God’s Center

Life flows from the divine center. (See John 7.) He who comes to Me and drinks, the Lord said, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." This has a dispensational aspect, but it applies in the assembly at any time for the refreshment of all, taking in ministry to the saints, the young in Sunday school and those out doing the work of the Lord; all are related to the divine center. Notice in the passage about the woman having an alabaster box of ointment and anointing the head of Jesus in Mark 14:3-9, He says "Me" twice. He comes first. "This do in remembrance of Me." And so it is in all Scripture.
What flows outward, flows from the throne of God. "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad." Matt. 12:30. Which side are we on? Gathering or scattering? There is plenty of scope for the poor, the lost, the thirsting, and His babes, but we have nowhere to lead them without being gathered ourselves, and having come into the truth of Zion. "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." Psa. 132:13, 14. This is God's center. Notice what follows. "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." v. 15.
In the future, God's blessing to the whole earth will radiate out from Zion—His heavenly center and the administration of grace. Even now it can be found; let us seek it and never leave it. It is pure grace and not on the ground of our responsibility. We have all failed; every system is a witness to scattering, but there can be, and is, a witness to gathering to God's center through the power of the Spirit. Has the Spirit failed? No! Let us be in the current of His guidance. Today the Spirit gathers us to God's Son, and God is faithful for His Son. (See 1 Cor. 1:9.)
There is the Lord's Table and spiritual plenty, a refreshment for all gathered to His name "till He come." We all believe His coming is very near. Will He find us "gathering" by the Spirit's power or "scattering"?
M. Priestley
We hear much today about
the broad and narrow;
we have to be just as broad
and as narrow as the Word of God

Editorial
What's Ahead?
A recent news headline about Europe is: "IF WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE, EUROPE'S RECENT HISTORY SUGGESTS PLENTY OF DRAMA AHEAD." The Common Market is finally common in more than name.
The tunnel under the English Channel is just ready to speed traffic connecting England with the rest of Europe. The Berlin Wall has been broken down and even sold in chunks as souvenirs. Boundaries in Eastern Europe have changed immensely and are still changing. With the breakup of the U.S.S.R., various new nations have emerged. This is going on in the Balkans also. The top leaders of most of the large nations have altered much in the last few years.
The Apostle Paul writes this in Rom. 15:19. "Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." Illyricum in our day has become Albania and the area of the city of Sarajevo. It was in the Balkan region that John Huss, the reformer, effectively preached the gospel of Christ in early 1400. For his preaching and teaching of the Scriptures, he was burned at the stake. As he approached the stake, he prayed fervently and then said, "Lord Jesus, I humbly suffer this cruel death for Thy sake, and pray Thee to forgive all my enemies.”
Are the horrible atrocities, cruelty and wars in the old Yugoslavian area a prologue of coming events? It is not only that part of the world which has given up the Apostle Paul's doctrine and practice. And it is not only that part of the world which suffers the ravages of war, famine, disease and killing.
For believers, the Apostle Paul wrote: "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." 2 Tim. 2:11, 12. Concerning this scripture we use the words of another: "What an encouragement and a fitting reward for those who suffered in the persecutions of the Reformation period." Martyrs receive a crown of life (Rev. 2:10).
Returning to the headline, we ask: if this is prologue, of what is it indicative? If it is of the great achievements of man and his inventions, and the construction of tunnels, roads, and buildings, is it not also of man's wickedness and the terrible results of war, famine, disease and death?
A common expression is: history repeats itself. In Eccl. 7:10 we read, "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”
One certain thing for the true believer is that the best is yet to come! Ed.
Proverbs
Simon Patrick on the Proverbs
1683
Chapter 1-Part Three
24. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded." If you refuse this offer, nay, go on obstinately to despise instruction, then hear the doom which God, whose voice wisdom is, passes upon you. Because I have pressed you often to amend [correct], and ye would not yield to me; nay, I have been very urgent and earnest with you (offering you my assistance, heaping upon you many benefits, and when they would doe [do] no good, laying on corrections, as well as showing you the way to happiness) and none of you would so much as attend unto me.
25. "But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof" But, quite contrary, set at naught all the good advices I gave you, as if they had been but vain and idle words; and slighted all my reproofs and threatening, as if they had been ridiculous, or of no moment.
26. "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Therefore I will repay you in your kind [in the same manner]; and as little regard what becomes of you, in the day of your calamity (which like a dismal cloud I will bring upon you unavoidably). I will be utterly unconcerned, when you know not which way to turn your selves; but are become the scorn of those, who shall see you quake and tremble at that, which before you would not fear at all.
27. "When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." Though it prove such a dreadful calamity, as will lay all waste, it shall not move me to relieve you, but I will let it sweep you and all you have away like a whirlwind. And when you fall into the most pinching outward distresses, and into the forced anguish of mind, you shall evidently see, it was my pleasure to reduce you to those inextricable straits and pressures.
28. "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." For then (hearken all you that have not yet sinned to this degree of obstinacy) it will be very hard for these men not to think of me, whom before they would not regard. Nay, they shall cry to me for help, but I will send them none. They shall seek my favor importunately, but without the least success.
29. "For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." Because, when time was, they hated that knowledge, of which now they are forced to be desirous, and when they were earnestly solicited to have some regard to God and to religion, they would not consent unto it.
30. "They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof" But (as was said before) rejected my good advice with such disdain, as if it had been a grievance to them, and slighted, nay contemned all those reproofs, whereby I would have reclaimed them from their impiety.
31. "Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices." Therefore, as it is just that men should reap what they sow, and eat such fruit as they plant, so these men shall suffer the punishments, which their wicked doings naturally produce. Nay, be glutted and surfeited [surfeited—indulged to excess] with the miserable effects of their own counsels and contrivances.
32. "For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." For let them alone and they need no body but themselves to destroy them: their escaping dangers, only making them more audacious to run into them and their receiving daily additions of riches and honors, supplying their folly with means to hasten their undoing.
33. "But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." Such a vast difference there is between wicked and virtuous men. For whoso follows my counsels, and takes the courses to which I direct him, shall even then be safe, and possess what he hath in peace, when he sees these fools come to ruin. Nay, he shall not be so much as disturbed with the fear of any mischief, but rest secure of a watchful Providence over him.