Evening, July 10

A believer has two principles at work within him. In his natural state, he was subject to one principle only, which was darkness; now light has entered, and the two principles disagree. Mark the apostle Paul's words in the seventh chapter of Romans, "I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." How has this state of things come to pass?

"The Lord divided the light from the darkness." Darkness, by itself, is quiet and undisturbed—but when the Lord sends in light, there is a conflict, for the one is in opposition to the other—a conflict which will never cease until the believer is altogether light in the Lord. If there is a division within the individual Christian, there is certain to be a division without. As soon as the Lord gives to any man light, he proceeds to separate himself from the darkness around; he secedes from a merely worldly religion of outward ceremonial, for nothing short of the gospel of Christ will now satisfy him; and he withdraws himself from worldly society and frivolous amusements.

He also seeks the company of the saints, for "we know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." The light gathers to itself, and the darkness gathers to itself. What God has divided—let us never try to unite; but as Christ went outside the camp, bearing His reproach, so let us come out from the ungodly, and be a peculiar people. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; and, as He was—so we are to be nonconformists to the world, dissenting from all sin, and distinguished from the rest of mankind by our likeness to our Master!