And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; ONLY YE SHALL NOT GO VERY FAR AWAY: intreat for me. Exodus 8:28 THIS is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor enslaved Israelites must leave Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away—not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the world hates the nonconformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent; it would have us be more charitable and not deal with matters too severely. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and as a result baptism, which pictures them, is almost universally neglected and even condemned. Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of «moderation». According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. «Yes,» says the world, «be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little friendship with the world, the odd journey to Vanity Fair. What’s the good of crying down this empty lifestyle when it is so fashionable and everybody does it?» Multitudes of professors succomb to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. If we are going to really follow the Lord, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a poisonous snake the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet call be sounded: «Come out from among them, and be you separate.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 09:33:32 +0000
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