are to do our work as Christian people--it is
also true that it is possible, in the closest unions with men who do not
share our faith, to do the same thing that they are doing, with a
difference which separates us from them, even whilst we are united with
them. They tell us that, however dense any material substance may seem
to be, there is always a film of air between contiguous particles. And
there should be a film between us and our Christless friends and
companions and partners, not perceptible perhaps to a superficial
observer, but most real. If we do our common work as a religious duty,
and in the exercise of all our daily occupations 'set the Lord always
before' us, however closely we may be associated with people who do not
so live, they will know the difference; never fear! And you will know
the difference, and will not be identified with them, but separate in a
wholesome fashion from them.

And, dear brethren, if I may go a step further, I would venture to say
that it seems to me that our Christian communities want few things more
in this day than the reiteration of the old saying, 'Have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' There
is so much in this time to break down the separation between him that
believeth in Christ and him that doth not; narrowness has come to be
thought such an enormous wickedness, and liberality is so lauded by all
sorts of superficial people, that Christian men need to be summoned back
to their standard. 'Being let go, they went to their own company'--there
is a natural affinity which should, and will, if our faith is vital,
draw us to those who, on the gravest and solemnest things, have the same
thoughts, the same hopes, the same faith. I do not urge you, God knows,
to be bigoted and narrow, and shut yourselves up in your faith, and
leave the world to go to the devil; but I do not wish, either, that
Christian people should fling themselves into the arms and nestle in the
hearts of persons who do not share with them 'like precious faith.'

I am sure that there are many Christian people, old and young, who are
suffering in their religious life because they are neglecting this
commandment of my text. 'Let him alone.' There can be no deep affection,
and, most of all--if I may venture on such ground--no wedded love worth
the name, where there is not unanimity in regard to the deepest matters.
It does not say much for the religion of a professing Ch