Editorial October 27, 1923 Issue

"Be ye separate"

Albert F. Gilmore

In his second letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul made clear the necessity for those who had accepted the teachings of Christ Jesus to go apart from the materially-minded, from those still bound in sinful pleasure, in order the better to exemplify the fruits of the Master's mission. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing," he admonished them.

The necessity for the disciples of Truth to keep from the contamination which would result from intimate association with the less spiritually-minded was also voiced by the prophet Isaiah: "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." The Revelator expressed the same necessity in these words: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

Christ Jesus, likewise in terms tender, compassionate, and sweet with humility, petitioned the Father on behalf of his faithful disciples, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The Nazarene was keenly alive to the need for his disciples to refrain from material indulgences in order that they might become the torch-bearers of Truth to suffering humanity; and he sought this separation for them, not with the expectation that they would escape temptation by going apart from their fellows, but rather that, while being in the world and taking part in its activities, they should gain and hold spiriutal concepts in the degree that would keep them above the plane of those who were thinking and living in terms of materiality. Christian Scientists, no less than the early Christians, face the necessity of keeping "from the evil" while yet daily mingling with those whose thoughts are still untouched by the blessed evangel of Truth.

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