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Separated from the World, August 3
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
John 17:15
.
Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that
is trailing upon the ground and entwining its tendrils about the roots
and rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, “Come
out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.”
2 Corinthi-
ans 6:17
. Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly.... It is
impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain
pure.
O that the young might realize that they may be as precious plants
in the Lord’s garden.... Let the delicate tendrils of the affections twine
about Jesus, to receive nourishment from Him; and instead of creeping
upon the earth, turn the face toward the Sun of Righteousness, that you
may catch divine rays of light. Day by day grow up into His likeness,
and become a partaker of His divine nature, that you may at last be
found perfect in the paradise of God....
Rivet the soul to the eternal Rock; for in Christ alone there will be
safety.
A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union
must perish.... But this union costs us something.... There must be a
painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride,
selfishness, vanity, worldliness—sin in all its forms—must be overcome,
if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find
the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable,
is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without detaching themselves
from these cherished idols.
Will we accept the condition laid down in His Word—separation
from the world? ... Our consecration to God must be a living principle,
interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice.
It must underlie all our thoughts, and be the spring of every action.
This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting
influence.
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