Wherefore, Come Ye out from among them and Be Ye Separate, Saith the Lord.
By David Downer
This language is recorded in 2 Cor. 6:17. What a privilege it is to be separate in spirit, conversation, and interest from the world that knows not God. Where all are alike by nature, grace makes an unspeakable difference. The busy part of mankind are engaged in multiplying evils and miseries, instead of trying to learn in the great school of Christ how to bring real good out of apparent evil. Others are always complaining of the evils they experience from worldly people. And yet they must mix with them to get a livelihood. My advice would be to do business with the world as we do it in the rain. If business calls us abroad, we do not leave it undone for fear of getting a little wet; but when the work is done we soon seek shelter. We do not stand in the rain for pleasure. So necessary calls of duty that lead us into the world will not hurt us if we find the spirit of the world unpleasant, and keep out of it as much as our circumstances will permit. The day in which we live seems likewise to call for something very peculiar in the Lord's people. It is a day of abounding sin, and evidently a day of impending judgment. The world, as it was in the days of Noah and Lot, is secure. If we are not mistaken in the signs of the times there never was a time in the annals of history, in which the spirit of the world governed the masses more than now. In short, things are coming to a crisis, and it seems almost as though the matter was to be put to vote whether the Lord, or Baal, be God. I am thankful it is given to a few to know their present state and future destiny. These build on the immovable Rock of Ages for eternity. These are trees springing from the living root, and bearing the fruit of righteousness unto the glory and praise of God. These only are awake, while the rest of the world are asleep indulging in vain dreams, from which they are soon to awake; but oh! with what consternation! for they will find themselves irrecoverably separated from all their attachments, compelled to appear before God to whom they have lived strangers. Oh! for a thousand tongues to proclaim in the ears of thoughtless mortals the important teachings of our Lord. One thing more is needful. A thousand tongues would be employed in vain, unless the Lord is pleased to send the watchman's warning by the power and agency of his Spirit. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light. They resist and rebel against it. I believe this separation from the world must take place before we can understand the whole truth. Till a person has experienced this change, he will be at a loss to form a right conception of the things of God. The truths of the gospel cannot be understood by the utmost powers of the natural man, who, with all his wisdom, reason, and talent is still but what the apostle calls the natural man. Oh! for this blessed assurance that we are separated from the world and joined to Christ. Dead, indeed, unto sin, and alive unto God, ever ready to suffer that we may reign with him forever. DAVID DOWNER.