======================================================================== THE REMEMBRANCER MAGAZINE (21 VOLUMES) - VOLUME 1 by Various ======================================================================== Volume 1 of the 21-volume Remembrancer magazine, a periodical designed to help Christians remember and meditate on the truths of Scripture and the lessons of church history. Chapters: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Vol 01 - "Take Heed, Therefore, How Ye Hear " 2. Vol 01 - Answer to a Letter on the Subject of Debt 3. Vol 01 - Christ as Our Food 4. Vol 01 - I Would Bear in My Body the Dying 5. Vol 01 - Laying a Pillow for Jesus 6. Vol 01 - On the Water of Separation 7. Vol 01 - Peace Flowing From Conscious Relationship 8. Vol 01 - Piety 9. Vol 01 - Praying Always 10. Vol 01 - The Circle of the Church's Affections 11. Vol 01 - The Remembrancer No. 6 12. Vol 01 - The Supper of Our Lord 13. Vol 02 - "All! Now My Heart Is Won" 14. Vol 02 - "I'd Rather Suffer Loss" 15. Vol 02 - "My Desire for Thee" 16. Vol 02 - "Nearer" 17. Vol 02 - "Seen of Angels" 18. Vol 02 - "Them That Are Perfect" 19. Vol 02 - "Upon Thy Heart, Lord Jesus" 20. Vol 02 - A Faithful Word 21. Vol 02 - A Letter on Giving up Oneself Entirely to the Ministry of the Word 22. Vol 02 - A Shining Face 23. Vol 02 - A Useful Word of Exhortation 24. Vol 02 - Abraham Believed God 25. Vol 02 - Accepted in the Beloved and One Spirit With the Lord 26. Vol 02 - An Old Christian's Estimation of the Holy Scriptures 27. Vol 02 - Christ Is Coming 28. Vol 02 - Deliverance and Standing 29. Vol 02 - Extract From an Unpublished Letter 30. Vol 02 - Extracts 31. Vol 02 - Fragments 32. Vol 02 - Fragments 33. Vol 02 - God in Everything 34. Vol 02 - Mixed Marriages and the Government of God 35. Vol 02 - Mixed Marriages and the Government of God 36. Vol 02 - Part of a Letter on Conformity to the World in Dress 37. Vol 02 - Praying and Working 38. Vol 02 - Remarks on Prayer and the Word of God 39. Vol 02 - Since I Belong to Thee 40. Vol 02 - Teach Me to Live 41. Vol 02 - The Pleasant Land Despised 42. Vol 02 - The Positiveness of Life in Christ 43. Vol 02 - This Wondrous Man 44. Vol 02 - Why Speak Ye Not of Jesus? 45. Vol 02 - Work for the Lord 46. Vol 03 - "Faint Yet Pursuing" 47. Vol 03 - "I Will Consider Thy Testimonies" 48. Vol 03 - "I'll Hear the Trump" 49. Vol 03 - "Mark Ye Well Her Bulwarks" 50. Vol 03 - "No More Conscience of Sins" 51. Vol 03 - "Pray Ye the Lord of the Harvest That He May Send Forth Laborers Into His Harvest." 52. Vol 03 - "The God of All Grace" 53. Vol 03 - 2Co_12:1-21 54. Vol 03 - 2Co_12:1-21 55. Vol 03 - 2Co_12:1-21 56. Vol 03 - 2Co_12:1-21 57. Vol 03 - A Remarkable Statement of an Old Writer 58. Vol 03 - A Word on Going Forth as a Laborer and Dropping Other Work 59. Vol 03 - At Home 60. Vol 03 - Babylon 61. Vol 03 - Belshazzar's Feast in Its Application to the World's Fair* 62. Vol 03 - Burning and Eating the Sacrifices 63. Vol 03 - Christian Character 64. Vol 03 - Christian Life and Jesus the Pattern of It 65. Vol 03 - Evil Thoughts, Unbidden and Hated 66. Vol 03 - Fragment 67. Vol 03 - Fragment 68. Vol 03 - Fragment 69. Vol 03 - Fragment 70. Vol 03 - Fragments 71. Vol 03 - Fragments 72. Vol 03 - God Is God 73. Vol 03 - God Promising to Answer Prayer 74. Vol 03 - God's Anointed 75. Vol 03 - God's Object in Our Trials 76. Vol 03 - Godly Sensibilities Without Godly Energy 77. Vol 03 - Gracious God, Thy Children Keep 78. Vol 03 - I'm Going Home 79. Vol 03 - Jer_2:1-37 80. Vol 03 - Jude Verse 24 81. Vol 03 - Notes and Recollections of a Reading 82. Vol 03 - One Right Path 83. Vol 03 - The Approbation of the Lord 84. Vol 03 - The Believer's Portion 85. Vol 03 - The Exercises and End of Grace 86. Vol 03 - The Numbering and Service of the Levites 87. Vol 03 - The Person 88. Vol 03 - Waiting for Christ 89. Vol 03 - Walking Worthy 90. Vol 03 - What Is the World, That We Are Not to Love, or Its Things? 91. Vol 03 - Zaphnath-Paaneah 92. Vol 04 - "At That Time Jesus Answered" 93. Vol 04 - "God - I" 94. Vol 04 - "In Everything Give Thanks" 95. Vol 04 - "No More Conscience of Sins" 96. Vol 04 - "Whom Have I in Heaven but Thee?" 97. Vol 04 - "With Thee Is the Fountain of Life" 98. Vol 04 - "Yet a Little While" 99. Vol 04 - A Solemn Lesson as to the Principle of Metropolitanism 100. Vol 04 - A Word of Exhortation ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: VOL 01 - "TAKE HEED, THEREFORE, HOW YE HEAR " ======================================================================== "Take Heed, Therefore, How Ye Hear " The soul is the dwelling place of the truth of God. The ear and the mind are but the gate and the avenue; the soul is its home or dwelling place. The beauty and the joy of the truth may have unduly occupied the out-posts, filled the avenues and crowded the gates-but it is only in the soul that its reality can be known. And it is by meditation that the truth takes its journey from the gate along the avenue to its proper dwelling place. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: VOL 01 - ANSWER TO A LETTER ON THE SUBJECT OF DEBT ======================================================================== Answer to a Letter on the Subject of Debt We fully sympathize with you in your feelings as to professing Christians going in debt. The utter want of conscience on this subject is really dreadful. It must sadly grieve the Spirit of God, and bring in leanness, barrenness and deadness of soul. If I am in debt, I have no right to give money in charity. Were I to do so, there would at least be, as another has said, a measure of honesty in my writing on the back of whatever I bestow, these words, " Borrowed from my creditors without their consent." But, dear friend, we should go very much further than this. We believe that, as a rule, Christians should not go into debt at all. " Owe no man anything," is so plain. Romans 13:8. We do not here enter upon the question of how far persons engaged in trade can carry out this holy and happy rule. There are certain terms upon which the manufacturer sells to the warehouseman, and the warehouseman to the shop-keeper. Such as, for instance, " Cash in a month." We believe that it would be far safer and better in every way, for persons in trade to pay cash, and take the discount. It is a poor, hollow, worthless, unprincipled thing, for a man to traffic with fictitious capital, to live by a system of " kite-flying," to make a show at his creditor’s expense. We fear there is a deplorable amount of this sort of thing even amongst those who occupy the very highest platform of profession. As to persons living in private life there is no excuse whatever for going into debt. What right have I before God or man, to wear a coat or a hat not paid for? What right have I to order a ton of coals, a pound of tea, or a joint of meat, if I have not the money to pay for it? It may be said, what are we to do? The answer is plain to an upright mind and a tender conscience, we are to do without rather than go in debt. It is infinitely better, happier, and holier to sit down to a crust of bread and a cup of water paid for, than to roast meat for which you are in debt. We do not believe that the word of Christ can be dwelling in a person who has no conscience as to debt, and we are disposed to think that faithful personal discipline in all such cases, would have a good effect. We should feel called upon to mark such a person and have-no company with him. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-18 chap. 6th and 14th verses. As to persons who have failed in business and compounded with their creditors, we consider them morally bound to the full amount of their liabilities; and they are in debt until that amount is paid. No legal exemption could ever release a really upright person from the righteous obligation of paying what he owes. We feel called upon to write strongly on this subject, because of the sad laxity which obtains amongst professors with respect to it. All we want is to see some exercise of conscience; some measure of effort, however feeble, to get out of an utterly false position. A. man may find himself unavoidably plunged into debt in fifty ways, but if he has an upright mind and a healthfully exercised conscience, he will use every effort, he will curtail his expenses within the narrowest circle possible, he will deny himself in every way, in order to pay off the debt, even by twenty-five cents a week. May the Lord give us to look at this great practical question with that amount of seriousness which it demands! We fear the cause of Christ is sadly damaged, and the testimony of professing Christians marred, through lack of sensibility and right-mindedness as to going into, and being in debt. Oh, for a tender conscience. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: VOL 01 - CHRIST AS OUR FOOD ======================================================================== Christ as Our Food I would say a word as to the way in which Christ may be considered as our food. He may be looked at as the food of the Christian in three ways: First, as a redeemed sinner: secondly, in connection with sitting in heavenly places in Christ and thirdly, as a pilgrim and stranger down here. But this last is merely accessory and not the proper portion of the Christian. The Lord said to Israel that He had come down to deliver them from. Egypt and bring them into the land of Canaan. He did not say a word about the wilderness when He came to deliver them from Egypt, because His interference for them there was in the power of redemption and for the accomplishing of His promises. However, there was the wilderness as well as redemption from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan; and Christ answers as our food to these three things. Two of them are permanent, for we are nourished by Christ in two ways permanently, that is, in redemption and glory. The third way is as the manna which we have all along the road. It is in these three ways that Christ meets His people and nourishes them all the way. Two of them remain, as we have seen, but the third ceases when the circumstances it was to meet have passed away. They did eat the passover and the manna until they got into the land, then the manna ceased; but they continued to eat the passover. Now there are two ways in which it is proper for us ever to be feeding on Christ. First as the pass-over, for they ate the paschal lamb when the wilderness had ceased and Egypt had been long left behind. When in Egypt, the blood was on the lintel and the door-posts, and the Israelites ate of the lamb inside the house. The thought they had while they were eating was, that God was going through the land as an avenging judge; and the effect of the blood on the door-posts was to keep God out, which was a great thing to do, for it brought into God’s presence as a Judge. Woe unto him in whom sin is found. The state of the one who now eats of Christ is just according as he estimates the value of the cross, through fear of what sin actually merits. When we have got into the effect of the blood of the paschal Lamb, we have got into Canaan and enjoy the peace of the land as a redeemed people, having crossed the Jordan-not only the Red Sea. That is, we have passed through death and resurrection; not as knowing Christ dead and risen for us merely, as presented in the Red Sea, but as being dead with Him and entered into heavenly places with Him, as in Jordan. Then the character of God is known as their God, that is as the accomplishd of all that which he purposed towards them. It is not keeping God out now, but it is enjoying His love; not looking at God as in the cross pouring out wrath in judgment against sin. In Jesus on the cross there was perfect justice and perfect love. What devotedness to the Father and what tender love to us! And this is the way the saint who is in peace feeds on the cross. It is not feeding on it as knowing that he is safe; for Israel’s keeping the passover after they got into Canaan was very different from their keeping it when judgment was passing over. In Canaan they were in peace, and they were able to glorify God in this way, in the remembrance of their redemption from Egypt. In this type we see presented, not the sinner that feels he is safe, but the saint that can glorify God in his affections; his heart confidently flowing out to Him, and feeding on Christ as the old corn of the land-the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. We see Christ now by faith at the right hand of God as the glorified man, not merely as Son of God, but as Son of Man. As Stephen, when the heavens were opened to him, beheld Jesus at the right hand of God. We also see Him up there. We do not see Him as He is represented in the Revelation, seated on a white horse, coming forth out of heaven. He will indeed come forth and receive us up where He is, and we shall be like Him and be forever with Him. But we shall feed on Him as the old corn of the land when we are there, and this is our proper portion now; manna is not our portion, though it is our provision by the way. Joshua sees Jehovah as the Captain of Jehovah’s host, and Israel feeds in the land before they fight. And our portion is to sit down in it before we fight, because God has given it to us. They do not eat the manna in Canaan, because it is for the wilderness. The manna is not Christ in the heavens I it is Christ down. here. It is not our portion; our portion is the old corn of the land. That is, the whole thing, according to God’s counsels, is redemption and glory. But all our life is exercise down here, or sin, (excepting that God has given us moments of joy), because while here there is nothing but what acts on the flesh, or gives occasion for service to God. We may fail, and then Christ comes and feeds us with the manna, that is, His sympathy with us down here, and shows how His grace is applied to all the circumstances of our daily life, and that is a happy thing. For most of the time, the far greater part of our life, we are occupied in these things, necessary and lawful things no doubt, but not occupied with heavenly joy in Christ. And these things are apt to turn away the heart from the Lord, and hinder our joy. But if we would have our appetites feed On Him as the old corn of the land, we must have the habit of feeding on Him as the manna. For instance, something may make me impatient during the day, well then, Christ is my patience, and thus He is the manna to sustain me in patience. He is the source of grace; not only the example which I am to copy. He is more than this, for I am to draw strength from Him, to feed upon Him daily; for we need Him, and it is impossible to enjoy Him as the paschal Lamb, un less we are also feeding on Him as the manna. We learn that God delights in Christ and He gives us a capacity to enjoy Him too. To have such affections is the highest possible privilege, but to enjoy Him, we must feed on Him every day. It is to know Christ come down to bring the needed grace and turn the dangerous circumstances with which we are surrounded, to the occasion of feeding on Himself as the manna to sustain us, and strengthen us in our trial. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: VOL 01 - I WOULD BEAR IN MY BODY THE DYING ======================================================================== I Would Bear in My Body the Dying Of Him who has died for me- Here share, O my Lord, Thy rejection, Ere I sit on Thy throne with Thee. I see Thee alone, broken-hearted, Of comforters findest Thou none; Yet thine was the gladness of heaven, The love and the glory Thine own. Thus to show to the, world that rejects Thee, To show to the angels above, How blessed Thy yoke and Thy burden, To him who has tasted Thy love. The maiden who gathereth roses, Another, another would find, So sweet are the tracks of Thy sorrow, To him who would follow behind. Thus would I press on to glory, A knight in the army of God, Whose march will be onward and upward, Because of the foes on the road. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: VOL 01 - LAYING A PILLOW FOR JESUS ======================================================================== Laying a Pillow for Jesus "And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow."-Mark 4:38. It might be that some kind hand had placed this pillow for Jesus. He had said on one occasion, "The foxes have boles, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man bath not where to lay his head." And it is remarkable that Matthew (8: 19-27) puts these words of Jesus just before His embarkation, though they were possibly uttered at another time. It may be that some loving hand arranged that pillow for Him, knowing that He was weary. It was evening when He entered the ship, probably after a long day’s toil. We may learn a lesson from that pillow. Jesus never asked for a comfort from any when He was down here. He did ask the poor Samaritan woman for a draft of water-not that He was seeking her care, but that He might draw out her need. Still, He gave opportunities to those who longed to show their love and attention to Him. Sometimes we may not have it in our hand to give when we have it in our heart. No matter; He looks at the heart. Do not let us judge Him with man’s judgment, and say, " I cannot do so and so; then why need I wish to do it?" It may be that the one who arranged that pillow (if such were the case) was gladdened afterward to find that He had fallen asleep upon it. In any case, He accepted it then-yes; used it fully for Himself. It may be, too, that there was no one of all His disciples whose heart was open to give Him "the tribute money." If there had been one, He might have allowed that one to do it unto Him; but a fish must be the giver. Doubtless, if there had been one at the moment who would have longed to give Him the money, He would have sent Peter to such an one, and not to a fish. He displayed His lordship over creation in the act, of course; but would He not rather have had the need filled up from some loving heart which was looking for. an opening to help? Could it be possible that at that particular moment not one on earth was longing to aid the Man of Sorrows? I say, "at that moment;" for it is not enough’ that life from God must be present in him who acts for Jesus; he must also be in a moral state of soul, in communion with God, ere Jesus will ask for his aid. The ravens fed Elijah. But if there is even a Sidonian widow, with nothing save a little oil and a handful of meal, she will have the blessedness of helping the servant of the Lord. The Lord loves us to give to Him, but " a cheerful giver " is the one He wants. When He wanted the ass for His entry into Jerusalem, He knew well who really was willing. There He sent, and asked. All that was needful to say was, "The Lord hath need of him." "Straightway " he would be sent. Perhaps the owners of that colt were anxiously waiting for some opportunity of service. If so, how it strengthened their faith to find that Jesus knew all about it! In the case of the man with the pitcher of water (Luke 22:10) we see the same thing. The "good man" of that house may have been thinking of Jesus, and saying, " My room is a large one: how suitable it would be for the Lord and His disciples How I wish He would eat the Passover at my house!" If so, how his heart must have leaped when the two disciples, Peter and John, came into his very house to tell him that the Master was coming! Little did the man with the pitcher know what his carrying the pitcher signaled. Anything, everything, can be used by God to accomplish His purposes. But to return. We may say that we cannot lay a pillow for the head of Jesus now. I think we can lay many for Him. Is not every believer now a member of His body? Many of those members need our pillows-so. to say. The " Head" is in glory, and as such, He needs them not. But Saul could persecute Him-" Why persecutest thou me?" Every word of comfort, then, every act of kindness, every little succor towards a saint, because he belongs to Jesus, is an odor of a sweet smell, Godward. What mean the words, "And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment?" (John 12:1-50) Sooner or later, all will know what is done for and to the Lord. The people on the house-top could know that something sweet was being offered below. Do not the angels know what is done to Jesus? We smell, as it were, the sweetness of Abraham’s sacrifice, although no eye saw it, save that of Jehovah. (Genesis 22:1-24) Envious ones may have been attracted by the odor in that house, who would not own Mary’s devotedness at all. They could not help smelling its sweet savor. We cannot do too much for the Lord; and nothing is too little or insignificant for Him to notice. Alas! how many are making pillows for their own comfort-beautiful pillows-provisions for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts! When we are thus occupied we have not large hearts towards the Lord. " The flesh " always narrows our hearts in divine love. When separation from self and the world is going on, there is room for enlargement in love and heavenly activities. (2 Corinthians 6:1-18.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: VOL 01 - ON THE WATER OF SEPARATION ======================================================================== On the Water of Separation But if, on the one hand, priesthood must lead the people through the wilderness, and if Moses’ rod of authority cannot do this, it can only smite; on the other, there must be a provision connected with it for the removing of the defilements taking place during the journey, that the communion of the people with God may not be interrupted. That is why the sacrifice of the Heifer is placed here, apart from all the others, because it was prescribed in order to meet the defilements of the wilderness. But if the consideration of Christ (even though it was Christ offered for sin, and the participation in His priestly work, in connection with that sacrifice), was a most holy thing realized in the communion of the most holy place; being occupied with that sin, even in a brother, and that to purify him, ’defiled those who were not guilty of it. These are the subjects of chapter 19. What follows is the ordinance given on this occasion. To touch a dead body was indeed being defiled with sin; for sin is here considered under the point of view of defilement which prescribed the entrance into the court of the tabernacle. Christ is presented in the Red Heifer as unspotted by sin and as never having borne the yoke of it either, but He is led forth without the camp, as being wholly a sacrifice for sin. The priest who brought the Heifer did not kill it; but it was killed in his presence. He was there to take knowledge of the deed. The death of Christ is never the act of priesthood. The heifer was completely burned, without the camp, even its blood, except that which was sprinkled directly before the tabernacle of the congregation, that is, where the people were to meet God. There the blood was sprinkled seven ’times, (because it was there that God met with His people), a perfect testimony in the eyes of God to the atonement made for sin. They had access there according to the value of this blood. The priest threw into the fire cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet, (that is, all that was of man, and his human glory in the world). " From the cedar down to the hyssop," is the expression of nature, from her highest elevation to her lowest depths. Scarlet is external glory, (the world, if you please). The whole was burnt in the fire which consumed Christ, the sacrifice for sin. Then, if anybody contracted defilement, though it were merely from neglect, in whatever way it might be, God took account of the defilement. And this is a solemn and important fact; God provides for cleansing, but in no case can tolerate anything in His presence unsuited to it. It might seem hard in an inevitable case, as one dying suddenly in the tent. But it was to show that for His presence God judges of what is suited to His presence. The man was defiled and he could not go into God’s tabernacle. To cleanse the defiled person, they took some running water, into which they put the ashes of the heifer, and the man was sprinkled on the third and on the seventh days; then he was clean; signifying that the Spirit of God, without applying anew the blood to the soul, (that in the type had been sprinkled once for all when the people met God), takes the sufferings of Christ, (the proof that sin and all that is of the natural man and of this world have been consumed for us in His expiatory death), and applies them to it. It is the proof, the intimate conviction, that nothing is nor can be imputed. It was in this respect wholly done away in the sacrifice, whose ashes, (the witness that it was consumed) are now applied. But it produces upon the heart the deeply painful conviction that it has got defiled, notwithstanding redemption, and by the sins for which Christ has suffered in accomplishing it. We have found our will and pleasure, if only for a moment, in what was the caw of His pain; and this in the face of His sufferings for sin, but alas! in forgetfulness of them-even for that sin, the motions of which we yield to so lightly now; a feeling much deeper than that of having sins imputed. For it is in reality the new man, in his best feelings, who judges by the Spirit and according to God, and who takes knowledge of the sufferings of Christ and of sin, as seen in Him on the cross. The first feeling is bitterness, although without the thought of imputation-bitterness, precisely because there is no imputation, and that we have sinned against love as well as against holiness, and that we must submit to that conviction. But lastly, (and it seems to me it is the reason why there was the second sprinkling) it is the consciousness of that love, and of the deep grace of Jesus, and the joy of being perfectly clean through the work of that love. The first part of the cleansing was in the sense of the horror of sinning against such grace; the second, the mind quite cleared from it by the abounding of grace over the sin. Here it is the practical restoration of the soul inwardly. There is no sprinkling with blood; the purifying is by water. Christ’s death being fully brought in, in its power by the Holy Ghost. The details show the exactness of God, as to those defilements, though He cleanses us from them. They show too, that any one who has to do with the sin of another, though it be in the way of duty to cleanse it, is defiled, not as the guilty person, it is true, but we cannot touch sin without being defiled. The value of grace and priesthood is also made evident. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: VOL 01 - PEACE FLOWING FROM CONSCIOUS RELATIONSHIP ======================================================================== Peace Flowing From Conscious Relationship As regards settled peace, the great secret is the full and abiding consciousness that in us there is no good, and looking ever at Christ as our only and own perfect righteousness before God. But there is another kind of peace which we must not confound with this, the peacefulness of heart which flows from conscious relationship with God. When this is in simple exercise, we rest in the sense of His goodness, and enjoy it, and this is very sweet to the soul. If we are not walking in heart or ways in consistency with this relationship, then we have to think of ourselves, and at any rate by God’s own discipline, we do not enjoy the light of His countenance in the same way. We must not confound this with righteousness. This is ignorance of divine righteousness, and tends to put us back under law and make us doubt. This is not of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost dwelling in us cannot make us doubtful of our relationship with God. He is the Spirit of adoption, "crying Abba, Father," but He does make us sensitive of the approbation of God and what suits His presence. Abel had testimony by his gifts (that is, Christ, the Lamb,) that " he was righteous," but Enoch, before his translation, had this testimony "that he pleased God." You may find the two kinds of rest in John 14:27. Our present relationship is a constant source of joy, and to be carefully cherished. Our righteousness, on which it is founded, is unchangeable in the presence of God. The gracious Lord keep us walking diligently. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: VOL 01 - PIETY ======================================================================== Piety Psalms 16:1-11 This Psalm depicts Christ as the dependent devoted man. Dependent, obedient, taking no place with God, but before Him as responsible as man upon earth, and looking towards the place of perfect blessedness as man with God, by being in His presence, which would be fullness of joy for Him, a place which, when having His nature, we can have with Christ. It is man, partaker of the divine nature, for so only it could be, but having God for His object, His confidence, as alone having authority over Him, entirely dependent on God, and perfect in faith in Him. This could only be in One personally partaker of the divine nature, God Himself in man as Christ was, or derivatively, as in one born of God. The divine presence in Him is viewed here in its effect in His absolute perfection as man. He is walking as man morally in view of God. He had said to Jehovah, " Thou art my Lord," that is "I am subservient to Thee." He had taken a place, while never ceasing to be God, (and which Godhead alone could fulfill the conditions of,) outside Godhead, but in which as man to satisfy God, to glorify God in an earth of apostacy and sin. Jehovah was the portion of His cup. Nearer than all circumstances which otherwise could have pressed upon His heart as man-and which he fully felt. So truly was Jehovah the great circumstance and substance of His life in and through everything, that He could only wish that His joy might be fulfilled in His disciples. But then it was Jehovah only, and therein His perfection; the world a dry and thirsty land, where no water was; but Jehovah’s favor was better than life; and was His life, practically, through a world where all was felt, but felt with Jehovah realized, Jehovah and His favor, the life of His soul, between Hint and all. So the Christian, forsaken, perhaps, and imprisoned, " Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice." Nature has circumstances between itself and God; faith has God between the heart and circumstances. And what a difference! No peace like the peace which hiding in the tabernacle from the provokings of all men gives. But this is a divine life passing through the world. " Delight thyself in the Lord, He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Faith leans on Jehovah, on the Father’s love and Jesus. For the securing infallible happiness and peace we need not look to circumstances, save to pass through them with Him. This was perfect, in Christ; He had only this, nor looked for aught else. We see it brightly manifested in Paul. In principle it is the path of every Christian, and some time or other he is exercised in it. The life of faith is this: God Himself the portion of our inheritance and our cup; He maintaineth our lot. The lines fallen in pleasant places, I believe to be His joy as man in God, and in what was before God. In what follows we have the active expression of this life, in reference to God. " I will bless Jehovah who giveth me counsel." We need in divine life the positive instruction of wisdom, counsel; wisdom, a divine clue and direction in the confusion of evil in this world-to be wise concerning that which is good. " Not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time," "not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Jehovah gives counsel, So "if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to every man liberally and upbraideth not." There is the immense privilege of the positive direction and guidance of God―the interest He feels in guiding the godly man aright, in the true path suited to God Himself―across the wilderness where there is no way. So Christ walked. So He guides His sheep, going before them; and now we are led of the Spirit of God, as ourselves sons of God. It is the divine path of wisdom, which the vulture’s eye bath not seen; the path of man, but of man with the life of God, going towards the presence of God and the incorruptible inheritance. God gives counsel for it. I repeat He is interested in the guidance of the man of God, and the soul blesses Him. In this path Christ trod. The written word is the great means of this, still there is the direct action of God in us by His Spirit. But there is also intelligence. “My reins also instruct me in the night seasons." The divine life is intelligent life. We can be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Thus, when removed from external influences, the secret workings and thoughts of the heart show what is suited to the path and way of God in the world. In Christ this was perfect, in us in the measure of our spirituality; but that to which, the Christian has to give much heed, that he neglect not the holy suggestions and conclusions of the divinely-instructed life when freed from the influence of surrounding circumstances. It may seem folly, but if found in humbly waiting on God, will in the end prove His wisdom. And the controlling judgment of God’s word which overrules the whole divine life is there to judge false pretensions. To this the divine life is always absolutely subject. Christ, who was this life, yea, was the Word and Wisdom, yet always wholly honored the written word as the guidance and authority of God for man. But guidance by the Lord is not quite all the practical process of the exercise of divine life. It looks entirely to the Lord, "I have set (says Christ, walking as man on the earth,) Jehovah always before me." He kept Him always in view. How our hearts have to own that this is not always so! How withdrawn from all evil-how powerful morally in the midst of this world should we be were it always Song of Solomon 1:1-17 There is nothing in this world like the dignity of a man always walking with God. What absence of self, what renouncement of all evil, what singleness of eye, and hence bright and earnest activity of purpose when the Lord is the only object before the soul! I say the Lord, for no other such object can command and sanctify the heart-all would go against duty to Him. He alone can make the whole heart full of light when duty and purpose go together and are but one. Indeed this is what James calls " the perfect law of liberty," perfect obedience, yet perfect purpose of heart. As Jesus says, " that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do." We say, as Christians, Christ is all, and he that loves Him, keeps His commandments. Thus Jesus set Jehovah always before His face. This is man’s perfection as man. This is the measure of our spirituality, the constancy and purity with which we do this. But if Jesus did this, surely Jehovah would not fail Him nor us. So walking, He maintains the saint in the path which is His own. I set Jehovah always before my face, He is on my right hand, so that I shall not fall. This is known by faith. He may let us suffer for righteousness’ sake―Christ did so―be put to death ―Christ was―but not a hair of our head can He let fall to the ground, nor fail in making us enter into life according to the path in which we walk, but here it is ’Confidence in Jehovah Himself. Faith in walking in the path of man according to God’s will, and towards God solely as the sanctifying end and object, knows that God is at its hand. Jehovah will secure. How or through what, is not the question. What strength this gives in passing through a world where all is against us, and what sanctifying power it has! There is no motive, no resource but Jehovah, which could satisfy any other craving, or by which the heart desires to secure itself, in seeking aught else. Hence, come what would Christ waited patiently for Jehovah, looked for no other deliverer. Nor have we to seek any other, and this makes the way perfect. We turn not aside to make the path easier. Christ trod this path, only perfectly apart from sin, and only with God, doing His will, showed this path of life in man, then, having died to sin, (in the full result of this life in its own place, where no evil is,) lives to God. He did so, by faith, when down on earth always, but as man, in a world apart from God, and taking the word as His guide, living by every word that came out of the mouth of God, as we have to do. The resurrection demonstrated the perfectness of a life which was always according to the Spirit of holiness; but now He lives in it in its own place, and this is what, though through death, in an undiscontinued life He anticipates. "In thy presence is fullness of joy." This, alway His delight, was now His perfect enjoyment, and " at thy right hand." (Divine power had brought Him to this place of power and acceptance―the witness of His being perfectly acceptable to God.) "Are pleasures for evermore." Such is life as life with God-life shown as man in this world. Life before God, and looking ever at Him. A life which, though free from sin, neither innocent nor sinful man could know; which, in fact, had not to be lived in Paradise, which could not be lived as belonging to the world, but which was lived to God through it: setting Jehovah always before it as its object. Such is the life we have to live. " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." In this world there is no other for a man. A life which has no object but the Lord Himself. This is a wonderful point―not one object in the world at all. For otherwise, it is not faith, but sight, or lust. Innocent man had no object; he enjoyed in peace God’s goodness. Man departed from God―had many objects; but all these separate his heart from God and end in death. But the new life which comes down from the Father looks up with desire to its source and becomes the nature in man which tends towards God―has the Son of God for its object. As Paul says, " that I may win Christ." This life has no portion in this world at all; and, as life in man, looks to God, leans on God, and seeks no other assurance or prop, obeys God, and can live only by faith. This life, of man Christ led and filled the whole career of. Out of this Satan wanted Him to come in the wilderness, and have a will, Make the stones bread, distrust, try if the Lord would fulfill His promise or fail Him, have another object-the kingdoms of the world. This last destroyed the very nature of the life, and Satan is openly detected and dismissed. Christ would not come out of man’s dependent, obedient place of unquestioning trust in Jehovah. His path here was with the excellent of the earth, perfect in the life which was come down from heaven, but which was lived on earth, looking up to heaven. Whatever our privileges in union with Christ, it is all important to live in the fear and faith of God, according to the life of Christ, It is not man’s responsibility without law, or under law as a child of Adam; it is all over with us on that ground. It is the responsibility of the new life of faith, which is a pilgrim and a stranger here, a life come down from heaven. " God bath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son: he that hath the Son hath life," but a life which man lives in passing through this world, but wholly out of it in its object-a life of faith which finds in God’s presence fullness of joy. We have to remember that the development of this life in us is not, as in the Psalm, in connection with the name of Jehovah, but with the full revelation of the Father and the Son. This Psalm, gives, us the inward spiritual life of Christ, and so ours, ending in the highest joy of God’s presence. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: VOL 01 - PRAYING ALWAYS ======================================================================== Praying Always (From a letter to a friend.) Two things are essential to the nurture and maintenance of a fresh and healthy state of soul; the reading of the Word and Prayer: nor can we afford to neglect either the one or the other, if we desire that our hearts and lives may answer to the grace bestowed upon us. If the reading of the Word be neglected, there will be the danger of our prayers becoming the expression of mere natural desires instead of.` intercession according to the will of God." We need to have our desires even for spiritual blessings formed its the atmosphere of the Word, in fellowship with the Lord himself, and by the power of His Spirit; while whore this is lacking, the more earnest the soul is, Oho more danger will there be of a real that is not according to knowledge. An opposite danger, on the other hand, is that the reading of the Word without prayer, tends to a spirit of INTELLECTUALISM, ending in a cold, barren state of soul in which there is neither power nor joy, but abundance of spiritual pride. There is nothing more deadening to spiritual vitality than to have the mind occupied with Divine truth, while the heart and the conscience remain strangers to its power; and this is sure to be the case just in proportion as prayer is neglected. There can be no surer and more certain sign of a low, unhealthy spiritual state thou the absence of prayer, and there can be no better proof that a man is " filled with the Spirit," than to know that he "gives himself unto prayer." Beloved brother, is there not a great lack of prayer amongst us? Alas! must we not confess that our closets, our households, our assembly meetings for prayer, bear witness to this and prove that we are oftentimes culpably indifferent to this high and holy privilege of expressing OUR interest in all that interests the heart of God, and affects the glory of His beloved Son. Let us consider Him-our blessed Example and Pattern. He commenced, carried on, and ended His ministry with prayer. We read of Him praying at the time of His baptism, Luke 3:21; " He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed," Luke 5:16; "He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God," Luke 6:12; "He was alone praying," Luke 9:18; "He took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain to pray," Luke 9:28; "He was praying in a certain place," Luke 11:1; " He kneeled down and prayed," Luke 22:41; " He prayed more earnestly," Luke 22:44; and finally, at the very close of His marvelous life, amidst the agonies of the cross, He prays for His enemies, Luke 23:34. Consider Paul, who has exhorted us to be "followers of him even as he also was of Christ." When we think of his arduous and unremitting labors in connection with the ministry of the Word, while pursuing at the same time, when necessary, his calling as a tentmaker, we almost wonder how he found any time for prayer, and yet as we read his epistles it seems as though he did indeed "pray without ceasing." See Romans 1:9; Romans 10:1; 2 Corinthians 13:7; Ephesians 1:16; Ephesians 3:14; Php 1:4; Php 1:9; Colossians 1:3; Colossians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philem. 1:4. Remember the repeated exhortations of the Word -" PRAYING ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." "1 exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." " Continuing instant in prayer." " Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving." " Brethren, pray for us." " Praying in the Holy Ghost." " Pray without ceasing." Think of the blessed results that have ever followed the expression of dependence upon God in united or individual prayer. The Pentecostal baptism with the Holy Ghost took place at the close of ten days spent in continued prayer and supplication. The disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and made bold to speak the Word of God " after they had prayed," Acts 4:1-37 The angel of the Lord delivered Peter from prison in answer to the prayer which " was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him," Acts 12:1-25. Scripture is full of instances of the prevalence of prayer. 2 Chronicles 32:20; and James 5:17-18 : are conspicuous examples. And without doubt when the history of the Church is surveyed from the glory, it will be seen that every wave of blessing to saints, and salvation to sinners, has been proceeded by the effectual fervent prayers of many whose labors are better known in heaven than on earth. Men and women like Epaphras, Colossians 4:12, who have prevailed with God in their closets, and like Jabez, 1 Chronicles 4:10, have had granted to them that which they required. Again-and brother beloved, I would press this upon you with all the earnestness of which I am capable, meditate upon the unspeakable need of the present moment. Look at the appalling condition of the Church of God. That which was the wondrous subject of His counsels long before the world’s foundations were laid-destined to be the magnificent display of His glory to admiring myriads of His unfallen creatures in ages yet to come-even now, in spite of its ruin, the object of His unceasing solicitude, and His measureless love. Oh! brother, think of the Church! Torn asunder by a hundred factions; paralyzed by a practical infidelity; stupefied by the deadening influence of an indifference to Christ, which is as general as it is deplorable; bound hand and foot with tradition, organization, and human arrangement; desolated by worldliness’; and shorn of that HEAVENLY aspect and beauty which is her own peculiar portion, she nevertheless vaunts herself in the midst of her ruin, and is ready to say with the apostate whore, "I sit a Queen, and am no Widow." Awful picture! Then consider the state of individual souls. How few of those quickened by divine grace have settled peace with God! How few are personally in the enjoyment of the liberty wherewith Christ makes free! How many doubts and fears are entertained by God’s people to their own loss and His dishonor! Dear brother, can we cease to pray? And are there not other things before our eyes at this time that surely might bring us to our knees in an agony of desire? Look at the twos and threes who have been gathered by the Holy Spirit in these last days to the confession of Christ’s name out of the ruin of Christendom. Is not that blessed hope, which came home to souls fifty years ago with such separating and purifying power, losing its hold upon us? Are not the earthly-mindedness and the worldliness that so often and in so many ways are manifested, the " settling down " on the part of many, and the turning aside of many more to things which " minister questions rather than godly edifying," are not these things the Sad and solemn proof that the doctrine and the hope have been dissevered, so that many are to be found boasting of the doctrine, whose lives are the standing witness that they are strangers to the HOPE, for wherever this exists it does and must necessarily produce its proper effects. 1 John 3:3. Lastly, remember that God is gathering out His elect by the preaching of the Word, and ours is the blessed privilege of interceding for the salvation of the lost. The consideration of the realities of heaven and hell, a perishing world, a loving God, a waiting Savior, and a world-wide gospel, surely should constrain us to more prayer. The word is " Praying always," by which I understand that a believer, though not always in the act, should always be in the spirit of prayer. His constant state is one of dependence, therefore his constant spirit should be that of prayer. But there are special seasons when, either alone or with others the soul turns aside from all else to have to do with God himself, and pour out its desires and requests to Him, Suffer me, in conclusion, to beseech you to embrace every opportunity of thus continuing instant in prayer. Redeem every moment, and you will be surprised to discover how many opportunities for a few minutes of prayer you have hitherto suffered to pass idly away. Then, when a brother calls, or a few saints come together for a little fellowship, what a sweet opportunity for prayer. We can then plead the promise to " two of you," and blessed it is to do so. Such a privilege should never be neglected, and would there not be ’much more prayer than there is, if every coming together of saints was characterized by it? Then the assembly meeting. Well, introduce me to saints who are much in private prayer, and given to social prayer, and I will chew you a gathering where the prayer-meetings are bright, fresh, and happy; full of vigor, faith, power, and liberty. Where the prayer-meetings are cold, formal, and lacking in fervor and liberty, depend upon it the closet could tell a tale of indifference and negligence in respect to prayer, of which the more public barrenness is only the painful indication and the sad result. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: VOL 01 - THE CIRCLE OF THE CHURCH'S AFFECTIONS ======================================================================== The Circle of the Church’s Affections " The Spirit and the bride say, Come." We get the whole circle of the Church’s affections. When the Spirit of God is working in the saints, what will be the first affection? Christ. The Spirit and the Bride turn to Him and say, "Come." What is the next affection? It is the saints. Therefore it turns and bids him that heareth say, "Come." If you have heard Christ, you come and join in the cry. Even if you have not the consciousness of relationship, would you not be happier if you saw Him as He is? Therefore say, " Come." The first affection is towards Christ Himself; but the Bride would have every saint to join in these affections and in the desire to have the Bridegroom come. But does it stop with those who have heard the voice of the Lord Jesus? No: the first effect of the Spirit’s turning our eye to Christ s the desire that Christ should Come! And next, that the saint who hears His voice should have the same affection. And what next? We turn round. to those who may be athirst, bidding them come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. The saint who has the sense of the blessedness of having drunk of the living water which Christ gives, wants others to have it also. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: VOL 01 - THE REMEMBRANCER NO. 6 ======================================================================== The Remembrancer No. 6 NOTICE. This little periodical does not profess to put forth anything new or original, but chiefly extracts from J. N. D,. J. G. B., G. V. W., and a few others. " To stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," or bring the truth in them before some who may never have read them. The initials are left out, in order that the reader may judge what he or she reads, not by the reputation of the writers, but by the word of God. It is not promised that a new number shall come out every month regularly, but as the Lord may lead and give matter for it. This makes it difficult in asking for subscriptions. But trusting that the Lord will help us to provide for mostly every month, and counting on the love and forbearance of God’s dear children who may subscribe for it, your prayers are asked that God would graciously use it for blessing to souls, and that it may not take Christians away from the written Word of God, but to it, more than ever. J. DUNLOP. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: VOL 01 - THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD ======================================================================== The Supper of Our Lord ... I believe that the bread remains simply and absolutely bread, and the wine, wine-that physically there is no change whatever in the elements. To seek for material and physical things in such a precious institution of the Lord is, to my mind, a poor and miserable manner of regarding it. I have a charming portrait of my mother, which reminds me of her just as she was. If I am told of the canvas or the coloring, I should feel that those who spoke thus knew nothing about it. That would not be my mother. That which is precious in it to me is my mother herself; and they turn my attention from her to the means employed to recall her to me; and the reason is, that they have no idea what my mother is to me. The portrait has no value except as far as it is a good representation of her who is not there. I say, it is my mother. I could not throw it aside as a mere piece of canvas; I discern my mother in it. I cherish this portrait; I carry it with me; but if I stop at the perfection of the painting as a work of art, the link with my heart is lost. There is more than this in the Supper of our Lord, because the Lord is really present with us in it spiritually, according to the intention of the institution; and this is very precious. But it has pleased Him to give us a physical means by which we may be reminded of Him, so that I am authorized to speak of a portrait by way of comparison. The Supper presents Christ in that which is so to speak, central; it presents to us a dead Christ; but this foundation of all, this precious truth, which could be a motive even for the Father Himself to love Christ-this fact, that it is a dead Christ which is presented to us, is the proof that we could not have a living Christ presented to us in the elements. This would be to deny the state of death, and to destroy the object and intention of the institution. This institution presents to us the death of Christ-a dead Christ-His body broken and His blood shed; but there exists no dead Christ. He desires that we should remember Him: " Do this in remembrance of me;" but I do not speak of the remembrance of Christ living in heaven. I live by Him, He is my life; I enjoy communion with Him; I dwell in Him; He dwells in me; there is no separation. If through my folly, communion is interrupted, it is no question of remembering Him, but of being with Him anew-with a Savior who manifests Himself to us as He does not to the worldDo we diminish the importance or sweetness of this institution? Quite the contrary; we hinder the materializing of it, and we insist that the spiritual realization, or that which it represents, be in the heart, instead of that which is called an opus operatum, (mere outward work) which is purely material. We are united to Christ glorified; this is the point of departure: there is no longer a dead Christ: death has no more dominion over Him. I enjoy communion with a glorified Christ; I am one with Him; I shall be like Him. I rejoice; my heart is full of love at the thought of seeing Him, at the hope of the glory of waking up in His likeness. Shall I, therefore, forget His death and His sufferings? God forbid! It is precisely this which binds us to Christ by the most tender affections. There where He had to suffer and to do everything, He was alone; my heart at least will be with Him. He does not ask me to be one with Him there; I could not have been. There He was willing to be alone-blessed be His name!-and He has accomplished all. But the heart which would give itself for me there is the same which thinks of me now, and which loves me. In remembering His death, His love, His sufferings, what shall I say?-divine though human! I am united in heart with Him there, where He is, on high, it is not another person, another love. Whether in the Supper, where we remember Him in such a peculiar and touching way, or whether at other moments, when I think of His death, when I eat Him as dying for me, I am in communion with Him living, and I realize the love of Him who lives-that same love, that same heart of the Savior; I dwell in Him, and He in me. It is not said exactly, " Do this in remembrance " of my death, but, " of Me." Still we remember Him on the earth, in His incarnation, in His life of humiliation, and finally and specially as dead on the cross. I remember Him!-not Him in the heavens, but Him who lives in heaven as once humbled and dead for me; there is also a certain action of the heart-we eat. In John 5:1-47 the Son of God quickens whom He will: here (John 6:1-71) we eat the bread come down from heaven; we eat His body, and drink His blood. It is most important to understand that it is a dead Christ, who in this state exists no longer, because we cannot have any relationship with a Christ living on the earth. If even as Jews we had had this relationship, we should have been obliged to say with Paul, "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." Death bath put an end to all the relations of Christ with the world, according to the flesh, and He lives now as the head of a new race-the second Man. Thus then, in John 6:53, the Lord lays down, as a necessary condition of life, the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of His blood-receiving Him in His death. Hence we remember Him before His resurrection; as He has said, " except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Thus our union is with a Christ glorified; we do not know Him otherwise; but the most powerful spring of affection for the heart is a Christ, man in the world, and a dead Christ. I am nourished by this; I eat it, and I live by this; but if we wish to bring back, so to speak, a Christ such as He has been in this world, as present, we overthrow entirely the intention of this institution, and even Christianity itself. Every time that we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord’s death till He come: but if we will introduce a living Christ to animate this dead one, so to speak, we destroy Him. Why then is it said, " They discern not the Lord’s body "? What body? His dead body. A perfect love, His accomplished work, an obedience which was arrested by no difficulty, present themselves to our eyes! Is there anything else there but a dead body?... If so, I know not where I am, nor what the Supper means. Do not animate it with the life that Christ had before death; His obedience was not yet finished, nor His work accomplished, nor His love perfectly demonstrated. Do not animate it with the life of a Christ now risen; you take Him from me as dead; death is no more there-death which is the basis of salvation, the proof of obedience, the glorification of God. Take not from me this death, this body broken, this blood forever shed, which tells me that all is accomplished, and-through the love of my Savior-that sin is put away forever. If you can lead me to grasp more firmly what is precious in this dead Savior, in the death of Him who is the eternal Son of God; if you can make me eat Him with more faith, more spirituality, more divine intelligence, more heart-ah! I shall be very grateful to you; but let it be my dear Savior that is left to me! When one is in communion with Him living, there is nothing so precious as His death; yes, precious even to God. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." For my spiritual intelligence it is the end of, or rather the proof and the consciousness that I have done with the first Adam; that the first creation no longer exists-blessed be God 1-for faith; for the heart it is the tender and perfect love of the Savior. I am no more either Jew or Gentile, or a man living on the earth; I am a Christian. The death of Christ, Head of all, has put an end to the first creation. He has introduced us into a now creation as firstfruits united to Him. I discern then the body of the Lord broken-His blood shed-His death. It is not an ordinary repast, a simple remembrance, if you will, but an institution that Christ has given to His own; not that they may find in the element anything else than the bread and the fruit of the vine, but that their faith may, in the sweetest way, by the power of the Holy Spirit, nourish itself by Jesus, by that which He has been for them when He died upon the Cross-a work of which the efficacy remains eternally, even to the Father’s eye, but of which the love is all for us. If I treat this memorial with lightness, I am guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, for it is that body and blood which are presented to me in it. I doubt if there is any one in the world who enjoys the Lord’s Supper more than I do (though I doubt not that there is with many more piety); but that which makes me enjoy it is that it presents to me the body and blood of my Savior dead, and consequently a perfect love and a perfect work. But He cannot be in His dead body, which I discern there by faith. He is in me, that I may enjoy Him: if He is introduced living, that which I ought to discern no longer exists. All this in connection with the fact of the entirely new position of the living Christ-a doctrine which Paul presents to us with such divine energy, and which the enemy has always sought to hide, even under the form of piety, and for the preservation of which Paul so contended. What anguish he suffered from the efforts of the enemy to draw souls back to Judaism, as if they were still living in the world! " Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." May God give us to discern more the body of Jesus-to eat His flesh and to realize His death more! Yes: this death is precious. It meets us in our need just as we are, and it delivers us from it by introducing us there, where He is, in the power of a new life which by His death knows not the old. I have written you at much length. I could willingly enlarge on this subject, for instead of thinking lightly of the Supper of the Lord, it is of all institutions the most precious to me; only to be so it must be a dead Savior that is presented to me in it. I am living with Him now in heaven. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: VOL 02 - "ALL! NOW MY HEART IS WON" ======================================================================== "All! Now My Heart Is Won" Ah! now my heart is won, God the great deed has done, My soul has found her Sun, Jesus, in Thee! Now as the days roll by, In Thy strong arms I lie, Known is my heart’s deep cry, Savior, to Thee. All times I know Thee near, Naught in Thy presence fear, Life’s journey is not drear, Jesus, with Thee. Lord, may I to Thee cleave Should’st Thou my heart bereave, Be willing all to leave, Jesus, for Thee. As moments flee away, Welcome each finished day, They speed me on my way, Jesus, to Thee! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: VOL 02 - "I'D RATHER SUFFER LOSS" ======================================================================== "I’d Rather Suffer Loss" " It was that very spot, sir," said a working shoemaker, pointing to a place in his little workshop; " Yes, in that very place, sir, six years ago, that the Lord spoke peace to my troubled soul; and how good and gracious He is." Such was almost the beginning of our happy and profitable intercourse, on paying a visit to this dear servant of the Lord Jesus.... After talking generally together, and having had sweet fellowship in the things of our precious Savior and Lord, and we were about to leave, he said, " I should like to let you know something about the exercises of soul I have been lately passing through." To this we readily assented. He then said something like this: " When I was converted to God, and knew the Lord Jesus Christ His Son as my Savior, I thought I shall now surely prosper in my little business; but in this I was sadly mistaken, for my earnings very soon fell off. The first year I earned three shillings a week less, the second year three shillings a week less, the third year four shillings a week less, and of late my earnings have been so little that I thought I must give it up, and seek some other employment, though I have so enjoyed the Lord’s presence with me in this little place. "Accordingly, knowing Mr. M. to be a kind christian man, and that he held a good situation in a large factory near this, I asked him if he thought he could procure me employment of any kind in his place of business, and he promised to let me know when there was a vacancy. "But after this I became deeply exercised before the Lord as to what I was about. Is this that I am seeking according to my own will or the Lord’s will? Is He bidding me to give up my present calling and seek another? for I have had much of the Lord’s presence, and enjoyed His sweet company when working alone in this corner. " And just then the Lord seemed to say to me, Which will you have? Will you go into the factory, and mix with the ungodly multitude with large wages, or remain in this corner and enjoy my presence with small earnings; which will you have? "I assure you, sir, it was a serious moment. I turned it well over in my mind. I considered how weak I am, how easily turned aside, and began to think that if I went into that factory to work, I might soon be drawn away, and lose my blessed Lord’s sweet company. "So I said, Lord, let me have Thy company even if it must be with small earnings; I’d rather suffer loss, than not enjoy Thy presence with me.’ From that time I became perfectly settled, and told Mr. M. not to think anything more about procuring a situation for me. Now, sir, it is remarkable that from that time work began to come in more than for a long time before." We could not help thinking that the result was just what we should have expected. We believe that one of the greatest hindrance to souls is their being so taken up with desire for worldly prosperity. The consequence is that the Lord hath not got His rightful place in their hearts; and, however many excuses they may make, the question really is, " Am I seeking earthly gain, or the enjoyment of the Lord’s presence? "Is communion with Him the uppermost desire of my heart?" Perhaps no point is of more importance for us really to settle in the presence’ of God. If worldly advantage, to say nothing of the accumulation of wealth, has the first consideration, let it not surprise us if such go further and further away from the Lord; but if we are willing to suffer loss, and to lay aside everything that hinders our enjoyment of His sweet company, then we may be sure that He will not forsake us as to food and raiment. We believe the Scripture is as true as ever, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." We do well to remember that to the believer it is said, "Unto you it is given in the behalf’ of Christ. not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." (Matthew 6:33; Php 1:29.) LIVING to God inwardly is the only possible means of living to Him outwardly....I dread great activity without great communion; but I believe that where the heart is with Christ, it will live to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: VOL 02 - "MY DESIRE FOR THEE" ======================================================================== "My Desire for Thee" That thou mayest daily gather fresh droppings of His love, Forever round thee falling as manna from above, That ever midst the worry of busy outward life, Thine inner one may flourish unhindered by the strife. That thou mayest know His presence to brighten all the way, And prove His grace sufficient for each succeeding day. That more increased attraction in Jesus thou mayest see, And mine is but an echo of His desire for thee. John 17:15. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: VOL 02 - "NEARER" ======================================================================== "Nearer" ", Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Romans 13:11. Tune, "I hear Thy welcome voice.” Not nearer being saved; For all who have believed Are saved; th’ Eternal word is pledged; We cannot be deceived. Romans 10:9; John 5:24. Not nearer having peace, For peace we have with God; Sweet peace and pardon through the price Of sin-atoning blood. Romans 5:1. Not nearer being meet For our divine abode; E’en now, " as He is, so are we," The righteousness of God. 1 John 4:17. Not nearer as to rank, Our title is secure; Now are we sons and heirs of God, Our heritage is sure. 1 John 3:1-3. But we are nearer now (Oh blissful, wondrous day I) The full redemption promised long, When death shall die away. Ephesians 1:14. The body, though redeemed, Must wait till Jesus come; He’ll call from earth, and from the grave, His ransomed people home, Romans 8:23. High time ’tis to awake, With hope of bliss so dear; High time, with earth’s dark night spent, And heaven’s bright morn so near. Romans 13:1; Romans 13:12. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: VOL 02 - "SEEN OF ANGELS" ======================================================================== "Seen of Angels" In earlier days the angels had desired to look into the things of Christ, (1 Peter 1:12). When these things themselves were manifested and accomplished, this desire was answered; for in the history, as we find it in the Evangelists, the angels are set to be eye-witnesses of that which they had long desired to look into. They are privileged to find their place and their enjoyment in the history of Christ in the mystery of godliness;’ and to find it, just as of old they had found it, in the sanctuary of God. In that sanctuary all, it is true, was for the use and blessing of sinners. The altars, and the laver, and the mercy-seat, and all else, were provided for us. The action and the grace of the house of God were for sinners; but the cherubim gazed. They were set in that house to look at its deepest mysteries. And so, in the same condition shall we find them in the day of the great originals, or of the heavenly things themselves, when God was manifest in the flesh.’ For then, it is equally true, all was for the service and salvation of us sinners, or that God, so manifested, might be preached unto the Gentiles,’ and believed on in the world;’ but still all was as surely for this end, that He might be ’ seen of angels.’ Thus they took the same place in the sanctuary of old, and in the great mystery itself. They gazed―they looked―they were eye-witnesses. Anal further, the sight they took of the mystery was of the same intense and interested character as the cherubims had before expressed in the holy of holies. And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy-seat, with their faces one to another: even to the mercy-seatward were the faces of the cherubim.’ And so, in the history of Christ, the True Ark, they will be thus again seen. The angel of the. Lord comes, in his commission and ministry from heaven, to announce to the shepherds of Bethlehem the birth of Jesus. But as soon as He had fulfilled His service, suddenly there was with Him a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ And when the time came for another great event, and God manifest in the flesh’ was raised from the dead, soon to be received up into glory,’ the angels are again present with the like intense and interested delight. At the sepulcher, as Mary Magdalene looked in, two of them were sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain;’ and at the crisis of the ascension itself, they are again present, instructing the men of Galilee in the further ways of Him who had just then gone up on high. What hanging over the mercy-seat was all this What cherubim-gaze again and again was this! This utterance of the heavenly host in the fields of Bethlehem was not part of their ministry to man, but an act of worship to God. They were not then instructing the shepherds, or even formally addressing themselves to them; but breathing out the rapture in which their own spirits were held in thoughts of the One that had been then born. And so their attitude in the sepulcher. When Mary appears, they have, it is true, a word of sympathy for her; but there they were in the sepulcher before she had come, and there they would have been though she had never come. As the cherubim in the tabernacle had hung over the ark and mercy-seat, on either side one, so now in the sepulcher the angels hang over the place where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet. What ways of seeing Jesus were these! As we read, God was manifest in the flesh-seen of angels.’ Well may we, beloved, covet grace to have like utterances and like attitudes over Jesus. And well may we grieve over what in our hearts is short of this, great indeed as some of us know that to be. I believe that many of us need to be attracted more than we are wont to be, by. these things. Many of us have dwelt (if I may distinguish such things by Such terms) more in the light of the knowledge of the divine dispensations, than in the warmth of such mysteries as Bethlehem, the garden, and the Mount of Olives, revealed to the enraptured angels. But in this we have been losers ―losers in much of that communion which marked the path and the spirit of others in other days. My desire has been to turn to this great sight, led that way by the condition of things around and among us. Glorious, I need not say, is the object ―the same Person, God manifest in the flesh,’ followed by faith from the manger to the cross, from the cross through the grave up in resurrection, and thence to the present heavens, and eternal ages beyond them. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: VOL 02 - "THEM THAT ARE PERFECT" ======================================================================== "Them That Are Perfect" A perfect Christian is a full-grown man in one sense; it is the same word as the " perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And what is that? It is certainly not being like what Christ was when He was down here; for there was no sin in Him; so the thought of being like Him thus is a mere delusion. He that gazes on Him up there walks like Him down here; but to be like Him as He was down here is not possible. To walk like Him, I repeat, is said; but to be like Him would be to be absolutely sinless.. To be conformed to Him in glory―that we shall be, and therefore the heart desires and runs after it now: and that is what is called a perfect Christian. It is not one who knows what it is to have got the, sins of the old creation cleared away; it is not merely knowing the work of Christ which puts away sin, hardly measured either by the sin, for it is the whole state of the nature. All is settled, and I know that " by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified;" that there is no more a question of anything to be settled between me and God, and I have liberty before Him in the sense of His favor. But then I say, Is that all? All my debts paid; but am I to have nothing to buy anything with? Am I henceforth to starve without possessing a farthing? Then it is that the believer comes to see, that having part in this forgiveness he has also part with the last Adam: he has got hold by grace of this Man in the glory, and knowing this, I say my whole soul is in that. I have seen the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord, and it has set aside everything here; I have done with it all; I belong to another place, and no longer own the old man. It is then the Christian has got to be what he calls a perfect man. He has this object before him; he has got Christ’s place before God, and he grows up into the stature of Christ, not that he has not much still to learn, but he has got into his place; he is of full age; he discerns good and evil; he has got hold of his place in Christ, and he knows it. This sets aside the flesh altogether, and also that which is a deceptive thing to many-perfection in the flesh; for Christ in glory is my only perfection. In the world I am running a race I have not attained yet; but Christ has laid hold of me for it. Those who are not thus perfect are then put into the strongest contrast―" If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." I can walk with one who only knows his redemption in Christ with just the same love; but I look for him to get hold of this also. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: VOL 02 - "UPON THY HEART, LORD JESUS" ======================================================================== "Upon Thy Heart, Lord Jesus" Upon Thy. heart, Lord Jesus, Thou bearest me above, There’s naught to me down-flowing, But a mighty stream of love. Upon Thy breast, Lord Jesus, My every care I tell, And leaving Thee to order, I know it will be well. Between thy shoulders, Savior, I’m carried day by day, I need not look before me, For the Shepherd knows the way. Before Thy face, Lord Jesus, Forever I shall rest, Beholding there Thy beauty, And be forever blest. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: VOL 02 - A FAITHFUL WORD ======================================================================== A Faithful Word MY DEAR M., I don’t forget you, and often do 1 hope that your soul is cleaving fast to the Lord Jesus, and feeding on the rich pasture which He provides for the lambs and sheep of His flock. Perhaps the most important thing for us is to keep our first love bright and real. You will serve him whom you love. The great motive in the heart of Paul was the love of Christ: "He loved me," he said; and that which the Lord Himself pressed thrice on Peter was, "Lovest thou me?" Full well does the Lord know what is the mighty spring of faithfulness to Himself, and that which stands higher in His estimation than intelligence or gift is simple love to Himself. He delights in the heart that values Himself. He could say of her who had taken her place at His feet to hear His word, that-she had " chosen the better part:" He could say of her who anointed Him for His burial, rather than lavish the cost of the ointment on the poor, " She hath wrought a good work on me, and wheresoever the gospel should be preached, this also that she had done should be preached, this also that she had done should be spoken of for a memorial of her." On the other hand, what led Ephesus to leave off their first works? Simply the fact that they had left their first love. Ah, what a secret! How closely the Lord observes the pulsations of the heart, the movement of the affections! How sensitive He is to the smallest alteration of His throne there! Yes, you will serve and obey gladly him whom you love. Does your heart ever become weary of the word and ways of your Lord and Savior? Does it find less freshness, sweetness, and delight in learning of Him? Has the world come in to spoil and wither? Think of His love, and charge your soul to retain the sense of it as a treasure. "Keep yourselves in the love of God," said Jude to an apostatizing Christendom; " The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God," said Paul to a suffering church; and easy it is to discover what furnished the wondrous impulse to that same apostle in his words, "I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for WHOM," &c. The constraining love of Christ, apprehended in, and responded to by, our hearts, is that which alone can keep us true and faithful in a world where everything takes the character of a hindrance rather than a help in our heavenward course. Dear young brother, you must be passing through much experience of the evil ways of this world in your busy life in―. Remember that you have your own part to play upon the stage of life―as a witness for Christ. It is well to recollect that God is commenting on our life. He is our Biographer, as He was of Abel, Enoch, &e., in Hebrews 11:1-40.; nor is any event omitted by His careful pen. Take care of the little things, and the great ones will not be overlooked. Rest not in present attainments. Thirst for more of God, as the hart for the water brooks. The Lord bless you. I trust all are well. My fond love to your family, and all the saints. I am well, and working still for the glorious Master. Yours in the Lord, ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: VOL 02 - A LETTER ON GIVING UP ONESELF ENTIRELY TO THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD ======================================================================== A Letter on Giving up Oneself Entirely to the Ministry of the Word VERY DEAR BROTHER,―G., who told me that you are now settled in―, begged me to write you a few lines, which I do very willingly: indeed, it was on my asking him for news of you that he spoke to me of you, and told me that you had some thought of applying yourself more directly to the work of the Lord. Nothing is more desirable, dear brother; there is the greatest need of laborers, and when our blessed Savior raises them up, it is a sign that He would do a work Himself in this world of darkness. The gathering together of His own, and the sanctification and joy of those who are manifested, are always the thoughts predominant in my soul. There is every appearance that the Lord is hastening the time; for the rest, our duty is certain. It is for you, dear brother, before God to determine whether the Lord calls you certainly to this work of faith. The more devotedness there is the more trials there will be, but a hundred times more will there be of happiness and of joy, and when the Lord returns, the crown of glory that fadeth not away. From the circumstances in which you are placed, it is difficult for me to speak, and probably those in which you will be placed would occupy your thoughts. This is a matter of faith. G. committed himself to the Lord, and the Lord has sustained him, and he has always been maintained without difficulty, and has even provided for the wants of those who had trusted men. In any case, such a step is always an act of faith, and one ought never to induce any one to follow it. If, for example, it will be always my delight to help the brethren whether in England or abroad, as our brethren do according to their power; but if I undertook to do such or such a thing, all that I have might fail me, through the providence of God, or a more pressing need might present itself, and I, already bound, should fail, either as to the will of God or my engagements; and further, I have a very strong objection-I am, in fact, entirely opposed―to sending anyone into the Lord’s field with a salary of so much per annum. I can only say that it will be my joy, by the grace of God, to relieve the needs of my brethren according to my power, but to engage anyone to work is, it seems to me, to take the place of faith at least, if there were not some special direction. I wish to make you understand all the interest I should take in helping you if God call you to the work, on one side, and on the other, to prevent you from counting on me or any man whatever.... That the Lord may raise up many workmen, and send them out into His harvest-this is the earnest desire of my heart. May God grant me to devote myself to it with all my strength, and may He strengthen the faith of all His servants, so that they may not distrust His goodness. For myself, I can bear witness that He has never failed me, feeble and faithless as I have found my self to be, but always sustained beyond my expectation by His goodness. You will find it the same, dear brother, if you feel yourself called to work for the Lord. My faith has been feeble, and the Lord has been good to me; if your faith is stronger, you will gather a more abundant harvest. May God bless you and keep you, and direct your thoughts and your steps. May He ever increase your faith, and make you feel His abundant love. May the Lord reveal Himself more and more to your soul. Yours affectionately in Jesus, ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: VOL 02 - A SHINING FACE ======================================================================== A Shining Face To have Christ,―I mean practically to walk with Him and after Him, to have communion with the Father and the Son, to walk in unfeigned obedience and lowliness: to live i n realized dependence on Christ and have His secret with us, and realize a Father’s love; to have our affections set on things above, to walk in patience and yet confidence through this world, this is what we have to seek, and if we realize it we shall be a testimony, whether individually or collectively, but in possessing the things themselves, and they form us through grace, so that we are one (1:e. a testimony), but seeking or setting up to be it does not. Moses did not seek to have his face shine nor even know when it did, but when he had been with God it did so. A shining face never sees itself. The true heart is occupied with Christ, and in a certain sense and measure self is gone. The right thought is not to think of self at all- save as we have to judge it. "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM." "Not only did the blessed Lord meet for us who believe all our "Not only did the blessed Lord meet for us who believe all our sin as children of Adam, by His death, so as to clear us according to the glory of God from it all in His sight, but He perfectly glorified God himself in so doing. ’Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.’ See John 17:4-5. Hence, as stated in both these passages, man in the person of Christ entered into the glory of God. But it was wrought for us, our sin was put way by it. Christ, as having glorified all God is, is our righteousness. We are thus the righteousness of God in him. We have a positive title to enter into that glory as regards righteousness, though owning it all to be grace (grace reigns through righteousness), and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, by the work and worth of Christ ’As He is, so are we in this world.’ But this took place in Him, as entering into, beginning in His person a new place of human existence, a risen man entered into glory. The power of eternal life was in it. Dead to the old scene and all that state of being and place and ground of relationship to God. He lives, in that He lives to God. Christ has thus His perfect place of acceptance as Man with God, and we in Him. He is gone in the power of divine life, save according to divine righteousness into divine glory." " The Gospel proclaimed righteousness on God’s part, instead of requiring it from man, according to the law. Now the Holy Ghost could be the seal of that righteousness-He could come down upon the Man Christ, because He was perfectly approved of God. He was righteous-The Righteous One-He can come down upon us because we are made the righteousness of God in Christ." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: VOL 02 - A USEFUL WORD OF EXHORTATION ======================================================================== A Useful Word of Exhortation What is your example? Christ. You must give yourself up entirely, because Christ did. If you are always grieving the Spirit, the Spirit must occupy you with your state. If I say I am in Christ, I say Christ is in me, and my business is to show, Christ, and nothing else. It is having Christ always before us, and really walking in the presence of God. The great secret ’ is, to be more with God than anybody, and if not, we shall go astray. The moment I get away from the conscious presence of God, self has a certain place, whereas, if I am really in the presence of God, I am nothing, I am more what I am before Him, than what I am in His power for others. You are not competent to discern the will of God if you are not with Him. " The secret’ of the Lord is with them that fear Him." If power rests on me that does not put me in the presence of God, as to my conscience or heart. It may be for others, but we have to be before God Himself, or else we shall never keep straight; and for that we must be in the path of God, for Him to lead us. I cannot realize God’s presence out of the path of His will. The instant we lose the sense of dependence we are in danger. Obedience and dependence, these are the two living’ principles of the new man; “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." I do get another principle to help me through, and that is confidence in God. I cannot depend if I have not confidence. We do need confidence, or we have not courage to go through sacrifices, if I have not confidence in God’s faithfulness. It is everything. Whatever I do, I ought to do it as serving Christ. " Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: VOL 02 - ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD ======================================================================== Abraham Believed God Such a thing as personal connection with God would never have entered into our minds unless He had revealed Himself. We see in Abraham’s history how God comes to him, and introduces Himself as a living Person to his soul, drawing him out of his own country and from his own kindred after Himself. Henceforth all Abraham’s associations were to be with the living God, who promises to be to him a shield, and his exceeding great reward. Abraham had nothing to act upon but faith in God’s word. What a fool he must have appeared to his worldly relatives, leaving all at the bidding of One whom he did not see, and in whom they did not believe. All went well with him as long as he trusted in God to act for him, but when he tried to arrange matters for himself, it was all failure. We see this in his taking Terah and Lot with him; God never called them out, the word was, "Get thee out of thy country and from thy father’s house." Abraham did not leave all, so he had to stop in Haran till Terah dies, and is at last obliged to desire Lot to separate himself from him; after that we find progress. Mark in the 8th verse, when called to ’go out, Abraham obeyed, not knowing whither he went. This was a trial to which God put his faith, for the testing of it. Nothing tries human nature so much as uncertainty; we can bear anything rather than be kept in suspense; there is relief in the worst certainty. But that is just God’s principle of acting with us: He does not want us to know beforehand how and when His promises are to be made good to us, for then there would be no exercise of faith. God told Abraham that his seed was to be as the stars of heaven. How was this to be, seeing he had no child? Everything but that he had got, silver and gold, flocks, tents, and three hundred trained servants. But who was to inherit all this? Naturally this question would often suggest itself. Poor Sarah tried to help him out of the difficulty in her way, by smuggling a child into the house; but it was not an Isaac, a son of promise. How we see ourselves in Sarah! We have no patience to wait God’s time for giving, so we put forth our hand and take, often to our sorrow and spiritual loss. Had we just kept hanging on God, He would have given us something far better than the thing to which we had helped ourselves in our impatience. From the 9th verse we see that the pilgrim and stranger character was kept up-dwelling in tents; houses are for Canaan, tents for the wilderness. God’s dwelling in the wilderness was a tabernacle or tent, in Canaan a temple. Abraham kept true to the pilgrim character, Lot did not. He pitched his tent first toward Sodom, afterward had a house in it, and sat at the gate. What a place for a child of God to settle in and receive honor! Abraham had his eye on a far different city, "whose builder and maker was God." Meanwhile he was satisfied to live in a tent, with God for his portion. When tested, Abraham refused to take anything from the king of Sodom, from a thread even to a shoe lachet, lest he should say, " I have made Abraham rich." The very next thing we find is God saying to him, "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Whenever we are enabled to surrender what nature clings to for Christ’s sake there is blessing in a clearer revelation of Himself to the soul: as it were, room is made for the Lord by the displacing of lower objects, and the promise of John 14:23 is made good in our experience" If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." What a wall of fire the Lord is round the soul that is separated to Himself! He plants the blood of Christ right behind us. Has He spoken to us of His glory, and told us of the glories awaiting us as fellow-heirs with Christ, and shall we turn back and mind earthly things I Shall not His country be our country, His associates our associates, while we are waiting in strangership down here, confessing ourselves pilgrims by our walk and ways, showing by our blessed independency of all the good things which nature esteems so highly, and our indifference to the attractions by which so many are dazzled and blinded, that we are passing through this scene in haste to a better country, choosing nothing for ourselves, but receiving all as God’s Gift? Does anything bright offer itself? Our first question should be, Does my Father give me this? if not, I don’t want it. If I am a true pilgrim, I won’t be thinking of settling down in a world like this; I will say, That can’t be God’s gift for me; it is not good enough; He has prepared for me a city; I am going home; meanwhile I want to keep my mind and heart free for Him who gave Himself for me. We never read of God being the God of Lot; not but that He was Lot’s God quite as much as Abraham’s but He could not associate His holy name with Sodom, of which Lot was a citizen. He is not ashamed to be called the God of pilgrims and strangers, and to associate His name with theirs. The trial to which God put Abraham in offering up Isaac was very remarkable. He wanted to see whether he was hanging all his weight on the promise or not. He tries us often in the same way. How blessed when the faith He has given, when tried, is not found wanting! In many ways our faith is tested. Do we know what it is to be kept in suspense? When we put forth a- single thing to help ourselves, God just moves it out of His way, that He may work unhindered. Walking with God, what is it? To bang on His word often kept in suspense-but taking nothing till He gives-living as a pilgrim and a stranger, looking on the glory beyond. Happy experience I The Lord grant it may be ours! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: VOL 02 - ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED AND ONE SPIRIT WITH THE LORD ======================================================================== Accepted in the Beloved and One Spirit With the Lord Fellow-believer, do you know in your soul, as taught of God from His word, the above two blessings that are ours through grace. Look up into the heavens, look up at the man in the glory, the accepted man at God’s right hand, for that is where Jesus is now. And then hear the words of the Holy Ghost, the words of God, saying to you (in Ephesians 1:1-23 verse 6) "He bath made us accepted in the Beloved," and just let your soul take it in. For that is how, " to the praise of the glory of His grace," He, the God of all grace, looks at you and me, as to our acceptance. Oh, what rest, what joy, what peace, to know this? Yes, " As He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17.) What a perfect standing God’s perfect love has given us. But you ask, perhaps, " What about what I am in myself? I find that the more I go on, the more I learn that in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.’ What about that? " Listen again to the written word. " I am crucified with Christ." (Galatians 2:20.) " Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him." (Romans 6:6.) "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and by a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, (as well as judged sins) (Romans 8:3.) And now, though it is actually in us, (till we actually die, or the Lord comes, and we get glorified bodies like His own,) (Romans 8:11; Php 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2,) yet in God’s reckoning, we are dead, as sinful children of Adam, (as well as cleared from our guilt) in the death of Christ. And our life is hid with Christ in God, for He has become our life. (Colossians 3:1-25) And so we may truthfully sing:― Like Thee, O Lord, how wondrous fair, Lord Jesus, all Thy members are. A life divine to them is given, The bright inheritance of heaven. --- Just as we were we came to Thee, As heirs of wrath and misery, Just as thou art―now we are Thine, We stand in righteousness divine. Or again, Once we stood in condemnation, Waiting thus the sinner’s doom; Christ in death has wrought salvation, God has raised Him from the tomb. Now we see in Christ’s acceptance, But the measure of our own; Him who lay beneath our sentence, Seated high upon the throne. Quickened, raised, and in Him seated, We a full deliverance know: Every foe has been defeated, Every enemy laid low. It may be that some one reads this and says, "Yes, I know all this is true of me, but I do not enjoy it as I did when I first learned it. Why is this?" Because dear brother or sister you have not been holding fast what God showed you, or it may be you have not been walking consistently with this place God has put you in. And then of course you do not and cannot enjoy it. For if, though you know "ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God," and " when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory," you seek the things below, instead of the " things above," where Christ sitteth. If " having put off the old man with his deeds," and "having put on the new man," as every true believer has, you do not " put to death your members which are on the earth," (see Colossians 3:5-13.) and do not put off the old man’s ways and put on the new man’s ways, thus allowing the sinful flesh in you to act in some way or other, of course you cannot enjoy the place that God’s grace has put you into: (for though " not in the flesh but in the Spirit," the flesh is in us, as bad and vile as ever it was,) our enjoyment of it depends upon our walk. We must not take the standing and acceptance we have in Christ and through His sufferings and death for us, and then expect to enjoy it, when we are not walking consistently with it. Indeed we cannot do so. But if you know that " you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." And as He tells you to do, "reckon yourself dead to sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord," then "yield yourself up unto God, as one that is alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." " Present your body, a living (1: e. a continual) sacrifice unto God." " Put to death your members which are upon the earth." Put of the old man’s ways, and put on the new man’s ways. Yes, dear brother or sister, give yourself up to God, and for others, instead of living to please self, as Ephesians 5:1-7 tells us we are to do, and thus " walk in love," and you will enjoy your place and acceptance in Christ before God, more and more as you go on, thus walking with the God who has given you such a place. But now as to our being united to Him. For the true Christian is both accepted in Him, and united to Him also. Christians are united to Christ in glory, and to one another down here, by having the Holy Ghost in them. Please look at 1 Corinthians 6:15-17, also verse 19. " What know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" " What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and ye are not your own?" And. in verse 17, " He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit," in contrast to " he that is joined to an harlot is one body, for two, saith he, shall be one flesh," verse 16. Ephesians 1:12-13, tells us, when we get the indwelling of the Spirit, viz., "After ye believed." 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, that the one Spirit baptizes all believers into one body. The passage in chapter 6. already referred to, shows us we are " joined to the Lord." And in Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:18-19, Ephesians 1:22-23, also chapter 5:29, 30, we learn that every real Christian is a member of Christ and members one of another, therefore united to Him up there in glory, and to one another down here on earth in one body. " One Spirit with the Lord," Oh blessed, wondrous word, What heavenly light, what power divine Doth that sweet word afford. " One Spirit with the Lord," Jesus the glorified, Esteems the Church for which He bled, His body and His bride. Now, if you read in the 1st of Colossians, from verse 14 to end of verse 19, also in chapter 2. verses 9 and 10, and then read verses 18 and 19 of chapter 2. you will I trust see first of all, what a glorious Person the Head of this body is, to whom we are united, One who is " the image of the invisible God." who created everything, for whom everything was created, was before everything, and upholds everything. One in whom all the fullness is pleased to dwell. All the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and then I trust you will see as you read again verse 19 of chapter 2. (which tells us that from this glorious Person, the Head, to whom we are united, flows down to us the members here on earth all our spiritual nourishment and strength,) what an infinite source of supply we have in Him as thus united to Him, who loves us too, as a man loves himself. (Ephesians 5:29,) and what a blessing it is to be "united to Him," as well as "accepted in Him." Yes, we are livingly united to this glorious Person, up there in glory. And there is no telling what blessing and comfort and power would be ministered to us, both individually and corporately if we only took in more simply who He is, to whom we are united, and if we only were more constantly " holding the Head," as we are exhorted to do in Colossians 2:18-19. If you ask me, what is “holding the Head "? I believe, it is not allowing anything, or any person, angel or man, to come in between us and the One who is our Head. Now this is just what Satan is always trying to get us to allow. Just as a clever general tries by maneuvering to get some of his forces in between his opponents army and their source of supply, because he knows that if he can, then he can more easily overcome them, their supplies being cut off from coming in to them of food and ammunition, etc. So Satan tries in all manner of ways to get something or some one in between us and our blessed infinite source of supply, our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. For if we allow him to do so, he knows well that then we are practically cut off from the one from whom all the nourishment and spiritual power, etc., flows, and then he can easily overcome us as to our walk and ways down here. Here in Colosse he was getting angels in between the Christians there and their Head. But it does not matter what it is, whether angels or men, we must be careful not to allow any one or anything to come in between us and the blessed One up there in glory, to whom we are livingly united by the Holy Ghost. For though this union between us and Him can never be actually broken, yet the practical enjoyment of it, and the blessing that should be flowing consciously down from the Head to us the members on earth, can be, and is hindered if we are not " holding the Head." May God give us to be going on then steadfastly, and continually, not only knowing we are " accepted in Him" and "united to Him," who is up there at God’s right hand, the accepted man, and the Head of the body, the Church; but so walking, through His grace, according to the place we are in, that we may be filled with joy and peace in believing, and that, allowing nothing to come in between us and Him we may know the wonderful sweetness of being " one Spirit with the Lord " as well. And though by storms assailed And though by trials pressed, Himself our Life, He bears us up Right onward to the rest. There we shall drink the stream Of endless bliss above: There we shall know, without a cloud, His full unbounded love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: VOL 02 - AN OLD CHRISTIAN'S ESTIMATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ======================================================================== An Old Christian’s Estimation of the Holy Scriptures " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 1 Timothy 3:16. I have a profound, unfeigned (I believe divinely given) faith in the Bible. I have, through grace, been by it converted, enlightened, quickened, saved. I have received the knowledge of God by ’it, to adore His perfections―of Jesus,―the Savior, joy, strength, comfort of my soul. Many have been indebted to others as the means of their being brought to God, to ministers of that Gospel which the Bible contains, or to friends who delight in it. This was not my case. That work, which is ever God’s, was wrought in me through the means of the written word. He who knows what the value of Jesus is, will know what the Bible will be to such a one. If I have, alas, failed it, in nearly thirty years’ arduous and varied life and labor-at least such, as far as the service of an unknown and feeble individual usually leads; I have never found it fail me; if it has not for the poor and needy circumstances of time, through which we feebly pass, I am assured it never will for eternity. "The word of the Lord abideth forever." If it reaches down to my low estate, it reaches up to God’s height, because it comes thence: as the love that can reach even to me, and apply to every detail of my feebleness and failure, proves itself divine in doing so: none but God could, and hence it leads me up to Him. As Jesus came from God and went to God, so does the book that divinely reveals Him come from and elevate to Him. If received, it has brought the soul to God, for He has revealed Himself in it. Its positive proofs are all in itself. The sun needs no light to see it by I beg to avow, in the fullest, clearest, and distinctest manner here, my deep, divinely-taught conviction of the inspiration of the Scriptures. That is, while of course allowing if need be, for defect in the translation and the like, when I read the Bible, I read it as absolute authority for my soul as God’s Word. There is no higher privilege than to have communications direct from God Himself. My joy, my comfort, my food, my strength for near thirty years, have been the Scriptures received implicitly as the Word of God. In the beginning of that period, I was put through the deepest exercise of soul on that point. Did heaven and earth, the visible church, and man himself crumble into nonentity, I should, through grace, since that epoch, hold to the word as an unbreakable link between my soul and God. I am satisfied that God has given it me as such. I do not doubt that the grace of the Holy Spirit is needed to make it profitable, and to give it real authority to our souls, because of what we are: but that does not change what it is in itself. To be true when it is received, it must have, been true before it was so. And here I will add, that although it requires the grace of God and the work of the Holy Ghost to give it quickening power, yet divine truth, God’s Word, has a hold on the natural conscience from which it cannot escape. The, light detects the " breaker-up," though he may hate it. And so the Word of God is adapted to man, though he be hostile to it-adapted in grace (blessed be God!) as well as in truth. This is exactly what chews the wickedness of man’s will in rejecting it. And it has power thus in the conscience, even if the will be unchanged. This may increase the dislike of it; but it is disliked because conscience feels it cannot deny its truth. Men resist it because it is true. Did it not reach their conscience, they would not need to take such pains to get rid of and disprove it. Men do not arm themselves against straws, but against a sword whose edge is felt and feared. Reader, it speaks of grace as well as truth. It speaks of God’s grace and love, who gave His only-begotten Son that sinners like you and me might be with Him, know Him, deeply, intimately, truly know Him-and enjoy Him forever, and enjoy Him now; that the conscience, perfectly purged, might be in joy in His presence, without a cloud, without a reproach, without fear. And to be there in His love, in such a way, is perfect joy. The Word will tell you thst truth concerning yourself; but it will tell you the truth of a God of love, while unfolding the- wisdom of His counsels. Let me add to my reader, that by far the best means of assuring himself of the truth and authority of the Word is to read the Word itself. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: VOL 02 - CHRIST IS COMING ======================================================================== Christ Is Coming He is coming, coming quickly! Such the promise of His word; Coming surely, coming quickly Even so, come, Jesus, Lord. From the Father’s throne He’s coming,. Just to meet us in the air, Then we shall be ever with Him, All His glory we shall share. Who is He that comes to meet us, Comes with all the glory bright? But the One who died to save us, He who was this dark world’s light. Are you daily watching for Him, Waiting for your Lord’s return? He is coming, coming quickly Let your lights then brightly burn. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: VOL 02 - DELIVERANCE AND STANDING ======================================================================== Deliverance and Standing EXTRACT FROM A LETTER. I know well how few know deliverance, but it is a great thing to know that I, a poor worm, should be before God and the Father, in the same acceptance and favor that Christ is, loved even as He is loved. But it is the greatness of infinite love. Then it is not generally preached with intelligence, next it is experimental, and above all we must be in earnest to have it. Who is willing to be dead to what nature and flesh would desire, yet that is the only way of deliverance. People will tell you it is our standing in Christ. I admit it as in Colossians 3:1-25, and as faith owns in Romans 6:1-23. and Galatians 2:1-21; but who is willing to be in the standing?* (* 1:e. To be in it consciously.-ED.) It is standing, or else we are in the effort of Romans 7:1-25 or narrow monks’ labor, which I have tried, and even if we have experimentally learned, as it must be learned, who is carrying out 2 Corinthians 4:1-18, so as to have the conscience living in it, by an ungrieved Spirit; but if experimentally taught it is of the greatest use to souls, and the joy of being blameless in Christ before God is exceeding great, and one that is eternal and divine in its source and nature, a wonderful thing, " for he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." The world is a terrible snare, and a subtle one, and greatly hinders this deliverance. A soul enjoying deliverance has its object elsewhere, see Romans 8:1-39 Then we must remember “the diligent soul shall be made fat." I press when souls ve in earnest, " My grace is sufficient for thee, and My strength is made perfect in weakness." For we learn that we are without strength for deliverance, and walk in the sense of it if we can be used in service, but His grace is sufficient. Knowing we are nothing is the place of blessing, for then God is everything, and the place of strength, for then Christ can put forth His strength. In this, 2 Corinthians 12:1-21, is a most instructive chapter. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: VOL 02 - EXTRACT FROM AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER ======================================================================== Extract From an Unpublished Letter " MY LOVED BROTHER. ―I think I have had my mind more occupied of late than ever with the subject which your letter suggests―the being with the Lord. I am sure it is deeper, happier, fuller acquaintance with himself that our hearts need; and then we should long and desire and pant after Him in such ways as nothing but His presence could satisfy. I know souls in this state; and yet It is not knowledge that gives it to them, but personal acquaintance with the blessed Savior, through the Holy Ghost. "I alighted, as by chance, the other day on some fervent thoughts of an old writer, in connection with this dear and precious subject. In substance they were as follows, and almost so in terms, only I have somewhat condensed them: ―" It is strange that we, who have such continua] use of God, and His bounties and mercies, and are so perpetually beholden to Him, should after all be so little acquainted with Him. And from hence it comes that we are so loathe to think of our dissolution, and of our going to God. For, naturally, where we are not acquainted, we like not to hazard our welcome. We would rather spend our money at an inn, than turn in for a free lodging to an unknown host; whereas to an entire friend, whom we elsewhere have familiarly conversed with, we go boldly and willingly as to our home, knowing that no hour can be unseasonable to such an one. 1 will not live upon God and his daily bounties, without His acquaintance. By His race I will not let one day pass without renewing my acquaintance with Him." " Beautiful utterance this is. It expresses a character of mind which, in this day of busy inquiry after knowledge, we all need―personal longings after Christ. May the blessed Spirit in us give that direction to our hearts It is a hard lesson for some of us to learn, to reach enjoyments which lie beyond and above the provisions of nature. We are still prone to know Christ Himself ’ after the flesh,’ and to desire to find Him in the midst of the relations and circumstances of human life, and there only. " But this is not our calling-this is not the risen, heavenly life. It is hard to get beyond this, I know, but our calling calls us beyond it. We like the home, and the respect, and the security, and all the delights of our human relationships and circumstances, and would have Christ in the midst of them, but to know Him, and to have Him in such a way as tells us that He is a stranger on earth, and that we are to be strangers with Him, ’ this is a hard saying’ to our poor fond hearts." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: VOL 02 - EXTRACTS ======================================================================== Extracts " Before we are in the glory, we are never on a level with the position we hold, while we have only this position to sustain us. We must look above our path to be able to walk in it. A Jew who had the secret of the Lord and who waited for the Messiah was pious and faithful according to the law. A Jew who had only the law assuredly did not keep it. "A Christian who has heaven before him, and a Savior in the glory as the object of his affections, will walk well upon the earth. He who has only the earthly path for his rule, will fail in the intelligence and motives needed to walk in it: he will become a prey to worldliness, and his Christian walk in the world will be more or less on a level with the world in which he walks. " The eyes upwards on Jesus will keep the heart and steps in a path conformable to Jesus, and which, consequently will glorify Him, and make Him known in the walk. Seeing what we are, we must have a motive above our path to walk in it. This does not prevent our needing also for our path the fear of the Lord, to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear, knowing that we, are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ." " There is a divine righteousness in which Christ stands before God as risen; that is, in which I stand in the power of a new life as risen with Him. I am made the righteousness of God in Him. As He is, so am I in this world. This is in the reality of a life in which we live, which is Christ; and of a divine righteousness in which we stand before God, which is Christ. Not I, but Christ lives in me. It is a real living certain position before God, in which I, through grace, and Christ are one, though all flows from and, thank God, is dependent on Him He that hath the Son bath life, and he that bath not the Son hath not life,’ but then it is perfect righteousness already before God. More than this I am a child, a son. Such is my relationship with God.’ I have eternal life. I am in a known, blessed, fixed, relationship with God, where grace has placed me through the working of the same power in which Christ was raised from the dead and set at God’s right hand. I am not only in it, but it is my relationship with God, and there is none but that." " God’s plan is to have a people connected with Himself, with His house on high as their dwelling-place, and for them to act here according to’ the position that God has set them in there, though they have the flesh within, with its lusts and its desires. " And can any thus placed go and connect themselves with that which crucified the Son―with that whose friendship is enmity with God ’―without losing, as an immediate result, peace of heart and conscience? Why does a Christian’s place ooze out? Often, one must reply, because he is walking carelessly through the world, forgetting it is the place where Christ was crucified. My cup of joy can never be full if the world be the place where I am found, and I am walking in its spirit." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: VOL 02 - FRAGMENTS ======================================================================== Fragments How emphatically Christ is the truth. Not His work merely, but Himself-His own blessed self. We speak of the preciousness of His blood, and of all He has done for us, [and right, all right to do so], but after all we must have Himself―we cannot do without Himself. Oh to be clear of the horrid selfish Christianity which covets the benefit of His work, but has little or no heart for Himself. What would heaven be without Christ? and where would be our happiness if He were not there, the sum, the substance, the crown of it all? A true affection for Himself will make us true to Him, and bring us on cheerfully, and decidedly, and unfalteringly, in the path of obedience. Obedience! that is the thing so much wanted, and so much needed in these degenerate days. Lot us be assured of this, the time is short, " He that shall come will come." Oh! to hear the sweet words, " Well done," from His own gracious lips, who was ever tender yet ever faithful too. Beloved children of God, let us seek to know Himself-go after, and with purpose of heart, get to know intimately the One who loved us and gave Himself for us, and to. whom the Father has given us, to whom we belong. Him who says " seek and ye shall find," and who " satisfieth the longing soul." May God in His infinite grace awaken (revive and sustain where it is) this desire in all our hearts with power. Be thou the object bright and fair, To fill and satisfy the heart: My hope to meet Thee in the air, And nevermore from Thee to part, That I may undistracted be, To follow, serve, and wait for Thee. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: VOL 02 - FRAGMENTS ======================================================================== Fragments W hat is the mark of the action of the Holy Ghost on the soul? The Lord Jesus gets a place which He had not before, and if you are full of the Holy Ghost, you will have no object but Christ, no thought but Christ, no end but Christ, no will but Christ. Whatever enfeebles attachment to Christ destroys power-It is not gross sin that does it, which of course will be met and judged; but it is the little things of every day life, which are apt to be chosen before Christ. When the world creeps in, the salt has lost its savor, and we spew that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes. The Lord keep us in the path with Christ, where all is bright and blessed. If the film of this world has been drawn over our spiritual vision, hiding Christ from us, He alone can remove it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: VOL 02 - GOD IN EVERYTHING ======================================================================== God in Everything "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Matthew 11:26. One of the great obstacles to living a life of peace and rest, is the difficulty of seeing God in everything. People say, " I can easily submit to things which come from God; but I cannot submit to man, and most of my trials and crosses come through human instrumentality." Or they say, "It is all well enough to talk of trusting; but when I commit a matter to God, man is sure to come in and disarrange it all, and while I have no difficulty in trusting God, I see serious difficulties in the: way of trusting men." This is no imaginary trouble, but it is of vital importance, and if it cannot be met, does seem to make the path of faith an impossible and visionary theory. For nearly everything in this life comes to us through human instrumentalities, and many of our trials are the result of somebody’s failure, or ignorance, or carelessness or sin. We know God. cannot be the author of these things, and yet unless He overrules the matter, how can we say to Him about it, "Thy will be done?" Moreover, things in which we can see God’s hand always have a sweetness in them which consoles while it wounds. But the trials inflicted by man are full of bitterness. What is needed, then, is to see God in everything, and to receive everything directly from His hands, with no intervention of second causes. The question here confronts us at once-But is. God in everything, and have we any warrant from the Scripture for receiving everything from His hands, without regarding the second causes which may have been instrumental in bringing it about? I answer to this, unhesitatingly, YES! To the children of God everything comes directly from their Father’s band, no matter who or what may have been the apparent agents. There are no "second causes for them. The whole teaching of Scripture asserts and implies this. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matthew 10:29-30.) We are not to be careful about anything, because our Father cares for us. We are not to avenge ourselves, because our Father has charged Himself with our defense. We are not to fear, for the Lord’ is on our side. No one can be against us, because God is for us. We shall not want for the Lord is our Shepherd. When we pass through the rivers they shall not overflow us, and when we walk through the fire we shall not be burned, because He will be with us. He shuts the mouths of lions, that they cannot hurt us. " He delivereth and rescueth. He changeth the times and the seasons; He removeth kings and setteth up kings." (Daniel 2:21.) (2 Chronicles 20:6.) " He ruleth the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise He stilleth them." He " bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught! He maketh the devices of the people of none effect." (Psalms 33:10.) " Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth, that does He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places." And this " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." (Psalms 1:1-6; Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 3:1-8.) To my own mind, these Scriptures, and many others like them, settle forever the question as to the power of second causes in the life of the children of God. And this is how the blessed Lord took things. (Matthew 11:20; Matthew 11:25-26.) They are all under the control of our Father, and nothing can touch us except with His knowledge, and by His permission. It may be the sin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot be said to be the will of God: but by the time it reaches us, it has become God’s will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands. No man or company of men, no power in earth or heaven, can touch that soul which is abiding in Christ, without first passing through Him, and receiving the seal of His permission. If " God be for us," it matters not who may be against us; nothing can disturb or harm us, except He shall see that it is best for us, and shall stand aside to let it pass. An earthly parent’s care for his helpless child is a feeble illustration of this. If the child is in its father’s arms, nothing can touch it without that father’s consent, unless he is too weak to prevent it. And even if this should be the case, he suffers the harm first in his own person, before he allows it to reach his child. And if an earthly parent would thus care for his little helpless one, how much more will our Heavenly Father, whose love is infinitely greater, and whose strength and wisdom can never be baffled? I am afraid there are some, even of God’s own children, who scarcely think He is equal to themselves in tenderness, and love, and thoughtful care; and who, in their secret thoughts, charge Him with a neglect and indifference of which they would feel themselves incapable. The truth really is, that His care is infinitely superior to any possibilities of human care; and that He who counts the very hairs of our heads, and suffers not a sparrow to fall without Him, takes note of the minutest matters that can affect the lives of His children, and regulates them all according to His will, let their origin be what they may. The instances of this are numberless. Take Joseph. What could have seemed more apparently on the face of it to be the result of sin, and utterly contrary to the will of God, than his being sold into slavery? And yet Joseph in speaking of it said,― "As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good." (Genesis 1:20.) Now, therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before, you to preserve life. (Genesis 15:5.) To the eye of sense it was surely Joseph’s wicked brethren who had sent him into Egypt, and yet Joseph, looking at it with the eye of faith, could say, " God sent me." It had been undoubtedly a grievous sin in his brethren, but by the time it had reached Joseph, it had become God’s will for him, and was in truth, though at first it did not look so, the greatest blessing of his whole life. And thus we see how the Lord can make even the wrath of man to praise Him, (Psalms 76:10.) and how all things, even the sins of others, shall work together for good to them that love Him. (Romans 8:28.) If we look at the seen things, we shall not be able to understand this. But the children of God are called to look " not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18.) Could we but see with our bodily eyes His unseen forces surrounding us on every side, we would walk through this world in an impregnable fortress, which nothing could ever overthrow or penetrate, for "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.". (Psalms 34:7.) We have a striking illustration of this in the history of Elisha. The King of Syria was warring against Israel, but his evil designs were continually frustrated by the prophet, and at last he sent his army to the prophet’s own city for the express purpose of taking him captive. We read, " He sent thither horses, and chariots, and a great host.; and they came by night, and compassed the city about." This was the seen thing. And the servant of the prophet, whose eyes had not yet been opened to see the unseen things, was alarmed. And we read, " And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold an host encompassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, "Alas, my master I how shall we do!" But his master could see the unseen things, and he replied, " Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." And then he prayed, saying, "Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 2 Kings 6:14-17. The presence of God is the fortress of His people. Nothing can withstand it. At His presence the wicked perish; the earth trembles; the hills melt like wax; the cities are broken down; "the heavens also dropped, and Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God." And in the secret of this presence He has promised to hide His people from the pride, of man, and from the strife of tongues, " My presence shall go with thee," He says, " and I will give thee rest." Exodus 33:14. I wish it were only possible to make every Christian see this truth as plainly as I see it. For I am convinced that this and being " careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus," (Php 4:6-7.) is the clue to a restful life. Nothing else will take all the risks and " supposes " out of a Christian’s life, and enable him to say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Abiding in the light of God’s presence we run no risks. And such a soul can triumphantly say― "I know not what it is to doubt, My heart is always gay; I run no risks, for come what will, God always has His way." I once Neared of a poor colored woman, who earned a precarious living by daily labor, but who was a joyous triumphant Christian. " Ah, Nancy," said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, who almost disapproved of her constant cheerfulness, and yet envied it,-" Ah, Nancy, it is all well enough to be happy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you. Only suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you anything to do; or suppose―" " top!" cried Nancy, I never supposes. De Lord is my Shepherd, and I know, I shall not want. And honey," she added to her gloomy friend, " its all dem supposes as is makin’ you so mis ‘able. You’d better give dem all up, and, just trust do Lord." There is one text that will take all the " supposes" out of a believer’s life, if only it is received and acted on in childlike faith: it is Hebrews 13:5-6," Be content, therefore, with such things as ye have; for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, THE, LORD IS MY HELPER AND I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME." What if dangers of all sorts shall threaten you from every side, and the malice, or foolishness, or ignorance of men shall combine to do you harm? You may face every possible contingency with triumphant words, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." If the Lord is your helper, how can you fear what man may do unto you? There is no man in this world, nor company of men, that can touch you, unless your God in whom you trust shall please to let them. " He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and coming in, from this time forth, and even for evermore." Psalms 121:3; Psalms 121:7-8. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts. Christians often feel at liberty to murmur against man, when they would not dare to murmur against God. But this way of receiving things would make it impossible ever to murmur. If our Father permits a trial to come, it must be because that trial is the very best thing that could happen to us, and we must accept it with thanks from His hand. The trial itself may be hard to flesh and blood, and I do not mean that we can like or enjoy the suffering of it. But we can and must love the will of God in the trial, for His will is always sweet whether it be in joy or in sorrow. In short, this way of seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving, and gives a rest of heart, and more than that, a joy that is unspeakable. Some one says, " God’s will, on earth is always joy, always tranquility." And since He must have His own way concerning His children, into what wonderful green pastures of rest, and beside what blessedly still waters of refreshment is the soul led that learns this! He who sides with the Lord cannot fail to win in every encounter I and whether the result shall be joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may, under all circumstances, join in, the Apostle’s shout of victory, "’Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ!" " If my soul has no home, my life as a Christian, however active, will not be happy. If my soul has a home in heaven to turn to, and really now in spirit enjoy, I shall not be restless and unhappy." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: VOL 02 - MIXED MARRIAGES AND THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD ======================================================================== Mixed Marriages and the Government of God [The following remarks were made on a particularly solemn instance, where a young sister (converted in 1853) fell into the snare of accepting an offer of marriage made by a worldly man. This she had contrived to conceal from the assembly of Christians where she lived; but a delay, which arose out of seemingly accidental circumstances, gave occasion to a brother’s discovering her intention and warning her solemnly. She owned the wrong, but persisted; left for a relative’s, where she sickened of a violent fever, which for the first she owned to be the chastening of the Lord, and died after three days, His word having penetrated and brought her not only to entire self judgment, but fullness of joy. The details for various reasons are omitted.] The preceding history relates, in all Christian simplicity, facts which show how God can interfere in judgment to deliver His children from the sad spiritual consequences which flow from a want of faithfulness. A young Christian allowed herself to be drawn into accepting an offer of marriage with an unconverted man. Her conscience plainly showed her that she was acting against the will of God. But she did not know how to stop at the first step, and not having at once rejected, as unfaithfulness and sin, the thought of that which was offered to her, she had not afterward the strength to give it up; and God was forced to take her away from this world to keep her from a sin which she did not desire to commit, but which she had not the strength to resist. Oh, how difficult it is to stop, when once we have set out in such a road! Anyone who has closely observed the walk of Christians, and who has cared for souls with a heart in any little measure zealous for the glory of the Lord, and desirous for the spiritual welfare of the dear children of God, will not have failed to perceive the fatal influence that the world exercises over them when it gains an entrance into their hearts. God only knows, and the one who has suffered from it, by what subtle means, and under what an amiable guise the world often invades the heart of the Christian. But the manifestation of Christ to the soul, and the power of His presence, are never ways by which the world insinuates itself into the heart. Those therefore, who are found, by grace, near Christ, are shielded from ’the influence of such feelings, and can judge them and everything which tends to make a way for the world within the heart, or for desires which are connected with the world. Here we are in warfare with the enemy. He seeks to surprise us when we are not upon our guard; and in order to accomplish this, he knows even how to transform himself into an angel of light. If we are not near to Christ, and are not clothed with the whole armor of God, it is impossible to resist his devices. To resist the power of Satan is not the principal difficulty, for Christ has conquered for us this terrible enemy, but it is to discover the snares which he lays for us, and, above all to discover that it is himself who is at work. In our combats with the enemy, it becomes a question of knowing the state of our own hearts. The single eye (that is to say, the heart filled with Christ), discovers the wile, and the soul has recourse to the Savior for deliverance: or even its affections being fixed upon Christ, the heart presents no prize for the efforts of the enemy. A heart that is simple and occupied with the Lord escapes many things which trouble the peace of those who are not near Him. Thanks be to God the troubled and tormented soul finds a resource and complete restoration in the grace of the One whom it has so foolishly forgotten; but it enjoys the fruits of grace through many sorrows and exercises of heart. Yet let us take courage. He knows how to deliver, as well as to have compassion. Now these are the two principles which regulate the ways of God with regard to us. On the one hand, God keeps the heart to cause it to discern His own purpose; and, on the other, Christ intercedes for us with- respect to all that may be called infirmity. There are real difficulties along the way, and there is weakness in us, and alas a will which does not like to be bridled, and which betrays itself in a thousand forms of thought and deed. Our weaknesses, like our will, tend to hinder us from reaching the end of our journey; but there is a great difference in the way in which God acts with regard to our weaknesses, and with regard to our will, and the thoughts which flow from it. "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." God judges our thoughts and our intentions by His Word. Nothing escapes Him; He is faithful towards us―His word is in the heart like an eye from which nothing is concealed; all is naked and open to the eye of Him with whom we have to do. Do you hear that, foolish soul, that would desire to feed upon the illusions that you love? Nothing is hidden; not one of your thoughts or intentions is hidden from the eyes of Him with whom you have to do. Nor is that all. His word is simple, plain and clear: it speaks to the conscience, do you hear it? Do you know that when God speaks you have to do with Him who speaks, as well as with what He says? Will you resist Him who speaks and provoke Him to jealousy? You cannot escape Him: He has already hold over your conscience, and He will never give it up. Will you kick against the pricks? But think rather of the end that God has in view. He might have left you to yourself; He might have left you to fall into things which, if His grace interfere not, may sender the whole of the wilderness journey sad and humiliating to you. He might have said to you what He said to His beloved servant, " Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." (Hosea 4:17.) Terrible punishment! Harder than the most severe outward chastening! But our God will not deprive us of the light of His countenance and the sweetness of His communion. For God does not chasten willingly: it is a strange work for Him as He says, (Isaiah 28:21.) But sin is always sin in His eyes and He cannot allow it. How then does God work in our poor hearts? He reaches them by His word, in order that our conscience may see everything as He sees it Himself. His eye is upon us, upon our hearts, and the eye of our conscience is enlightened as to what is passing in the heart by that word which reveals God to it. (To be continued P. V.) LETTER TO A YOUNG SISTER IN REPLY TO ONE FROM HER TELLING OF THE LORD’S LOVE AND GRACE IN RESTORING HER TO HIMSELF AFTER TWO YEARS WANDERING AWAY FROM HIM. " Your letter is indeed a living tribute to the efficacy of our Savior’s present grace as an Advocate with the Father. Sweet, indeed, to our taste is the first sense of that grace in our poor hearts, when we are brought into living touch with a Savior God. But with a deepened sweetness do we learn what He is to us and for us, even when the heart has, if only for a brief moment, been going along without Him. How beautifully it is told out in the " Song of Songs." In chap. 2:16, the Bride says, " lily beloved is mine, and I am His," the first utterance we may say of the soul, the sense of her possession in Him being prominently enjoyed. In chap. 6:3, her language is, " I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine," and here the place she occupies in His affections is the prominent feature, the sense of His possession in her, and this learned through failure upon her part. How very precious is this! Having loved His own (the same thought here, is it not? 1: e., what we are to Him, more than what He is as enjoyed by us, although both are unspeakably blessed). But when I say He is mine, it brings in the thought that I am enjoying Him as my own. "I am His," strikes a higher note, as you say, " to think that I am a joy to Him!" But one step more, chap. 7: 10, "I am my beloved’s and His desire is towards me." We said one step more, but it is a wonderful one, is it not? That is to say, the soul is absorbed in His side of things, and now, instead of " I am His," we read, " His desire is toward me." How precious that little word "is." I can never speak of His desire toward me in the past tense, I may to-morrow act like a Peter, and practically (if not with the lips) deny Him, but be that as it may, His desire is toward me, unalterably and eternally toward me, and not only eternally in the sense of its never ceasing, but eternally as never having a beginning.. For His love to me and His desire toward me are like His own blessed Person, infinite and date-less. Do you know as I read your letter I fell to coveting the fresh sense of that grace of His just imparted to you. You are just like a very thirsty child and He is holding His wondrous drafts of grace to your lips, saying to you the while " whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." While you and I respond to that well known voice in something like this strain, " Ah, Lord, it’s but a sip from an ocean tide after all." "Oh, Christ, Thou art the fountain, The deep, sweet well of love; The streams on earth I’ve tasted, More deep I’ll drink above." But while the heart-yearnings will never be fully met until we are actually spirit, soul and body at the fountain head, yet it is well to remember that there is no limit to our enjoyment of Him, nor to our joy in Him as we pass along. " In Thy presence is fullness of joy," is true, and to that we are speeding onward, but by the way we rejoice, (although it may be in heaviness through manifold temptations) " with joy unspeakable and full of glory," and again, " these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." And that is really in its way more wonderful even than the joy that shall be ours when we are at home with our Lord Jesus in the Father’s house. No marvel then that joy in its fullness finds its never-ceasing expression. But now, passing through the valley of weeping, making it a well, passing through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, ah, for " Thou art with me." What a beautiful change in the language takes place in that verse (Psalms 23:1-6), up to this point it had been testimony as to what Jehovah was, speaking of Him to others. Now note the change-it is as if it had said, if it is a question of walking through the valley of the shadow of death there is nothing but Thyself can suffice me there,’ and he it is no longer testimony to others, it is not, " He is with me," but "Thou art with me." How beautiful is this! If we testify of Him to others as those who have learned what it is " never to hunger, never to thirst," or ever we are aware of it we will be saying "Thou" instead of " He." See something like this in Paul; his heart was, as he says, filled with "great heaviness and continual sorrow," as he thought of his brethren, the Jews, and he dwells upon their external relationship with God, until he mentions Christ’s name, and then what happens? His great heaviness, his continual sorrows do not burden his joy nor interrupt his communion. Weak bodies, daily conflicts, sorrows and troubles do not, nor should they, affect our communion, (our wills do), and so if Paul mentions that blessed name, at once adoration seizes upon his heavy and sorrowful heart and he says " Christ who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen." I do pray the Lord Jesus that you may be kept in the freshness His loving truth has imparted, and with increasing appetite feed upon what was His own food down here, even the Word of God. Remember that it is written, " By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer," and again, " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." There is truly a great difference between "reading the Bible," and living " by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," "the word of Thy lips." These last expressions imply communion with the author, listening fol. what comes fresh from His mouth,-His lips, for us, and there is our preservative. Our joy isolated from its source will not keep us, and in this the Adversary may try your dear heart, for we are effervescent things at best, and your joy may fluctuate, but remember your joy is not in your joy, but the Lord, and does He ever change? Ah no, a thousand times no. " My love is oft times low, My joy still ebbs and flows." but " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever." So that you and I never look within ourselves to see how we are getting along. To learn that we must look at the Glorified one at God’s right band. There are no springs of freshness in ourselves, "all my springs are in Thee." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: VOL 02 - MIXED MARRIAGES AND THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD ======================================================================== Mixed Marriages and the Government of God Is that which you find in your heart the thought of one that loves God? Is it a thought in accordance with the will of God-a thought suitable to one whom Christ has so loved as to humble Himself even to death for? Stop, poor soul, and ask yourself if you are allowing the thought which occupies you, because it is agreeable to Christ, to the Christ who gave Himself for you, to save you? He has your salvation at heart; He loves you; He knows what tends to ruin you, to make you fall in the wilderness. He will govern by no principles except His own, those of holiness-those which belong to the new nature. He cannot deny Himself. (2 Timothy 2:13.) He desires that you should not incur the terrible discipline which awaits the soul that has wandered. He desires that you should not suffer the losses into which your folly will drag you, if you allow yourself to follow your own will. He desires that you should not lose the enjoyment of His communion, and that the proofs of His love towards you should not be suspended or weakened in your heart. He speaks to you in His word, He judges the thoughts and intentions of your heart. Would you rather hear Him judge you, than ask Him to deliver you from what is too mighty for you? Or will you say like Israel, " I have loved strangers and after them will I go." (Jeremiah 2:25.) You know that this thought does not come from Christ; you have not consulted Him, although you may, perhaps, have dared to ask Him to bless your intentions and direct you. You know that the word judges what you are still keeping in your heart, and what has power over you; you are the slave and not the master of your thought. No, that thought is not from Christ, and while you allow it, you are neglecting God and His word. Well, you are bringing on you the chastening of God. God is full of mercy and has compassion on us and on our weaknesses. He is tender and pitiful in His ways; but if we are determined to follow our own will, He knows how to break it. He governs everything, and He governs His children in particular, He is not mocked, and what a man sows he will reap later on; (Galatians 6:7.) The worst of all chastenings is that He should leave us to follow our own ways. The second point 1 wish to lead you to remark is the government that God exercises with regard to His children. He warns them by His word, and if they do not listen, He interposes in His power to stop them in order that He may be able to bless them; (see Job 36:5-14; Job 33:14-30.) In the dealings of God salvation is not brought into question. He looks upon His children, and chastens those whom He loves. The persons of whom the Holy Ghost is speaking in Job are called " the just." God does not withdraw His eyes from them, and He says also to Israel by the prophet Amos, " You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." (Amos 3:2.) In the Epistle to the Corinthians we see that, when the Christians turned the Lord’s Supper into a scene of dissoluteness, God laid His hand upon them. Some of them were sick and others had even fallen asleep, (that is, had died); and the Apostle in calling attention to it adds, " If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." Solemn thought! We are under the hand of the Lord who punishes sin wherever He finds it. He is a consuming fire, and when the moment is come, judgment begins at His house. What a difference between such relations with God, and the joy of His love and communion when one has not grieved His Spirit, and when one is walking under His eye and in the light of His countenance! I do not doubt that a large part of the sicknesses and trials of Christians are chastenings sent by God on account of things that are evil in His sight, which the conscience ought to have paid heed to, but which it neglected. God has been forced to produce in us the effect which self-judgment ought to have produced before Him. It would, however, be untrue to suppose that all afflictions are chastenings. Though they are sometimes, they are not always sent because of sin. There are things in the soul connected with the natural character, and which need to be corrected in order that we may live more in communion with God and glorify Him in all the details of life. What we do not know how to do with regard to these things God does for us; but there are many children of God who commit faults which their conscience ought to feel, and which they would discover if their soul were in the presence of God. Jacob had to fight all his life against himself, because God had known his ways; and in order to bless him. God must wrestle with him too, and on this account also He was not pleased to reveal His name to him. It is totally different with Abraham. A thorn in the flesh was given to Paul to hinder evil; for in his case the danger did not arise from carelessness, but from the abundance of the revelations which he had. Where there is a real affection which acknowledges God and all the relations in which He places us with Himself, it is absolutely impossible that a Christian should allow himself to marry a worldly person, without violating all his obligations towards God and towards Christ. If a child of God allies himself to an unbeliever, it is evident that be leaves Christ out of the question, and that he does so voluntarily in the most important event of his life. It is just at such a moment that he ought to have the most intimate communion of thought, affection and interest with Christ; and He is totally excluded! The believer is yoked together with an unbeliever. He has chosen to live without Christ; he has deliberately preferred to do his own will and to exclude Christ rather than give up his will in order to enjoy Christ and His approbation. He has given his heart to another, abandoning Christ and refusing to listen to Him. The more affection there is, the more the heart is attached, the more openly has something been preferred to Christ. What a fearful decision! to settle to spend one’s life thus, choosing for a companion an enemy of the Lord’s. The influence of such a union is necessarily to draw the Christian back into the world. He has already chosen to accept that which is of the world as the most beloved object of his heart,; and only things of the world please those who are of the world, although their fruit is death. (Romans 6:21-23.) "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." What a dreadful position! Either to, fail in faithfulness to Christ, or to have constantly to resist just where the tenderest affection ought to have established perfect unity. The fact is, that unless the sovereign grace of God comes in, the Christian man or woman always yields and enters little by little upon a worldly walk. Nothing is more natural. The worldly one has only worldly desires. The Christian, besides his Christianity, has the flesh; and further, he has already abandoned his Christian principles in order to please his flesh, by uniting himself to one who does not know the Lord. The result of such an alliance is that he has not a thought in common on the subject which ought to be most precious to his heart, with the person dearest to him in the world, and who is like a part of himself. They will have nothing but quarrels, for it is written, " How can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos If not, they must first yield to worldliness and thin take pleasure in it; but this sad result is lost sight`` of when they first place themselves in the position which renders it inevitable. The Christian is drawn away little by little he is not in communion with his Savior, and he can find pleasure in the society of a person who is agreeable to him without thinking of Jesus. When he is alone he does not think of praying; and when he is with the one whom he loves, though his conscience or his Christian friends may warn him, he has no strength, and Christ has not sufficient power over his heart, to lead him to turn from his way and give up an affection which he knows to be disapproved of by the Lord. He binds himself more or less by other motives, such as a feeling of honor, sometimes, alas! by more detestable motives, such as pecuniary interest, and he sacrifices his conscience, his Savior, his own soul as far as it depends upon him, and at all events, the glory of God. That which at first was nothing more than a fancy, has become unrestrained will. There is another remark which the history of this young person leads me to make. The first start of a converted soul, however sincere it may be, produces anything but the judgment of self and the flesh, which by unveiling to us our weakness, causes us to lay down our burden at the feet of Jesus. We then seek for strength only in Him, and we confide in Him alone. The confidence which a soul that knows and distrusts itself has in Jesus, is what gives it a lasting and solid peace, When it has understood, not only as a doctrine, but by the acceptance of the heart, that He alone is our righteousness. But we only arrive at this when we have been in the presence of God and have them made the discovery that we are only sin, that Christ is perfect righteousness and God perfect love. From that time we distrust ourselves, we fight against ourselves, and the flesh and the enemy have no longer the same power to deceive us. I do not think that the young person of whom these pages speak, had been stripped of self. There are many Christians this condition, and although we may all be exposed to the same dangers, yeti such have more particularly to dread the wiles of the enemy, because they have not learned how far the flesh deceives us, and do not know with how terrible a traitor we have to do. When we have come to a knowledge of this, although there may be a lack of watchfulness, yet Christ has a larger place in the heart, and there is more calm, and less self. Observe how deceitful the heart is, and how it loses all self-command when it departs from God. That poor young girl (when she was getting further and further into the slough, on the borders of which she had been trifling, to use her own expressions), asked her mother’s friend to do all she could to remove every obstacle; and she, who was a woman of some piety, was surprised that A. should be disposed to unite herself to a worldly man. How wily and deceitful is our heart! What slaves does an idol make of us! For although we may endeavor to escape the danger, yet we take means to secure the accomplishment of the thing we desire, even while we flee from it! What a terrible thing it is to get away from God! This young person, before she was entangled through this affection, would have shrunk with horror from the idea of such an action. When the heart has abandoned God, it dreads man more even than God. The God who loved A., and who was beloved by her, must needs take her away from this world, where she had not courage to return to the right path. God took her to Himself. She died in peace, and through pure grace she triumphed. The Christian, whilst enjoying peace in his last moments, should always feel that it is God whose hand is there. What a solemn lesson for those who wish to depart from God, and from His holy word, in order to satisfy an inclination which it would have been easy to have overcome at first, but which, when cherished in the heart, becomes tyrannical and fatal! May God grant to the reader of these lines, and to all His children, to seek His presence day by day. (Continued from No. 2.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: VOL 02 - PART OF A LETTER ON CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD IN DRESS ======================================================================== Part of a Letter on Conformity to the World in Dress We most cordially agree with you in deploring the sad conformity to the world as exhibited in the dress of many professing Christians. It is most sad, and evidences but too plainly the bent of the heart, the tone of the mind, and the moral condition of the soul. We are often deeply pained in looking round at assemblies of Christians gathered for the purpose of showing forth the Lord’s death, to mark the style of dress, the fashionable appearance, so unlike what one would expect to find on the persons of those who profess to be dead to the world. It is not, we may truly say, that we desire to see Christians adopting a certain costume or livery; or that we should like to see them slovenly in appearance. Far from it; we love neatness and simplicity―" modest apparel "―moderate, suitable attire. It may perhaps be said that many take their place in the Christian assembly who have been accustomed all their lives to dress elegantly and they never think of such things. This we can quite understand, and make allowance for; but, at the same time, we feel called upon to offer a word of warning to Christians on the subject of conformity to the world in dress and other things. It is a subject which demands serious attention. We believe that where the heart is true to the Lord, the word of exhortation will be received and acted upon; the Lord knows we offer it in love. May He act on the hearts and consciences of His people by His word and Spirit, and give them to carry themselves alight in these things, that His name may be glorified in the deportment, walk, and appearance of His people. " I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, that "ye.....be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."-Romans 12:1-2. Oh! the importance of being faithful in the "little," for he that is faithful in the little is faithful also in much. Oh! the happiness of " abiding " in Christ, being near to Him 1 Oh, the misery of distance and estrangement The more intimate I become with Him, the more sensitive to anything that comes between Him and my soul, even to a hair’s breadth. The finer the machinery, the more easily is it disturbed in its action: a single hair will suffice to obstruct the action of a watch. So the closer, and finer, and purer my relations with the Lord, the more intolerable is anything that can interfere with my enjoyment of those relations. But, blessed be His name, He is ever ready to receive, to restore, to "heal" and to " lead;" He is the one magnet of unfailing attraction to which His own ever turn-my own only "refuge and portion." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: VOL 02 - PRAYING AND WORKING ======================================================================== Praying and Working " We will give ourselves continually to Prayer and the Ministry of the Word."-Acts 6:4. The veil is rent. Thou now mayest enter in; No flaming sword of cherub bars thy way; He who, without the camp, once bore thy sin, Appears within the holiest to-day And intercedes for all who come by Him to pray. His Blood is sprinkled on the mercy-seat, His Blood is sprinkled, too, before the throne; Where’er ascends the cloud of incense sweet, The work of reconciliation all is done: He lives our great High Priest, who did for sin atone. Head of the church, behold His glorious face; His members all accepted in their Head; In Him all fullness dwells of truth and grace To meet His people’s ever-varying need: Draw nigh by Him to God without one pang of dread. Prayer is the breath of faith in God’s own ear, Prayer is the open mouth He waits to fill; Prayer is the voice our Heavenly. Father hears, That brings down blessings from His holy hill: Wisdom to learn and strength to do His gracious will. First PRAY; then WORK. No work can e’er succeed That prayerless wit and will to do combine; All prayerless strength is but a broken reed.― A withered branch that’s severed from the Vine: No fruits, or works of such, shall heaven-recorded shine. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: VOL 02 - REMARKS ON PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD ======================================================================== Remarks on Prayer and the Word of God As Mentioned Together in Scripture. Prayer and the word of God are frequently mentioned together in the gospels and epistles. Their importance cannot be too forcibly impressed upon the saints. The writer does not doubt that very many are far more diligent in this respect than himself, but he is encouraged to make the following remarks, being assured that those, who are the most earnest in prayer, and the study of the word, will be the foremost to approve of, and have communion with anything that may tend to remind the saints of the importance or lead them on to the more diligent observance of these things. They are, as remarked above,, often mentioned together in the Scriptures. When the word of God joins together things in themselves distinct, the one from the other, it is not only important to notice the things themselves, but also to notice the connection in which they are found. Thus it is with faith, and love; the former to the Lord, the latter to the saints. In like manner as faith and love are joined together, so also prayer and the word of God are joined together. From among the passages where prayer and the word thus occur, I quote the three following, viz:―Acts 6:4; Luke, end of chapter 10. and commencement of chapter 11, and Ephesians 6:17-18. The first occurs at a memorable epoch in the his-tow of the assembly of God here upon earth. Acts 6:1-15 makes mention of the first failure collectively of the saints. Individual sin had occurred in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, but now the change from the freshness and devotedness of chapters 2 and 4 begins to mark the saints in their collective character. How sad this scene! The blessed Lord had suffered, had been crucified, had risen from amongst the dead, and ascended on high; thence he had shed forth the Holy Ghost, the power that wrought in His disciples, so as to make them vessels of testimony in Jerusalem, both for the conversion of thousands and also for bringing home to the consciences of rulers and people that there was a power in these witnesses which was superior to all the power that was of the world; the apostles were faithful, the blessing was abundant, the proof that the Lord was working with them was manifested to the least as well as to the most spiritual (Acts 4:31), and yet, with all this grace and privilege before their eyes, there was a murmur amongst some as regarded the manner of serving the food. Even in early days how soon thoughts similar to those which influence man in his natural state entered into and had power over the minds of those who were the first fruits of the grace of God and the work of Christ. The attack of the enemy, as is ever the case, was directed against those who were foremost in the battle, for from verse 2 it is clear, that the apostles themselves were to be taken from their hitherto glorious testimony to Christ in heaven, in order to bestow their time and labor upon that which might serve to lessen the murmurings of saints on earth. Wisdom was given to the apostles to meet the danger and to still the murmurings, " Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of. God, and serve tables," (5: 2), and again, " But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word," (5: 4). if in these early days prayer and the ministry of the word was needed for the work, how needful in these days that the saints should continue steadfastly in both prayer and the reading of the word! Although occupied in the daily business engagements of this life (engagements doubtless for the most part necessary), the earnest Christian will when such engagements are fulfilled, find time for prayer and reading the word. He is thus refreshed and strengthened, and keeps fresh in his own spirit, whilst performing that which appertains to his calling to perform; but when the energy of his first love is tested by time, there is a danger of his gradually ceasing this habit of prayer and study of the word, and at length he may find himself passing day after day, and the Bible hardly looked at; and even where the reading and prayer with the family continues, he is aware that, though the form is the same, the freshness and power is gone. What is the remedy? Let him judge himself, and he will find he will again have recourse to prayer and the word, the former making him humbly feel his dependence from moment to moment upon God, and the latter ministering to him refreshment and strength in his own soul. Again, as regards the assemblies of the saints; sometimes after years of testimony and blessing, the work in its active form ceases, the older saints leave this world, and their places are not supplied by others, the attendance at the meetings for reading the word and prayer diminish, and the meetings themselves are at length discontinued. The light is no longer the same in the village or town. And why is this? The answer given is, " Because there are so few who attend." But this is no reason why the two or more who desire to go on with prayer and the word of God, should not habitually continue to meet together. The failure in such cases is owing to our thoughts being more occupied with the things which are seen than with the things which are not seen. Matthew 18:19, shows us that two are enough for prayer, and experience has often shown the earnest Christian how much blessing can be obtained in reading the word alone or with but one other Christian. The second occasion of this joining together of the word and prayer is in Luke 10:1-42; Luke 11:1-54. In Luke 10:1-42, whilst Martha serves, it is her sister Mary who sits at the feet of Jesus, and hears His word. When Martha complains of her sister leaving her to do all the work alone, the Lord replies, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her." Immediately afterward in chap. 11. the Lord is in prayer, and the disciples also ask Him to teach them to pray, and thereupon He teaches them the prayer so well known to all: " Our Father which art in heaven, etc." This prayer commences with the desire for the glory of the Father before any mention is made of the wants of those who are the objects of His love; and thus we have another lesson as regards these things, first that to listen to the word is choosing " the good part," and secondly, that in our prayers the glory of the Father and the Son should ever take precedence of those things of which we have need whilst here. The third and last portion of the word referred to above, is Ephesians 6:17-18. In Acts 6:1-15 it was the work upon earth, here it is the combat in the heavenly places. For this contest the Christian requires the whole armor of God, first, to escape the wiles of the enemy (5: 11), and afterward, to oppose him in the combat (5: 13). The different weapons for this warfare are enumerated in verses 14, 15, 16 and 17; all are defensive, excepting the one mentioned last, " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," (5: 17). But as soon as the saint being completely equipped for defense, receives the word of God, immediately prayer is mentioned. " Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints (5: 18.) Thus we have the word of God and prayer set before us in close relationship together again and again in the blessed testimony which God has been pleased to give us. There are other passages where they are joined together, but I give only the number three, being the full number given by Scripture itself for testimony to the truth (2 Corinthians 13:1). I add some remarks, however, as to verse 105 of Psalms 119:1-176, " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Sometimes wrongly quoted as a light to the feet and a lamp to the path. The difference is important, the word of God being a light for the whole course of the believer, and a lamp for each particular step that he should take. The darker the night, the more valuable the light which a wayfarer sees in the distance, and to which his steps are directed, the more valuable also the lamp which gives hitia guidance for each step. The lamp warns him of dangers which are between him and the light, and it may be necessary for him to stop, or alter the course for a time, to avoid some snare or pit on the path, but as soon as the lamp shows that the direct course towards the light may again be taken, the wayfarer makes straight for the light.... But for the believer there is another thing needed, viz: dependence; and though he may have the lamp and the light, yet, in a pathway full of snares, pits, and other dangers, he needs the aid and strength of Him who knows every portion of the path (Hebrews 4:16). Hence the importance of prayer. Prayer is the expression of our dependence, and the word is the weapon which overcomes the enemy (Luke 4:1-13; 1 John 2:14.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: VOL 02 - SINCE I BELONG TO THEE ======================================================================== Since I Belong to Thee SINCE I belong to Thee, my Savior God, All must he well, however rough my road; However dark my way or prospects he, All, all is right, since overruled by Thee. Safely in Thee shall Thy beloved dwell, Though storms may rage; and angry tempests swell: All the day long their covering Thou shall be, What then can harm those, Lord, kept, by Thee? Feeblest of all Thy flock, Thou know’st me, Lord: Helpless and weak, I stay upon Thy word: In all my weakness this is still my plea― That Thou art mine, and I belong to Thee. Then come whatever may, I am secure, Thy love unchanged shall to the end endure; Frail though I am, Thine everlasting arm Shall shield Thy child from every everlastingof harm. Thy longing eye shall guide where’er I roam, Thy Holy Spirit lead me to my home: Thou wilt not let Thy feeble, trail one stray: Though dark temptations oft may crowd my way. In sorrow’s saddest hour, Thy strength my stay, My darkest night, Lord, Thou canst turn to day, The most loved here may sometimes changeful be, Thou changest not, and I belong to Thee: Then may the life which now on earth I live, Be spent for Him who His for me did give, O make me Lord, in all I will and do, Ever to keep Thy glory in my view! And when my course is run, and fought the fight, Life’s struggles o’er, and faith is changed to Sight, Then all triumphant I shall ever be Safe in Thy home, for I belong to Thee. " FULLNESS or Joy," with all Thy ransomed there In Thy loved presence I shall ever share, With them I’ll sing the love that made us free, The grace that taught us we belonged to Thee. C. H. I. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: VOL 02 - TEACH ME TO LIVE ======================================================================== Teach Me to Live TEACH me to live! ’Tis easier far to die― Gently and silently to pass away- On earth’s long night to close the heavy eye, And waken in the realms of glorious day. Teach me that harder lesson―how to live, To serve Thee in the darkest paths of life; Arm me for conflict now-fresh vigor give, And make me more than conqueror in the strife. Teach me to live I-Thy purpose to fulfill: Bright for Thy glory let my taper shine! Each day renew, re-mold this stubborn will: Closer round Thee my heart’s affections twine. Teach me to live for self and sin no more; But use the time remaining to me yet, Not mine own pleasure seeking, as before― Wasting no precious hours in vain regret. Teach me to live! No idler let me be, But in Thy service hand and heart employ; Prepared to do Thy bidding cheerfully― Be this my highest and holiest joy. Teach me to live 1-my daily cross to bear; Nor murmur though I bend beneath its load. Only be with me. Let me feel Thee near: Thy smile sheds gladness on the darkest road. Teach me to live!―and find my life in Thee― Looking from earth and earthly things away; Let me not falter but untiringly Press on: and gain new strength and power each day. Teach me to live!-with kindly words for all― Wearing no cold, repulsive brow of gloom; Waiting, with cheerful patience, till Thy call Summons my spirit to her heavenly home. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: VOL 02 - THE PLEASANT LAND DESPISED ======================================================================== The Pleasant Land Despised Beloved, do our hearts indeed say " We are on our way to God?" Do we believe that, with the innumerable throng of the redeemed, we shall soon sing the everlasting anthem of praise to the Lamb? It is astonishing the simplicity of heart there is when we believe that " we are on our way to God." Whenever the soul has really got hold of this, believing in God, knowing His love, that He has brought us out of Egypt, and that we are on our way to Canaan, there is a spring of heart that surmounts everything. There may be a great many things by the way to exercise our hearts and thoughts; but if this feeling predominates, they only come in by the way. If my mind be fixed on present circumstances and present difficulties, and on God’s helping me in them, there will not at all be the same spring of joy. For then I make God to be simply the servant of my necessities. The heart rests and centers there, and God sinks down into a mere help in time of trouble. It is quite true that " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble" (Psalms 46:1); but to bring Him down to be only this changes the whole aspect of things. Himself, as our portion, is infallibly ours. If our hearts are fixed on being with Jesus in His rest and glory, on being in the " Father’s house," our own present difficulties have the character of difficulties by the way; we can then rise over trouble, however felt. And our thoughts about God are not merely that He will help us in the circumstances in which we are―our hearts being fixed on Him, we live in the freedom that arises from the constant certainty that all that is Christ’s is ours. It is important to have our minds fixed on the hope of glory which is set before us. One form which unbelief takes is the not having this hope fresh on the mind. Supposing I had to live twenty years, the next thing to my heart ought to be the glory. In the children of Israel unbelief took many forms; one character of it was that " they despised the pleasant land." (Chapter 14:31; Psalms 106:24.) Now very often there is in our hearts practically, though not willfullya, the despising of the pleasant land. I am not speaking of any doubtfulness as to the land being ours. If there were something that a friend had given me as a great treasure, and I was sure of its being mine, and yet I looked at it but seldom and cared to think of it but seldom, this would be a proof (not of certainty respecting its being mine, but) that I despised the thing, that I had no real value for it. This is very often the way we treat the heavenly glory that belongs to us. We do not question the truth of the promises; but, when our souls are not dwelling upon and delighting in the glory that is set before us, there is a "despising of the pleasant land." It is too much the case with the saints. And no occupation with present things-with present duties even-can make up for the loss of peace and comfort there is to the soul from not dwelling on the things which God has laid up in store for them that love Him, (1 Corinthians 2:9) as its own things. Instead of God’s being the strength and fullness of our present joy in the midst of present tribulation, as it is said, " We joy in God" (Romans 5:11), we only make Him a help in time of trouble. There is weakness and infirmity instead of rejoicing in God. The heart being brought down here and kept down, it brings down God after it (so gracious is He, that He will even come down), instead of rising above present circumstances up to God. Of course this character of unbelief will not be manifested in the hearts of the saints as it was in the children of Israel, but in measure, it is the same thing. The " spies " (Numbers 13:14.) had been sent by Moses, at the command of Jehovah, to search out the land of Canaan, " which " Jehovah said, "I give unto the children of Israel," and to bring of the fruit thereof. The Spirit of God, personally dwelling in present witness in us, takes of the glory of the Lord Jesus, of the things of the land of promise (that true Canaan, of which faith says, My land), and thus chews us of our portion. " So they went up, and searched the land, from the wilderness of Tin unto Rehob.... And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and chewed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land wither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." (Vers. 23-27.) There was no gainsaying the report of the spies, these grapes told of the goodness of the land. It was a land that produced such fruit. So, when the Holy Ghost brings the earnest to us of our joy and glory, who would gainsay? who does not feel that it is worth anything by the way to get there―the earnest is so sweet? "Nevertheless," said the spies, "the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great, and moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the Hittites and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains," &c. When the people heard that there were difficulties, there began to be restlessness and uneasiness amongst them. "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it I for we are well able to overcome it." (Ver. 30.) He was strong in faith. " But the men that went up with him, said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Vers. 30-33.) That is, they get hold of the thought of the people in unbelief: and venture to deny all that they had previously said, when they see that their report was not received. The first thing they told Moses was the simple truth, that it was a very good land; but when they see this unbelief at work in the minds of the people, their judgment respecting it is quite different, and they say, it is a very bad land. The whole sense of the goodness of Jehovah in giving them the land is gone, and consequently they break down in despair when looking at the difficulties by the way. There is not merely distrust about their overcoming these enemies; they loose the sense of the goodness of the land, and then they have no encouragement in their difficulties. Their state becomes weakness. Just so with the Christian; if I lose the joy of the glory, the difficulties I meet with by the way are insurmountable, for my heart does not know what it has to contend for. This and more will be seen coming out in chapter 14: "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried, and the people wept that night," &c. When, in the first freshness of their setting out, their sin had manifested itself (bad as it was), they did not lay the blame upon God; they said, " This Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 33:1-23) But the moment this unbelief gets hold of their hearts, the desert becomes thoroughly and insupportably painful to them, and they say, " Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in the wilderness! and wherefore hath Jehovah brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make us a captain, and let us return into Egypt." (Vers. 1-5,) See what a miserably wicked state of unbelief they had got into, so as to attribute to Jehovah Himself their trials and difficulties. This is a snare to which even Christians are exposed. We are conscious that it is the Lord that has brought us up out of bondage, and hence when trials come upon us our hearts are apt to say, This comes of my being a Christian, the Lord has brought me into these difficulties. Now, had Canaan been on the hearts of the children of Israel, they would have said, Thank God that we are thus far on our way to Canaan. Let the difficulties be what they might, if they had felt, By the word of Jehovah we have been brought here, there would have been thanksgiving and not murmuring. But they stopped at the point where they were, instead of looking at it as but a step on the way to the glorious land before them. There was the pretense of thoughtfulness for others-their wives and children, though in reality it was only selfishness. Verses 6-9. Joshua and Caleb speak of the exceeding goodness of the land, and add, "If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them; and Jehovah is with us: fear them not." Their confidence is in Him. " But all the congregation bade stone them with stones." The moment that was spoken which should have cheered the people, it brought out positive hostility. Verses 13-19. The intercession of Moses comes in, based on the testimony Jehovah had given of Himself. (Compare Exodus 34:6-7.) The principle of it is this, the perfect identification of Jehovah with His people. He presses on Jehovah that His own glory is bound up with the preservation and blessing of His people inseparable from them. Two things result. Jehovah acts according to the faith of Moses, as He ever does according to the faith that is in us (ver. 20); but He sends the children of Israel into the desert to remain there until all the men that came up out of Egypt fell. There is another thing also to notice. When the children of Israel will not go up in faith into the promised land, Jehovah sends them a long way round the desert. Two things accompany this: one as the result of it, the other pure grace. If they have to march round the desert, Jehovah cannot leave them alone: He must go round with them, guiding them by His pillar of fire and of cloud all the way. His grace abounds over sin. Secondly, Caleb and Joshua must go the long way round too. They had not gone with the people in their evil: but as to the pain and trial of the march which the unbelief of the others had caused, they are obliged to go along with the people, and to bear a part of it. This is what we must make up our minds to. If the church has failed, we must make up our minds to accompany it in its course of sorrow, though not in its course of sin. As far ’as Caleb and Joshua were concerned, there was the exercise of grace, and patience, and love. It was blessed to them, for God was faithful in keeping them, whilst the rest fell in the wilderness. Caleb is able to say, at the end of the forty years, that he is as strong for war as at the beginning, " both to go out and to come in." (Joshua 14:1-15) But the faithful, though they, had the consciousness that God was with them, were obliged to accompany the unfaithful in their course of sorrow, arising from the position into which they had brought themselves. This is our place. In the spirit of love, of patience, and of humiliation, we have always to take the place of those who have sinned. See Daniel. Though himself personally righteous, Daniel confesses the people’s sin as his own, saying, "O Lord.... we have sinned, and have committed iniquity.... to us belongeth confusion of face," &c. (Daniel 9:1-27) The sin and evil of those who have sinned should be confessed by the remnant, who, though not partakers of the sin, must yet be partakers of the consequences of it, suffering in all the affliction with true sympathy and fellowship. In applying this practically to ourselves, what was it that led to the very need of their having Jehovah with them on the march? The soul not being set on (their not having their affections occupied with) the blessings of the promised land. And that which we have to seek is that our souls may " abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost dwelling in us becomes the earnest of those better things in our hearts; and reveals to us that it is Jehovah’s land, the land which He has given us, that He is bringing us into. If we are able to say, This is he fruit of the land which Jehovah has given us―if our hearts’ affections are dwelling on the land, all the strength of the Anakim is as nothing. No matter, then, as to preventing us from getting there, what may be the trial and difficulty by the way. But the moment we lose the consciousness of what is ours, the moment we forget that Jehovah has given us the land, difficulties and trials occupy our mind, and become too great for us; we fall under the power of them. This results from our losing sight of what belongs to us in hope. We cannot have our hearts fixed on Canaan without being conscious that Jehovah’s strength is with us. If I rest in circumstances I am apt to blame the Lord for bringing me there. Nobody ever thought of the blessedness of being with Jesus in the glory, and of being like Him there, no one ever entered in spirit really there without being conscious that it was Jehovah’s strength that would’ bring him there. Then all in the way is a mere circumstance. What I desire for you and for myself, beloved, is that we may avoid "despising the pleasant land." And do not let us say that we are not despising it if we are not thinking often about it. If we are not thinking of Jesus where He is, and of being with Him there, we are "despising the pleasant land." May we "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." We must not suppose that the scriptures do not supply to the new man the details of the glory that belongs to us. But they are details known only to faith. It is only just so far as we are in present communion with the Lord that we shall understand and enjoy them. Memory will not do. There is no possibility of exercising memory about the objects of hope. We must be filled with the Spirit. That which will fill up our joy is Christ Himself who fills all things. We find a fund of detail about the glory when we know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, what Christ is for us―Christ glorified. Just as the poor robber (taught of the Holy Ghost) could state the whole life of Christ, though He had never known Him before, as if he had been His intimate friend, saying to his companion, " This man has done nothing amiss," so the soul, when taught by the Holy Ghost, has Jesus as the object of its affections, and knows and realizes it. The mind then becomes occupied with the object of its hope in glory, and the individual is able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." All the circumstances which happen to us only come in by the way. Instead of having the thoughts down here in the trouble, bringing God down into it, we are lifted clean out of it into glory. This sets us on our " high places," when, otherwise there would be the feeling in the heart, " Why bath Jehovah brought us unto this land to fall by the sword?" &c. The Holy Ghost delights to take of the things of Christ and show them to us. (John 16:13-15.) The Lord give us, in realizing the fullness of Jesus, to have our souls in the sweet savor of divine delight in Him, dwelling by faith in the promised land, that we may know what our hope is, as well as what is the ground of our hope. And ever let us remember that it is not by any effort of memory, but by the power of communion in the Holy Ghost, that we can have the present consciousness and enjoyment of those things " which God bath prepared for them that love him." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: VOL 02 - THE POSITIVENESS OF LIFE IN CHRIST ======================================================================== The Positiveness of Life in Christ " Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not," and whosoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Christ and Christ in him; that is, if I am eating Christ and occupied with Christ, I do not commit sin, nor is my mind living in the sphere in which it has power. If you are not abiding in Him, you will get down to the other state I have spoken of, the mere avoiding of positive evil, while living in the sphere of thought in which flesh can find itself at home, while the spiritual affections are dull and inactive. " He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous." I am in Christ, on the same footing of righteousness, as to my walk down here, that He is: as partaker of the same nature and looking forward to a perfect conformity to Him. We have a positive life in itself, which is itself. There is this positive life in connection with Christ who is our life, and this life lives entirely on Him. " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God," &c. This is the way it lives. It has these two traits―pointed out in this passage―practical righteousness, and love of the brethren. A word on the way the soul gets into this living on Christ and with Him. I do not believe you can ever do that until you get free in your conscience. Till then you cannot get beyond this negative conflict with sin, which avoids the evil the new life sees and judges. If I have the new life, I find the sin in me; and if I have not the consciousness of divine righteousness, I cannot delight in Christ as set free; that is, I must think of the sin. Is not God holy? And have I not sins? not merely guilt, but sins in my members? Yes; then “he that committeth sin is of the devil." Well, I commit sin, and am afraid. That is, the workings of flesh come back on my conscience, and I must be occupied with self. The soul is not discharged from self, as the ground of its standing before God, through divinely wrought and self―humbling conviction of sin, enough to be cast over on divine righteousness in Christ. It has not been brought to see that the case is perfectly hopeless, and then to be cast over entirely on Christ. When brought to this, I am taken out of flesh by this work of redemption in Christ, so that I am made the righteousness of God in Him, and 1 do not look at myself to know if I am righteous before God. What a contrast between that kind of negative life, with the head just above water, and which says, " I am alive, so I ought to be thankful," and this positive, joyful life which goes out in active energy after Christ! But in order to this the staff of confidence in self must be snapped. If our hearts are groveling on with the world, this is not living on Christ. Why have you got these difficulties? Because you are inclined to them, and nourish what is the seat of them by continually letting your heart move in the sphere where Christ is not. Christ Himself is not enough your object. There is surely grace enough in Him to help us, where through grace He is looked to, and a strength which is made perfect in weakness. (Continued from No. 6.) [Italics by En.] ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: VOL 02 - THIS WONDROUS MAN ======================================================================== This Wondrous Man Self-emptying obedience, subjection of a kind quite its own, is, therefore, to be seen in every stage and action of such an One. And what was that course of service in the esteem of Him to whom it was rendered? As the born One, the circumcised One, the baptized and anointed One, the serving, sorrowing, and crucified One, and then as the risen One, He has passed here on earth under the eye of God. In the secrecy of the Virgin’s womb, in the solitudes of Nazareth, in the activities and services of all the cities and villages of Israel, in the deep self-sacrifice of the cross, and then in the new bloom of resurrection, has this wondrous Man’ been seen and delighted in of God-perfected, untainted, recalling the Divine delight in Man more than when of old he was made in God’s image, and more than annulling all the Divine repentings of old, that man had been made on the earth. His Person lent a glory to all His course of service and obedience, which rendered it of unutterable value. Nor is it merely that His Person made all that service and obedience voluntary. There is something far more than its being thus voluntary. There is that in it which the Person (g My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts ’) imparts-and who can weigh or measure that? We know this full well among ourselves. I mean in kind. The higher in dignity-in personal dignity -the one who serves us is, the higher the value of the service rises in our thoughts. And justly so; because more has been engaged for us, more has been devoted to us, than when the servant was an inferior: more has the heart instinctively learned that our advantage was indeed sought, or our wishes and desires made an object. We do not forget the person in the service. We cannot. And so in this dear mystery we are meditating on. The service and obedience of Jesus were perfect; infinitely, unmixedly worthy of all acceptance. But beyond that beyond the quality of the fruit-there was the Person who yielded it; and this, as we said, imparted a value and a glory to it, that are unutterable. The same value rested on the services of His life which afterward gave character to His death. It was His Person which gave all its virtues to His death or sacrifice: and it was His Person which gave its peculiar glory to all He did in His course of self-humbling obedience. And the complacency of God in the one was as perfect as His judicial acceptance of the other. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: VOL 02 - WHY SPEAK YE NOT OF JESUS? ======================================================================== Why Speak Ye Not of Jesus? Ye are speak ing of the Sovereign, Ye are speaking of the State, Of the battle, of the warrior, Of the good and of the great: Why speak ye not of JESUS? Ye are speaking of the sun shine, Ye are speaking of the rain, Of your flocks and pleasant pastures, And of the golden grain: glance, am Why speak ye n ot of JESUS? Ye are speaking of your children, Of kindly hearth and home, Of loving and beloved ones Who far away must roam; Why speak ye not of JESUS? He hath kingly orb and scepter, He hath a royal sway, of And a priceless wreath of victory That fadeth not away: Why speak ye not of JESUS? He is the Sun of Righteousness, He sends the Spirit’s rain, And lovingly. He leadeth To the pastures and the plain; Why speak ye not of JESUS? His love is love a biding, Which never can decay: Though home and heart be lonely, He will not turn away: Then speak to me of JESUS! Are ye speaking by the Spirit In glance. an d thought, and word, And by the quiet wisdom Which cometh FROM the Lord? Thus speak to me of JESUS! Now listen, O my brothers! And listen, sisters mine, Go on and scatter freely Each seed of truth divine; And ever speak of,JESUS. But go, remembering daily To live in blessed strife; You’ll speak of Him most surely, By likeness to His life; Thus truly speak of JESUS. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: VOL 02 - WORK FOR THE LORD ======================================================================== Work for the Lord Now, as to work for the Lord. The simple inquiry, and recorded as the first utterance of Paul to our Lord, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" is the duty and expression of every one distinctly awakened to the claim Christ has on him. This inquiry cannot be too earnestly instituted, or the reply to it too rigidly attended to. The inquiry is the offspring of a soul sensible that the Lord has entire and full claim on me, without the knowledge which authorizes it. The soul feels "I am taken out of the world, and I am given to Christ, and hence I look to Him for my place and occupation in future in it." If we are given to Christ "out of the world," it is evident that it is He alone who has right to determine our way and course in the world. I could not say, If I believe that I am given to Him " out of the world," that I have any right to re-occupy any place or engagement which I had previously held in the world. True, He does not require or permit me to infringe on any legal lord under whom I was held before I was given to Him -but, excepting where the rights of others would be compromised, I am Christ’s bondsman―vested legal rights are not to be compromised because of my being given to Christ: but I am Christ’s bondsman, and necessarily if I am, both from duty and inclination, my inquiry ought to be "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" The more I own and realize the relationship which now exists through grace between us, the more simply and continuously will this be my whole-hearted cry to Him. Now, if it is, I will, of course, accede to and attend to whatever He may intimate to me, and this only. That is, the heart true to Him, and devotedly making this request, will wait on Him for guidance and counsel, and would find no real satisfaction in being anywhere or doing anything which was not according to His mind; our place and our occupation here would be only determined by the pleasure of Him whose we are and whom we serve; any departure from the tie or rule of this relationship would sensibly interfere with the mutual satisfaction therein known, there would be a break in on, and a disturbance of, the true order of life, and the blessings connected with it. Nothing so simple and nothing so important in our walk down here! I belong to Christ, and I find it my happiness and His pleasure to do nothing but as He desires and instructs me. I live where He likes, and I do what He likes. If we did this there would be no mistakes one side or the other. But we do make mistakes on both sides; on one side at one time, and on another side at another time. At one we plan out work for ourselves, and at another we do none at all. Now the first is the most difficult to deal with, simply because the counterfeit deceives one, and hence, while it is comparatively easy to convict the idle and slothful, it is not so easy to convict the Martha that she is unwisely occupied. The work seems so right and necessary, that it appears almost impossible that there could be any plat, in it. Nothing so deceives and leads astray as the conscience working at a distance from Christ; for instance, if I feel in my conscience that I ought to be Christ’s servant (true enough, I am His bondsman), but if I am not near Him, if I am not in His confidence, and I begin to do something to satisfy my conscience, there is no doubt I am doing it legally, and not as simply suits Him. It is to make myself easy and satisfied. When this is the case I do not consult what He would like me to do, but I do what I think best to be done. It is not His pleasure guides me, it is my own mind, as to what is suitable and proper. It may be quite necessary, as Martha’s service, but Martha was evidently thinking of the services which were incumbent on her to render, and not governed by the pleasure of Christ. Here is where we fail, undertaking to serve where it is in a degree creditable to ourselves, or we get disappointed (if we are true-hearted) because we have not the acknowledgment of His pleasure. How can He acknowledge what we have undertaken and done to satisfy our own conscience and to please ourselves therein? It is evident that when I am occupied with services, however useful and necessary, which I have undertaken of myself, feeling they devolved upon me, that I must lose the sense of His presence. Sitting at His feet, Mary-like, is lost and neglected. There is no growth of soul in Christ. Self is in the service from begging to end. It is most blessed to work for Christ, it is fruit-bearing; but if my work engrosses me more than Christ, there is damage to me, and I am not working for Him; " Without me ye can do nothing." If I am really working for Christ, I am getting from Christ, and growing up into Him. Sitting at His feet is the natural posture of my soul. Whenever you find any one serving without sitting at His feet, you may be assured they are Martha-like. When any are sitting at His feet, hearing His word, they will not be behind in true and pleasing service. If you begin with serving (as many do now-a-days), you will never sit at His feet, whereas if you begin with sitting, you will soon serve wisely, well, and acceptably. The serving quiets the conscience, and the sitting is overlooked and neglected. The enemy gains an advantage, for it is at the sitting the conscience is more enlightened, and the pleasure and mind of the Master are better known; and hence there is damage done, and loss sustained by the soul when service pre-occupies one to the exclusion of sitting at His feet, or whore it is most prominent. I never met with any one making service prominent who knew what it was to sit at His feet; but, thank God, I know indefatigable workers who enjoy sitting at His feet above any service, and it is clear that they who sit most at His feet must be most competent to serve, and most in His confidence, which, after all, is the clue to all efficient service. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: VOL 03 - "FAINT YET PURSUING" ======================================================================== "Faint Yet Pursuing" How pride should be hid from man, and salvation of the Lord fully manifested, the sequel discloses―three hundred only of the many thousands of Israel, and with such weapons of war as appeared very folly in the eyes of the world. But the deliverance would be more manifestly of God, and the hearts of His people brought back to Him; for this was the object, not the triumph of a party but the blessing of the whole people of Israel. We lose sight of this.... Surely there is encouragement for faith from the very fact of our chastening. Let us beware of writing (as has before been observed) the sentence of death upon our position and privileges instead of upon ourselves. To recognize the hand of our Father, and to acknowledge the needs be, is the first step towards recovery. This was attained to by Gideon. The Lord’s hand was seen in permitting the chastisement; the Lord’s hand made bare to faith in working deliverance. But the position of faith is the path of trial and that, too, because it is the one of faith. We have forgotten this in our folly. We have asked, with Gideon, if it be so, why, then, has all this befallen us? And, instead of the language of Nehemiah, "Should such an one as I flee:" (Nehemiah 6:11), " we have run every man into his own house," whilst the Lord’s house lay, waste, (Haggai 1:9.) Trial by the way is no excuse for getting out of the way; failure in man, no reason for quarreling with God. But the rather, our every discomfiture should quicken our feet to our hiding place. " Thou art my hiding place," (Psalms 119:114) But the path of faith is one of trial. Service for God can only be sustained in the power of God. There is danger whilst working ostensibly for Him, of ceasing to abide in Him: and then leanness of soul enters, and the heart, unsustained by communion, shrinks under trials which, in a healthy condition, would have had no pressure upon us. Now Gideon had eminent service, and consequently trials in it. He wrought a victory in the energy of the Spirit of God, and this exposed him to the envy of Ephraim, (chapter 8.) He came to Jordan and passed over, he and the three hundred men that were with him, "faint, yet pursuing." And he asked bread of the men of Succoth, and he was mocked of them: the princes of Succoth saw nothing imposing in the small band of the faithful, so wearied and famished, for whom unbelief had no sympathy, and less of discernment when acting for God. And he passed on to Penuel, where a like reception awaited him. There are few allies for faith, and few spirits to lead on a forlorn hope into conflict. Yet pursuing God’s enemies, and employed in His service, though faint, He sustains them. "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." The hosts of Zeba and Zalmunna are defeated in Karkar, and the two kings taken, (chap. 8:11) and slain; the elders of Succoth taught with thorns and briers in the wilderness (verse 16); the men of the city of Penuel slain, and their tower beaten down, (verse 17), and all this by a feeble few, " faint, yet pursuing." What comfort and encouragement is here! Have faith in God. How imperative the precept! How certain the results! The Lord strengthen the bands that hang down I May the good of His church be the object of pursuit, the truth of His presence where two or three are gathered, the testimony borne; and though Ephraim wax wroth in the spirit of envy, and Succoth and Penuel will furnish no sustenance, yet onwards is the word. " Speak to the people that they go forward." May the Lord encourage us that we may be found though " faint, yet pursuing." (Continued from No. 3.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: VOL 03 - "I WILL CONSIDER THY TESTIMONIES" ======================================================================== "I Will Consider Thy Testimonies" How varied and precious are the " considerations" set before us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, striking chord after chord in our hearts, and producing note after note of praise! In the first chapter the personal and official dignities and glories of the Lord Jesus Christ crowd themselves together and unfold themselves before our souls; while in the ’second chapter, we have the grace of Him, by whom God spake in these last days, in associating others with Himself; when passing through death to the Headship of all things, crowned with glory and honor; it is as thus set before us, we are told, as holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, to "consider" Him, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession; to gaze on Him, and have our souls enlarged in contemplating Him, "who was faithful to Him that appointed him." But how can such as we sit down and feast ourselves with such considerations, with consciences unpurged and not at rest? In view of this need, and before the next " consideration " is presented to us, we are led, in chapters 9. and 10., to see the altar of sin-offering receiving a victim, once and forever, that has satisfied all its cravings, and which has fully answered all the demands of the glory of God as to sin and uncleanness; satisfies the need of the convicted conscience, and silenced every accusing foe. And with consciences thus at rest, we are set down to another consideration for our souls. We are told in chapter 10:24, to "consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." With the holy peace and calm of purged consciences we are thus, as it were, told that we have leisure to turn round and look one upon another with such an end in view, and so much the more as we see the "day" approaching. But, you will say, there are the trials and difficulties of the way to contend with, and there are the weights and hindrances that would hamper and clog us in our journeying onwards to the glory. And, in view of these things, we are told to turn our eyes toward Him again, and we are exhorted in chapter 12., to " consider " Him who endured as One who has been in the way Himself, and understands the grace needed for every step, and who has learned " how to speak a word in season to him that is weary," (Isaiah 1:1-31.) at every stage of the journey to the place where He has Himself sat down, "lest we should be weary and faint in our minds." And, lastly, as those who are in the midst of the things that are about to be shaken, and who are dwelling in spirit, and by faith amongst those things which, when all things are shaken, will remain, we are exhorted to " consider" the end of the conversation of those who have ministered among us,... "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." Varied and precious are the " considerations ", thus laid before us, and to which we are set down to contemplate, in their order and suitability, as every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of our God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: VOL 03 - "I'LL HEAR THE TRUMP" ======================================================================== "I’ll Hear the Trump" Lines written on hearing that an aged and paralyzed Christian, who was afflicted with total deafness, was accustomed to say, " I’ll hear the trump."―1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. "I’ll hear the trump," thus spake an aged saint, Whose ears against the human voice were closed, Who on her pilgrim journey, weak and faint, In faith upon the Word of God reposed, " I’ll hear the trump,"―Yes, Sister, thou shalt hear, And hearing rise to meet thy Savior dear. Blessed assurance! though thy deafened ear Can listen to the song of birds no more, Though friendly voices can no longer cheer, And intercourse with others thus be o’er, Though paralyzed and deaf, cut off from all The world around, thou’lt hear the trumpet’s call. And, glorious truth! the day is hast’ning on When God’s redeemed, from sin and suffering free, Dwelling in light before the Eternal throne, Shall, fully blest, their Lord and Savior see, When at the shout, and voice, and trumpet blast, They’ll soar aloft and reach their home at last. Yes, soon that trump will sound―on wings of wind, Bearing us onward, time fleets fast away, Glory before thee, judgment dread behind, How gladly, Sister, wilt thou hail that day When thou, and all God’s saints, the world around Shall hear―extatic thought! God’s trumpet sound. Hark! through the heaven it rings, its potent notes, Pierce the dull grave and bid the dead arise. Hark! o’er the world the sound mellifluous floats, Calling the saints to mansions in the skies. Hark! to the thrilling sounds! now shout for home, Ye joyful saints-shout, for the Lord is come. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: VOL 03 - "MARK YE WELL HER BULWARKS" ======================================================================== "Mark Ye Well Her Bulwarks" Psalms 48:1-14. Mark ye well her bulwarks, ’Tis God that made them strong, With mercies sure and grace divine, His City loved so long; Mark ye well her bulwarks, Her site how wondrous fair! Her palaces a refuge are, For God Himself is there! Mark ye well her bulwarks― Behold, "what God bath wrought! In dust she lay, her beauty gone, Forsaken and unsought; But graven on His hands is she, And Israel’s God is true; He loved her, and He raised her up, And built her gates anew. Mark ye well her bulwarks― Was this the guilty one? That killed and stoned the messengers, Cast out and slew the Son? Messiah’s blood lay at her door, Her hands imbrued in sin Of crimson dye-blood-guiltiness Like this had never been! Mark ye well her bulwarks, And praise the grace divine; That raised her when in death she lay, And called her light to shine; Messiah’s blood lay at her door, But ’twas for her He died; Her stones are laid, her walls re-built Through Him-the Crucified. Mark ye well her bulwarks, And see that "God is love," Where sin abounds, grace o’er abounds, His matchless love to prove; Consider well her palaces, And all her streets explore This God of grace is our God, E’en now, and evermore! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: VOL 03 - "NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS" ======================================================================== "No More Conscience of Sins" The object of redemption is to bring us nigh to God, as it is written, "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." But what is our state before God when brought nigh? The right understanding of this is most important. It is impossible that we could be happy even in the presence of God, if there still existed a thought of His being against us. I need the perfect settled assurance that there is no sin upon me before Him. The sense of responsibility ever makes a person unhappy where there is any question as to sin standing against him; see the case of a servant and his master, or that of a child and its parent-the conscience is miserable if there be upon it the sense of that which will be judged. So God’s presence must be indeed terrible, unless the conscience be perfectly good. If there be happiness for me there, it can only be in the sense of His favor, and of the completeness with which we have been brought back―the perfect assurance of " the worshipper once purged " having " no more conscience of sins." God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing: it may not be our heart’s experience. There is a distinctness between the operation of the Spirit of God in bringing me unto Jesus, bearing witness to me of God’s love, and of the efficacy of what Christ has done, and His operation in my soul in producing in me the love of God. That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work of Jesus. A Christian who doubts the Father’s love to him, and who looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God’s truth. The gospel is the revelation God has given of Himself: it displays the love of God towards us, and what is in His heart. I can trust the declaration of what is in God’s heart, and not what I think of myself. The apostle speaks of a due time; "When we were yet without strength, in due tinge Christ died for the ungodly." It is almost always true that there is in us a terrible process of breaking the heart, in order that we may be brought to the ascertainment that we are lost and ruined sinners; but the gospel begins at the close of God’s experience of man’s heart, and calls us from that in order that we should have joy and peace from the experience of what is in His heart. Man left alone before the flood, put under the law, in Canaan, indeed under all and every trial of his nature and tendency up to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, was just God’s putting him to the test. One would have thought, after Adam had been turned out of paradise for transgression, that would have been a sufficient warning; but his first-born became a murderer. We should have supposed that the flood which swept off the workers of iniquity would have repressed for a time at least, by the terror of judgment, the outbreak of sin; but we find immediately afterward Noah getting drunk, and Ham dishonoring his father. The devouring fire of Sinai, which made even Moses fear and quake, seemed sufficient to subdue the rebel heart and make it bow beneath God’s hand; but the golden calf was the awful evidence that the heart of man was " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Again in Canaan a part of the world was tried to the utmost to be cultivated, but it would not do. A bad tree producing bad fruit was the only type by which God could set Israel forth. (See Isaiah 5:1-30) He might dig about it and dung it, but after all these efforts it could only bring forth more bad fruit. At last He said, " I have yet one son, perhaps they will reverence my son," but man preferred having the world to himself, and so crucified Jesus. Looking to His cross, Christ said, " Now is the judgment of this world." (John 12:1-50) At the crucifixion of Jesus, the veil was rent, and the holiest opened; what God was within the veil then shone out in all its fullness. When grace reveals this to me, I get confidence. I see God holy and expecting holiness-true; but the peace of God is in knowing what He is to us, and not what we are to Him. He knows all the evil of our hearts. Nothing can be worse than the rejection of Jesus―man’s hatred is shown out there, and God’s love, to the full. The wretched soldier (who, in the cowardly impotence of the consciousness that he could with impunity insult the meek and lowly Jesus, pierced His side with a spear), let out in that disgraceful act, the water and the blood, which was able to cleanse even such as he. Here God’s heart was revealed, what He is to the sinner; and this is our salvation. Death and judgment teach me redemption. God judged sin indeed in sacrificing His well-beloved Son to put it away. It must be punished; Jesus bore the blow-this rent the veil, and chewed out what God really is. The very blow that let out the holiness of God put away the sin which His holiness judged. The perfect certainty of God’s love and the perfect cleansing of the conscience is that which the defiled and trembling sinner needs. " By the grace of God " Jesus Christ has " tasted death." Death, the wages of sin, is seen in the cross of Jesus as the consequence of " the grace of God." "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness." Were anyone to demand of me & proof of God’s love, I could not give more than God has done in that " He spared not His own Son;" none other could be so great. But then, it might be asked, may not my sin affect it? No, God knew all your sin, and He has provided for it all; “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." In real communion the conscience must be purged: there can be no communion if the soul be not at peace. We read here, “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." There is very frequently the confounding of what faith produces with what faith rests upon. Faith always rests upon God’s estimate of the blood of Jesus as He has revealed it in His word; faith rests on no experience. Jesus said, " Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God!"―" by the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." " We are sanctified," it is not that which is proposed for our attainment; it was the good will of God to do it, and the work is done, to bring our souls back unto Himself. Jesus has said " it is finished." But then there must be the knowledge of this also, in order for us to begin to act. You might have a person willing to pay your debts; nay, you might even have them paid; but if you did not know it, you would be just as miserable as before. We are not called upon to believe in a promise that Jesus should come to die and rise again. The work is done; He “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high," "when he had by himself purged our sins." But then this is not sufficient for me; I must know that the work is done; and therefore He sent down the Holy Ghost to be the witness that God is satisfied. Knowing perfectly their guilt and amount, God has declared, “your sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Faith rests on this, “God is true;" "he that hath received his testimony bath set to his seal that God is true." The Lord said to Israel in Egypt concerning the blood of the paschal lamb, " When I see the blood, I will pass over." Could there be hesitation if we were in a house marked with blood on the doorpost? should we not know that He would pass over? Faith is always divine certainty. God has said, " I will remember no more." This is the ground on which we enter into the holiest. " The worshipper once purged " has " no more conscience of sins." God has found His rest in Jesus; our peace and joy depends upon knowing this. Were anything more necessary, it could not be His rest; God is not seeking for something else when at rest. None else could have afforded this. " God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God; they were all gone out of the way; there was none righteous; no, not one." But God bore witness unto Jesus, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God is well pleased in Christ; God rests in His Son, not merely in His life, though that was holy and acceptable unto Him, but in His work on the cross. Jesus said, " except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," and that meets our need. When He spews His glory to the angels, He points to what has been done by man. In man was God glorified; as in man, the first Adam, He had been dishonored. Christ reversed all this-" Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him:" which God recognizes in straightway glorifying Him. Righteousness cannot be looked for from the creature, but the fruit of righteousness will-the thing itself is only in Christ. God is not a grudging giver. Did Satan, tempting Eve, question this in the forbidden fruit? He has given His Son; He rests in Him; the sinner likewise rests there. What can man do for me? Nothing. If I were to come to him to deliver me from death, could he help me? No. He might fill my hand with those perishing things which only swell the triumph of death and decorate the tomb, but there his power ends. In Jesus God has found His rest-this is mine also; I know it from the testimony of God’s truth. Have you found rest in God’s rest? if you say, I have not, will you say that God has not found His rest there? will you look to your own heart? In that you can never find it-it is only in Jesus; who had said, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest." Would that all knew the perfect rest to be found there! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: VOL 03 - "PRAY YE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST THAT HE MAY SEND FORTH LABORERS INTO HIS HARVEST." ======================================================================== "Pray Ye the Lord of the Harvest That He May Send Forth Laborers Into His Harvest." We must pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest. It is more devotedness that is lacking. There are-I know it to be the case―brothers who would be more useful in the work, if only they were more devoted. They are absorbed by something else, and this not only distracts them from the work, but when they do set themselves to it, there is not that maturity, that furnished condition of soul that knowledge of hearts, and of the way in which the word suits itself to their needs, which gives value to ministry. (See 1 Timothy 4:15.) It is not that one might not, if one were to keep quietly in one’s place, be busy about some occupation, manual, or otherwise; Paul was so indeed; but let the heart be in the work, not in a worldly object. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: VOL 03 - "THE GOD OF ALL GRACE" ======================================================================== "The God of All Grace" I have lately been meditating on the rich and perfect display of the grace that the Lord makes in David. Indeed it is grace that the Lord exhibits in David, as it is glory that He exhibits in Solomon. But it is grace in all its actings, that shines in this wondrous and varied history. The sinner and the saint get all godly consolation and encouragement from it, and find (a) fullness in the treasures of grace for (their) need whatever complexion or character that need takes. Election of grace. shines in David, for he was chosen when he was the despised one. (1 Samuel 16:1-23) The preserving power of grace shines in David, for he is kept, and kept holy and harmless too, when persecuted and tempted of the enemy. (1 Samuel 18:30.) The victory of grace shines in David for the hand of the Lord leads him through all resistance and enmity up to the place of honor and safety. (2 Samuel 1:1-27; 2 Samuel 2:1-32; 2 Samuel 3:1-39; 2 Samuel 4:1-12; 2 Samuel 5:1-25; 2 Samuel 6:1-23; 2 Samuel 7:1-29; 2 Samuel 8:1-18; 2 Samuel 9:1-13; 2 Samuel 10:1-19) And lastly, the brightest too of all displays, the restoring power and love of grace shines in David, for when after all the divine goodness he sinned, against the Lord and caused His Name to be blasphemed, grace restores the soul, and leads it again in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. (2 Samuel 11:23.) Thus grace makes a blessed show of itself in this wondrous and varied history, that whether we be sinners still at a distance, or saints who have been overtaken and lost our due place and honor in joy and blessing, we may still know what God is to our holy encouragement and comfort. The (saint) wants the same treasures of grace after he has believed as he did before. Nothing but fullness of it will do for him. But Jesus still has it to the end. He not only elects, preserves and blesses, through His grace, but He restores also, and this is to His highest praise.... David the blotted, tainted David has a song. (2 Samuel 23:1-39) He tasted ’tis true the dreadful bitterness of trespassing against the God of all goodness, but grace had its way in his soul, and gives David a song again. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: VOL 03 - 2CO_12:1-21 ======================================================================== 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 The way in which, in this chapter, we find the highest state to which a Christian can be elevated, an exceptional one, no doubt, as an experience, and the lowest condition to which he can fall, and all the practical principles on which the divine work is carried on between these two extremes, is very striking. In the beginning of the chapter we find a saint in the third heaven, in paradise, where flesh could have no part in apprehension or in communication. He knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. There was no consciousness of human existence in flesh; so he could not tell, nor could he utter what he had heard when he returned to the consciousness of flesh again. Such is the saint at the beginning of the chapter. At the end we find one, perhaps many, fallen into fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness, and unrepentant yet of their sins. What a contrast of the highest heavenly elevation, and the lowest carnal degradation! And the Christian capable of both! What a lesson for every saint, though he may reach neither extreme, as a warning; and how suited to give the consciousness of what natures are at work, and of the elements which are in conflict in him in his spiritual life down here! Another part of this chapter will show us where power alone is to be found to carry him along his path upon the earth in a way consistently with the heavenly good to which he is called. Paul uses a remarkable expression as to himself when speaking of his elevation to the third heaven: "I knew a man in Christ." A few preliminary thoughts as to the law will facilitate our understanding this expression. The law gave to man a perfect and divine rule for his conduct upon the earth. But it never took him up into heaven. Heavenly beings, indeed, such as the Angels, act upon the abstract perfection of this divine rule as it is stated by the Lord Himself; they love God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves. This is creature perfection. But that is their nature in which God has maintained them. To prescribe feelings and conduct by law is another thing. Christians often forget this. The contents of the law are perfect in their place and for their objects. It tells us what the right state of a creature is, and forbids the wrong that the flesh is inclined to. But why prescribe this? No doubt obedience is a part of perfection in a creature. Mere doing right would not suffice for a being subject to God to walk righteously, because God has absolute authority over him. Thus God can, and we know does, prescribe certain particular acts of service to angels; and they obey. But when a state of soul is prescribed-why is that? Because it is needed. It becomes necessary because of the state of the person to whom the command is addressed. He is otherwise inclined, in danger from other dispositions of doing otherwise. To command a person to do a thing supposes that he is not doing it, nor about to do it without a command. If we add to this that nine out of the ten commandments forbid positive sins and evil dispositions, because men are disposed to them (or there would be no need to prohibit them), we shall find that the very nature and existence of a law which prescribes the good on God’s authority, supposes the evil in man’s nature which is opposed to it. This is a deplorable truth, take either aspect of the case. You cannot command love (that is produce it by commanding it), and you cannot put out lusts by forbidding them to a nature which has them as nature. Yet this is what the law does, and must do if God gives one. It proves that what is forbidden is sin, and that it is in man to be forbidden; but law never takes it away. It prescribes good in the creature, but does not produce it. It shows what is right on earth in the creature, but how far is it from taking man into heavenly places! Law can have no pretension to it. Man has now, by the fall, the knowledge of good and evil. The law acts on this amazing faculty, of which God could say, " the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." But how? Man is under the evil; and it requires good in him which is not, and shows him all the evil which is in him. It presses the evil on him, and its consequences in judgment; and, as to the good it requires in him, it only gives the consciousness that it is not there. Further, it shows no good to him as an object before his soul. I repeat, to make the distinction clear, it requires good in him, (loving God and his neighbor, for example,) but it presents no good to him. There is no revealed object to produce good nor be man’s good in him in living power. It works therefore wrath. Where no law is, there is no transgression. Now grace works quite otherwise; it does not require good where it is not, though it may produce it. It does not condemn the wicked, but forgives and puts away their sin. It presents to us an object, God Himself, but God come near to us in love. It does more, it communicates what is good. It is not a law. It does not require good where it is not, but produces it. It does not condemn the wicked, but it forgives and puts away their wickedness. It does not lead us to carry on the conflict between good and evil by pressing the evil on us., and making us feel it a burden not to be got rid of, and ourselves slaves to it, which the law does, making us feel " this body of death " as that under whose power we are, sold to sin, and, supposing we are regenerate, making us feel more truly and deeply that even this does not make us meet its requirements, so that we should be righteous by it, however much "to will is present with us," but the contrary. In a word, grace does not, in the knowledge of good and evil with which it deals, lead us to carry on the conflict by the sense of the power and dreadfulness of evil to which we are subject, and its consequences, but by the possession of perfect and divine good through which we judge the evil as raised above it by the possession of an object perfectly good, and which is our delight as well as our life, by the possession of Christ (being in Him and He in us) "I knew," says the apostle, "a man in Christ." But this we must a little explain and open out. It is often very vague in many a Christian’s heart. In paradise, without law, under law and through the presenting of Christ to him, man was responsible for his own conduct as a living man for things done in the body, He was viewed as a child of Adam, or " in the flesh." He stood, that is, before God in the nature in which he had been created, responsible for his conduct in it, for what he was in the flesh. The result was that in respect of these conditions he had failed, failed in paradise, lawless without law, a transgressor when under law, and last and worst of all, the closing ground of judgment, when Christ came, proved to be without a cloak for sin, the hater of Him and His Father. Man was lost. In a state of probation for four thousand years, the tree had been proved bad; and the more the care, the worse the fruit. All flesh was judged. The tree was to bear no fruit forever. Not only had he been proved to be a sinner in every way, but he had rejected the remedy presented in grace, for Christ came into an already sinful world, and He was despised and rejected of men, It was not all that man, fallen and guilty, was driven out of paradise; but Christ come in grace was, as far as man’s will was concerned, driven out of the world which was plunged in the misery to which sin had led, and which He had visited in goodness. Man’s history was morally closed. "Now," says the Lord, when Greeks came up, " is the judgment of this world." Hence it is we have " He appeared once in the end of the world." But now comes God’s work for the sinner. He who knew no sin, was made sin for us. He drinks graciously and willingly the cup given Him to drink. He lays down the life in which He bore the sin-gives it up; and all is gone with it. The very life our sin was borne in on the cross was given up, His blood was shed. He has put away sin for every believer by the sacrifice of Himself―has perfected them forever. He that is dead is freed from sin. But Christ died. He then is freed from sin. But whose? Ours who believe in Him. It is all gone, gone with the life to which it was attached, in which He bore it. The death of Christ has closed, for faith, the existence of the old man, the flesh, the first Adam life in which we stood as responsible before God, and whose place Christ took for us in grace. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. In that He died, He died unto sin once; in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. (To be continued, D. V.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: VOL 03 - 2CO_12:1-21 ======================================================================== 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 Faith anticipates the judgment, as regards the old man, the flesh, with all its ways. Upon the grounds of its responsibility we are wholly lost. We may learn it experimentally by passing under the law, becoming hopeless of pleasing God as being in the flesh, or we may learn it by finding our opposition and indifference to Christ. But the whole thing is done away with for the believer on the cross. He is crucified with Christ, nevertheless lives, but not he but Christ lives in Him. If the cross has proved that in the flesh there is nothing but sin and hatred against God, it has put away the sin it has proved. All that is gone. The life is gone. If a guilty man die in prison, what can the law do more against him? The life in which he had sinned, and to which his guilt attached itself, is gone. With us too it is gone; for Christ has died, willingly, no doubt, but by the judicial dealing of God with the sin which He bore for us. If we are alive, we are alive now on a new footing before God-alive in Christ. The old things are passed away; there is a new creation; we are created again in Christ Jesus. Our place and standing before God is no longer in flesh. It is in Christ. Christ as man has taken quite a new place that neither Adam innocent, nor Adam sinner, had anything to say to. The best robe formed no part of the prodigal’s first inheritance at all; it was in the Father’s possession―quite a new thing. Christ has taken this place consequent on putting away our sins, on having glorified God as to them, and finishing the work. He has taken it in righteousness, and man in Him has got a new place in righteousness with God. When quickened, he is quickened with the life in which Christ lives, the second Adam; and submitting to God’s righteousness, knowing that he is totally lost in the first and old man, and having bowed to this solemn truth, as shown and learned in the cross, he is sealed with the Holy Ghost, livingly united to the Lord, One Spirit: he is a man in Christ, not in the flesh or in the first Adam. All that is closed for him in the cross, where Christ made Himself responsible for him in respect of it and died unto sin once; and he is alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He belongs to a new creation, having the life of the head of it as his life. Where he learned the utter total condemnation of what he was, he learned its total and eternal putting away. The cross is for him that impassable Red Sea, that Jordan which he has now gone through, and is his deliverance from Egypt forever, and now he has realized it, his entrance into Canaan, in Christ. If Jordan and the power of death overflowed all its banks, for him the ark of the covenant passed in. It is just his way into Canaan. That which, if he had himself assayed to go through, as the Egyptians, would have been his destruction, has been a wall on the right hand and the left, and only destroyed all that was against him. He was a man in the flesh, he is a man in Christ. Amazing and total change from the whole condition and standing of the 1st Adam, responsible for his own sins, into that of Christ, who, having borne the whole consequences of that responsibility in his place, has given him (in the power of that, to us, new life, in which He rose from the dead) a place in and with Himself, as He now is, as man before God! It is to this position the apostle refers; only that he was given in a very extraordinary manner to enjoy the full fruit and glory of it during the period of his existence here below. His language as to this truth is remarkably plain, and therefore powerful. " When we were in the flesh," he says. Thus it is we speak, when we refer to a bye-gone state of things, in which we are no longer. " When we were in the flesh," (that is we are no longer in that position at all.) "But," he says, "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." We are now alive in Christ. " If ye be dead," says he elsewhere, " to the rudiments of the world, why are ye subject to ordinances?" "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." " When Christ who is our life shall appeal., then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." The reader will forgive me, if I have dwelt so long upon the first expression of our chapter. have done so because of its vast importance. It is the very heart of all Paul’s doctrine, the true and holy way of full divine liberty, and the power of holiness. And because many Christians have not seized the force of this truth, nor of the expression of the Apostle, they use Christ’s death as a remedy for the old man, or at least only learn forgiveness of past sins by it, instead of learning that they have passed out of the old man, as to their place before God, and into the new in the power of that life which is in Christ. Ask many a true-hearted saint what is the meaning of “when we were in the flesh," and he could give no clear answer―he has no definite idea of what it does mean. Ask him what it is to be " in Christ"―all is equally vague. A regenerate man may be in the flesh, as to the condition and standing of his own soul, though he be not so in God’s sight; nay this is the very case supposed in Romans 7:1-25, because he looks at himself as standing before God on the ground of his own responsibility, on which ground he never can (in virtue of being regenerate) meet the requirements of God, attain to His righteousness. Perhaps, find-this out, he has recourse to the blood of Christ to quiet his uneasy conscience, and repeated recurrence to it, as a Jew would to a sacrifice, a superstitious man to absolution. But he has no idea that he has been cleansed and perfected once for all, and that he is taken clean out of that standing, to be placed in Christ before God. But if in Christ, the title and privilege of Christ, is our title and privilege. Of the full and wondrous fruit of this, Paul, for God’s wise and blessed purposes, was made to enjoy in an extraordinary and special manner. In that, flesh and mortal nature had no part, nor ever can, though we (as alive in Christ) have, while in that nature, whatever be the degree of our realization of it. Paul was allowed to know it, so that while enjoying it in the highest degree in the new man, in his life in Christ, (" the life hid with Christ in God," the " not I but Christ living in him,") he had no consciousness of that other mortal part which yet burdens by its very nature (as well as by sin if will works) the new and heavenly man in us. He could not tell if he was in or out of the body he knew, on re-entering his ordinary state of conscious existence that he had this body; but he could not tell whether he was in or out of it when in the third heaven; he was unconscious of it altogether. The reader will remark too, how carefully the apostle distinguishes between the man in Christ, and himself as he had the practical experience of himself down here, having indeed the life of Christ and the Spirit which united him to the Head, but having also the flesh in him, though he was not in the flesh. Of this Paul, of which he was practically conscious down here, he would not glory; but he had been given to be in the enjoyment of his place as a man in Christ with entire abstraction, as to his consciousness of it, of anything else―of such a one he would glory. And so can we: though we may never have been in the third heaven to realize fully the glory and privileges of the position we are brought into, yet we are men in Christ, and ’we have known enough, the feeblest saint who knows his place in Christ, has known enough of that blessing, to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He glories in the position of the man in Christ, which is his most surely and fully in Christ; and he may realize it, too, so that at the moment he may not sensibly feel the working of sin in him, though he well knows it is there. We may be filled With the Spirit, so that the Spirit may be the only source of actual thought in us, Indeed this is our proper Christian state, not always with the same activity, it is true, of the Spirit giving the sensible apprehension of the glory, and the things of Christ, so as to elevate the soul to that which is above; but so that there is no consciousness of anything inconsistent with it in the mind. This is the state described in the Epistle to the Philippians―the true Christian state. There may be even then, when there is no conscious evil, the effect of obscure apprehension, an apprehension obscure perhaps even in a way which implies fault, negligence, want of singleness of eye, spiritual laziness, swerving from the path in which a single eye would lead us, (though then uneasiness naturally follows in the soul, because the Spirit does dwell in us and is grieved;) still there may be no present disturbing element in the conscience. The fact, it is important to remark, of sin being in the flesh, does not make the conscience bad. When it becomes the source of thought or action, then the conscience is bad, and communion by the Holy Ghost is interrupted. But our chapter leads us further into this. *** * (Continued from No. 7.) (To be continued, D. V.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: VOL 03 - 2CO_12:1-21 ======================================================================== 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 The being, as men speak, in the third heaven, is not always our place and portion. It is a mistake to think it would puff us up. A creature is never puffed up in the presence of God and with Him before the mind. It is when the eye is off Him, when we have been in the third heaven, but are no longer there, that the danger begins. We are in danger of being puffed up about having been there when we have lost the present sense of the excellency of what is there, and in which we lose the sense of self. This is what we find in Paul’s case. The man in Christ has Christ for his title, and is entitled thus to all that Christ enjoys, to joys and glories which mortal apprehensions cannot receive-the language formed by mortal thoughts and ways cannot express, that are not meet to be communicated in this scene of human capacities. They belong to another sphere of things. But, wonderful as that is into which we are brought, the question of good and evil, the knowledge of which we have by the fall, and cannot get rid of, nor is it desirable or meant we should, must be thoroughly and experimentally gone through by us. It has been as to acceptance. In respect of that it is finally and forever settled before God by the death and resurrection of Christ. But we have to learn to judge the evil and to delight in the good. The law, as, we have seen, makes us learn the evil as looking to be judged for it. In grace we are first put into the position of perfect blessing in Christ, and then we judge what is contrary to it. This is the difference of bondage and liberty. Still we have to judge it, and grow in our apprehension of good. In the instruction of our chapter this (as in all God’s ways with the apostle, who was to be both quickly and fully taught in order constantly and deeply to teach others) was done in the strongest and fullest contrast of the extremes. The third heaven, if it did not set aside the flesh in fact forever, must show what a hopeless, unchangeable thing it is. And so it did. Paul had entered into the third heaven with no consciousness of the hindrance of the body, still less with any working of the flesh in any way. But he must return into the practical state of existence in which he had to serve Christ with the consciousness of what he was as Paul. And here the only working of the flesh, the only way it took cognizance of Paul’s having been in the third heaven, would have been, if it had been allowed to do so, to have puffed him up at having such wondrous revelations. It was unchanged in evil. Paul must learn this practically, even by a visit to the third heavens, instead of this amazing privilege taking away or changing it. It was not allowed to act, but he must learn truly to judge it for himself. Note this difference. It is not necessary, when we are in Christ, that flesh should act in order to judge it in ourselves. Alas! it is often in that way we do learn it, but it is not necessary that it should act even in thought. By God’s ways, and through communion with Him, we can learn to judge evil in the root in us without its bearing fruit. If we do not learn to judge it in communion with God, where there may be very real exercise about it (and a very great conflict of will against God if it has acquired any head), we learn it in its fruits through the giving way to the temptation of Satan. When it is not judged, we learn, no doubt, the evil-not yet indeed the root, but Christ is dishonored, the spirit grieved, and but for the coming in of grace, sin will in such case have acquired deceiving power in our hearts. In what has preceded, we have found three important points brought before us in this chapter First, the man in Christ; secondly, the gross evil of the flesh if our members be not mortified; thirdly, that this same flesh is not at all corrected in its tendencies even by a man’s being in the third heaven, nor by anything else. Paul needed a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be puffed up. There is another collateral point, indeed, which I would here briefly notice; the difference between our abstract position as men in Christ (and we are entitled to consider ourselves as such; it is our true position as Christians according to grace), and our actual condition with the consciousness of the existence of the flesh and all our bodily circumstances and infirmities down here. Into this actual condition we have now to follow Paul in our chapter, and to learn where power is to be found to walk rightly in it. The flesh exists unchangeable in its nature, a pure hindrance. First, we may remark that no extent of knowledge, even where given of God, is in itself spiritual power in our souls. We cannot doubt that such revelations as Paul received in the third heaven strengthened his own faith, made him understand that it was well worth sacrificing a miserable life, such as this world’s life is, for it, and gave him a consciousness of what he was contending for, a sense of the divine things he had to do with, which must have exercised an immense influence upon his career in this world. But it was not immediate power in conflict in the mixed state in which he found himself when he had to speak of " myself Paul." He had, and so have we, to walk by faith, and not by sight. The wickedest man would not sin while his mind had the glory of God before his eyes; but that would no way prove the state of his heart and affections when it was removed. Like Balaam he would turn to his vomit again. So in point of fact the Christian (however strengthened and refreshed by times on the road by what is almost like sight to him, and by communications of divine love to his soul) has to walk by faith, and not always in these sensible apprehensions of divine results in glory. Not that he is to walk in the flesh or lose communion, but he is not always under the power of especial communications of the glory conferred on him, and divine love to his soul. Paul knew a man fourteen years ago―not every day in that state. He could rejoice in the Lord always. Some Christians are apt to confound these two things―special joy and abiding communion, and to suppose, because the first is not always the case, the discontinuance of the latter is to be taken for granted and acquiesced in. This is a great mistake. Special visitations of joy may be afforded. Constant fellowship with God and with the Lord Jesus is the only right state, the only one recognized in scripture. We are to rejoice in the Lord always. This the flesh would seek to hinder, and Satan by the flesh. Here we find first the privilege of having the title to hold ourselves dead. We are not debtors to the flesh. It has no kind of title over us. We are not in the flesh. We may reckon ourselves dead and alive unto God, and sin shall not have dominion over us. It is all-important to hold this fact. The flesh is unchanged, but there is no necessity of walking in it-not more as to our thoughts than as to our outward conduct. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death; sin in the flesh is condemned by the death of Christ; the power it had over us, when under law (if not lawless), it has no longer.When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law wrought in us all manner of concupiscence. But we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us. We are delivered from the law, having died in that, in which we were held. Our whole condition is changed. What the law could not do just because it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh. But if the flesh be not changed, how is this realized in practice? It is this which is taught us here. It is first the giving conscious nothingness and weakness in the flesh. This is not power, but it is the practical way to it. We are entitled, as to our standing before God, to reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and in practice to hold ourselves, as in this condition, not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh; and sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under law, but under grace. But our chapter goes farther than this: it shows us power so to walk. The flesh is then practically put down. The measure, as stated by the apostle, is this -" Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." His object was not to gain this life. Alive in Christ we have it. But he held every movement, thought, and will of the flesh under the judgment of the cross, and so the life of Christ was left free. Such is our path. Admitted into the very presence of God, into the holiest, by the blood of Christ, we judge in its roots, in communion with Him according to His infinite grace, everything that is not of Christ in us, and the grace we meet and are made partakers of in this communion carries us along our road in lowliness and grace. Our fleshly tendencies are thus only the occasion of receiving the grace which keeps us safe from their power. I may be humbler than ordinary men if I have dealt with God about my pride, and so of every danger. The present power of Christ keeps the evil out of our thoughts. We have brought God into our life in this respect. It is not merely the absence, comparatively speaking, of a particular character of evil. The flesh―evil―is judged according to God, and I am lowly in spirit, and walk softly and safely. But where there are real dangers, God helps us in this. Not only do I bear about the dying, but we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake. God works; some messenger of Satan is sent (not sin-far from it: God cannot send that; but some humbling process which prevents sin and pride working), unpleasant to the human heart, but needed for it. All self-activity of the flesh is sin. The body is dead because of sin if Christ be in me; that is, if alive, it is only sin; and if Christ is my life, the Spirit is life. My body is not counted as alive, or to be so in its will. What is of me in will and nature-me as a conscious living man, a child of Adam in this world-is annulled, or is a hindrance; it has no connection with God: a man in it cannot please God. " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Continued from page 127.) (To be continued, D. V.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: VOL 03 - 2CO_12:1-21 ======================================================================== 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 We find in Philippians this confidence in the flesh (not lusts of corruption) judged by the apostle. All that made Paul of undue importance to himself, or to others and so reflectively to himself, was rejected. It would have been confidence in self. Our part is to be in the presence of God, that all which is of self may be judged. But God, as I have said, helps us. Here God had, by the abundance of the revelations given to Paul, given an occasion which the flesh could use. In His mercy He meets the danger for Paul, which he might not, surely would not, have rightly met; for God does not afflict willingly. He lets loose this messenger of Satan at him, but to do His own work, as with Job. And Paul has some infirmity which tends to make him despicable in preaching. " My temptation, which was in my flesh, ye despised not," says he to the Galatians―a natural counterpoise to the abundance of revelations. What can the flesh do with this then? Well, it would be spared what seemed a hindrance. To whom? Why, to Paul. Just right. Paul had to be kept down―terrible truth for us! Must we be made weak and inefficient in order to be ’blessed and used? Yes, if, wretched worms as we are, we are in danger of leaning as man on the flesh’s efficiency and strength. The works that are done upon the earth, God doeth them Himself, and above all spiritual work. He gives the increase. If He puts the poor vessel in a certain sense in danger, and in many a case where it puts itself, He meets the danger by striking at its root in self. He makes nothing of self, renders the incapacity of nature to anything not only apparent, but apparent to ourselves, and this is what we want. That self should feel self nothing, or a hindrance, is a most divine work (though it be a shame to a man who has been in the third heaven to think himself something in respect of it: but flesh is incorrigible), but as to the instrumentality used, a mean and miserable process, such as becomes making nothing of flesh. If death is our deliverance from all sin, we must taste it for our deliverance practically. The bitter water of Marah must be tasted when the salt waters of the Red Sea have delivered us from Egypt forever and ever. Put the wood of the tree, the cross of Christ, into our cross, and all will be sweet. " Crucified is terrible work―crucified with Christ, joy and deliverance; reproach is cruel―the reproach of Christ is greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. But there are cases where the will and natural reluctance of the flesh to suffer are in question; there are also those which are characterized by the danger of positive evil working, as pride or vanity in the case of Paul. As to all, death must be tasted. The nothingness and incompetency of all flesh must be felt where it would be disposed to think itself competent. It must find its pretensions arrested and set aside when it has, or would be disposed to have, such; it must find itself consciously weak where it might hope to be strong or capable of something. As to what self would lean on, it must find itself a hindering flesh where it would pretend to be a helping one. It is really nothing in the work and path of God; but when it would be positively something, it must be made to feel itself a positive hindrance. This is not the end, but it is the way. We must be humbled when we are not humble, or even in danger of not being so. This work may come in preventively. But the flesh must be nothing if we are to have blessing; and in order that the new man, which is content that God should be all, and knows its power is in Christ only, may be free and happy, and God, as it desires, may be glorified. The power of Satan and the power of death concur in ministering to our usefulness in Christ, because Satan wields this power to kill practically the flesh, and we have another life which lives in Christ, and lives for Him. This question is first settled as regards righteousness, as we have seen; we are dead and risen again; but it has to be practically settled as regards life and power of walk also. So that we may say, whatever our little measure may be, " To me to live is Christ." But the fact that the flesh is thus practically mortified is not in itself power; we must be positively dependent on another―glad to be so, if our heart is in Christ’s service, and that we find His help only can make us to serve Him. To have Him is joy in every way. This is what follows: " I will glory in my infirmities "―not sin, but what broke down the flesh in its will and hindered sin, " that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Here is positive power capable of everything, or rendering us capable of everything in the path of obedience, giving no power at all out of it, but fulfilling in power all the energy of love in obedience. For the Christian path is not mere legal obedience which submits to a will which arrests and stops our will, but an obedience which serves with delight in love, and in which love is positively and energetically active in doing good. This path is regulated by the Lord’s will and fulfilled by the Lord’s power, but that power can have no adventitious aid. It must be the strength in us of a dependent nature. In this is the right condition of the creature, obedience and conscious dependence (and both delighted in) on One who has title, and alone has title, to all the praise; who loves us, and on whose love we lean. In the path of service, the energy of Christ’s love impels us, Christ’s power sustains and enables us: flesh, only a hindrance to that, must be put down, and practically annulled, that Christ may work freely in us according to the blessing of that love. We then say, the love of Christ constrains us. I can do all things through Him which strengtheneth me, the only true abiding state of the Christian, be he babe or father in Christ; only the thing he may have to do may be different, and his temptations too. God in all cases is faithful not to suffer him to be tempted above what he is able. When a man is in Christ, then, redeemed, quickened, and united to the Head, accepted in the Beloved, the work of God in order to power is to break down and bring the flesh to conscious nothingness wherever it is needed; not by mending, using, ameliorating, but, if needed because of its will to be something, breaking it down, yea, making it for man’s capabilities of acting a sensible hindrance. That is all that God makes of man as to his flesh and competency; but there is a deep lesson of blessing in it besides being the path of power in source. We are emptied of self, and Christ (that is, purity, and love, and blessing―God known to us in grace) becomes everything to us, the more unhindered joy of the soul, made practically like Him. But we become now sensibly dependent, and Christ our power, I do not say sensibly power; for though there may be a consciousness of His strength, the service and work is done indeed, but done without any conscious strength. It may be done with joy, done in communion with Christ, and thus with joy in the service itself. It may be done with fear and trembling, and hence with no joy, though with confidence. That depends much upon how far we have to meet the sensible power of the enemy, always in weakness as to self, always in confidence as to Christ, that it is His work, and He the doer of it, though He may use us as instruments. And this operation is not merely an effect in us, though there be one; it is the positive power of Christ, a real acting and working of His power, for which the sensible putting down of flesh is only preparatory, that it might be evidently not the power of flesh, and that there might be no mixture of the two in our minds. Hence the flesh is turned into positive, sensible weakness. But the power of Christ rests upon us, so that it is joy to the soul because He uses us―connects Himself, so to speak, with us―deigns to make us the instruments and servants, willing and rejoicing servants, of this power. It is His power, but it rests on us.This is not the man in Christ, but Christ with the man-His power resting on him, emptied of self. The path of strength, then, is the being made sensible of our own weakness, so that divine strength, which will never be a supplement to flesh’s strength, may come in. Thus there is entire dependence, and the positive coming in of Christ’s power to work by us. If Paul’s bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible, and there was something which tended to make him despised, by whose power was it that such wondrous blessing for the whole world flowed forth on all sides, from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum? One or two remarks more, and I will close my imperfect suggestions on this chapter. First, remark, that the humbling process with Paul was no depriving of the abundance of the revelations, or weakening the consciousness that he was a man in Christ. This would have been positive loss. These were fully maintained and gloried in. The use the flesh would make of them when consciously down here in the body, in the world, was met by an accessory humbling process carried on in the flesh itself. Next, remark, that it is not merely power which is gained by this process. The discernment of good and evil, in its more subtle characters, is greatly increased; the judgment and knowledge of flesh is greatly strengthened and deepened. Hence the liberty of the new man with God, confidence in Him, the sense of the careful and gracious interest He takes in us, and intercourse founded on this confidence, are greatly increased. Further, remark, that dealing with self, our own spiritual condition, is the secret of power, not the quantity of divine revelations we have to communicate, valuable as this may he in its place. For power Paul was dealt with in his own soul, its own dangers and state, and then Christ’s power rested on him. Lastly, as to our glorying in our position in Christ; it is all right. " Of such an one will I glory; yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities." When I think of my place in Christ, of the "man in Christ," of such a one we ought to glory. This is no presumption. It cannot be otherwise, whenever we know ourselves in Christ. Do you think I can do anything but glory in being in Christ, and like Christ in glory? Of such a one I will. Let no pretended humility deprive us of this. It is legalism. Of myself, of that of which I have the living consciousness as a man down here, I cannot glory, unless it be in those sufferings for Christ and infirmities of whatever kind they may be, connected with them, which are used to put the flesh down, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I would add to these, one collateral observation. The Lord can unite discipline with positive suffering for Christ, though the two things are quite distinct. When Paul was subjected to contempt in his preaching, it was for Christ’s sake he suffered, yet the form of it was, we have seen, a discipline to prevent his being puffed up. This may be seen doctrinally stated in Hebrews 12:2-11. In verses 2-4, we suffer with Christ, striving against sin, even to martyrdom and death. In verses 5-11, the same process is the discipline of the Lord, that we may be partakers of His holiness. How wise and most gracious of the Lord’s ways to turn our needed discipline into the privilege of suffering for Christ’s sake, so that we can glory in our infirmities! There is chastening which has not this character, being for positive evil. In this, doubtless, we have to thank God, but it is another thing. In fine, before God we have the "man in Christ" ―blessed position―and which is perfection where we want it; and as to our place before men, besides Christ in us as life, the power of Christ (where we practically want it―in weakness and imperfection down here) resting on the man for walk and service before men. The first is the basis of all our walk, but it does not suffice for power. This is had in daily dependence in which we walk, as humbled in ourselves, that Christ may be glorified, and the flesh practically annulled. (Concluded from page 144.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: VOL 03 - A REMARKABLE STATEMENT OF AN OLD WRITER ======================================================================== A Remarkable Statement of an Old Writer The following extract, on Revelation 11:1-19, which gives such a marked and striking picture of the spirit that is working at the present time, is worthy of a place in our pages. It was written over two hundred and fifty years ago, by one whose powers are above question, while those better instructed in the ways of God, could not accept to the full, the interpretation of the Scriptures treated of, celebrated though the writer was. The direct interpretation of the book of Revelation (chaps. 4.-22) is strictly future, although affording, doubtless, certain large features in outline, of the protracted history of the events of the last eighteen centuries or more. Still, when details are examined, the futurist view alone will stand, 1: e., when the true state of the professing church seen in chaps. 2. and 3. is past, the saints are seen in heaven from chap. 4: and onwards, during the short period of judgment which ushers in the millennial kingdom. All that part of the book is strictly future in direct application: "The church of God on earth will be greatly rednced, as we may well imagine, in its apparent numbers in the times of Antichrist, by the open desertion of the powers of the world. The desertion will begin in a professed indifference to any particular form of Christianity, under pretense of universal toleration; which toleration will proceed from no true spirit of Christian charity and forbearance, but from a desire to undermine Christianity by multiplying and encouraging sectaries. The intended toleration will go far beyond a just toleration, even as it regards the different sects of Christianity; for governments will pretend an indifference to all, and will give protection in preference to none. All establishments will be laid aside. From the toleration of the most pestilent heresies, they will proceed to Mohammedanism, Atheism, and at last to a positive persecution of the truths of Christianity. " In these times the temple of God will be reduced to the holy place, viz., to the small number of real Christians who worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, and who regulate their doctrine and worship, and their whole conduct by the word of God alone. " The mere nominal professors will all desert their profession of the truth when the powers of the world forsake them; and this tragical event I take to be typified by the order of St. John to measure the temple and the altar, and to leave the outer court (National Church) to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles I The property of the clergy will be pillaged; the public worship insulted and vilified by the deserters of the faith they once professed, who are not called apostate, because they were never earnest in their profession; there was nothing more than a compliance with fashion and public authority; in principle they were always what they now appear to be-Gentiles. " When this general desertion of the faith takes place, there will commence the sackcloth ministry of the witnesses. There will be nothing of splendor in the external support from government, no honors, no emoluments, no immunities, no authority but such as no earthly power can take away, which they desire from Him who commissioned them to be His witnesses." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: VOL 03 - A WORD ON GOING FORTH AS A LABORER AND DROPPING OTHER WORK ======================================================================== A Word on Going Forth as a Laborer and Dropping Other Work .... I suppose as to the principle that we are clear on one point, namely, that we are bought with a price, and are not our own―servants, blessed be God in this ruined world, of the Lord, by His great grace: and if besides the joy of being forever with Him there is one, it is that of being able to serve Him down here, the little while that we have for so doing, for it is only here that we can suffer with Him. Then the question arises as to what He calls us―for you, dear brother, if God has really called you to the ministry of the word, or if it is only that your practical faith wavers at the difficulties of the path. You must remember that God tests faith; He never fails us, but He makes us feel our entire dependence on Him. I see this in Paul: he was often hungry; he learned to glory in infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon him. But the result was that he was instructed to be in abundance, and to want, to be full and to be hungry―" I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me." Without were conflicts, within were fears-and he gained the knowledge of God as the One who comforts those who are cast down. Then it was worth while being cast down. But he was able to say, not " who causeth us to triumph," but " who leadeth us about in triumph "-having missed the open door at Troas, being in great conflict with regard to Corinth, but able to say, in order to be a sweet savor of Christ wherever he was. The question of his call to the ministry was certain. If grace had not sustained him here, he could have returned like John Mark: woe be to him, as he said, if he preached not, and he did so without his will: being sent assuredly of God, he could not doubt having been sent. The word of the Lord near Damascus and the prophecy at Antioch were too positive. Now neither our mission, nor any part of this work of the Lord, has this distinctness. Our work is not confirmed by accompanying signs. This does not trouble me. It demands more of the heart’s confidence, confidence in Christ, and that is always good. But it strengthens the heart greatly to be assured of it. Then if there are difficulties in the way, they are but difficulties to be overcome. If I have not this assurance in starting, it is a question if I am in my place: in any case God can exercise us here for our good. Not only that, but when God has clearly called some one, either by the ardor of his faith, like Moses, or by any formal calling like Paul, He can put him aside. Moses during forty years kept the sheep of his father-in-law, and Paul had not any active mission, to reduce the fleshly activity which might mix itself in his work with the activity purely of God, and to make him learn his entire dependence. It was Barnabas who put Saul afresh to the work; then came the mission of Antioch. But the heart is in these cases always in the work, but retired with God, in such a manner that God has a larger place in the heart, and our labor is afterward more directly with reference to Him. There then, dear brother, is the question for you: Are you truly called to labor for the Lord? that is to say, to go about in His work, for we all ought to labor for him. When we are, faith may fail; yes, but we are miserable if we abandon it, as Jeremiah said when he did not wish to speak anymore. " But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones." If it is only a fire that crackles in the thorns, it will soon be extinguished. But if you feel that the Lord has entrusted you with His word, has put it into your heart, not only for yourself, but for others, (Galatians 1:15-16), then fear nothing. Faith tested is faith strengthened, it is to have learned your own weakness, but to have learned the faithfulness of God. His tender care even in sending the difficulties, that we may be there with Him. And if you have the assurance that God has entrusted you with His word, do not be troubled if you are set aside for a time. One learns one’s lack of courage, at least, I have learned it, but God takes account of what we are, gives us our thorn, that we may be humbled, and that we may feel that the strength and work are of Him. No doubt we have to judge our want of courage. For my part, it is my greatest test, the want of aggressive courage, and the way in which I shrink back before the coarseness of the world. But there is the look towards God, who has pity for us. Profit then by your present separation from the work, to be much with Him. You will learn much inwardly in your incapacity to go forward, much of Himself, then more distinctly if God has really sent you, which gives great inward power in following out the work. But do not doubt His faithfulness. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: VOL 03 - AT HOME ======================================================================== At Home THE lie of the serpent estranged man from God, and made him at home in the world. The work of the serpent’s bruiser (Christ) makes the believer at home in the presence of God, but a stranger in the world. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: VOL 03 - BABYLON ======================================================================== Babylon On her forehead her name was written. A drunken world does not see it; but a saint ought not to mistake it. We should judge from the outside of it; and if we are in our place, in the Spirit in the wilderness, we shall not mistake. But if we tamper with it, we have lost the sense of it: we have drunk some of the wine, if we do not discern it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: VOL 03 - BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST IN ITS APPLICATION TO THE WORLD'S FAIR* ======================================================================== Belshazzar’s Feast in Its Application to the World’s Fair* (Read 5th Chapter of Daniel.) (* This paper was written some years ago in connection with " The Great Exhibition." The principles referred to, and the truth brought out are, however, applicable to all similar occasions. Therefore the title, "The World’s Fair," is substituted for " The Great Exhibition.") While Jeremiah was left at Jerusalem to witness the course of moral corruption there, and to warn of coming judgments, and while Ezekiel was among the remnant in the place of discipline or of righteousness on the river Chebar, Daniel is set among the Gentiles, even at Babylon, to learn the history and the ways of the Gentile, or the world. We may see this in his first six chapters, which constitute the first part of the book. In chapter 1: we see the Gentile, or the world, set up. Then in chapter 2. we get the same system, the world, in its political career onward to the kingdom, figured in the great image, seen in all its parts, from its head of gold to its toes of clay-iron; and judged in the appointed hour, by the Stone which becomes a Mountain, to occupy the scene of power all the world over with an untransferable kingdom. Then in the four following chapters, the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius give us the moral course of the world. In Nebuchadnezzar we get a persecuting power, connected with human religion or idolatry. The king sets up an image and demands the worship of it on pain of the fiery furnace. The righteous refuse and suffer. In Belshazzar we get the easy, worldly, self-indulgent thing, with contempt of religion. The king makes a feast, worshipping all that which ministered to his pleasures. The righteous are utter strangers to it all. In Darius we get a persecuting power again, but it is in connection with self-exaltation. The king makes an interdict, that none are to be treated as God but himself for so many days on pain of the lion’s den. The righteous again refuse and suffer. These are plain and sure distinctions in the progress of Gentile iniquity. And it may strike us, I judge, very clearly, that we are at present rather in the day of Belshazzar. Persecution and idol-service gave character to the preceding day, and persecution and deification of man to the day which followed: but all was easy indifference, with thorough satisfaction in the present things of the world, in the day of Belshazzar. Refusal and consequent suffering form the path or history of the righteous in the times of the idolatrous, persecuting Nebuchadnezzar, and of the self-exalting, persecuting Darius; but in the times of Belshazzar, perfect and thorough separation is the place of the saints of God. There is a voice for us in all this. Daniel is not seen at the feast. And there is one, though not in his strength yet much in his spirit, who is absent also―the queen, the king’s mother. The king is ignorant of the man of God who was then in his dominions. He is also unmindful of the doings of God which had been in the same dominions in the days of his father. But the queen has recollections and knowledge of these things, and she is a stranger to his feast. Is not the question then with us to be this: Who is the separated one now? Who is going to the king’s feast, or who, in the light of the Lord, is separated from it? The present is an easy, self-indulgent, worldly moment. The gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of wood and of iron, are praised. All the capabilities in the world to make a feast are produced, and displayed, and gloried in. Social accommodation and social delights are the great object. Man’s works, the fruit of his skill and the resources of his country, adorn and furnish the scene, and are the host of the feast, that which gathers and entertains. Man is providing the joy of this awful hour in the world’s history―awful indeed, not in the judgments or sorrows which are upon it, hut in the moral principles which are quickening it. The captivity of Zion was heedlessly forgotten by Belshazzar, and the vessels of God’s temple were profaned. The operations of His hands were not considered, but the wine and the tabret were in his feast. So now; the rejection of Christ is by common consent forgotten, that man may meet his fellow, greet him with a common joy and with a common welcome, because they are all of one earth, of the same world, of kindred flesh and blood; and all God’s claims on His elect and testimony against the world are thrown together as what for a season must be passed by, till the feast-day is kept. Where then, again I ask, is the separated one? Where is Daniel? Where is the king’s mother? The feast does not attract either of them, though they may be in different measures of strength. Daniel knew the character of it before the judgment was pronounced. He does not wait for the fingers of the man’s hand to put him into his place in relation to it. He is not moved by the mysterious writing on the wall. Sudden destruction, as a thief in the night, does not come upon him. He and his companion, though " a weaker vessel," are, in the spirit of their minds, in the place from hence these fingers were sent―they were " children of light and children of the day." The judgment upon the feast had no terror for them, for they were not at the feast. They had judged it already. Their separation was not sleep. " They that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night." (1 Thessalonians 5:7.) But they were no more indifferent to it than taking their pleasure at it. Their separation therefore, as I said, was not sleep. In a divine sense they watched and were sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:6.) In the separated place Daniel knew the judgment of God about it all, long before the writing on the wall announced it to the world. All this is full of meaning for us. I am not going to say that the form of evil which Belshazzar’s day presents is the worst. Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol before that day, and Darius set up himself after it. The fiery furnace was heated for the saints in the former reign, and the lion’s den was open for them in the latter. The day of Belshazzar witnessed nothing of this. The abomination in the plain of Dura did not demand worship then, neither did the royal statute forbid worship toward Jerusalem then. But still there is something in Belshazzar himself, if not in his day, which especially provoked the Spirit of the Lord. Daniel can feel for Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is brought to a right repentant mind, and the judgment of God is reversed. Daniel, too, can feel for Darius, and Darius is seen in humbled gracious meltings of soul, and we can all pity him-pity him when we see him unwittingly involved in, results which a moment’s vanity and easiness of nature had led to. But from us Belshazzar gets no kindly movement of heart, from the Spirit of God in Daniel nothing but stern rebuke, and from the hand of God nothing but swift destruction, the fingers on the wall announcing it, and the sword of the Median executing it. "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain." He was the easy man of the world. He despised all religious fear. What he worshipped was his pleasures, the gods of silver, of brass, and of gold, the vessels which could fill out his entertainments and make provision for his lusts. He did not summon the world to either his idol or himself, but to his board and to his holyday. Nebuchadnezzar makes an image, Darius a royal decree, Belshazzar a feast. But Jerusalem and her sorrows are forgotten, the temple and its furniture despised. The wonders which the God of Jerusalem and of the temple had freshly wrought in the land were all a dream or a fiction with him, and the very spoils of His house he can use in making merry with his friends. This was easy worldliness―the heartless way man who can forget God’s wonders, and the rejection and humiliation of Christ. And all this is terrible. The harp, and the pipe, and the tabret are in such feasts; but the operations of God’s hands are forgotten. Till now the vessels of God’s house has been held in some fear and honor. But now they are profaned and made to serve the king’s lusts. God had ordained them to witness the separation of His priestly nation, and to His own worship in the midst of His people; but the king makes them the instruments of his sport. And what, I ask, is the effort to deck out the world, to enjoy it, and to boast of it, while Jesus is rejected by its citizens? Is it not a thing in kindred spirit with this? The rejection of Christ is forgotten; yea, despised―for that is gloried in and displayed which continues the word, " We will not have this man to reign over us." Is not this somewhat of taking of the choice vessels of God’s house, in the very day of their captivity, to make merry with them? The present moment may thus surely remind us of Belshazzar’s feast. Gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood are praised; the resources and capabilities of the world are displayed, thoughtless of its rejection of Christ. And are any of the captivity at the king’s feast? Israel was captive together with the vessels of the temple. Would any of them be so thoughtless as to make merry with the king who was despising the spoils of that house? Would any of the servants of the rejected nobleman take part with the citizens in setting forth the wonders of their blood-stained land? (See Luke 19:1-48) The mind turns with these thoughts to the present moment. It cannot refuse to give itself, in some sort or in some measure, to the subject of " The World’s Fair." It would not be fit that it should be indifferent to it-for it is no common sign of the time and ought to be morally judged. It will be pleaded for. No doubt of it. It will be said, that it is designed to encourage brotherhood among the nations, and to promote the great business of social comfort and happiness as wide as the human family. But, I ask, are these God’s objects? God has scattered the nations, and never proposes to gather them till He gathers them to Shiloh. God would have us strangers here, " content with such things as we have," without making it our business to increase or improve them. God would have us testify against the world in its present condition, and therefore neither flatter it, nor reconcile it to itself, nor glory in its capabilities. The World’s Fair is therefore in full collision with the mind of God. Christ exposes the world; the World’s Fair displays it. Christ would alarm it, and call it to a sense of judgment; the World’s Fair makes it on better terms with itself than ever. It is indeed a mighty advance in all the apostate reprobate principles of man. Efforts of a like kind we may be familiar with; but they are commonplace in comparison with this. As prophets speak, touching advance in the ways of evil, this is indeed "adding drunkenness to thirst." I regard all admiration of it as a step in the way to " wonder after the beast." That will be but a further expression of the same mind; and how serious, if evangelical religion be sending its contributions to it, or becoming one of the Exhibitors at it Deep must be the infatuation. To tell the world one day what it is i n God’s esteem, and the next day to become one of the wonderers after its resources and capacities! Admiration like this savors of worship. Like the old prophet at Bethel, when" a saint is in a place or a position unwarranted by the call of God, the enemy will rind easy occasion to use him. Still I own, when I think of it, it is to me wonderful that a Christian should find satisfaction in this thing. That it is an awful advance in the development of those evil principles which are to mark the day of Christendom’s ripened iniquity, I have not the least doubt. The Lord of old scattered the nations. (See Genesis 11:1-32) This was judgment on a bold attempt of theirs when they were of one speech and one language, to make themselves independent of God. And has He reversed that judgment? There is indeed an appointed time when it shall be reversed. Jerusalem shall be a center, and Shiloh a gathering object. The nations will flock to Zion, there to see the King in His beauty. And none of them there, we may say, shall appear before the Lord empty. The tributes of all the lands shall beautify the place of God’s sanctuary. The fruits of Midian and of Ephah shall be there,―gold and incense from Sheba, the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nabaioth, the glory of Lebanon, the forces of all the Gentiles. All shall flock there, like doves to their windows, and kings shall minister there. Gold too shall be for brass, silver for iron, brass for wood, and iron for atones. All shall be for glory and beauty in the earth then. But this is still future. This is for " the world to come," after the Redeemer has come out of Zion, and turned away ungodliness from Jacob. (See Isaiah 59:1-21; Isaiah 60:1-22. and Romans 11:1-36) The reversing of the judgment at Babel is left for the kingdom of God at Jerusalem. He that scattered must gather. He is Lord of the nations. "The powers that be are ordained of God." It is His pleasure that they should be scattered nations still; for one universal monarchy is appointed of God for Jesus only-as it is written, "every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." " His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." The name of Jesus was, indeed, proposed as a gathering object in the day of Pentecost, Tongues were then cloven as they had been at Babel. But it was to re-unite what had been already severed. But this proposal, like every other on God’s part to man, was disappointed. The hard unbelieving heart did this. And what is man now proposing? He who refused God’s proposal to gather to Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, is proposing to gather to himself. He will exalt himself as at Babel. He will be independent of God. He will be like the Most High. The beast will issue his decree on pain of death, his mark will be received on the forehead, and all the world will wonder after him. (Revelation 13:1-18) This is in the prospect of the world’s history. He who will not let Christ be exalted will surely seek to exalt himself. And such a one is man. Isaiah, anticipating in the Spirit the last days; warns the people of God against saying a "confederacy," in common with the world around them, (Chapter 8) And I ask myself and others, do we in deed and in faith receive these notices from the prophets? Do we judge that man will thus exalt himself and confederate-thus gather round himself? And if we treat these warnings of the character of the last days as divine, can we doubt from all we see and hear, that man has already begun to practice his hand in kindred attempts, in efforts which shall issue in all this? The facilities and the speed in linking the nations one with another is now well known. It is used and gloried in. And what is this " Great World’s Fair," but another trial of his skill in forwarding the main leading purpose of man’s heart? No doubt it suits the spirit which is moving all this, to have it under the sanction of religion. When he can use it for his own ends, nothing suits the devil better. He would fain have had Christ exalt Himself under the sanction of Psalms 91:1-16 And again and again, he would have acknowledged Christ, had He allowed it-as the spirit of divination would have witnessed to Christ’s servant, had he received it. (Acts 16:1-40) But this could not be. The beast, however, will have his false prophet. He will use religion for his own ends. But divine religion takes us only into God’s ends. And it teaches us this (with the authority of the real intrinsic holiness of such a principle); we can have no fellowship with that against which we are called to testify. (Ephesians 5:11.) Nor can we say that the judgment we form on this matter is a small or indifferent thing. It is not so. The subject is well fitted to exercise the judgment of a saint of God. It is eminently so, I believe. His mind generally will be much affected by his sense of this thing and his decision respecting it. The mind can become dull. The eye gets dim. betimes. And if such a process as that be going on, the next attempt of the enemy finds" us less prepared. And I ask, Is not all that dangerous, when delusions are multiplying as they are and as they will? We are counseled to buy eye-salve of Christ, that we may see. That is something beyond or beside faith and confession of the gospel. Laodicea had the common faith, and in a sense boasted of it, but Laodicea wanted eye-salve. And sure I am that let this great shop of the world’s ware expose what it may, that eye-salve is the very thing which will not, cannot be had there. It is the article which would detect the whole character of the place, and it could not therefore be had there. It is a palace, Man is not enthroned there as God, it is true.-Things among the children of men are not quite ripe for that yet: It is not a temple where man sits, showing himself as God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-17) But man’s works are displayed there. Man’s art is enthroned there, and man expects to be admired and wondered at there, and thousands enter it (as another as observed) in the spirit of doing homage to man. It is a mirror in which the -world is reflected in a thousand attractive forms, and the unworldly, humbled, earth-rejected Jesus is forgotten. Jesus may be named there, it is true, but an unworldly Jesus is practically forgotten there. It is indeed as I surely judge, solemnly, awfully significant. It is full of the spirit of the last days. This palace for man’s productions to be gazed at, is but a stage before the temple for man himself to sit in-and admiration of it is getting a generation ready, morally ready, to " wonder after the beast." One is amazed that any Christian can find the least satisfaction in it. This World’s Fair,―for it calls itself by that significant name ― in its way shows all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. It does not hide this. It professes to do this. Like John Bunyan’s Vanity Fair, there is the Italian row, and the German row, and the English row. It has human skill and resources in all variety, and from all lands. It presents the kingdoms of the world, and " the glory of them." And who, I ask, was it that did this before? The Spirit led the Son of God into " the wilderness," a place of stranger-ship and pilgrimage―but the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. The world, according to the Scriptures of God, is a lost and a judged thing. It is incapable of recovery. The word of God does not, in a single passage of it, warrant the thought that it can be advanced or cultivated for God. He has judged it-though in grace the judgment tarries, and the long-suffering of God is salvation. But the world is a system past all hope of recovery, till the judgment be executed. But confederacy is an attempt to fix the world in its present condition, to settle it, though it be in departure from God and in enmity against Christ. This was the thought at Babel of old. Separation of His own out of the world is God’s way now. And this separation is the deepest and most thorough judgment that could be passed upon the world. This is a more complete judgment of it than by the waters of the flood, or by the plagues of Egypt, or by the sword of Joshua. The withdrawal or separation of all that God owns bespeaks final thoughts about the world, and not merely a purifying of it from present corruptions, as by the waters of Noah, in order to put it on a fresh trial. The trial of it is over, the judgment of it is pronounced, and the delay is " salvation." (2 Peter 3:15.) The attitude of the Church, that is, separation from the world, and heavenly calling, tells us of the full moral condemnation of the course of things here. And thus the Church judges the world. Her position and calling do so. The " servants " of the departed " nobleman " very well know that the country of the " citizens " has very great resources, and very great capabilities; and they know that in due season such will be both used and displayed. But they cannot allow this thought while that country is as it is now―stained with the blood of their rejected Master, The cry, " we will not have this man to reign over us," is ever in their ears. And with that cry from the land, can they, in company with the " citizens " who raised it and still keep it up (for the character of the world, as we have said from scripture, is unalterably fixed), be occupied in investigating and producing the treasures of their country and the skill of its people, and glory in the thought of the common advancement? They cannot, when alive to the character of the place where they are, and awake as they should ever be, to the cry which followed the rejected Jesus as He left it-they cannot. The cup of the Lord’s 83 indignation is to go round the nations, and they must drink it. An awful reverse this will be from Belshazzar passing the wine among his courtiers and concubines in the cups of the Lord’s house. And solemn it is in those nations feasting and praising the gods of gold, and of silver, of iron, of brass, and of wood, while such a handwriting as that is on the wall against them. If not on the walls of the palace, it is in the books of the prophets. (Psalms 75:1-10; Jeremiah 25:1-38) Incorruption, I may say, cannot inherit corruption. The spotless Jesus cannot hold an unpurged dominion. The woman of Revelation 17:1-18 glorifies herself, and lives deliciously on the earth during that very time in which the judgment of God is awaiting it; but the bride of Revelation 21:1-27 does not become manifested in the earth till it has been cleansed and is ready, not for the judgment of the Lord, but for the presence of the glory. There is infinite moral distance there. The world must be judged ere it can be adopted of God. The earth must be purified before it can be furnished and adorned for Him. This has been again and again transacted in the progress of the divine government. Noah, God’s saint and representative, took the earth to rule and to enjoy it, but it had previously passed through the purifying of the flood. Israel, God’s people and witnesses, took the land of Canaan to possess and enjoy it, but it had been, judged by the sword of Joshua. And according to these types the earth is to be cleansed; out of the kingdom is to be taken all that offends and does iniquity ere Jesus will take the power. Ornament and furniture well becomes it, for it is the Lord’s footstool. Eden had not only its plants and trees, and fruits, and flowers; but its gold, its bdellium, and its onyx stones. Solomon, in typical days of glory, trafficked in all desirable riches. And the millenial Jerusalem will receive all the treasures of the provinces. (Isaiah 60:1-22) But the present age is not millenial; the earth is not yet an extended Eden. Corruption is not judged; the things that offend and do iniquity are not taken away, nor is there any divine commission to that end. The field of tares is not to be cleansed now ―it waits for the angels and the time of harvest. The saint submits to the " powers that be," knowing that "God" will stand in the congregation of them for judgment in due season. (Compare Romans 13:1. with Psalms 82:1.) It is despite of the holiness of God, we may therefore say, to be presenting this evil world in its ornaments and furniture, in its resources and capabilities, as this World’s Pair is doing. And it is also despite of the wrongs and sorrows of Christ. The citizens who have cast outside their city and country the blessed Son of God, are exhibiting what their country can produce, and what their hands can skilfully weave and fashion. I ask, could a servant of such a rejected Master aid and encourage such things? Could he be a servant a moment beyond the time that he thus practically forgot his Lord’s rejection here? He could not. He might, indeed, be a useful member of society,’ and serve his generation in their generation well; but a servant of Christ (properly speaking) he could not be if once he forgot the world’s rejection of Christ; and acceptance of the invitation of the citizens (see Luke 19:1-48) to come and rejoice with them in the resources of their country and the skill of their people, would at once be such forgetfulness. The sorrow and the humbling of a saint is that he remembers the rejection of his Master so coldly and acts on that great fact so poorly. But to have it estranged from the soul so as to consent to take part with the citizens from one end of the world to the other, in a great confederated effort to display the world as a wealthy and desirable place-to do this in full and hearty fellowship with all, on the ground of the common humanity, is confounding light and darkness, Christ and Belial. The. language of the whole thing is this―we will forget, at least for a season, the claims and the sorrows of Jesus, and have a holiday with the world that has rejected Him. Has so little " eye-salve " been bought of Christ as to leave the saints in such a blinded condition of soul as this? "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." When Daniel and his companions entered the place of the Gentiles, they carried one purpose of heart with them, that they would not defile themselves with the king’s meat. (Daniel 1:8.) He knew not what this might cost him, but this was his purpose. He had bought this eye-salve of Christ, ere he stood among the uncircumcised. And in the strength of the Lord, he and his dear companions stood. The fiery furnace and the lion’s den witness the victory of men strengthened by Christ. " Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." And so at Belshazzar’s feast. Daniel entered it as a conqueror, as afterward he entered the lion’s den. He had no affinity with the feast-not a bit. He was, in the day of it, as we have seen, a separated man. But he was called to it, and he entered the banqueting-hall as a conqueror. The king who was there promised to make him " the third ruler in the kingdom." " Let thy gifts be to thyself, and thy rewards to another," said the servant of Christ. He was as much a conqueror in the day of the feast, as he was in the day of the lion’s den. Noble attitude of a saint of God! Could such a man have accepted an invitation to the feast? Morally impossible. And the " eye-salve " which Christ had supplied him with, disclosed its further virtues, as he stood in that palace of the world’s enjoyments. There was nothing in the language of the writing on the wall beyond the astrologers of Babylon more than beyond Daniel. Not so much, I might say. At least the words were as familiar to a Chaldean as to a Hebrew. But the wise men of Babylon, the scribes of Belshazzar’s court and kingdom were not equal to interpret them. They were morally incapacitated. A single eye to Christ alone can do so to this day-the " eye-salve." If we test a thing by any test but Christ, we shall misinterpret it. It will appear fair, and good, and desirable, if we try it by its relationship to the welfare of society, or to the advancement of man and the world; but if we look at it in the light of a rejected Jesus, its bloom will be found to be corruption. Standing in the festive hall, Daniel traces the whole scene in Babylon at that hour in relation to God. He rehearses before Belshazzar God’s way with Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar’s way with God, and then Belshazzar’s own hardness and infidel pride in defiance of Him who had wrought the wonders. This was Daniel’s key to the writing― of course, I know, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.. But still this was the prophet’s moral apprehension of the king’s feast. He judged it in reference to God-and what could the end be, but awful and sudden destruction? The writing must speak of judgment, though the lords and the captains, the wives and the concubines, sport themselves in the king’s hall. "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." It is blessed so to do, but it is hard. We judge of things in reference to ourselves, and not in reference to Christ. We think rather of the world’s improvement than of His rejection. We talk of human capabilities rather than of human and incurable apostasy. We want the eye-salve, without which we cannot see―we cannot discover the feast, or read the writing on the wall. The disciples wanted it on the Mount of Olives, as they looked on the Temple. They saw the building, but not with the eye of Christ, not as anointed with the eye-salve. He had seen it, and all that, surrounded it, with the eye of God; and costly as it was, and beautiful beyond comparison, He had written the judgment of it; yea, on the very wall He had written the judgment of " that beautiful house." " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,―behold your house is left unto you desolate." This was writing with the same divine authority which had sentenced Belshazzar and his feast. But the disciples still eyed the beauty of the stones, and Jesus, in patient grace, but because of their demand, and unanointed eye, had to re-write the doom of that place: " Verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Sad to tell of it then, sad to see it now, sad to know, in our own worldly hearts, the secret of all this darkness. We may be sorry to find it thus among disciples, though prepared to get it plentifully among the children of this world. The kings of the earth, the merchants, and the marines bewail the fall of Babylon, and we wonder not. They judged Babylon in reference to themselves―they had lived deliciously with her. How could they have eye-salve to know her, and to see her with the mind of heaven? God " remembered her iniquities," but they remembered her as one " wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of heipeostliness." They therefore bewail, when heaven rejoices. The lords at the feast tremble, when heaven traces its doom. But sad it is that saints should be admiring the " costliness" which the mind of heaven has already judged. What words in our ears, beloved, are all these―what writings under our eyes! O for the anointing which Christ has for His saints! 0 for power in our souls to judge the king’s feast, the Gentiles’ greatness, the world’s advancement, the jubilee of Babylon, in the light of the rejection of the Son of God, in the hearing of that cry, " We will not have this man to reign over us." Then let us ask ourselves, if we have a pulse of affection or allegiance to Jesus, can we glory in this present moment with all its costliness and pleasures. "THE END OF ALL THINGS IS AT HAND: BE YE THEREFORE SOBER, AND WATCH UNTO PRAYER." ―1 Peter 4:7. "BLESSED ARE THOSE SERVANTS, WHOM THE LORD WHEN HE COMETH SHALL FIND WATCHING." ―Luke 12:37. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: VOL 03 - BURNING AND EATING THE SACRIFICES ======================================================================== Burning and Eating the Sacrifices Let Jesus be praised, Praise Him for what He’s done, And praise Him too for what He is, He in Himself alone. Let Jesus Christ be praised, O praise His faithful love, God only knows the worth of Him, Whose constant grace we prove. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: VOL 03 - CHRISTIAN CHARACTER ======================================================================== Christian Character The courage, patience, firmness, and zeal of a Christian, are a perfectly distinct order of character from the courage, firmness, patience, and zeal of a natural man―self confidence, self glory, self preservation, self exaltation, are the essential principles of one confidence in God, self renunciation, subjection to God, glory to God, abasement of self, being essential principles of the other. So that the essential principles that formed the character of Paul as a natural man, were destroyed through the cross, in order that his soul should imbibe the life of Christ, which was the principle that formed his character as a christian, " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Though Christ was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which he suffered. In any instance that we give up our own will, without sacrificing conscience, we are gainers. If but my dog exercises my patience and makes me yield my will, he is a blessing to me. Christ never willed anything but what was good and holy; yet how often was His will thwarted, how often hindered in designs of good. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: VOL 03 - CHRISTIAN LIFE AND JESUS THE PATTERN OF IT ======================================================================== Christian Life and Jesus the Pattern of It Christian life, is a common life of service in contact with human passions, faults, weaknesses,-in a word, in contact with flesh, but in order to act in the midst of it, to INTRODUCE GOD there. And this is what Christ was. We must be really in communion with Him, by partaking thus of that nature which nothing can injure, and which shines with its own perfection in the midst of all, above everything we meet with. Jesus was the most isolated of men, and at the same time the most accessible. The most isolated, because He was living in absolute communion with His Father, and there was neither echo nor sympathy with the perfect love which was found there; the most accessible, because He was that love for others. And in speaking of that ineffable work which opened a way to that love, through all men’s sin, He says, " I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! " That baptism of bitterness and death, which, by making an end of sin―even in its last stronghold, and its last claims of ruin, by the righteousness of God against us―left that love free to act in its infinite purposes of grace. For love is infinitely inventive for the blessedness of that which is loved, and the love of God purposes that which goes infinitely beyond all our thoughts. It is the spring of the thoughts of God, who is infinite. And again, towards the end of His career, when the unbelief of His own led Him to say, " How long shall I be with you, and suffer you? " (for not even in His own was there faith,―the capacity necessary for using the resources of grace and power which were in Him, -for that is what He expects from us in this poor world) then, without a moment’s interval, He adds, " Bring thy son hither." The consciousness of standing alone in His love, so that others did not even understand how they could and ought to avail themselves of it, does not for a moment hinder His energy and activity; the same phrase which contains the words, " How long? " adds this also, " Bring thy son hither." And what was the life of that Jesus? " A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief! " A life of activity in obscurity, but which caused the love of God to penetrate into the most remote corners of society, even where there was the most need; in the midst of persons who were repelled by the pride of man, that it might maintain its ground, but which the love of God sought after. Because He had no need to make himself a character and to, keep it, He was always the same; and the more apparently He committed Himself, the more He displayed Himself in a perfection that never belied itself. The love of God had no need of protecting itself, as human society must, from that which might lay it too bare. He was always the same. The toiling life of Jesus was passed in seeking souls in all circumstances, and went through that which could put it to the test. But we see therein, on one hand, a divine reality which never failed, and from time to time―in face of self-righteousness, pride, and tyrannical boldness, and the contradiction of sinners, or in favor of some poor broken-down souls, or to justify the ways of God in their favor―a divine ground-work, the most exquisite and touching thoughts, a depth of truth which betrayed its perfection by its simplicity! All this manifesting a soul whose food was in the most intimate communion with infinite love and perfect holiness,-a soul which could say, " We speak that which we do know, and testify that we have seen; " which weighed evil by the perfection of good which was in Him; and found, in the awful discoveries of evil―if we can speak of discoveries, where everything was laid bare-which the holiness of his soul made, the opportunities of the manifestation of infinite love. It was the love of a holy Being, rather, which made this discovery; a love which took the form of that grace which, by its own humiliation, placed, itself within the reach of all the wants of the heart, and at the same time, in presence of the pride of man, showed itself at the height of the dignity and majesty of God. How beautiful to see this divine Person, these divine qualities piercing through the humiliation, place Himself within the reach of those whom the world despised, and find―" being wearied with His journey," and becoming a debtor for a cup of cold water to a woman who hardly dared show herself with others―meat to eat, of which neither His disciples nor the world knew anything; and that in the deliverance of a poor heart, for which he had set free the spirit of life and joy, and had restored it,―or rather had given to a heart crushed under the weight of a bad conscience, and by the contempt of her fellow-creatures. What a perspective of blessing for poor sinners this opened to His heart! For he did not despise such consolation in the midst of a world which rejected Him from its bosom. Love comforts itself thus. The heart that loves sinners needs such consolation in such a world. And where is it to be found? In obscurity; in the labors of a life which had to do with the ordinary need of souls, but which thus ripens in the truth; a life, which did not shelter itself from the misery of the world to walk " in a vain show," but introduced there the love of God! Precious grace! He was what others could write about. (Matthew 24:24; Luke 24:44; John 1:45; etc.) How many hidden wants, even in the most degraded souls, would be confessed, and would manifest themselves, if such love and such goodness, which could win their, confidence, were presented to them! But that it may be so, we must be content to find ourselves in the midst of the degradation, sheltered from it ONLY by that which is inward. Now, such was the life of the Lord. How many souls drown their thoughts in pleasure to stifle the moral sorrows which torment them! Divine love not only meets the wants, but brings them to express themselves. How delicious to see a soul open itself, and at the same time to see spiritual life entering it! One does not exactly seek for such degradation; but one finds the world, knowing that is the truth as to what is found there; and its outward forms do not redeem the soul. But this is a life of pain, patience, and blessedness, which has no equal. Christ could say, " That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." No doubt there is a difference of gifts; but even if God, in His grace, opens this way to us, how slow we are to walk in the steps of Him who shows us! But take courage, His grace is there, on the road He has opened for us. We find it day by day as we go onward. And what grace it is, when all the principles which have been formed in the heart through faith, come to blow fully in heaven and show themselves in all the fullness of their results according to the heart of God. We must wait,―walking BY FAITH. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: VOL 03 - EVIL THOUGHTS, UNBIDDEN AND HATED ======================================================================== Evil Thoughts, Unbidden and Hated (Extract from a Letter.) Dear-, I have your letter, and I am sure that the enemy is very busy, as well as the evil heart within. What you need is thorough deliverance from yourself, that is, the flesh. You speak of evil thoughts, unbidden and hated, springing up in the heart even when you seek to be occupied with the Lord, this too when really thinking of Him. Then you stop to confess them, and the occupation for a moment in confession only provokes another evil thought. And so it is as you say, an unending, all-day work. My feeling is that you have never yet enjoyed full deliverance from self and flesh. You are what scripture calls still " in the flesh," though a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe if your soul were free you would find the simple yet profound truth of " reckoning yourself dead" (Romans 6:2), would so act that the thought of turning aside to confess what would spring up unsought for in your soul, would be found to be really and only allowing the flesh a triumph, in leading you to be occupied with it. When there is no will, such thoughts will be left, turned aside from, and treated as " not I." Of course when the soul is not free I could not say you could do so at all, but were freedom enjoyed you would not be the sufferer from such things. What I. would simply say to you is, when evil thoughts are present to your soul, unsought for and hated, do not stop or cease from your measure of occupation with the Lord, to confess them. If will enters they must be confessed, but if not, pass them by as you would avoid an evil person who is not yourself, and who you know is incorrigible, and with whom contact is only misery and defilement. " Avoid such, pass not by them," but leave them there. To own them at all, is but to give the flesh the place it seeks―a recognition in some way or another. This, even when it is only to abhor its workings, will be a satisfaction to the flesh. Oh that you had grace to leave " the flesh," unrecognized and disowned, and to pass on conscious that it is always there and will be in you to the end. How blessed that we can by grace disown and refuse to hear its suggestions when it works, knowing through mercy that it is no more "I." Your case is one that has been and is common to most of the Lord’s people, if not all. I refer to un solicited, bated and wandering thoughts. You should simply go on and take" no notice of them whatever, as by doing so you only give the flesh the place it seeks. Go on as not hearing the suggestions―be as it were deaf to them. Confess to God if you find will at work, but not so as to be occupied with the analysis of the evil: rather look up to Him, the sense of weakness and impotency filling your heart, and in the attitude of dependence of soul, pass on with your eye resting on Him, out of whom strength comes whenever there is conscious weakness. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: VOL 03 - FRAGMENT ======================================================================== Fragment " And Christ’s love rose beyond and above every littleness and stupidity and failure of His disciples. Do you seek to love each other as He did, in such a way that it will rise above every pettiness, every bitterness every hindrance, ’As Christ loved you?’ Divine love is never thrown back and never changed by the unworthiness of its object.; it is superior to everything. Like a stream whose banks may for some distance be smooth; but when they become crooked and rocky, the same stream runs on and on, unchanged in its course and in its quality; such is His love. ’A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.’" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: VOL 03 - FRAGMENT ======================================================================== Fragment " Search The Scriptures.... they are they which testify of ME." "All Scripture is given by inspiration of GOD." "The Scriptures" have a living source, and living power has pervaded their composition: hence their infiniteness of bearing, and the impossibility of separating any one part from its connection with the whole, because One GOD is the living center from which all flows; One CHRIST, the living center round which all ils truth circles, and to which it refers, though in various glory; and One SPIRIT, the divine sap which carries its power from its source in GOD to the minutest branches of the all-united truth, testifying of the glory, the grace, and the truth of Him whom GOD sets forth as the object and center and head of all that is in connection with Himself, of HIM who is, withal, God over all, blessed for evermore! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: VOL 03 - FRAGMENT ======================================================================== Fragment "ALL THINGS ARE OURS."―Every possible glory indeed is Ours. The blessedness that is in God Himself, as far as it can be communicated, for we dwell in God and God in us. Relative blessedness, for we tue children. Associated blessedness, in union with the blessed One, for we are the Bride. Official nearness and glory, for we are kings and priests. Human blessedness, for we shall be perfect men, after the image of the Second Adam. Corporate blessedness, for we shall have joy together. Individual, for we shall have a name given which no one knows but he that receives it; and we shall have the fullness of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, unhindered by these poor bodies; yea, clothed upon by a vessel suited to the power of the divine inhabitant, so as to be able in full largeness of heart to enjoy all this. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: VOL 03 - FRAGMENT ======================================================================== Fragment If we have Christ, we have all―without Christ we have nothing. You can be happy without money, without liberty, without parents, without friends, if Christ is yours. If you have not Christ, neither money, nor liberty, nor parents, nor friends; can make you lastingly happy. Christ, with a chain, is liberty; liberty, without Christ, is a chain. Christ, without anything, is riches; all things without Christ, is poverty indeed. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: VOL 03 - FRAGMENTS ======================================================================== Fragments The Christian’s rule of life is to be like Christ―the only rule he has, and we find the details of it in Scripture. We have to seek such power of Christ over the affections, that we ate longing and striving to be like Him; and there is joy in that kind of activity―the heart growing naturally like Him in real spiritual diligence-occupied with Him. Not satisfied with merely avoiding evil, you must be occupied with it to avoid it, but when the heart is full of Christ, evil looks like evil-you see it in its true character; if not it looks like a bauble. If you only have faith to walk in the path of God, you will find He has a plan and counsel through it all. If our hearts have courage to do God’s will, all will turn out for blessing, we do not know how, but the secret thing is, to be going on in faith, that is what one has to get hold of. If I am walking in a straight path, the power of God is pushing me on; but if I am walking in a cross path, the power of God tumbles me over-it finds out that I am not going straight. It is a great thing to be in the path of God’s will, for I have all the power of God at my disposal. If you walk in the path of God’s will, absolutely God makes everything work together for your good. You cannot get a thing that is out of the power of God, though it may be He chastens us if crossing His path. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: VOL 03 - FRAGMENTS ======================================================================== Fragments "The cross and the crown go together: and more than this, the cross and communion go together. The cross touches my natural will, and therefore it breaks down and takes away that which hinders communion. It was when Peter rejected the thought of the cross that Jesus said, " Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me:" it is with a rejected Savior we have to walk. The whole system of the world is a stumbling-block to turn the heart from God―dress, vain show, flattery, even the commonest things which tend to elevate nature. All that puts us into the rich man’s place is a stumbling-block. Heaven is open to a rejected Christ. Remember this. God’s heart is set upon carrying His saints along this road to glory; He would have us walk by faith and not by sight. Whatever tends in me to exalt the world that rejected Christ is a stumbling-block to others; in short, anything that weakens the perception of the excellency of Christ in the weakest saint." " It is He who has not only given free access to Himself by the blood and by the presence of Christ in heaven for us, but who is continually occupied with all the details of your life; whose hand is in all your trials, who thinks unceasingly about you in order to make you partakers bf His holiness." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: VOL 03 - GOD IS GOD ======================================================================== God Is God Yes, be the world ever so godless-GOD is GOD still; Be the professing church ever so ungodly, GOD is GOD still; Be the people of GOD ever so little godly, still GOD is GOD. This mere truism, then, that " GOD is GOD," Is a very practical truth for us where we are. And it has a whole volume of truth in it, Not only as to man’s walk in the wilderness, But as being at the very root, and forming the very core, Of the Gospel itself. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: VOL 03 - GOD PROMISING TO ANSWER PRAYER ======================================================================== God Promising to Answer Prayer I do not think that the promises refer to prayers offered up one for another only, though this is a. large part of the cases put forward in Scripture, "pray one for another," "for me also," "laboring earnestly for you in prayers," and many others; but the prayer of faith is not confined to this. There are prayers for opening the door for the gospel and for all men. If it be not the prayer of positive faith, we are told in all things to present our requests to God, but then the answer is, or may be only, that " God’s peace which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." For the prayer of faith, or the promise to it, there are certain limits as to the certainty of answer, such as "in My name," "according to His will," " if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will," "if two of you agree "; besides what stops prayer, as " a sin unto death." But then I see no limits put to the expectation of faith if God gives it. If it be my will asking amiss to consume it on my lusts, I cannot expect an answer. But the Lord contemplates the giving of faith and certainty of answer; for drying up of the fig-tree or removing a mountain, and whatever I can ask believing, I receive it. This is a very important principle. But first the limits on which formal promise of answer Jests besides special faith. The first passage I may refer to is, " if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us.... and we know that we have the petitions." This supposes the demand according to His will, and then we can reckon on His power accomplishing it. This is the general christian confidence, a great boon to be assured of the acting of Him who is Almighty in the way of His will. Next it is said, " if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will" Here I do not doubt there was special reference to the twelve; but in principle it applies to all christians. Where the mind is formed by the words of Christ, when they abide in one who lives in dependence on and confidence in Him-one thus abiding in Him, having Him in spirit, and his mind guided by Christ’s word, his will is (so to speak) Christ’s--he asks what he will, and it will come. Another case is where any two are agreed; here individual will is set aside. It is where Christians have a Common desire and agree to present it to God. The deliberate formal agreement supposes a common Christian mind, and it will be done. So, when I ask, coming for what I can attach Christ’s name to, under His auspices, (influence) the Father will do it. Here, I doubt not too, the twelve are specially in view; still it is in principle every christian. A man cannot in faith bring Christ’s name attached to his lusts; and all these statements suppose the disciple and faith, as James expressly teaches us, and indeed the Lord Himself. But there are other statements which cast us more generally on the goodness of God, and His interest in us, and skew us that, where faith is in exercise, the answer will be there; " All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive." This supposes faith, and intimacy, so to speak, with God. The heart is supposed to be in His interests, and then if there is faith as a grain of mustard seed, a mountain goes. I do not doubt this kind of faith was much more when any, as the apostles, felt themselves interested in God’s cause, identified with Him and it on the earth; but there is no limit to it. Where such faith is, such answer will be; and God is as much occupied now with the details of blessing for us as for the great deeds of those days. It might be more palpable, more concentrated too then, but not more true. Not a sparrow falls now without Him more than then; and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Tan availing much is ever true: only one must, so to speak, put ourselves with God, for those to whom these things were said were identified with Him in His interests on the earth. This gave their prayers of course a peculiar place: but then if faith (that is the operation of His Spirit and grace) brings me into His interest now even in details, the promise is there, and we can reckon on God and His power exercised in love now as then. There is no limit: only it is the working of His Spirit in us, and hence faith that reckons on the answer. Presenting our requests, subject to His will, is always right: of this we have an example even in Gethsemane: so Paul for his thorn in the flesh. And the answer will be more glorious and blessed than the request, even when it does not as asked answer it. See John 12:1-50 and Psalms 132:1-18 So Psalms 21:1-13, and even Paul’s request about the thorn. Let us trust His love, and this will not come short, and if He has given us faith to expect a specific-answer, bless God for it. Only our will must not come in; even if it were answered, (this was the case of the quails), but as a rule not, as James teaches. But where there is earnest faith, God will surely hear, though He may give us safeguards against our own will in it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: VOL 03 - GOD'S ANOINTED ======================================================================== God’s Anointed How wondrous the glories that meet In Jesus, and from His fate shine, His love is eternal and sweet, ’Tis human, ’tis also divine. His glory-not only God’s Son― In manhood He had His full part,― And the union of both joined in one Form the fountain of love in His heart. The merits and worth of His blood Have freed us from hell and from fear, That we, as the blest sons of God, May make His good pleasure our care. O then may this union and love Make us walk in the service of Heaven, Mid obedience and suffering to prove That we to the Lamb have been given. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: VOL 03 - GOD'S OBJECT IN OUR TRIALS ======================================================================== God’s Object in Our Trials Ah! has Christ ever touched the quick of your soul in solitude? Do you know the exquisite tenderness of His touch? He does not tear am lacerate. The necessities and trials of saint down here are created by God in order to show, them what Christ is for them. If I have take: Him as Lord, I do not expect an easy way. Go never meant us to have it as disciples. He takes us into a rough path to show what Christ is, and that in it His grace may be able to vent itself. There is a yearning in His heart up there to let this grace be displayed in the poor, needy people down here-a longing that His strength should be made perfect in their weakness. Do you know for yourself the grace of that living Christ? Do you know what Christ has to do with you, and you with him? Do you know yourself as one of a flock that belongs to Him, that He is tending and guarding through the wilderness, and carrying on to glory to be forever with Himself? " But the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when ye have suffered for a little while, Himself shall make perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground; to Him be the glory and the might for the ages of the ages, Amen." 1 Peter 5:10-11. (New Trans.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: VOL 03 - GODLY SENSIBILITIES WITHOUT GODLY ENERGY ======================================================================== Godly Sensibilities Without Godly Energy What moral illustrations that beautiful book of Genesis does afford us; what a variety of character is exhibited for our warning and instruction! Isaac takes his place in the midst of these characters thus produced and presented―and for a saint we get in him but a poor sample. He had godly sensibilities, as well as human, amiable, virtues; but he had not godly energy. He reminds us of Jehoshaphat in other days. Jehoshaphat had godly sensibilities, but he failed in godly energy. Through vanity he failed: he joined affinity with Ahab, and had not strength to refuse to go to the battle with him. But still he had sensibilities in his soul that were spiritual and of divine workmanship―for in the midst of the prophets of Baal he was not satisfied. He had a witness within that this would not do, and he asked, " Were there not beside a prophet of the Lord?" But, strange and humbling to tell it, he would still go to the battle in company with the very Ahab who had thus wounded the spiritual sensibilities that stirred in his soul, and who had thus, in infidel revolt from the God of Israel, consulted the prophets of Baal (2 Chronicles 18:1-34). This was terrible; but this was that king Jehoshaphat. Isaac, so, on this occasion, had his sensibilities, but not his corresponding energies. It was not ’ through vanity, as did Jehoshaphat, that he failed: it was rather through a general relaxed moral tone of soul, that sought ease and indulgence; but while Isaac, with a godly mind, could grieve over Esau’s marriage with a daughter of Heth, one of the people of the land, yet, that very Esau is Isaac’s object, and keeps and holds the dearest affections Of his heart, so that Isaac cannot give himself back for God. He is answered by an earlier Ahab, though the witness within tells him that it is an Ahab that is doing it. He would fain help the profane Esau to a blessing, as Jehoshaphat would help the idolatrous Ahab to the victory. What sights are these, and what lessons and warnings to our souls! It is practically important to remark that worldliness or any allowance of what is not of God, by a godly man, gives the weight of his godliness to the evil he allows. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: VOL 03 - GRACIOUS GOD, THY CHILDREN KEEP ======================================================================== Gracious God, Thy Children Keep Jesus guide thy silly sheep; Fix, O fix, our fickle souls; Lord, direct us; we are fools. Bid us in thy care confide; Keep us near thy wounded side; From thee never let us stir, For thou know ’st how soon we err. Lay us low before thy feet, Safe from pride and self-conceit; Be the language of our souls, Lord, direct us; we are fools. Dang’rous doctrines from without, Lies and errors round about; From within a treach’rous heart, Prone to take the tempter’s part. By thy word we fain would steer, Fain thy Spirit’s dictates hear; Save us from the rocks and shelves; Save its chiefly from ourselves. Never, never may we dare, What we are not, say we are; Make us well our vileness know; Keep us very, very low. May we all our wills resign, Quite absorb’d and lost in thine; Let us walk by thy right rules; Lord; direct us; we are fools, ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: VOL 03 - I'M GOING HOME ======================================================================== I’m Going Home I’m a stranger here; No home, no rest I see, Not all earth counts most dear Can wring a sigh from me, I’m going Home. Jesus, Thy Home is mine, And I, Thy Father’s child, With hopes, and joys divine; This world’s a dreary wild; I’m going Home. Home, oh, how soft and sweet, It thrills upon the heart― Home-where the brethren meet, And never, never part― I’m going Home. Home, where the Bridegroom takes The purchase of His love; Home, where the Father waits To welcome me above! I’m going Home. And when the world looks cold, Which did my Lord revile (A lamb within the fold) I can look up and smile. I’m going Home. When its delusive charms, Would snare my weary feet, I fly to Jesus’ arms, And yet again repeat, I’m going Home. And as the desert wide, The wilderness, I see, Lord Jesus, I confide, My trembling heart to Thee, I’m going Home. While severing every tie, That holds me from the goal, This, this can satisfy The craving of the soul― I’m going Home. Ah, gently, gently lead Along the painful way, Bid every word, and deed, And every look to say, I’m going Home. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: VOL 03 - JER_2:1-37 ======================================================================== Jeremiah 2:1-37 There is an impression arising in the soul from this chapter, and it is this, first, love never cools in the heart of the Lord towards us. He never forgets it, though as we know, we may and do towards Him. This chapter opens with the Lord telling Israel this:―" I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals."―Thus Israel was "holiness to the Lord, and the first fruits of His increase." Then all that would dare to devour them would offend Him. Such was then the mind of the Lord towards His elect one. She was precious to Him. This is the force of verse 2. His love to her, not hers to Him. He had chosen her for His own. He was a husband to her, and He hung over her in the freshness of the fervor of love. Had He changed? Was any iniquity to be found in Him? Had He become to Israel a wilderness, or a land of darkness? As in another Scripture He says, "Is my ear heavy that it cannot hear, or my hand shortened that it cannot save?" This is not so. He was " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." It was nothing less than a " fountain," and that of " living waters." Israel had been invited to drink of a spring whose waters never failed, but which were as fresh as ever for Israel’s use. This is the reasoning of the Lord in this striking chapter, with His people. They were now a home-born slave, they were now spoiled it is true―but this is to be accounted for by everything rather than change in the Lord. He at that moment remembered the love of Israel’s youth, and was ready to act in all fervency as well as devotedness―but Israel themselves would not. He was ever as a hen ready to gather under His wings―but they would not. This had been His constant way throughout, and at last the life and ministry of Jesus, after so long a time, is the witness of the same fresh, first love of Jehovah towards Israel, the witness of it, may I not say, in more than its earliest fervency. What affection, what self-devotedness, patience of love, what labors of love, what associations of love were expressed in it! Surely many waters could not quench it then. It was stronger than death. And we do not rightly regard the ministry of Jesus through the cities and villages of Israel without seeing this " great love" of her Lord in all its fervency and faithfulness. Surely again it says, in the words of our Prophet, " I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals." And again it tells us that there was that love of His Word still burning in the heart of Him who had espoused her to Himself. All this is happy both for poor saint and sinner. And this beautiful chapter from God’s mind, gives us to know that the Lord never does, never can, forsake His object. He is " the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever." Love never faileth. If it abated in its ardor it would fail, as it would if it slackened in its toil or service. But love never faileth, with the Lord it is ever warm and fresh, for He ever remembers the day of espousals. It was Israel that lost the honor of it. It was Israel that changed her God for that which was no God. Blessed to know it to be thus. Blessed to know the prospect of enjoying it forever and ever. Our God is a "fountain," and that of " living waters." And though Israel has lost the fruit of all this by her departing from Him who had thus espoused her to Himself, because she trusted in her beauty, and went from Him, yet when He returns to her in the day of her repentance, it will be in this way of His first love. As in the kindness of her youth, as in the love of her espousals He will return and still prove that love never faileth to the very end, but holds to its first and blessed intent. All scripture verifies this. It was One that loves her with the love of Him who has chosen her for Himself that the Lord will return and take Jerusalem. Isaiah teaches us this, for speaking of Him he says, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." So says the Lord of Israel by Hosea, "And it shall he at that day that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali." And Zephaniah tells Jerusalem " He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." Language which sweetly and fervently tells the heart with what affection the Lord will retake Zion to Himself And Jeremiah is very bold and says, " they say if a man put away his wife," etc., etc., yet " return again unto Me saith the Lord." This and far more than this which we might gather from Scripture, lets us know that not only up to the day of Jeremiah, not only up to the day of the ministry of Jesus, but even to the last when He takes the daughter of Zion to Him again, He will still he able to say, " I remember the kindness of thy youth, the love of espousals." He remembers the affection, the fervor with which He at the first betrothed her to Himself,―and that in its earliest fervency He will win her and claim her and look on her again as His,―re-taking her to Himself in an everlasting covenant. Happy truth! It is not merely that He is ever faithful to His object, but ever true to that affection in which He first took up His object. "Nothing changeth God’s affection." Happy truth indeed! The fruit of it to us eternal and perfect joy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: VOL 03 - JUDE VERSE 24 ======================================================================== Jude Verse 24 It is important to observe the way in which the Spirit of God speaks in the Epistles of a power that can keep us from every fall, and unblameable; so that a thought only of sin is never excusable. It is not that the flesh is not in us, but that, with the Holy Ghost acting in the new man, it is never necessary that the flesh should act or influence our life, (compare 1 Thessalonians 5:22.) We are united to Jesus; He represents us before God, He is our righteousness. But at the same time, He who in His perfection is our righteousness is also our life. He who says, " I abide in Him," ought &so to walk as He walked. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: VOL 03 - NOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF A READING ======================================================================== Notes and Recollections of a Reading There is never any light from God without love. Whenever there is a real revelation of God to a soul, you always get the conscience reached and the heart affected. I believe we never know anything about God with the mind, save that we cannot know Him. All true knowledge humbles, because it brings something to me of God that I did not know before, and it finds in me something contrary to it; truth perfectly divine and heavenly in its character, yet suited to me,―it brings what is heavenly, and shows me I am not that and humbles me. Take the thief on the cross; light shines in, and see the effect " Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly." Truth is of no use until it is subjective, 1:e., until it affects me, otherwise it is only a matter of memory. Thus church truth may be held by one who does not know what it is to be in the Spirit, it is only a matter of memory. The Holy Ghost does not merely say there is a church, but we are members of His body, of His flesh, of His bones; it is not a mere dogma. The tendency with us is to make theology, and not to take what Scripture says. I do not get merely a statement, but God connects it livingly with my heart and affections. Another important thing is how far the actual condition of ’a soul is such, that it is able to receive truth. Thus at Corinth the Apostle fed them with milk, they were not able to take strong meat, so Also in Hebrews; we need to bear this in mind, if you talk to a person about truth that he is not in a state to receive, you only puff him up. If a Christian walks unfaithfully he may lose even what he knows. All living truth becomes a part of myself like food; thus it is said " if any man thirst," and then it speaks of coming out of his belly, that is out of the very inmost part of the man himself. I do not believe any one has got the truth unless it has engaged his affections to Christ and moved his conscience. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: VOL 03 - ONE RIGHT PATH ======================================================================== One Right Path There is only one right way with everything of God; while the shades of right (which in reality are paths of error) are countless. Now the errant soul, or bad guide, is sure always to engage my soul with an inquiry about some one of the shades of right; asking me, " Where is the wrong there?" "Are there not exemplary men there?" he does not say to me, "Are you seeking the only one narrow path in this evil day (more and more narrow, as the day becomes more evil) are you seeking Christ pre-eminently? Another Mary Magdalene, only with more intelligence, and not less love. It was a dark hour of true regard for Him on the earth, when He Himself, and He alone could satisfy her. It was not companions, or good men, or anything but that true, deep, personal interest, which love alone understands, and confers; and this is what we want in this day. If we have true personal interest for the Lord, we shall assuredly care for all that are His on the earth; but we must begin with Him. It is about Himself He speaks to the angels of the seven churches. The moment I love Him, He says to me, " Feed my sheep." (John 21:16.) All interest for others must spring from this, as well as all instruction for myself. If I am seeking the Lord with a pure heart, I am sure to find myself (because it is the one Spirit which is leading us) in company " with them who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2:23.) If it be the meeting, or the ministry, or the brethren, I am on a poor foundation. The more evil the time, the more pointed, though less open, is the attempt to set aside the plan and rule of Christ. It has been done openly in Christendom, and now the malice of Satan would have it done among them who profess to stand apart from the growing apostasy in the world. If I am seeking a place to worship in, I am sure to go wrong; for I am looking for what suits my taste, and I am not guided by principle; but if I am seeking to worship my Lord (then it is a Person, not a place, that is before my soul), I am sure to be led rightly, for the Spirit of light which is in the blind man (John 9:1-41) always leads the soul that is morally outside the place of worship (as this man was, on account of his new light,) to worship the Lord of light. One faithful one, like this self-same man, confounds the most learned theologian. Let us be like Mary Magdalene in true devotion of heart to our Lord; and like the once blind man, maintaining our light, its reality, and its source, against all corners, and in the way. We shall surely be rewarded as they were, with the assured presence of our Lord. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: VOL 03 - THE APPROBATION OF THE LORD ======================================================================== The Approbation of the Lord It should be joy to anyone who loves the Lord Jesus to think of having His individual peculiar approbation and love; to find He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval. But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little. Are we not too desirous of man’s commendation of our conduct? or at least that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it? Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know anything about us-even in the church to be thought nothing of? that Christ alone should give us the "white stone" of His approval, and the new name which no man knoweth save only he that receiveth it? Are we content, I say, to seek nothing else? Oh! think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be that is not satisfied with Christ’s special favor, but seeks honor (as we do) of one another instead. I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer, the Lord’s public owning of you as a good and faithful servant, or the private individual love of Christ resting upon you-the secret knowledge of His love and approval? He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond, "The latter." Both will be ours if faithful; but we shall value this most; and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: VOL 03 - THE BELIEVER'S PORTION ======================================================================== The Believer’s Portion Jesus, my Savior! Thou art mine, The Father’s gift of love divine; All Thou hast done, and all Thou art, Are now the portion of my heart. Poor, feeble, wretched, as I am, I now can glory in Thy name;. Now cleansed in Thy most precious blood And made the righteousness of God. All that Thou hast, Thou halt for me, All my fresh springs are hid in Thee; In Thee I live; while I confess I nothing am, yet all possess. O Savior, teach me to abide Close sheltered at Thy wounded side, Each hour receiving "grace on grace," Until I see Thee face to face. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: VOL 03 - THE EXERCISES AND END OF GRACE ======================================================================== The Exercises and End of Grace It is remarkable the instruments God uses to display His grace towards man, and the different exercises of heart persons go through, which prepare them for the service on which they are to be sent. There is a loneliness which may even be occasioned by a man’s own folly, in which he finds himself without a single thing to get comfort in, that he may prove that to be in the Lord which he would not know in any other way. God cannot associate Himself with evil. There must be death upon nature altogether. The corn of wheat would have remained alone without death. Christ was alone as to Himself; comforters He had none. "I looked for some to take pity, but found none." " They gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalms 69:20; Psalms 69:11.) These are expressions of this loneliness. He was walking in undeviating devotedness with His Father all the way through; but there was none to enter into it, though, speaking of His disciples, He graciously says, " Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations." (Luke 22:28.) Could He have said more if they had been faithful in sympathy all the time? Our poor hearts have to learn the way the Lord meets the soul that waits on Him. We see, in the case of Mary Magdalene here, and in the other Mary too who broke the box of ointment on Him, there was something that made them lonely. What made Lazarus’ sister Mary lonely? She had found something that took her clean out of the world. Martha was careful about the supper; but with Mary it was not the supper but Himself. His object was not to come for earthly refreshment, but to pour into His people’s hearts the revelation of the Father. Martha was not wrong in preparing the supper, but in trying to get Mary away from the Lord. If she had been right, she would have been glad to do it all herself. There was not the joy and delight in her heart that there ought to have been. Mary had found one thing that isolated her heart in the most blessed way. Her affections were alive to all the evil that was coming (not as a prophetess, but her spirit was in the thing), and at the right moment she went and spent the ointment on Him. He says of her, " She hath done it for my burial." In this Mary (the Magdalene) we get yet another thing. Seven devils had been cast out of her, that is to say, the expression of complete diabolical possession, indicating the extreme of wickedness. That isolates a person, who is separated from nature, as it were, by ’the extent of wretchedness. When the spirit is touched, she is separated from the evil. The effect of finding Christ in such circumstances is that He becomes everything to her. (There is not the same intelligence in her as in the other Mary; we do not find her, as the Magdalene, at the tomb.) She could not leave in the same way. When she lost Christ after the flesh, she had nothing. She was terribly broken to pieces by evil, and Christ was gone. There was something human connected with her affection; there was also culpable ignorance in what she did; but the Lord had compassion on her; and more, He manifested Himself first to her. The disciples saw, and believed. They perceived He was gone, but understood not the Scriptures. Mary had no home, and when she found not the body of Christ, what had she? The disciples were not isolated in the same way; they go away to their homes. She, in her ignorance, but withal in her love, says, " I will come and take him away." (John 20:15.) This last is very precious. It is a great thing, when Christ has such a place with us as to be everything. In one sense this is the door by which all must pass through; at death, if not before, nature must decay and vanish. What is more nothing than death? All here is gone. We may learn this spiritually, or by circumstances, or at the moment of death itself; but learn it we must. We must find everything but Christ nothing. Christ calls her by name. When He comes and calls His sheep by name, it is all right. She had got Him back after death. Nature had, as it were, passed through death, as Isaac. Nature had mixed itself up with her affections, but now she has got beyond that; all is given up to God. The promises made to Abraham were all surrendered up by him when Isaac was to be taken. Mary Magdalene thought she had Christ hack when she had not. She thought of Him corporeally, but she must have Him in another way. It will be so with the remnant of Israel by-and-by. They will have Him corporeally then, but now He says, " Touch me not," &c. I am going to another place. I am taking your hopes or your promises in another way, and not in flesh. If He was to take it, it would be when the just shine in the kingdom of the Father. He says, " Go tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and my God and your God." (John 20:17.) I am giving you something entirely new―not My presence yet―not power yet; but where He was going Himself He would take us. He does isolate us; He does pass through different circumstances; but whether gradually or suddenly, His object is to break down everything of nature, and this in grace to us. Here for the first time He says, " my brethren." He had never called them " brethren " definitely until now. He had been heard from the horns of the unicorns. (Psalms 22:21.) During His life He had declared the Father’s name. Now He declares the love wherewith He is loved is that with which we are loved. He could not say that during His life. During His ministry He was making known the Father, walking with the Father, speaking to the Father. Now he takes them into the same relationship. Why? Because the redemption was accomplished. Christ never addressed His Father as God―never less than as Father. During His life as given in the Gospels, all His life through, it was always, " Father." When on the cross it was, " My God, my God," until all was finished, when He said, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46.) In making the atonement, what was not against Him? There was one thing that could not be against any, and that was love; but there could be none as to the feeling and manifestation of it then. He was forsaken; and the more the love was known, the more terrible it was. He was dealt with according to the majesty of God, the righteousness of God, the truth of God, the holiness of God. All that God is was made good against Him. God was thus putting away sin, and Christ was glorifying God about sin. But now, being dead and risen, He comes up to put His disciples into the place of full blessing. The work is done, and there is no sin left. Everything that God is is now brought out in blessing, and all the sin is put out of the way. He is declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. He goes up to God, and takes us too. I am going to my God, and He is your God too. He is going into all that is blessed. I am not going to be present with you corporeally, so that you can " touch" me; but I am going to My God, and your God, My Father, and your Father. Such is the word to this poor desolate woman. She was a fit messenger, by her very nothingness, to witness of Christ and His work and His fullness. "I go," and faith goes too, entering into that within the veil. It enters into all that which God is. Where we live is within the veil. Sense may come in and hide God’s presence; but the atonement has brought us into it, and into the very same relationship which Christ has as risen. We sometimes enjoy peace, we enjoy scripture, a hymn, or prayer, without realizing the presence of God; and then there is not the same power, or the same exercise of heart in it. I can own the blessing, and rejoice in the blessing, without having my heart searched out; but if in these I have the sense of Him, my state is very different. It is very important, not only to have a right thought, but to have it with Him. If you search your own heart, you will find that you may sing without realizing Jesus Himself. Then the heart is never probed, the evil is not detected, and the power of grace is not the same. By the atonement sin is put out, and God is brought in. God exercises our hearts about good and evil by first giving us the good. There must be the possession of perfect good and then there is holiness, and not merely the exercise of dread and fear. Our hearts must follow Him where He is gone. We cannot " touch " Him. May the Lord give us to live a life in which He is everything! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: VOL 03 - THE NUMBERING AND SERVICE OF THE LEVITES ======================================================================== The Numbering and Service of the Levites NUMBERS, CHAPTERS 3. & 4. The Levites were taken up that the ways of Goy toward His redeemed firstborn might specially be shown out in them. The Lord took them from among the children of Israel, instead of all the firstborn. "Therefore," said He, "the Levites shall be mine; because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast mine shall they be: I am the Lord," (Numbers 3:11-13.) They who were the special witnesses of the grace of GOD, in the day when judgment was poured out, were in a special way to be His own, serving Him in the ways of redemption, as set up in the mercy of GOD-the ways of His mercy and love to poor sinners lying under judgment. Such, in the shadows of the law, was the service of the Levites; and such, in the good things that have come to us in Christ, is the service of the saints. There are two numberings of the Levites marked, one in the third chapter, and the other in the fourth chapter of Numbers; but with striking difference between them. In chapter 3. they are reckoned from a month old and upwards; but in chapter 4. they are numbered from thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old; they are reckoned according to the days of their strength in this chapter, and, accordingly, their several services are here revealed to them; but they were set in blessing as GOD’S firstborn in the days of their weakness; for, not what they did for Him, but what He did for them, was the ground of their standing. Here two things are taught us. First, the question of service does not come in, when we are taken up as the redeemed in Christ. Second, the demand for service begins at once, when we are looked at as strengthened by Christ. In this service, lie reveals His mind, and we obey it. Among the Levites, some had one service to do, and some had another; but responsibility to GOD made each do what he did. The sons of Kohath carried the sanctuary; the sons of Gershon carried the curtains of the tabernacle, and the hangings of the court; and the sons of Merari bore the boards of the tabernacle, the bars, the pillars, the sockets, and the pins. Such was the choice of the Lord for them, not of them for themselves. Had the sons of Gershon carried the ark, this would have been self-will in them, not service for GOD, because He said to them, Carry the curtains. Responsibility to GOD made each do what he did, and kept him from interfering- in other things: and so it is now with the brethren in the Lord. " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of GOD, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto GOD, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of GOD. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as GOD bath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation." (Romans 12:1-8.) The brethren are entreated by the mercies of GOD, to holy devotedness of themselves to GOD, and are exhorted against being conformed to the world. Conformity with the world blinds men’s perception of the will of GOD, and sets them doing their own will; but he who is transformed by the renewing of his mind, proves what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of GOD: his affections and purposes are after -his renewed mind; and the Lord has promised to him who has a single eye, that his whole body shall be full of light. All are called to their labors in subjection to GOD, as were the families of the sons of Levi. If the mercies of GOD are not kept before our hearts, then we fail in presenting ourselves aright. If conformity to the world comes in, and we lose spiritual energy in our renewed minds then we fail in proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of GOD. And if we go beyond our measure of faith, then we assume what we are unfit for. This varied labor in service is all for perfect order. He among the sons of Merari who carried even the pins, bore what was necessary for the perfection of the tabernacle: better for him to do this for God than to despise His work, and assume another. Equally would subjection to GOD keep the sons of Kohath happy in the holy service of bearing on their shoulders the ark, and table of shewbread, and all that belonged to the sanctuary. We have GOD to serve as our purpose; we have His word and Spirit to guide and lead as to the way of service; and all as His redeemed, through the blood of Christ. The burden of a Levite, as he went forward through the dreary wilderness, was a glorious burden: it belonged to the sanctuary of GOD, and was the witness of His grace and mercy to sinful men; and so with the service of the saints in the world; their service is in what belongs not to the world. " The bread of GOD is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." (John 6:33.) " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father." (John 16:28.) In the sanctuary the uncovered ark of pure gold, with the cherubims overshadowing the mercy-seat, rested in the most holy place: the priest alone could there see and enjoy it. In Levite service,* the ark was covered over; still it was the ark; from the sanctuary it came; and inside that covering lay all the hidden splendor in which, in the sanctuary, it appeared. (* The communion of the saints, as having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, is according to the service of the priests. The testimony of the saints, as sent into the world to give glory to Christ’s name, is according to the service of the Levites.) This made the burden a precious one to a devoted Levite; he knew whence it came, and what it was; and so, if it was only a pin, it belonged to the tabernacle, and the Lord told him to carry it. In all this, the service of the Levite waited on and followed the service of the priest; this was the order established of GOD; and in all our service of testimony in the world, communion in the holiest with the things of which we testify, should ever go before. Thus it is that in responsibility we shall be led out, but also controlled. In the holiest we have our communion with Christ: in our service in the world we have our testimony about Christ; but this should ever follow, and be connected with the other. If the acts of service of the sons of Kohath were made the standard to judge the conduct of the sons of Merari, then they might be despised in their service; but they did unto the Lord what they did, according to His will concerning them; and in His good will the sons of Kohath and the sons of Merari were all fellow laborers in the same tabernacle. So it was, that when Gaius, for the Lord’s sake, received the strangers who, for His name’s sake, went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles, the apostle adds, "We ought therefore to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth." The poor preacher was ’a helper to the truth when he proclaimed Christ’s name. And Gaius was a fellow-helper to the truth when he took him into his house, and fed and lodged him. So again, " He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward." Here is one who is not a prophet himself; but he loves a prophet, and receives him as such, and thus becomes associated in blessing with a prophet. Did he assume to be a prophet when he was not one, then there would be no such association, and no blessing. In all this may we learn subjection to GOD, knowing that if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, Such is the grace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: VOL 03 - THE PERSON ======================================================================== The Person " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in [the Person of the]*Son."-Hebrews 1:1-14 (* New Translation.) " God has spoken in the Son, says the inspired author of our Epistle. He is then this Son. First He is declared Heir of all things. It is He who is to possess gloriously as Son everything that exists. Such are the decrees of God. Moreover it is by Him God created the worlds. All the vast system of the universe, those, unknown worlds that trace their paths in the vast regions of space in divine order to manifest the glory of a Creator-God, are the work of His hand who has spoken to us. In Him has shone forth the glory of God. He is the perfect impress of His being. We see God in Him, in all that He said, in all that He did, in His Person. Moreover, by the power of His word He upholds all that exists. He is then the Creator. God is revealed in His Person. He sustains all things by His word, which has thus a divine power. But this is not all, (for we are still speaking of the Christ), there is another part of His glory, divine indeed, yet manifested in human nature. He who was all this which we have just seen, when He had by Himself (accomplishing His own glory, and for His glory), wrought the purification of our sins, seated Himself at the right hand of the majesty on high! Here is in full the personal glory of Christ. He is in fact the Creator, the revelation of God, the upholder of all things by His word. He is the Redeemer. He has by Himself purged our sins: has seated Himself at the right hand of the majesty on high." " Therefore, (says the Apostle), we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, least at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience, received a just recompence of reward: how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation: which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His will?" Chapter 2:1,2,3. " God has maintained the authority of the word that was communicated by the means of angels; punishing disobedience to it, for it was a law. How then shall we escape if we neglect a salvation which the Lord Himself has announced? Thus the service of the Lord among the Jews was a word of salvation, which the Apostles confirmed, and which the Holy Ghost established." Beloved reader, have you ever, calmly and quietly meditated on the above wonderful truth, of the greatness and glory of the One who has been here, accomplishing the work of redemption, and is now sitting on the right hand of the majesty on high? No wonder it is called in chapter 2. "so great salvation," when we think of the greatness of the Person who came and who did the work that saves? How vast, how precious the thought too, that God, in the Person of His Son, has come and spoken to us. What a prophet! And spoken to us of what? Salvation. " So great Salvation." "Brightness of Eternal Glory, Shall Thy praise unuttered lie? Who would hush the boundless story, Of the One who came to die. Came from Godhead’s fullest glory, Down to Calvary’s depth of woe,― Now on high, we bow before Thee: Streams of PRAISES ceaseless flow," Again, in Colossians 1:15-18 we read that, " In Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body the Church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence, for in Him all the fullness [of the Godhead] was pleased to dwell." The more one thinks of the glory of the Person in whom we have redemption, and of the infinite fullness that dwells in Him bodily, (Colossians 2:9) up there. Oh how soul-subduing, and yet how soul-sustaining is the truth, that as members of His body, we are "one spirit with the Lord." That we are united to Him, livingly united to Him up there, this wonderful, glorious, God-man. And are loved by Him as a man loves himself. Ephesians 5:29. Reader, " do you see by faith that Christ up there? Do you know a Person in heaven with all the feelings and thoughts of a man, with all the glory and beauty of God? And in that beaming forth on you of that face of glory and beauty, is there nothing that addresses itself to your heart? Who can look on the face of that Lord Jesus and not see in Him the forms of eternal life? Will the beauty of that Person not win your adoring love? Will you ever find that you can look on Him as He is, and not trust Him? Are we not only knowing what we have in that ascended Christ as the One who has put away every spot of sin, the One who is going to take us into the Father’s house, but are we letting it be seen, as we pass through the wilderness, in all we do, as Paul did? He died for us, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him. Oh, what a position! not only what we are saved from and put into, but, even now, eternal life to be shown out; even now, present communion with the mind of Christ to be enjoyed; never as we pass through this world, seeking anything save to show out that mind, even as He never showed out anything but the Father’s mind. One thought pressed on me thirty-five years ago, and that was the thought of reality. Let it be a reality-don’t let me follow a meteor! Is it, I asked, a real fact that God’s Christ is mine, and that He is now sitting at God’s right hand as my accepted sacrifice, and all God’s delight is in Him? Your heart may have to be brought into all sorts of difficulties to find out what it has in Christ―what it is to be connected with the eternal lover of the soul. Is He known to you as the One who is occupied with all your concerns? Do you realize it daily? The thought of His being occupied about us would prevent our being tried with difficulties that spring up. It would make us say, " What! is Christ on the throne of God mine? I, such a poor feeble thing―is He given to me?" Paul found the love of Christ a personal thing―it is so. It was a personal love that gave John a place on His bosom; a personal love that drew to Him the poor woman that washed His feet with her tears; and poor things down here understand the power of that love as they go on. When we see saints like Peter and Paul failing, we feel what a poor thing man is at his best estate; but oh, what an unexpected blessing to have to do with a God that cannot fail! And I know that when I pass from earth, I have a God who means to take me up, and make of this poor body, a body of glory like that risen man at His right hand. Come what may, this God has His everlasting hand underneath us." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: VOL 03 - WAITING FOR CHRIST ======================================================================== Waiting for Christ That which should characterize the saints is, not merely holding the doctrine of the Lord’s coming as that which they believe, but their souls should be in the, daily attitude of waiting, expecting, and desiring His coming. But why? That they may see Himself, and be with Him and like Him forever! Not because the world which has been so hostile to them is going to be judged, though God will smite the wicked. It is true there will be mercy to those who are spared. But we have obtained mercy now, and are therefore waiting for Himself―for what He is in Himself to us, and not because of judgment. That would not be joy to me, though it will be to some on the earth; for " in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps," etc. (Isaiah 30:32). This is not our hope, but simply waiting for Himself. The whole walk and character of a saint depends upon this―on his waiting for the Lord. Every one should he able to read us by this, as having nothing to do in this world but to get through it, and not as having any portion in it―" Turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven." 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. What I desire to press upon you all, and myself too, is the individual waiting for the Lord; not as a doctrine merely, but as a daily waiting for Him-self. Whatever the Lord’s will may be, I should like Him to find me doing it when He comes. But that is not the question; but, Am I waiting for Himself day by day? In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 the hope is connected with ministry: " What is our hope or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? " Then Paul would get the reward of his service to the saints. Then in the third chapter the hope is connected with our walk, as a motive for holiness: " Unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." Then in the fourth chapter the doctrine of the hope is unfolded, the manner of it comes out: " The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voce of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Thus we see what a present expectation the coming of the Lord was; therefore Paul says, " WE which are alive and remain." But why does he say " WE"? Because he expected it then. This was Paul’s character then, that of waiting for the Lord. And does he lose that character because he died before He came? No, not at all. Though Peter had a revelation that he should put off the tabernacle of his body, yet did he daily wait for the Lord’s coming then. And this will be Peter’s character when the Lord does come; he will lose nothing by his death. " Be ye like unto, men that wait for their Lord." The character of their waiting was to be like servants at the hall-door, that, when the Master knocked, they were ready to open to Him immediately. It is a figure, of course, here; but it is the present power of the expectation that is alluded to. And the ruin of the church has come in by practically saying: " My Lord delayeth His coming." " Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning "―" your loins girt about with truth " for service. You must not let your garments flow loose; that is, you must not let your thoughts and affections spread abroad, but be ready with your garments well girt up, and your lights burning. This is not rest, for it is an exceedingly tiring thing to have to sit up and watch through a long dark night. But in the spirit of service the heart, affections, thoughts, feelings and desires must all he girt up. And this requires real painstaking not to let the flesh go its own way; for it is a great comfort sometimes to do this, if but for a moment; but if we do we shall surely fall asleep like the virgins. For as the virgins went to sleep with their oil in their lamps, so we may go to sleep with the Holy Ghost in our hearts. But blessed are those servants who are found watching. The Lord says this is the time for you to be girded, to take your turn in love to serve and watch; but when I come again, and have things my own way, then I will take my turn in love; ungird you and gird myself, and come forth and serve you. You must be well girt up and watchful in the midst of evil; but when the evil is done with, then you may take your rest. When in the Father’s house you may lie down and be at ease; and then your robes may flow down without any fear of their being soiled. In that blessed place of holiness and purity, you may let your affections, thoughts and desires flow out without the fear of their being defiled. Jesus, we wait for Thee, With Thee to have our part; What can full joy and blessing be But being where Thou art? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: VOL 03 - WALKING WORTHY ======================================================================== Walking Worthy My attention has been drawn to the use of " Walking worthy." In Ephesians we see clearly its connection with the noticed force and character of the Epistle. This treats of the Christian and then of the Church’s privileges, and the saint is to "walk worthy of his vocation " here, especially in Church place, and the worthiness to be of that. In Colossians, where the glory of the Person of Christ is brought out, as they were slipping away from the Head―I do not say His headship, but the glory of Him who is Head-they are to " walk worthy of the Lord" It is in this part that God and Father, the Lord and the Spirit are brought out. In the Thessalonians, who, from being heathens, had been brought to know the one true God, the Father―" The Assembly of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father," having not intermediate and indeed demon powers, but being in direct, immediate relationship with the one true God, they are called to " walk worthy of God who, has called us to His own kingdom and glory "so they were " turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God." Philippians, in which we have the experimental condition of the Christian, and the Gospel is spoken of as in conflict in the world (Paul being in the bonds of it), they were to walk worthy of the Gospel (ch. 1: 27). So Paul was " set for the confirmation and defense of the Gospel "―he speaks of the " beginning of the Gospel"’―Timothy had " served with him in the Gospel "―the women had " contended with him in the Gospel "―Paul was set " for the defense of the Gospel "―they had fellowship " in the furtherance of the Gospel." So it will be seen that when they were called to walk worthy of it, conflict is spoken of, for which, a right walk was needed, but they were not to be terrified by their adversaries. The true Gospel was as a cause, as a person, in conflict in the world―they who stood by it as one they contended along with, were to walk worthy of it. They were " striving together with the faith of the Gospel," contending along with the faith of the Gospel in the world―not " for " the faith, but " with " it, as an associate with it in its conflicts. There is thus in the three " walkings worthy," I think, a practical difference, though essentially the same. In Thessalonians it is the essential measure and its nature―" Walk worthy of God," imitators of God as dear children, " Who has called us to His own kingdom and glory." Then the manifestation of what this is in a Divinely perfect expression of it in Christ, " Worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." In Ephesians 4:1-32 we have more our own present place in it by the Holy Ghost―" the vocation wherewith we are called "―all our privileges and place being known to us through the Holy Ghost sent down when Christ was glorified - the place we are in in connection with Him glorified now. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: VOL 03 - WHAT IS THE WORLD, THAT WE ARE NOT TO LOVE, OR ITS THINGS? ======================================================================== What Is the World, That We Are Not to Love, or Its Things? If we search the word of God, we shall find that though sometimes the term " world " refers to the earth on which we live, yet it is more often used to denote a certain sphere, or state of things here, that though the children of God are obliged, till death or the coming of the Lord takes them out of it, to live in as to their bodies, they no more belong to, as our Blessed Lord tells us, -than He does Himself., John 17:1-26, " They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." And which God tells us in Galatians 1:4, Christ gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from. In the 4th of Luke we find that when Satan tempted the Perfect Man, one of the temptations was to offer all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them to the Son of God if He would only worship him. (See verses 6 and 7.) In 1 John 5:19, we are told that “the whole world lieth in wickedness," literally "in the wicked one." Our Lord owns Satan as " the prince of this world" in John 14:30, as also in chapter 12:31. And the Holy Ghost in 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that “the god of this world " " blinds the minds of them that believe not" the gospel, referring to Satan also. And again in Ephesians 2:1-3, those " dead in trespasses and sins," " walk according to the course of this world," which course is " according to the prince of the power of the air, (Satan) the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," (unbelievers.) "Among whom we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others." The world then is composed of those who―still in their natural state-are spiritually "dead towards God, in their trespasses and sins"―who are fulfilling from morning till night, and day to day, the natural desires of the flesh and of the mind, without reference to God or God’s will at all-and are energized by the spirit of this terrible enemy of the true God, Satan, who is blinding their minds, and to whom they are in bondage, and who is their God really, and their prince: no matter what their form of godliness may be, or religion. Yea, such is the state of this sphere, or condition of things called “the world," that the Spirit says through the inspired Apostle James, that "the friendship of it is enmity with God,"-that " whosoever will be a friend " of it is "an enemy of God"- and calls those believers who mix with it, " adulterers and adulteresses." How solemn! how awful! While the same Holy Spirit through the Apostle John, in the 1st Epistle and 2. Chapter, verse 15, says, that "if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The reason given being, that " all that is in the world," the three motives that in some form or another govern the walk and ways of the world, 1:e., what it takes pleasure in, and seeks to find happiness in the gratification of, viz., " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but of the world," and are all going to pass away. Yes, dear reader, and just as Pharoah ruled over the children of Israel, in Egyptian bondage, by task masters, so Satan rules over the children of this world, through the natural desires of the flesh and of the mind, so that God is shut out, and man, the world, is in bondage to sin, and their minds blinded to the truth: unless the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, shines, through sovereign grace, into the heart, giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Now when we see this, we see what the world is: and if we know what it is to have our own once-blinded eyes open-if the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shone into our hearts; is it not most important, yea, absolutely necessary, for us to be thoroughly separate from the world? How can, (as the Spirit of God puts it in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16), righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the believer and the unbeliever, the temple of God and the temple of idols, have fellowship, go along arm in arm together? Listen then, dear children of God, to the Lord God Almighty speaking in those last two verses of that same chapter-" Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, (the world), and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, (act a Father’s part toward you), and ye shall be my sons and daughters," or, in other words, you shall know practically what it is to enjoy God’s love as a Father, in every sense of the meaning of that word " Father." Now-a-days, it is, perhaps, more difficult to draw the line between the world and the Church, or the world and the family of God, because alas, in these last days, the world has got into the Church and the Church into the world, since the day when Church and State were joined together which took place after the death of the Apostles, when whole nations embraced, outwardly, Christianity as their national religion. In the Apostles’ days it was not so, and the assembly of God in a town or city, was a company of true believers, gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus, entirely distinct and separate from the State, or the mass of Jews and Gentiles who were around them, still going on in Judaism or in open idolatry. Now, in so-called Christian countries, almost every one professes, outwardly at all events, some kind of Christianity. And Church and State are joined together. Neither is there in consequence the same open violent persecution that the early Christians had to go through, even unto death. But the world is the same old world still, no matter if it calls itself Christian now, or not. And, by their fruits ye shall know them. There can be no real, true enjoyment, of happy communion with the Father and the Son; that holy, blessed happy fellowship with God, that taste of heaven upon earth, (even now 0 where there is not separation from the world. It is impossible. Yea, more. Friendship with the world, and loving the things of the world, so deadens the souls of those who try to go on with it, even if they do not walk on the dirty, but on the clean side of the broad way, that the world is on in its downward road to everlasting destruction and misery, that the ’child of God goes to sleep among the dead-loses spiritual eyesight, and power-forgets what the grace of God delivered them from at the first; and has to be waked up, perhaps on a death-bed! and that often an early one; or by some sore, bitter humbling trial, the direct loving, but severe, because needed chastisement of the Father’s hand, to bitter, bitter sorrow of heart and shame and self-judgment; to look back on a lot of lost opportunities of serving the Blessed Lord, and helping souls around them, perhaps even to look back, (awful thought), and see how they have been a stumbling-block to others, when they might have been a help, or at least not a hindrance. (See 2 Peter 1:1-21 verses 5 to end of 11, and Ephesians 5:14.) And to be saved so as by fire, like Lot out of Sodom. Oh, children of God, beware of the world, which Satan would use to seduce you by, from walking with, and enjoying, that holy happy portion even here, that God’s blessed Son suffered and died to bring us into the enjoyment of. The enjoyment of God Himself. The world, like a beautiful handsome Delilah; will, if you allow it, put you to sleep in its lap, like she did Samson, the man separated to God in his day. And then like with him, it will end in your spiritual eyesight being put out, and your strength taken away, and you becoming the sport of the enemies of the Lord, if you do not, in the strength that is made perfect in weakness, the Lord’s strength, learn to overcome the world. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: VOL 03 - ZAPHNATH-PAANEAH ======================================================================== Zaphnath-Paaneah Genesis 41:1-57 John 4:1-54 DEAR BROTHER, In Jacob’s blessing of his sons (Genesis 49:1-33) we find those familiar and lovely words about Joseph, used by the aged patriarch: "Joseph is a fruitful bough (even) a fruitful bough by a well (whose) branches run over the wall." We know now that " a greater than Joseph " was before the prophetic mind of the Spirit in the patriarch when he spake these words, of which I now cite a part. The whole of the blessing may be seen in reading the chapter. The portion I have quoted will answer my present purpose in calling your attention to it. If we turn back in the book of Genesis, and glance at the lovely narrative of Joseph (Genesis 37:1.) -evidently that of one of the most blameless of men whose histories are recorded in Scripture-we find, in Chapter 41, the moment of his full exaltation over all the land of Egypt before us. At this time he was 30 years of age; he had been shamelessly and heartlessly rejected by his brethren, and sold to his captors, oppressed and afflicted, taken from prison and from judgment; the iron had entered into his soul. In all this, as in the many other details of his life, type of Him that was to come. He had just interpreted the dreams of Pharoah, and had counseled Pharoah to be warned of God in preparing for the years of the famine that was to come. "And Pharoah said unto his servants, can we find (such a one) as this (is), a man in whom the Spirit of God (is)? (5: 38.) And Pharoah raises him to be head over all the land. There was none so discreet and wise as he. He would be over his house, and according to his word should all his people be ruled; only in the throne would Pharoah be greater than he. Power over all flesh is his, and all is given into his hands," (vv. 43, 44.) He names him "Zaphnath-paaneah," or "the revealer of secrets," as the Coptic, it is said, indicates; and "Savior of the world," as says another authority. Of course I do not go further than to notice the double significance of this title which Pharoah gave Joseph. In the seven plenteous years, those years of grace, the earth brought forth by handfuls from the ripened fields. The reaper received his wage, and gathered fruit for the life to come, when famine would stalk through the land. Joseph, too, married a wife in the land of his rejection, and to him were born his two sons-Manasseh, signifying " forgetting;" and Ephriam, bearing the name which means "fruitful." He forgot his toil and his father’s house, and was fruitful of God in the land of his affliction. When we turn to the Gospel of St. John (chap., 4.) and read of the opening of the public ministry of the Lord, we find the One in whom the Spirit of God is, the One to whom God gave not "His Spirit by measure " (John 3:1-36) going forth when 30 years of age to Samaria, on his mission of grace. " He left Judea," He left His. own to whom He had come, morally rejected by them. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. He passes out in the fullness of His grace to defiled Samaria, morally now as actually again with "power over all flesh," and all things given into His hand by the Father. There He proves Himself to be the true " Revealer of Secrets "―One who told the sinful woman all that ever she did. He forgets His toil, and the long weary journey of that day through the burning heat, till He sat at noon on the side of the well-the most fruitful bough that ever shadowed it. He forgets His thirst; His hunger too-refreshed by the meat to eat of which the disciples as yet knew nothing, and in the land of His affliction He is fruitful. The woman of Samaria is found of Him who came to seek and to save the lost. His word to the disciples in those years of plenty which now were dawning, was, " Lift up your eyes, and look upon the fields; for they are already white to harvest." Many of the Samaritans too believed on Him; they said to the woman, " Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the ’ Savior of the world.’" He is the true " Zaphnath paaneah " now as then. Surely we can say, as in 1 John 4:14, " We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." We have learned how surely He is the " Revealer of Secrets," as did the woman of Samaria, through the window of our souls. The conscience of each can vouch for this. We need no proof or evidence that we have had to do with Christ, and He with us. I only touch upon these few features of this lovely type. Perhaps it may encourage others to look for the more minute details for themselves. But, dear brother, when we know Christ, is it not a happy task to find some lines of Him portrayed on those who went before, and in whom His grace and Spirit was working? Shall we deem it a less happy task now to trace in those who are Christ’s, the lines of His life and ways, as the Spirit of God has done so blessedly in those who had gone before. Yours affectionately in His love. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: VOL 04 - "AT THAT TIME JESUS ANSWERED" ======================================================================== "At That Time Jesus Answered" There is one, and only one, life that ever gave forth its unvarying answer to God. If we think of a David, Jehovah’s anointed king over the hosts of Israel, we have in sorrow to read: "It came to pass... at the time when kings go forth to battle,... David tarried still at Jerusalem." That is to say, he gave up conflict; and, having so done, we have the record of the sad sequel. Later on, in the checkered history of that favored people, we read of another of their kings, Josiah by name, who, in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, began to seek after the God of David his father; in the twelfth, to purge Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry; and in the eighteenth, to repair the house of Jehovah his God, displaying great energy as to the keeping of the passover. But, turning to the next page of his history, what meets the eye? "After all this (2 Chronicles 35:20), the one who, at eight years of age, declined neither to the right hand nor to the left, who from that tender age was characterized as one that sought after the God of David his father, consequently setting his face against idolatry even to the purging of the land and the house; until, in the eighteenth year of his reign, having cared for the house of Jehovah his God, the Passover is kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, and there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the day of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the Kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem;-"after all this," of such an one it has to be recorded, that he goes out in a conflict unwarranted by Jehovah his God; and (as with David, so with Josiah) down he falls. David failing to maintain conflict at the time of conflict, "at the time when kings go forth to battle;" and Josiah becoming involved in a conflict that brought him into variance with God Himself. (2 Chronicles 35:21-22.) And such is the blotted, besmeared history of the first man, look at it where we may. Beloved! what volumes do those three words,. " after all this," speak to one’s heart! If perchance, through grace, a measure of steadiness may have marked our pathway hitherto, while many leaders have fallen, what sorrow, if after so much grace shown us, the Spirit of God should have to write an "after all this" in our history, to chronicle our declension of heart (for surely that is where declension has its start) as exhibited in our ways. Assuredly it is a time of "going forth to battle," "earnestly to contend," "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." And the conflict has to be maintained, until with a Paul we are given to say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth"-not conflict, but-’’the crown." But if on the other hand we are found meddling with the world in one way or another, even it may be with the view of setting it to rights (as Josiah got involved, as we have seen, with Egypt’s King); just as Josiah was brought down under the forces of Egypt, so will we succumb to the forces of the world, and its prince. " After all this," what a relief to the sorrowful heart to turn to the record of that one life which in all its minute details met the eye of God, and was well pleasing to Him. A King truly, yea, the King of Israel (and never had such an one been presented to Israel before) but what glories come before our eyes in the perusal of the pages of His sojourn. And, look at His pathway where we may, it is only to discover the unvarying answer to God, not from His lips only, but, in every look of His eye, in His every. footstep, yea, in every movement of His heart and hand. View Him for a moment in Matthew 11:1-30 -a King truly, as we have said, but without a kingdom-despised and rejected of His subjects, His testimony and His mighty works unheeded. What then? "At that time, Jesus answered and said: I thank Thee, O Father." "Answered" to what, beloved, or rather to whom, seeing there was no audible voice at the moment? Ah! but here as elsewhere. He recognizes, in circumstances in themselves most untoward, His Father’s voice and answers to God in all. Or if, with adoring reverence, we view Him. hanging on the tree, what is it to find? That, while in all the bitterness of that moment, He owns Himself the forsaken One, forsaken of God; yet, in unswerving fidelity, He owns the One who had forsaken Him: "My God, my God." And the very question He raises in the hour of the travail of His soul, He waits not for His God to give the answer to-but, in all that sorrow, He Himself answers it, and in answering it, answers to God, and (blessed be His glorious name forever!) answers to God for us. (Psalms 22:3.) Beloved saints of God, what a voice has all this for us!. We each, in our individual pathway, have been encountering untoward circumstances, sorrows and trials; but has there been in all, from our hearts and lips, the answering to God? The Blessed One, who in revealing the Father to us has given us rest, has also graciously made known to us how these-in themselves-commonplace, every day, lives of ours, can yield to the Father the answer our hearts would delight to render; even by taking His yoke upon us and learning of Him, the One meek and lowly in heart, and thus finding rest unto our souls day by day under His easy yoke. Ah! Beloved, have we thought of what it is to be under the yoke of Christ? In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, we will find a yoke of a very different character described, upon which we will not at present dwell, but simply learn from these verses that a yoke involves: fellowship, communion, concord, part and agreement. So that if I am under the yoke of Christ, I actually enjoy Fellowship. Communion, Concord, With Christ;― Part, Agreement, And if so, will not a life, filled with what that gracious yoke brings with it, give forth its answer to God, be the surroundings of that life what they may? Mark! no sooner are we under His yoke than He turns the eye to Himself― “learn of Me." Soon, beloved, we shall have done with the conflict and shall have received the crown; but, in that scene of glory, what is it that will cause us to fall down before the Lamb? Oh! not because we have answered to God throughout the pathway here, but listen. A strong angel doing God’s commandment raises a question to which no one in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, can give answer. Ah! but while a strong angel proclaims the question, a ransomed sinner ("one of the elders") it is that points to the only One who can answer it. And who is this only worthy One? Oh! who but the meek and lowly King of Matthew 11:1-30 -who "at that time" answered, and who now in all that blaze of glory alone can come forward-" the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David," "a Lamb as it had been slain," He it is who alone-even in heaven, as on earth-can ever give answer to God. He alone-who, as the slain Lamb, sustained the judgments of God-can take the book and execute those judgments. Oh! "weep not" (Revelation 5:5) then, over what God has to write upon man, whether on earth, or in heaven; but, in the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension, the present place and offices, and the coming glories of that Blessed One-trace with adoring heart the One, and one only unvarying answer to God. View it yet again when millenial glories are filling the earth-God’s King swaying the scepter, and-forever, in the eternity that lies beyond, when all things shall have been brought into subjection to Him, and the Son also Himself subject unto Him that put all things under Him, thus giving His eternal answer to the Father, having as its eternal fruit: " God," ’’all in all." “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: VOL 04 - "GOD - I" ======================================================================== "God - I" Faith sets a man with God, and, as an individual, alone with God. Abel acted as an individual; Enoch walked alone with God; Noah found grace in His sight; Abram was called out from all, and was the friend of God. Joseph, and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Daniel, and all the worthies of Faith’s household, each found his springs to be in God-and his guidance to be from God. How individual and solitary, too (not only on the ground of His being the only sinless, the only perfect One, but also in the mode of His walk), was the Blessed Lord! " Lo! I come to do Thy will, O God." "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" These were the mottoes of His life here below. How beautifully, too, in the thief upon the cross; do we find his faith (divinely taught) setting Him alone with God-able to condemn, not only his own past course, but all that the religious of that day were doing; and able to give to Christ a title true of him alone from among men. "This man hath done nothing amiss." He adds, " Lord! remember me... in Thy kingdom! " And the Lord’s word to Peter is to be noted "If I will that he (John) tarry till I come, what is that to thee? FOLLOW THOU ME." The secret of all practical holiness in a believer is found in this individual walk with God-a walk which, as it keeps him in the light, where Christ is at the right hand of God, keeps him in humble self judgment, because he sees the contrast between Christ and himself-yet in firmness, because he has to do with God, and acts for and from God. Directly I can say, God’s word proclaims a thing to be unholy, I am to cease from it at once. It is unholy to me at least, and to tamper with it would be defilement. Every godly soul (that knows even Romans 14:1-23) would assent to this: every godly soul must Say, "Obey God rather than man; obey God according to your light, and do not go beyond it." I have been asked (alas for the askers!) when so acting, "Are you infallible? Are you going to lord it over the conscience of others?" My answer is simple: "I walk with God, and judge myself, not an inch for me on the road God’s word seems to me to prohibit; right onward where the word enjoins me to go forward." ’Tis replied, "How do you know you are right? " I answer, "While walking in dependence upon God alone to lead me to see His mind, that I may do it-do you think He’ll not be faithful to Himself? (John 7:17). And, as to the consciences of others, I lord it over no soul. Let each walk with God; but only let each remember, that if my walk is with God, alas! for him whose walk is not in the same pathway: be he before me or behind." There is no holiness in communion-no "communion of saints," apart from this solitary walk with God-of the saints as individuals. The restless disquietude of many around, convinces me they are not walking with God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: VOL 04 - "IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS" ======================================================================== "In Everything Give Thanks" " In everything give thanks," My God, is this Thy will? Give thanks for disappointments given, For prayers unanswer’d still! Give thanks! in vain I’ve pray’d That I might useful be, And by Thy Spirit’s helpful aid, Bring many souls to Thee. Give thanks! when in the place Of health and usefulness, Through sickness Thou hast paled my face With pain and weariness. Give thanks! if ’tweer Thy will Submission to demand, I then might bid myself be still, And bow to Thy command. But hush, beneath my eye, I see in words of blood, "Will He who gave His Son to die, Refuse thee any good?" Give thanks! Yea, Lord, I do, And by Thy help I will, Give thanks! for blessings not receiv’d, Although expected still. Give thanks! for mercies given, Unnotic’d oft by me; Give thanks! for sins forgiven, Known only, Lord, to Thee. Give thanks! in word and deed, For Thy surpassing love, That sent Thy Son on earth to save, And now to plead above. Give thanks! for tender love, That our Redeemer show’d, W he, in the absence of Himself, A Comforter bestow’d. Oh! grant me by Thy grace To walk by faith alone, Until before my Father’s face, I know as I am known. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: VOL 04 - "NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS" ======================================================================== "No More Conscience of Sins" The object of redemption is to bring us nigh to God, as it is written, "Christ bath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." But what is our state before God when thus brought nigh? The right understanding of this is most important. It is impossible that we could be happy even in the presence of God, if there still existed a thought of His being against us. I need the perfect settled assurance that there is no sin upon me before Him. The sense of responsibility ever makes a person unhappy where there is any question as to sin standing against him: see the case of a servant and his master, or that of a child and its parent-the conscience is miserable if there be upon it the sense of that which will be judged. So God’s presence must be indeed terrible, unless the conscience be perfectly good. If there be happiness for me there, it can only be in the sense of His favor, and of the completeness with which we have been brought to Him-the perfect assurance of " the worshipper once purged " having " no more conscience of sins." God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing: it may not be our heart’s experience. There is a distinctness between the operation of tile Spirit of God in bringing me unto Jesus, bearing witness to me of God’s love, and of the efficacy of what Christ has done, and His operation in my soul in producing in me the love of God. That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my own soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work of Jesus. A Christian who doubts the Father’s love to him, and who looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God’s truth. The gospel is the revelation God has given of Himself; it displays the love of God towards us, and what is in His heart. I can trust the declaration of what is in God’s heart, and not what I think of myself. The apostle speaks of a due time: "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6.) It is almost always true that there is in us a terrible process of breaking the heart, in order that we may be brought to the ascertainment that we are lost and ruined sinners; but the gospel begins at the close of God’s experience of man’s heart, and calls us from that in order that we should have joy and peace from the experience of what is in His heart. Man left alone before the flood, put under the law, in Canaan, indeed under all and every trial of his nature and tendency, up to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, was just God’s putting him to the test. One would have thought, after Adam had been turned out of paradise for transgression, that would have been a sufficient warning; but his firstborn became a murderer. We should have supposed that the flood which swept off the workers of iniquity would have repressed, for a time at least, by the terror of judgment, the outbreak of sin; but we find immediately afterward, Noah getting drunk, and Ham dishonoring his father. The devouring fire of Sinai, which made even Moses fear and quake, seemed sufficient to subdue the rebel heart and make it bow beneath God’s hand; but the golden calf was the awful evidence that the heart of man was “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." (Jeremiah 17:9.) Again in Canaan, a part of the world was tried to the utmost to be cultivated, but if would not do. A bad tree producing bad fruit was the only type by which God could set Israel forth. (See Isaiah 5:1-30) He might dig about it and dung it, but after all these efforts it could only bring forth more bad fruit. At last He said, I have yet one son, perhaps "they will reverence my son," (Matthew 21:37), but man preferred having the world for himself, and so crucified Jesus. Looking to His cross, Christ said, "Now is the judgment of this world." (John 12:31.) At the crucifixion of Jesus, the veil was rent, and the holiest opened; what God was within the veil, then shone out in all its fullness. When grace reveals this to me, I get confidence. I see God holy and expecting holiness-true; but peace with God is in knowing what He is to us, and not what we are to Him. He knows all the evil of our hearts.Nothing can be worse than the rejection of Jesus-man’s hatred is shown out there, and God’s love, to the full. The wretched soldier (who, in the cowardly impotence of the consciousness that he could with impunity insult the meek and lowly Jesus, pierced His side with a spear), let out, in that disgraceful act, the water and the blood, which was able to cleanse even such as he. Here God’s heart was revealed, what He is to the sinner; and this is our salvation. Death and judgment teach me redemption. God judged sin indeed in sacrificing His well beloved Son to put it away. It must be punished: Jesus bore the blow-this rent the veil, and showed out what God really is. The very blow that let out the holiness of God, put away the sin which His holiness judged. The perfect certainty of God’s love and the perfect cleansing of the conscience is that which the defiled and trembling sinner needs. " By the grace of God," Jesus Christ has " tasted death." Death, the wages of sin, is seen in the cross of Jesus, as the consequence of " the grace of God." " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness." Were anyone to demand of me a proof of God’s love, I could not give more than God has done in that " He spared not His own Son:" none other could be so great. But then, it might be asked, may not my sin affect it? No, God knew all your sin, and He has provided for it all: " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin." (1 John 1:7.) In real communion the conscience must be purged; there can be no communion if the soul be not at peace. We read here, "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." There is very frequently the confounding of what faith produces with what faith rests upon. Faith always rests upon God’s estimate of the blood of Jesus as He has revealed it in His word: faith rests on no experience. Jesus said, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!"-" by the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." " We are sanctified," it is not that which is proposed for our attainment; it was the good will of God to do it, and the work is done, to bring our souls unto Himself. Jesus has said "it is finished." But then there must be the knowledge of this also, in order for us to begin to act. You might have a person willing to pay your debts; nay, you might even have them paid; but if you did not know it, you would be just as miserable as before. We are not called upon to believe in a promise that Jesus should come to die and rise again. The work is done: He "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" "when He had by Himself purged our sins." But then this is not sufficient for me: I must know that the work is done; and therefore He sent down the Holy Ghost to be the witness that God is satisfied. Knowing perfectly their guilt and amount, God has declared, " your sins and iniquities I will remember no more." Faith rests on this, " God is true: " he that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." The Lord said to Israel in Egypt concerning the blood of the paschal lamb, " When I see the blood, I will pass over." Could there be hesitation if we were in a house marked with the blood on the door-post? Should we not know that He would pass over? Faith is always divine certainty. God has said, " I will remember no more." This is the ground on which we enter into the holiest. " The worshipper once purged " has " no more conscience of sins." God has found His rest in Jesus: our peace and joy depends upon knowing this. Were anything more necessary, it could not be His rest: God is not seeking for something else when at rest. None else could have afforded this. " God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God; they were all gone out of the way; there was none righteous; no, not one." But God bore witness unto Jesus, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God is well pleased in Christ; God rests in His Son, not merely in His life, though that was holy and acceptable unto Him, but in His work on the cross. Jesus said, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," and that meets our need. When He shows His glory to the angels, He points to what has been done by man. In man was God glorified; as in man, the first Adam, He had been dishonored. Christ reversed all this-" Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;" which God recognizes in straightway glorifying Him. Righteousness cannot be looked for from the creature, but the fruit of righteousness will - the thing itself is only in Christ. God is not a grudging giver. Did Satan, tempting Eve, question this in the forbidden fruit? He has given His Son; He rests in Him; the believer likewise rests there. What can man do for me? Nothing. If I were to come to him to deliver me from death, could he help me? No. He might fill my hand with those perishing things which could only swell the triumph of death and decorate the tomb, but there his power ends. In Jesus God has found His rest-this is mine also; I know it from the testimony of God’s truth. Have you found rest in God’s rest? If you say, I have not, will you say that God has not found His rest there? will you look to your own heart? In that you can never find it - it is only in Jesus: who has said, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest." Would that all knew the perfect rest to be found there! My fellowship with the Father is my taste of the delight He has in the Only-Begotten. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: VOL 04 - "WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE?" ======================================================================== "Whom Have I in Heaven but Thee?" JESUS! ’tis Thou Thyself I need, At every time, at every hour; Oh! wilt Thou guide my feet, and lead And keep me by Thy Spirit’s power, That from Thee I may never stray, But still press on the narrow way. Close to Thy side I fain would cling, And learn the mysteries of Thy love, Into Thy presence entering With boldness through the precious blood; Oh! Jesu’s love is vaster far Than all our poor conceptions are. It is this love my soul would know, Would learn it in its heights and depths, Would mark it in that hour of woe, When on the cross He tasted death- Would ponder all His wondrous ways, And never cease His name to praise. That precious name, it cheers the heart When burden’d, or with care opprest, Then to that blessed One I turn, And always find a place of rest, There on His bosom calmly stay, And then-all else may pass away. Yes-everything may pass away; In Him my all in all I’ve found, And having Him, sure I can say Now I have all things and abound; My precious Lord-to Thee I bow, And own no other Lord but Thou. It was the power of Jesu’s cross, That turn’d my darkness into light, Now for His sake I’d count but loss, All that might dim this precious sight; Full well He knows the flesh how frail, Yet in His strength I shall prevail. Still ’tis Thyself, O Lord, I need A sense of Jesus always near; His love, the joy on which I feed,. His presence, all I need to cheer. With this I’ll sweetly journey on, And wait till He, my Lord, shall come. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: VOL 04 - "WITH THEE IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE" ======================================================================== "With Thee Is the Fountain of Life" Who is that weary Man, so lone and pale, Beneath the shade that falls on Jacob’s well? A lowly pilgrim, from the noontide heat, He sitteth there to rest His tired feet. No more He seems: but heavenly hosts attend And wait on Him, where’er His footsteps bend. They looked with Wonder when they sang His birth, The greatest marvel ever seen on earth. That humble Man is Israel’s promised King, Though for His head a crown of thorns they’ll bring. Yes, He Immanuel is, The Eternal Word, Of heaven and earth, of men and angels, Lord, The Eternal Son hung on a woman’s breast, The mighty God * beside the well takes rest. ….My soul tread softly! for ’t is holy ground, No finite mind can this deep mystery sound, But worship and adore the wondrous love That could the blessed God so freely move Towards thee, a sinner, and an enemy! Yes, Lord, Thou hast revealed this grace to me. But see -a woman comes, unconscious, who Sits by the water, and as careless too. He asks to drink, and coldly she replies, Yet gazes on the stranger with surprise, For there was something in His eye and tone, That ever marked Him as the Holy One. Ah! didst thou dream, poor sinner, that for thee, Thus faint and weary, He’s content to be, That for the joy of giving thee to know The living fountains from His heart that flow, The garden’s agony, the Cross, the grave, He’ll suffer all, His guilty ones to save. But thou didst know, the groveling heart was won, And found a treasure, ere the setting sun, Thy happiest hour, thou could’st rejoicing tell, That hour of noon, which brought thee to the well, Alone with Jesus,-from His lips to hear What drew the publicans and sinners near, The gracious words for which our spirits yearn. O blessed Lord! we too would sit and learn, And drink abundantly, yea, drink forever, Pleasures of pure delight from God’s own river; (Isaiah 40:28) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: VOL 04 - "YET A LITTLE WHILE" ======================================================================== "Yet a Little While" "Yet a little while"-and the months and years Shall soon be number’d with the things that were; And joy give place to sorrow; smiles to tears; And rest divine, where once was strife and care. "Yet a little while"-and the One we love (Whose love for us has been so true and tried) Will call His own unto Himself above, To be forever with Him, as His bride. "Yet a little while"-and the robes of white We shall be clothed in, and defilement cease; No shade of darkness sully His pure light; No harrowing care intrude upon our peace. " Yet a little while"-and the night is spent, And we shall enter on His endless day, And His blest home, with hearts, oh, how content, A scene which human words can ne’er portray! "Yet a little while"-and the tear-dimm’d eye Shall on the glories of our Jesus gaze; And hearts oft sadden’d, beat with holy joy: And tongues oft murm’ring celebrate His praise. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: VOL 04 - A SOLEMN LESSON AS TO THE PRINCIPLE OF METROPOLITANISM ======================================================================== A Solemn Lesson as to the Principle of Metropolitanism Joshua 11:1-23 (Read vs. 1-13, especially vs. 10-13). In the beginning of the chapter we find that Israel’s victories bring fresh war upon them; but the confederation of their enemies only serves to deliver them all together into their hands. If God will not have peace, it is because He will have victory. In verses 10-13 a new principle is set before us. God will in nowise allow the world’s seat of power to become that of His people; for His people depend exclusively on Him. The natural consequence, of taking Hazor would have been to make it the seat of government, and a center of influence in the government of God; so that this city should be that for God which it had before been for the world: "for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms." But it was just the contrary. Hazor is totally destroyed. God will not leave a vestige of former power; He will make all things new. The center and the source of power must be His, entirely and exclusively His; a very important lesson for His children, if they would preserve their integrity. Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body (body of humiliation), that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body (body of glory), according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. (Php 3:20-21.) They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16.) “Every mark of the world is a reproach to him who is heavenly.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: VOL 04 - A WORD OF EXHORTATION ======================================================================== A Word of Exhortation 2 Peter 1:12-15 " Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance." The Lord has taught us much and many blessed truths, and when they were fresh and new, what power they had upon our souls! They filled our thoughts; we spake often one to another about them. Now, I am thinking that one great reason why we have become so weak, why so much failure, is just this, that what we have known we have not kept "always in remembrance." Had the church not forgotten what it did know, surely she would not have failed as she has. D.id we individually walk as always in remembrance of what we learn from the Lord by His word, I am sure we should find ourselves gaining strength, and increasing, too, in knowledge of Him. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/the-remembrancer-magazine-21-volumes-volume-1/ ========================================================================