Editorial April 26, 1913 Issue

SEPARATENESS

Annie M. Knott

A great deal is said about the need for unity among Christian people, but it is not always remembered that the demand for separateness is of equal importance. In the sixth chapter of II Corinthians this demand is expressed in no uncertain terms, and strict obedience to it makes one's spiritual progress a path which shines "more and more unto the perfect day."

The command itself reads: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, ... and touch not the unclean thing;" then follows that wonderful promise: "And I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." This passage has, however, been robbed of its true significance by the supposition that the command could be obeyed by keeping apart from those whose religious views were different from our own, an opinion which has never brought to any one a sense of the nearness and tenderness of the all-loving Father. The ancient Jewish worship presented at every turn by type and symbol the need of separation from evil, and in Leviticus we read: "Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness." At that early day the priests and Levites were set apart by certain rites and ceremonies, but in the early days of the Christian church fasting and prayer took the place of these outward forms, and thus Paul and Barnabas and others were separated from materiality and prepared for the work of healing and evangelizing humanity.

It is sometimes asked how Christian Scientists regard this Scriptural demand. To this it may be answered that they are taught from the first the need of intelligent and unhesitating obedience to it. Their revered Leader says (Science and Health, p. 451): "Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate,"—in other words, they must take their stand by the teaching of the Master who said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." Now the one to whom this was spoken was undoubtedly a man of high moral character, but he had to learn the need of separation from the fleshly belief of a material origin, with all it implies in the way of mortal passions, desires, and fears, none of which, so said the Master, can enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus had opened this interview by an inquiry as to Jesus' mighty works, and he admitted that no one could do such works except God were with him. Then the great Teacher went straight to the heart of the subject by declaring for the new birth. He said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." This was his way of presenting the unreality of matter.

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