THE WORLD

The world is that part of mankind which rebels against God and follows the inclinations of the flesh. The Savior said the world had nothing in common with Him. According to the teaching of Jesus Christ (1) God is all and man nothing; (2) eternity lasting, time fleeting; (3) heaven is incomparable, earth a wilderness; (4) life is a trial, heaven the reward, and hell the punishment.

According to the false theory of the world, (1) man is everything and has freed himself from God's dominion; (2) time is eternal and eternity a fable; (3) the honors, riches, and pleasures of life alone are worthy of man's ambition; (4) man's heaven or hell is on earth; (5) life, alas, is too short and ends in gloom; (6) we can have no knowledge of a next world. If there is a heaven God is so good that He will welcome all to it.

Christ teaches that we must give honor and glory to God; but the world has arrogated all honor and glory to itself. Christ points out man's debt of gratitude to God; the world flatters him by saying that he must thank himself for what he is and has. Christ warns man to fear Him, who can cast both body and soul into hell; the world warns him to fear the criticism and enmity of men. Christ declared that the first and greatest commandment is to love God above all things, and the next to love our neighbor as ourselves. The world says man's first duty is to get all the pleasure he can out of life, and the second never to be caught in a dis- honorable deed.

Thus the world enslaves the thoughtless and simple by its false principles, selfish motives, and deceitful rules of conduct, and ever allures the children of God to forsake the path of virtue, and enter on the broad road that leads to destruction.