_THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE_
"_Put difference between the holy and the unholy._"
--LEVITICUS x. 1-10.
The peril of our day is that so many of these differences are growing
faint. The holy merges into the unholy, and we can scarcely see the
dividing line. Black merges into white through manifold shades of grey.
Falsehood slopes into truth through cunning expediences and white lies.
Lust merges into purity through conviviality and geniality and
good-fellowship. So is one thing losing itself in another, and vivid moral
distinctions are being obscured and effaced.
There is only one way to keep these native contrasts in vivid relief, and
that is by living in the unsullied light of God's holy presence. "In Thy
light shall we see light." Things are seen in their true colours only when
we bring them before the great white throne. Fabrics seen in the gas-light
reveal quite other shades when we bring them into the light of day. We
must not make our distinctions in the gas-light of worldly standard and
expediency; we must take them into His presence before whose radiance even
the angels veil their faces, and we shall see things as they are, and we
shall know "the difference between the holy and the profane."