which the Saviour said, Satan is the prince, and of which Paul says, Satan is the god. “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.” “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not;” and therefore he grieved, and all Christians will like him grieve, that the world is ignorant of its real Spiritual character and condition, and of its eternal welfare. Satan is called “the prince of this world,” because the people of the world are his subjects, and he rules over them and in them. And he is called “the god of this world,” because they love him; and, however astounding, it is a fact, an awful fact, that Satan has his Sabbaths and his sanctuaries, his ministers, his preachers, his means and ordinances, as well as the God of Truth. When, therefore, a sinner is converted, he is said to be “turned from the power of Satan unto God”- turned from his power as a prince-turned from his power as a god.

Secondly, The world here means the disobedient and unbelieving world, and it is always in the Scriptures spoken of as being in the way of destruction, and therefore we are dissuaded from it, and charged not to be conformed to it, lest we perish with it. Thus we read, that to “walk according to the course of this world,” is to “walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Hence, says James, Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And hence, says John, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”

Thirdly, The wicked are called the world; not only because they are worldly, but because they have been, down to this time, immensely the majority of mankind. For there was a time when every imagination of the heart was evil continually, and when Noah was seen alone righteous in that generation. Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, but ten righteous men were not found there. How few would have preserved Israel in the time of Jeremiah! “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” And, says the Apostle John in the Scriptures, “The whole world lieth in wickedness.”

Oh, yes, some are ready to say, but it is not so now. But suppose we take a globe, and colour all the parts of the earth where Christianity in any form, in any degree, prevails, our feelings would be greatly shocked at the sight of the smallness of the dimensions, and we should be ready to fall upon our knees, and say, “Let thy way be known on earth, thy saving health among all nations.” And if we take a Christian country, and examine the inhabitants- take a single village, and observe the tempers and lives of the natives, and then see whether the stones in their churchyards are chargeable with truth or falsehood, when they tell us that all the parish is gone or going to heaven. Then, if we take a congregation, one of a more evangelical complexion, and follow the people out of the house of God into common life, and let candour itself tell us how many of these abide with God in their calling-how many walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

“Broad is the road that leads to death.

And thousands walk together there,;

But wisdom shows a narrower path.

With here and there a traveller.”