COMPROMISE IS COSTLY

         By A. W. Tozer

              I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world,
              but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
             They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
                                                                                    ---John 17:15,16

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

                 Compromise is everywhere; but 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.