Old Paths Advocate Volume 6 Number 7

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Special Interest

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Important Notice

No July Issue

Preachers and church leaders, we are delighted to receive your good reports and articles for publication in the O. P. A., but we wonder if you really work for subs, and donations for the O. P. A. while in these good meetings. Do you realize that your hearty cooperation is needed now, possibly, more than at any time since we began the publication? You must show an interest in the welfare of the paper before you will impress others with its importance, and if you expect to secure, subs., you must talk the paper. Is the paper worth anything to you and the cause you espouse? If so, show your appreciation by soliciting subs for it. If all will really work, we shall not be compelled to miss another issue. Brethren, may I count on you? Let us press the work! We were very sorry we had to miss the July number, but you just failed to send in sufficient funds to pay the printers.

​Married

Phillips - Freeman

The Friends of Bro. J. D. Phillips, and they are scattered over more than thirty states, will be glad to know that at last he has someone to take care of him.
 
The girl undertaking this great task is Miss Edith Freeman of Eola, Texas, a splendid Christian girl. She is the daughter of Bro. and Sister H. O. Freeman, of this place. Bro. Freeman is the founder and one of the elders of the church here.
 
Bro. Phillips and Edith were quietly married in the home of Bro. F. R. Keel in San Angelo, Tex., Tuesday morning, May 30, the writer officiating.
 
The Old Paths Advocate wishes for them a long, happy and useful life.

Homer A. Gay

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Articles

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The Time of the Lord’s Supper

Opportune to the article “The Time of the Lord’s Day,” in the March issue of the Old Paths Advocate, comes the answer to the following objections:
 
Objection 1: “No one can break bread any hour of the first day of the week. It is man’s opinion that any hour of the day will do. There is no record of any one breaking bread in the assembly of disciples except Paul, Acts 20:7-11. He forbade eating meals in the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:20-22). Therefore, he ate the Lord’s supper. Paul’s example at Troas tells us that the day and the hour to break bread was upon the first day of the week at midnight.”
 
Answer: To know what we can and cannot do, we must take all the New Testament says. The sum of what it says is the truth. What does it say on the subject of breaking bread? Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-20, John 13:1-31, Acts 2:42, Acts 20:6-11, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, and Hebrews 10:25. The sum of what these scriptures say is God’s answer to the question, “When shall we break bread in memory of Christ’s death?” The day but not the hour is given. Then any hour of the first day of the week is acceptable to God.
 
“But, Paul partook of the Lord’s supper at mid­night at Troas.” This is your opinion but not what the Bible says. It says the disciples came together to break bread on the first day of the week. The next statement is Paul preached and continued preaching until midnight. The reason given for his stopping then was not to partake of the Lord’s supper, but because of an accident. When night came they had the place of meeting well lighted with many lights so what happened was easily seen. Eutychus, sitting in a window, listening to Paul’s long preaching went to sleep and fell from the third story and killed himself. This broke up the assembly. Paul went down and brought him to life. Paul, and Paul alone, is named as coming up and breaking bread and eating, (the way of expressing a common meal, Acts 2:46). By this time the assembly having convened he spoke till day break. To say all the disciples ate with him is to say what God does not say. This God forbids. To say he ate the Lord’s supper alone conflicts with verse 7 and Matthew 18:20. To say he ate a common meal in the assembly which he forbade at Corinth is to say what the Bible does not say:
 
1. It does not say the assembly was convened when he ate.

2. 1 Corinthians 11:20-22 states they made a common meal of the Lord’s supper. Instead of eating their meals to satisfy their hunger at their own houses they made a feast of the Lord’s supper to satisfy hunger; one division in the church had eaten and drunken by the time another division in the church had arrived, and they were hungry. Such eating Paul forbids. Paul’s example at Troas shows what Christians now do, that we can meet on the first day and break bread in memory of Christ, then hear preaching, disband the assembly partake of refreshments, come together again and hear preaching. This is what Paul’s example at Troas teaches, but it does not teach us to eat the Lord’s supper at midnight.
 
Objection 2: “The Jewish Passover was eaten at midnight, and Christ instituted the supper at midnight.”
 
Answer: The Jews were told to kill the Passover Iamb on the 14th of first month at sundown (Deuteronomy 16:6-7) and cook and eat it that night (Exodus 12:6-8), but no hour for eating it is named. Christ did what the law said. When He instituted the Lord’s supper at the Passover He named no hour when it should be eaten. He did not say, as in the Passover, it should be eaten at night.
 
Objection 3: “God passed over the Jews at midnight. Christ is our Passover and comes for us at midnight.”
 
Answer: They were commanded to eat the Passover and be ready to leave Egypt after God passed over at midnight. Our Passover Christ was slain for us at midday, and He says no one but His Father knows when He shall come again (Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32); One secret not even the righteous Christ knows; but when He comes at even, midnight, cock crowing, or morning (Matthew 24:27-46 and Luke 17:24-36), that two will be grinding at a mill one (the just, John 5:28-29 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) will be taken, the other (the evil, John 5:28-29 and Revelation 6:16-17) left; two shall be working in a field one taken the other left, two shall be sleeping in a bed one taken the other left. Those working in the field show it will not be the Lord’s day, nor midnight, in the part of the earth where they live when Christ comes. The just one taken from the bed asleep will not be eating the Lord’s supper when He comes.
 
Midnight does not come at the same hour over all the earth. When it is midnight in one part, it is midday in another, even in another, cock-crowing in another, morning in another. Christ does not say His faithful ones will be breaking bread when He comes.
 
Objection 4: “Jesus and Paul and Peter associate this memory service with His coming. Matthew 24:28, 1 Corinthians 11:26, and 2 Peter 3:3-10. The cry is made at midnight behold the bridegroom cometh. So, let us keep the feast and be patiently waiting for Him to come on the first day of the week at midnight.”
 
Answer: Read Matthew 24:28 with Revelation 19:17-21. Clearly this supper is not the Lord’s supper. Paul does not say in 1 Corinthians 11:26 we shall be eating the Lord’s supper when he comes. It is fulfilled if His followers continue to eat of it each Lord’s day till He comes. Peter says nothing about the supper when Christ comes in 2 Peter 3:8-10; but if we are meeting each Lord’s day to break bread, living holy lives seven day a week, are teaching our children the New Testament from childhood and as soon as they can believe and obey Christ admonish them to “save themselves” (Acts 2:38-40), are supporting preachers with our money in preaching the gospel to the lost, doing all good works, as named in the Bible, then we can say we are patiently waiting for Christ to come. Hence, 2 Peter 3:11-18 tells us what to do to be “wise virgins” when the cry shall be made “behold the bridegroom cometh.”
 
Objection 5: “The Bible says breaking bread is eating the Lord’s supper and the word supper means it is to be eaten at night.”
 
Answer: The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek word means: “Deipnon, a meal, or meal time; the principal meal whenever taken; the chief meal answering to our dinner.” (Liddell and Scott Gr. Lexicon). “Originally breakfast, but latterly supper, a meal, food, meat, victuals.” (Groves). “A morning repast; dinner, Pradium (breakfast, dinner, lunch); in N. T. Supper the principal meal of the Hebrews, and taken by them in the evening, food, feast, banquet.” (Greenfield). “Dinner, feast, supper. (Strong). The meaning of the word does not say when it shall be eaten. It is impossible for all to eat it at the same hour of night. There is no Scriptural reason found for it. To make laws for God’s church where God has made none is presumption and dangerous. (James 4:12 and Revelation 22:18)

J. Madison Wright

Idolatry

The apostle Paul tells us that he that worships idols worships demons. This suggests that idolatry is the devil’s own religion. The Devil being the greatest power in the universe, next to God Himself, Idolatry is the most to be expected, and the most dreaded of all the influences, either open or insidious, at his command.
 
The largest sect of (so called) Christendom is permeated with idols, pictures and images. All Protestantism is being leavened by it. Witness the pictures, and ‘moving pictures,’ of Christ, and angels, and ‘saints’ and apostles. The ‘Church of Christ’ is no exception to this increasing propaganda of Satan.
 
The first of the ten commandments deals with, and prohibits the making of any likeness of anything that is an object of worship. Not even a likeness of the true and the living God was to be tolerated, on pain of death. God showed no ‘similitude’ of Himself, lest men be tempted to imitate, and learn to reverence the same.
 
Several times, in the Old Testament, the making of such pictures and likenesses, is forbidden, independent of the mention of consequent worship. What is the purpose of such pictures, if it is not to increase ‘reverence’ for the thing pictured. Then, what will be the influence on the lives of impressionable childhood, where ‘cards’ and leaflets are increasingly used?
 
The Old Testament is full of exhortations to annihilate, and obliterate, all pictures and idols, not only from their own worship, but from the nations about them. We ought to be making a fearful tirade against these things in the church, and out of it.
 
It is not Catholicism that is the ‘beast’ of Revelation. The Beast is Paganism. The Woman that rides the Beast is Pagan. Paganism is the Beast, whose deadly wound is to be healed, and all the world shall ‘wonder’, at its recovery. And Paganism is Idolatry.
 
The fables, and mythology, that is being taught in our schools, are not from Catholicism (as many suppose), but they are Pagan. They antedate even Christianity. The growing spirit of Atheism is not Catholic, but Pagan. The Divorce, and destruction of the home life, now rampant, are not Catholic, but Pagan.
 
The Beast will ultimately (with his ten horns) unseat, and destroy the Whore, because Satan has Paganism in mind, as the chief desideratum. Satan and his demons will shortly be cast down to the earth, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And because ‘he who worships idols, worships devils,’ Satan and his fallen ‘spirits’ will inspire the world with idolatrous propaganda, and idolatrous pictures and images, chief among which is an image of the Beast, himself.
 
The Beast will ‘kill with the sword’ all those who refuse this homage. But God will say, ‘If any man receives the mark of the Beast, he shall receive his punishment, in the Lake of Fire, where they have no rest day or night, forever and ever’. Revelation 9:20 and Revelation 14:10.
 
Brethren, we are facing Satan’s worst, and God’s worst, if we do not call a halt. Wherefore, beloved brethren, flee from Idolatry! The Seventh Day Adventists are the most inconsistent people on earth, because they revere the ten commandments, and yet revel in Pictures. Their literature teems with pictures of Christ and ‘holy characters.’ One of their latest ‘Signs of the Times’ is emblazoned with a full picture of Buddha.

Faithfully yours,
Paul Hays

Logical Deduction from Cups Men

We CUPS men, reason that; for fear the exemplified one cup way in the Lord’s feast will become universal in the Church we’ll say; we’re not bound to that way. Then we’ll bind upon the Church the cups way that suits us. This won’t subvert binding rules where Christ bound none, as none like unto our cups way is exemplified. Albeit our flagrant refusal to follow Christ as Paul insists we should by; “keeping the ordinances as I delivered them to you” will show up, but we care not to have everything precisely as it’s exemplified, as small refractive of the law don’t hurt. Howbeit my teaching; “to keep our opinions and preferences out of the worship” is set aside, which teaching I think is of superlative value to the Church. Yet that’s of small concern to us compared to having our way for convenience sake. Then rather than not to have our way, we’ll make a clean sweep of that tedious cup way by charging those one cup folks of making rules where Christ made none. Such camouflage will be fudging some, but it will assuredly give prestige most favorable to our much-cherished un-exemplified way.

Very Un-Truly Yours,
CUPS MEN
B. M. Massengale

No Middle Ground

There is no middle ground between the word of the Lord and human device. We are, therefore, uncompromisingly opposed to all things  not taught by the apostles of Christ in religion. Anything the Lord did not teach through his apostles, and the New Testament church did not practice; is to be regarded as intolerable. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” This will put an end to all untaught things which have divided the churches through all the years. No one has a right to write a thing or teach a thing, contrary to this passage, which has to do with human life and destiny. For “whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Let us never depart from the revealed things, therefore.

C. M. Pullias
in Gospel Advocate

If this is the Lord’s standard of measurement - and it is, - the preachers and churches may know that they, like the churches in the book of REVELATION, need much repentance before they can be acceptable to the Lord. Why not the preachers start this? Are they making too much from their “merchandise” as it now is to want a change? Are they afraid they will not be popular? Well, the Judge is coming to give “every man according as his work shall be.”

H. C. H.

“Stick to the Bible”

“If Baptists would stick to the Bible, they would go pretty straight, and we would not have all the confusion that now mars our passing history”

(Baptist Sword and Shield)

Yes, Baptists should “stick to the Bible.” Alexander Campbell discovered this over a century ago. He knew they were a long ways from the Bible. Consequently, he began a Restoration of Primitive Christianity right in the Baptist ranks.
 
If you will “stick to the Bible” one of the first things you will do is to discard the Baptist name for the name Christian (Acts 11:26,  Acts 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16, and Acts 4:12). The next thing you will do is to obey Acts 2:38 - “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.” “For” here expresses the purpose of baptism. It is from eis, into, unto, with a view to, in order to, in order to obtain.
 
Baptists, who have been baptized with the Baptist dogma of “remission of sins before baptism” in their hearts, have been baptized “because of the remission of sins” and upon a confession that - “I feel that God has, for Christ’s sake, pardoned my sins.” This is the very opposite of the command in Acts 2:38. Hence, their baptism is wrong!

J. D. Phillips

The Mixed Marriage Question

Just before the flood in the days of Noah, when the population of the earth was on the increase, “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose.” As a result, the Lord said,” My spirit shall not always strive with man.”
 
Furthermore ever since there has been sons of God versus children of men, God’s command has been, “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion have light with darkness? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? and what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we (Sons of God Galatians 3:26-27) are a temple of God; even as God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, Saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, Deuteronomy 7:3, Exodus 34:16, and Joshua 23:12-13.
 
If ever there was a yoke it is the marriage tie, that usually lasts for life. It ‘hitches’ two people together “for better or for worse.” Usually they expect that state to be “for better,” else they would not enter it. But when one pulls for the Lord’s cause and the other for the world, are they working well together in the yoke? When one goes to the Lord’s assembly, and the other to some worldliness, is that team work? Truly, such a state is for worse and not for better. Eventually the stronger will win, and in most cases that is the unbeliever, for the very act of giving in to marriage on the part of the Christian, is a manifestation of victory for the worldling. I have known the sectarians to boast of a great victory over the Lord’s disciples when one of their members married a disciple. What a shame to the Lord’s spiritual house!
 
What have a believer and an unbeliever in common that they should desire to marry? Since the Spirit of God dwells in the Christian and the spirit of the world in the non-Christian, their spiritual minds have nothing in agreement. Therefore, the only mutual relationship between them is the fleshly and that becomes in the eyes of God (to say the least) akin to adultery. But adultery defiles the temple of God (The Christian). “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own.” 1 Corinthians 6:19. “Quench not the Spirit” is another command to be observed. 1 Thessalonians 5:19. For if men quench (put out) the Spirit of God by sin and resistance to His will, it will cease to strive with them. When the Spirit of God goes out, the house is left vacant; the evils of the life of sin will enter seven-fold, and the latter state will be worse than before con­version. (Matthew 12:43-45). The Spirit says, “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.’’’ If we fail to give heed to this command, we quench the Spirit. The Father said, “my Spirit shall not al­ways strive with man.” Also, Paul said, “know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Or know ye not that he that is joined unto a harlot is one body? for the twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:15-17. Since the above has been said about becoming one flesh with a harlot (one type of sinner), why is it not applicable concern­ing any type of sinner? No matter whether a marriage ceremony has been performed or not, it is unlawful for a Christian to be joined to anyone outside the body of Christ. “For we are members. of his body.” The human body is a type of Christ’s body, the church. The members of the human body are joined naturally, and so also are the members of the body of Christ. It is unlaw­ful for our members to be joined to any sinner except in the case of those already mar­ried before conversion. 1 Corinthians 6:12-24. “Ye are not your own for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20. Concerning a condition that may arise in a family of unbelievers, when one has been converted to Christ subsequent to marriage, the apostle gave us a rule that they may live together - but that is an entirely different proposition from a believer deliberately marrying one outside of Christ.
 
It has been known for an unbeliever before marriage to promise repentance and baptism after marriage, but years have rolled by and the promise is not fulfilled. Now the family is coming on and the unbeliever is worse than before. What must the yoked-disciple think? Alas! Brother, Sister, better be sure your prospective mate is converted to Christ before entering upon any contract whatever.
 
For my part I cannot see why a disciple of the Lord should “keep company” with anyone outside of the fold. With the first step in acquaintance, duty demands an effort to convert the “outsider,” and if that fails no further encouragement should be given. We ought to look for beauty of character. Worldly wraps and graces never last. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and all the necessary things of life shall be added - including wife or husband. Never marry outside of Christ. A widow is free to marry whom she will only in the Lord, 1 Corinthians 7:39, how much more those who have had no experience in matrimony.
 
Unfortunately, many of the church today are mixing with the world by marriage, business ties and sociability. Some of the salt is losing its Savor. “As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” - Jesus did not find fault with the lawful use of these necessities, nor did God in the days of Noah. But surfeiting and drunkenness and marrying unbelievers (sons and daughters of men) will be the downfall of the sons and daughters of God if we take not heed.
 
After the return from the Babylonian captivity it was found that some of the Jews had married women of the nations, “and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews language, but according to the language of each people, (said Nehemiah), and I contended with them, and cursed them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless, even him did foreign women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all “this great evil in marrying foreign women?” Nehemiah 13:23-27. Not only did Nehemiah condemn the practice, but also Ezra the scribe grieved exceedingly because of this intermarried condition and would not be pacified until they had agreed to separate from the unbelieving. Read Ezra chapters 9-10.
 
“Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11.
 
“Ye are the salt of the earth,” said Jesus to His disciples. When Christians become entangled with the world in marriage, business ties etc., they have lost their savor (preserving power), and if ail come to that condition, there is nothing to restrain the Lord from destroying the earth, “as in the days of Noah”; only He is going to use fire this time instead of water.
 
Brethren, let us be lights in the world in this matter. Our salvation and that of others (especially the younger generation) depends on it.

L. L. McGill

Good-Bye, Sunday School

Dr. Case, of Columbia university, tells Religious Education Association conference at Cincinnati that Sunday Schools are ineffectual and out of date and proposes that they be withdrawn from the religious curriculum of the churches.

The Pathfinder

Of course, they must go, for Jesus said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall, be rooted up.” (Matthew 15:13) And again: “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Matthew 18:7)

H. C. H.

Faint Yet Pursuing

When Gideon had, by the help of God, put the Midianites to flight he knew then that God was with him. And he saw the necessity of pressing the fight. And so, we read in Judges 8:4, “And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.”
 
I have always felt like Gideon about the Lord’s work. I believe we should be willing to make a sacrifice for the cause and should press the fight for the right.
 
I know of several preachers who could be useful in the field, but they haven’t the time. They intend to, but they never do carry out the intentions. There seems to be something always in the way.
 
A part of Gideon’s army was afraid to fight, and it may be that is what is the matter with some of us. If we wait for everything to be just right, we will never do any preaching.
 
Just now, as perhaps never before, every true gospel preacher is needed in the field. We are gaining ground, and while the enemy is on the run we should “pursue them.” I have determined that this year I will put in every day that I possibly can in preaching the gospel.
 
I have preached at several places near home - going mostly at my own expense. Have said marriage ceremonies, conducted funerals, preached, taught singing, visited the sick, petted (or pitied) the pouting, and so far, this year have gotten one congregation to start worshiping the Lord every day of the week.
 
It took some of the courage of Gideon and that of Paul to do this work, but the Lord has been good to us.
 
We started this year with the car old and nearly bare-footed, no money, and but few clothes, but by the help of the Lord we are still pursuing.
 
While many have failed to get work, I have chopped wood, built roads, tanks, a cistern, worked on the highway, built a barn, helped to build a granary, and worked in the rock quarry. All of this has enabled us to keep going and preaching the gospel.
 
At this writing (June 8th), I am in a meeting in Fort Worth, Texas., trying to lead some wayward soul to Christ. Wife and children are with me, helping in the work. Also Bro. Tom E. Smith, of Healdton, Oklahoma, is with us here. He is leading the singing and is a true yoke-fellow in every way.

We are faint, yet pursuing
Homer A. Gay

“The World’s Fair”

This seems to be the latest inducement to attract people from about every corner and quarter of the earth and in about all avocations of life.
 
“The World’s Fair “may mean worldly people originated it and own it. It could indicate that it is for all people. It might signify that the whole world is represented there in some particular, or it may evidence that all mankind has an interest in it. Howsoever it is or may be, we admit it is of the world, therefore, it is “The World’s Fair.”
 
No doubt many who claim to be Christians have, are and will attend “The World’s Fair.” I have already heard some remark “That it only costs two or three dollars a day to attend.” Should they be requested to contribute “two or three dollars a day” to support the cause of Christ it would be quite an offense to them. The most of the brethren and sisters have money to get about whatever they want (not what they need), then if an appeal is made for aid to promote the Lord’s cause they exclaim, “Depression - hard times and poverty.” But they manage to have money for vacation trips, tobacco, autos, fine homes, furniture, clothing and plenty of fine eats, but very little, if anything, for the Lord. A good many of them will not subscribe for a religious paper by averring “they are not financially able,” but at the same time may be taking a secular journal costing six or twelve dollars per year.
 
It will be surprisingly strange if there are not many excuses offered by the brethren and sisters who go to “The World’s Fair” as to why they went. Probably the most to be seen at “The Fair” is the ingenuity of weak mortals which is all to pass away. Thus, we read: “All things are full of weariness, man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” Ecclesiastes 1:8.
 
One of old hath asked, “Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken dil­igently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55:2. Here are two marvelous questions propounded by the God of Heaven, and rebound, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satis­fieth not?” The above gives rise to our Savior’s teaching in John 6:27: “Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him the. Father even God hath sealed.” Verse 35 concords as follows: “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall not hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Then, “Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” 2 Timothy 2:19. This means to be separate from unrighteousness, thus, “lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where thy treasure is there will thy: heart be also.” Matthew 6:20-21.
 
The children of God should live above the world by keeping themselves unspotted from the world. James l:27. We should remember that Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that, He might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father.” Galatians 1:4. John declares, “We know that we are of God and the whole world (even “The World’s Fair”) lieth in the evil one.” 1 John 5:19.
 
Our Lord said, “The world cannot hate you, but me if hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil.” John 7:7. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I John 2:15. James gives the following, “Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore, would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4.
 
From the foregoing we learn that Christians are not to tamper with the world.

“Purer in heart, Oh God, help me to be,
Teach me to do thy will most lovingly,
Be thou my friend and guide,
Let me with thee abide,
Purer in heart help me to be.”

Joseph Miller