EXTRACTS

Worldliness begins wherever Christ is not the motive and rule of what I do in the necessary details of life, because Christ accompanies as light and grace there as well as lighting us above. It was a different thing the manna and the old corn of the land, but Christ is both. I must be clothed, and I must have a house, but if I deck my person it is the flesh and folly, not Christ, if I do it at all; the degree may be more or less, but the principle judges it. If I furnish my house I must have tables and chairs as a necessity of the, ordinary path of life; Christ will still, be my rule; He bends graciously to my necessities: He does not cultivate folly. I shall seek what meets my necessity with thankfulness. If I seek to please the world and meet its eye, worldliness begins. The measure of judgment in this may, of course, be different, according to spiritual progress, the principle is simple. If I love vanity most clearly it is not Christ. If I dress or furnish to meet the world’s eye, it is worldliness. Had I a sick wife I would get the easiest chair possible. God delights in tenderness, but that is not the world.

J. N. Darby, ‘A Voice to the Faithful’, Vol. 13, p.31 (1879) What constitutes a man great is the way he acts in the presence of light. If there is an accession of light, how are we to act, how are we to be affected?

J. Taylor (N.S. Vol. 90, p.16)

Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4QY, England Printed by C. Ellis, Billericay, Essex, England