Nehemiah 5:16 Yes, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither to the work. The people of God maintain a certain unearthly peculiarity throughout all their relationship to earth; they do not become assimilated to the crowd through which they hold the tenor of their way. Like that limpid stream of which we are told that, entering a salt and bituminous lake, it clears its way through the uncongenial waters, untainted and uncommingled, so that it issues forth below as pure as when it entered, so the current of God's people, passing through the dead sea of this world, does not blend with its waters, but speeds on undefiled to the clear ocean in heaven. Consider how this unworldly spirit will tell on your every-day course. I. IT WILL RESTRAIN YOU FROM INTIMACY, THOUGH YOU CANNOT AVOID INTERCOURSE, WITH THE UNGODLY. II. YOU WILL BE DISTINGUISHED FROM THE WORLD BY THE MODERATION WITH WHICH YOU WILL FORM YOUR PLANS AND PROSECUTE YOUR UNDERTAKINGS. III. YOU WILL SHOW "ANOTHER SPIRIT" IN THE FRIENDSHIPS WHICH YOU FORM AND THE ASSOCIATIONS WHICH YOU CHOOSE. IV. YOU WILL BE RESTRAINED FROM THAT GREEDINESS OF GAIN WHICH, MORE THAN EVER, CHARACTERISES THE WORLD IN THIS PRESENT AGE. V. YOU WILL HAVE A LARGE AND OPEN HAND FOR THE CLAIMS OF GOD, THE SERVICE OF HIS CHURCH, AND FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR AND NEEDY.(Hugh Stowell, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work. |
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