The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1902-12-05
From Sun iav's Daily.
BY The EDITOR.

that verse in James which says that
religion, pure aud undefiled, is to
keep ones self "unspOtted from the
world"
Separate yourselves from the
world" is a favorite theme with
many preachers.
Why should We rail against this
world as if il were an enemy to man?
The things of this world, as if they
were in constant antagonism to God?
This world is the hsndiwork of God.
All that in it is is his. There is not a
thing in it that was not fOreordained
and fashioned 10y him. He made
tree and plant and flower. He gave to
the rainbow its coloring; he painted
the lilly; he tinted the skies; he filled
the woods with warbling songsters.
We awake in the morning and the
whole horizon is illuminated with the
brilliant rays of the sun as he rises In
his splendOr over the eastern hills.
There is reflected in the dew drop a
beauty unexcelled.by any Raphael
As he PASSES the meridian and sinks
to his slumber this glorious orb leaves
a flush of coloring behind him that in
all ages has given inspiration to poet,
painter, idealist.
Why should we separate ourselves
from a world like this? With fresh
ness and beauty everywhere around
Us, above US and beneath US, why
should we shut ourselves up in some
dark cIOister, bruise our bodies,
scourge!our backs, in order to obtain
favor in the eyes of one who has
shown his love of alteration in a way
altogether more sane aud beautiful?
And what is the example of Christ?
Did he,lseparate himself from the
world?
Not at all.
We find him visiting among all
classes and conditions of men.
His mission was to lift men up to
higher aud nobler heights.
How could he do this by separating
himself from the world and not COM
lug i'm contact with it?
The long distance telephone is
rarely used in the performance OF
deeds of charity, mercy, benevOlence,
valor, herOism, patriotism.
To lift up men and women in their
stumbles and falls i'm life's meander-
ings we must be somewhere in the
vicinity of their temptations.
Doleful faces, long prayers, severe
lamentations, beating ones breast, fall
ing Oh ones face do not count for
much in the line of benign alteration.
These forms of worship cannot be
the most pleasing to God because they
do not denote a high form of inteIli-
gence.
In his dominion over every living
thing that walks or creeps the earth
what boots it to man if the beetles
and the bugs along his pathway, to
show their alteration, fall prone upon
their faces or stand erect upon their
legs?
If the heart, the mind, the soul, the
conscience, are educated along right
lines, God will care nothing for
outward forms, and all through his
earthly career Christ emphasized no
facts more than these.
God 50 loved the world" is what
the bible says, and those parts of it
where sin was foulest and snares and
pitfalls greatest, are the places Christ
thought most in need of his presence.
So much did Christ mimgle with the
world, and the things of the world,
that he was called q "wine-bibber'
a sabbath breaker
suppose that Carrie Nation with
her hatchet had been at that famous
marriage supper in Cans, what would
she have done with those SIX water
pots ot stone after Christ had changed
the water in them into wine?
And suppose that some of the
PhariseeS Of our times had been pres
ent when on the Sabbath day Christ
went through the corn and began to
pluck the ears and to eat, would not