" And, finally to cases of the acquisition of worldly
property, "and they that buy as though they possessed not." Time will
not allow us to go into these applications; we must confine ourselves
to a brief consideration of the principle. The principle of Christian
unworldliness, then is this, to "use this world as not abusing it."
Here Christianity takes its stand, in opposition to two contrary
principles. The spirit of the world says, "Time is short, therefore
use it while you have it; take your fill of pleasure while you may." A
narrow religion says, "Time is short, therefore temporal things should
receive no attention: do not weep, do not rejoice; it is beneath a
Christian." In opposition to the narrow spirit of religion,
Christianity says, "_Use_ this world;"--in opposition to the spirit of
the world Christianity says, "Do not _abuse_ it." A distinct duty
arises from this principle to use the world. While in the world we are
citizens of the world: it is our _duty_ to share its joys, to take our
part in its sorrows, not to shrink from its difficulties, but to mix
ourselves with its infinite opportunities. So that if time be short,
so far from that fact lessening their dignity or importance, it
infinitely increases them; since upon these depend the destinies of
our eternal being. Unworldliness is this--to hold things from God in
the perpetual conviction that they will not last; to have the world,
and not to let the world have us; to be the world's masters, and not
the world's slaves.

XV.

_Preached January 11, 1852._

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A FAMILY.

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named."--Ephesians iii. 14, 15.

In the verses immediately before the text the Apostle Paul has been
speaking of what he calls a mystery--that is, a revealed secret. And
the secret was this, that the Gentiles would be "fellow-heirs and of
the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel."
It had been kept secret from the former ages and generations; it was a
secret which the Jew had not suspected, had not even dreamt of. It
appeared to him to be his duty to keep as far as possible from the
Gentile. Circumcision, which taught him the duty of separation from
the Gentile spirit, and Gentile practices, seemed to him to teach
hatred towards Gentile _persons_, until at length, in the good
pleasure and providence of God, in the fulnes