Come Ye Out From Among Them
by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning By Morning, June 27, pg. 181, Published 1984


"Only ye shall not go very far away" (Exodus 8:28).

This is a crafty word from the Pharaoh.  If the poor bondaged Israelites must go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it will not be very far away - at least not far enough to escape the terror of his arms and the observation of his spies.  After the same fashion, the world would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand.  Death to the world and burial with Christ are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule.  Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise and talks of moderation.  According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise.  Truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced.  "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny yourself a little frivolity.  What's the good of criticizing something when it is so fashionable and everybody does it?" Multitudes of professing Christians yield to this cunning advice to their own eternal ruin.  If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness and leave the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, pleasures, and religion and go far away to the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones.  When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames.  To all true believers, let the trumpet call be sounded,

"Come ye out from among them; be ye separate" (2 Corinthians 6:17).