Worldly Conformity. What it is Not, and What it Is

De: J. C. Ryle

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

THE two little words which head this page touch a subject of vast importance in religion. That sub-ject is the great duty of separation from the world. This is the point which St. Paul had in view when he wrote to the Corin¬thians, “Come out,—be separate.” The subject is one which demands the best attention of all who profess and call themselves Christians. In every age of the Church “separa¬tion from the world” has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, has always endeavoured to “come out from the world,” and live a separate life. They who have only had the name of Christian without the reality, have always re-fused to “come out and be separate” from the world. The subject perhaps was never more im¬portant than it is at the present day. There is a widely-spread desire to “make things plea¬sant” in religion,—to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid, as far as pos¬sible, self-denial. On every side we hear professing Christians declaring loudly that we must not be “narrow and exclusive,” and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest saints of old thought bad for their souls. That we may go anywhere, and do anything, and spend our time in anything, and read anything, and keep any company, and plunge into any-thing, and all the while may be very good Christians,—this, this is the maxim of thousands. In a day like this I think it good to raise a warning voice, and invite attention to the teaching of God’s Word. It is written in that Word, “Come out, and be separate.”