"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine" (John 17:9).
On it is a sad thing not to have a name in Christ's prayer. There is a great number left out; and if you will know who they are, they are called 'the world! It presseth us to come out of that state where we are in this danger. Men that are now worldly may be in the roll of God's election, but it is no comfort to them. 'I pray not for the world;' so it is expressed; and as long as thou art worldly thou canst take no comfort in Christ's intercession. Certainly this should be an effectual consideration with the people of God, to cause them 'to keep themselves unspotted from the world,' James 1:27. These have the benefit of Christ's prayers. A christian should never be quiet till he be clearly out of that number which is excepted. Christ hath a constant enmity and antipathy against mammon; there must be a separation from the world, and a contempt of earthly things, before we can have an interest in him. The world maketh a sport of these things; but what can be more terrible than to be shut out of Christ's prayers? He curseth those for whom he doth not pray; and that is the reason why men that are besotted with the world do always wax worse and worse.
