"So shall we be separated."--Here is a word in season for us all. Separation is, too

often, a matter of "separation from", a negative thing, whereas it should be "separation

to", the positive truth. Fellowship with the Lord is the great antidote to worldliness, but

separation from worldliness alone has produced Pharisees and founded monasteries.

Heb. 13: 13, the oft-quoted passage, does not merely say: "Let us go forth therefore

without the camp." What it does say is: "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the

Israel's separation from the nations was evidence by their observance of clean and

unclean meats: "I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.

Ye shall therefore put a difference between clean and unclean" (Lev. 20: 24, 25). Israel's

separation brought about this observance. It was because the Lord had separated them,

that "therefore" they made the difference. Israel were not permitted to intermarry with

the Canaanite, but this abstention did not make them separate. They abstained because

they had been separated: "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them . . . . . for the

Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that

are upon the face of the earth" (Deut. 7: 1-6).

The sanctification which is summed up in a series of negatives is not the real thing.

That is not scriptural sanctification which merely does not do this, does not go there, does

not drink this, for we are solemnly warned against the false system which says: "Touch

not, taste not, handle not." Our positive sanctification is found in Him, and proceeds

from this alone.

The Lord's answer to Moses reveals the value, in His sight, of true intercession: "I

will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I

know thee by name" (Exod. 33: 17).

Answered prayer beget prayer. The Lord's promise of His presence stimulates Moses

to a further request: "And he said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." What is the true

burden of Moses' request? Together with Israel, he had seen the glory of the Lord

manifest upon Sinai, and in the cloud. Moreover, he had entered into the presence of the

Lord, and the Lord had talked with him face to face, and the similitude of the Lord he had

seen. Yet, upon the gracious promise of the lord's presence with him, he is emboldened

to press further and say: "Show me Thy glory."

The word "show" involves seeing. A similar request is found in Song of Sol. 2: 14,

"Let me see Thy countenance". Moses said, "Let me see Thy glory". He evidently

sought something fuller than he had experienced hitherto. He had been "shewed"

the pattern of the tabernacle; this was something he had "seen", and in the Lord's

answer to this request he uses the same word, saying, "My face shall not be seen"

(Exod. 33: 23). Earlier in Exodus we have means adopted "lest the people break