Sept. 26
Charles Spurgeon · Faith's Checkbook
AMONG THE REDEEMED
"Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the
nations" Num. 23:9
Who would wish to dwell among the nations, and to be numbered with
them? Why, even the professing church is such that to follow the Lord
fully within its bounds is very difficult. There is such a mingling and
mixing that one often sighs for "a lodge in some vast wilderness."
Certain it is that the Lord would have His people follow a separated
path as to the world, and come out decidedly and distinctly from it. We
are set apart by the divine decree, purchase, and calling, and our
inward experience has made us greatly to differ from men of the world;
and therefore our place is not in their Vanity Fair, nor in their City
of Destruction, but in the narrow way where all true pilgrims must
follow their Lord.
This may not only reconcile us to the world's cold shoulder and sneers,
but even cause us to accept them with pleasure as being a part of our
covenant portion. Our names are not in the same book, we are not of the
same seed, we are not bound for the same place, neither are we trusting
to the same guide, therefore it is well that we are not of their
number. Only let us be found in the number of the redeemed, and we are
content to be odd and solitary to the end of the chapter.