No. 4

A SPIRTUAL knowledge of the FATHER and His SON Jesus Christ is nothing less than eternal life. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” It is impossible to have the Son without having the Father also, for one is necessarily connected with the other― “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” The sonship of Christ is therefore a vital question― “He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hash not life.” (1 John 5:12.) What think ye of Christ? Whose Sox is He?” were the heart searching inquiries which our Lord put to the caviling Pharisees; and when, on another occasion, He said to Peter, Whom say ye that I am? and he replied,” Thou art the Christ, the Sox of the living God, Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my FATHER which is in heaven.” (Matt. 16:16, 18.) There cannot be true knowledge of God, or real fellowship with God, where the FATHER and the SON are not known “The time cometh,” said our Lord, speaking of the persecutors of His people, “that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service; and these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the FATHER, nor ME.” “God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son....by whom He made the worlds....the brightness of glory;” and hath given all things into His hands. The divine decree, therefore, is that all should honor the SON, even as they honor the FATHER,” and that” he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the FATHER which hath sent Him.” How, then, can any know communion with God, whose hearts and consciences are unacquainted with the FATHER, and with His Son Jesus Christ? It is the gracious office of the HOLY Ghost to tell us of the wondrous love of the FATHER and the SON: ― “All that the FATHER hath are MINE,” said Jesus, “therefore said I, He (the SPIRIT) shall take of MINE, and shall show unto you.” It is thus that we are often constrained to sing,
“The FATHER bruis’d His only SON
For us upon the tree;
His death is our eternal life,
Our glorious liberty.
Love mov’d the FATHER’S hand to smite,
Love mov’d the SON to bear;
How sweet on Calvary to stand!
The God of Love is there.

Our access unto the FATHER is by the SPIRIT through the Sox; thus we have peace in the presence of God, and worship, having “fellowship with the FATHER, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” But I ask, how is it that we do not enjoy more of this blessed fellowship? Is it not because we have such a vast amount of carnal confidence and self-righteousness, that we do not feel the need of the guidance and operations of the Holy Ghost, who alone can keep us in God’s presence, and fill us with joy and peace? Our tendency is to set up some notional standard of Christianity, and thus walk in the miserable light of our own fire, and sparks which we have kindled, instead of judging ourselves according to God’s thoughts, and thinking of Him according to His own blessed revelation of Himself in the scriptures. God cannot meet us on any lower ground than His own perfect holiness, for “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Hence, poor ruined sinners can never come into God’s presence, or happily abide there, but as in Christ, and having redemption through His blood. And, blessed be His name, the believer in Christ need not be afraid to draw nigh to God, for the cross of our Lord Jesus not only chews us how Divine holiness has been met for us, but it also bears witness to the deep love of God’s heart to us, even when sinners, and of His abounding grace in blotting out all our sins, and giving us a holy standing of completeness and acceptance before Him in love. We have also a never-failing High Priest appearing in the presence of God, ever presenting us there as perfected forever by the one offering which He once offered for us; so that we need not attempt to excuse ourselves, or to conceal any of our sin, but to come, confessing all, into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” There is, therefore, every encouragement to walk in the light, God having graciously made every provision for us in Christ, to enable us peacefully to stand before Him. Sin, however, is always connected with darkness and defilement; and Satan, acting upon our flesh, would persuade us, when conscious of failure, to tarry in some bypath, instead of coming at once into the light of God’s presence with heartfelt confession; here to have fellowship restored, by realizing afresh the FATHER’S unchanging love, and the all-cleansing power of the blood of His beloved Son. Here we learn to hate sin, and get power over it.
It is impossible to “walk in the light as He is in the light” without detecting in ourselves what is contrary to the mind of the Lord. The closer we walk with God the more we shall feel our own weakness, and learn to loathe ourselves. AB long as Job was not very near to God he spoke of himself only in a self-justifying strain, but when he could exclaim “now mine eye seeth Thee,” he said that he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. Again, when the faithful and greatly beloved Daniel had a vision of the glory of the Lord, he tells us, “there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength....and when I heard the voice of His words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.” (Dan. 10:8, 9.) Habakkuk also, who was evidently a man of ne ordinary faith, says, “O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid.... when I heard my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones,” &c. (Hab. 3:2, 16); and when the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord’s glory he cried out, “Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5.) And so with us, when we are walking with God we detect depths of depravity, deceitfulness, and folly, that we never suspected ourselves capable of. It is blessed therefore to find that when the Holy Ghost, by John, writes on the subject of fellowship, he connects together the gracious work of atonement and the perfect light of Divine holiness. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7.) It is, then, not by excusing and concealing our sin, but by exposing it before the all-scrutinizing eye of God, and confessing everything that we know to be contrary to Divine holiness; being assured that the Lamb as it had been slain, in the all-prevailing efficacy of His redemption work, is in the presence of God for us, that fellowship with the Father and with His Son is maintained. Love is the root and essence of fellowship. We love Him because He first loved us. Fellowship consists of the communings of the Father with child, child with Father, and brother with brother. No thoughts of banishment or separation find a place here, because it is based on everlasting and unchanging affection. In the true spirit of fellowship we think, and speak, and act according to God. We look back on the past, and trace the various outflowing’s of the counsels and purposes of God; we think of the present, both in its heavenly and earthly associations, and connections, according to the revealed mind of God, and, with anointed eyes, survey the future, both in its light and dark aspects, in our measure, according to the eye of Him who inhabiteth eternity. Ours is indeed a high vocation, a standing of wondrous privilege and blessing. We need, however, continual watchfulness, lest our thoughts and affections go contrary to this, or the principalities and powers of darkness overcome us, and we “depart from the living God.” Our very endeavor, therefore, to abide in heavenly places is connected with conflict, hence the need of putting on the whole armor of God, of “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and of bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
Fullness of joy is connected with fellowship with our God. Sin always grieves the Holy Spirit, and we are often sensible of it. We also know Him as the Reprover of sin, as well as the Testifier of Christ, and of the healing virtues of His blood. In our Lord’s farewell address to His disciples, He repeatedly spoke of the FATHER, and the COMFORTER, and HIMSELF, and added, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” (John 15:11.) The apostle John, also referring to fellowship, said, “These things write we unto you that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4.) Most of us want more the habit of taking our daily, hourly matters into the presence of our God and Father, with an exercised heart and conscience, in order to have fellowship with Him in them. This is a high privilege indeed, but it is our privilege, and, when realized, will give a tone of firmness, and decision of character, which is according to God. These are days of great carelessness, when the form of godliness often usurps the place of real fellowship with God. Let us, then, be watchful, lest we be found speaking of redemption while forgetting the Redeemer; of the family, without considering the Father; of comfort, without reference to the Holy Ghost the Comforter; of the body, the Church, apart from the Head; of reward, without an eye to the Rewarder; of precious promises, without our minds being occupied with the Promisor; and of truth, apart from “The Truth.” Such a state plainly chews that the soul is not in fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
If our eye look much upward, and much inward, wisdom will be given, with a heart of compassion, to look outward.
The beam that binds a man to his own faults is a microscope to the mote of his neighbor.
Never look back except to say Hallelujah, and then press on in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
Bethel.
No. 2.
THERE was of old a sanctity attached to places by God Himself. “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” The presence of the Lord, before whom Joshua stood, rendered it holy ground. Place was an essential element in Israel’s worship of the true God. “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes; there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.” (Deut. 12:13, 14.)
But history has shown that man is willing to honor a place, above the God who hallowed it by His presence, and strenuously to contend for the sanctity of a place, whilst living in open sin, and ignorance of God. Sanctity of place was the essence of the religion of the woman of Samaria, when the Lord Jesus so graciously taught her the connection between salvation and worship, and that the name of the Father being revealed, place was no longer an element in the true worship of God.
The early history of Bethel, so connected with the grace and faithfulness of God, has been considered in a former paper. Its latter history is sorrowful, yet instructive. In the days of Samuel, Bethel was an honored place. “Samuel went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.” But Bethel follows the path of Israel’s declension; and its history proves how the policy of man has ever used even the sacred things of God to elevate himself, and to corrupt the truth of God. In the declension which began in the latter years of Solomon, and which speedily issued in rending the kingdom of Israel into two parts, Jeroboam acted on the true principle of political expediency―making the things of God subservient to his own interest. “And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord…. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.....So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel.” (1 Kings 12:26-33.)
There was much “fleshly wisdom” in Jeroboam fixing on Bethel as the chief place of his State-religion. Bethel was indeed hallowed in its tradition. The ten tribes who revolted from the house of David, would look back to their common father, Jacob, with veneration, and gladly recognize the visions and the promises of Bethel. So in after-time, the woman of Samaria held the tradition of Jacob’s well, and spoke of “our father Jacob,” when she was in utter ignorance of Jacob’s God. Again later, the zeal of Christendom was called forth to rescue “the holy places” hallowed by the footsteps, ministry, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, from the pollution of Mahomedanism; when, with the largest stretch of charity, we are forced to conclude, that the vast majority of those engaged in this so-called holy warfare were as ignorant of the person, the grace, and the work of the Lord Jesus, as the woman of Samaria. Sanctity of place, and traditions of history, they maintained, but of a present salvation, as the ground-work of true holiness, they were alike ignorant. Bethel, from the days of Jeroboam, became the fountain of corruption to Israel. Thus, though Jehu “destroyed Baal out of Israel, howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.” (2 Kings 1:28, 29.) The positive worship of another god, as that of Baal, might be overthrown; but the corruption of the truth of God still remained. And this corruption issued in the judgment of God on Israel.
The contemporary prophets to Hosea and Amos alike raised their testimony against Bethel. Gilgal, an honored place indeed, where the Lord had rolled away from Israel the reproach of Egypt, is coupled by both these prophets with Bethel, significantly changed by Hosea from Bethel, the house of God, to Bethaven, the house of wickedness. (Hos. 4:15.) And Amos thus taunts those to whom he speaks: “Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven.... for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.” (Amos 4:4, 5.) Yes, man liketh to make religion subservient to his own interests and lusts. What are baptismal and wedding festivities, for the most part, but the transgressions of Bethel and Gilgal? ―God only thought of to sanction human convenience. But Bethel had a strong hold on the mind of Israel; it was intimately connected with state policy, and with priestly influence; and the testimony of Amos against the idolatry of Bethel was mixed up with his testimony against the sin of the king and of the people. “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.” (Amos 7:10-13.)
The history of Bethel is, in fact, the history of the tendency of man to turn the blessing of God into corruption―a fearful principle―but one to be more fully and fearfully illustrated in the corruption and judgment of Christendom. Take another place, Shiloh; and hear the Lord’s testimony by the mouth of Jeremiah: “But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.” But was it better when the Lord set His name at Jerusalem, and so solemnly took possession of the Temple which Solomon had raised for His house? Let the prophet be heard: “Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.” (Jer. 7:12, 14.) The Lord Jesus, the Prophet so long expected, found that the house of God had become a den of thieves, and leaves it as their house under the curse of desolation. All this is solemnly instructive, and should lead to much searching of heart. Is it God Himself we have to do with? or are we content to take up with a place and persons, accrediting them, and in return being accredited by them? It is easy to see the principles of corruption at work in the great professing body, but it is profitable to detect the working of them in our own hearts. The sin which does so easily beset us is unbelief. We are solemnly warned to take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. This tendency shows itself in various ways. Our wily adversary will take advantage of anything to make us depart from the living God. It is into nearness with God that we are brought by the blood of Jesus, and we do well to see that this nearness be realized by us. One Christian may be occupied with his gifts, another with his graces, another with his zeal and devotedness, so that these things come in between him and the living God. It is whilst we realize the power of the cross in bringing us to God that we are kept in our right place―a place of entire dependence on God. Such is the deceitfulness of our hearts, that things, truly valuable in themselves, become our object, instead of God Himself. Bethel displaces the God of Bethel; the Temple, the Lord of the Temple; and an object, laudable in itself, displaces Christ from His rightful supremacy. How much do we need the eye-salve from Him who can anoint us, that we may see dearly. O Lord, give to us a single eye, that our whole body may be full of light!
Fellowship.