Reprinted from Help & Food, 1898

When the Lord was here He mingled freely among men of every class. He had come to serve men, even to the laying down of His life for them. He loved men, and their needs drew Him on.

But it was not hard for men to see that He was not as one of them. That He had come from another world, was actuated by motives different from theirs, loved not what they loved, and in His ways and words shed a light upon them which condemned them and made them either repent and follow Him, or resist and hate Him.

When He returned to His glory He left His people behind to continue this on earth. His Church as a whole should practically be here a Nazarite as was her Lord. But if, wedded to the world, she has ceased to be that, it is still both the privilege and responsibility of individual members of the Church to be what, as a whole, she ought to be.

This necessitates their separation from the church-world as well as from the world itself. Nor is such separation to be confounded with that made by heresy. Heresy separates to be free to have its own way, and to make a center of itself. Nazariteship separates because it cannot otherwise be free for Christ. Christ is its all. At whatever cost it must yield Him the obedience which is His due.

Nor is it the obedience of a hireling who works for pay. It is "faith which worketh by love." It is from a heart captivated by His grace. It is that living water which having first quenched the sinner's thirst, becomes "in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4).

The coming of our Lord is near. The heat of the day is well-nigh spent. What an encouragements for the hearts of His beloved people to be true to Him. P. J. L.