What is the world? It is not just the earth, nor even the people that live upon it. Nor is it even the business that engages us. We use the term in all these ways, but that is not the thought conveyed in the present connection.

We have a definition of the world in God's Word: "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). What marks the world is this—the Father is left out. Christians are children of God, and if in what they engage, whether business, pleasure or whatever it may be, the Father is left out—it is of the world.

It is of this that God speaks in saying, "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof" (1 John 2:17). You may set your heart on success, on riches, position, pleasure, and be sadly disappointed in the hour of greatest apparent attainment. What is the reason? Christ alone can satisfy. He who made known the Father alone can fill and satisfy the heart—this is to have His peace and His joy! What else can compare with it? Can you do without it?

"O worldly pomp and glory, Your charms are spread in vain;
I've heard a sweeter story, I've found a truer gain."

—Selected