The Great Separation # 2

The Great Separation # 2

I know well the world dislikes this way of dividing professing Christians. The world tries hard to fancy there are three sorts of people, and not two. To be very godly and very strict does not suit the world - they cannot, will not be holy. To have no religion at all does not suit the world - as that would not be respectable. "Thank God," they will say, "we are not so bad as that!" But to have religion enough to be respectable - and yet not go into extremes, to be sufficiently good - and yet not be peculiar - to have a quiet, easy-going, moderate kind of Christianity, and go comfortably to Heaven after all - this is the world's favorite idea! There is a third class, a safe middle class  - the world imagines; and in this middle class - the majority of men persuade themselves they will be found.

I denounce this notion of a middle class as an immense and soul-ruining delusion! I warn you strongly not to be carried away by it. It is as vain an invention as the Pope's purgatory. It is a refuge of lies, a castle in the air, a Russian ice-palace, avast unreality, an empty dream! This middle class is a class of Christians no where spoken of in the Bible!

There were two classes in the day of Noah's flood; those who were inside the ark - and those who were outside! There were two classes in the parable of the Gospel net; those who are called the good fish - and those who are called the bad. There were two classes in the parable of the ten virgins; those who are described as wise - and those who are described as foolish. There were two classes in the account of the judgment day; the sheep - and the goats. There were two sides of the throne; the right hand - and the left. There were two abodes when the last sentence has been passed; Heaven - and hell.

And just so, there are only two classes in the world: those who are in the state of nature - and those who are in the state of grace; those who are in the narrow way - and those who are in the broad; those who have faith - and those who have no faith; those who have been converted - and those who have not been converted; those who are with Christ - and those who are against Him; those who gather with Him - and those who scatter abroad; those who are wheat - and those who are chaff. Into these two classes, the whole world may be divided. Beside these two classes, there is none.

Dear reader, see now what cause there is for self-inquiry! Are you among the wheat - or among the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class - or in the other. Which is it  of the two?

You attend church perhaps. You go to the Lord's table. You like good people. You can distinguish between good preaching and bad. You think Popery false, and oppose it firmly. You subscribe to religious societies. You attend religious meetings. You sometimes read religious books. It is well - it is all very well. It is good. It is more than can be said of many. But still, this is not a straightforward answer to my question: Are you wheat - or are you chaff?

Have you been born again? Are you a new creature? Have you put off the old man, and put on the new? Have you ever felt your sins, and repented of them? Are you looking only to Christ for pardon and eternal life? Do you love Christ? Do you serve Christ? Do you loathe heart-sins, and fight against them? Do you long for perfect holiness, and follow hard after it? Have you come out from the world? Do you delight in the Bible? Do you wrestle in prayer? Do you love Christ's people? Do you try to do good to the world? Are you vile in your own eyes, and willing to take the lowest place? Are you a Christian in business, and on week days, and by your own fireside? Oh, think, think on these things - and then perhaps you will be better able to tell the state if your own soul!


I beseech you not to turn away from my question, however unpleasant it may be. Answer it, though it may prick your conscience, and cut you to the heart. Answer it, though it may prove you in the wrong, and expose your danger. Rest not until you know how it is between you and God! Better a thousand times to find out and repent, than be lost in eternity! Begin to meditate on it this very day. Are you wheat - or chaff?

2. Let me show you, in the second place, the TIME when the two great classes of mankind shall be separated.  The text at the beginning of this paper foretells a separation. It says that Christ shall one day do to His professing Church, what the farmer does to his corn. He shall winnow and sift it. "He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing floor." And then the wheat and the chaff shall be divided.

There is no separation yet. Good and bad are now all mingled together in the visible Church. Believers and unbelievers - converted and unconverted - holy and unholy - all are to be found now among those who call themselves Christians. But it shall not always be so! Christ shall come the second time with His winnowing fork in His hand. He shall thoroughly purge His Church, even as He purified the temple. And then the wheat and the chaff shall be separated - and each will go to his own place!

Before Christ comes, separation is impossible. It is not in man's power to effect it. There lives not the minister on earth, who can read the hearts of everyone in his congregation. About some he may speak decidedly - he cannot about all. Who have oil in their lamps - and who have not; who have grace as well as profession - and who have profession only, and no grace; who are children of God - and who of the devil.  The winnowing fork is not put into our hands!

Grace is sometimes so weak and feeble - that it looks like nature. Nature is sometimes so plausible and well-dressed - that it looks like grace. I believe many of us would have said that Judas was as good as any of the apostles - and yet he proved a traitor! I believe that we would have said that Peter was a reprobate when he denied his Lord - and yet he repented immediately, and rose again. We are but fallible men. We know in part. We scarcely understand our own hearts. It is no great wonder if we cannot read the hearts of others.

But it will not always be so. There is One coming who never errs in judgment, and is perfect in knowledge. Jesus shall purge His floor. Jesus shall sift the chaff from the wheat. I wait for this. Until then, I will lean to the side of charity in my judgments. I would rather tolerate much chaff in the Church - than cast out one grain of wheat!

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 3)