六月廿七日
只是不要走得很远……（出8：28）
这是大暴君法老唇上所说的最狡猾的话。若是爲奴的以色列人必须出离埃及的话，那末他叫他们不要走得很远；不太远，便逃不出他的军兵的恐吓和他的探子的监视。世人也是这样，不喜欢不妥协者的不妥协，或是分裂者的分裂，而要我们宽大马虎，幷且要我们处事时勿过于严格。与世界同钉死、与基督同埋葬的经验，属世的人常当作是可笑的事，因此常忽略甚至轻视那使他们与世分别的礼仪。
世人常劝人妥协，常提到“中庸之道”。根据这一种处世的方针，认爲清洁是很需要的，但我们也不必太认真；真道当然是人所该遵从的，但对于错谬也不要过于攻讦。世俗人说：“是的，我们应当在一切事上都属灵，但是间或参加一次寻乐的聚会、舞会，或是在圣诞节时到戏院中去一次也是没有关系的。若是一件事情正在盛行，人人都那末作，我来反对有什麽用处呢？”有很多嘴上的信徒听了这种狡猾的劝告，便永远沉沦了。若我们要完全跟从主，就当立即到旷野中，把自己分别出来，把埃及和世俗留在背后。我们必须离开它的劝言、它的欢乐和它的宗教，幷要远远地就到主所招呼他所分别爲圣的人所去的地方。城中失火，你的房子难免殃及；瘟疫流行，一个人很有被传染的可能。离毒蛇越远越好，距世俗的同化越远也越好。
愿一切真实相信的人都能听到号筒的声音：“你们务要从他们中间出来，与他们分别。”
June
27
“Only
ye shall not go very far away.” — Exodus 8:28
This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the
poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them
that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror
of his arms, and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the
world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of
dissent, it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too
severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences
which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them
forth is almost universally neglected, and even contemned. Worldly wisdom
recommends the path of compromise, and talks of “moderation.”
According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but
we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but
error is not to be severely denounced. “Yes,” says the world,
“be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little gay
society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a theatre. What’s the
good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does
it?” Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice, to their own
eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into
the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind
us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far
away to the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones. When the town is on
fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a
man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and
the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the
trumpet-call be sounded, “Come ye out from among them, be ye separate.”
