Sept. 26
AMONG THE REDEEMED
"Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among
the nations" Num. 23:9
Who would wish to dwell among the nations, and to be numbered with
them? Why, even the professing church is such that to follow the Lord
fully within its bounds is very difficult. There is such a mingling
and mixing that one often sighs for "a lodge in some vast wilderness."
Certain it is that the Lord would have His people follow a
separated path as to the world, and come out decidedly and distinctly
from it. We are set apart by the divine decree, purchase, and calling,
and our inward experience has made us greatly to differ from men of
the world; and therefore our place is not in their Vanity Fair, nor in
their City of Destruction, but in the narrow way where all true
pilgrims must follow their Lord.
This may not only reconcile us to the world's cold shoulder and
sneers, but even cause us to accept them with pleasure as being a part
of our covenant portion. Our names are not in the same book, we are
not of the same seed, we are not bound for the same place, neither are
we trusting to the same guide, therefore it is well that we are not of
their number. Only let us be found in the number of the redeemed, and
we are content to be odd and solitary to the end of the chapter.