'One thing thou lackest...take up the cross and follow Me' (Mark 10:21)

The world has a distinct and unchanging character, whether it is the rude or cultivated world, the world of the first or of the nineteenth century. "The whole world lieth in wickedness [the wicked one]" (1 Jn. 5:19), however various the methods which the wicked one takes to exhibit its essential and unalterable evil. Sometimes he instigates the world to seek the destruction of the truth by violence, and when this fails, as it always fails, he adopts the policy of Balaam, who could not curse the redeemed nation but "taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication" (Rev. 2:14). What he cannot accomplish by slaughter he effects by strategy and, in this way, has triumphed over the great mass of professing Christians.

"When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity" (Lk. 13:25-27). It is not enough to come to the communion table and to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. Every one who claims to be a Christian must enter somewhat at least into the experience of the apostle when he exclaimed, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14).

The cross has snapped the link that bound us to this world, now under condemnation (John 3:19). - James Brookes [1830-1897]
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'And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever' [1John 2:17]
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see also: The message of Christianity is the cross
and: Midnight cry - foolish virgins