evil world." (Gal. i. 4.)
"In time past ye walked according to the course of this world." (Eph.
ii. 2.)
"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." (2 Tim. iv.
10.)
(_b_) Let us hear what St. James says:--
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world." (James i. 27.)
"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
(James iv. 4.)
(_c_) Let us hear what St. John says:--
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
"For all that is in the world, 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.
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the
will of God abideth for ever." (1 John ii. 15--17.)
"The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (1 John iii. 1.)
"They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world
heareth them." (1 John iv. 5.)
"Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." (1 John v. 4.)
"We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (1
John v. 19.)
(_d_) Let us hear, lastly, what the Lord Jesus Christ says:--
"The cares of this world choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful."
(Matt. xiii. 22.)
"Ye are of this world: I am not of this world." (John viii. 23.)
"The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
Him not, neither knoweth Him." (John xiv. 17.)
"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you."
(John xv. 18.)
"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you." (John xv. 19.)
"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world." (John xvi. 33.)
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John xvii.
16.)
I make no comment on these twenty-one texts. They speak for themselves.
If any one can read them carefully, and fail to see that "the world" is
an enemy to the Christian's soul, and that there is an utter opposition
between the friendship of the world and the friendship of Christ, he is
past the reach of argument, and it is waste of time to reason with him.
To my eyes they contain a lesson as clear as the sun at noon day.
I turn from Scripture to matters of fact and experience. I appeal to any
old Christian who keeps his eyes open, and knows what is going on in the
Churches. I ask him whether it be not true that nothing damages the
cause of religion so much as "the world"? It is not open sin, or open
unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants, so much as the
love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the
business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the
world, and the desire to keep in with the world. This is the great rock
on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck.
They do not object to any article of the Christian faith. They do not
deliberately choose evil, and openly rebel against God. They hope
somehow to get to heaven at last; and they think it proper to have some
religion. But they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world.
And so after running well and bidding fair for heaven, while boys and
girls, they turn aside when they become men and women, and go down the
broad way which leads to destruction. They begin with Abraham and Moses,
and end with Demas and Lot's wife.
The last day alone will prove how many souls "the world" has slain.
Hundreds will be found to have been trained in religious families, and
to have known the Gospel from their very childhood, and yet missed
heaven. They left the harbour of home with bright prospects, and
launched forth on the ocean of life with a father's blessing and a
mother's prayers, and then got out of the right course through the
seductions of the world, and ended their voyage in shallows and in
misery. It is a sorrowful story to tell; but, alas, it is only too
common! I cannot wonder that St. Paul says, "Come out and be separate."
II. Let me now try to show _what does not constitute separation from the
world_.
The point is one which requires clearing up. There are many mistakes
made about it. You will sometimes see sincere and well-meaning
Christians doing things which God never intended them to do, in the
matter of separation from the world, and honestly believing that they
are in the path of duty. Their mistakes often do great harm. They give
occasion to the wicked to ridicule all religion, and supply them with an
excuse for having none. They cause the way of truth to be evil spoken
of, and add to the offence of the cross. I think it a plain duty to make
a few remarks on the subject. We must never forget that it is possible
to be very much in earnest, and to think we are "doing God service,"
when in reality we are making some great mistake. There is such a thing
as "zeal not according to knowledge." (John xvi. 2, Rom. x. 2.) There
are few things about which it is so important to pray for a right
judgment and sanctified common sense, as about separation from the
world.
(_a_) When St. Paul said, "Come out and be separate," he did not mean
that Christians ought to give up all worldly callings, trades,
professions, and business. He did not forbid men to be soldiers,
sailors, lawyers, doctors, merchants, bankers, shop-keepers, or
tradesmen. There is not a word in the New Testament to justify such a
line of conduct. Cornelius the centurion, Luke the physician, Zenas the
lawyer, are examples to the contrary. Idleness is in itself a sin. A
lawful calling is a remedy against temptation. "If any man will not
work, neither shall he eat." (2 Thess. iii. 10.) To give up any business
of life, which is not necessarily sinful, to the wicked and the devil,
from fear of getting harm from it, is lazy, cowardly conduct. The right
plan is to carry our religion into our business, and not to give up
business under the specious pretence that it interferes with our
religion.
(_b_) When St. Paul said, "Come out and be separate," he did not mean
that Christians ought to decline all intercourse with unconverted
people, and refuse to go into their society. There is no warrant for
such conduct in the New Testament. Our Lord and His disciples did not
refuse to go to a marriage feast, or to sit at meat at a Pharisee's
table. St. Paul does not say, "If any of them that believe not bid you
to a feast," you must not go, but only tells us how to behave if we do
go. (1 Cor. x. 27.) Moreover, it is a dangerous thing to begin judging
people too closely, and settling who are converted and who are not, and
what society is godly and what ungodly. We are sure to make mistakes.
Above all, such a course of life would cut us off from many
opportunities of doing good. If we carry our Master with us wherever we
go, who can tell but we may "save some," and get no harm? (1 Cor. ix.
22.)
(_c_) When St. Paul says, "Come out and be separate," he did not mean
that Christians ought to take no interest in anything on earth except
religion. To neglect science, art, literature, and politics,--to read
nothing which is not directly spiritual,--to know nothing about what is
going on among mankind, and never to look at a newspaper,--to care
nothing about the government of one's country, and to be utterly
indifferent as to the persons who guide its counsels and make its
laws,--all this may seem very right and proper in the eyes of some
people. But I take leave to think that it is an idle, selfish neglect of
duty. St. Paul knew the value of good government, as one of the main
helps to our "living a quiet and peaceable life in godliness and
honesty." (1 Tim. ii. 2.) St. Paul was not ashamed to read heathen
writers, and to quote their words in his speeches and writings. St. Paul
did not think it beneath him to show an acquaintance with the laws and
customs and callings of the world, in the illustrations he gave from
them. Christians who plume themselves on their ignorance of secular
things are precisely the Christians who bring religion into contempt. I
knew the case of a blacksmith who would not come to hear his clergyman
preach the Gospel, until he found out that he knew the properties of
iron. Then he came.
(_d_) When St. Paul said, "Come out and be separate," he did not mean
that Christians should be singular, eccentric, and peculiar in their
dress, manners, demeanour, and voice. Anything which attracts notice in
these matters is most objectionable, and ought to be carefully avoided.
To wear clothes of such a colour, or made in such a fashion, that when
you go into company every eye is fixed on you, and you are the object of
general observation, is an enormous mistake. It gives occasion to the
wicked to ridicule religion, and looks self-righteous and affected.
There is not the slightest proof that our Lord and His apostles, and
Priscilla, and Persis, and their companions, did not dress and behave
just like others in their own ranks of life. On the other hand, one of
the many charges our Lord brings against the Pharisees was that of
"making broad their phylacteries, and enlarging the borders of their
garments," so as to be "seen of men." (Matt. xxiii. 5.) True sanctity
and sanctimoniousness are entirely different things. Those who try to
show their unworldliness by wearing conspicuously ugly clothes, or by
speaking in a whining, snuffling voice, or by affecting an unnatural
slavishness, humility, and gravity of manner, miss their mark
altogether, and only give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme.
(_e_) When St. Paul said, "Come out and be separate," he did not mean
that Christians ought to retire from the company of mankind, and shut
themselves up in solitude. It is one of the crying errors of the Church
of Rome to suppose that eminent holiness is to be attained by such
practices. It is the unhappy delusion of the whole army of monks, nuns,
and hermits. Separation of this kind is not according to the mind of
Christ. He says distinctly in His last prayer, "I pray not that Thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them
from the evil." (John xvii. 15.) There is not a word in the Acts or
Epistles to recommend such a separation. True believers are always
represented as mixing in the world, doing their duty in it, and
glorifying God by patience, meekness, purity, and courage in their
several positions, and not by cowardly desertion of them. Moreover, it
is foolish to suppose that we can keep the world and the devil out of
our hearts by going into holes and corners. True religion and
unworldliness are best seen, not in timidly forsaking the post which God
has allotted to us, but in manfully standing our ground, and showing the
power of grace to overcome evil.
(_f_) Last, but not least, when St. Paul said, "Come out and be
separate," he did not mean that Christians ought to withdraw from every
Church in which there are unconverted members, or to refuse to worship
in company with any who are not believers, or to keep away from the
Lord's table if any ungodly people go up to it. This is a very common
but a very grievous mistake. There is not a text in the New Testament to
justify it, and it ought to be condemned as a pure invention of man. Our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself deliberately allowed Judas Iscariot to be an
apostle for three years, and gave him the Lord's Supper. He has taught
us, in the parable of the wheat and tares, that converted and
unconverted will be "together till the harvest," and cannot be divided.
(Matt. xiii. 30.) In His Epistles to the Seven Churches, and in all St.
Paul's Epistles, we often see faults and corruptions mentioned and
reproved; but we are never told that they justify desertion of the
assembly, or neglect of ordinances. In short, we must not look for a
perfect Church, a perfect congregation, and a perfect company of
communicants, until the marriage supper of the Lamb. If others are
unworthy Churchmen, or unworthy partakers of the Lord's Supper, the sin
is theirs and not ours: we are not their judges. But to separate
ourselves from Church assemblies, and deprive ourselves of Christian
ordinances, because others use them unworthily, is to take up a foolish,
unreasonable, and unscriptural position. It is not the mind of Christ,
and it certainly is not St. Paul's idea of separation from the world.
I commend these six points to the calm consideration of all who wish to
understand the subject of separation from the world. About each and all
of them far more might be said than I have space to say in this paper.
About each and all of them I have seen so many mistakes made, and so
much misery and unhappiness caused by those mistakes, that I want to put
Christians on their guard. I want them not to take up positions hastily,
in the zeal of their first love, which they will afterwards be obliged
to give up.
I leave this part of my subject with two pieces of advice, which I offer
especially to young Christians.
I advise them, for one thing, if they really desire to come out from the
world, to remember that the shortest path is not always the path of
duty. To quarrel with all our unconverted relatives, to "cut" all our
old friends, to withdraw entirely from mixed society, to live an
exclusive life, to give up every act of courtesy and civility in order
that we may devote ourselves to the direct work of Christ,--all this may
seem very right, and may satisfy our consciences and save us trouble.
But I venture a doubt whether it is not often a selfish, lazy,
self-pleasing line of conduct, and whether the true cross and true line
of duty may not be to deny ourselves, and adopt a very different course
of action.
I advise them, for another thing, if they want to come out from the
world, to watch against a sour, morose, ungenial, gloomy, unpleasant,
bearish demeanour, and never to forget that there is such a thing as
"winning without the Word." (1 Peter iii. 1.) Let them strive to show
unconverted people that their principles, whatever may be thought of
them, make them cheerful, amiable, good-tempered, unselfish, considerate
for others, and ready to take an interest in everything that is innocent
and of good report. In short, let there be no needless separation
between us and the world. In many things, as I shall soon show, we must
be separate; but let us take care that it is separation of the right
sort. If the world is offended by such separation we cannot help it. But
let us never give the world occasion to say that our separation is
foolish, senseless, ridiculous, unreasonable, uncharitable, and
unscriptural.
III. In the third place, I shall try to show _what true separation from
the world really is_.
I take up this branch of my subject with a very deep sense of its
difficulty. That there is a certain line of conduct which all true
Christians ought to pursue with respect to "the world, and the things of
the world," is very evident. The texts already quoted make that plain.
The key to the solution of that question lies in the word "separation."
But in what separation consists it is not easy to show. On some points
it is not hard to lay down particular rules; on others it is impossible
to do more than state general principles, and leave every one to apply
them according to his position in life. This is what I shall now attempt
to do.
(_a_) First and foremost, he that desires to "come out from the world,
and be separate," _must steadily and habitually refuse to be guided by
the world's standard of right and wrong_.
The rule of the bulk of mankind is to go with the stream, to do as
others, to follow the fashion, to keep in with the common opinion, and
to set your watch by the town-clock. The true Christian will never be
content with such a rule as that. He will simply ask, What saith the
Scripture? What is written in the Word of God? He will maintain firmly
that nothing can be right which God says is wrong, and that the customs
and opinions of his neighbours can never make that to be a trifle which
God calls serious, or that to be no sin which God calls sin. He will
never think lightly of such sins as drinking, swearing, gambling, lying,
cheating, swindling, or breach of the seventh commandment, because they
are common, and many say, "Where is the mighty harm?" That miserable
argument,--"Everybody thinks so, everybody says so, everybody does it,
everybody will be there,"--goes for nothing with him. Is it condemned or
approved by the Bible? That is his only question. If he stands alone in
the parish, or town, or congregation, he will not go against the Bible.
If he has to come out from the crowd, and take a position by himself, he
will not flinch from it rather than disobey the Bible. This is genuine
Scriptural separation.
(_b_) He that desires to "come out from the world and be separate,"
_must be very careful how he spends his leisure time_.
This is a point which at first sight appears of little importance. But
the longer I live, the more I am persuaded that it deserves most serious
attention. Honourable occupation and lawful business are a great
safeguard to the soul, and the time that is spent upon them is
comparatively the time of our least danger. The devil finds it hard to
get a hearing from a busy man. But when the day's work is over, and the
time of leisure arrives, then comes the hour of temptation.
I do not hesitate to warn every man who wants to live a Christian life,
to be very careful how he spends his evenings. Evening is the time when
we are naturally disposed to unbend after the labours of the day; and
evening is the time when the Christian is too often tempted to lay aside
his armour, and consequently brings trouble on his soul. "Then cometh
the devil," and with the devil the world. Evening is the time when the
poor man is tempted to go to the public-house, and fall into sin.
Evening is the time when the tradesman too often goes to the Inn
parlour, and sits for hours hearing and seeing things which do him no
good. Evening is the time which the higher classes choose for dancing,
card playing, and the like; and consequently never get to bed till late
at night. If we love our souls, and would not become worldly, let us
mind how we spend our evenings. Tell me how a man spends his evenings,
and I can generally tell what his character is.
The true Christian will do well to make it a settled rule never to
_waste_ his evenings. Whatever others may do, let him resolve always to
make time for quiet, calm thought,--for Bible-reading and prayer. The
rule will prove a hard one to keep. It may bring on him the charge of
being unsocial and over strict. Let him not mind this. Anything of this
kind is better than habitual late hours in company, hurried prayers,
slovenly Bible reading, and a bad conscience. Even if he stands alone in
his parish or town, let him not depart from his rule. He will find
himself in a minority, and be thought a peculiar man. But this is
genuine Scriptural separation.
(_c_) He that desires to "come out from the world and be separate," must
_steadily and habitually determine not to be swallowed up and absorbed
in the business of the world_.
A true Christian will strive to do his duty in whatever station or
position he finds himself, and to do it well. Whether statesman, or
merchant, or banker, or lawyer, or doctor, or tradesman, or farmer, he
will try to do his work so that no one can find occasion for fault in
him. But he will not allow it to get between him and Christ. If he
finds his business beginning to eat up his Sundays, his Bible-reading,
his private prayer, and to bring clouds between him and heaven, he will
say, "Stand back! There is a limit. Hitherto thou mayest go, but no
further. I cannot sell my soul for place, fame, or gold." Like Daniel,
he will make time for his communion with God, whatever the cost may be.
Like Havelock, he will deny himself anything rather than lose his
Bible-reading and his prayers. In all this he will find he stands almost
alone. Many will laugh at him, and tell him they get on well enough
without being so strict and particular. He will heed it not. He will
resolutely hold the world at arm's length, whatever present loss or
sacrifice it may seem to entail. He will choose rather to be less rich
and prosperous in this world, than not to prosper about his soul. To
stand alone in this way, to run counter to the ways of others, requires
immense self denial. But this is genuine Scriptural separation.
(_d_) He that desires to "come out from the world and be separate" must
steadily _abstain from all amusements and recreations which are
inseparably connected with sin_.
This is a hard subject to handle, and I approach it with pain. But I do
not think I should be faithful to Christ, and faithful to my office as a
minister, if I did not speak very plainly about it, in considering such
a matter as separation from the world.
Let me, then, say honestly, that I cannot understand how any one who
makes any pretence to real vital religion can allow himself to attend
races and theatres. Conscience no doubt, is a strange thing, and every
man must judge for himself and use his liberty. One man sees no harm in
things which another regards with abhorrence as evil. I can only give my
own opinion for what it is worth, and entreat my readers to consider
seriously what I say.
That to look at horses running at full speed is in itself perfectly
harmless, no sensible man will pretend to deny. That many plays, such as
Shakespeare's, are among the finest productions of the human intellect,
is equally undeniable. But all this is beside the question. The question
is whether horse-racing and theatres, as they are now conducted, in
England, are not inseparably bound up with things that are downright
wicked. =I= assert without hesitation that they are so bound up. =I=
assert that the breach of God's commandments so invariably accompanies
the race and the play, that you cannot go to the amusement without
helping sin.
I entreat all professing Christians to remember this, and to take heed
what they do. I warn them plainly that they have no right to shut their
eyes to facts which every intelligent person knows, for the mere
pleasure of seeing a horse-race, or listening to good actors or
actresses. I warn them that they must not talk of separation from the
world, if they can lend their sanction to amusements which are
invariably connected with gambling, betting, drunkenness, and
fornication. These are the things "which God will judge."--"The end of
these things is death." (Heb. xiii. 4; Rom. vi. 21.)
Hard words these, no doubt! But are they not true? It may seem to your
relatives and friends very strait-laced, strict, and narrow, if you tell
them you cannot go to the races or the theatre with them. But we must
fall back on first principles. Is the world a danger to the soul, or is
it not? Are we to come out from the world, or are we not? These are
questions which can only be answered in one way.
If we love our souls we must have nothing to do with amusements which
are bound up with sin. Nothing short of this can be called genuine
scriptural separation from the world.[11]
11: See Note, page 310.
(_e_) He that desires to "come out from the world, and be separate,"
must be _moderate in the use of lawful and innocent recreations_.
No sensible Christian will ever think of condemning all recreations. In
a world of wear and tear like that we live in, occasional unbending and
relaxation are good for all. Body and mind alike require seasons of
lighter occupation, and opportunities of letting off high spirits, and
especially when they are young. Exercise itself is a positive necessity
for the preservation of mental and bodily health. I see no harm in
cricket, rowing, running, and other manly athletic recreations. I find
no fault with those who play at chess and such-like games of skill. We
are all fearfully and wonderfully made. No wonder the poet says,--
"Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long!"