Christians should ponder well the heavenly calling; it is the only thing that will give full deliverance from the power and influence of worldliness. Men may seek abstraction from the world in various ways, but there is only one in which to attain separation from it. Again, men may seek to render themselves unearthly in various ways; there is only one way in which we can become really heavenly. Abstraction is not separation; nor is unearthliness to be mistaken for heavenliness. The monastic system illustrates very fully the distinction between these things. A monk is unearthly, in a certain sense, but by no means heavenly; he is unnatural, but by no means spiritual; he is abstracted from the world, but by no means separated from it.
Now, the heavenly calling enables a man to see his entire separation from, and elevation above, the world, in virtue of what Christ is, and where He is. The heart instructed by the Holy Ghost, as to the meaning of Heb. 2:11, knows the secret of his deliverance from the principles, habits, pursuits, feelings, and tendencies, of this present age. The Lord Jesus has taken His place on high, as the head of the body, the Church; and the Holy Ghost has come down to lead all the foreknown and predestinated members of the body into living fellowship with the living Head, now rejected from earth, and hidden with God. Hence in the gospel, as preached by Paul, the remission of sins is inseparably connected with the heavenly calling, inasmuch as he preached the unity of the one body on earth with its Head in heaven.