He that desires to “come out from the world, and be separate,” must steadily and habitually refuse to be guided by the world’s standard of right and wrong.
The rule of the bulk of mankind is to go with the stream, to do as others, to follow the fashion, to keep in with the common opinion, and to set your watch by the town-clock. The true Christian will never be content with such a rule as that. He will simply ask, “What saith the Scripture? What is written in the Word of God?”— He will maintain firmly that nothing can be right which God says is wrong, and that the custom and opinion of his neighbours can never make that to be a trifle which God calls serious, or that to be no sin which God calls sin. He will never think lightly of such sins as…cursing, gambling, lying, cheating, swindling, or breach of the seventh commandment, because they are common, and many say, “Where is the mighty harm?—That miserable argument,—”Everybody thinks so, everybody says so, everybody does it, everybody will be there,”—goes for nothing with him. Is it condemned or approved by the Bible? That is his only question. If he stands alone in the parish, or town, or congregation, he will not go against the Bible. If he has to come out from the crowd, and take up a position by himself, he will not flinch from it rather than disobey the Bible.
- J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
taken from: Practical Religion. 1878. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998.
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