Evening, October 14
Go To Morning Reading
“And be not conformed to this world.”
Romans 12:2
If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this
world, at any rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare salvation
is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader, would you wish
to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding death bed, and
enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native
country? then be worldly; be mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse
to go without the camp bearing Christ’s reproach. But would you have a heaven below as well as a heaven
above? Would you comprehend with all saints what are the heights and
depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Would
you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come
ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean
thing. Would you attain the full assurance of faith? you cannot gain
it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love?
Your love will be damped by the drenchings of godless society. You
cannot become a great Christian—you may be a babe in grace, but you never can be a perfect man in
Christ Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes
of business of men of the world. It is ill for an heir of heaven to
be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a
courtier is too intimate with his king’s enemies. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns
make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and little
frivolities and little rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys.
O professor, too little separated from sinners, you know not what
you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your
strength, and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for your
own comfort’s sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian,
be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one.