COMPROMISE IS COSTLY

         By A. W. Tozer
 

       I pray . . . that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
                                                               -   -   John 17:15

                Christianity today is so entangled with this present
        world that millions never guess how radically they have
        missed the New Testament pattern.

               Compromise is everywherebut actually no real union
        between  the  world  and  the Church is possible.  When the
        Church  joins  up  with  the  world  it  is the true Church no
        longer, but only a pitiful  hybrid  thing, an  object of smiling
        contempt to the world,  and  an  abomination  to  the  Lord!

                Nothing could be clearer than the pronouncements of
        the Scriptures on the Christian's relation to the world.  The
        confusion which gathers around this matter results from the
        unwillingness of professing Christians to take the Word of
        the Lord seriously.

                This whole thing is spiritual in its essence.  A Christian
        is what he is, not  by  ecclesiastical  manipulation,  but by the
        new  birth.  He  is  a  Christian  because  of  a  Spirit  which
        dwells  in  him. Only  that  which  is  born  by  the  SPIRIT is
        spirit, no matter how many church dignitaries work on it!
 

        Yours in Christ,
        Paul N. F.