Nehemiah puts it in Old Testament phraseology, the fear of God'; the New Testament equivalent is the love of Christ.' And if you want to take the power and the life out of both phrases, in order to find a modern conventional equivalent, you will say religion.' I prefer the old-fashioned language. The love of Christ' impels to this non-compliance. Now, my point is this, that Jesus Christ requires from each of us that we shall abstain, restrict ourselves, refuse to do a great many things that are being done round us.
I need not remind you of how continually He spoke about taking up the cross. I need not do more than just remind you of His parable of the two ways, but ask you, whilst you think of it, to note that all the characteristics of each of the ways which He sets forth are given by Him as reasons for refusing the one and walking in the other. For example,' Enter ye in at the strait gate, for strait is the gate', that is a reason for going in; and narrow is the way', that is a reason for going in; and few there be that find it', that is a reason for going in. Wide is the gate', that is a reason for stopping out; and broad is the way'-that is a reason for stopping out; and many there be that go in thereat', that is a reason for stopping out. Is not that what I said, that the minority is generally right and the majority wrong? Just because there are so many people on the path, suspect it, and expect that the path with fewer travellers is probably the better and the higher.
But to pass from that, what did Jesus Christ mean by His continual contrast between His disciples and the world? What did He mean by the world'? This fair universe, with all its possibilities of help and blessing, and all its educational influences? By no means. He meant by the world' the aggregate of things and men considered as separate from God. And when He applied the term to men only, He meant by it very much what we mean when we talk about society. Society is not organised on Christian principles; we all know that, and until it is, if a man is going to be a Christian he must not conform to the world. Know ye not that whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.'
I would press upon you, dear friends! that our Christianity is nothing unless it leads us to a standard, and a course of conduct in conformity with that standard, which will be in diametrical opposition to a great deal of what is patted on the back, and petted and praised by society. Now, there is an easy-going kind of Christianity which does not recognise that, and which is in great favour with many people to-day, and is called liberality' and breadth,' and conciliating and commending Christianity to outsiders,' and I know not what besides. Well, Christ's words seem to me to come down like a hammer upon that sort of thing. Depend upon it, the world', I mean by that the aggregate of godless men organised as they are in society, does not think much of these trimmers. It may dislike an out-and-out Christian, but it knows himwhen it sees him, and it has a kind of hostile respect for him which the other people will never get. You remember the story of the man that was seeking for a coachman, and whose question to each applicant was, How near can you drive to the edge of a precipice?'
He took the man who said: I would keep away from it as far as I could.' And the so-called Christian people that seem to be bent on showing how much their lives can be made to assimilate to the lives of men that have no sympathy with their creeds, are like the rash Jehus that tried to go as near the edge as they could. But the consistent Christian will keep as far away from it as he can. There are some of us who seem as if we were most anxious to show that we, whose creed is absolutely inconsistent with the world's practices, can live lives which are all but identical with these practices. Jesus Christ says, through the lips of His Apostle, what He often said in other language by His own lips when lie was here on earth: Be ye not conformed to the world.'
Surely such a command as that, just because it involves difficulty, self-restraint, self-denial, and sometimes self-crucifixion, ought to appeal, and does appeal, to all that is noble in humanity, in a fashion that that smooth, easy-going gospel of living on the level of the people round us never can do. For remember that Christ's commandment not to be conformed to the world is the consequence of His commandment to be conformed to Himself. Thus did not I comes second; This one thing I do' comes first. You will misunderstand the whole genius of the Gospel if you suppose that, as a law of life, it is perpetually pulling men short up, and saying: Don't, don't, don't! There is a Christianity of that sort which is mainly prohibition and restriction, but it is not Christ's Christianity. He begins by enjoining: This do in remembrance of Me,' and the man that has accepted that commandment must necessarily say, as he looks out on the world, and its practices: , So did not I, because of the fear of God.'
