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  WRITINGS OF J E BATTEN
  by J.E. Batten
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A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by J.E. Batten,
compiled for study and devotional reading.

  Chapters: 28

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. S.   A well of springing water.
    2. S.   All Things are of God.
    3. S.   Centralization
    4. S.   Church Establishment and Church Endowment.
    5. S.   Church Membership, and Gifts.
    6. S.   Church Ministry, or "The Epistle of Christ
    7. S.   Councils, Congress, and Social Science.
    8. S.   Death is Gain
    9. S.   Jesus, led of the Spirit
   10. S.   Joshua and Caleb
   11. S.   Mr. R. P. Smith's "Farewell
   12. S.   My Father worketh hitherto, and I work
   13. S.   Our Exodus
   14. S.   Our Genesis.
   15. S.   Saul's Declension.
   16. S.   Some Notice of the Rev. F. Bourdillon's Tract
   17. S.   The Book of Joshua," and "The Epistle to the Hebrews
   18. S.   The Eirenicon
   19. S.   The Glory of the Son, the Valley of Dry Bones, and the Mount of Olives
   20. S.   The Promises to the Seven Churches.
   21. S.   The Smoking Furnace and the Burning Lamp.
   22. S.   The Spirit of God," and "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost
   23. S.   The Testimony of our Lord
   24. S.   The Throne of God and the Son of Man
   25. S.   The cross of Christ
   26. S.   Thoughts on Joh_3:1-36
   27. S.   To Mr. R. P. Smith on "Consecration, Etc
   28. S.   Watchman, what of the night?

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  CHAPTER 1: S.   A WELL OF SPRINGING WATER.
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"A well of springing water."

Genesis 26:1-35.

1867 377 Every reader of the scripture knows, and every child of God accepts,
the great cardinal principle announced in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "without
faith it is impossible to please God." And each one acquainted with the gospels
will remember the words, "if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye should
say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and it
should obey you." Moreover, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." God is not only good
in Himself, but supremely good in the exercise of His goodness to the objects of
His grace; and this is the mainstay and guarantee to faith, in its deepest
trials, or in its largest expectations.

It is with faith in the patriarchal age that we shall have more particularly to
do in this chapter (Genesis 26:1-35 :), and with Isaac as affording us an
example of its earlier exercises, by which he obtained a "good report," and won
a place in the chronicles of the illustrious dead, who still speak in Hebrews
11:1-40 :, "of whom the world was not worthy." This is God’s epitaph on the
tombstones of His departed. In the walk with God, which His people are called to
take, faith will not only be rejoiced to keep close to Him, but will surely be
tested by the contrariety of things around us, springing either from the flesh
in us, or the corruptions that are in the world, or else from Satan. Besides
these, God will try the faith of His people on their way, that He may be
honoured; and so we read, "Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God." In
the patriarchal days, a famine was the test oft-times which God providentially,
in the way of His government of the world, allowed to come in between faith and
Himself. "And there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in
the days of Abraham." What will Isaac do now? where will he turn in this
dilemma? Will his faith in God use this famine as putting the all-sufficiency of
God to the proof? or, will he, by taking thought for himself, allow God to prove
to Isaac that the famine is too much for his faith? What a moment is this in our
history as well as in Isaac’s! "He went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines."
The eye and heart of God are ever toward the child of faith, even when we are
looking away from Him; so we read, "The Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not
down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in the
land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee."

What can be so encouraging to the felt weakness, which quails before a great
difficulty, as this reassuring love of God? To know that the Lord takes such an
interest in His people as to make everything that concerns us His own concern,
if we will but give glory to Him, by leaving Him to show that He needs the
famine to prove how superior He is to it! God is thus seen not only coming down
into the little circle of Isaac’s misgivings and fears to sustain him, but
leading out the expectations of this resurrection heir of promise into the
breadth and length of God’s own purposes touching Isaac’s seed, and the
possession of all the countries round him, and in the sure covenant that "in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." What was the famine in the
presence of such a God, and in the face of almighty power and faithfulness,
which would secure this wide-spread blessing, and through this very Isaac too?
What joy to a believer when he can thus read his own present safety, even to the
very hairs of his head, in the light of the coming glory of God, with which He
has associated us as "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ!"

"And Isaac dwelt in Gerar" as a stranger, though in the land of promise; and
Abimelech and the Philistines will be, in the future day of Canaan’s glory, only
what the famine really was to Isaac in Gerar — an opportunity for God to make a
way for Himself, and, in doing this, to make a high-road for the faith that
follows Him; for faith travelled in those days with God Almighty! No wonder
"faith should be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen" to the holy brethren of today, the partakers of the heavenly calling. But
to proceed with our chapter, the resurrection heir of promise, dwelling in the
land upon this warrant from God, thinks it no liberty, and certainly asks no
leave from the king of the Philistines, to sow in the land. "Then Isaac sowed
and received in the same year an hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him." What
grace on the part of God, and what joy springs up in the soul, whether then or
now, under the consciousness of doing the things that please God, and receiving
blessing in our individual path and work "an hundredfold," and in the same year.
How like the God we know! True, the conditions of our service now as disciples
are somewhat changed, but what of that? Discipleship will be content and glad to
be as the Master and Lord; and should they be given out to us under the terms of
following a rejected Christ in the world which has cast Him out, accompanied by
"leaving father, or mother, wife, or houses, or lands," still the covenanted
promise is, "he shall receive an hundredfold more now in this time, with
persecutions, and in the world to come, life everlasting."

"And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very
great." No, we are not called to serve a "hard master, reaping where he has not
sown, nor gathering where he has not strawed." The man waxed great, though here
again the change in dispensation has made a corresponding difference in what
true greatness consists. "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his
life a ransom for many." And Isaac "had possession of flocks and herds, and a
great store of husbandry: and the Philistines envied him." The contrast must be
always after this pattern between the man with whom God is and the men who,
though they be in present occupation, are to be driven out, whether then or by
and by, when the Lord — who is now "heir of all things" by resurrection title —
comes into actual possession by righteous power. In the meanwhile we are content
with the same holding as taught us in the first Corinthian epistle, "All things
are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death;
all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s." Was there ever such a
conveyance as this and held on such security?

"And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.
And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and
dwelt there." It is of great consequence when the Abimelechs can discover the
difference which God has put between flesh and spirit, between light and
darkness, between Christ and Belial, and make that the ground of their
separation, or of our departure. "What agreement hath the temple of God with
idols, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" and again "thou
shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together." The children of God will do well
to hold what Isaac held so firmly (viz., God takes care of His own promises and
covenants with His people), for He "will not give his glory to another;" and
they must take heed to dig their wells, and to uncover those which the craft or
power of the enemy may have stopped. Of what use was the increase of flocks and
herds (when God’s blessing was reckoned by cattle) if the Abrahams and Isaacs
did not acquit themselves on their part by digging the wells of water for them
to drink? This is their responsibility. "And Isaac digged again the wells of
water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father, for the
Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called their
names after the names by which his father had called them." Faith reproduces
itself; and how precious when faith got its title from God to do the strongest
things like Isaac with his father’s wells, and to reiterate his right by
establishing their original names! Nor will be forgotten the faith of a later
day, when it "uncovered the roof where Jesus was, and when they had broken it
up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay, and when Jesus saw
their faith he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."
What a lesson are we here taught by the Philistines at Gerar, or the Scribes at
Capernaum; and what a stopping of the wells in either case, and what an
unstopping! "Why doth this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only?"

"And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing
water." How in keeping is Isaac with the double character in which he typically
stood as the heir of all promise, and the heir in resurrection too (for Abraham
received this son from the dead in a figure) as he finds this well of living
water! And in truth we may say that it is only as we realise and take the place
of union with Christ in resurrection-life and power, that there can be any good
well-diggings on our parts, as having received the Holy Ghost, and maintaining
our title in redemption to go through the length and breadth of the promised
land. All other springs are dry. At this point shall we not remind one another
of Him who once rested upon the patriarchal well (of which Jacob drank, and his
children, and his cattle), and, sitting thereon, superseded it, and took the
place of it? What a well of living water He presented to the woman of Samaria,
as He offered Himself to her faith, and said, "If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of
him, and he would have given thee living water." "The woman then left her
water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a
man, that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" Oh, to
have been at this well with the Lord and to have settled everything between the
conscience and God with Jesus as she did; to have come thirsty, and found the
water which springeth up into everlasting life; to have come with her water-pot,
but only to leave it, and be detained at the well by Christ Himself: what an
exchange! — what gain!

"And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with the herdmen of Isaac, saying, The
water is ours, and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with
him." Of all the controversies perhaps those are the hottest which break out
between herdmen and herdmen, amongst the flock of God. The title by digging was
indisputably Isaac’s, for his servants found the well of springing water. But
right by tenure of the country was still with Abimelech. From this arose the
confusion and strife of that day, and from the selfsame thing are continued the
strivings among the herdmen of the present time.

"And they digged another well, and strove for that also, and he called the name
of it Sitnah or hatred," nor does the contention cease until the distinct
separation of the heir of promise and resurrection-title takes place, from the
herdmen of Gerar. Abraham the patriarch of faith, had adopted the same course in
earlier days with Lot. "And Abraham said unto Lot, Let there be no strife I pray
thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be
brethren: is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from
me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou
depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." Lot in Sodom, and Abraham
in Canaan, measured their distances, and the respective histories of one and the
other tell their own tale, and have a tongue for the opened ear of this day.

What instructive lessons are set us in these two wells of Esek and Sitnah, and
how many of the Lord’s people, shrinking from separation as from a viper, go on
with the contentions and strifes, till the disputants, weary of all that stamped
a character originally on their conflict, give in, and say when fainting, "What
advantage shall the birthright be to me?" and sell it like Esau for a mess of
pottage! The acceptance of this principle has produced, between the Church and
the world, that monster system of iniquity pointed out in the Apocalypse, "Upon
her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots, and abominations of the earth!"

"And Isaac removed from thence and digged another well; and for that they strove
not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath
made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." It is in this well of
Rehoboth that faith will always find its fingerpost, and secure resting-place.
And how many thousands in this century alone have proved the blessedness of
following the Lord fully and leaving the herdmen of Gerar, and their wrath, at
the same moment!

Separation from evil, when in fellowship with the Spirit, is separation unto God
in true holiness, and in the title of Christ the appointed heir in
resurrection-life and glory. What is this but real strength in the power of the
Holy Ghost? This is to the Church of God what in type we read in the Book of
Numbers, "Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel
sang this song, Spring up, O well; say ye unto it: The princes digged the well,
the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their
staves." We must follow where God leads on His people, or be ruined by
committing whoredom over again with the daughters of Moab, "when they called the
people of Israel unto the sacrifices of their gods."

"And Isaac went up from thence [Rehoboth] unto Beersheba. And the Lord appeared
unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not,
for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant
Abraham’s sake." How precious to the soul, when the brightest hopes of
covenanted blessing are written out to the full upon the sure ground of the
Lord’s own faithfulness to His own promises and to Himself! What safety and
peace do the heavenly people realize now, as we read in the progressive steps of
a Father’s love towards ourselves, "All the promises of God in him are yea, and
in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you
in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." "And Isaac builded an altar there, and
called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s
servants digged a well." Near the heart of Jehovah for blessing, and under the
shadow of the Almighty for security, were "the pillar and the cloud" of
patriarchal days; and what a green spot for the altar, and the tent, and the
springing well of bygone times! All that the pilgrim worshipper needs is found
in the very place where Jehovah manifests Himself, and proclaims His name as the
God of Abraham, or as the God of Israel; or as now, the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.

How truly, we may say, is the break down in worship, in these failing and faulty
days, to be accounted for by the independency which will erect its "altar" where
it pleases, and pitch its "tent" towards the well-watered plains of Sodom, and
call upon "the name of the Lord" anyhow and anywhere! How this departure from
the true character of worship is deepened when the worshipper has lost the
perception morally of the perfectness which the presence of the Lord with the
heir of resurrection, under the fulness of covenanted blessing (like Isaac),
brings into the picture; as also that the correspondence on our part, whether
then or now, must needs be "the altar," "the tent," and the "living well," and
then the outbreakings of heart and soul by "calling on the name of the Lord."
"The Father seeketh such to worship him, as worship him in spirit and in truth."
May the Lord lead His people back to Himself by giving them to unite these
things together once more.

Little does Abimelech know of the value and meaning of these pledges and
blessings between the Lord and His typical heir, of all the promises in
resurrection-title; but the outward eye can see who the man is upon whom the
favour of God rests. So "Abimelech went to Isaac from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of
his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. And Isaac said unto
them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from
you? And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee; and we said,
Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a
covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt." This part of the history is
of great prophetic interest, inasmuch as the Gentiles are to be blessed through
Israel, and will be so in the coming millennial times. "Rejoice, ye Gentiles,
with his people;" or, as in Zechariah, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those
days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of
the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saving, We
will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." The order of God for
the earth is, "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the earth with
fruit." And Abimelech, and his friend, and his captain, pay suit and do homage
to the incoming heir of promise, and make a covenant that Isaac and the nation
will do them no hurt in the season of their greatness and renown. Of course, the
Church — the body and bride of Christ, the mystery kept secret till Paul — is
not in this picture; and it is of great importance not to confound the earthly
people, and the Gentiles in their blessings below, with the heavenly people and
their calling by a risen and ascended Christ to all spiritual blessings above;
who in the meantime, while waiting for the Lord’s coming, are put into the place
of separation from all else. "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, male nor female, bond nor free; but Christ is
all and in all" — a precious and peculiar portion of the Church. And Abimelech
said unto "Isaac, Thou art now the blessed of the Lord." The Gentiles shall come
bending unto thee; "kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing
mothers," and great shall be the peace of my people. How blessed to turn the
burdened heart away from all that now groans and languishes under the bondage of
corruption, and the penalties righteously inflicted on man for sin, to that
bright prophetic morning which shall arise without a cloud, and reveal the Lord
Himself as the second Adam and the true Israel, the securer and unfolder of
every promise to the nation and to the Gentiles; holding all things, as He then
will, in the double title of redemption by His own blood and of maintaining it
in the power of resurrection life and glory; the digging of wells superseded and
gone to give place to rivers of pleasures. "Thy peace shall flow like a river,
and righteousness be multiplied like the waves of the sea." "Israel then shall
dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and
wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is
like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is
the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee:
and thou shalt tread upon their high places." "O the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out!"

J. E. Batten. (On the testimony of T. B. Baines.)


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  CHAPTER 2: S.   ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD.
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All Things are of God.

2 Corinthians 5:18. The coming in of Christ by incarnation laid the foundation
for a new course of action between God and mankind, according to what Christ was
in the glory of His person and the perfection of His ways and work. The objects
too for which He came opened out in their accomplishment on earth two new
centres of operation for God in grace and government; and these were at the
mount of transfiguration by personal glory and righteousness, finally at the
cross by His substitution for the guilty. On the mount of His transfiguration He
shone resplendent in a light above the glory of the sun; and was invested with
honour and majesty, when there came to Him such a voice from the excellent
glory, "This is my beloved Son, hear him." He clad Himself with righteousness,
as a cloke; and stood the accredited possessor of far more than man had ever
received and forfeited. How different afterwards was the garden of Gethsemane,
where this same man of sorrows sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to
the ground! Still more different was mount Calvary, when Jesus was led as a lamb
to the slaughter, and His visage was more marred than any man’s, and His form
more than the sons of men. His majesty and kingly power were also denied Him,
and the soldiers stripped Him and put on Him a scarlet robe, and platted a crown
of thorns and put it on His head, and a reed in His right band: and they bowed
the knee before Him and mocked Him saying, "Hail king of the Jews." But between
Himself and mankind there yet lay outside all this the fierce wrath of God
against sin; and into this deep suffering and woe He passed, when, as the
sacrifice offered up to God without a spot, He was the substituted One, and
cried, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" This is what these two centres were to the
Lord — on the mount of His transfiguration, the voice from the cloud claimed Him
as worthy to receive honour and majesty — on the mount of His crucifixion, when
under the judgment of God for our sins, and the sword awoke against the man who
was Jehovah’s fellow, He cried with a loud voice as the forsaken One and gave up
the ghost. If these two mountains, in their varied characters, were all this to
Christ; what must they have been as the new centres of operation between God in
His holiness and sinners in their sins, and between the throne of God’s
righteous government and the world? They became indeed the great turning-points
of another history, and got their answer from God in the rent veil which till
then had concealed Him; and in the resurrection of the second man into the
heavens which received Him. The glory of the Father took Him from the cross (the
place of His own victory in divine counsels and foreknowledge) and from the
sepulchre, where He overcame him that had the power of death, that is the devil;
and fie was carried up in the cloud crowned with glory and honour. The second
Man has gone from the cross to the right hand of the throne of God and become
the head of a new creation; nor is there any other but this representative man
in the heavens where God is. A believer in Christ must therefore look out of
himself to Christ, and if he would know the present truth about himself, "this
truth is in Jesus."

It is a wonderful thing (when understood) to see how by the cross of Christ we
pass out of our old relationship and standing in Adam with the penalties and
consequences of sin which rested upon us as connected with the man who fell.
Death has done this. By the death of the last Adam we are for ever separated
from the condemnation and judgment inflicted on the first. It is as wonderful to
see how through the risen and exalted Son of man we pass into our new standing
of acceptance and completeness before God, and enter upon our relationships as
sons of the Father, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. The ascension of
Christ has done this. By His exaltation we know ourselves made the righteousness
of God in Him. Again, how blessed it is to be made conscious that the Holy Ghost
has come down from the Father and the Son to dwell in us as the temples of the
living God, and to make true in us that which is true of us in Christ. Only thus
can such verities become our most familiar thoughts, our daily bread, and source
of supply to us as new creatures in Christ. We are kept in this nearness to God
by a power equal to that which quickened us and set us in these relationships
with our glorified Head and Lord. How else can communion and enjoyment with the
Father and the Son be maintained in us against all the contradictions of the
flesh, the world, and the devil, unless the fact of our new creation can be
displayed to faith in Christ at the right hand of God, as well as what we are by
grace as in Him? An important scripture for the establishment of the Lord’s
people in the truth about themselves is shown in Ephesians 4:1-32 :: "But ye
have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught
by him, as the truth is in Jesus; that ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and
be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new man, which according
to God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth." The Holy Ghost, true
in His operations in us, cannot therefore accept the experiences we naturally
have of ourselves, as ruined and in the flesh (before we heard or learned
Christ) as the ground of that work which He is come down to carry on in us, as
redeemed out of the Adam state in which we were by nature. The Holy Ghost
testifies of Christ to us, and witnesses that "as Christ is, so are we in this
world." He therefore judges and keeps the sentence of death upon every motion in
the flesh, which if followed out would make us unlike Christ. Working mightily
in the inner man, He produces in us as new creatures the affections which are
suited to the Father and the Son for the fellowship into which we are called.
Moreover, the Spirit of God is true in divine operation to the work of Christ at
the cross, keeping the old man in us under death, which was there judicially put
to death in Christ, "knowing this that our old man has been crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin." The motives also which are supplied to us for practical conduct,
necessarily spring from the truth between God and ourselves, as to what we are
by the death and resurrection of Christ, namely, How shall we that have died to
sin, live any longer therein? And again, "Know ye not that so many as have been
baptized unto Christ Jesus, have been baptized unto his death?" It is important
to see that Christ is the rule of the Spirit’s testimony to us and work in us,
both as to life and death; and that Christ must therefore be the object and rule
of our faith and intercourse with God. Equally important is it to get our hearts
and consciences assured that God Himself owns none other than Christ as the
ground of His present and future actings towards us. It is evident that all
stedfastness and growth in a believer in Christ, as regards himself and his
intercourse with God, about sin and holiness, the flesh and the Spirit, grace
and righteousness, heaven and hell, depend upon the person and work of Christ,
as the established and unchangeable basis of all communion between us, as
redeemed unto God, by the blood of His Son. With a view of bringing these
precious realities nearer to our souls, and ourselves more under their power, we
may consider a little in detail, and perhaps in application, the blessed facts
already stated. These are, that God is unalterably true to Christ and His work,
that the truth about ourselves is now in Jesus and nowhere else, that the Holy
Ghost both by testimony and operation in us is true to the person and work of
Christ on earth and in heaven, and that we are called out in faith and in fact
to be true to the truth, by learning Christ who is the way, the truth, and the
life. Such are the gracious lessons which the Father’s love has given us to
know, as eternal realities between Himself and the children of His adopting
grace. The soul that is not learning them in communion with God, under the
anointing of the Spirit in the peace which passeth all understanding, must be
thrown back from Christ upon self, and the bitter experiences of what the flesh
is; and thus be tossed to and fro by its deficiencies one day, or the hope of
attainment the next. Consequently there will be conflicts with evil and
disappointment every day. Multitudes find busy occupation on this ground of
self-seeking, making their being something the object instead of Christ. But
building ourselves up in our most holy faith is building up one another in
Christ; and to this we will now turn. A great question upon the matter before us
is, What do we understand by "as the truth is in Jesus?" One way of reply, and
helpful as introductory, may be to ask what the truth was about us in Adam, by
his fall. The first half of the epistle to the Romans is largely occupied with
an answer to this question. Measured by the righteousness of God there was none
righteous, no not one; measured by the glory of God all have sinned and come
short of the glory of it. Further, "by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned." Thus
judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Besides this, as children of Adam,
Romans 7:1-25 : speaks of the indwelling sin and imparted corruption; and as a
consequence of these actual transgressions and guilt, so that our state as under
condemnation and our alienation from God by nature are summed up in these words,
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?"

Into the midst of this ruin and misery, this scene of God’s dishonour and of
Satan’s triumph, Jesus came to glorify the Father, to deliver man, and to
destroy the works of the devil. He who alone could work redemption such as the
sinner needed endured the righteous judgments of God (which else were powerless
to Him) by which to deliver us. He wrought by means of the penalties which God
had inflicted upon men, and so wrought by them as to put away for ever the
offences and sins, on account of which they had been pronounced. Prophecy had
pointed to this wonder-working Redeemer, "O death, I will be thy plague; O
grave, I will be thy destruction." Consistently with this prophecy and after all
that had been foretold was accomplished, He laid His right hand upon John in the
Apocalypse, saying, "Fear not: I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth
and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death
and hell." The penalties were endured by Him who could work out deliverance by
nothing else. They were employed to glorify God, to put our sins away, and to
defeat Satan who held them in his power. Penalties are now gone and sin is put
away by the sacrifice of Himself, and God will finally cast death and hell into
the lake of fire. When nothing further remained for Christ to do, and not till
then, He said, "It is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost."

It is necessary to take this survey of the work of our blessed Lord, in order to
pursue our inquiry, whether God is invariably true to Christ and His work on the
cross, as the only rule of His action towards us. The last act of Christ in
laying down His life, and the first new action of God in raising Him up from the
dead, ought never to be separated in our souls any more than the last loud cry
and God’s answer by the rent veil. Otherwise we separate redemption and
resurrection. But before a believer can get happily into this position as one
with Christ, it is of immense moment to see that God does more than rend the
veil that hid Him from the earth and shut us out from heaven. The place and
relations of God, consequent upon the finished work of His Son, are as
completely changed towards us, through redemption, as they were previous to the
fall, when God walked with Adam in the garden of Eden, and after it when He
drove out the man. So that our question is really twofold: not merely is God
true to the work of Christ on the cross and at His right hand in heaven? but
will God be true to Himself and His relations to the crucified Saviour in death,
and to the exalted Son of man in glory? After the resurrection of the second man
what place can Adam have with God? Properly this ceases to be even a matter of
inquiry, since God has made it the whole subject of a new revelation to us in
the gospel of His grace, "All things are become new." As truly also another
history has commenced with man in the heavens, and between God the Father and
His redeemed people on earth, concerning all His purposes and counsels, made yea
and amen in righteous title by Him who has gone up to God. It is that same work,
which has put away our sins and by which we are saved, that has glorified God;
and on account of which the Christ who did it now sits on the right hand of the
majesty in the heavens. Further, and as regards ourselves and the altered
relations of God towards us, having accepted the blood of Christ as the
propitiation for our sins, God correspondingly takes His place upon the
mercy-seat and proclaims a gospel of salvation. Having judged our transgressions
on Christ, and divine righteousness having found its answer in the death of the
substitute, God takes another place at the cross, no longer as a judge, but as
"the just God and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." The One who was
delivered for our offences being raised from the dead, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The cross has
thus been the place of judgment, of blood-shedding, and of death. Christ has
suffered, the just one for the unjust, to bring us to God. This is what the
cross is to the believer, to Christ as the victim, to God the judge of all.
Death is there where Christ bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Life is beyond
it where Christ now is with God, crowned with glory and honour. Is God true to
these two centres — the cross below where Christ was, and the throne above where
Christ is; and does He make these the unchanging rule of His actings towards us?
Let us take our stand at the cross as believers, to see our sins and iniquities
on Jesus; yea all that we were as in the flesh brought under the hand of God for
judgment on Christ. By means of righteous condemnation on Him, the guiltless
One, all that was against us has been brought down by death into the place of
ashes, where all has been consumed by the fire of God’s holiness and wrath. Can
God deny Himself in what He condemned and judged upon Christ and reduced to
ashes under divine wrath? Can He deny Christ in His sufferings, death, and
atoning blood? Nay, His own glory was wrought out here by these means, and Satan
overcome. What does He say to us, and what must He do for Christ but declare, "I
am he that blotteth out your transgressions as a cloud, and your iniquities as a
thick cloud?" God is true to the work of Christ and to His own judgment of sin
and the flesh at the cross. All has been carried down to death, and by means of
death left in the silence of the grave. Christ is risen out of it, and we in
Him. Nothing else has gone up. The blood is before God, sprinkled in the holiest
where He dwells, and a new and living way opened which He hath consecrated for
us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The blood of Christ which shuts
out all fear of judgment (since it is the abiding answer to judgment) has opened
the heavens to us, and we come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need. This is what God is towards us.

Again, will God be equally true to Himself, to Christ, and to believers, as
regards life and righteousness and glory in the risen Christ on the throne?
Surely, for it is He who says, "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," that in the
enjoyment of this oneness with Christ we might glory in the Lord. It is God who
has wrought this for us. It is He who made Christ to be sin for us, that has
made us to be the righteousness of God in Him, and we are complete in Him, who
is the head of all principality and power. No, there is no other rule which God
accepts as the ground of His actings towards us but what He has declared Christ
to be at his right hand in glory. "God who hath commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." Moreover, "we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of
us." The unvarying testimony of the apostles in their epistles is to establish
the saints before God in Christ. Peter writes to them as "scattered strangers,"
and "obedient children," but "begotten again unto a lively hope, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Further, he says, "God hath raised up
Christ from the dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope may be in
God." Indeed we may ask, What could the Holy Ghost do by the apostles but
glorify Christ, and in this way? Such is His present ministry, as Jesus declared
of Him, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all
truth, for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak, and he shall show you things to come." The passages already
quoted show as to redemption, righteousness, and resurrection, that Christ is
made of God all these to us, and that we have the full effects of them in
Christ, proving that God has no other ground of acting towards us. Further, as
regards life, Paul writing to the Colossians addresses them as associated with
Christ. "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." Once
more as respects "life," the apostle writes to the Ephesians, "But God who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Nothing can be
plainer than this, "that as He is, so are we in this world." Throughout John’s
epistles also the same blessed truth is insisted on.

Again, as to glory and the coming of the Lord, we shall find the same great fact
holds good, which we have been examining as to our justification and redemption,
both in life and righteousness. Indeed the coming of the Lord is the very point
at which all is consummated. Then we drop forever the image of the earthy man
and put on the image of the heavenly. Then we shall be presented faultless,
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Our Lord’s own words are
decisive: "If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that
where I am there ye may be also." So John affirms: "Beloved, vote are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." The
consideration of facts like these, between ourselves and the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, cannot fail to bring our souls under the
power of that blessed hope of the Lord’s coming, and our rapture into the air to
meet Him, which will in truth close up all between us and the earth that is
earthy. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
then we which are alive and remain [unto the coming of the Lord] shall be caught
up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the
Lord."

Lastly, another kind of proof and an equally important one may be found in the
fact of the Spirit dwelling in us and the Spirit being with us as the Spirit of
truth and the glorifier of Jesus. This "promise of the Father," fulfilled at
Pentecost by the descent of the Holy Ghost, is what our Lord referred to on the
last day, the great day of the feast of tabernacles: "Jesus stood and cried, If
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink:" and it is added, "This spake he
of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost
was not yet [given], because that Jesus was not yet glorified." So also in the
Galatians: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." In
either of these instances, how could such an unspeakable gift reach us as the
indwelling Spirit, were it not that God has no other ground of action towards us
than the worthiness of Christ? Observe, further, how truly God acts in us upon
this truth: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" These scriptures are
quoted to show that the Spirit not only testifies of Christ but dwells in us,
because we are Christ’s, owning us as bought with a price and working in us
accordingly, that we may "glorify God in our body [and spirit which are God’s]."
The title and claim over us, by sovereign grace and the Father’s love, are thus
complete upon all points, and founded upon the perfection of the finished work
of Christ. Sealed and indwelt by the Holy Ghost as we are, there is no room left
for uncertainty, much less for misgivings and fears. On the contrary, the soul
passes on into its own proper blessedness in Christ, as well as out of its own
conscious wretchedness, as once connected with a body of sin and death,
rejoicing in the liberty wherewith Christ has made it free. Once outside
ourselves, we reach the power that has carried us out, and are free to take part
with it against the flesh in ourselves that it has been against, and to use it
in favour of what it has created and formed in us that is new. As was said at
first, it is a wonderful thing to realize that "all things are of God," that
"old things are passed away, and all things are become new." We are therefore
among those in whom these great facts are to be manifested, by that mighty power
of God, both now and hereafter. In conclusion, it may be well to call attention
to the contrast between this love of God, which is the spring and source of all
the blessedness connected with our present and eternal relations, and the
impotency of every existing institution and human organization, which only
contemplate the improvement of man as he is and where he is: in other words, the
difference between divine and human philanthropy is in question. And the
difference is nothing less than this, that the kindness and love of God towards
man lies appeared, in that He has not spared His only begotten Son, but has
given Him up for us all. By the ways and means which have occupied us in this
paper, God has brought back man to Himself by nothing less than a
self-sacrificing love, which gave the Son who is in His bosom.

Man can do nothing like this, even in his own circle — he has no such resources.
Man has nothing better than himself and his schemes for his fellow, and is
reduced therefore to confederacies, organizations, etc. These are all powerless
as to conforming men even to the benevolence which has instituted them. The
philanthropist cannot by these means create benevolence between man and his
fellow, so that he should love his neighbour as himself, much less love God with
all his heart and soul and strength. Mere institutions and their endowments do
not even secure the attendance of those for whose benefit they were established,
nor is it by church extension that the inhabitants of a country can be made true
Christians. The best of these may perhaps embrace the idea of drawing man nearer
to God, but the necessity of his being brought by substitution and sacrifice is
yielded up: otherwise the scriptures and testimony to Christ would be prominent,
and Christ Himself be everything. But the love of God in sending forth His Son
(the Man whom He had in reserve) has formed the way, by redemption through the
blood of the slain Lamb, to make us new creatures in Christ and thus unite us by
the Spirit to Himself as born of God — one in the Father and the Son. In the
world’s alienation from the love of God and its growing departure from truth and
from light, under the delusion and sleight of Satan and of men, all things are
of men. But where the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ has shined into the heart, all things are of God; who has
reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. Old things have passed away, and all
things are become new. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 3: S.   CENTRALIZATION
========================================================================

Centralization.

"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Things which once existed in their own abstract significations between God and
man, and which maintained their distinctiveness, revolving so to speak round
their own centres, have been marvellously brought together in Christ, and
inseparably connected by His work on the cross, with the counsels of God before
the world was, and our blessing. Take as an example the great fact, that "mercy
and truth have sect together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
It is not that truth has ceased to be truth, or merged itself into mercy, so
that the native character of each is destroyed, any more than the possibility
that righteousness could change itself into peace; but, on the contrary, a new
foundation has been formed between God and His creatures in and through the
cross by which "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord." So with the attributes of God, such as His holiness and
justice; or rather what He is as light and love. How could they cease to be what
they are in themselves? Nor can they admit of any changes in their exercise
towards mankind, else they would fail to be perfect as displaying the character
of God. Each is in its nature what each was, but each finds in the blood of
atonement what each needs for its vindication, in the fullest exercise towards
us. Moreover, each is further bound up with the Lord’s own perfectness
henceforth. But that new action of God towards Him in raising Him up from out of
the dead! All that God is, as well as all that we were in our sins, have not
only been concentrated in Him — in His life and death — but by means of death
and judgment He has separated the evil from the good for ever, by putting away
sin through the sacrifice of Himself. Thus He has left nothing but the good and
what God is in unspotted holiness, with the blood of His Son our Lord and
Saviour before Him, and sprinkled upon us as His rule. So as regards life and
death, death and redemption, redemption and resurrection between God and
ourselves. Not only has each got another and a new meaning in Christ to what
they had in themselves, as viewed in the light of promise or by Levitical type,
but they are brought together in the person and work of Christ; so that the
distance which naturally existed between them is done away. For example, at the
cross and sepulchre, three days serve to measure the distance between death and
life, death to the old man and life in the new. And these same three days now
close the once vast space of His incarnation, when it stood in promise and type
between our redemption and His resurrection. Forty days serve to mark the period
of time when the last Adam was born out of death, and the hour when He was
carried up into heaven in a cloud as the ascended Lord — the glorified man —
head over all things to the church which is His body.

Again, if days and years are brought away from their ordinary computation by
time, and put in connection with the Lord and His coming, or with the day of God
and the final dissolution of the heavens and the earth, faith’s reckonings
become like His and we readily believe that "One day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." It is this new method of
calculation which enables us to declare as to this apparently long interval
which measures His absence, "the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as men
count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward." The difference between these
standards (which are either divine or human) makes the difference which we are
contemplating.

Indeed everything between God and ourselves is thus brought into new and close
connection through Christ the Second Man, both as to facts and times: and, when
learnt in their existing order and meaning, by acquaintance with His person and
work, gives another character to the ways of God with men, and their thoughts of
Him. The cross and the sepulchre here, and the Son of man at the right band of
the throne above, are now become the only established centres of God’s
everlasting operations in grace towards us, and in righteousness to Christ, and
for His glory. These same centres are the resting places of our faith as regards
sin put away and righteousness brought in, and sustain the soul in a known peace
with God that passeth all understanding, keeping the heart and mind through
Christ Jesus. These centres are also the birthplace of our brightest hopes and
expectations, for Christ is the alone object between God and ourselves. He will
accept no other rule of action toward us, in redemption or resurrection for
Himself, and we disown every other as the ground of our confidence and hope
before Him. It is by Christ — this Christ — that we believe in God who raised
Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in
God. J. E. Batten.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: S.   CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT AND CHURCH ENDOWMENT.
========================================================================

Church Establishment and Church Endowment.

See 1 Corinthians. The attention of the Lord’s people has been largely directed
of late to the Epistle to the Romans, with a view of showing the summary it
contains of the responsibilities of Jew and Gentile before God, and yet the
common level upon which they both stood. "They are all under sin." Besides this,
there is a further judgment pronounced by the righteous God upon the great fact
of man’s enmity, as expressed by the cross and the betrayal of Christ, by which
"every mouth is stopped and the whole world brought in guilty before God."
Moreover, when tested by the standard of what was due from the creature to the
Creator, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Nothing but the grace of God could take advantage of a crisis like this, and
make it the opportunity of introducing righteousness in its new association with
Christ in grace, "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood," to declare at this time His righteousness, "that he might be just,
and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."

God Himself is here seen in the new circle of His own delights, saving the lost,
pardoning the sinner, justifying the guilty, because of the work of Christ on
the cross, and His having been "declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." With
what delight do the redeemed listen to the voice of the Holy, Holy Lord God
Almighty, as He challenges the whole universe around Him: "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God’s elect? "" It is God that justifieth," silences
every fear. "It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," is the ground of
our largest confidence and the guarantee for our boldest hopes! We are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
firstborn among many brethren. The God who suits us for Himself and for His Son
in the eternal glory also fashions us for a correspondingly suited place while
we are in this world: and this is the second part of the Epistle to the Romans.
"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." A Christian must in this way be modelled both for the
heavens and for the earth, both for time and for eternity. He is called out by
grace to take no other place than with Christ above and with a rejected Lord
below; but how far short of this vocation in its two-fold character the
Christians of today have fallen, each heart alas! knows for itself. The
immediate purpose of this paper is not however with the Romans but with the
Corinthians: only it was necessary to preface the subject with these remarks,
since Paul throws open the church doors at Corinth to the beloved of God and the
called saints of Rome. A comparison of the opening verses of these epistles will
show the difference now pointed at, and in application we shall discover that it
requires a first-rate Roman Christian to make a really good Corinthian
churchman. To the first Paul writes, not as a gathered body, but "to all that be
in Rome," etc.; whereas, to the last he writes "unto the church of God which is
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and
ours." These are recognized as worshippers, and their first act of christian
faith is, as gathered round the person of the living and risen Lord, the Head of
the church, to call upon His name, etc. The Romans were instructed in their
epistle how they were called and made saints and sanctified in Christ Jesus, so
that they were prepared individually to be gathered on the very threshold of 1
Corinthians for church employment upon proper church ground, "with all in every
place who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."
This platform is wide enough to embrace all the sanctified in Christ Jesus, and
yet exclusive enough to shut out all who are not redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. In pursuing our examination of this 1 Corinthians, we shall find that the
first eleven chapters are occupied with the important subject of true church
Establishment, and the remaining part with the engrossing question of real
church Endowment; but closing all up by the glorious chapter 15: of resurrection
as the only and proper hope of the church of God on earth. How important a
matter this is, in all its parts, at a time like this, and for Christendom
generally, need not be insisted on.

Let us now follow this 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, as the successive
chapters lead us; and first of all notice, yea, and associate ourselves with,
that new source and measure of church blessing and benediction, "grace be unto
you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ," as the only
proper standing of called saints, and of the sanctified in Christ Jesus. Should
there be a doubt on the heart of any worshipper, as to his title to take this
place before God, let every such misgiving be reproved, as be reads in this same
chapter, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is
written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." What a new object has the
Father’s grace found for us in this Son of His own love, and our Saviour Jesus
Christ! may we not fail in our part, to "glory in the Lord," by an unreserved
acknowledgment of all that God has made Him to be by resurrection from the dead.
But connected with this encouraging exhortation there is likewise a stern
prohibition, "that no flesh should glory in his presence;" and may the Holy
Ghost, who dwells in us, keep us as mindful of one as the other, in our new
church relations, which are thus opening out to us In 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 : we
are instructed respecting "a wisdom of this world, and of the princes of this
world, that come to naught," and "the wisdom of God which he ordained before the
world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew," etc. Let us
connect these important facts together. In the first chapter "man in the flesh"
is cast out of God’s presence, and the Second man, the Lord, is the only object
of glory. Here we get as a consequence of this, the wisdom of the world, and its
powers set aside; and another wisdom connected with Christ introduced, "which
God ordained before the world to our glory." This wisdom (which was once a
mystery) is now revealed by the Spirit of God, that Spirit which searcheth the
deep things of God; and this Spirit we (the redeemed) have received, "that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth," etc. Had the princes of this world known the ordained wisdom of God,
and Jesus the Lord, in whom this mystery was embodied, and developed, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Here we are taught the distinction between
the Church of God, and the world; and what it is which really constitutes and
measures the distance between the two in time and eternally, a solemn fact in
the government of God and for the consciences of His saints.

Everybody admits the interest which attaches to laying a foundation stone and
the ceremonials which are attendant thereon. Be it so: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 :
calls us to witness such a thing, but infinitely more grand since God lays it;
and the apostles and the master builders are gathered round this new foundation,
"the pillar and ground of the truth." As we approach we hear it said, "other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." And see
inscribed upon Him, "a sure stone, a tried stone, a precious stone, and the
chief corner stone," and the top stone to be brought out with shootings in that
day when He fills all earth and heaven with His praise. In the meanwhile we add,
"this is the Lord’s doing, and marvellous in our eyes." Let us further examine
this church architecture, and the designs, and hear from the lips of Paul
"according to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder,
I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereupon." And again, "if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: every man’s work
shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire: and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is."
What a solemn and searching word, for a day when church extension is on
everybody’s lips, and commended on all sides! What must that church be which is
no longer the city set upon a hill which cannot be hid? and where is that church
of which the Lord says, "because thou art neither cold nor hot I will spue thee
out of my mouth?" Over the entablature of the true church at Corinth was
written, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Sharp cuttings and inscriptions
follow, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in
this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." And again, "The wisdom
of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in
their own craftiness." We will only take a glance at our church bequests and
then pass on to 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 : "Therefore let no man glory in men. For
all things are your’s; whether Paul, or Apollos, Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your’s; and ye are
Christ’s; and Christ is God’s." These are our church benefactions.

We are now led to the offices in the church and to church dignitaries, but only
to receive our new lessons as to these also. "Let a man so account of us as of
the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is
required in stewards that a man be found faithful." Astonishing as it is to see
men brought into this nearness to God, put into the church as the new vessel of
witness and testimony on the earth, yet how plainly does the world show itself
to be the self-same world as regards this church and its ministers, as it was
before, when its princes crucified the Lord of glory! "For I think," Paul says,
"that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death:
for we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are
fools for Christ’s sake; we are made as the filth of the earth and are the
offscouring of all things unto this day." There is not only a church and a world
in this epistle, but each is true to itself and the distinction as obvious as
between Christ and Belial. These ministers could say, "Being reviled, we bless;
being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat." In the next chapter
we are taught what church discipline is, and why it is to be exercised and how.
"Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore
the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." The Lord will
not suffer us to be inconsistent even with ourselves as "unleavened;" and this
is very wonderful, though all such acts get the authority and sanction of His
name. Here let me observe that, as on our entrance upon church standing and true
christian worship we were seen "calling on the name of Jesus Christ and our
Lord," so here, when in the church and exercised in church discipline, it is
"when ye are gathered together," and "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," the
only but all-sufficient source of blessing and of power. From these our
responsibilities in the church of God flow. "Therefore put away from among
yourselves that wicked person." After this, will any plead for the allowance,
much less the admission, of "a little leaven," whether in corrupt doctrine or in
loose practice?

1 Corinthians 6:1-20 : instructs us in our new behaviour as regards the exaction
of our natural rights. "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to
law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Know ye not that we shall
judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" It is important
to observe the contrast between the Holy Ghost’s teaching in the church and the
teaching of Moses under the law. If an injured man puts himself in connection
with the last named, he will be justified in exacting "an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth;" but if he puts himself at the feet of Christ, he will be
taught another lesson. "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil;" or, as we
have it in our chapter, "Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you,
because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do
ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" Our separation unto "the
kingdom of God" is likewise intended here, and our connection with it is made
the motive for actions which correspond therewith "Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived . . . .
neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God." The liberty is equal to the subjection. "All
things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are
lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." The bondage of
self and the body, with the thousand claims it makes, are set aside, and true
christian liberty affirmed in our new allegiance to Christ in life. "The body is
for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Know ye not that your bodies are the
members of Christ? and he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." If any
enquire by what methods such an emancipation has been effected, our chapter
supplies the answer. "Such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God." Again, if self is no longer to be the object, nor the body
our rule, to whom do we belong, and whose are we? "What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and
ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body [and in your spirit, which are God’s]." Such are "the members of
Christ," and these new "temples of the Holy Ghost" on the earth, both. engaged
and possessed!

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 : treats mainly of the states and condition of life in
which a man or woman may be living when called of God to the knowledge of His
Christ and our Lord. For example, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the
wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your
children unclean; but now are they holy;" as also, "He that is called in the
Lord being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: and he that is called, being free,
is the Lord’s servant." So as regards marriage, if any step out of the place in
which he was called, and marry, "he hath not sinned," nor she: only let them
marry in the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 : we are taught how to conduct
ourselves in reference to the knowledge that puffs up, and the charity that
edifies, as applied to meats and drinks, and days and seasons, and things
offered to idols. The governing and absorbing fact for Christianity is, "To us
there is but one God, the Father, by whom are all things, and we in him, and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." So that charity may
pass into its own region, and delight itself in seeking an object upon which to
spend itself for its good and edification. Mere knowledge on diversities, such
as are in question, puffs up. "If any man love God, the same is known of him."

1 Corinthians 9:1-27 : gives the proofs of Paul’s apostleship, not by succession
nor by human appointment; but as he says, "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our
Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet
doubtless I am to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." As
to reward, "Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel,
should live of the gospel." And again, "What is my reward then? Verily, that
when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I
may not abuse my power in the gospel, and this I do for the gospel’s sake, that
I might be partaker thereof with you." His service and labour are disconnected
from all human and secondary considerations: "For necessity is laid upon me;
yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." He puts himself under
responsibility to the Lord by a deeper self-judgment than ever, "that he might
be temperate in all things, even when striving for the mastery." Moreover, this
responsibility becomes now a prominent feature of this epistle, and is extended
to these Corinthians by the verse, "Know ye not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain." Personally he
closes with the solemn warning, "But I keep under my body and bring it into
subjection; lest by any means that when I have preached to others, I myself
should be cast away."

Let us recapitulate a few of the important points which have passed before us in
these nine chapters. We saw first, as regards man himself, that he was put aside
as in the flesh, with all his pretensions, "that no flesh should glory in His
presence;" secondly, that the wisdom of the world and its princes were set at
naught; and thirdly, that the world itself was a worthless world, because it had
lost the one chief treasure which God in grace had sent into it, and was given
over to its prince. Consequent upon this rejection of Christ (but in fulfilment
of the purposes of God) this Second man, the Son of God, has been exalted to the
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and has become the centre around whom
the "called saints and the sanctified in Christ Jesus" gather together as one
body, and on whose name they call, as the true worshippers, who worship God in
the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The
church of God below has properly begun its life and history from the glorified
Head above, an entirely new standing before the Father, through redemption by
the blood of the Lamb, and called by the God of our Lord Jesus Christ to a
portion with Him, and that we are quickened, raised, and seated in the heavenly
places in our Lord and Head, to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air when He
comes with a shout. But to return. 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 : introduces us to
church ordinances and a responsible people who take that ground before God as
Israel did. "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed under the sea, and
were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," etc. Professing
Christendom has found at this point an entrance of ordinances and
sacramentalism, the only points within the reach of man in the flesh and the
craft of Satan, for who could touch Christ in the glory, or the real church of
God, as one with Him there? But baptism and the Lord’s table and the supper,
with all their varied and significant meaning in truth, by the Holy Ghost, could
be corrupted and turned round to suit mere human ideas of self-importance, and
the subtlety of the enemy, who always revives and works by that which God has
judged and set aside in Christ at the cross. Who knew better than Satan that
death had closed up all the relations between God and the creature, and by man’s
own act too, by which he had been not only the betrayer, but the murderer of
Christ? Baptism was the great outward expression of this solemn fact, the end of
man in the flesh. "Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus
Christ were baptized unto his death?" The enemy would not suffer such a
testimony as this to proclaim to the conscience of Christendom the fact of
death, and soon turned it round to suit his own ends, and by ways and means with
which all are familiar declared baptism to express life, and thus affirmed that
the baptized were regenerate by that ordinance, children of God, members of
Christ, and heirs of the kingdom. Could there have been such a Christendom as
this nineteenth century presents, if the scriptural meaning of baptism, and the
Lord’s table, and the supper had been kept before the heart in testimony as
representing death, the death we had deserved, but judicially borne by the Lord
Jesus Christ, who suffered in our stead, the Just One for the unjust? How
significant are the warnings of this chapter 10: to people who still "sit down
to eat and drink, but rise up to play." With many of them God was not well
pleased, but they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our
figures or types. "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted and were
destroyed of serpents."

There is a difference, at least so I judge, between 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 and 1
Corinthians 11:1-34, though both are alike sacrificial. Nevertheless, I take
chapter 10: to be characteristically "the table of the Lord," and therefore
separative in its claims (as representing His title) from everything
antagonistic to the Lord in the world around us; "Ye cannot be partakers of the
Lord’s table and the table of devils." What little weight has Paul’s challenge —
"do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?" — upon the
professing Christians of our day! Further, the table of the Lord is not only
separating but uniting as respects the believers. "For we being many are one
bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one loaf." We are many
members, but only one body, of which the one bread which we break is the symbol.
So the "cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of
Christ?" The body and blood of Christ are the only basis of assurance before
God, and our communion one with another is on the common ground of the shedding
of His blood. The claims of the Lord upon us, founded on His rights and titles,
extend from the table, as a new centre, known by us in redemption, to "the whole
earth and the fulness thereof." All this is the Lord’s, not asserted in creative
title (though that be true too) but like Boaz who not merely had his Ruth but
purchased the inheritance besides. We, believers, own the Lord’s title to it all
by resurrection, a title to be made good in divine power, when He comes a second
time. Man in a state of nature, since Adam was driven out from Eden, is a
trespasser, or at least an intruder in this creation, and is only in it by
sufferance of God; but we are redeemed creatures, and owning the right and title
of our risen Lord to the inheritance by redemption purchase, ask leave of no one
to walk through the length and breadth of it, though we have not in fact so much
as to set our foot upon. Whatsoever therefore "is sold in the shambles, that
eat, asking no question for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fulness thereof." our privileges as redeemed are new, so are our
responsibilities; for this same Lord does not suffer us to do any longer the
commonest things in an ordinary way, but says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." What an elevation, and
what a motive is this! So also as to the style of our behaviour in the Lord’s
inheritance, "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor
to the church of God: even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine
own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." God had put aside
man in the flesh, judicially in Christ on the cross; but now we see the redeemed
putting self aside in the power of resurrection life, and in the Holy Ghost, so
that we anticipate the day of our perfect blessing, and begin while on earth to
sacrifice self for the profit of others, and for the glory of God. This
redemption of the inheritance, and the Lord’s title and claims, introduce us to
1 Corinthians 11:1-34 :, where we get the new creation order, when all will be
manifestly established in blessing according to God. The old creation order was
God and the man and the woman; and this standing upon creature responsibility
failed; but only failed to make room for the reserve of God and the introduction
of Christ into a new creation-order; "But I would have you know, that the head
of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of
Christ is God." In this new order of headship, where the head of man is Christ,
there is an end of all fear, for the head of Christ is God. The supper follows
this, and puts us into our places to feed upon the broken body and shed blood of
Christ; or rather to be in that scene of judgment where in the understanding of
our souls, in perfect peace with God, we are set to judge ourselves for the
allowance or existence of anything in us, which Christ died to deliver us from,
and which the judgment of God has condemned and put to death. It is a wonderful
place to be set in, and to be told to judge ourselves, and that "If we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged" of the Lord; and that even "when we
are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world." But besides, and beyond these matters of self-judgment, we are
gathered round the Christ Himself who died for us, and to remember Him in His
death — not the living, risen, and ascended One — the object of our worship, and
on whose name we called in the opening chapter of this epistle — but the night
of His betrayal, when He took bread, and broke it, and said, This is my body
broken for you — likewise the cup — only now given out to us from the Lord in
heaven by our apostle. It is necessarily with this addition, "For as often as ye
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come."
The church fulfilments of the death of Christ will be in our rapture into the
heavens, and our being changed into His likeness, and our being presented in the
presence of the Father’s glory faultless and with exceeding joy.

Having considered in these eleven chapters the scriptural nature of the church’s
establishment, we now come to 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 : to the remaining subject
of the church’s endowment. Such a church as this epistle describes where (Christ
is everything from the foundation stone, to the top stone; and where the truth
of the person, and work, and death of Christ is taught doctrinally under the
anointing of the Holy One, and sacramentally set forth by baptism, and the
table, and the supper) could only be endowed by the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore we read, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have
you ignorant;" and then follows the surprising catalogue, or enrolment of what
divine love could bestow on this new vessel of testimony on earth — the body of
Christ. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; there arc
differences of ministries, but the same Lord; there are diversities of
operations but the same God, which worketh all in all." What must the gifts be
that spring forth from sources such as these, and how entirely independent and
separate from any power under heaven, is this "church of the living God!"

Besides these diversities, which are necessary to the existence of a divine
unity — there is the person of the Holy Ghost, which is beyond all His
operations and gifts; "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into one Spirit." We are all conversant with the diversities that
make up and constitute the unity of the human body; and this is taken as a
figure of the church in 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For as the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so
also is Christ." Scripture only recognizes one body, the body of Christ, not a
congregational or a nonconformist body of Christians — much less an evangelical
alliance — or a baptist, or a methodist body, but "ye being many are one." As we
saw just now, there are not many suppers but only one Lord’s supper, and not
many tables but only one table of the Lord. "For we being many are one bread and
one body;" nor are there many churches such as Popish, Greek, or Anglican; but
we are all one in Christ Jesus. "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a
voluntary humility and worshipping of angels . . . . and not holding the Head,
from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and
knit together, maketh increase with the increase of God." As regards gifts, God
has set some in the church; first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly,
teachers; after that, miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues. Such are some of the church’s endowments. The purpose of
this bestowment next follows in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, 1 Corinthians 14:1-40,
which contain yet further direction as to their use for "the edification of the
body." In brief, it may be said that the gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians
12:1-31 : need be baptized in the element of love, or the charity of 1
Corinthians 13:1-13 :, in order to be rightly exercised for the edification and
growth of the body, as described in 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 : The presence of a
plurality of gifts in the assembly is recognized, and consequently directions
are given for their exercise, affirming that "the spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets," and that God is not the author of confusion, but of
peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints, adding, "Let all things be done
decently and in order." How generally an ordained minister and his flock or
congregation has been substituted for God’s order in the church, it is not here
my purpose to expose. Nor do I think, where human rules have introduced such a
flagrant contradiction as is generally admitted in what is called "the faith and
order" of established and dissenting communities, anything is wanted but an
exercised conscience before God to find the sure way of relief, and an "open
door, which no man can shut."

We come now to the magnificent 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 : or "the resurrection"
chapter, the proper close to such an epistle, because the church’s translation
into the heavens to meet her Lord is her present and blessed hope. Satan knew
this right well, and turned this chapter round into a burial service, and rung
over it the funeral knell of the departed, changing a resurrection out of death
into a burial service unto death and the grave and corruption. Let us examine
one or two leading objects; and in the first place, what was in question at
Corinth? Not whether any died, but if there was any resurrection. "How say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" The chapter is to prove a
resurrection out of corruption, out of the grave, and out of death, and not a
burial into them, which no one ever doubted. "Christ the firstfruits; afterward
they that are Christ’s at his coming" are the key notes of this new chapter of
our Christianity, which brings life and incorruptibility to light. Can it be
called a burial service which introduces that great fact, "But now is Christ
risen from the dead," and affirms, "if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain,
and ye are yet in your sins?" The enemy, who so successfully changed the meaning
of baptism from death to "regeneration," was equally skilful in turning this
great revelation of Christ, and our resurrection into the heavens, into a
funeral service and a requiem over the dead.

Further, this rising from among the dead on the part of the Second man by the
glory of the Father — this rainbow which spans the horizon of our faith — puts
the Lord by ascension into connection with His kingdom, in which He is yet to
reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. "The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death." The grand and distinguishing part of Christianity is the
risen Son of man, the guarantee of the church’s resurrection or translation to
meet her Lord; the assurance too "that God has appointed a day in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained:
whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the
dead." How necessary it was for Satan that he should blind the minds of people
to this twofold character of the resurrection is obvious to any exercised soul.
An ascended Lord is the pledge to a believer that he can never come into
judgment; whereas a risen Christ is the proof to an unbeliever that he cannot
escape it. It is resurrection from the dead which has put the Son of man in his
proper place of supremacy and headship of a new creation. It is by the future
reign of the ascended One, as Christ and Lord that the kingdom shall hereafter
be given up to God, even the Father, "that God may be all in all." Henceforth
let this chapter be owned as the record of our victories, for such in truth it
is, since we can say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory?" And again, "Then shall be brought to pass the saying, Death is
swallowed up in victory." What becomes us to do, as we quit this triumphant
arena of our conquered enemies, but to bow our heads and say, "Thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ?" If things were with
a saint according to the old law of nature, he might and would still prepare for
death, and pay this debt, as some say; but with the sanctified in Christ Jesus
all debts and liabilities have been cancelled long ago at the cross, and we are
brought by Paul into connection with the blessed hope of the Lord’s coming.
"Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Henceforth, there can be
nothing common in the pathway of a saint. "As we have borne the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Is there anything common
in the pathway of our Lord? "As Christ is, so are we in this world." Our epistle
closes with church commendations upon a new footing, so that "if Timotheus come,
see that he be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I
also do." Likewise with proper church salutations, "The churches of Asia salute
you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is
in their house." Finally, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema Maranatha The Lord encourage His beloved people to step out of every
system that will not bear the light and test of this epistle, and to accept the
word which says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be stedfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 15:58.) J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 5: S.   CHURCH MEMBERSHIP, AND GIFTS.
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Church Membership, and Gifts. In reading the Epistle to the Ephesians it is of
the greatest consequence, doubtless, to notice the various subjects of which the
Holy Ghost is treating, seeing it is God Himself, and "the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory," whom it reveals, as come forth in the fulness of
all blessing to the Son of His own love, and to those who are His.

It is however only one of these subjects which I desire to follow in this paper,
and in the simplest way; so that I shall almost confine myself to the manner in
which it is unfolded in each successive chapter by the apostle Paul. Let us then
consider what this scripture teaches respecting the Church — the Church’s Head
and its members — the source of gifts for its edification and growth — and the
Lord’s care over it till He comes "to present it to himself a glorious Church,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

Ephesians 1:19-23 treats of the Head and the body, and speak only of Christ, as
raised up into His place of Headship, by "the working of the mighty power of
God, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places." It is of great moment, in these last
days of establishing or disestablishing the national churches (so-called) of
Christendom, to see that this Head of the Church which is His body can never be
touched or tarnished by the wisdom or wickedness of men. Moreover, this
scripture tells us that God "hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to
be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him
that filleth all in all." The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, of whom
alone these wondrous actings of God are true, is therefore the Head of the
Church, which is His body, and there can be consequently no joint or second
head. The acknowledgment of this fact will be found to clear the minds of the
simple of all difficulty and doubt as to the true and only Head of the assembly
(or Church) of the living God.

Ephesians 2:1-22 as plainly teaches how the body and its members are formed.
"God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath
quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye saved) and hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." The
members of this Christ, as Head, and therefore the members of the Church which
is His body, are quickened persons, who were once "dead in trespasses and sins,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as others;" but they have been
born again, born of the Spirit, born of God, have life in the Second man, and
are raised and seated in Him as the Head in the heavenlies. When the Lord comes,
the members will be manifestly with Christ the Head, and be glorified together
with Him. The mighty power, which wrought in Christ and raised Him from the
dead, has been also put forth "to usward who believe," and has quickened us out
of the death in trespasses and sins where we once lay, and will be displayed a
second time in raising or changing us into the image and likeness of the
heavenly man presently.

These persons are members of Christ, the mystic man, members of His body, of His
flesh, and of His bones. None else are members, nor is there any other
membership; and to own or sustain any other is therefore to be false to the
truth. There are not two memberships, nor two bodies, any more than two heads.
What a deliverance would the Lord’s people get if they were simple enough to
give up every membership but this one which God alone can give, for it is He who
has quickened us together with Christ as our Head, one as much as another!

Ephesians 4:1-32 declares to us that the source of all gifts to the Church is in
the Lord Himself as Head of the body, and flows from His love, which passeth
knowledge. As regards the members of Christ "unto every one of us is given
grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ," and as regards the gifts
to the body, "he gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and
some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." The Lord is thus the only
source of gift, in the heavenlies, though the Holy Ghost on earth, and
especially in the Church, acts according to the Head, in carrying out these
purposes, and in agreement with His own love. Besides this, it is "by one Spirit
we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be
bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." A fact of great
moment may come in here, though the record of it is found at the close of
Ephesians 2:1-22 which is, that the Church on earth is "the habitation of God
through the Spirit," nor is there any other. Thus we learn from the scriptures,
that the source of life and power and gift to the members of Christ is in the
Lord, and that no one can make a pastor or a teacher, any more than an apostle;
and that the members of the body in every locality are responsible for disowning
any and all pretensions or assumptions from whatever quarter they may come. Nor
is it enough to disown the false thing; but our privilege is to be maintained by
owning the right, this one body, and one Spirit, as well as the sufficiency of
the Lord’s loving care to give all gifts that are needed, in order that the
Church which is His body, may not fail in one particular on which He has
expressed His mind and purpose. If the Lord’s people saw how they were thwarting
the action of the Holy Ghost in the Church by human arrangements and systems,
and by parochial divisions of the sheep and the shepherds, through authoritative
appointments of clergy, or the commoner forms of congregational elections, and
ordinations; they would waken up to the discovery of the sad and general
departure of the saints in the present day from every true idea of what the
Church of God really is.

Ephesians 5:1-33 declares the unchanging love of the Lord to the Church, for
which He gave Himself "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish." This is what the Church is to the Lord, and He is the Saviour of the
body. He is coming to fetch His Bride away — His Eve — in the day when "the
marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Were the
Lord’s people looking for such a presentation, and such a marriage, or such a
Bride, or the coming forth of the Lamb who is to "present her to himself a
glorious church," how many a stirring thought would spring up in the mind, and
how many searchings of heart would there be among them, as to whether each could
not, by association with such a scene, get more into correspondence with the
Lord’s wishes respecting His Bride! He says, "behold I come quickly, and my
reward is with me." "I am the root and the off-spring of David, and the bright
and morning star." Would not a consciousness of His own deep love lead us on our
part to reply, "the Spirit and the Bride say, Come?" And if He yet adds "he
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly," may it only find
this answer from the longing affections of our souls "even so, come Lord Jesus!"
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 6: S.   CHURCH MINISTRY, OR "THE EPISTLE OF CHRIST
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Church Ministry, or "The Epistle of Christ."

See 2 Corinthians. The object of the paper inserted in your recent number upon
"Church Establishment and Church Endowment" was to bring forward from the First
Epistle to the Corinthians the teaching by the Holy Ghost on those two important
subjects, and to present them to the hearts and consciences of "the sanctified
in Christ Jesus," as a word in season for the perplexed, and to show the Lord’s
claim on their obedience. It yet remains to examine what the purposes were, on
account of which "the church of the living God" was thus established and
endowed; and these I desire now to trace, from the Second Epistle to the
Corinthians.

Let me observe at the outset that the professing church has long separated in
practice the necessary connection of these two epistles: necessary I mean if the
Church was to be "the Epistle of Christ," known and read of all men.

Gifts, and ministries, and endowments by the Holy Ghost, such as miracles and
tongues, distinguished the Church as the vessel of display in the earth, and was
the new proof how God could accredit and enrich this mystic Eve, the body and
the bride of Christ.

Jehovah had bestowed much upon the beloved nation of Israel, and upon her
prophets, priests, and kings; but it is to "the great salvation," which began to
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; that
God Himself bears witness, "both with signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to the Holy Ghost, according to
his own will." Never was there such an opportunity for Satan to turn all these
endowments against God as now, for God had never before put such things into the
hands of man as His servants. As a consequence we are told by Paul in this
epistle, "such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ; and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light," etc. To the beloved Corinthians Paul said, "Now ye are
full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us, and I would to God
ye did reign, that we also might reign with you." Gifts, moreover, and
ministries, were the proofs from the risen and ascended Lord of His love to the
Church, for He gave them; and they were "enriched by him in all utterance and in
all knowledge . . . . so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coining
of our Lord Jesus Christ." But besides the ascension and the coming of the Lord,
there is the great, but forgotten, fact of a rejected Christ and the Christian’s
present association with his Lord and Master in that rejection by the world.
This identification with Christ in suffering is what the apostle brings out in
this second epistle and puts in the foreground. A mere glance at Christendom
will show any thoughtful mind how its churches have contended for establishments
and endowments, and gifts and ministries, though never reaching them according
to the divine order of 1 Corinthians, and have entirely abandoned the idea of
present participation with a rejected Lord, by their avowed union with the state
and the world, which cast Him out and crucified Him. With these introductory
remarks let us now proceed with the Epistle itself; and observe how differently
it is cast in all respects from the previous one. God Himself is presented as
"the Father" of our Lord Jesus Christ, and "the Father" of mercies, and the "God
of all comfort," who comforteth us in all our tribulation, etc. Let it be
observed too that this’’ form of presentation is peculiar to this epistle and is
necessary for the objects proposed, "that we might be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."
The purpose of the Holy Ghost therefore is to show the church of God at Corinth
that they were called out into association with Christ their Lord on the earth
as well as in the heavens. They were not only "to come behind in no gift" from
the ascended One, but to come behind in nothing that faithful allegiance would
bring them into with the rejected One, knowing "that as the sufferings of Christ
abound, so our consolation aboundeth by Christ." Human nature could thrive, and
vaunt itself, and even make a gift of the Holy Ghost the pedestal for
self-exaltation in the first epistle; but human nature can never connect itself
with the pathway of our Lord, in the descending steps which brought Him down to
the obedience of death.

Paul could say here of these Corinthians, "Our hope of you is stedfast, knowing
that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the
consolation." Such a path can have no attraction except for a new creature in
Christ, as led by the Spirit into real discipleship with our Lord. It is only as
our steps follow on in the footprints He made for Himself and left for us that
we descend into the region where He once was, and lived, and glorified God. Let
us ever remember that the consequences of our obedience are not our care, but
the consideration of Him whose will we follow. It is at this point that the
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort meets us; and it is here too that,
as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth by
Christ. Paul could say, as to the trouble which came on them in Asia, "We were
pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life;
but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." The two positions are remarkable
into which the Spirit leads these believers. Here they are united in life and
obedience with the bumbled, rejected, and suffering Christ as their example;
whereas in the first epistle they were gathered upon the confession of their
standing, as the sanctified in Christ Jesus, calling upon the name of the
living, risen, and ascended Lord, as worshippers with all in every place — both
theirs and ours. The enemy knows if he can separate these two parts of a whole
Christ in the life of a believer (as he has done, by separating these two
epistles in the history and ways of the Church on earth), he has spoiled all
testimony for the Lord below; and consequently we look in vain for anything
collective, anywhere, that stands unmistakably, as "the Epistle of Christ" known
and read of all men. The former paper treated mainly of Church Establishment, as
connected with 1 Corinthians; but there is a very full and precious scripture in
this, which speaks of Christ establishment and is its counterpart: "for all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God; who
hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." This is
the circle of our present and eternal blessing, where God and Christ and the
Holy Ghost are alike interested and occupied with us, till all things "shall be
to the glory of God by us." The brightness of this eternal blessedness opens
itself out to the faith of all, and links itself peculiarly with the sufferings
of Christ and with the sentence of death in ourselves.

Another grand subject of this epistle is "the ministration of the Spirit," which
is taught in the central chapters, from 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; 2 Corinthians
4:1-18; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-18; 2 Corinthians 7:1-16 and is
properly introduced by the verses just quoted, as to our anointing and sealing.
Before passing on it may be well to observe that this same scripture, which
finishes with "the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," should be taken as a
companion picture to that with which the first epistle opens, "of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who from God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption," that he who glorieth, "should glory in the
Lord." In this last instance, it is what God has made Christ to be unto us, that
we might glory in the Lord; whereas in the other it is what we are as
established by that same God in Christ, and of which the Holy Ghost is the
witness to us and seal and earnest. The soul will readily feel how necessary
these two descriptions of our blessing are if we would understand who the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is; and how He has suited us to Himself by
the work of Christ for us, and by the work of the Spirit in us, for His own
present joy and the delight of His Son, and "that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love."

Here comes very fairly the question, What ministry has God in reserve for this
new race of people — "the sanctified in Christ Jesus?" and in whom is it to be
opened out to them? and in what power can it be wrought out and ministered as
the faith of God’s elect? The chapters which now lie in order before us, supply
the answers to these important queries. Historically there have been two
ministries, with their respective ministers, and their ministrations; the first
was introduced upon the earth, at Mount Sinai, by Moses, by bringing in the law,
under which the nation of Israel bound itself by a covenant of works, "all that
the Lord hath commanded us, we will do." ’Whatever the outward glory was, with
which this giving of the law was accompanied (so that even the mountain and
Moses quaked) it was a ministry which claimed righteousness from man and was
formally written and engraven in stones. In effect the law brought in the
knowledge of sin. "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet;" and consequently it became "a ministration of condemnation" to all who
were under it, and had thus accepted its conditions on the footing of their own
responsibility. Rewards and promises to the obedient were out of the question,
and in fact forfeited by the transgressors of the law of Moses; and its
threatenings and curses were earned instead, so that this ministry became
further (as stated in our chapter) a "ministration of death." The law and its
demands upon the people, expressed by the words "thou shalt," and "thou shalt
not," and accepted by them upon the old covenant of works "do this, and thou
shalt live, or do this, and thou shalt die," has brought out the great fact
that, if there "had been a law which could have given life, then verily
righteousness should have come by the law." The ministry engraven in stones
consequently brought the knowledge of sin and condemnation and death; and
equally proved that unless "the Spirit, and the water, and the blood," found
their way in by the grace of God, all were cursed, and under the curse. The
present ministry is from the heavens, and is founded upon the finished work of
Christ upon the cross below, where He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
God has raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, by the blood of the everlasting
covenant, and has crowned Him with glory and honour. Moreover, He has founded a
new ministry, upon the worthiness of this Christ and Lord, "not of the letter
which killeth, but of the Spirit which giveth life." It is this ministry which
Paul contrasts here, with the former, and which he characterizes as a
ministration of the Spirit, a ministration moreover of life and righteousness
and glory, from the living and exalted Son of man, at the right hand of God, by
which we are brought into liberty, and are changed from glory to glory even as
by the Spirit of the Lord. This ministry by the Holy Ghost, from the heavens now
— or when applied prophetically to the nation, and the Gentiles, and to the ends
of the earth in the millennium — is based upon the blood of Christ — the blood
of the New Testament; but this may, and does open itself out, as to the kind of
blessing, to the heavenly and earthly people, according to the manifold counsels
of God, and the place in which Christ is; whether as now hidden with God, or as
by and by displayed in power and glory in the midst of the sons of men.

Promises, covenants, and types, and also prophecies had announced the Lord as
the seed of Abraham, and indeed as the Son of David, and heir of all that God
had bestowed upon his progenitors, to be substantiated when the Messiah comes
again, "and his people made willing, in the day of His power. In the meanwhile
Jesus has been rejected, and all this earthly order is therefore in abeyance.
Moreover, the veil is upon the heart of that people, until they shall turn to
the Lord, and then shall the veil be taken away.

What can God connect, during this interval, with Him who has been declared
worthy to receive all honour, and blessing, and glory, and power? It is here
that Paul says, in our chapter: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God; who hath made us
competent ministers of the new covenant." Paul was himself arrested by this
glorified Son of man, "to be a minister and a witness both of those things which
thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear to thee." In the
wisdom of God there were purposes and counsels which lay hidden, as Moses
testified, "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those which are
revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the
words of this law." It is these secret things, Paul says, which, "according to
the revelation of the mystery, were kept silent since the world began, but now
are made manifest and by the scriptures," etc.

God had given away the earth, and had lighted up the path, which He was taking
with His people through it, with types and promises connected with "the seed"
and founded on the blood of the New Testament, which by and by will be ordained
in the hands of the true Mediator, when the people of Israel shall be
established under its blessings in Immanuel’s land. God had nevertheless the
heavens in reserve, and to give away to another and an entirely new race of
people, when their Lord and Head had first taken His own place in them on the
right hand of the throne of God. The Lord Jesus is thus to fill the earth and
the heavens with His praise, and to lead not only His brethren after the flesh,
and put them (as the true antitypical Joseph) into the land of Goshen; but
likewise to carry the people of another standing and calling, into the Father’s
house which He is gone to prepare for them! God has made known to us the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself,
"that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in
one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated," etc.

Though our chapters in 2 Corinthians do not stretch out to such a circle as the
Ephesians, yet they open to us the fact that, under this present ministry of the
New Testament, we have a ministration from life, in the risen and ascended
Christ, to life in us by the Spirit — as well as a ministration of righteousness
from the Lord where and as He now is, who is our righteousness, and by which we
are made the righteousness of God in Him. This ministry is personal, and
essential to us as individual believers, that we may know how suited we are by
our new creation for all that is prepared for us, as our portion with the Lord,
according to the Father’s purposes and counsels, in the eternal glory for which
we wait, and of which the Spirit is the seal. In the meanwhile this personal
ministration of life is to produce by the Spirit of the living God, in the
fleshy tables of the heart, "an epistle of Christ, known and read of all men" —
moreover, an epistle (as Paul says to these Corinthians) written in our hearts.
Here we may pause and put a question to our souls: Is this the ministry I
recognize — a ministration of life, righteousness, and glory, from the risen and
ascended Lord in heaven, and written not with ink, nor on a table of stone, but
with the Spirit of the living God on the very heart itself? Or am I still
entangled with the former ministry of Moses and the voice of words on Sinai and
the claims of a law which rightly demanded righteousness and said, This do and
thou shalt live? How different are these two ministries, and how lamentable to
see thousands of the Lord’s people wandering back into the old house of Moses,
instead of accepting with joy this present ministration of life and
righteousness as the only existing ministry between God and His beloved people!
When will they take their proper places in the Church of the living God, and in
the conscious liberty whereby Christ has made His members free, by redemption
through His blood?

What other ministration can there be for those who understand what the assembly
of God is on the earth, and what else could the craft of the enemy do than blind
people to it, and get them back into the house of bondage, to lean upon
ritualistic observances, of which, when at their best, God said, "I have no
pleasure?"

Never let it be forgotten that the First Epistle to the Corinthians gives the
present pattern of true church establishment and church endowment, and that this
Second issues the only true church epistle, known and read of all men, and the
only ministry that can produce it; that is, a ministration of life and
righteousness by the Spirit of God, written on the fleshy table of the heart!
May God emancipate His own people and bring them out from responsibilities and
disappointments as under the law, to stand in the privileges of His own grace
and calling and the accomplished work of Christ, by which they are put in a
complete acceptance with the Father! But to return. There is every now and then
to be found in the epistles (especially when some new or extraordinary subject
is introduced, like "this ministry of life" of which we are now speaking) a
further revelation of God and of Christ, suited to the occasion, and which
becomes the testimony of the Holy Ghost. If God acts in grace towards men in
their sins, and to plant them in His own righteousness, it must be from Himself.
In this 2 Corinthians 2:1-17, for instance, there is consequent upon this
ministry such a change as carries us beyond the mere natural relations of God
and man, for another person, the Word made flesh, has come in, "the daysman who
has laid his hand upon both." The preaching of what He did in redemption upon
the cross, ascends up before God as a sweet savour.

Paul, as the apostle and witness to this gospel of the glory of Christ, "thanks
God who led him about as in triumph, and made manifest the savour of his
knowledge in every place." Moreover, he and his fellow-workers "were unto God a
sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish." The
relations and responsibilities of men spring out of this new ground likewise;
for "to the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the
savour of life unto life." This is what the acceptance or rejection of this
ministry of "the gospel of the glory" involved. Adam, and the fall of man, are
no longer the exclusive subjects, but the grace of God, through Christ, brought
to such an one as Saul, "the very chief of sinners," and presented to any like
him! But if God in grace, through Christ, is thus active in love towards sinners
in their sins, "the god of this world" can also use this ministry of the new
covenant for his own objects against mankind. "If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of
them which believe not." No power would be equal to such a scene of ruin and
wretchedness as the wickedness of Satan has produced, unless the Creator-God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness upon creation’s chaotic
confusion, had done a far greater thing and given by almighty power "the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God," to shine unto
sinners dead in trespasses and sins.

Adam was created in the image of God in the Genesis of human life; but by this
first man came sin, and death, and the long catalogue of mortal woes. The last
Adam has since come in, and by His atoning sufferings and death, has laid a new
foundation for the operations of God in grace and righteousness. Redemption is
become the new ground upon which God is displayed, and the second man in the
heavens has taken His place as "the image of God" in them. It is from thence
that Paul says, "God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

How little is this gospel of the grace founded on the blood of Christ on the
cross, below — or this gospel of the glory, from the right hand of God above,
presented to the acceptance of the lost and the undone!

Man is either left to struggle with himself and his own corruptions in a state
of nature; or handed up to Moses and the law, instead of to the cross where the
old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed.
In such a case there is no ground left for a believer to take as a standing
before God than redemption, and none but the Second Man to whom he can be
conformed now or hereafter. Besides "the epistle of Christ" which the
Corinthians were, and this "gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God," there is yet the fashioning power of this life upon us, whilst in the
mortal body, and this I would desire to trace a little. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-18,
this life, ministered from the ascended Christ, put the ministers into the same
place as the only true Servant took, when amongst His disciples on earth: "for
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus’ sake." How entirely the place of the minister in our times varies
from, and indeed, contradicts the character of our Lord’s service, and that of
the apostle’s is plain, if we remember the way in which the Master quelled the
strife that arose among His disciples, which of them should be accounted the
greatest. It is the Lord Himself that gives the true glory to christian service.
Was He ever so great as when "the hour was come, that he should depart out of
this world to the Father," and He rose from supper and laid aside his garments,
and took a towel and girded Himself, and poured water into a bason, and began to
wash the disciples’ feet? How great was He in the eyes of all in heaven
throughout the three and thirty years of His humiliation; when He emptied
Himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross! We are not
living in the power of this life, and enough in the company of Him in whom it
was seen to perfection, to be charmed by its grandeur in the midst of a world,
whose "kings exercise lordship." The first thing for "a new creature in Christ"
is to understand how this fact has necessarily changed his relation and standing
to the heavens and the earth, and that his relatively new position to each is
precisely what Christ’s is. We must be truly one with Him, where He now is, in
conscious exaltation as heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, in order to
get into our true place of service in the Church, where to be great is to be
little, "less than the least of all saints." Next in importance to our getting
into position upon earth, into the place now that corresponds with the mind of
God (like the Master found in His day) is the conscious dependence upon God,
with which this ministration of life connects us: "we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

Again, outward circumstances in a world like this only call out this life from
the risen Christ in greater brilliancy where it dwells. "We are troubled on
every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but
not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in
our body." What a divine life and what a ministry "the Spirit of the living God"
is working in the new creature, "for we which live are always delivered unto
death for Jesus’ sake!" The resources and confidence of this ministration of
life are not only outside ourselves, but outside the world, and are found in the
history and ways of the Christ who is our life, "knowing that he which raised up
the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."
Again, as to afflictions, do they stumble the man in Christ, or clog the divine
life, or make it shine the brighter as it stretches itself away to its own
height for relief? "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the
things which are seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are eternal." The real strength of a soul will be in
what it is consciously connected with. If it be far more with things unseen than
with things seen, the things seen will become tributary to this life in Christ.
When the spies compared themselves with the giants, they were grasshoppers in
their own sight; but when faith in Caleb contrasted the giants with the God of
Israel, then these giants were the grasshoppers. Life from the ascended Christ
and Lord connects us by the Spirit with what He is, and our affections are set
on the things at God’s right hand. But, further, this ministry provides for
every emergency, so that "we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven: if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be
found naked."

We have thus been guided to consider this ministry of life in the members of
Christ, putting them into an entirely new relation with all things, whether
present or future, temporal or eternal, seen or unseen; and as regards all the
circumstances of the way, only laying these under tribute, so that they work for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. This life, moreover,
worketh down into death all in us that else would live, and, living, would be
the link by which the flesh and Satan work, so as to connect us with this
present world, out of which by the death of Christ we have been redeemed. We
must be either false to the objects of our redemption, or else in the power of
that life which we have with a risen Christ insist upon death with ourselves,
and with the world, which by its own act, and by the judgment of God at the
cross, is left under that death. "Now he that hath wrought us for the self same
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." This
ministry of the new covenant, in connection with the ascended Son of man, gives
these triumphs to us as the consequences and fruits of His work, that in us (who
are not but have life) "mortality might be swallowed up of life." The Church at
Corinth and elsewhere was to be "the epistle of Christ, known and read of all
men" upon every point in which its conformity by life and righteousness, and by
the work of the Spirit of the living God, could make it manifest. Another and a
totally different race of people, "new creatures in Christ" were to be seen in
this old creation — men no longer living to themselves, but to Him who died for
them and rose again — men who were bearing about in their body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, in the presence of the very world that had put Him to death and cast
Him out. Properly, this life in us takes up the fact of this judgment by God,
and puts us in the place of death, and bears about the dying of the Lord Jesus.
What else could this life in the power of the Holy Ghost produce in a new
creature?

It requires a world such as this is in which to go down to nothingness,
weakness, and death, just as it requires another in which to rise and pass up
into its own height of glory, like Christ who is the life. It is dependent on
nothing under the heavens nor obstructed by anything, but finds and forces its
way in the pressure of resurrection power, drawing into fellowship with the
sufferings of Christ, that in the measure in which the afflictions abound, so
"the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort" may administer the
consolations. It draws its sweetest motives from nothing lower than Christ. "The
love of Christ constraineth us" and conforms its progress by the example of Him
"who died for us and rose again," knowing too "that we must all be manifested
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done
in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

Lastly, this life coming from the glorified One makes Him as He is the test and
standard of its judgment. "Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh,
yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more . . . . old things are passed away; behold all things are become new;
and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ."
May God give us to know this ministration of life, righteousness, and glory, as
the ministry under which we are placed, and to understand the Spirit of the
living God as the power, which is adequate for all the purposes which are to be
wrought out in us, so as to keep up the truth of death working by life below;
and the other truth of life working beyond the reach and range of death, above,
according to "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God!"

"The ministry of reconciliation," to wit, that "God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them," is the suited
adjunct to this ministry of the new covenant. "The ambassadors for Christ" to
His betrayers and murderers open their credentials by presenting God as
beseeching men to be reconciled to God upon this new footing, "that he hath made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him." What "the sheet let down from heaven," wherein were all manner of
four-footed beasts and creeping things, was to Peter as the warrant from God to
him to open the door to Cornelius and the Gentiles, this ministry of
reconciliation was to Paul now, seeing its aspect was to the whole world.
Therefore he could say, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
the chief." The Jesus whom Paul was persecuting when stoning Stephen, the Son of
God in glory, Christ the Lord, and this blasphemer, the very chief of sinners,
give the two extremes of "this ministry of reconciliation," and they meet and
are together.

2 Corinthians 6:1-18 speaks of the ministers themselves, and what care should be
taken that the ministry be not blamed, giving no offence in anything, but in all
things approving ourselves in afflictions, in distresses, in stripes, by
pureness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned; as unknown, and yet well known;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all
things. This part of the epistle closes with a solemn appeal to the Corinthians
as to things which had interfered with the exercise of this life, "and
straitened them in their own bowels." Their enlargement depended for
manifestation, on their being "not unequally yoked together with unbelievers;"
and it is important to observe that the Spirit of God delivers a soul, not by
discussing with it that particular point by which it has been caught by the
enemy; but by bringing the conscience up to the sources of life, and the springs
of real christian conduct. "What fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?" and again, "what
concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel?" These are the challenges which brace up the soul and free it from the
spider’s web; for the craft of Satan is to drop in the intermediate shadings
between two extreme colours, such as light and darkness, and produce a
Christendom in the place of Christ, and to confuse things, so that there is
neither the Church nor the world to be seen in these last days of delusion. Men,
and alas! Christians, may call this kind of progress enlargement and liberality,
but Paul has another word for modern advancement "straitened." Many an exercised
conscience groans under the bondage, and perhaps little thinks how near the door
of escape is, if there were but simplicity of faith to pass through it.
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Here is
the secret of all real strength and enlargement of soul, found alone in this
association with the living God, and in an entire separation from the evil,
which straitens the new man.

How well does Paul add "having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God!" Here it is, if we may so say, that the Apostle of
the Gentiles leads these Corinthians to the brazen laver, that they may wash
themselves, and pass into the inner courts on their priestly service, bidding
them remember that in our dispensation, "they are the temple of the living God;
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people." To them and to him and to us, all else summed
itself up into infidelity, or idolatry, respecting which, in all its varieties,
we are asked, "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" and go outside
the camp of the day to Jesus, bearing His reproach. Here, this ministration of
life, by the Spirit, has described its own circle; having commenced by writing
on the fleshy table of the heart, and finished by cleansing the feet of the
saints, and separating them from the Belial of that day, and this upon the
authority and blessedness of the promise, "I will receive you," a word of
sufficient encouragement for every exercised heart, whether at Corinth, or in
England, or elsewhere. A few remarks on the remaining chapters may close this
paper, my object being mainly to show from this Second Epistle, what church
ministry really is, and in what it consists, just as in the First Epistle I
attempted to show what true church establishment, and church endowments were,
and what the assembly of God is which is to receive this ministry and its
ministers, and to be the epistle of Christ, as altogether distinct from the
world, "known and read of all men." The example of Christ Himself is introduced
in 2 Corinthians 9:1-15; 2 Corinthians 10:1-18, and the grace in which He
commended Himself to our souls is held out when a corresponding virtue is
required from the life of Christ in us. For example, when Paul says, "As ye
abound in everything, in faith, in knowledge, and utterance . . . . see that ye
abound in this grace also [of liberality]," he adds, Ye know "the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we
through his poverty might be rich." It is the real secret of power to be thus
associated with Christ, not only in life as we have seen, but in the known
intelligence of life, which appreciates and loves according to God, what was
manifested in perfection in our Lord. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ" is irresistible as a moral motive, and as a new power in us, which binds
the heart to Himself in a similar expression of grace, however different in
measure, as all surely must be, though not in character. So again in 2
Corinthians 10:1-18 when Paul encourages them to another grace, he does so by
reminding them of "the meekness and gentleness of Christ, "and that the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strong holds; casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ." Thus the things which straitened these Corinthians, were
not only exposed in a former chapter, as resulting in an unequal yoke — false
concords, mixed communions, and corrupt agreements — but are here hunted down to
their strong holds, and their hiding places discovered to be in the flesh, and
looking on things "after the outward appearance." Nothing less than the
knowledge of God for our faith, and the obedience of Christ for abiding
fellowship in the truth, can be the upper and the nether springs for the inner
man; and the saint who is watchful may often find an opportunity of bringing a
stray thought into captivity, instead of being led into captivity, or being
straitened in himself, by its escape. What had they reduced their standard to,
when they said, "his letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence
is weak, and his speech contemptible?" How tenderly yet effectually does he
recover them from the point of their degradation, of "comparing themselves among
themselves," by saying, for "we dare not make ourselves of the number, or
compare ourselves with some that commend themselves . . . . For not he that
commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth."

Alas! though the temple of Solomon, with its porches, and beams, and posts, and
walls, was overlaid with pure gold; and though the house was garnished with
precious stones for beauty, and the gold was the gold of Parvaim; yet declension
began with its own king, and the glory which overcame the spirit of the Queen of
Sheba was soon tarnished; and the Ichabod of Eli’s days became the prophetic
word to Solomon! The Egyptian king came up against Jerusalem, and took away the
treasures of the house of the Lord, and carried away the shields of gold which
Solomon had made, "instead of which the king Rehoboam made shields of brass,"
etc. The same enemy was at work in the church at Corinth, and the watchful
apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 11:1-33, "I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a
chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve through His subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ."

False apostles and false doctrines are in the dark catalogue of this chapter;
the brass shields are substituted for the golden ones, which the great Egyptian
has carried away, "Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to
their works." What an opportunity does this day of departure afford to an
exercised conscience (and thank God there are many) to refuse these ministers,
though they bear with them the imitation shields of brass. The fine gold of
Parvaim — the gold of the house of the Lord — "the word which ye have heard from
the beginning" remains, and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for
ever. Are they ministers of Christ? asks our apostle. "(I speak as a fool) I am
more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft. . . . If I must needs glory, I will glory in my
infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for
evermore, knoweth that I lie not."

Here we may say how truly is Paul a competent minister of this life, which first
in the Lord Jesus Himself reached death in the obedience which could alone bring
Him there, "that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to
us" — a life which could neither be worn down by the enmity of foes nor by the
desertion of friends — a life which could not be worn out by the patient
endurance of what was appointed Him, but a life which spent itself in doing the
will of the Father that sent Him and found its own sustainment whilst doing it!
So Paul, like a lesser light, is carried about in triumph wherever the Spirit
leads him, whether beaten with rods or stoned, in shipwreck and in the deep, or
in journeyings, in perils of robbers or in perils among false brethren, let down
by the window at the walls of Damascus or caught up to the third heaven (as in 2
Corinthians 12:1-21), every step was but the pathway of this life, from the man
in glory and now this man in Christ — a life which lived as truly upon death and
by means of dying daily in this world as this same divine life will rejoice in
the eternal glory, when surrounded by circumstances that are (not more suited
perhaps, but) more proper to it, where God is and where evil cannot come! "He
that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal."

One thing more remains to notice in the last two chapters, that this ministry of
life from the exalted Head, by the Spirit in us, which keeps its pressure of
death upon the flesh, so that its own activities should not be straitened, is
made perfect by weakness, in the absolutism of its own nothingness, and
therefore of entire dependence upon the Lord. The persecuting power of Satan,
let loose upon him at Philippi (so that he spoke in the beginning of the epistle
of the trouble that came upon them in Asia, even to the despairing of life), was
accepted by him as "the sentence of death, that they should not trust in
themselves." The God who raises the dead was all the nearer and far more
present.

Every adversity was turned to account, even to Satan himself. So that at the
close of this epistle, when Paul is at the other extreme of the afflictions of
Christ and, "coming to visions and revelations of the Lord," says, "whether in
the body or out the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth." Such an one was caught up
into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter. "Lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in
the flesh, the messengers of Satan to buffet me."

Here likewise Satan is turned to profit for Paul, in the history of this life,
in "a man in Christ;" not in Philippian persecutions, but in the abundance of
the revelations in the third heavens! "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice
that it might depart from me, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." The Father of mercies and
the God of all comfort opened the abounding consolations at the beginning, and
now at the close we see the Lord Himself perfecting His own strength in the felt
weakness of this chosen vessel unto Christ. What a use the Lord can make of us
for Himself before we quit these earthly places, if we will only go to nothing,
that Christ may be magnified in our body, whether by life or by death. "Most
gladly therefore, he adds, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me." Old things are passed away, and all things are
become new, and all things are of God; and the things that were gain to me I
count loss for Christ. Reproaches and afflictions, with persecutions, are the
Lord’s bequest to us in this world: they are not misfortunes when met in the
path of life and. obedience, but they are (as Caleb said of the giants) bread
for us.

We need difficulties and trials to prove that this life in Christ and in us will
pass in its own title of suffering or endurance through the last and greatest of
them. God wants them to bring in His mercies and comforts in the tribulation,
and the Lord needs them to prove the sufficiency of His grace and that His
strength is made perfect. Moreover, Paul adds, "Therefore I take pleasure [what
a triumph!] in infirmities, in reproaches, in distresses for Christ’s sake, for
when I am weak then am I strong." In the unweariedness of this life, seeking
objects upon which to express itself, he assures these Corinthians, "I will very
gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the
less I be loved." What a new rule for charity is this, or rather what another
charity is introduced into the Church of God! In 2 Corinthians 13:1-14 and last
Paul again insists on weakness, even as Christ who, though he was crucified
through weakness, now liveth the power of God. "We also are weak with him, but
we shall live with him by the power of God toward you." If they sought a proof
of Christ speaking in him in any other way, let them "examine themselves,
whether they be in the faith, let them prove their own selves, how that Jesus
Christ is in them, except ye be reprobates." How could they doubt his ministry
of life and believe that through his ministration of the new covenant Jesus
Christ had been received and was in them? Finally, he prays to God for them,
that they do no evil, and is glad when he is weak and they are strong, and
wishes their perfection, at the same time adding, "I write these things, being
absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which
the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction. "Be perfect, be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall
be with you." This ministry here finds its culminating point, in making perfect
and producing comfort in this state, where the God of love and peace may be
known and can dwell — an enclosure of His own, in spite of the world, and the
flesh, and the devil — a habitation of God through the Spirit! A benediction
rests upon this temple of the Lord, this household of God: "The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be
with you all. Amen." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 7: S.   COUNCILS, CONGRESS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.
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Councils, Congress, and Social Science.

1872 94 The Ecumenical Council of Rome, and the late assumption of infallibility
by the Pope, as the great ecclesiastical head of Christendom, and the vicar of
Christ on earth, mark perhaps the highest point of pretension to which the
civilized world has yet reached. Prophecy however shows a greater than this,
when "the Antichrist sits in the temple of God, declaring that he is God" — whom
the Lord shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, and with the brightness of
His coming. Upon this graduated scale (though much lower) is also marked the
favourite scheme of modern ecclesiastics for a united Christendom by the fusion
of its eastern and western churches, and the union of Patriarch, Pope, and
Primate. Connected with this movement, the Pan-anglican Council of Protestantism
held its session; and "the Eirenicon" of Dr. Pusey (like the dove sent forth out
of Noah’s ark) was let loose to see whether the waters of division were abated.
The Evangelical Alliance still lends its hand as a connecting link with what is
yet lower, and is almost become the next door neighbour to the Great Social
Science Congress, with all its off-shoots and its monster meetings. The
International of Europe, and of America (which is the herculean progeny of these
days), has a character of its own, and must be added to this catalogue, in order
to see the mighty machinery of all kinds which is so variously acting upon
general society to produce the last formations, out of which the long expected
universal prosperity is to spring! In effect, and as the fruit of this
widespread "knowledge of good and evil" by human attainment, the world’s
progress and the consolidation of its political and social systems are boldly
affirmed as existing facts by the accepted organs of the times; and repeated as
such in the familiar intercourse of daily life. All are thus encouraged to build
with certainty, upon. "the good time coming;" and as men congratulate each other
upon this hope, their only enquiry is, as to its near approach. It must seem
strange, in such a state of eager expectation of the best that can happen from
these councils and congresses, to raise the question whether they are not the
proof that man has long ago left the good behind him! and stranger still perhaps
to have these flattering hopes dimmed by the conclusion of such an ancient as
Solomon — "lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they
have sought out many inventions." The issue is obviously an important and a
grave one, which is thus raised between the wisest of men, and the wiser men of
the nineteenth century Has man by some disaster or other, lapsed from an
original position and state, as "upright before God," and irrecoverably
forfeited that place? Is he thus in his own person a witness of what he has
departed from? or, of "the uprightness" to which he fondly hopes he is
advancing? Are all his "many inventions" proofs of what he has lost, and to be
viewed as but so many clever expedients, by which he successfully meets the
inconvenience, and reduces the misery, that attaches to his present condition?
Is not man a creature, who has become fruitful in discoveries in order to
mitigate his own wretchedness, and to relieve himself from the pressure of
circumstances, which, had he not broken loose from God, could not have existed
at all? "God made man upright;" but that he departed from this state, and sought
out many inventions, is the real solution of most modern problems.

Adam’s fall was no justification of Cain’s "going out from the presence of the
Lord," and becoming an inventor of expedients, against the effects of his own
independence, as "a fugitive and a vagabond." Man had lost his uprightness — the
image in which God had created him; but the Lord had not on that account
forsaken the earth, or His creatures. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not,
for God took him." The book of Proverbs tells us that the delights of God "were
with the sons of men," rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth.

Indeed the great proof that God did not leave man to himself and to the devil is
historically given in the various books of Moses and the Chronicles, when a
perfect system of political economy was introduced, and established by Jehovah
in relation with the people of Israel. "Ye have seen what I did unto the
Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself," and
"ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation," are the recorded
facts of the way by which God delivered His people from the house of bondage,
and established them under His protection, and in His favour.

Having called them out of Egypt, He took the whole charge of them upon Himself
and chose for them the land of Canaan, "a good land and a large, flowing with
milk and honey," the mountain of God’s own inheritance, the place which the Lord
made for Himself to dwell in, the sanctuary which His own hands had established.
They were His people, and He was their God; accordingly He called Moses up
(where man never was before) and appointed him as their lawgiver and commander,
charging him with ordinances, and statutes, and precepts, that Israel might be
different in all other respects from the nations of the earth. They were thus
separated by laws and ordinances from the rest of mankind, so that God might
dwell among them, and walk with them, on their journey to the land which He had
prepared. Nor were they only to be morally and politically different to all the
nations of the earth, but by instruction as a religious people they were taught
how the God of Israel was to be approached and worshipped. Moses was therefore
established as a mediator, and Aaron consecrated as a great high priest, "to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Their intercourse was based
thus on the full recognition of who and what God was in His holiness; and what
they were as in the flesh: still God could and did meet the people at the door
of the tabernacle which He had erected, and talked with their mediator and them.
Besides these personal relations, thus established on sacrifice, mediation, and
priesthood, that man might "be upright before God" in conscience, on the footing
of redemption, by the blood of another; they were cut off from all their own
inventions — "if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of
hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."
Another of these early lessons was at their Exodus, "stand still, and see the
salvation of the Lord. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your
peace." And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. As to the
tabernacle itself, Moses was admonished of God; "for see," saith He, "that thou
make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount." Their
education, day by day, was to own that their sufficiency was of God, who dwelt
in their midst by the visible cloud, and the pillar of fire by night. Pharaoh
and his captains and chariots at the Red Sea, Israel in the wilderness and the
manna and the rock that followed them, Jordan, and the final possession of the
land of Canaan, alike show that the right hand of the Lord triumphed gloriously.
Their future was to be as bright as their past, uprightness of heart consisted
then in their obedience; and prosperity was pledged to this uprightness by Him
who was in their midst: "if ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments,
and do them," your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall
reach unto the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell
in your land safely. Moreover as to conflict (if conflict came) it would only
prove their God fought for them: "five of you shall chase an hundred, and an
hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall
before you."

Besides these relations to their Jehovah, and to one another, and even to their
enemies, there were intimacies which the Lord desired personally to cultivate
with His people; and these were established by "the feasts of the Lord or holy
convocations," which were to be proclaimed in their seasons. "The first-fruits
of all the increase" which God had given His people were to be brought to the
Lord, even the hin of wine, and the oil, and the fine flour, for His delights
were with His people, and He would share in all the good that He had given them.
Nothing had been overlooked by Him that could contribute to their prosperity and
blessing; even the land was to enjoy her sabbaths every seventh year, and the
trumpet of jubilee on the fiftieth year proclaimed liberty through all the land
unto the inhabitants thereof, "and ye shall return every man to his family, and
to his possession." These scriptures, and the whole of the Mosaic economy, show
the desire of Jehovah to establish relations with His people, and prove how He
cultivated in every possible way the acquaintance of the people with Himself.
God had come down to man upon the earth to bless him in his basket and in his
store, to take away all diseases from him, and to establish Israel in such
outward prosperity and glory as His people, that all the nations of the world
might acknowledge there was none other God than He. This intercourse, which also
contemplated man in all his capabilities as a moral and social being with his
neighbour, was maintained by statutes and laws, which directed him how to behave
to his fellow in the smallest matters. "If thou lend money to any of my people
that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou
lay upon him usury." Legislation on the one hand, or limitation in obedience on
the other, was equally out of the question; and he was "upright" before God, who
allowed no will of his own to compromise himself in thorough compliance.
Inventions were also out of place, and their inventors were troublers in those
days. When God dwelt with men upon the earth, everything was by divine pattern,
and executed in complete submission. If a man were required "to devise cunning
works, or to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones
to set them, and in carving of timber to work in all manner of workmanship," it
was Jehovah’s care, and He provided such a one. "The Lord spake to Moses, See, I
have called by name Bezaleel, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in
wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of
workmanship." Moreover, "in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put
wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee," the tabernacle, the
ark, and the mercy-seat, etc. Beyond all that was merely moral, political, and
social, in the circle where man lived with his fellow, the same loving hand led
the Israelite as a worshipper, into the nobler exercises of his soul, with God
Himself. Moses, Aaron, and his sons; Bezaleel, and Aholiab; had all fulfilled
their parts, in "the tabernacle of witness," in the wilderness, and in due time
gave place to another order of intercourse with Joshua, and the "ark of the
covenant of the Lord of the whole earth," on their way over Jordan, into the
rest which God had prepared for Himself, and His beloved people in Canaan. Here
also in the days of Solomon, when Jerusalem the city of the great king was to
have its gorgeous temple as the dwelling-place of Jehovah, all was by divine
pattern, and when finished, the glory took possession of it (as it did with
Moses and the tabernacle) so that the priests could not enter, and the Lord was
at home, and in rest with His people whom He loved. Kingship in David and the
throne of Israel in the reign of Solomon (the bright centre, and light to all
the surrounding countries) were added by God to all He had previously showered
upon this favoured people, and man was at his highest and best.

It is a sorry thing to ask, What has become of this grand social system, this
nation and its economy, this throne and its Solomon, the city and its
prosperity, the temple and its glory, or the feasts of the Lord and the
worshippers? It is a yet sadder lesson to learn, that the best and happiest that
Jehovah in His infinite wisdom and grace could establish for men (where man is)
has become an historical fact, and is behind him! Acquiescence in these ways and
judgments of God ought to lead men to repent and turn to the present testimony
which He now gives to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the new
foundation on which His actings for His own glory and for man’s blessing rest.
To attempt to reconstruct a social system in this world, where it has already
been established and failed through the incompetency of the people of God, is
but sparks of man’s own kindling! Solomon, in the consciousness of his
endowments and resources, asked "What can the man do, that cometh after the
king?" A yet weightier question occurs, in the face of what we are considering:
What can any congress, or council, or confederation of men accomplish, after the
illustrious names by whom God introduced His system of moral and political
government, and social order, in the midst of His people Israel? The prophet
Habakkuk gives the counterpart of Solomon’s proverb to us, and also the secret
of man’s present relation to God (in the gospel), when He says," behold his soul
which is lifted up not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."
Independence and self-will destroy uprightness in the soul, and lead to many
inventions; whereas confession and self-judgment bring into a closer walk with
God in the path which He opens to the faith of His people. Another prophesied in
the days when the heart of Israel was lifted up, and they sought out inventions,
"woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in
chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen because they are strong; but
they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Now the
Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. "When the
Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is
holpen shall fall down together." The force and application of these quotations
are obvious upon the supposed advancement of men by social science; and the
progress of the world into light and blessing, by means of the fourth beast of
Daniel and its ten horns, with the mouth that spoke great things. Do the modern
leaders of this movement in the old and new world expect to do better than those
men who were so eminently endowed by God, and with whom He wrought in counsel,
and where He once dwelt? "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, a
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy
excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt
tread upon their high places." (Dent. 33: 29.) Have they any one like Moses, who
was with the Lord forty days and forty nights, and did neither eat bread nor
drink water? Who but him has ever been entrusted with two tables of testimony —
the skin of whose face shone so bright that the children of Israel were afraid
to come nigh him, the witness from God (and the link with God) upon the
formation of Jehovah’s delights with His people? Who but Aaron in his garments
of glory and beauty, ever was authorized to enter within the veil into the
holiest where God was upon the mercy-seat, to obtain by sacrifice and priesthood
the remission of Israel’s sins, year by year, on the great day of atonement? The
same God, who brought in the light of His majesty and truth to the people in the
face of Moses, provided for their failures through Aaron the great high priest,
in order that the intercourse thus formed with Himself might be unbroken, even
by their sins. But besides Moses with the tables on the mount, and Aaron in the
sanctuary with the sweet incense and the blood, "king Solomon made a brazen
scaffold of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, in
temple times, and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all
the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven. He stood
before the altar of the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God
like thee in the heaven nor in the earth; which keepest covenant and showest
mercy unto thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts."

Mediation, priesthood, and kingship, were thus established between Jehovah and
His beloved people, and became the channels through which this intimacy, and
their social happiness were maintained. In the midst of all this kingdom glory,
and closeness of communion with God, the greatest man was the lowliest. Though
lifted up and magnified exceedingly, eclipsing all else as he sat upon the
throne of Israel, he would not exalt himself, nor rest in the exaltation
bestowed upon him; but bless and praise the God of his father David, who had
fulfilled His promises. The Lord had done His best in outward prosperity and
blessing for the king and the nation, by leading them into rest, and peace, and
glory with Himself, in His own city Jerusalem; and there He rejoiced over them
with joy and gladness! Solomon with the people are at their height as they
ascribe all this blessing (come down to man, where man is) through the covenant
which was made with the patriarchs and with David. "And on the
three-and-twentieth day of the seventh month, he sent the people away into their
tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had showed unto
David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people." All bids fair to abide, when
thus committed to the hands of the wisest and best of men; who, in the deepening
sense of human insignificance, thus brought into contact with the majesty and
faithfulness of Jehovah, asked, "but will God in very deed dwell with men on the
earth? Behold heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee: how much
less this house which I have built!" In short, a theocracy was established, in
the wisdom and goodness of God, which embraced the moral and social condition of
mankind, both in their relations with their fellow men and with the Creator. We
have seen how this form of government and worship was set up, and sought to be
carried out in unbroken social intercourse, between God and His people in
Immanuel’s land; as a witness that He had neither left the earth, nor men in it,
to their own inventions. "Three times in a year, shall all thy males appear
before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of
unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles;
and they shall not appear before the Lord empty."

Such was His identification with His people, and His own delight to dwell in
their midst — to fill all hearts with gladness, and all hands with plenty. This
throne and its king, this temple and its priests, this city and its rulers, the
land and its inhabitants, are no more. Costly and perfect institutions, with
their costlier services, and their codes of laws, political and religious, have
likewise passed away. A theocracy, and an economy suited to it, are behind men;
the mournful records that even such helps and encouragements as were introduced
could not permanently lift man above himself. On the contrary, all these
magnificent and remedial measures were dragged down to the low level upon which
they found him and sought his deliverance and welfare. The psalmist of Israel
affirms this. "They tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his
testimonies:" when He heard this, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, and
delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand; He
gave His people also unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance." The
ministry of all the prophets followed, by which they were besought to "forsake
their inventions," and the broken cisterns they had hewn which could hold no
water, and to repent of their backslidings in "uprightness of heart," that God
might forgive their iniquities. He likewise openly punished them, and drove them
away out of His presence into Babylon; and brought them back in His mercy by the
decree of Cyrus under Ezra and Nehemiah. Long time suffered He their
transgressions, reasoning and saying, "Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye
will only revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint: from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." The highest authoritative power
under law, by Moses and a ministration of angels, had only proved the people
incompetent to hold the blessing; for they brought themselves under its curses,
and forfeited their relations to God, by their iniquity, so that He was
compelled to be their Judge. The wisest and most able administration, by which
this nation was to have been elevated above all the nations of the earth,
collapsed, and only finds its record in the statute book of Deuteronomy, and the
early chronicles of David and his greater son. The problem of human advancement,
and a nation’s progress, as well as the world’s prospects by moral means, has
been long since brought out and solved, as we have seen. Moreover, that people
are made a hissing and a byword before the eyes of the Gentiles to this day. The
very best, the brightest, and the fairest that could be done for man, reached
their perfection and concentrated themselves in blessing upon Solomon and the
throne, as God’s centre of earthly prosperity and of unity between Himself and
His creatures. At that same moment the responsibility of this illustrious king
began, into whose hands all was entrusted, and, like Adam in the paradise of
Eden, almost as soon forfeited. Does God repeat this problem — much less ask the
learned, the wise, and the scientific to take it in hand in modern days? Will
their present systems compare with His past and future? He has postponed this
kind of social intercourse with men till the millennium is introduced, when
other and heavenly agencies will be employed (at the coming of the Lord, and the
outpouring of the Spirit upon Israel) by which His people shall be all
righteous, and brought into final blessing in the land under their Messiah
through the blood of the new covenant. The pioneers and guides of public opinion
may well stop to consider what has been already done, and vanished away like a
tale that is told. If they propose far less, and even compromise, yea sacrifice,
the rights of God, that they may find their task easier, will He on that account
surrender them? If men shut Him out of their schemes, will He consent to be shut
out? If they say "let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in
derision." Who so fit as the wisest among men, and the central man in all that
magnificent system, established between God and His people for His own and their
delights, to declare, "lo, this only have I found, that God made man upright,
but he has sought out many inventions?" Who so competent as the sweet psalmist
of Israel prophetically to say, "be wise now therefore O ye kings, be instructed
ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling,
kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little?" "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."
"Ichabod" is indelibly written over the departed glory from the temple and the
city of the great king, and Immanuel’s land, which were once the bright
witnesses of the yet brighter intimacy formed and tenderly cultivated between
the Lord and His beloved people. The writings of the Old Testament (which
contain these records in full) would be merely historical, did they not likewise
hold out to the faith of the nation a bright future, when He who scattered them
into the four corners of the earth shall gather them together again; "for this
is as the waters of Noah unto me." "For the mountains shall depart, and the
hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee;" and
this is God’s order of blessing for the earth. If the wise men and rulers of the
nations refuse to take warning from the history of God’s favoured people, but
think themselves wiser than He — and the Gentiles better than the Jews — if they
thus encourage one another — let them listen to the prophet Daniel, as to what
is before them. "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which
shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall
tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them . . . . and he
shall speak great words against the most High . . . . and think to change times
and laws . . . . But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his
dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the
people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.
As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in
me: but I kept the matter in my heart." (Daniel 7:23-28.) J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 8: S.   DEATH IS GAIN
========================================================================

Death is Gain.

1. The death brought into this world through sin, as the consequence of Adam’s
fall, separated us from God — from life also, as towards ourselves, our own
natural existence — from present peace as moral beings — and from everlasting
blessing. Death as the wages of sin, made us personally conscious of guilt
before God — of Satan’s title over us, wrought out by our actual transgressions,
"led captive by the devil at his will."

Death — eternal death in everlasting fire — is the measure of God’s righteous
judgment against the sinner — the only way by which the majesty of God and the
holiness of His throne could be maintained against sin and Satan.

2. On the other hand death, as known in Christ on the cross, has separated us
from sin, from a guilty conscience on account of it, and from all fear of
judgment from God, for Christ has suffered in our stead, "the just for the
unjust." The death of Christ has set aside the whole power of Satan, for through
death He has destroyed him that had the power of death, and separated us by it
from that nature (the old man), which, before we knew Christ, alienated us in
mind and heart from God. The judicial death of Christ on the cross has glorified
God by putting away sin through the sacrifice of Himself, and opened a way by
which God has displayed His power in holiness as the raiser of the dead.
Moreover, the death of Christ has become the ground of all present grace to the
sinner, as well as unto eternal glory between the Father and the Son, God and
the elect, Christ and the redeemed, by which the heavens and the earth in the
day of millennial blessing will be filled with His glory.

3. Again, the death and resurrection of Christ has changed the whole position of
the believer before God, even the Father. We are born out of death, and take
life, eternal life, in and with Christ Jesus the Lord, and as joined with Him
now — "who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We are on the other side
of death, whether viewed as the enemy’s power over the sinner, or as the
judgment of God against sin, for we are risen with Christ. God, who made His
Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, has made us to be "the righteousness
of God in him." We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, and in
the face of sin and death can say, "O death where is thy sting? . . . thanks be
to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

4. Our relations to death and judgment, God and Satan, the flesh and the world,
are all reversed by the cross of Christ. The death which we feared, and which,
before we knew Christ, fed upon us as in the flesh, is what now we feed upon —
death is gain, and we "show forth the Lord’s death till he come." He spoiled the
spoiler, and Satan is defeated by death. But more, the judgment of God has found
its full vindication in the death of Christ; and it is now behind us. As to the
world, we are not of it, even as Christ was not of the world; and, as regards
the devil, "God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."

5. As a consequence of these changes and victories accomplished by the death of
Christ, we cannot (for God, any more than for truth or for faith) live in the
flesh or in the world, or in relation to any other thing, from which He has
redeemed us. "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know
ye not that as many of us as have been baptized into Christ, have put on
Christ?" Our springs are in the risen and glorified Lord; and the soul is in
connection by grace with Him there, and from that height we draw our life and
motives for manifesting Him below. No power less than the Holy Ghost can work in
us according to this new rule of life and death, in order to maintain us in
correspondence with the truth about ourselves, "as it is in Jesus," or enable us
to be "imitators of God as dear children." J. E. Batten.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: S.   JESUS, LED OF THE SPIRIT
========================================================================

"Jesus, led of the Spirit"

There is a subject of considerable interest in the earlier parts of the gospels,
but more especially to be found in Luke, Mark, and Matthew, since these three
display Christ in His human relationships as the devoted servant of God, or as
the perfect man in the midst of mankind, or in the narrower circle of the nation
as the only true Israelite — the Messiah, the promised seed. The subject of
interest to which I would call attention is introduced to us in what has just
been said as regards the characteristic differences of each evangelist, and is
nothing less than the fact, that the Lord in His lifetime on the earth regained,
and beyond measure surpassed, every position in which God as Creator, or
Almighty, or Jehovah had been discredited, and forced into the strange place of
a Judge; whether by Adam’s sin and forfeiture of Eden, or by man’s break down as
the servant of God, or by the nation of Israel’s rebellion in Canaan, and its
consequent dispersion to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Let us begin with the example last named and call to mind, as Matthew describes
to us, the state of Israel when the real son of David, and son of Abraham was
given the faith of the nation at His birth in Bethlehem. Under the Roman yoke,
as the Jewish people were, instead of under the direct government of their
Jehovah God (as was their normal position in the world), carried into Babylon as
they once were, and, lastly, made tributaries to Caesar — these are sufficient
contrasts with the times of Jerusalem and Solomon to assure any who need such a
proof of the displeasure of Him who had sold them into the hands of their
enemies. The whole line of prophets opens out to us the moral causes and
political reasons of this favoured nation’s overthrow and punishment in the
righteous ways of their Jehovah — "God of the whole earth." In brief, their
pathway out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, by Moses, and the overwhelming
destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts, were but the inauguration of a new race of
people, with whom God had bound Himself up by promises and covenants, which
threw them out into the pre-eminence that marked their every step with Jehovah,
the God of Israel. The responsibility was equal to the height of this
distinguished nearness; therefore both are declared under that one charter of
their true liberty — "You only have I known of all the families of the earth,
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities," saith the Lord. Egypt, the
wilderness, Jordan, and Canaan once shone bright, magnificently bright, as they
were led on by "the pillar and the cloud," the "visible glory," and the "ark of
the covenant." What a people is this, called out to make a history for
themselves, and under what auspices! How grandly they come out with Moses under
the strong arm of Jehovah’s deliverance, and how victoriously they enter into
the land with Joshua, under "the captain of the Lord’s host." But where was all
this glory gone when Jesus was born into their midst? "Ichabod" had been written
as a premonitory warning in the days of Eli, and Ezekiel had witnessed the
departure of the glory in his times, only to be exceeded by the actual poverty
which marked the royal house and illustrious lineage of David when Joseph, the
husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ, closed up that line
and gave room for the offended pride of the people, "Is not this the carpenter’s
son? is not his mother called Mary? . . . And they were offended in him." That
wonder of the world has collapsed, and a theocracy has broken down when
connected with the responsibility of the nation, as the Creator had been
previously outraged in the person of Adam, the man upon whose fidelity hung the
destiny of the whole world. Alas, for mankind and the bright prospects of Israel
besides! All is gone out in darkness and disgrace that once shone so brightly;
the whole is in ruins, one vast overthrow; the hour of Satan’s triumph and man’s
defeat! God has been dishonoured everywhere and on all points — wherever He came
out to walk with His creatures. The walk in the garden — how short! and the walk
with Israel, the beloved people. How all is become the witness of God’s
righteous indignation and of man’s punishment! The cradle of heaven-born hopes
and promises is turned into the grave of the saddest disappointment and shame.
Satan seems to be master of the whole position, walking to and fro throughout
the whole earth, in the title and power which human transgression and God’s
holiness had put into the devil’s hands. Will God leave all this that He created
for His own praise and delight in the hands of the enemy? Has He no resources
adequate to such an occasion? Has He no one in reserve to make such an extremity
as this the grand opportunity for vindicating the glory of God against Satan?

What an hour! what a new moment in the everlasting interests of God and His
creatures is this! and how answered and met? "When the fulness of time was come
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman." He who alone could be the light in the
midst of darkness like this has come forth from God, and is come into the world;
has taken on Him "the seed of Abraham;" has taken "part with flesh and blood" to
be made "perfect through sufferings." What a relief and resource to us, as we
are now called to trace the new history and ways of "flesh and blood" in this
Jesus-Emmanuel; for, having come upon no less an errand than to glorify God in
the very place where He had been outraged, and to finish the work which was
given Him to do, now comes the question, Where will this Jesus, the Messiah,
begin this mighty work — the complete vindication and reinstatement of God by
Him "who was found in fashion as a man?" His first steps will be surely over the
pathway of His people Israel’s disgrace, according to that word "out of Egypt
have I called my Son;" on that spot He will plant His feet, and light up once
again, with more resplendent glory than ever attached to their earlier history
(when "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea"), the way that He will
make for Himself as He passes from Egypt into the wilderness with John the
Baptist, and down into the waters of Jordan with His repentant people in their
confession of their sins, that He may join them as the fulfiller of all
righteousness. He is up to the height of the faithfulness of God, the Jehovah of
Israel, and He is down to the level of the remnant’s condition and state.* What
a new link is this in Jordan between God and His people! and how different from
their triumphant march over that river with Joshua, and the typical ark of the
covenant before the God of the whole earth! If, however, this new place of John
and Jesus, and the remnant and Jordan, bring up their reminiscences and regrets,
in comparison with the illustrious journey of the same people with Moses and
with Joshua, yet the scene before us in Matthew 3:1-17 : is morally resplendent
in its own peculiarities. The nation or the believing remnant must learn the
holiness of their Jehovah, whose almighty power they had celebrated on the
shores of the Red Sea, and looked at in the light of "the holy, holy, holy One
of Israel;" they had now to find that self-same power against them, to drive
them out from the very land into which it had once set and defended them. The
Jehovah that teaches with a strong hand has set them their lessons now,
according to what they have been towards Him; and it is at this point that Jesus
by His forerunner identifies Himself with the remnant, who are morally in the
place corresponding to the ways of God in righteous government towards them.
They are come out at the call of John the Baptist, instead of Moses, when the "I
am" had sent him as the deliverer in power; and are confessing their sins with
the hope that the kingdom of heaven which John preached as at hand should be set
up under the Messiah who was to come after him. The antitype of the ark of the
covenant is now in Jordan with them; and "thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness" from the lips of Jesus is but the counterpart of that other word
which tells us "it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings." It is upon these new associations between the
Messiah and the people and between Jesus and Jehovah that the heavens will fold
themselves back in approbation and delight. They have found their relief in the
activities which have given the remnant in Jordan their resource. "And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and the heavens were
opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God like a dove descending and lighting
upon him." The heavens in their history had long ago gathered blackness in the
days of Noah and had folded themselves up in impenetrable silence till now. For
what had they to look down upon with satisfaction, or for the God whom they
concealed to commend? But to the man coming up out of Jordan they will
delightedly open, and the voice from within, as well as the dove from without,
will alike tell of God’s vindication by accrediting Him who has done it as "my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." What new relations are witnessed to
here, and what a new starting point is this! The priests’ feet stood firm in
Jordan, but never after this fashion. True the nation may have forfeited every
title to blessing and have been turned out of Canaan to take the place of
repentant sinners; but who is this stranger in their midst and yet no stranger?
and what is He with them for, and what will His identification with them procure
for them in the title of righteousness towards Himself and as the securer of
grace and forgiveness to them? These are the new questions. But the heavens and
"the Spirit like a dove" have united themselves with the man upon earth, and
that man "the beloved Son." Jehovah is once more set in relation with His
ancient people, not under the new covenant as yet, but by means of Him who will
be in due time its mediator, though at present the only true Israelite and the
veiled Messiah. Man in the person of Christ supplies to Jehovah the ground and
reasons for coming out afresh as the "leader" according to His own righteous
government of this new man! "It became him for whom are all things and by whom
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Israel and
man had not only broken down before God in Eden and in Canaan, but had put power
into the hands of Satan; for the wages of disobedience are thus turned into
capital for the devil; and if this Second man is equal to all emergencies and
calls on one in His position, He must overcome him who overcame Adam, and will
be led into temptation.

[*This last, of course, in grace, not in personal estate. Ed.]

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil." Man in the garden and Israel in the wilderness had fallen under the
temptations to which they were exposed on their way into rest. "They could not
enter in because of unbelief." As a man come into the midst of all that was
"groaning under the bondage of corruption," what course will He pursue in His
active love but that of "perfect through sufferings?" And consequently He will
be pre-eminent as "the man of sorrows" and acquaint Himself with grief. "Himself
took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses;" moreover He will go down into
poverty and say, "foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of man hath not where to lay his head." He will accept no exemption from the
range of human griefs and sorrows and sufferings, but be the One in their midst
who will go more fully than any else possibly could into their sources and
extent, on account of His own inherent perfectness and so take up all in the
real feelings of manhood, yet according to God and with God. Strange sight! then
was Jesus "led up of the Spirit" and a fresh moment of interest is come; and
another question is to be tried — will He who has just been marked out by the
heavens allow Himself to be tempted of the devil, that He may conquer every
where by life and morally too in life, where all else have been overthrown, till
at last Jesus will by His own death "overcome him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage?" Who leads this Jesus into the wilderness? and why
must He be "led of the Spirit" "to be tempted?" are enquiries which we may very
well make, and which get their answer and meaning as we see the devil leaving
this victorious One, and angels coming and ministering to Him! Regaining the
place which Adam lost can never be the measure of His paths, who, in making a
new position for Himself, surpasses every previous one. Thus, if we inquire what
He was to God, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" is the answer.
Do we ask what He was for man? "The Spirit in the form of a dove," alighting on
Him and abiding, is the unmistakable reply. Do we ask what He was for Israel?
Let Egypt, the wilderness, and the waters of Jordan with John and the remnant of
that day and the opened heavens, say. If we further enquire what He was as
regards the devil, man in the person of Christ is master of the entire position,
and has made all His own. He who fasted forty days and forty nights and was
afterward an hungered could not be moved away from His allegiance to God nor out
of the place of devotedness which became Him as the true servant. He closed His
heart against all that the devil had to offer to the extent of "the glory of the
world."

Man had dishonoured God as creator long ago, but this second bows to what it
became God to do, and is led to be tempted that He might go lower than all mere
human responsibility and failure, and likewise go higher for God than any
previous claims had demanded from man. Thus He will go up to the mountain-top,
and take His seat as the great expositor of the mind of Jehovah, as regards the
principles on which the incoming kingdom should be founded, and the style of
behaviour suited to those whom He would introduce into it; for they are to be
"perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect," who makes His "sun to shine upon
the evil and the good." Moreover Moses said on his mountain, An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth; but this expositor will say, "If thine enemy hunger,
feed him," and "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
There is no compromise anywhere: God and the relations with His creatures, even
conduct and responsibility under Christ’s presence, and personal care in the
midst of His disciples, are raised; the claims and holiness of God are alike met
and exceeded in doctrine on the mount, and in loving obedience by Christ
Himself. The devil is nowhere with this last Adam (after his temptations in the
wilderness) till Gethsemane, where the last efforts are tried by Satan to
terrify that heart by death and the grave, which he could not shake by the
blandishments of the world.

Man, in the person of Jesus, has gone down under everything, having emptied
Himself and been obedient to death, even the death of the cross: and what could
God do on His part but raise Him up over everything, and give Him a name above
every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come?
God has man to glorify as the righteous reward of His obedience and sufferings,
and, finally, His death, the death of the cross, where He made atonement for our
sins by bearing them, and suffering the just One for the unjust, and putting out
of sight all the hindering causes of sin and guilt for ever. By the
blood-shedding of Christ, God has been set free from all the calls of judgment
which pressed for punishment and death; for Christ has died in our stead. He has
liberated God. So that having a Man in the heavens whom He has glorified, the
counsels and purposes from everlasting in Christ can now come in, and God even
go beyond Himself, in all that He had ever set up in creation and Israel, by
bringing in His own mysteries, "the things which had been kept secret from the
foundation of the world." And who has done all this, but that very
Jesus-Emmanuel who has also carried His believing people outside the range of
death and judgment, to make us partakers in a life with Himself, the risen One,
which, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, will enable us to take up every
principle of conduct, and to be satisfied with nothing less than to live Christ
over again till He comes to have us with Himself where He is! In the mean time,
while waiting for Him, what dignity attaches to the saint of this dispensation
as told, "Ye are the temple of God," and "the Spirit of God dwelleth in you."
And again, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body [and in your spirit, which are God’s]." The Lord Jesus
made a position for Himself as a man when upon the earth, and elevated doctrine
and practice to such an extent that He will at last die to put God in the place
of a Justifier; and, by His own session at the right hand on high, become the
head of life to His Church, that His members may go back and take all up in
living power which He ever spoke or did, and be in this way superior to all that
became mere man as man; and finally that they may be like Himself in nature,
righteousness, and glory, as the proper manifestation of the unfettered power of
God on behalf of Christ and the Church for ever.

J. E. Batten. (On the testimony of T. B. Baines.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: S.   JOSHUA AND CALEB
========================================================================

Joshua and Caleb or, Thoughts on the Book of Joshua. The book of Joshua is
remarkable, mainly, in that the "ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the
earth" is seen passing over before Israel, into Jordan, to prepare a resting
place for God and His people. This involved the driving out of the Canaanites by
the introduction of "the captain of the Lord’s host" with the drawn sword in His
hand, before whom Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship. The
wars of the Lord follow in quick succession, and the victories of His people —
together with the overthrow of the seven nations, and the destruction of their
thirty-one kings. The tribes of Israel then took possession of the land of
promise, under Joshua and Eleazar the priest, and went up into their
inheritance, as distributed to them by lot in Shiloh before the Lord, where the
tabernacle of the congregation had been set up. The God who redeemed His people
out of Egypt, by the arm of His strength, and dried up the Red Sea from before
them till they were all passed over, did the same thing in the depths of Jordan;
and swept away the nations of Canaan, in proof that "the God of the whole earth"
had risen up out of His place, and was come down to deliver and to establish His
people. The song they sang at the Red Sea had come to pass in the promised land;
for "the Lord had brought them in, and planted them in the mountain of his
inheritance in the sanctuary which his own hands had established." As regards
their enemies too, "sorrow had taken hold of the inhabitants of Palestina, the
dukes of Edom were amazed, the mighty men of Moab, trembling had taken hold upon
them, and all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away." It is not until God has
done all that is needful for the glory of His name, and connected Himself thus
in grace with the blessing of His people, that their new responsibility begins.
Will the earthen vessel be true to the treasure, and use what it has received
for the honour and praise of the giver? has been always the question, which such
love and goodness must create whether with Israel, or with the church of Christ
since.

Joshua, the son of Nun, and Eleazar the priest, glorified the God of their
fathers, and served their day and generation well, though not without many a
misgiving as to the people (with whom they had travelled forty years) and their
ways towards Jehovah. Brought into the land of promise, having rest from war,
and dwelling in peace, they settled down contented with the measure of blessing
which they enjoyed and which satisfied them, but failed to drive out the
Canaanites. Joshua, when old and stricken in age, called for the elders and
judges and the heads of Israel, and rehearsed before them the faithfulness of
the Lord, and sought to rally them anew, and strengthen their confidence in God,
as well as to deepen their mistrust of themselves. Behold, he says, "I am going
this day the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts, and in all
your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord
your God spake concerning you. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods,
then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you
good. And the people entered into covenant at Shechem, and said unto Joshua,
Nay, but we will serve the Lord:" so they departed every man into his
inheritance; and Joshua, the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten
years old; and Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, died, and they were buried,
each in the border of his inheritance. Whatever these two men of God may have
been and were, in their faithfulness to the Lord, as Moses and Aaron were before
them; yet collectively the tribes broke down in their covenanted allegiance to
Jehovah; so that the book of Judges takes up the history of their decline and
fall, when the angel of the Lord descended from Gilgal to Bochim (the place of
weeping). What a contrast! and what a lesson! The earlier scriptures (at the
calling out of Abraham) give the bright record of the God of glory breaking in
upon the darkness, and hiding nothing from His friend of all He was about to do,
walking with one patriarch and another, by covenant and by promise, till at the
close Joseph buried his father Jacob, and carried him up from Egypt into Canaan,
where Isaac and Abraham were laid before him. So when another relation was
formed between the God of Israel and Moses, as the deliverer and mediator of His
people, and further revelations were made known to him, and he saw the land from
the top of Pisgah; the Lord took him and buried him in a valley over against
Beth-peor, but no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. The book of Joshua
too (where the Lord of hosts rose up as a man of war to shake the earth, and
Jordan fled, and the sun and the moon stood still in the heavens when He fought
for His people) like-wise closes with the burial places where they laid the
heirs of promise, each in his inheritance. The seed of a yet coming and glorious
resurrection was thus cast into the ground, in hope of that day when they shall
all come forth to sit down together, "Ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
in the kingdom of God." These all having obtained a good report through faith
received not the promises, but saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
It is only as brought thus by divine love into communion with the purposes of
the Lord in the final blessing of His people, that either Moses or Joshua, David
or the prophets, can stand in the midst of personal and corporate failure as
they did, and yet point on the hopes of the godly to a morning without clouds
when the Lord Himself shall come, and "He that ruleth over men shall be just,
ruling in the fear of God:" for this the nation still waits. Nevertheless Israel
served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
overlived him, and which had known all the works of the Lord that He had done
for Israel.

Joshua had been called into a remarkable place, as leader and commander of the
twelve tribes; and Eleazar into one as distinguished, as the high priest in
connection with the ark of the covenant at Jordan, and afterwards with the
tabernacle at Shiloh. These two offices, established between God and the people,
necessarily created a wide opening for the faith and obedience of others to
follow, and obtain a good report. It was into one of these vacant places that
Caleb stepped as the claimant of Hebron; according to the oath which Moses sware
unto him in Kadesh-Barnea, because "he wholly followed the Lord his God." Caleb,
as an heir with the royal tribe of Judah, becomes an example to the co-heirs
throughout all the other tribes of Israel to maintain their rights and titles as
he did, and to drive out the enemy. He thus becomes as remarkable, in his place,
as an heir of promise in taking possession of his inheritance; as Joshua was in
leading Israel into the length and breadth of the land of Canaan; or as Eleazar
and the priests were who bore the ark of the covenant round the walls of
Jericho, as they stood firm in the depths of Jordan till the people had all
passed across to Gilgal. However different Joshua, Eleazar, and Caleb were from
each other, yet the Lord Himself had trained each up for their respective places
into which He led them; and this is a very important fact to realize at any time
in reference to the formation of the vessel which God may be about to use.

If we examine this additional point in the light of scripture, as regards each
of these servants of the Lord, we shall find much profitable instruction. The
first mention of Joshua is when Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim
in Exodus 17:1-16 :, and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill
with the rod of God. It was with this enemy that Joshua fought the first of the
Lord’s battles and prevailed. "The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a
memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; and Moses built an altar
there and called it Jehovah-nissi." This first lesson in the school of God was
followed by another of a very different kind in Exodus 24:1-18 :, when Moses
went up, and his minister Joshua, into the mount of God, and the glory of the
Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. This future
warrior of the Lord had been taught at Rephidim already that it was only as
Aaron and Hur upheld the hands of Moses (in intercession) Israel could prevail
over Amalek; and now he accompanies Moses up to the mount to learn who and what
the God of Israel is in His holiness, under whose feet was as it were a paved
work of a sapphire stone, and as the body of heaven in its clearness! Moses’
minister, the future Joshua and saviour, is thus called to know God, the Jehovah
of Israel; as terrible in His majesty and power at Rephidim against Amalek (with
whom He will have war from generation to generation) as He is fearful in
praises, doing wonders, and glorious in holiness when revealed to Moses and the
nobles of the children of Israel on the top of the mount, where they saw God and
did eat and drink. The claims of God in righteousness written upon the tables of
stone, and a law and commandments were likewise given out to Moses from the
mount Horeb that he might teach them to the people. And the sight of the glory
of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the
children of Israel. Such were the scenes and occupations in the presence of God
in holiness, and under the rod of His hand against Amalek in retributive
justice, where Joshua’s qualifications for serving Jehovah in Canaan were
gathered up. But another and a very different lesson still awaited him in Exodus
32:1-35 :, when the Lord sent Moses down quickly from the mount upon the matter
of the golden calf, which Aaron and the people had set up during their absence.
By the intercession of Moses the Lord turned from His fierce anger and repented
of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Now when Joshua heard the
tumult as they came near, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the
camp; but the more practised ear and heart of Moses, instructed by the Holy One,
could better distinguish between the shout of mastery, the voice of crying, and
the noise of them that sing. In effect, the tables, which were the work of God,
and the writing which was graven thereon, Moses immediately cast out of his
hands and broke; for how could he bring them nearer? The golden calf ground to
powder and strawed upon the water which the children of Israel drank, the swords
of the sons of Levi by which they consecrated themselves to the Lord and avenged
the outrage upon His majesty, are the new and strange lessons which Joshua is
learning for himself, and for the glory of God through him in a future day. It
was a fine action, and one in unison with the mind of God, when Moses sought to
interpose further by atonement and self-sacrifice, so that the sin of the people
against God in His holiness, might be blotted out; but a finer one still when he
accepted the Lord’s rebuke as to its insufficiency. Moses could not make an
atonement for their sin (this was a work kept in reserve for a greater than he),
but another thing remained open for him to do below for the honour of God and
the healing of the people (in withdrawing from the evil) and this thing he did.
The children of Israel stripped themselves likewise of their ornaments by the
mount Horeb, that the Lord might know what to do unto them; and Moses took the
tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called
it the tabernacle of the congregation. The nearness to God in which Moses had
been for forty days, led him not merely to act in jealousy for His name where it
had been profaned, but also to separate His dwelling place from the abomination
of the golden calf. How could He abide there? If Moses broke the tables, he must
for the same reason remove the tabernacle. The Lord owned this action, for as
Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the
door where the Lord talked with him face to face, as a man speaketh with his
friend. Two great principles had been introduced, as we have seen, and
established: the one was intercession, when the hands of Moses were sustained by
Aaron and Hur, in the day of conflict with Amalek; and the other was mediation,
founded on the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the day when the people
worshipped the calf, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the
likeness of a four-footed beast. These two principles being recognized between
God and Moses, became the acknowledged ground of the people’s safety and
blessing, and have since found their true and proper place in the perfect
ministry of Christ, "who ever liveth in the presence of God to make intercession
for us." Moses acting on this new footing turned again into the camp, but his
servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
Rephidim and Jehovah-nissi, mount Horeb and the God of Israel, the broken tables
and the action of the sons of Levi, the cloudy pillar and the tabernacle, and
the new meeting place between the Lord and Moses, marked out a path and showed
Joshua the spot where he could with confidence plant his feet, and there he
abode. The minister, Joshua, is no longer seen in the further and secret
intimacies with Moses and the God of Israel at the cleft of the rock, or when
Moses came down the second time from the mount with the tables that were put
into the ark. Like Elisha afterwards, when with his master going the round of
Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan, a double portion of Elijah’s spirit rested on him;
or like Paul in his instructions to Timothy: so Jehovah "the God of the spirits
of all flesh "had, by means of Moses, been preparing a man to set over the
congregation of the Lord.

It is not till Numbers 13:1-33 :, that Joshua comes forth in his own character,
and enters upon his own proper business, though privately, and as one of the
twelve rulers, in association with Caleb, who were sent by Moses to spy out the
land of Canaan and its cities and its inhabitants. After forty days they
returned from searching it, and made their report to Moses and Aaron and all
Israel. Those who judged after the flesh, and according to sight and sense,
declared that the cities were walled up to heaven, and the men were all of great
stature, so that they were in their own sight as grasshoppers. Those who saw by
faith, and measured every difficulty and danger by the God with whom there are
none, affirmed they were able to go up and possess the land at once. The
connection between Joshua and Caleb, as regards the land of promise, is as
remarkable in the development of the onward ways of God with Israel, as was his
relation to Moses (when his minister) in the unfolding of His counsels to that
man of God. The tribes to which these two rulers respectively belonged were
brought forward into their rightful prominence by the faith and devotedness
which distinguished these chiefs, in contrast with the other spies who brought
back an evil report. Caleb was of the royal tribe of Judah, out of which Shiloh
should spring, and to whom the gathering of the people is prophetically yet to
be. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim, upon whom Jacob laid his right hand and
declared his seed should become a multitude of nations. And he blessed the sons
of Joseph that day: one by counsel, and one by promise, and by the blessing of
their progenitor Jacob they became united in faith and purpose of heart, now
that the appointed time is come for the people to go on their way to their
inheritance. Moses consistently changed the name Oshea into Joshua (or Jesus),
Saviour of the people, in reference to the mind of God and Israel, whilst Caleb,
as an heir of promise, bears his own name which means devotedness of heart; and
proves it by his readiness to go up and take possession of the whole land. Nor
is it without divine significance that "Hebron" is the place now mentioned in
connection with the journeyings of their future Saviour, and of Caleb the heir —
"they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron, where the children of Anak
were." If the unbelief of the ten failed to learn the deep moral lesson which
these facts conveyed to the heart of a true Israelite, what would be the yet
further appeal which the occupation of Hebron by the giants Ahiman, Sheshai, and
Talmai would make to the faith and feelings of Joshua and Caleb? This Hebron to
which their father Abram removed his tent after he had separated himself from
Lot, and where the Lord appeared and said, "All the land which thou seest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Then Abram came and dwelt in the
plains of Mamre, which is Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. Nor
was Hebron remarkable only as "the place of society, or friendship and
enchantment" to Abram the friend of God, and the father of the faithful, but it
was to be remembered too, as the place where Sarah died (who is the mother of
promise, and the free woman) and was buried. There, also, Isaac and Ishmael
buried Abraham and there Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, unto the
city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. Machpelah, in
Hebron, became thus the sepulchre of all the patriarchs who had died in faith,
not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and connected
them with the Christ of God and His day, and were glad. Descendants of these
fathers, not merely in the flesh, but associated with them by the same faith and
hope, they were alive, so to speak, before the eyes of Caleb and Joshua; just as
Jesus Himself said of Moses and the bush afterwards, "Now God is not the God of
the dead but of the living, for all live to him;" and this is what faith
affirms, which calls things that are not as though they were. The promised land
was thus a living scene to faith in these two spies, as it had been to Moses
when he viewed it from the top of Pisgah. The faith which is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, whether in Abraham or in
Moses or in the spies, looked at the land, or walked through the length and
breadth thereof with the living God, and in the light of His purposes counted
the giants but as bread to eat in the time of the coming conflict. Hebron too,
though for a moment in possession of the sons of Anak, asked to be remembered by
the heirs of promise as the sepulchre of their fathers, who were sleeping there
"in hope of the better country, that is, a heavenly."

Joshua and Caleb who walked thus with God through the land made a good report of
it, and carried a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol and brought of the
pomegranates and the figs as proofs of what grew there. The action of Caleb was
in keeping with this report when he stilled the people before Moses, and said,
"Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." His
confidence was in the right hand of God’s power, which had just destroyed
Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and would further display itself in
driving out the Canaanites on the other side of Jordan, if there was but faith
on the part of Israel to follow Him. Instead of this the congregation murmured
against Moses and Aaron, and said one to another, "Let us make a captain and
return into Egypt." Then Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces, and Joshua and
Caleb rent their clothes, saying, "If the Lord delight in us, he will bring us
into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey; only
rebel not ye against the Lord." This identification with God and His purposes
and ways on the part of Moses and Aaron, and this twofold testimony on the part
of Caleb and Joshua to the strength of His arm, and the delight of His heart in
His people to bring them into the land, though adequate for faith, were
insufficient to quell the rebellion. Separated as these four leaders were from
all the congregation, and united in their confession of the one living and true
God, He vindicated His witnesses; when the people bade stone them with stones,
the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle, and He threatened them with
pestilence, and to disinherit them. The intercession of Moses again prevailed
against their sin, and they were sentenced to wander forty years in the
wilderness and to fall there. Moreover, the evil spies died of the plague and
the unbelieving generation was cut off. The confidence and repose of faith in
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which characterized Joshua and Caleb as
spies when they searched the good land, equally distinguished them as pilgrims
in the wilderness throughout the forty years of their wanderings. Faith, which
has to do with God alone, is not concerned about places and circumstances; it
has simply to follow Him where He leads: the consequences are His care. The
forty years’ pilgrimage inflicted upon the evil generation became a school-time
for the fuller qualifications of Joshua and Caleb when the set time should come
for the crossing over Jordan, and for the settlement of the tribes in their
inheritances. Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness, the high priest’s garments
were transferred and placed upon Eleazar as the successor of Aaron. Moreover,
the Lord had given some of His spirit to Joshua, and Moses had laid his hands on
him and put some of his honour upon him in the sight of all the congregation of
Israel, that they might be obedient to him. Further, Joshua was to stand before
Eleazar the priest, who was to ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim
and Thummim before the Lord. "At his word shall they go out, and at his word
shall they come in," and Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and he took Joshua
and set him before Eleazar the high priest, and gave him a charge. The original
leaders of the people did not continue by reason of death; each one died
governmentally for his own sin, committed at the waters of Meribah, where they
failed to glorify God; and these have now given place to Joshua and Eleazar.
Moses and the rod of Jehovah’s power stretched out over land and sea in Egypt
for the redemption of Israel form the bright record of God’s actings in the book
of Exodus, as does the rod of priestly grace in Numbers, by which Aaron put away
their murmurings. When the wars of the Lord begin on the other side of Jordan,
these rods are superseded by the captain of the Lord’s host with His drawn
sword, and by Joshua and his spear, and now that "the God of the whole earth"
passes over before His people to put them into Canaan, Eleazar and the priests
come into prominence. The ark of the covenant (in which was laid up the golden
pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant
— each to come out another day, and be manifested in the person of Christ and
His offices in their perfectness,) was to precede the people in their
journeyings, and be the one object before their souls. "When ye see the ark of
the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests and Levites bearing it, then
ye shall remove from your place and go after it." The faith of an individual
like Caleb is no longer distinguished when confidence and courage mark the whole
company of this new-born generation, led forward by the Lord of all the earth in
connection with the ark of the covenant, borne by Eleazar the high priest and
the Levites, under the leadership of Joshua; so that Jordan itself fled away
from before the feet of the priests, when they were dipped in the brim of its
waters. The great city Jericho too fell down flat, and its giant walls before
the ark after it had compassed the city about seven days. In their onward
progress, Jerusalem and its king, Adonizedek, with the other crowned heads were
all overcome and hung upon five trees until the going down of the sun. Joshua is
as great in his conflicts and victories against the enemies of God, as Moses was
distinguished for his patience and meekness amongst the people of God. His
jealousy for the Lord, in removing the tabernacle away from the camp, when the
idolatry of the golden calf was in question, sanctioned as it was by the glory
of the God of Israel, which appeared to him at the tent door, and talked with
him, was a day of remarkable moral character and beauty.

Perfect in its season as this act of Moses was, yet Joshua is equally
distinguished in the day of Jerusalem’s capture by the hosts of Israel. Joshua
spake to the Lord, and said, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon,
in the valley of Ajalon," until the people avenge themselves upon their enemies;
"and there was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened
unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel." The whole power of the
enemy is broken up, after one more battle. "Now when Jabin the king of Hazor
heard of these things, he gathered round himself the confederated nations of the
north, south, east, and west, and came down like the sand which is upon the
seashore for multitude against Israel," like the Gog and Magog nations of a yet
future day (in Ezekiel). These wars and their victories clear the way for peace.
Though in Joshua 11:1-23 : Joshua made war a long time with all those kings,
"yet finally he took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to
Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel, according to their
divisions by their tribes; and the land rested from war. In Joshua 18:1-28 :,
"the whole congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the
tabernacle there," and the land was subdued before them. Now Joshua was old and
stricken in years, and he and Eleazar the priest cast lots at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation in Shiloh, and distributed to the tribes their
inheritances — so they made an end of dividing the country — God had thus
overcome the enemy and established His people in the promised land, who were
commanded to make no terms with the stragglers, but utterly to drive them out.
Moreover God had planted His tabernacle in Shiloh, and surrounded Himself with
the thousands and tens of thousands of Israel, the seed of Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob. Joshua lastly exhorts them to cleave unto the Lord, and the people
finally bind themselves with an oath to serve the Lord and to obey His voice.

Besides these public and prominent services of Joshua the leader and commander
of the people, and Eleazar the high priest who was appointed to ask counsel for
him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord, there remain two important
histories of personal faith, each perfect in itself which the book of Joshua
records: the first is that of Rahab, and the second that of Caleb. In truth we
may say the records of Israel would not be complete without these, as not else
coming up to the mark of what God is, or giving the examples of the outflowing
and overflowing of His goodness and grace, wherever there was faith that could
in defiance of every let or hindrance reckon upon this goodness, and cast itself
upon the riches of His love! Rahab, who was not one of the people, but on the
contrary an alien and of the accursed race, threw herself upon the boundlessness
of this grace, that could not be confined to the limits of Israel but must
illustrate itself by overleaping all bounds, and saving a Rahab, even when
dwelling in Jericho; yea, the conquests of the people of God in Canaan must give
precedence to her. The scarlet line from her window, witness of her faith, and
pledge of her identification in heart and soul with the hopes and interests of
the Israel of God, was also a token to them and to her of the deliverance for
which she waited. The scarlet line had saved the spies, when she let them down
from her house by its means, and it was to save her and all her family in the
coming hour of Jericho’s overthrow — and this is what faith is, whether then or
now — from her window, or at the cross. The young men that were hidden by Rahab
in the stalks of flax went in at the bidding of Joshua, and fetched her out and
all that she had, first, as they swore unto her: and then burned the city with
fire. The further history of Rahab, and the dealings of God in grace with her,
are as remarkable as the beginning. In chapter 7:, "she gets a dwelling-place in
Israel, as it is said unto this day," and in process of time is married to
Salmon, one of its princes, and becomes a link in that illustrious genealogy
through which the Messiah Himself was introduced to this world. In Matthew 1:5,
"in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ," we read "Salmon begat Booz of
Rachab," nor is this all, for she passes on from this genealogy to take her
place in another, and got her record among the celebrities of Hebrews 11:1-40 :,
of whom the world was not worthy. Another record still awaits her — and a yet
further example of her faith remains for the apostle James to publish, where she
stands side by side with Abraham, the head of the whole family of faith, and the
friend of God. Likewise also he asks, was not Rahab the harlot justified by
works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. The
chain is complete and as perfect as the grace of God always makes whatever it
takes in hand — whether the pattern be "a Syrian ready to perish" — a Rahab out
of Jericho — a thief upon the cross — or a Saul of Tarsus — or one of ourselves
in this day of grace and of the coming glory. In Joshua 14:1-15 : it is, that we
are introduced to Caleb again; and in this chapter he comes before us in the
double character of an heir of Judah, when that tribe was settled in its
inheritance; and also as the claimant of that Hebron, which had so won his eye
and heart in the living associations which it recalled. Distinguished in the
early days of faith and promise, when Abraham walked with God and still more so
in the light of prophecy, when the king David of Jehovah’s appointment should
take his crown and kingdom from Hebron, it became the spot of all others which
was dear to faith. Joshua’s calling and work as leader of Israel was well-nigh
finished, and he had become old and stricken in years, and was going the way of
all the earth, as he said, when Caleb’s path as an heir of promise was only
opening itself out. He steps forth from the children of Judah at Gilgal, and
makes good his claim by reminding Joshua of what the Lord said to Moses the man
of God concerning them at Kadesh-barnea. He comes out as young and as fresh at
fourscore and five years of age, as he was at forty, when sent with Joshua to
spy out the land; and he becomes in his place an example and pattern to every
individual in every tribe of the whole heartedness before God which was the
source of his unfailing strength and courage. How different would have been the
history of Israel, had each heir of promise been as Caleb and driven out the
enemies from their inheritance, as he did from Hebron! The language of faith has
always the same character of confidence and calmness, whether it be in Caleb’s
assurance to Joshua that he would drive out the Anakims; or in David’s account
of himself to Saul, touching the lion and the bear; and his bold avowal that so
it should be with Goliath and the army of the Philistines. "I wholly followed
the Lord my God," reveals the secret of faith’s strength, either in first
viewing the land and gleaning the grapes of Eshcol, or in wandering with the
rebellious people in the wilderness for forty years, or as here in claiming the
promise of Hebron from Joshua.

"Now therefore give me this mountain, of which the Lord spake in that day: if so
be the Lord shall be with me, then I shall be able to drive the giants out, as
the Lord said; and Joshua blessed him." Here we get a man of the right sort,
with a faith in God that does not give way before either giants or mountains,
but declares "as yet I am as strong this day as I was forty years ago; in the
day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, to
go out and to come in." It is a faith indeed that cannot be measured by days or
weeks, or months or years; and even as to Caleb’s history it is to be remarked,
that we get no notice of his death. The Spirit’s mind takes a different turn,
and is marking out to us that he neither got old, nor waxed feeble, nor became
stricken in years; but wholly followed the Lord God of Israel, and was always
young and strong, Such was Caleb the claimant. So Joshua gave to him
Kirjath-arba, according to the commandment of the Lord, which city is Hebron;
and Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai; and
he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir. The faith of the whole-hearted
Caleb, which followed the Lord fully and knew neither ups nor downs, stamps its
character also upon his house and family; and this is very beautiful. He would
only give his daughter Achsah to the man of like faith, who could distinguish
himself at Kirjath-sepher, as Caleb had done at Kirjath-arba; and Othniel the
son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb took it, and he gave him Achsah his daughter
to wife. Nor is this all; for the faith that wholly follows the Lord God of
Israel (who is in these days, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) is
not only consciously blessed in itself, but delights, and can make another as
happy as itself, as Caleb did Othniel. Even further, it rejoiced to bestow a
blessing upon Achsah, when she lighted off her ass, and, in the character of a
claimant, asked her father for the upper and the nether springs.

There is a point of further interest to be noticed respecting Caleb and Hebron,
which comes out in the book of Judges and travels on to its completion in the
records of Samuel and the Chronicles; for the faith which has to do with God
must connect itself with His interests, and all that He does. The personal
faith, which made Caleb illustrious as an heir and a claimant, likewise gave its
character to his relations and his family. He gathered those round himself like
Othniel upon the one and the same principle of confidence in the God of Israel,
which had been the secret of Caleb’s unfailing strength and whole heartedness.
Upon this pathway it was that he introduced Othniel at Kiijath-sepher, and as
was the father, so was the son-in-law; for after the like term of forty years in
the school of God, and in the midst of the declension of the tribes, this
Othniel became the first of their deliverers, and of their judges. He was (as
his name implies) "the hour of God" to them in their distress; for the Lord had
sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia for eight years, because they
had forgotten Him, and served Baalim and the groves. But when the children of
Israel cried unto Him, the Lord raised up a saviour for them, even Othniel the
son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,
and he judged Israel and went out to war. Moreover his hand prevailed against
Chushan-rishathaim: so the land had rest forty years, and this rest might have
been perpetual, which Othniel had recovered, but for the subsequent idolatry of
the tribes; and Othniel died. Deeper corruptions set in, and other deliverers
were raised up till, after the times of the judges, came the reign of the kings.
In the end of 1 Samuel 30:1-31 : the introduction of David and his men, and
their faith in God lights up again the darkened page of Israel’s royal history,
and Hebron is mentioned as among the places where David and his men were wont to
haunt, when by Saul’s jealousy and persecution he was hunted like a partridge
upon the mountains. After the death of Saul and Jonathan by the hands of the
Philistines, and David’s lamentation over them upon Gilboa, he enquired of the
Lord whether he should go up to any of the cities of Judah, and the Lord said to
him, Go up; and David said, Whither shall I go up? and he said, Unto Hebron.
Caleb the heir in Judah, and the claimant of Hebron, four hundred years before,
had given place to Othniel as their judge, and the deliverer of Israel from the
oppression of the king of Mesopotamia. As we know, the prophet Samuel took the
precedence, when the Aaronic priesthood had been corrupted by the profligacy of
Eli’s sons. David, the man after God’s own heart, had been anointed as king from
out of the midst of Jesse’s sons: so David and his wives, and the men that were
with him went up with their households, and dwelt in the cities of Hebron. The
men of Judah thus take up the purposes of God and the blessing pronounced on
this tribe by Jacob, and in their turn carry them out by anointing David king
over the house of Judah. "The sceptre and the law-giver" are thus united; and
kingship is now established upon Hebron, the bright answer to the faith of those
who, in expectation of the day, gave commandment concerning their bones, and lay
buried there in the caves of Machpelah. So David waxed stronger and stronger,
and the house of Saul became weaker and weaker, and unto David were born sons in
Hebron; and the time that he reigned over the house of Judah was seven years and
six months. The man to whom God gave testimony, this son of Jesse who should
fulfil all His will, schooled as he had been in the sheepfolds of the
wilderness, was now to be invested with the entire majesty and royalty of the
throne, and as the shepherd of Israel.

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and said, Behold we are
thy bone and thy flesh; and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people
Israel, and shalt be a captain over them. So all the elders of Israel came to
the king to Hebron, and king David made a covenant with them there before the
Lord, and they anointed David king over all Israel; and David went on and grew
great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. One object of the Lord in raising
up David is stated in chapter 3: 18, "by the hand of my servant David I will
save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines," and out of the oppression of
all their enemies. As the anointed king, his first exploit was to gain Jerusalem
out of the hand of the Jebusites; for it was to be the city of the great king;
and the appointed earthly centre for the manifestation of His kingdom and the
glory of the throne of Israel. The inhabitants of Jebus said to him, "thou shalt
not come up hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the
city of David, and said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first, shall be chief
and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah [like another Othniel] went first up,
and became chief, and David dwelt in the castle." Travelling days and the
journeyings of the children of Israel are well-nigh accomplished. God had
brought them into Immanuel’s land, and to the city of Jerusalem, and to Mount
Zion: moreover David was there, and in their midst as the anointed king. The
tabernacle in the wilderness was about to give place to the temple and the
glory; and the next great business of David was to bring up the ark of the
covenant from the house of Obed-edom. "And David called for Zadok and Abiathar
the priests, and for the Levites, and said unto them, Ye are the chief of the
fathers of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren that ye
may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have
prepared for it; for because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a
breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order." Unless the
sense of God and His grace keep the heart in the enjoyment of His favour as
better than life, the knowledge of Him is soon lost, and Israelites become
identified with Canaanites, as the book of Judges declares, and reduce
themselves to the same level. Baal had his altar in the house of Joash, the
father of Gideon; nor could this mighty man of valour do the deeds of one
against the hosts of the Midianites, with his three hundred and their lamps and
pitchers, till he had thrown down this altar, and first put himself right with
God, as a worshipper. The Lord will not give His glory to another. Until Baal
and his altar were thrown down by Gideon, there was confusion in Israel; for God
and the idol were both there!

Here we may observe, that in the history of the Judges no mention is made of the
high priest, or any other priest, or even a Levite, either for counsel or for
action in any public way, from the time of Phinehas the son of Eleazar down to
Eli. The knowledge of God was lost, and the relations in which He had stood with
His people by the ark of the covenant violated and forgotten. When David sought
to bring up the ark into the hill of Zion, after its capture by the Philistines,
so unacquainted was the sweet psalmist with the ways of God respecting it, that
a new cart and the two milch kine did as well for him as the shoulders of the
Levites.

Priesthood and the priests, through the breach upon Uzza, come out brightly once
more with king David, in the persons of Zadok and Abiathar; and it was so, that
when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen
and fatlings, and David danced before the Lord with all his might, and he was
girded with a linen ephod. It is after God is thus owned by David and all
Israel, that the Lord makes a covenant with him concerning Solomon, saying, "he
shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
for ever; I will be his father, and he shall he my son," etc. It is along this
glorious pathway of God’s purposes and counsels, as to the throne and kingdom,
the people of Israel, and the land of promise, the temple and Mount Zion, the
city of Jerusalem and the yet coming Messiah, that God has ever led the faith
and expectations of those whom He called out to walk with Him. Abraham, Moses
and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, Othniel and the judges, David and Solomon, and all
that family of faith, looked for a city whose builder and maker is God, and
desired a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to
be called their God. The faith that follows God fully becomes acquainted with
Himself and His sufficiency to care for His own glory, and the final blessing of
His people, whether in Caleb or Abraham or David. This faith in things unseen
and eternal enabled the first of these to look through Hebron, and see a future
sceptre and Shiloh; or another, through Mount Moriah and the son Isaac, to see a
dead and risen Christ; or a third through Mount Zion and a Solomon (after the
flesh) to see a glorified Lord at the right hand of God, and a heavenly
Jerusalem. These and further revelations from the Father’s love concerning His
well beloved Son, by the Holy Ghost through the apostles of the New Testament,
are the highways and bypaths by which we also are called out into the fellowship
with the Father and the Son. In the epistle to the believing Hebrews, we join
them upon the heavenly calling, as the Spirit by Paul guides their faith along
this line of their ancestors; only adding this, "but ye are come to Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and to the church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."
The summing up of this epistle may very properly close these remarks on the ways
of God with His people. This cloud of witnesses (some of whom have been noticed)
are here brought forward into their new place, in association with our Lord; and
though dead yet speak, claiming their heirship and blessing through the Seed of
Abraham and of David, which is the Christ of God; and wait for His second
coming. Jesus is also presented as the Author and Finisher of faith, who, for
the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
set down at the right hand of the throne of God, waiting till His enemies are
made His footstool. By His death and resurrection, He has made the mercies of
Jehovah’s covenanted grace sure to Abraham and to David, as their Son and Lord,
and secured the promises as Son of God, and made them "yea and Amen, to the
glory of God by us." The mystery of the church, as the body and bride of the
Lamb — the mystic Eve — is now being formed by the Holy Ghost. God is calling
out from Jews and Gentiles, the quickened members of the body, into union in
life and righteousness with a rejected Christ, hidden in the heavens; for whose
shout we wait, to catch us up to meet Him in the air, and to be changed into His
likeness. Creation, likewise which groaneth under the bondage of corruption,
waits in hope of its deliverance into the liberty of this glory; when the
manifestation of the sons of God is come to pass. The last few touches only
remain to perfect the mystery of God, and the Lord will rise up from His place
and quit the Father’s throne to sit as Son of man upon His own throne in His own
glory, and the glory of all the holy angels. Israel redeemed, and brought into
this scene of blessing, under Christ and the bride (the heavenly Jerusalem
coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God), will then
understand its own mystery — "that God had provided some better thing for us,
that they without us should not be made perfect." How gladly will they sing in
that day, "for of him, and to him, and through him are all things, to whom be
glory for ever. Amen." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 11: S.   MR. R. P. SMITH'S "FAREWELL
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Mr. R. P. Smith’s "Farewell." My Dear —

I have read Mr. Pearsall Smith’s address, delivered at the "Farewell Meeting" in
Liverpool, as reported in "The Christian" of September 24th, and now say a few
words on it as you request.

It is but right, I think, to give the importance that is due to this last
lecture, as it contains his own review of his course in England, and states his
own judgment upon the work and its results, which he earnestly commends "to the
intelligence of the ministers of Great Britain." In common with many others, I
have not been uninterested, as you know, in the main objects proposed by Mr. S.,
namely, "increased holiness of life" in our daily walk, and more "entire
consecration and personal devotedness" to the service of the Lord. In neither of
these objects is he peculiar, and he only expresses a common want which, thank
God, is felt by thousands of Christians who have been waking up to the discovery
of declension in themselves, and of their sad departure from Christ’s glory in
the church of God, as such. The ways and means by which he proposes to reach
these objects, and which he recommends so confidently to others, are the things
really in question — and by many, more than questioned. Let me add, that as a
system (for it is one), I at one time hoped Mr. S. would have judged it as a
whole and broken it up, as fundamentally opposed to scripture; but his farewell
address leads me to fear he will only take his vessel into dock to be repaired,
with possibly the removal of some avowedly rotten timber, and then relaunched.
This I deeply regret for his own sake, and the sake of others in this country,
who have had their curiosity excited, or in many cases really got a something
which they had not before. As regards his doctrines, Mr. S. says, "I have been
thrown in the way of men now, of high culture and of deep piety, and have been
benefited thereby. I shall before God, with prayer, reconsider and rewrite what
I have already sent out: if I am wrong, retract; if I am right, stand to it" —
which is all very well as far as it goes; but I doubt whether Mr. S. will in
this way get into his real and true place before God.

Mr. Smith knows that some of his own friends have openly declared they cannot
give away his publications as they now stand, because of wrong doctrine; and
surely this is matter for conscience in confession before God. May the Lord
preserve him from being a judge in his own matters, for he says," if I am wrong,
retract; and if I am right, stand to it." "To the word and to the testimony."

Another thing I would ask for him in brotherly love, namely, that he may not be
allowed to reconsider, with a view of rewriting what he has already sent out;
for this would be a great snare, and will in fact be only bringing out the old
ship with new copper-bottom to conceal her defects, and new sails to make a
finer show than before. And now a few words on the "Farewell Address" at
Liverpool, which does not show me any advancement, either as to growth in
holiness, or personal consecration to God of which he and they speak; but on the
contrary sanctions an acceptance of conscious sin and known existing evil. Would
you expect to hear Mr. S., who is the teacher and example of this higher life
"of increasing holiness and personal consecration," publicly say, "no one has
been unsettled from his ecclesiastical surroundings; to churchmen the
prayer-book, they say, is a new book to them; and the baptists confess they
never understood their own standards before?" Where Christ becomes better known,
this is the case with the Bible.

Again, where persons have been exercised upon the evil with which they are
connected as Christians, Mr. S. tells us, "I have said to those inclined to
change, you could not do a worse thing than to leave your church." "Don’t
discuss," he says, "but search the scriptures with the honest purpose, to gain a
scriptural experience before God. This rest [what rest?] may be attained by all
denominations of true Christians; your dogmas may remain unchanged but must be
illuminated. [Is there no such thing as truth?] The churchman and dissenter
alike need to walk more and more in the light of God and in the company of God,"
etc.

What is meant, and more important still, what is the value of this "scriptural
experience before God," and "this rest," which are compatible with a person
abiding in existing evil, and all the various forms of ecclesiastical corruption
in these last and perilous times? Is there such a thing as "the church of the
living God"? and is there no responsibility for today in the words, "every man’s
work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is;"
and further, as to the man himself, "if any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are"? What kind
of "scriptural experience before God," and what kind of a rest which may be
attained by all denominations of true Christians, may this be, which Mr. S. has
discovered for himself, and to which he leads his followers? Is this the way of
holiness and personal consecration by which one may "walk more and more in the
light of God and in the company of God," and by which "God’s word becomes of
greater virtue to the soul"? Whose voice are we to follow — his, who tells "I
have said to those inclined to change, You could not do a worse thing than leave
your church" — or the voice of Paul to the Corinthians, "Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty;" and again the voice from heaven in the
Apocalypse, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues?’ It is with sorrow’ one is
compelled to add that seldom, if ever, have there been such loud professions and
calls to holiness of life and personal consecration (connected, too, with an
expected "baptism of the Holy Ghost," and a "pathway of power") as have been
made by Mr. Smith and his followers, and yet only seen to collapse at the very
moment when an opportunity for their definite and distinct application against
ecclesiastical evil and corruption occurred.

"I will spue thee out of my mouth" were the words of the Lord (who walked
through the midst of the seven golden candlesticks), as regards Laodicea. "Be
zealous therefore and repent" marked the moral estimate of Him whose eyes were
as a flame of fire; but says Mr. Smith, "you could not do a worse thing than
leave your church"; and "no one has been unsettled from his ecclesiastical
surroundings." If principles are to be judged, and the truth of their character
by the results produced, what can be said of the competency of Mr. S. to hold
the balances of holiness in the one hand, or of sin in the other in the church
of God? No, I repeat my desire that he may not occupy himself in the
reconsideration of his tracts, with a view of rewriting them and reprinting
them, with a patch here and there, but judge himself to be unfit for any such
work, while there remains a prior and grave matter to be searched out and
confessed between his soul and God in secret. In my judgment he does violence to
the sanctuary of God upon the questions of holiness and sin — to say nothing of
the whole scope of Christianity — and comes out with an unsanctified balance,
and weighs clean and unclean to the saints with false weights and measures. If
he has done this unwittingly and ignorantly, as I fully believe, yet is he on
this account unfit and unable to detect the wrong, much less to put the truth of
God right; and this is why I trust he may be kept from the use of his pen at
present, lest he should only give proof of this to his own sorrow and shame, and
the regret of those who are anxiously and prayerfully waiting on the Lord on his
behalf. This entire repudiation of conscience or responsibility to relative evil
before God leads to the fact (which is evident enough in his system, and in this
"Farewell lecture") that he only contemplates the individual in what is but his
own personal purity. The object becomes self, and is reduced to one’s own self:
consisting in the expurgation of sin, and bad tempers, and cares; and "a
re-adjustment of body, soul, and spirit to Christ," accompanied by "an inward
realization of purified affections," etc.

"There is," he says, "to be found in Christ a uniform victory over sin, not
variable, but unbroken, cloudless, shadowless," and he then asks, "What is sin?"
His final answer to this query is, that "the scriptural standard is not
faultless, but blameless;" and then by an illustration of a little girl spilling
the ink on her mother’s dress, and "much pleased with the result," he reduces
God’s standard to mere consciousness, and this little girl’s "conception" of not
having done a wrong thing! "So all that is beyond our conception," he says, "is
met and cleansed every moment by the blood of Christ, and in our Christ we have
resource for uniform victory over sin." If so, why were sins of ignorance to be
atoned for? He also speaks of "the commencement of a long life of
sanctification," and that "there must be complete consecration to God, and
complete trust in His promises" — which is all a turning back to Judaism, and
reducing Christians to an inward realization of a lower purity. "Thus has come a
harmony into my existence," he says, "a re-adjustment of the whole nature,
spirit, soul, and body to Christ, that must be the wonderful reality of the
words, ’Christ formed in you,’ ’Christ in you,’ ’the being filled with the
Spirit,’ the ’not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ and ’the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.’" (See "Holiness through
Faith," p. 19.)

All this reasoning, and from these precious scriptures too, shows how much the
system consists of making everything of self as the object down upon this earth,
instead of the Christian’s portion and state with the ascended Son of man in
heaven at the right hand of God in glory. He borrows from Christ, it is true (as
the scriptures just quoted prove), what is necessary to produce all these
effects; but it is to re-adjust the Adam nature in order to get an inward state
and realization of purified affections, etc. In result, it separates Christ from
us, as the one and only object for the soul, and makes the state of the soul an
object to itself instead; and then necessarily and naturally modifies the
standard of holiness, so as to bring it down to one’s reach; and of sin, so as
to escape its condemnation. Otherwise, why take such an example as the little
child and the ink-bottle, and its want of conception to excuse its misconduct as
to the mother’s dress, instead of "If we walk in the light, as he (God) is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another"? Take another instance of
dropping the standard of holiness and sin to suit a present state and condition
on earth — "If we could see into everything future in our life, we could never
take another step; but God progressively shows it to us." This is applied by Mr.
Smith to the church too — "may the church walk in Christ, not in self, not
faultless, but blameless before God." What confusion is here!

If the state of a believer in Christ were looked at as accepted and complete in
Christ, why make this distinction between "faultless" and "blameless?" For
surely looked at as in Him, which is our true and changeless standing and state,
we are both "unblameable in holiness and unrebukable in love." If we have for
our souls another state and experience for this present life, then it is plain
the perfect example and faultless, yea, sinless, nature of Christ will not do
for us as the proper object of faith and hope any more than the absolute
holiness of God.

Nevertheless, if this be beyond us now in everyday experience and in positive
conformity, as it certainly is, and must be till His coming, it is not beyond
that mighty power of God to effect which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, etc.,
as Head of the new creation of God. Do you think that these variations, and this
sliding scale of holy and unholy, clean and unclean, faultless and blameless,
etc., would be necessary, if the new creation with Christ the Second Adam were
the one object before the soul? Are we, or are we not, on the other side of the
cross, and by means of it, through death to the old man and our resurrection
with the new, united to Christ in life and righteousness and glory? We are not
in the flesh, nor of the world, even as He was not of the world. Is there merely
a re-adjustment of our nature, body, soul, and spirit to Christ? or is it true
that "if any man be in Christ, lie is a new creature; old things are passed away
and all things are become new, and all things are of God"? The witness and
testimony of the Holy Ghost is certainly to Christ where He is, and as He is —
and He is likewise in us, the assurance from God the Father of our sonship; yea,
further, that "as Christ is, so are we in this world." Why should we lower the
standard of the new creation to any present state, if it serves God to work for
His own glory by no one less than the Son of man as He is? He has begun to
create and will conform us to the image of the heavenly man at His right hand in
glory; and practically "he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as
he Christ is pure."

I am sorry for those who accept any other pattern than Christ as our rule of
life while here below, and who would make a difference between faultless and
blameless to get at an ideal purity another way. Was not Christ both faultless
and blameless when on this earth? and is it not falsifying the standard in
heaven where God is working for His own glory, as well as below where the Holy
Ghost is working for Christ’s glory, to accept any other pattern than what our
blessed Jesus was and is?

There are of course other statements upon which I will not remark. Still I
repeat, where separation from evil, even from the corruptions of ecclesiastical
evil, around us is refused, and yet holiness of life and personal consecration
to God is pressed, I cannot put these opposite things together without, as I
have said, a compromise of the balance and weights and measures of the sanctuary
of God; and this we ought instantly to judge. His standpoint is wrong. In
conclusion, I would observe as to the system of Mr. Smith, that it is mainly
occupation with the flesh, with sin in oneself and what it produces; though
accompanied it. may be with what he calls a uniform victory over sin and the
world through faith. Some such difference of ministry is stated by John the
Baptist when speaking of himself in contrast with Christ; "he that is of the
earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above
all, and what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth." As a consequence,
there is but little use made of John’s Epistles except one verse — "The blood of
Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" — and this, as you know, is
misused by him. The new nature, and "that eternal life which was with the
Father, and was manifested to us," of which John speaks, and which is in fact
the apostle’s subject, has but a small place with Mr. Smith or his system.
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practise] sin, because his seed
abideth in him, and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God," is a truth
which, as you will easily understand, cannot well be worked up in his theory. So
likewise "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world," is seldom or never
used, for the same reason; whereas the latter part of this verse is of constant
occurrence, and "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
In short, the partial use of such fundamental scriptures as these, and indeed,
John’s Epistle, at large, as well as the misuse of others not only in John but
in the Romans, etc., guide exactly to the defects, not to use any stronger and
more exact word, of all such systems as this of Mr. Smith, and shows where they
all break down by making one’s own state and experience here the object, instead
of Christ.

It is not the new creation with the Second Adam at its head, and God in
sovereign power by the Holy Ghost quickening the dead in trespasses and sins,
raising them up together with Christ, and making them sit together in heavenly
places in Christ, which flows forth fresh and full from his soul as one who is
there in the full glow of what satisfies the Father’s love to give to His Son.
On the contrary, this when referred to is merely called a standing, and, let me
say, coldly declared to be a "judicial" standing! Why this, except it be that
his system is so exclusively moral and human — so wrongly subjective as to be
all but confined to the state and experience of a person either with or without
a temper, and the absence of daily cares; having at the best a uniform victory
over sin, except as to what is not known of evil in the flesh, through want of
perception or conception, like the little girl? Such effects of faith and this
holiness, coupled with an inward purity and a progressive sanctification, are
Mr. Smith’s objects, instead of "beholding the glory of the Lord, and our being
changed (morally) into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of
the Lord."

He has not got into the true position of a Christian as united to Christ at the
Father’s right hand, the Second Adam, and Head of the new creation of God; or
one with the church as a member of the body of Christ on the earth, where the
Holy Ghost is come down from the Father and the Son "to gather together in one"
the members of Christ, and to work in the church, "dividing to every man
severally as he will." Not being consciously in a true position with Christ in
heaven by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, he speaks and urges lower things
which have not to do with forming "our citizenship in heaven" by the things
which are at God’s right hand, but with objects which may serve to make a man
happy and contented on earth through a uniform victory over a certain kind of
sin, and an absence of care, etc. Is this mode of life and its experiences what
Paul meant when he said, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life I live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me"? Mr. Smith
contents himself with these proofs of his own daily victory, and with confident
assurances of it to others, for their encouragement; but all this must fall
infinitely short of the measure of Christ, and what He has overcome to reach His
present place in glory, and to give us communion with Himself there by the
indwelling of the Spirit. In the end all such experiences must he unsatisfying
and powerless to himself and others; because he makes his own conscious
enjoyment the measure of his communion, instead of Christ and His fulness, and
what the Father has given Him, that He might see of the travail of His soul and
be satisfied. We are sharers with Him in all this through His own most precious
love, in a present fellowship and joy (imperfect in nothing save its measure in
us as down here) by the power of the Holy Ghost, whom we have of God, and who
dwells in us — a blessed portion! May this form our life and ways below, while
we wait for Him.

Yours faithfully in Him, J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 12: S.   MY FATHER WORKETH HITHERTO, AND I WORK
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"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

It has struck me whether our Lord does not begin another action in John 8:1-59,
by sovereign power and effectual grace (which is continued in the four following
chapters); and that this new action is consequent upon His return from "the
Mount of Olives," with which the first seven had ended.

If so, it is dispensationally in keeping (and will be morally so too in His
future dealings with Israel) to find Him "early in the morning in the temple,"
sitting down to teach again the people. Equally in character with this position
on His part was the act of the Scribes and Pharisees, who brought before Him the
"woman taken in adultery," that He who alone could pass judgment on the sin
should take this place, and in righteousness condemn her. This scene not merely
opens out the trespass to which their thoughts and intentions were limited, but
has a far wider and more serious application to the nation and its rulers, under
the guilt of whoredom and adultery, which should have lain heavily upon their
consciences, in the presence of their Jehovah-Jesus! Is not this the iniquity
which has first to be judged and tried by the bitter water of jealousy,
according to "the law of jealousies when a wife goeth aside to another, instead
of her husband, and is defiled?" Prophet after prophet had been sent unto them,
saying, "surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye
dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord." The Scribes and
Pharisees, who brought the woman and accused her, declared that "Moses in the
law commanded that such should be stoned;" but they are not in the current of
His own thoughts about the deeper trespass which had been brought to light by
His own presence in their midst. How could He judge or condemn the woman, and
not in righteous jealousy curse them? They had set her "in the midst," and
demanded "what sayest thou?" To His eye they had by their own act set themselves
in the midst with her, and passing beyond the statute laws of Moses (see Numbers
5:17) into the depths of His own feelings about them, He refused to take their
accusation. Long ago He had sent Jeremiah, saying, "Go and cry in the ears of
Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy
youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the
wilderness, in a land that was not sown;" and now one greater than a prophet is
come to win her heart back to Himself by His own grace. If He applied the law of
Moses to the nation, as the accusers wished Him to do towards the adulteress, He
must have taken "holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is in the
floor, and put it into the water, and as a priest of the tabernacle bring up the
question before the Lord." This He refuses to do, and now mark how He passes
into His own heights and depths of love (cost what it may in the end) to justify
Himself in not condemning either the woman in her sin, or the nation in its
greater trespass. "Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground
[as though he heard them not];" for in the love which had brought Him amongst
them, and in which He was come to work, the sin of her who was taken in the act,
and the sin of Israel, though equally under "the eye of the sun" for righteous
judgment, was written on His heart in grace. He who came out from God came not
to put her away, but to put away her sin, and to cleanse her and make her whiter
than snow. Viewed in this light, how significant of their state, and of His own
purpose in love, are the words which He spake unto them, "he that is without sin
among you, let him first cast a stone at her; and again he stooped down and
wrote on the ground!" He rolls the sin and the accusers away from the floor, and
thus purges it; nor will He gather up the dust thereof in any earthen vessel or
prepare "the bitter water of jealousy" between Him and them. He walks in a
higher path of His own, which none but He could make; and so goes out of the
midst, and away from all their accusations and questionings, saying to them, "I
am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life." He was left alone and the woman standing in the
midst. "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said
unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?"
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, "Neither do I condemn thee, go
and sin no more." As "the light of life," He has thus purged His floor cleaner
than by the law of stoning! Blessed Jesus, He has made all the sin His own, and
will eventually pass into the ground and take the curse Himself, and die the
death, that what He wrote upon it in the day of His grace, may (whenever
gathered up in jealousy) be pardoned and obliterated by the blood of atonement
and reconciliation, through the depths of His own sufferings.

If John 8:1-59 : has introduced the national charge of Israel’s departure and
estrangement from Him who had espoused her to Himself, and come after her as we
have supposed, John 9:1-41 : is equally significant as showing their individual
state and national blindness. As the former could only be portrayed by the woman
taken in adultery, so in this it is by "a man which was blind from his birth."
The state of the nation was not in either case beyond the typical virtue of the
balm of Gilead, or the skill of the great Physician; and this instance only
calls forth the power and grace of Him whose prerogative it is to give sight to
the blind. It is remarkable that Jesus refuses to take up this case, in the form
in which the disciples view it, when they asked, "Master, who did sin; this man
or his parents, that he was born blind?" He will not look at it in this light
any more than judge the treacherousness of the nation by the woman. In the
governmental ways and dealings of God with men upon the earth such a question
might fairly arise as this, for He did "visit the sins of the fathers upon the
children, to the third and fourth generation;" but taken outside the
responsibility of man, and viewed in connection with the counsels of the Father
and the Son, "Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but
that the works of God should be made manifest in him." In the pathway of the
Word made flesh we follow Jesus thus "showing forth his glory;" and so the man
that was born blind serves as exactly as the woman did for its display; yea to
the condemnation of those who stood around in unbelief and said they saw. As
"the light of the world" He passed out from the temple, and from the midst of
the woman and her accusers. In His true greatness, He refused to use that light
in which He walked for condemnation, though He commanded it to shine in upon the
consciences of each, so that all were convicted and made their escape from its
searching power, "beginning from the eldest even unto the last." There was yet
another use of the light, and that is what we are now considering, in the case
of the man born blind; "he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life."

It is a great action therefore that occupies Jesus at this time; not merely
opening the eyes of the blind by sovereign power, but giving Himself as the
object of sight in effectual grace to the man and to the nation if they will
accept Him — being likewise the light without which the eye, though opened,
could not behold Him! In view of this Jesus said, "I must work the works of him
that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work." Observe,
day and night get a new meaning, when they are looked at in reference to
Christ’s continuance and work upon this earth. "As long as I am in the world, I
am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and
made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the
clay." The dust of the floor, and the water, and the earthen vessel which would
have made up the compound in "the hand of the priest" for the infliction of the
curse and the rot, upon the trial of jealousy and unfaithfulness, had been
refused. He who alone can "bring meat out of the eater" gives us now to learn
instead the virtues of the spittle, and the ground, and the mystic clay in the
hand of Him that is come to work the works of God. Jesus said to the man "Go,
wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation Sent). He went his way
therefore, and washed and came seeing." The dust of the ground, out of which the
first man was "made in the image of God," had been cursed because of
transgression and Satan; but now, under the power of Christ it is reclaimed and
made available by the "sent" One through His spittle for bestowing an eye of
faith to behold Him who came to bear away every curse, let it lie on whatsoever
floor it may; and turn "the curse into a blessing!" The Light which had filled
the temple just now and emptied it of every accuser, (how could they abide in
its searching power?) leaving the woman alone with Jesus, does the same thing
among the Scribes and Pharisees, now that the man who "was born blind" is
brought into their midst. How well has the compound of the Apothecary done its
work in connection with the sent One? "If this man were not of God [he says to
them], he could do nothing. They answered, and said unto him, Thou wast
altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? and they cast him out."

Jesus and the woman were left alone. And now the man who had walked in darkness
all his days, but who has got "the light of life from Christ and confesses His
sovereign power is turned out of the synagogue to follow Him. "Jesus heard that
they had cast him out; and when he had found him [as in grace He would], he
saith unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" Two precious assurances flow from the
lips of Jesus upon this inquiry, as He unveils Himself to the outcast one; "Thou
hast both seen him [the new object to the opened eye] and it is he that talketh
with thee; and he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him." New relations
are thus formed which lead the Lord to take (in John 10:1-42) "the place of
Shepherd" to this cast out sheep, and to declare His love for the flock as well
as His protecting care against every foe. He also reveals the secret of the
double title and interest which the Father’s love as well as His own have over
the sheep. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all; and
none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one."

We cannot fail to notice in these narratives how Jesus comes into the world, and
accepts it just as it was by Adam’s sin and Satan’s power in death, to show
Himself equal to every claim which the misery and wants of those in it daily and
hourly brought across His path. More than this: for He passes through the world
with the Father, in another and higher character than that by which as
Creator-God, the heavens and the earth were made by Him and all that they
contain. Earlier in this Gospel Jesus said to the Jews, "My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work," introducing thus a power which could turn everything
round to His own glory and the development of the hidden purposes of divine
love. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." In this
equality with God, there cannot be any uncertainty as to the nature of this new
power, or its exercise; "for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth,
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will" is its scope; and we are the blessed
objects in whom it is made good.

John 11:1-57 : gives occasion to our Lord to pass into a yet further glory, upon
the death of Lazarus; and to act by sovereign power in His higher titles, as
"the Resurrection and the Life." Here also Jesus refuses to hold His intercourse
with them about death, as they viewed it in relation to Lazarus; but teaches the
disciples to look at it in the presence of Himself and His Father; that they may
understand Him, and the new doctrine which He declares. "This sickness is not
unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby." How else could He act in character as "the Resurrection and the Life,"
without a Lazarus who was dead (in the twelve hours of man’s day) and buried,
and had been in the grave four days already, so that those who loved him said
"by this time he stinketh!" Death and the grave and corruption looked at in
their condemning and separating powers in relation to God in His righteousness,
and man upon whom death was inflicted on account of sin, are indeed fearful; all
men are guilty under the weight of this penalty, and every mouth is stopped at
the grave of Lazarus. Jesus is alone here with God, in the presence of Satan and
his greatest power! The blindness of the man who was born so, whether through
his own sin, or the sin of his parents, left him yet alive in this world; and
the transgression of the woman who was taken in adultery, and whom Moses
commanded to be stoned, forfeited her own life to the curse of the law she had
broken; but "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved."

Jesus took this place in the temple and passed before the Scribes and Pharisees
as the light of it; but they left Him alone with the convicted woman as "the
light" to her, who under the law which they used was appointed to death. He had
also come to the man who was born blind and had so filled his vessel with "the
light" from Himself, that the man needed only to learn further the Person who
had brought to him "life," in the confession of "the Son of God," whom he
worshipped.

Happy deliverances and trophies were these for themselves and for Him who was
passing thus through the world in a power that was able to tarn the very causes
of human misery out of it; or in the meanwhile to find a new use for them for
"the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." This is what
the Lord is doing as "the potter with the clay," and under His skill everything
is seen to suit Him and serve His purpose very well for glory or beauty, and
just as it is! The language and actings of Him, who now comes into Bethany as
"the Resurrection and the Life," are all in correspondence with such a title.
"He saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him
out of sleep." In the hands of Him that quickeneth and raiseth, "this sickness
is not unto death," though, speaking as those about Him do (after the manner of
men), Lazarus was dead and buried, and in corruption.

Passing this however, we see that even the faith of Martha and Mary, which
recognized a "resurrection at the last day" (for this was their hope) must open
itself out to take in Jesus in the light of His own perfections "while it is
called today," and learn all these lessons afresh in this connection with the
Son of God. "The last day" therefore is out of place when Jesus is in their
midst, to act as the Resurrection and the Life.

Here we may well challenge our hearts upon the importance of such a revelation
as we are considering in all its parts. "Now that Christ is come," He calls us
out to learn our new lessons as "the truth is in Jesus" in His company, and as
He teaches us, by act and deed. Old things are passed away in His creation, so
that "sickness unto death" and almost everything besides, which is the natural
order and relation in Adam, have given place to another order in the Son of God,
who was dead but is alive again and "liveth for evermore, and has the keys of
death and of hell." How slowly we make room, like the two sisters and the group
at Bethany, for the display of "the glory of God," above and beyond all that sin
and Satan brought into the world and put us under in the cruel bondage of death
and corruption; not seeing that the Son of God has laid hold of it all for
Himself, to be glorified thereby, down to the grave by means of death; and up to
the right hand of the throne of God in glory, by means of resurrection! What a
pathway of trespass and guilt — sin and blindness — sickness and death — have
these chapters opened up; and what misery would they still record, if Jesus had
not passed through the midst as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world," and made all its stumbling-blocks His own stepping-stones, up to the
right hand of the Father, and the crown of glory which adorns the victor’s brow.
"When Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet
saying unto him, Lord; if thou hadst been here my brother had not died." But in
this confidence of her love, she is not near enough to His own heart, in the
secret that all He is, as the Son of God, He is for the objects of His
affection, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." He did not come
to reach His glory by preventing death, as Mary supposed (for He abode two days
in the same place where he was) but came to win His spoils by means of death;
and to bring in "the Father of glory" in due season to His own sepulchre, that
He might raise and glorify His Son with other glories, besides those which He
had with Him "before the world was."

We may remark here that this visit of Jesus as the Son of God to Bethany, and
the rolling away the stone from the mouth of the cave, to bring out man who lay
therein "with the napkin about his face and hound hand and foot with grave
clothes," is a companion picture to "the exceeding high mountain" in the other
Gospels, upon which Jesus stood and was transfigured before His disciples. His
face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light, "when he
received from God the Father honour and glory, and there came forth the voice to
him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
The Son of man in righteousness, thus accredited to us by His transfiguration
upon "the holy mount," was at His height in majesty and glory upon the earth —
further He cannot rise that way, unless He goes up alone to God, in the title of
His own worthiness. On the other hand, Lazarus in his cave "bound hand and foot
with grave clothes" under the power of death, was sunk down into the depths of
corruption! These two extremes are met in the Person of the Son, who passes
through John’s Gospel (not so much in "the coming and majesty and glory of his
earthly kingdom") as in the veiled power and title of "the only begotten of the
Father;" to work the works of God out upon the new platform and footing, that
"neither hath this man sinned nor his parents," that he was born blind; or as to
Lazarus, "this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby."

Such an one in our midst makes the depths of this ruin and disgrace to man His
own, and it is to be rolled away out of the floor in the title of Him who has
written it upon His own heart, as before and with His Father, in the fire of His
jealousy, and "the zeal for His house which had eaten Him up." How will He and
the ground and the dust thereof (out of which Adam was originally taken) settle
this new and last question, now that man has been driven back "unto dust," by
that death which his Creator inflicted upon him as a sinner? The work, the sad
work of Satan, is before the Son of God at the grave — where man who "was made
in the image of God" has been laid in the separating power of death, the keys of
which the usurper held upon the cave and over the captive dead; buried out of
sight from those who were in tears at the felt desolation of that hour. "A
groan" goes up to God from the heart of Jesus, who has come into such a scene of
helplessness and misery to "work the works of God" in the face of Satan’s power
and title at the grave’s mouth. The groan found its answer between the Father
and the Son, "and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father I thank Thee that
Thou hast heard me, and I know that Thou hearest me always." Nor is this new
work of Jesus as "the Resurrection and the Life" to be only for the glory of God
(as the first object, ever before His soul) but in truest sympathy and love for
the oppressed and bereaved, He adds "because of the people which stand by I said
it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me." In whatever way this grace
could associate others with itself in such an act, it is ever the delight of His
unjealous love to do! How like Himself is it, when Jesus bids them begin this
mighty action, saying, "take ye away the stone;" an act only to be rivalled when
all was over, by the same love which bade them "loose him and let him go;" what
a moment for them, for they did it! The groan to God brought its answer from
above to the opened ears of Jesus. Perfect in the expression of His sympathy, to
the sorrowing and helpless ones with whom Jesus wept, they looked that these
tears should be wiped away by power from Him, as the Son of God. Jesus is left
in possession of the entire scene, and "cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth, and he that was dead came forth," bound hand and foot! "A new thing" had
been wrought already in the man who walked about upon the earth, with his eyes
opened by means of the clay, which Jesus made out of it; but now a greater
wonder is to be wrought in reply to the groan and the tears and the loud cry;
for Lazarus comes forth from the depths of the grave, at the bidding of Jesus
the Son of God passing through the ruins, as "the Resurrection and the Life."
Blessed Jesus, Thou hast won back all that the enemy had plucked from the hands
of men, from Adam in Paradise to Solomon in his kingdom and majesty in
Jerusalem, as declared when Thou wast transfigured upon the holy mount. In this
Gospel Thou art come down from that height, that Thou mightest be seen also to
enter into the palace of the strong man and spoil his goods, and take from him
all his armour wherein he trusted.

John 12:1-50 : opens after these triumphs, and presents Bethany under quite
another aspect. It is no longer the house of weeping, for "there they made Jesus
a supper, and Martha served and Lazarus (whom the grave and corruption had given
hack out of the womb of death) was one of them that sat at meat with him." One
crowning act only remains to be done for "the glory of God, and that the Son of
God may be glorified thereby," in order that the counsels of the Father and our
eternal blessing may be established beyond the reach of Satan’s power, and
outside the range of sin, and the judgment of God. Who could take up this work,
and by what new paths in life or death, incarnation or ascension, could such an
end be reached; but by the Son of God come down from above, in the mystery of
"the Word made, flesh," that He might accomplish it? In this spirit, Mary took
"a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the
ointment." Elias and Moses, the two men who appeared in glory, on the top of the
exceeding high mountain, spake with Jesus of "His decease, which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem;" and He carried this secret down with Him into the
house of Bethany, that He might declare it to those whom He loved, and in
connection with this anointing. To the natural thoughts of Judas (like the
inquiry respecting the man who was blind from his birth, and its causes) this
use of the ointment is but waste, and should have been sold for three hundred
pence and given to the poor; but Mary is in the current of her Lord’s thoughts,
and He said, "let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this."
The act of Mary had this significance to the heart of Jesus, and He prepares
Himself for the path by which the causes of human misery, and God’s dishonour,
and the world’s bondage should be met and overcome. Long ago the Spirit of
prophecy had cried, "O death, I will be thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy
destruction;" and now He is come to whom that finger pointed. Jesus knowing that
His hour was come speaks to His Father about it, and says for Himself, "except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit." He who proved Himself as "the Resurrection and the
Life" at the cave of Lazarus, has in view His last and greatest work of
expiation for the guilty. He sets Himself to descend into the belly of the
earth, that the dust of the tabernacle-floor — the writing of the finger — and
the original curse upon the ground — may get their answer, and be set aside in
His own death, as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." God,
the Father of glory, may thou take His new place, and raise up Jesus out of His
grave on the third day, as the proof of His own glory over sin by death, and of
our redemption; for "God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." A deeper path than all these
groans and tears at the grave of Lazarus, opened itself to our Lord and Jesus
said, "now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name."

It is no longer merely Adam’s sin that is in question, or the transgressions of
his posterity, multiplied as they may be; for "God manifest in flesh" has come
into the midst of the family as a man and brought every adverse power into
crisis in His own person at His cross. Satan’s usurped rights over man were
challenged and set aside by the perfect obedience in life and death of the
Second Adam. Tempted by the devil in the wilderness (when the temptations were
ended) Jesus said, "get thee hence, Satan." So again in Gethsemane, when "his
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," in the
knowledge that this was Satan’s hour, and the power of darkness; still He
accepted it in the confidence that it was the path of "the predeterminate
counsel" that led to the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby in life and in death, and at the right hand of the Father!

Obedience unto death was the only measure of His perfectness as the faithful
servant who loved his master, his wife, and his children, and would not go out
free. The sin and the iniquity of His own, the flesh, the world and Satan; the
majesty and righteousness of God in their own nature, as well as in holy
judgment against all evil, were gathered up by Christ at that hour, and made His
own care at the cross. He not only vindicated the rights of God in His ways with
men in government, but glorified the Father according to His own essential being
and Godhead; and in doing this, proved at the same time who this Son of man must
be, who did it. He who in grace to us, and in infinite love to the Father, made
all these His own care, wrought them out in His atoning sufferings and death,
when "he said, it is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." In
the righteous judgment which He bore, as the Just One for the unjust, it follows
that the prince of this world must be cast out. In the same judgment which He
took and because of it, He further said "now is the judgment of this world."
Unrighteousness must in due time be as publicly judged by God from heaven,
because righteousness in the suffering victim was cast out by the world and its
prince; and Jesus was with the Father. As to Himself in grace to us, Jesus said,
"and I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said
signifying what death he should die."

Precious Jesus, what Thy people owe Thee; who hast broken through every yoke —
borne the curse — put away sin by the sacrifice of Thyself — destroyed him that
had the power of death, that is the devil — brought life and incorruptibility to
light — and set us in relationship with Thyself, and Thy Father as our Father,
and with Thy God our God!

John 12:1-50 closes however "in darkness" as regards those in whose midst He was
thus shining forth, as "the light of life," and lighting up the darkest places
of the earth by taking possession of them in His own glory, and so drawing out
"the sting of death" itself, if they would only let Him, because He could not be
holden of it. But they listened to the law, instead of beholding the glory of
the Son and said, "we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever:
and how sayest Thou, the Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?"
and they too are offended at Him. Nevertheless Jesus presents Himself once more
to them in this group of chapters, as the light of life saying, "while ye have
light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light," lest
darkness come upon you.

Like the accusers of John 8:1-59 who went out one by one, and left Jesus alone
with the woman; or like the Scribes and Pharisees who cast out of the synagogue
the man blind from his birth, who confessed Jesus and worshipped Him; so these
in their turn compel Jesus to take an action for Himself (a last and final one)
but in judgment against them; "these things spake Jesus, and departed, and did
hide himself from them!" The sun which had risen in such brightness upon them,
and shed its beams across their path, has gone down in obscurity — and set, till
another day, because of their unbelief. They have lost Jesus, and the light of
the world has left it! The first seven chapters of this Gospel ended by every
man going to his own house, and "Jesus to the mount of Olives;" they then parted
company till his feet shall stand thereon another day. These five chapters
finish, as we have seen, by Jesus hiding Himself from them and the world. John
13:1-38 and onward open the new and blessed subject of the Father’s house, and
of our union there by grace in all the counsels of the Father, to the glory of
"the departed One" who is the Son of His own love. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 13: S.   OUR EXODUS
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Our Exodus.

(A sequel to "Our Genesis" in the Bible Treasury, No. 156, May, 1869.) "They are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world." The disciple who has
accompanied his Lord through the various scenes which served to call out His
personal glories both by words and works in the first twelve chapters of John’s
Gospel, must have been prepared in some measure for His departure "out of this
world to the Father." Nor is this rupture to be accounted for because of what
men were when brought into the presence of the Word made flesh, though an early
intimation reveals the secret that "Jesus did not commit himself unto them
because he knew all men;" and a later one declares "they loved the praise of
men, more than the praise of God." But other reasons are at hand. The group of
men and women who had been attracted out of the world by what He was, and
gathered round Him with true-hearted affection, had to learn that they could not
follow Him. "Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice." But further,
that little enclosure at Bethany where Jesus was at home with Martha and Mary
and Lazarus whom He loved, and which shone out in such heavenly light and grace,
would not satisfy the heart of the Lord: He must have them with Himself, in His
own life and likeness and glory. All was at its very best — "there they made him
a supper and Martha served." Lazarus too, who had been dead "was one of them
that sat at the table with him." And Mary took her ointment of spikenard, very
costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.
Moreover, "the house was filled with the odour of the ointment," and He who
brought His glory into it, was there as "the resurrection and the life."
Measuring themselves by themselves, why was the house at Bethany broken up? and
why did the Lord give that strange character to Mary’s act, "against the day of
my burying hath she kept this?" The glory of God had been the rule and object of
Christ’s action at the grave when He cried with a loud voice "Lazarus, come
forth;" and so now, in His renewed intimacy with them in Bethany, He accepts no
other measure. Lazarus, though raised from the dead, was still in the image of
the first man earthy. The Son of the Father passes beyond all their thoughts
into the depths of His own love about them, and is as truly in intercourse with
"the voice from the excellent glory" in John 12:28 as when upon the mount of
transfiguration about the matters of the kingdom and its glories, and His own
personal majesty. "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again." In John we may remark the entire absence of the holy
mount, of which Luke and Peter give the account. They were occupied with "the
Son of man coming in his kingdom," when His face did shine as the sun, and His
raiment was white as the light: though at the mount of transfiguration, as in
the house at Bethany, He accepted the decease which He should accomplish at
Jerusalem, as His appointed pathway into the kingdom and His personal glory.
John’s occupations are different, and have other objects, though there is this
point of similarity, that the house of Bethany, where Jesus was anointed for His
burying, is transferred to another day; just as the transfiguration scene was
folded up for the millennium, when Jesus accepted "his decease" from that mount.

John’s Gospel introduces us to the Father, and the "Father’s house," during this
dispensation, while the kingdom glory is in abeyance, and its king rejected and
seated at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven. It is therefore with
these new relations, as one with Him who has left this world and gone to the
Father to prepare a place for us, that John 13:1-38 begins, though founded upon
His decease and the day of His burying — "except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit."
The home of Bethany has given place to the Father’s house and its many mansions.
The hour has come and gone, that the Son of man should be thus glorified. The
voice from heaven has verified itself by glorifying the Father’s name, and
glorifying it again in the resurrection of Him who was "lifted up from the
earth," that He might draw all men unto Him. Other and new associations have
been formed between the risen One and His own by redemption through His blood,
never to be broken up — with those who are not in the flesh, nor of the world,
but born of the Spirit, and in life, and in union with Christ. Himself said, "Go
tell my brethren I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your
God." Lazarus was dead and risen, but in the likeness of Adam. The redeemed are
dead with Christ, and risen in Christ, and new creatures in Him. In Christ we
have passed out of the judgment that man in the flesh, and the world, and Satan
are judicially under and are going into. "Now is the judgment of this world; now
shall the prince of this world be cast out." A parting word was uttered by the
Lord in John 12:1-50 before all was closed up in darkness, "while ye have light,
believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These words spake
Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them." They have lost Him: the
light of the world has gone down in obscurity. Israel is in thick darkness; the
life that was the light of men has been refused; and the Anointed One of Bethany
has passed through His "burying," and become the glorified Son of man at the
right hand of God.

It is in this position, where man never was before, that we who now believe in
Christ are called out to know Him, and by grace to take a portion with Him; and
this fact amongst others necessitates the new ministry of the water and the
towel and the bason between the Lord and ourselves that we "may have part with
him." From John 13:1-38 onward we shall find our heavenly relations opened out
consequent upon the break-up and the break-down of the earthly ones, proposed to
Israel by Him who rode into the city of Jerusalem upon a colt, the foal of an
ass. Before we leave the first twelve chapters of this Gospel we shall do well
to remember that "the Word made flesh" had presented "himself to his own, and
his own received him not." As a worshipping people He went up with them to the
appointed feasts of the first and the seventh months; and then in His own person
took the place of the Passover and of the feast of Tabernacles. He had visited
their temple which should have been the house of prayer for all nations, but
found it a den of thieves; and been compelled to challenge a ruler of the Jews,
the one who owned Him as a teacher come from God — "if I have told you earthly
things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly
things?" After this He publicly convicted the nation, or at least the two
tribes, "I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you," and prophetically
adds, "I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another shall
come in his own name, him ye will receive." Israel after the flesh had set
itself aside, "ye will not come to me that ye might have life." The Lord has
become glorious in other eyes by departing out of this world to the Father — He
has made us one with Himself where He is. The revelation of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost had been made in the ministry of our Lord when on earth, and
especially in the Gospel of John; but it is by the anticipated departure of
Jesus in the chapters we are now about to consider, that we are put into
relation with the Father by the Son through the Holy Ghost. That which
constitutes Christianity, three persons in the Godhead, a trinity in unity,
would be repugnant to the mind of a Jew, for he seemed instructed otherwise,
"the Lord thy God is one Jehovah." These chapters therefore become the basis,
and declare the character of the present dispensation: that is, if the Church
can be said to be in any. Moreover this period between the ascension of the Lord
and His second coming, and our gathering together unto Him, is not only marked
by this full revelation of the Trinity, and our relations with the Father’s
house; but by the descent of the Holy Ghost consequent upon the departure and
ascent of the Son. Nothing can be so important as this, if we would rightly
understand the peculiarity of our dispensation — one that is marked, and indeed
constituted by the Father’s glory in the heavens — the Son’s departure from this
world to the right hand of God — and the Holy Ghost’s descent to this earth as
the Comforter, and the Spirit of truth during the Lord’s absence. This
revelation of the unity in trinity, and this change of places as regards the Son
and the Holy Ghost, is characteristic of our new position and standing,
consequent upon the world’s rejection of Christ. He beheld the Person in heaven,
in whom the counsels and purposes which were hid in God from before the
foundation of the world are now connected; just as when the Lord was upon the
earth Jewish promises and prophecies and types found their yea and Amen in Him.
The Holy Ghost by the apostles has made known to the Church since Pentecost,
that hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Another
book has also been written, "the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto
him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass," and which
tells us of the marriage of the Lamb, in the coming day of His espousals when
His Bride shall have made herself ready. But the Church soon lost consciousness
of the fact "that she was espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ," as well as of
her portion with her Head and Lord in heaven, and her place of testimony on
earth. It is this forgetfulness of what the Church of God really is to Him and
to His Son and to the Holy Ghost, that makes it so difficult to recover the
members of Christ, from the Babylon and harlotry of these many centuries.

Enough has been said perhaps to lead some to the discovery of the peculiarity of
the Christian, which these precious chapters of John’s Gospel so abundantly and
plainly declare. Indeed so entirely is our calling and portion with the departed
One in heaven, that He must needs say, "I go to prepare a place for you, and if
I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there ye may be also." There was really no place anywhere "for
his own which were in the world:" only they were confident in His love, who
loved them to the end. From the river to the ends of the earth had been given by
covenant to Abraham and his seed in the earliest times; and moreover the Seed
and Heir of the world had them in possession by incarnation and righteous title.
The kingdom and its glories were also His, as we have seen at the Mount of
transfiguration; but neither His kingship, nor His heirship, nor His sonship
with Abraham and David, would He enjoy alone. No, the love He bore to the
earthly people led Him to talk of His decease with the men in glory, just as He
interpreted Mary’s anointing for the day of His burial; that so He might at a
future time take His place as the true Boaz, and lead His redeemed people into
the inheritance. In the meanwhile He forms an entirely new dispensation with the
Father, according to the hidden wisdom and secret counsels which were hinted at
by the Lord to His disciples; but which became the glorious subjects of Holy
Ghost revelation and testimony, when the earthly order and course of Jehovah
with His nation and people were set aside, for the millennial age. There was
thus no place on earth for the followers of a rejected Lord, and certainly no
place in the heavens, for Christ was not as yet ascended, though all was perfect
in counsel and in purpose, but a mystery hidden in God. Nor does the peculiarity
of the Christian’s position apply to place merely; for it was equally so as
regarded any relation to God Himself. In truth we were orphans, without a
father, and without a house or home — outside of the dispensation to Israel, of
which as Gentiles we never formed a part: and not yet introduced into this new
dispensation or economy which was about to be opened in heaven.

It was that we might not be left in this state that these chapters from 13: to
the end were written, and which open up to us the new sources of life and love
which the departure of Jesus to the Father, formed for Himself and us. We were
orphans; but new revelations and heavenly relations were at hand, and thus Jesus
said, "I will not leave you orphans [comfortless], I will come to you." "At that
day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" — blessed
portion! Two abodes for those who have part and place with the departed One are
opened out in these scriptures: the first is in the Father’s house for the
orphans but the children of His adopting love; and the second is on earth, and
in ourselves — "if a man love me, he will keep my words: and may Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." The
intercession and communion are thus maintained between the Father and the Son
and the children, by the descended Holy Ghost in the power of life in our inner
man; and in a known understood fellowship, which makes us partakers of Christ
and with Christ, in love and joy and peace. For instance, "Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid." "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full." He puts us also into the same place that He
held with the Father. "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye
shall receive, that your joy may be full." So in reference to love, His own
love, "having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end," and as regards His Father’s love, "I have declared unto them thy name, and
will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them."

It was indeed this hidden communication, so real and yet so unintelligible at
that time, which led one of the disciples to ask, "Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" How entirely different
was this kind of intercourse from what they had known with their Messiah on the
earth, in the days of His flesh, and which was closed up at Bethany! He who was
once seen with their eyes and heard and looked upon and which their hands had
handled is now the invisible and departed One — the absent and the missing
One-but nevertheless to be known and enjoyed in a new way, and in such a manner
as would surpass all they had ever felt or understood before, even when their
hearts burned within them, as He talked with them on the Emmaus journey! "We
have the mind of Christ" — they had the opened understanding. In a certain sense
the general acknowledgment of Christians is a true one, and most important when
intelligently made, that this period in which we are living is "the dispensation
of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit has come down consequent on the Son of man’s
glorification, "I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter
that he may abide with you for ever" — fruit of the intercession of Christ
above. Besides this, the Holy Ghost has descended in virtue of the title and
right of the ascended Lord in His own person, "when the Comforter is come, whom
I will send unto you from the Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall
bear witness," etc. But further, as to ourselves, "howbeit when he the Spirit of
truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you
things to come." Proceeding from the Father, sent by the Son, and dwelling with
us and about to be in us, He is the glorifier of Christ, the Son of man in power
and glory on high; "he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
Finally, and to complete this full statement of blessedness during our Lord’s
absence, and that we might not be left orphans, it is added, "all things that
the Father hath are mine; therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine and show
it unto you." This is what the apostles in their varied epistles bring out to
us, under the anointing and teaching of the Holy Ghost. The descended Spirit,
thus standing in relation to Christ’s own which are in the world as the
Comforter, takes a place of convicter towards all who are not His: "when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
He is the evidence and witness, from the departed One who is with the Father, of
the world’s sin, which cast out righteousness in the glorified Man, and of the
coming judgment of God upon those who did it, and of the casting out of its
prince. The presence of the Holy Ghost upon earth is all this, whether men
accept the conviction and receive their forgiveness through faith in the blood
of the Lamb, or not. These chapters contain the great characteristics of this
parenthesis (so to speak) in which we are living, and which bring out the
requisite revelation of the purposes of God respecting us; and unfold the
relations with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, till the Lord comes
again to receive us to Himself, and to present us in the Father’s sight, holy
and unblameable and unreproveable. The Church of God does not properly form the
subject of the Son’s ministry, and is therefore not found in this gospel; but
the Father, whom He came to reveal, and the Father’s house which He is gone to
prepare for us, and the joint manifestation of the Father and the Son making
their abode with us while unmanifested to the world, are the prominent features
of these chapters. Some details which they present, as the Lord was teaching
these mysteries to His disciples, may now be examined. Two things in the
beginning of John 13:1-38 which refer to the Lord alone need be stated, that we
may understand the ground on which He personally acted in their midst. The first
is, "Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world
unto the Father, and having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
unto the end," so that go where He may His own are one with Him. The second
thing to notice is, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into
his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, he riseth from
supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself; after
that he poureth water into a basen, and began to wash the disciples’ feet,"
etc., and this ministry of love connects the Lord with us where we still are.
"If I wash thee not [as he said to Peter], thou hast no part with me," explains
and accounts for the object of this loving service to "his own which were in the
world," though because they were no longer of it.

Strange and contradictory powers are brought into view in this chapter: on the
one band, Jesus in the activity of love, which has girded Him afresh for new
ministry; and, on the other, the devil corrupting the mind of Judas Iscariot,
and putting it into his heart to destroy his Lord and Master. The devil and man
are together, but as they never were before, nor ever can be again; "and after
the sop Satan entered into him. He then having received the sop went immediately
out and it was night," and a long and dreary night it has been from that hour to
this, save as divine grace has broken into it, to "turn men from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God." But let us return to Jesus, and
witness the self-sacrificing devotedness of His heart to His disciples. Now
there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His own whom Jesus loved, and this
place of confiding rest for the head of a disciple is as necessary, in order to
have part with Jesus where He now is, as that He should gird Himself and wash
and wipe a disciple’s feet in order to maintain the character by a walk on
earth, with the departed One in heaven.

Besides this devotedness of heart and hand to His disciples in the active
services of His living love, the hour was come, when by His dying love He
reached the point where the Son of man found His glory, and where God was
glorified in Him. Connected with this — yea growing out of it — Jesus adds, "If
God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall
straightway glorify him." His perfect obedience in life, and by laying down His
life, His decease at Jerusalem, and His burial, were the steps by which He
reached these glories for Himself and His Father, till lower He could not go. He
had secured everything for God against the full power of Satan by going down
into "the lowest parts of the earth." In His own thoughts with the Father, as to
the causes that brought Him to this hour, and the consequences in glory both now
and hereafter which were about to be declared by His death and resurrection, He
must of necessity be alone: and this leads Him to say to the disciples, "Little
children, yet a little while I am with you, ye shall seek me, and, as I said to
the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you." His departure out
of this world raised the inquiry in Peter, "whither goest thou, and why cannot I
follow thee now?" The present One was soon to be the absent One, and thus a new
trouble filled their hearts; nor was their faith able to understand the fact,
how He would become the object of their confidence and hope, in the place where
ascension would soon carry Him. "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." Yea,
every further word that Jesus spoke was a trouble of heart to those that were to
be left behind Him, and when He said to them, "Whither I go ye know, and the way
ye know," Thomas replied at once, "Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how
can we know the way?" Difficulties thicken, as they necessarily must, between
Him and them, nor are they lessened when He adds, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should
have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him."
This declaration of the identity of the Father and the Son leads Philip to say,
"Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." What does this strange but
blessed intercourse between our Lord and His own which were in the world prove
to us; but the love which was thus giving them "a part with himself" for
communion and joy with the Father, and the Father’s house, that they might not
be orphans when He was gone? The last question, and one of equal importance
perhaps, arises as to the required and adequate link between the Father and the
Son in heaven, and His own upon the earth, by which this living communication
should be maintained in an existing relationship. Fruitful in loving affection
to Jesus from whom such blessedness flows, Judas said, "Lord, how is it that
thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" These four
questions from Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas, served to reveal and lay the
basis, or at least to bring out all that was needful for them and ourselves, as
regards our intercourse with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, in a
known peace, "my peace," which the world could neither give nor take away.
Moreover this intimacy is maintained by the Comforter "who dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you" upon the footing of an obedience in which love delights: so
that Jesus declares, "he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth me; and be that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will
love him and will manifest myself to him."

All is thus formed and complete that is requisite for a heavenly people to have
part with the Son in the Father’s house, till He comes again to receive us to
Himself. He has girded Himself for our feet, and displayed Himself in a love
which draws the disciple’s head to His breast. He stands revealed as the way,
the truth, and the life, by whom we come unto the Father, and declares, "he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father;" adding, "believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works’ sake." What
remains, but that this same love should bring Him back, and crown itself by
receiving His own to Himself, "that where he is, there we may be also." In this
interval, and while the Holy Ghost is dwelling with us, John 15:1-27 shows the
Vine and its branches, with the clusters of fruit whereby the Father is
glorified. The producing powers are in the two preceding chapters which have
mainly occupied us; and plants of such planting, branches in such a vine, cannot
but yield fruit of the quality which is to the eye and heart of the husbandman.
Indeed this chapter of responsibility naturally follows the others which declare
our portion with the Son in the Father’s habitation, and stands in relation to
us as the Book of Deuteronomy did to Israel and their Exodus — a book which,
though given by Moses on this side Jordan, has much to do with the other side,
when the people had come into the land and had crossed over, to ’whom he taught
the manners and customs and behaviour that suited the nation, when in the midst
of idolatrous countries that knew not the God of Israel, as His people were
called out to know and to obey Him. John 15:1-27 is really a continuation of
that same love which, having carried His own upward, when Jesus departed out of
this world, desires to associate us with Himself as the true Vine on the earth,
and that we may have part with Him in bringing forth fruit whereby His Father
may be glorified, down hero in the place of true discipleship. What can be
plainer or more inviting than the ground He states? "As the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide
in his love." The Lord only knows one path for Himself as for us, and with the
same result to both. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might
remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Part, and place, and position,
with Him everywhere and in everything, in heaven and on earth, are His only rule
towards us, and He has planted us with Himself in life and blessing above, where
He is gone, that we may bring forth fruit below, where He is not!

Again, in John 16:1-33 He spake of His absence to them: "A little while and ye
shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me, because I go to
the Father." But this little while was as much a parable to them as when He
spoke in John 14:1-31 and said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," by whom
they could alone come to the Father. Indeed Jesus Himself said, "These things
have I spoken to you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak
to you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father." What a time was
this for the disciples! The Father revealed, but not known; the Holy Ghost not
yet given, because the Son of man was not yet glorified; and the Lord whom they
had known and loved and who loved them, separated from them first by His death,
and then by resurrection from the dead. "Sorrow had filled their hearts." Was
this what He had chosen them for? Was it for this they had left all and followed
Him? to be carried outside the fold of Israel and left homeless in a world which
was about to cast Him out, and in which they would be houseless and fatherless,
orphans and without a hope! They said, therefore, "What is this that he saith, A
little while? We cannot tell what he saith." Jesus knew they were desirous to
ask Him, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and
lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow
shall be turned into joy." But all this was a darkening parable to their minds,
till the womb of death gave forth the dawn of the third day. They would then
rejoice "that a man was born into the world" by resurrection, and remember no
more the anguish. Ye now therefore have sorrow, "but I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you, and in that day
ye shall ask me nothing." This daytime, bright with their risen Lord, chased
away the shadows, and turned their night into day. In "that day ye shall ask in
my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the
Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I
came out from God." He now reveals Himself to them, in the light of His own
personal glory, a light inscrutable to the natural mind and in language
unintelligible to the human understanding, but nevertheless received and held by
the simplest faith, in the confidence of a love which does not doubt Him, in
word or deed. "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I
leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now
speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou
knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee," etc.

It seems at first sight disappointing, when their thoughts are at rest about Him
and themselves, and just beginning to embrace Him in the light of that day of
resurrection which was to follow this night of sorrow, to be thrown into yet
deeper darkness and distress by their own failure. Hitherto He had spoken of His
leaving them but now He says "the hour cometh, yea, is now come that ye shall be
scattered every man to his own, and shall leave vie alone, and yet I am not
alone, because the Father is with me." It is this unchanging and unbroken link
which is now to be manifested and to take the place of every other, for all else
had gone or were about to give way, and "leave him alone." In view of this, and
to take their own thoughts away from themselves, He said, "These things have I
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace." This is what He was to them;
and they would prove all creature-cisterns to be just what they were to Him. If
they could receive it, the associations which He had formed for them with
Himself and His Father were of such a nature as to have completely changed their
relations to all former things, and even to the world itself. "In the world ye
shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;" and it
is with Himself and upon His own ground of victory and triumph that He puts
them, that His own may have part with Him everywhere and in everything. His work
is complete, His path trodden, the next step is before Him, and the very last:
and having to do with Him who sees the end from the beginning, and who calls
things that are not as though they were, He passes into His own solitudes with
His Father. The wonderful John 17:1-26 opens this intercourse to us, and lets us
in where angels’ feet had never stood. It is as the overcomer of the world, that
He enters it, and "lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." He holds His place too, as "the
glorifier of the Father upon the earth," and the finisher of "the work that was
given him to do." Power had also been given him over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as had been given him; "and this is life eternal
that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." It is such an One, in righteousness upon the earth, and in righteous
title as the fulfiller of all that had been entrusted to Him, who can lay claim
to His own essential glory; "and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." God hears man
upon the earth speaking these words: righteousness is with this Second man, and
joined with perfect obedience, so that God can come back again into the
habitable parts of the world and begin His delight with the sons of men. "The
glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one." The Word made flesh has prepared this earth for God by redemption,
and God has found a place for the Son of man in heaven by resurrection; nor have
these changes, mighty as they are, either shut us out, or left us orphans; for
Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there
ye may be also." Blessed portion, one with the departed where He now is, in the
unseen but well-known fellowship with the Father; sealed by the Spirit of
adoption — part with the coming One, in all the glory of which this unparalleled
chapter witnesses. "That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast loved me." Nor is this blessedness known only as the
fruit to us of accomplished redemption while unmanifested to the world, nor of
glory and power by resurrection to the Son of man, who is to be manifested in
the glory of the Father, and in His own glory, and the glory of the holy angels,
when He sits upon the throne of His glory; but witnessed as perfectly before
God, when in the veiled perfection of His incarnation. "Being in the form of
God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." As the anti-type of
the Hebrew servant, who loved his master, and his wife, and his children, and
would not go out free; faithful to Him that appointed Him, with the ear bored,
or the ear digged, as in the Psalms; as the ear opened, morning by morning as in
the Prophet Isaiah; till, passing all that the type could betoken, He gave His
back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid
not His face from shame and spitting; "Made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him." He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed; and He made His grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in His mouth. By such steps as these has God been glorified by
the Son of man. Finally, by the perfectness of His loving obedience unto death,
He brought back the righteousness of God in company with Himself into the same
descending path in which lay our deliverance; till at the grave’s mouth the
glory waited on Him who lay there to vindicate and claim Him on the third day by
taking Him up, "Raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." The Second man
began another history, as seated in the heavens, after that God had been first
brought back into the earth, through the intrinsic righteousness of the
righteous One, on whom the Spirit of God rested in the form of a dove, and who
was anointed by the Holy Ghost. The heavens were first drawn aside as a curtain
to look down upon this Man whom they have since received, and who now sits there
on the right hand of God.

John 18:1-40; John 19:1-42 give us in fact and in detail what we have been
considering in full accomplishment. Led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before His shearers, dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Judas, who dipped
his hand with his master in the dish, betrayed Him with a kiss. Caiaphas the
high priest condemned Him, and Caesar crucified Him. Collective and concentrated
human enmity, instigated by Satan, got their vent on the person of the Lord, and
found their complete outlet at the cross where He was hung — nailed to the
accursed tree by wicked hands. The descent of the Holy Ghost as the glorifier of
Christ, the teaching of the apostles in the various Epistles, and our own
anointing and unction from the Holy One, have made this Gospel (and especially
the part which is so peculiarly characteristic of this present period since the
departure of Jesus) plain and intelligible to us who have part and place with
Him where He is. It is on this account perhaps that we are so little able to
understand, much less to enter into, the difficulties and disappointments that
filled the disciples’ hearts.

Trouble and fear took possession of them at the announcement of Jesus "departing
out of this world to the Father," as we have seen; but an additional fact or two
may serve to make their dilemma plain and intelligible to us who were never in
it. The example of Mary in John 20:1-31 shows the bewilderment of mind in which
she stood at the sepulchre weeping, and said to the angels, "they have taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." What was she for the
moment, but a disappointed, homeless, forlorn woman, in truth an orphan in her
destitution? But He who said to them, "I will not leave you comfortless
[orphans]; I will come to you," appeared to her, though she supposed Him to be
the gardener, and knew not that it was Jesus. As the risen One, alive again from
the dead, He made Himself known to her, first of all, and then bade her, go tell
my brethren, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your
God." He has made true His own promise by coming to Mary, and thus He put them
into relationship with Himself in life and union, and as sons with the Father in
heaven. Moreover "He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost"
bringing them thus into closer association with Himself in the power of life, as
the risen man, the Son of God, and Lord. The two disciples on their road to
Emmaus who talked together, not of His decease or burial but of the empty
sepulchre, were in the same perplexity and sorrow as to their Lord as was Mary
when she found Him not. The narrative in Luke shows their disappointment and how
to their own thoughts they were cast upon the world, friendless and fatherless,
orphans in very deed. "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed
Israel; and beside all this today is the third day since these things were
done." The words of the women too, who told the apostles of the empty sepulchre
and of the missing body of the Lord Jesus, "seemed to them as idle tales, and
they believed them not." In fact, if Christ in resurrection was not their hope
nor even upon their minds as bound up with His own testimony to them before His
betrayal, what must have been their desolation? They had lost Him, and were in
this sense of all men most miserable. Personally He had attached Mary to Himself
in resurrection, and in this same character He joined these disciples who
communed together and were sad. Mary mistook Him for the gardener, and these
suppose Him to be a stranger in Israel: yea, so little had the third day brought
the light of His resurrection-morn to their thoughts, that they only mention the
fact to Himself as the then measure of their desertion by His death. "Today, is
the third day since these things were done." Then He said unto them, "O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at
Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the
things concerning himself."

Thus by personal intercourse with one and another, and by opening the scriptures
and opening their understandings at one time, or else by coming into their midst
when the doors were shut, and saying, Peace be unto you, and showing them His
hands and His side, He reestablished their confidence. "Then were the disciples
glad when they saw the Lord." But neither this redemption nor His own
reappearance in their midst and intercourse for forty days had served to
disconnect their minds from the world, so as to have part and portion with Him
in His departure to the Father; and what the Holy Ghost would come down to bring
to their remembrance or to reveal. When they were come together in Acts 1:1-26
:, they asked of Him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?" And He said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times and the
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Perplexity, if not
disappointment, had still hold of them, and especially now that the resurrection
which had just given Him back to them must be superseded by an ascension that
would take Him away again where He was before. What were these hundred and
twenty disciples to do, shut out from the world in an upper room where they
continued in prayer and supplication; no longer any hopes of the kingdom-glory,
or of the nation’s blessing as a present thing; shut up to the heavens in the
new-born expectations of what "the promise of the Father" should mean, and "the
baptism of the Holy Ghost" could be, which they had heard from their again
departed Lord?

Further, He had said, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you; and ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem," etc. And when He
had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud
received Him out of their sight. But these were the necessary paths for Him to
take, that they might pass out of their orphanage into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the good pleasure of His will. Their
confidence was restored and unshaken, as they saw the cloud receive Him, and
angels waiting on Him, and the heavens claiming the rejected One of the earth.

Judas and a band of soldiers had come out against Him with lanterns and torches,
as against a thief — the high priest had condemned Him as a blasphemer — Pilate
had crucified Him — and the grave had shut its mouth upon Him. It was this dark
and dreary path downward into the lowest parts of the earth that had awakened
their fears. He was in the region and shadow of death and dead! But now "they
look stedfastly into heaven," and see the risen One, the glorified Son of man by
ascension, going up to God in the power of life to be crowned with glory and
honour, and to be set over all the works of His hands. And behold two men stood
by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus whom ye have seen taken up from you into
heaven shall so come in like manner," etc. Then returned they to Jerusalem from
the mount called Olivet, "and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, there
was a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled all the house
where they were sitting." They are no longer forlorn or destitute. All fear of
being left orphans is at an end, for there appeared to them cloven tongues, like
as of fire, which sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
By this baptism of the Holy Ghost the disciples were united to the risen Lord
and Head of His body, the Church, and had part and portion with Him in all that
the Father hath made Him to be and put into his hands. We are heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. "All things are yours," the world, or life, or
death, or things present, or things to come, all things are yours, for ye are
Christ’s and Christ is God’s. And whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. But to return. The object and character of the Son’s ministry on
earth was to declare the Father, and to lay the foundation for this intercourse
with the children of His adopting grace: the Holy Ghost as the Comforter came
down to dwell with them and to be in them, of which these chapters treat. He had
glorified the Father on earth and finished the work that was given Him to do.
Founded on this fact Jesus said in John 17:1-26 "Now, O Father, glorify thou me
with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
As to His own, He adds, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world;" and again, "I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." Further, He
says, "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I
am glorified in them." He stood between us and God, upon the question of our
sins, confessing them and putting them away by the sacrifice of Himself. Here He
stands as intercessor between us and the Father, touching His own glory; and the
glory which had been given Him as Son of man — bringing us before the Father in
love, upon the same ground He took for Himself in righteousness. Yea, more than
this, He puts us into the Father’s care, because He is about to leave the world:
"Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one, as we are." The circles of the Father’s glory through the Son —
of the Son’s glory with the Father — of the Holy Ghost’s glory, as proceeding
from the Father and the Son — and of the church’s glory as the body and bride of
Christ; the pillar and ground of the truth; the church of the living God (though
not brought out in this gospel, yet consequent upon the Holy Ghost’s presence on
earth) are all complete. These describe the peculiarity and blessedness which is
our portion, who are called out to take part and place with the departed One,
while hidden in the heavens, till He comes to receive us to Himself.

John 21:1-25 is another proof of the incapacity of the disciples, previous to
the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, to connect themselves with Christ in
resurrection — and the last one. They put themselves in relation to their former
pursuits, as deserted and forsaken — left to their own resources as comfortless.
"Peter saith to them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee.
They went forth and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught
nothing." But He who had said "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to
you," appeared on the shore to take part with them, in their unsuccessful
fishing; and to leave another proof behind Him, that as the risen Son of man
(who had put them, in John 20:1-31, into relationship with His Father, and His
God, and was Head over all things) He had also all things put under His feet,
"all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field; the fowl of the air, and
the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." In
the exercise of this title He said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of
the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to
draw it, for the multitude of fishes."

They no longer ask of the "little while and ye shall not see me, and again a
little while and ye shall see me, and because I go to the Father," for the Lord
had rejoined them, "having loved his own which were in the world, be loved them
unto the end." They have passed out of their trouble and fear, though as yet,
not at home with the risen one, who had afresh charged Himself with the care of
His own, and all that concerned them; so when they were "come to land, they saw
a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread." He has girded Himself
anew and come forth from death and the grave to show Himself to them, and to
serve them, in these new titles by resurrection, on his way up to the Father;
and to His place on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
The sorrow that filled their hearts when He left them has given place to
satisfaction, though none of the disciples are at ease with Him, in these new
ministries of His love, any more than when He girded Himself with the towel, to
wash their feet; yet they "durst not ask him Who art thou? knowing that it was
the Lord." As the risen Son of man, Jesus has proved to them, that He is the
Lord of the seas as well as of the earth on which He stood, and then "cometh and
taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise." This is now the third time
that Jesus Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead. They
have seen the Lord and He has made Himself known to them in breaking of bread,
and by the net full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three. "Part with
me," as Jesus said in John 13:1-38, was the object before Him, in regard to His
own, when leaving the world to go to the Father; and the ways by which this
fellowship has been formed and secured till He comes again to receive us to
Himself (by the descent of the Holy Ghost, and His abiding presence as the
Comforter, the Spirit of truth, and the glorifier of the Son, both by indwelling
power for our communion, and by outward testimony to the world), have been the
subjects of the intervening chapters. But there remained in John 21:1-25, for
the Lord to take His place with Peter, as the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, by
restoring that disciple who had denied Him, to the confidence of that love which
was stronger than death, and which no denial could turn aside. Subjected to this
searching care of the soul, piercing even to the dividing and discerning the
thoughts and intents of the heart; another sorrow takes hold of this disciple,
and he judges himself for not taking part with his Lord when blasphemously
accused and condemned. Conscience and heart do their work, when Jesus said the
third time, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" "Peter was grieved because he
said unto him the third time Lovest thou me? and he said, Lord, thou knowest all
things, thou knowest that I love thee." It is in this character of "the shepherd
and bishop of souls" that the departing Lord thus established Himself in grace;
and it is this disciple, whose feet had been washed at the beginning, and whose
soul had been restored at the close, who consistently speaks to us, in his
epistles, of our Lord in these two offices. The confidence of Jesus in Peter, by
this recovery under the Bishop’s care of his soul, received an immediate proof
by the Lord’s saying to him, "Feed my lambs." As the great Shepherd of the
sheep, brought again from the dead by the God of peace, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant, He said again, "Feed my sheep:" and the last chapter of
Peter’s first epistle is very full and complete, in the recognition of our Lord
and himself in this responsibility as an under-shepherd, in view "of the crown
of glory that fadeth not away." In every fresh relation in heaven with the
Father, and on earth, as caring and feeding these "other sheep which are not of
this fold" (see John 10:16), these disciples have part and place with their
Lord; and these positions and their corresponding services, form the peculiarity
(as we are tracing) of this present period marked by Christ’s absence, and the
descent of the Holy Ghost. But there was yet one more proof, by which a disciple
might have part with his Lord; and of this Jesus speaks to Peter, before He
finally leaves the world for the Father’s presence. "Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou
wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and
another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake
he, signifying by what death be should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he saith unto him, Follow me." What could unjealous love do, but set "His own"
in the road He had Himself trodden down to death, as the new pathway by which a
disciple could have part with his Lord — and in which glory on earth was to be
reached, and God glorified by the laying down of life? Another disciple was
standing by, whom Jesus loved, who also leaned on His breast at supper, and
said, Lord, Which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus,
"Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith to him, If I will that he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." Here also is a last and
crowning instance of the love of the Lord to "His own, which were in the world,"
and of the character of the love, in which "He loved them unto the end." He sets
John in the ways of His own steps to wait for His coming — just as He had put
Peter to follow Him in death — a death by which He should glorify God. Love,
divine love, Christ’s most perfect love, had identified His own with Himself in
all that His departure out of the world to the Father would carry Him up to; and
this love had set us to have part with Himself there in the springhead of life,
everlasting life, and at the fountain of all blessing, the only source of
righteousness, and joy, and peace. Himself is now the unfailing and untainted
channel of supply to us, through whom these living waters flow, Christ dwelling
in our hearts by faith and this same Christ too the hope of glory, the glory for
which we wait. The Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, who dwelleth with us and is now in
us, has become the living power in the new man, for this fellowship with the
Father and His Son Jesus Christ into which we are thus called. Moreover this
ministry is known and understood by us, inasmuch as it is we who are
strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man and according to the
riches of His glory. Under such operations of the Holy Ghost in us, what could
be the corresponding effects in a disciple so inwrought but what we have just
seen the Lord introduced Peter to by death — a death by which he should glorify
God, and John by the patience and suffering in continuous life till the Lord
came, a life by which he would tarry, if needs be for the glory of Christ? Peter
knowing and calmly telling the church of God, "that shortly he must put off his
tabernacle, as the Lord had him," and John writing to us as a "brother and
companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ."

If we go on in our thoughts beyond the relation to disciples, in which the Holy
Ghost thus works to bring out the resemblance to, Christ in death, or in life;
and consider the church and what we are, as members of Christ’s body, of His
flesh, and of His bones — such meditations would carry us beyond this Gospel, or
even the Apostle John’s writings, and beyond the subject of this paper.

There are three distinct ministries in the New Testament; one is the blessed
ministry of the Son when on earth, which made known the Father and brought us
into the place of adopted children that we might not be left below as orphans;
the Son Himself going away to the Father’s house, and the many mansions, to
prepare a place for us; that we should not be left destitute and homeless. The
next ministry is that of the Holy Ghost by the apostles, gathering out the
members of Christ into living union with the ascended Lord, and forming them
into a body with the risen Head by the baptism of the Spirit, thus constituting
the Church of the living God, the body and bride of Christ, the Lamb’s wife. The
other ministry is "the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to
show unto his servants the things which must shortly come to pass," and has to
do with the kingdom, and with the holy Jerusalem, the city corning down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, "having the glory of
God." It was with the first of these three glorious ministries and revelations
we have had to do, as children with the Father, and what the Father’s love in
counsel and the loving and perfect work of the Son in death and resurrection
opened out for us during a period like the present, when the world which cast
Him out, neither sees Him, nor knows Him. May the Lord give us individually to
prove how real and true an abode the Father and the Son have with us now, and
with the family, by an obedience which is the element in which divine love lives
and dwells! "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I
have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his lore." In conclusion, if
these chapters in the Gospel of John, from chapter 13: onward, open out to "His
own who are in the world" our new connections and relations with the Father,
through the departed One, and by the living fellowship of the Holy Ghost, as the
abiding Comforter, till the Lord comes to receive us to Himself, how immense
must be their value!

If Satan’s blinding power can be brought in anywhere, so as to obscure the light
which so brightly shines; or close the eye against the knowledge of this glory,
in the saints, we may surely expect his wiles and artifices would be directed
here: and so they have been, and alas with too much success. Else how can it be
accounted for, that the blessed hope of the Lord’s coming and our gathering
together unto Him, should have been for ages lost to His people? How else can it
be understood that His own descent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and the trump of God, should almost by common consent be postponed
to the last day; and that consequently our being caught up to meet Him (which
depends upon His own descent into the air) should be also put off to the
remotest point of time? The newborn hopes and expectations of His own were no
longer to rest on the restoration of the kingdom to Israel according to Old
Testament prophecy; but upon His departure to prepare a place for them in the
Father’s house; leaving them this assurance, "If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye
may be also." "If I will that he tarry till I come "is the only measure that a
disciple who estimates everything respecting time and place by Christ, will
consent to adopt as the rule of his faith, or the guide to his hope. But, thank
God, the fact of the Lord’s second coming as a present hope to the souls of His
own, that they might not be left orphans, has been recovered to the church in
this century — but how revived or restored, if it had not been lost? Many
thousands, in various parts of christendom and the world, have also been
awakened by the cry: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him:" but
how aroused, if they had not all slumbered and slept? The withering power of
Satan’s craft has likewise settled upon and blighted as an understood and
present fact, the descent of the Holy Ghost to dwell with the saints and to be
in them. His presence as a divine Person, has been reduced to a mere influence,
and thus the great and distinguishing peculiarity of "the promise of the
Father," by the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost upon the disciples, as
the abiding Comforter, is as much out of mind as a fact, as the coming of the
Lord has been as a hope. It is the Holy Ghost who has taken the place of Christ
upon the earth in the midst of His own; and occupies the interval between the
departure of the Son to the Father, and His coming again to receive us to
Himself.

What a masterpiece of the devil’s policy was it, to wrest these facts and hopes
which the love of Christ to His own had provided, that they should not be
comfortless, and, by stripping the Lord’s people of their unfailing resources in
the heavens, and the Paraclete on earth, put them back into the very place of
orphans! How else can it be explained, that such multitudes of Christians are
found praying for the Holy Ghost, in the forgetfulness that their responsibility
is, "not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they are sealed to the day of
redemption?" Certain consequences must follow these grave denials of the coming
of the Lord as a present hope to His saints; and the personal presence of the
Comforter, the Holy Ghost, during the absence of Christ, to dwell with us, and
be in us; yea, and to carry out the counsels and purposes of God upon earth,
respecting Christ and the church. These consequences have followed, and are
equally a matter of confession and for a lamentation as when Jeremiah wept and
said, "Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us, and consider, and behold our
reproach. We are orphans and fatherless. We labour, and have no rest. We have
given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with
bread. Princes are hanged up by their hand, and the faces of elders were not
honoured. The crown is fallen from our head: woo unto us that we have sinned.
Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; their visage is
blacker than a coal, they are not known in the streets. The precious sons of
Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the
work of the hands of a potter!"

Besides the personal state which these quotations from Jeremiah so plainly and
affectingly describe as suited to the present day; the particular revelation
which was opened in the ministry of the Son, as we have seen, and continued by
the Holy Ghost through the apostles, when the departed One took His place as the
glorified Son of man, at the right hand of God in heaven has been obscured, if
not lost to the Church. For example, a rejected Christ, rejected and cast out by
the world, is not followed in the pathway that caused His rejection; nor is the
departed One any longer the missing One, any more than the absent Lord, the
expected One. On the contrary, "my Lord delayeth his coming" not only
characterizes Christendom as the Lord prophesied; but the evil consequences have
followed thickly amongst the fellow servants. In the lamentable forgetfulness or
ignorance of their proper relations with the Father and the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and to one another as the body and bride of Christ — as waiting for His
coming, and the marriage of the Lamb: the enemy and the "evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God" have turned the thoughts back again to Egypt,
and the providential mercies of God to be enjoyed in this world. How else can it
be accounted for, that such multitudes have turned aside to ordinances and
ritualistic observances; and the distance from God in which a worshipper must
consciously find himself who is so employed? Nor indeed is there any other
alternative for a believer, a man in Christ, but to "grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," or else fall back on a previous
economy and its religion, and become Judaistic, or in modern language a
Ritualist. Though evangelicalism may escape this condemnation, by accepting
Christ for worship and faith, and by a refusal of the shadows which served till
He really came; yet the retrograde steps are equally plain, and for a
lamentation upon another ground. How else can the practice of such be
understood, in their organizations for the conversion of the world, and the
restoration of the Church upon this earth; when they unhesitatingly turn back
upon the Old Testament scriptures and the prophets to prove a good time coming,
and find a warrant for their work? Solomon and his prosperity as a centre on the
earth, with all his might and glory, is accepted as the type for this corrupted
Christianity; instead of Christ and the cross, and a present crucifixion to the
world by it, in true loyalty of heart to the rejected Lord, and in a willing
allegiance with the departed One, till His shout announces Him!

"I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not
of the world even as I am not of the world:" — what word was this?

It is of the greatest moment, for our communion and fellowship with the Father
and the Son, as well as for our true guidance in service for today, to give the
place and authority to the words of our Lord over us, to which He refers in John
17:1-26 :, "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee:" — what words
were these? And again as to the truth which came by Him, both as regards His
present position to us, and ours to the Father, "Sanctify them through thy
truth, thy word is truth: and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
may be sanctified through the truth." No, we are not left orphans, to eat the
crumbs that fall from another’s table; nor to steal the earthly promises that
belong to the people of Israel; on the contrary, it was said to the Hebrews,
that "God had provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not
be made perfect."

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask
or think, according to the power that worketh in us; unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 14: S.   OUR GENESIS.
========================================================================

Our Genesis.

There is a striking correspondence between "the beginning" in the Book of
Genesis, and in the Gospel of John, though the subjects of each are so vastly
different. The Creator in one, and the Word in the other, alike come forth into
the respective circles in which each is to be displayed. The earth was without
form and void, and the eternal Word was concealed in His own essential
perfectness. The elements with which we are now familiar served to bring into
existence and beauty a material creation; and the attributes, by which Deity has
clothed itself, introduced the Creator. True, one was the beautiful development
of a thing formed; and the other, the almighty power and wisdom of Him that
formed it. "God spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast." As to
the earth, it was without form — "Darkness was upon the face of the deep — and
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." But the eternal "Word, was
with God, for the Word, was God; and the same was in the beginning, with God."

Creation and the Creator are necessary to each other; but for what different
reasons — like the potter and the clay! The formless and void earth, With
darkness upon its face, carries along the secret power of its formative beauty
in the Spirit of God which moved upon the face of its waters. So in John, "In
him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in
darkness." The Genesis formations, of day and night, firmaments, earth, and
seas, with their greater and lesser lights, are completed; and the history of
signs and seasons, days and years, with the fruitful products of the earth for
man and beast, are familiar to us all. But the Gospel of John now claims its own
pre-eminence, and passing away into heights and depths, which neither the sun
above, nor the sea beneath, can measure, brings out its own mystery, "The Word
was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth."

Again, if we go back to the Adam of Genesis, "The Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul." But pass we on to the new created man of John, and we
find another race, "For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The
creation of Genesis just ran the cycle of its one week, as we follow it in its
magnificent course, from evening to morning — and from its first day to the
sixth day, till "God rested on the seventh day, from all the work which he had
made; and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." In this Eden man was made
the responsible head, on whose obedience the whole creation depended. Adam
sinned, and the link of relationship was snapped between the Creator and the
creature, and all broke down. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth
together in pain," is the sad consequence. The Genesis of John’s Gospel brings
in a revelation of grace and truth, reveals the Second man, the Word made flesh,
"the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." In this new beginning,
grace — the grace of God — towards man, as a sinner, takes the place of
responsibility between the creature and the Creator. Eden’s gate soon closed
upon the fair scene of the six days’ work, and upon the sabbath of rest too —
the cherubim, and the flaming sword, forbad the thought, much more the vain
attempt, of the sinner to return. Grace, and the resources of God, are what John
records: the Word made flesh was the great reserve of God. "In him was life, and
the life was the light of men" is become the new connecting link with God. "God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself;" and this is the grand theme
which the Gospel of John opens out.

How touchingly this is recorded in the intercourse between Jesus and the woman
of Samaria! The links which sin had broken in Genesis have been formed anew,
between God and the sinner, but only in and through Christ, who shed His blood
for the remission of sins. The former ground of creature responsibility is
abandoned through the knowledge of that eternal redemption which we have in
Christ, "the beginning of the new creation of God."

Nathanael under the fig tree, and Nicodemus the master of Israel, set us in the
path of the kingdom-glory, with "the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of man;" and moreover, all must be born again, "to see or enter into
it." How blessedly does the Messiah, the King of Israel, undo every burden, and
loose them that were appointed to die! How refreshing thus to see the Second
man, as the source of life and joy, where the first had brought in death and
misery! The marriage scene of Cana in Galilee gives further the style and
actings of our Lord in millennial blessing, when the water is turned into wine,
and every water pot filled to the brim. What a word will that be, when, in the
full consciousness of unhindered joy around Him, and Himself the cause and
producer of it, He says, "Draw out now, and bear to the governor of the feast."

There are two ways in which the Lord opens out the fulness of His person to us
in this gospel. The first is what we have been considering, and may be described
by that verse in John 2:1-25, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of
Galilee, and manifested forth his glory" — a title by which He will link the
ruined creation of Genesis with the victorious effects of His own death and
resurrection, when He comes again to fill every heart with gladness and every
tongue with praise. But other and higher glories are connected with His person
and may be described by another verse in John 1:1-51 : "We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," and it is
in these two characters of divine and human glory that the Word made flesh
passes along before our view as we follow Him throughout this precious book of
our new Genesis. The difference we are considering is this: the latter is the
personal glory as of the only begotten of the Father, and the former was the
miraculous power which accredited Him to the people by act and deed. Various
chapters might be selected as displaying one glory or the other, and here and
there a combination of them, which is very grand.

Before passing on, let me say that while the first and second chapters have been
introduced for the purpose just described of marking these two especial glories
of Christ, yet that chapter 1 throughout is the unfolding of the person of the
Son, from His own essential being, into the relations by which e stands
connected with God and man, and also in the various titles by which promise,
type, and prophecy bad pointed Him out. It is in this breadth and fulness of
grace that the Father’s love has given Him forth to the faith of His beloved
people, and for which the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove lighted on Him and
sealed Him! In John 3:1-36 the Lord in His intercourse with Nicodemus presents
Himself in the circle of His own personal glory, taking as the centre the
antitype of Moses and the brazen serpent, giving Himself out to the faith of a
needy sinner, as the lifted up Son of man — a centre of a circle which in its
vast dimensions embraces the love of God which is above all sin in its essential
holiness, and yet stoops down to the worthlessness of the perishing one, whom it
rescues in sovereign grace. So again in John 4:1-54, where the personal and the
moral glory of the Lord shines forth with the woman at the well, leading her up
to the springs of life from which He had come, and yet giving her to drink
thereof according to the perceptions of her own need which He in grace awakened,
He maintains His own ground in this touching scene and proclaims "God is a
spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Thus
He connects God, in what He is in love, with the poor Samaritan in her sin, and
by the supply of this living water to her soul, which was in her a "well of
water springing up into everlasting life," led her to drink from a spring which
is divine. The nobleman from Capernaum brings Him down to the level of miracles
again; but He consents to this, with the rebuke, "Except ye see signs and
wonders, ye will not believe."

John 5:1-47 begins with a word of power to the man at the pool of Bethesda.
"Jesus said to him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk." From this point He rises to
the height of His personal glory, and says to the Jews, "The Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise;" and this is applied to quickening, judging,
and raising the dead, in this Bethesda-world, the house of effusion (for such is
its name), as well as of pity and mercy. In John 6:1-71 a great multitude
followed Him, "because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were
diseased." And He puts His disciples to the proof as to whether they were yet up
to the point of His personal glory, by asking, "Whence shall we buy bread that
these may eat?" Subsequently, this scene of five loaves and two fishes gives
place to the grand action which had brought Him down from heaven, as "the bread
of God, that giveth life to the world." And here, if we may anticipate the tenth
(or Shepherd) chapter, it is only for the purpose of saying, the Lord seems to
be acting in this character in chapter 4:, where He led in the sheep of Samaria,
and bade them lie down by the still waters; as in chapter 6: He leads them into
"the green pastures." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any
man eat of this bread he shall live for ever, and the bread that I will give is
my flesh;" for "my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." The
feast of Tabernacles, in John 7:1-53, like the Passover, in John 6:1-71, carries
the Lord up into His own height with the Father. He passes beyond the reach of a
reasoning, cavilling people, and presents Himself to faith as equal with God, or
rather as identified with Him. "I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent
me." Again, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." One with the Father
in counsel and purpose, yet He is on the level with any who can lift the veil
and see His personal glory, and take, in the title of His grace, all He is. In
the previous chapter He had spoken of "ascending up where he was before;" and
now, contemplating the day of His glorification at the right hand of God, He
connects His disciples with the blessing, which should descend to them from
thence: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, Out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water," adding, "this spake he of the Spirit, which
they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet, because
that Jesus was not yet glorified." What streams in the desert here surround us,
as we follow the incarnate Word, the crucified Son of man, and the exalted Lord!
The narrative, in the beginning of chapter 8:, important though it be, serves as
the ground of introducing Himself as the Light of the world, adding, "He that
followeth me, shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life." In
the midst of such a scene, what other challenge could He make than "Let him that
is without sin among you, first cast a stone at her;" and then takes His own
place as a Teacher and a Deliverer. "Verily, verily I say unto you, Whosoever
committeth sin is the servant of sin . . . . If the Son therefore shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed." And again, "If any man keep my saying, he shall
never taste of death." What assurances! They are like the grapes of Eshcol, that
come from another land to thirsting souls. "Free from sin" through the lifted up
Son of man; "the light of life" by following Him; not "tasting death" through
His resurrection. In what majesty and grace has He thus displayed Himself! and
how truly do all His paths drop fatness! Yet those who could not cast a stone at
the adulteress now take up stones to cast at Him who had said, in the
consciousness of His personal glory, "Before Abraham was, I am." But Jesus hid
Himself; and, in the silence of disappointed love, "went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, and so passed by." They have lost Him!

Before entering on John 9:1-41 we may observe (in reference to the previous
eight) a dispensational link which connects them together in a way of its own;
for while every type and promise pointed to Him, He must necessarily embody the
type and supersede it. This is the fact even as regards His forerunner, for
John’s two disciples follow Jesus, and John declared, "He must increase, but I
must decrease." So as to the temple, "I will raise it up in three days; this
spake he of his body." And again, with Nicodemus and the brazen serpent in the
wilderness, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up." So also He takes the
place of Jacob’s well, and gives the living water; and at the pool of Bethesda
He supersedes the angel, who at a certain season troubled it. He is likewise the
antitype of the manna, by proclaiming Himself "the living bread." He also takes
the place of the feast of Tabernacles, and finally acts as one superior to Moses
the lawgiver, and greater than their father Abraham. Israel’s hopes and
prophecies are thus embodied in Himself; and in this character He meets the man
blind from his birth, in John 9:1-41, ready to do for the nation what He does
for the individual, if there is faith to receive Him. He presents Himself to
them, with the man whose eyes He had opened. Will they accept the hand stretched
out to give them sight? What a moment! But they say, "We know this man, whence
he is; when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." They cast out the man
who confessed Him to have come from God; but to be cast out of the synagogue was
then, as now, to be thrown upon Jesus, who reveals Himself to the man as the Son
of God; and he said, "Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him." Jesus quits them
with the solemn words, "For judgment I am come into the world, that they which
see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." In John 10:1-42
the cast out sheep, in the person of the blind man last mentioned, gives
occasion for Jesus to declare Himself the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life
for the sheep. To Him the porter openeth. "I am the door: by me if any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." There are
also "other sheep which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, that there
may be one flock and one shepherd." "And I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." The double
title in which the sheep are held is very precious. "My Father, who gave them
me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s
hand. I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him,"
accusing Him of blasphemy, because He, being a man, made Himself equal with God.
He makes a last appeal to them: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me
not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know,
and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again
to take him." They will not be gathered into the fold, and they cast out the
Shepherd of the sheep.

John 11:1-57; John 12:1-50, or the Bethany chapters, are complete in themselves;
and, if not standing alone, are to be viewed as family paintings, which
represent the circle of Christ’s social affections, with Lazarus, Martha, and
Mary — a home group which had been gathered around Him — a green spot — a
miniature representation of what the wilderness is to be when He comes again:
and by His abiding presence turns it into a fruitful field, and gives the true
length and breadth to Bethany, or the house of song (which its name implies),
the house of obedience, and the house of the grace of the Lord. In the light of
the past, as John gives it, Bethany and its inmates may well stand as a
companion picture with the scene at the mount of transfiguration, where Jesus
led others up to be "eye-witnesses of his majesty, when he received from God the
Father honour and glory." The one is the circle of the social affections of the
Lord — "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus;" and the other is the
manifestation of the "Son of man coming in his kingdom." But these two chapters
supply their own proofs by which, as we have said, this gospel is occupied. In
John 11:1-57 the death of Lazarus leads Jesus to announce Himself as the
"resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live." The knowledge of Christ carried no outside sin and condemnation,
as other chapters have shown us; and now this further knowledge of Christ
carries through death and the grave. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die." Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth. And he that was
dead came forth." Thus the Lord, in this resurrection scene, sets "the glory of
God "above sin and its consequences. In John 12:1-50 Mary anoints the feet of
Jesus, and the whole house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Jesus
interprets the act, saying, "Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath
she kept this." For the last time He presents Himself in the light of promise
and prophecy to Israel, and rides into Jerusalem on the colt the foal of an ass.
"When Jesus was glorified, then his disciples remembered that they had done
these things unto him." His own death is now before Him as the only door of
deliverance for His people, and for His own glory, and the establishment of
covenanted blessing with Jehovah and the nation. He consequently takes a larger
sphere for Himself (outside His Messiah, and king of Israel relations), and on
the coming up of the Greeks to see Jesus, says, "The hour is come that the Son
of man should be glorified . . . . Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." By His
own righteous title He had raised Lazarus from the grave, but He is now about to
descend into death Himself, as between God, and mankind, and Satan; that God may
take Him up out of the grave, and declare Him to be the Son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead, for
obedience to the faith, among all nations. (Romans 1:1-32 :)

"The light of the world" has travelled over its orbit in these twelve chapters,
and, as was declared at its rising, the darkness comprehended it not." But
before it sets, Jesus cries, "Yet a little while is the light with you. While ye
have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." These
things spake Jesus and departed and did hide Himself from them! He is refused in
His personal glories — so also as to His acts and deeds, from the "beginning of
miracles, in Cana of Galilee" to the close of His ministry, this is the sum,
"though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him."
His incarnation has failed as a bond of union between "His own" and Himself, and
therefore between them and Jehovah. Alan must be changed in the springs of his
nature; and what deeper work can be undertaken that shall effect this change?
This is what is now before Jesus, and in the prospect of the cross He says, "Now
is my soul troubled . . . . Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die." The
secret is told, for here are found the hidden depths in which Christ must work
for the glory of God, the overthrow of Satan, and the salvation of His beloved
people. This closes the first half of John’s Gospel, proving that relations in
the flesh, however drawn out by what He was who was "manifest in the flesh,"
fell short, infinitely short, of what the holiness of God required, or the
condition of humanity around Him needed.

Redemption must be the new basis of intercourse between God and His creatures,
and these are the tried stones — the foundation stones — the precious corner
stones — which the Lord lays in His death and resurrection. He turns away from
everything on the earth — the links are broken, never to be formed again, except
on the other side of death and judgment, where divine life, in resurrection
power, is the new holding of all established blessing. "Jesus knew that his hour
was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father;" and this
opens a new path upward to the faith of "his own which were in the world."
Judaism, in its full results, is the manifestation that God is come down to man
upon the earth; and this will be displayed in the millennial days of Israel’s
blessing. But Christianity is based on the wondrous fact that man, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is gone up to God into the heavens. This, however,
finds its place in the beginning of John 13:1-38, or the last half and the
heavenly side of this gospel. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 15: S.   SAUL'S DECLENSION.
========================================================================

Saul’s Declension.

It is a homely and daily picture that 1 Samuel 9:1-27 : supplies of a man like
Saul, dwelling with his father Kish, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. Another
point of similar interest is, that Saul found his occupation in pursuing the
objects which this circle produced; until Samuel was commissioned to declare the
purpose of God respecting him, and "to anoint him as captain over the Lord’s
inheritance." Nor should this link of connection between the two, however
different from each other, be overlooked, as affording some moral lessons of
great moment to a servant of God.

There is considerable beauty in what Samuel said to Saul, when this link of
association was severed by his exaltation to the throne of Israel and his heart
was lifted up by the favour of God. Then Samuel said, "When thou wast little in
thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes?" etc. A fallen
nature, because it is such, always uses the mercies of God for self-exaltation,
and therefore against the giver; and these are some of the lessons presented in
the history of Saul, when invested by God with kingly power, and seated on the
throne of Israel. While he was "little in his own eyes," every relative duty
that sprung up around him was of more importance and consideration than himself.
Thus the asses of his father, which were lost, served him for an object as
readily as when a few years after the Lord sent him to smite Amalek, and better
done.

Indeed the sketch given of Saul as "a choice young man and a goodly, who from
his shoulders and upward was higher than any of the people" falls singularly on
the mind in connection with his diligent search after "his father’s asses"
through the land of Benjamin, except as we remember the secret, "when thou wast
little in thine own eyes." The father was a rule to Saul in abandoning the
pursuit as much as in undertaking the search in obedience. So when they were
come to Zuph, Saul said to his servant, "Let us return, lest my father leave
caring for the asses, and take thought for us." "Little in thine own eyes"
stands thus connected with ready obedience to the will of another and in
self-denying devotedness of heart, be the occasion small or great, the missing
asses of Kish, or Agag the king of the Amalekites. But God had His own
intentions respecting Saul and makes the object of Saul’s search a link of
introduction to the prophet Samuel for the establishment of kingship in the
earth. The details of this and the following chapter are remarkable as showing
him bow entirely God holds every one and all the circumstances in His own hand,
so that His will is the controlling power over Samuel and the sacrifice in the
high place. Saul and his servant, and the young maidens going out to draw water
— all are truly great by being little in their own eyes, and God everything and
everywhere, from the prophet downward, for the Lord had told Samuel in his ear
the day before about Saul. "Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon
his head and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee
to be captain over his inheritance?"

More remarkable still are the instructions given to this first king, the
anointed of the Lord, to suit him for the place and responsibilities into which
he had been inducted; and this is in truth always the way of our God to us in
the varying character of His grace.

Saul’s first lesson was "when thou art departed from me [Samuel] today, then
thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre, in the border of Benjamin by
Zelzah." As pertaining to the tribe of Benjamin, this should have been an open
volume to Saul, for what was Rachel and what her sepulchre to the instructed
heart but the "place of the mother’s sorrow" Ben-oni; yet the birth-place of
Jacob’s hope, and therefore his father called his name Benjamin, or "the son of
my right hand?" Like Abraham, who from the altar on Mount Moriah received his
son Isaac back again from the dead in a figure, as a typo of the true son in
death and resurrection; so here, in Ephrath, Jacob and Rachel do but give out
the two names which make up the person of Christ, who by His own cross and the
empty sepulchre was the Man of sorrow and the Son of the Father’s right hand.
What deep but precious lessons were those for the first king over Israel to
learn in communion with the ways of God till the true anointed one, great
David’s greater Lord, should come! Not merely as to kingship were these secrets
whispered forth from Rachel’s sepulchre, but also as to the redemption of the
people, over whom Saul was to reign in figure, till the promised and covenanted
blessings should be established in Jerusalem the city of the great king, and the
"whole world be filled with the glory of God."

Samuel’s next instructions to Saul were "thou shalt go on forward from thence,
and come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to
God to Bethel." The Lord was thus setting Saul in the ways of His own steps,
that he might learn who the God was with whom he had to do, and see that all His
paths drop fatness. What should Bethel have been to a true Israelite, the
descendant of Jacob, to whom God appeared when he fled from the face of his
brother Esau — that memorable night when Jacob took of the stones, and put them
for his pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep that night, when he received
the directions for his faith by the ladder set up on the earth, but whose top
reached to the heavens, and on which the angels of God were seen ascending and
descending? What unmistakable signs were these, and links of connection too,
between the heavens and the earth by angelic agencies thus made known to Jacob,
and bound up in his person! Beyond all this however was the Lord Himself, who
stood above it, and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God
of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and thy seed."
Jacob thus becomes the heir of promise, and with the assurance that "in thee and
in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed;" confirmed too by
the declaration "I will not leave thee till I have performed that of which I
have spoken to thee." Connected by grace with such promises and blessing, what
could Jacob say in accordance with the Lord’s mind but "this is none other than
the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven?" Perfectly in keeping with the
occasion was the further act of the patriarch, when he awoke early in the
morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and changed it into a
pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. To crown all, he changed the name of
the city Luz, or "separation" (guided by faith), into that of Bethel, or the
house and meeting-place of God.

All seemed to promise fair with Saul at the first, as he travelled over these
paths, and halted at these resting-places of grace and of the veiled but
promised glory to the land and people through the seed. Moreover, "men were
going up to God to Bethel, and were carrying three kids, and another three
loaves of bread, and another a bottle of wine. Besides this they were to salute
Saul, and give him two loaves of bread. The oil which Jacob poured out upon the
pillar has gained additional significance by these sacrifices; and the kids,
with the bread and the wine, were the suited confession on the part of the godly
that the people, who had commenced their history across Jordan at Gilgal in the
book of Joshua, had been since met by the angel of the Lord at Bochim, or the
place of failure and weeping, in the book of Judges. Nevertheless this
confidence is maintained to faith by Bethel, and the God of Jacob, who cannot
deny Himself, and these confessions of the conscience are met by the assurance
to the heart, thou "art the same, and thy faithfulness endureth throughout all
generations."

Samuel had likewise told Saul, "after that thou shalt come to the hill of God
where is the garrison of the Philistines." Nothing is more valued by the soul
which has been led along the highway of Jehovah, God Almighty, in olden times,
or in the new revelation which He has made of Himself to us, as the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, than to find ourselves associated with
His purposes, and moreover by grace "workers together with God" now in the ways
by which Be is accomplishing them. Saul was thus carried outside himself and his
father’s house, and the strayed asses which he diligently sought in the land of
Benjamin, and became identified with the sepulchre of Rachel, and the vastness
of God’s thoughts in the son born, the Ben-oni and the Benjamin, if he can only
read these lessons aright, with the prophet Samuel, and the Jehovah of Israel.
The plain of Tabor, and the three men going up to God to Bethel, had been
crossed by Saul, and became the living witnesses to him that there was the same
unchangeable God for today, as had been known by their father Jacob at Bethel,
Moreover, they saluted Saul, and further associated him with themselves by act
and deed in the gift of the two loaves of bread, which be was to receive at
their hands. We may remark here that all these steps were previous to Saul’s
arrival at the hill of God, where the Philistines lay in garrison; and were the
requisite strongholds for faith in communion with God, by which alone a
successful conflict with the enemy could be maintained.

These principles are the same for christian conflict with "the wicked spirits in
the heavenly places," however different the objects of our faith and communion
may be, and assuredly are, in the Father and the Son, by the Holy Ghost. It is a
wonderful word to us in Ephesians 6:1-24, "finally, my brethren, be strong in
the Lord, and in the power of his might." And again, as to the panoply for the
christian champion, "put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil." The will of our God is entirely different
too, "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in the heavenlies." Still, whatever the range of the enemy’s power,
whether larger or smaller, or whatever the varying character of the conflict
before Christ came, or since His exaltation into the heavens at the right hand
of God, the enemy is the same, and the watch-word of the entire army of the
faithful is "our sufficiency is of God." "The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon
thee" was the word of Samuel to Saul, and "go in this thy might," whether to him
or to Gideon, was only to prove that God would make a way for Himself through
the thickest or the mightiest of His foes, and for the faith that followed Him.

Besides the sepulchre of Rachel and the plain of Tabor and the hill of God with
the garrison of the Philistines, a company of prophets coming down from the high
place were to meet Saul, having a psaltery, and a harp, and a tabret, and a pipe
before them; and they were to prophesy. With these also Saul was to be
identified; for Samuel had said "the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee,
and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man." It is
at this point, and not till then, that Samuel could say, "let it be, when all
these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serveth thee, for God
is with thee." We may note here that the principles of God since the fall of man
are the same, however different in their application, or varied in their
character. In the world that now is God called out Abram, the head of the family
of faith, to walk with Him, and Bethel was the place of the altar where the
Almighty God appeared to him; just as the mount was the meeting place between
the Lord and Moses, or Gilgal in the days of Joshua, and mount Zion in the time
of David. In the instance of Saul (the first king between Jehovah and His
people), it is important to see that three great ends were reached in reference
to himself personally: he was turned into another man, the Spirit of the Lord
came upon him, and God was with him. All that God could then do, short of
effectual calling perhaps, had been done for Saul and a marvellous catalogue it
is! He had been instructed in "the matter of the kingdom," and anointed as the
king of Israel, led about and taught the sources of strength for a man of faith
in "the living God;" had a view of the enemy’s garrison where it ought not to
be, and by the Spirit of prophecy guided, with others that prophesied, to look
into the bright future of Jehovah’s ways, with the Israel whom He loved. It is
not till grace and goodness have done their utmost that responsibility begins,
whether as to the kingdom or this king. "What more could have been done for my
vineyard than I have done? wherefore, when I looked for grapes, brought it forth
wild grapes?" Grace in fact creates our responsibilities, whether then or now,
and supplies what is needful for their fulfilment, so that there need be no
discouragement as these increase, provided the flesh in us is kept under the
death which has passed upon it judicially by God at the cross of Christ. The
Spirit of the Lord upon Saul, or in a David — Jesus Himself with the disciples —
men full of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, or a man in Christ now, show plainly
enough the manner and the measure of the grace of God through Christ, and the
increasing responsibilities, as knowing "that our body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, which we have of God;" so that "ye are the epistle of Christ, known and
read of all men." But Saul’s responsibility, and how he acquitted himself, is
our present subject of study, and instruction. God had done what His prophet had
spoken, "and it was so, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel that God
gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day." Saul, who
had been thus identified with the interests of Jehovah and His people, and the
company of prophets, was to be further associated with Samuel who was the link
between God and the nation of Israel; if he could walk with Him in this
character.

Samuel said to him, "thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will
come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice peace offerings;
seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt
do." The place of Samuel before God, as well as his relation to the people was
to be respected, nor is another to intermeddle therewith, though this other be
the king of Israel. The Lord had early called Samuel to Himself, and had used
him as the reprover of Eli the high priest, in the days when the ark was taken
captive by the Philistines and the glory was departed. At Mizpeh be had gathered
all Israel together, and Samuel prayed for them to the Lord. And as he was
offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against
Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon them, and
discomfited them, and they were smitten. So when Saul and his servant were
directed by the young maidens of the city to the high place that they might find
Samuel, and ask the seer about the lost asses, they were told "the people will
not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice: and afterwards they
eat that be bidden." What pertained to Samuel was made plain and clear to Saul;
and the less had been anointed and blessed by the greater. He was to tarry seven
days at Gilgal, till "Samuel came to sacrifice to the Lord."

"And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for
Saul he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling." "And he
tarried seven days . . . . but Samuel came not, and the people were scattered
from him." Here is the moment of trial for Saul: can he own the real link
between Jehovah and Israel to be in Samuel; and leave all his new anxieties and
cares there — or will he step out of his own place by intruding into Samuel’s,
and incur the displeasure of God? How easily is the line of individual
responsibility traversed! "Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from
heaven, and consume them? and Jesus said, ye know not what spirit ye are of."
"And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings: and he
offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass that as soon as he had made an
end, behold, Samuel came and said, What hast thou done?" Saul attempts to give a
good reason for doing a bad thing; and this in truth is what disobedience always
demands where the thing in question is not confessed as a sin. He excuses
himself upon the ground which fallen nature must take (the seeing of the eye),
and regards only the people, his misgivings respecting Samuel, and his fears
concerning the Philistines: and these are the three things which carry him away
from God. "Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal;"
and this is the conclusion of the natural heart when guided by its own fears.
Another thing comes to light, which accompanies such a condition of soul, "I
have not intreated the face of the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered
a burnt offering." What is this lesson to us, but a proof that the active
restlessness of human nature, whether by the reasonings of the mind. or the
hopes and unbelief of the heart, unsettle faith, and prevent Saul from waiting
upon the God of Israel, as the newly appointed king, in the hour of danger; or
waiting for Samuel to offer the sacrifices appointed between Jehovah and his
people? Then "Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept
the commandment of the Lord thy God, for now would the Lord have established thy
kingdom upon Israel for ever."

How often the hour for the establishment of the proffered blessing is lost
through inadvertence, and becomes the moment of forfeiture and defeat, and of
Satan’s power! At this very point it is, when the kingdom and the king were
about to be confirmed by burnt offerings and peace offerings for ever, that Saul
breaks down; and like the first man Adam, who gave place to the last Adam, so
the first king must be set aside to make room for the Second or true David.
Sorrowful words follow from the lips of Samuel, who (instead of being in the
place of offering, and blessing the sacrifices, and the people, and their king)
becomes the prophet of woe to Saul: "but now thy kingdom shall not continue: the
Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him
to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord
commanded thee."

We have thus an example in Saul of a man who though little in his own sight at
the onset, allowed his nature to turn everything round, which should have
glorified God to his heart and conscience (and faith too, if he had it), for his
own advantage and self-importance. The illustrious spots in this world’s
history, along which the Lord had led him, from Bethel to Gilgal, and the
transformation which, by the power and grace of God, had already passed upon
him, to the astonishment of the people, so that they said "what is this that has
come to the son of Kish?" should have made him truly great by keeping him "less
than the least "in his own eyes. But it was otherwise; and Saul, ceasing to be
this, does what is right in his own eyes, and is again as one of the common
people. Nor let us fail to remember the way in which he accounts for his
degradation to Samuel: I had "not made supplication unto the Lord; and I forced
myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering." In one of our church epistles,
it is very instructive to notice that "pray without ceasing" is set in order,
and jewelled by "rejoice evermore" on one side, and by "in everything give
thanks" on the other; and it is added "for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus, concerning you." The thing which is effectually excluded from this
enclosure is that very flesh to which Saul fell a prey ("I forced myself"), when
in the moment of real exaltation by grace his heart was lifted up within him.
Our rejoicings as well as our thanksgivings should never part company with the
word of admonition "pray without ceasing" lest the flesh should connect itself
with our mercies, and escape in this way from under the consciousness of its
worthlessness in any real service for God. Indeed the judgment of our flesh is
of the greatest consequence in a walk with God; as we may plainly learn in the
early lesson of Jacob and the angel and their wrestling at Peniel, when the
sinew shrank and the name of the patriarch was changed into Israel; or yet more
distinctly at the cross, where, instead of wrestling, God condemned sin in the
flesh "that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin." The journeyings of Saul had this character, as well as that he might
have confidence in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the God of Israel;
but the flesh escaped and rendered Saul personally unfit for his anointing; he
became of consequence in his own esteem, by the distinguishing bestowments
conferred upon him "by grace," which should have witnessed to him only of the
goodness and greatness of the Giver.

If however the faithfulness of God in the ancient chronicles gives us the record
of a faulty man as a warning of the way in which human nature may clothe itself
with all that the Lord bestows and turn it round for self-exaltation instead of
for His own glory, He will not leave Himself without witness, nor us without an
example of the right sort. The closing days of Elijah’s life may supply this to
us; for, as Samuel gave faith’s directory to Saul, so the prophet Elijah takes
his successor Elisha with him on that remarkable journey which terminated in his
being taken up into heaven; and a double portion of His Spirit descending upon
Elisha as the witness for God on earth. Their starting point was Gilgal, and
from thence to Bethel, where the sons of the prophets met them. And Elijah said
unto Elisha, "Tarry, I pray thee, here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.
And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
So they came to Jericho." From thence the prophet went on to Jordan, and so
would Elisha, perfecting himself for his future place in Israel and work for God
by thus acquainting himself with the spots on earth which were of greatest
moment between the departing one and the God of Israel, ere the whirlwind which
waited to carry him up into heaven did its work. So identified were these two in
every way, that the link on which the blessing of Elisha depended was this, "if
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it
shall not be so." Places of strength and witnesses of divine power on earth had
been visited; and now the sources of sovereign grace in the heavens were to be
the rule of faith’s observance; and true in its own simplicity and singleness of
eye Elisha cried "my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof. And he saw him no more." Moreover, he took bold of his own clothes and
rent them in two pieces; and he took up also the mantle of Elijah, that fell
from him, and went back and stood by the banks of Jordan, and smote the waters
and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? The waters parted hither and thither,
and Jordan gave forth the man upon whom "the double portion" of his master’s
spirit rested, for the work which lay before him. He "entreated the Lord" and
wrought marvellously, "forcing himself" into obscurity and nothingness. A
greater than any of these has since come into this world, and lighted up a new
pathway for faith and the communion of our souls. A sword pierced through the
mother’s heart at His birth, as Simeon told out the mysterious history of the
Jehovah’s Christ to those around, and to Mary. Ben-oni and Benjamin were
familiar names to her, as regarded her son and her Lord, when she stood at His
cross weeping, or was the glad witness of His resurrection to the right hand of
the Father. The life of Christ during those three and thirty years on earth, and
what they unfolded to the anointed eye, arc to us what the Bethel, and the plain
of Tabor, and the hill of God should have been to Saul; or what Gilgal, Jericho,
and Jordan really were to Elijah at his departure, and to Elisha who was left to
glorify God in the midst of His people below. Elisha "saw Elijah no more," but
our departed One is the coming Lord; and, instead of an Elisha, we have the Holy
Ghost, come down from the Father and the glorified Son of man, to abide with us
as the Paraclete while Christ is absent.

There is another stage in Saul’s declension and departure from God, which may
yet be examined for our profit, on whom "the ends of the ages are come." Samuel
also said unto him "the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over Israel; now
therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord." At the
beginning of Saul’s action in this commission to smite Amalek and utterly
destroy all they had and spare them not, be promised fair, and gets a thought
from the heart of God, who in judgment remembers mercy, though the Amalekites
were to be utterly consumed. The Lord of hosts said, "I remember what Amalek did
to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt." And
Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. If God would utterly
destroy "the liers in wait," surely He would remember the Kenites who showed
them kindness; so "Saul said unto the Kenites, Go get you down from among the
Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the
children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt." Of old, when Sodom was to
be consumed by fire and brimstone, Abraham made intercession with God upon the
footing on which Saul was now acting, "this be far from thee to slay the
righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked: shall
not the judge of all the earth do right?" This was not the hour of Saul’s
temptation:, though it was close at hand; he "smote the Amalekites from Havilah,
till thou comest unto Shur." But Saul and the people spared Agag the king, and
the best of the sheep and oxen, and all that was good; "but everything that was
vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly."

Here it is the first king falls a second time: first, intruding into Samuel’s
place by offering the burnt sacrifice; and now, in not maintaining his own place
as "captain of the Lord’s inheritance" in obeying the commandment of God. Again,
he allows his nature to guide him, and is betrayed by the seeing of the eye, and
the hearing of the ear, and by the reasoning of his mind; till at last self
governs his actions, and he becomes separated from the thoughts of God, and thus
loses the link of connection between the Lord and what Amalek did to Israel when
they came up out of Egypt. How easily we may use whatever God may have given us
outwardly, or in the Church, in a natural way, and so make another pedestal for
self (like the Corinthians) and lose sight of the glory of God! The Lord
repented that he had set up Saul to be king, and Samuel was grieved, and cried
unto the Lord all night; but not Saul, for he had gone his way. Again, Saul has
himself and his doings to excuse or to defend, so that Samuel confronts him by
asking, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in
obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." The spring of this disobedience is
thus traced to ignorance of God, and in what He delights; or in self-will, which
is rebellion. And Samuel said, "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
he hath also rejected thee from being king."

"And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned;" but neither his confession, nor the
exercise of his conscience and heart under sin, is in the presence of God and
his holiness. On the contrary be betrays the fact, that his own great desire is
to stand fair in the eyes of the people, and would even make Samuel subservient
to this end, just as he bad used the advantages of place and position which God
had given him as king, for the like purpose.

He excused himself to Samuel for his disobedience of God, "but he feared the
people, and listened to their voice;" as did Pilate when he delivered Jesus to
their will to be crucified. But Saul cannot rise higher than himself, and would
make use of Samuel to recover the reputation which he had lost. "Now therefore
pardon my sin, I pray thee, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord.
And Samuel said, I will not return with thee, and as Samuel turned about to go
away Saul laid hold of the skirt of his mantle and it rent; and Samuel said, The
Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee, and given it to a neighbour of
thine that is better than thou." All that God gave him is forfeited and the
kingdom gone, and Saul pursues his downward course rapidly to the witch of
Endor, and fatally to Mount Gilboa, where he perishes under the Philistine army.
A few words upon the sin of Saul in destroying the vile and refuse, and sparing
the good, may be of service. How could anything be good which was bound up with
Amalek? And yet, if this principle be applied to the flesh and the world, which
Saul failed to carry out according to the mind of God upon Agag and the land of
the Amalekites, how common does Saul’s sin appear in this day! Where is the
unsparing judgment as to the flesh which accepts the declaration, "so then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God," and where the deep knowledge of
oneself that returns the answer, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells
no good thing?" Where is the unsparing hand that, like Samuel, hews Agag in
pieces, come he ever so delicately, that takes part with God in the judgment of
sin in the flesh, and accepts the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should
not trust in ourselves but in God who raiseth the dead? As to the world (like
everything in the land of the Amalekites) how few of us have really learnt the
lesson "love not the world, nor the things that are in the world; if any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him!" Will any cast a stone at
Saul for sparing the good and the best for sacrifice unto God, and destroying
the refuse and the vile? What is the religion of today, but Saul’s? "For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride
of life (and these were the things that guided Saul and were his overthrow) is
not of the Father, but of the world.’’

"And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I
have performed the commandment of the Lord." Solemn words for today; and equally
so was Samuel’s reproof: "what meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine
ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"

"And Saul said, The people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice
unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed." May the Lord
give the needed grace to apply all these principles to ourselves, in close
self-judgment in His own presence; that so His holiness, and the cross of
Christ, may not only be the rule of our faith, but of a more severe line between
the Amalekites and the children of God now, and between Agag and the Spirit!

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
And again, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world." For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 16: S.   SOME NOTICE OF THE REV. F. BOURDILLON'S TRACT
========================================================================

Some Notice of the Rev. F. Bourdillon’s Tract, "The Experiences Described in
Romans 7:7-25."

Many are the writers who have undertaken to tell us about the soul under its
difficulties, and the soul in its experiences, when seeking to be "free from the
law of sin and death." In itself the subject is of the greatest moment; for the
soul, in such exercises before God, must necessarily be occupied primarily with
what He is in His holiness, as well as with what we are, who were "born in sin,
and shapen in iniquity." The most efficient guides to a soul when under such
experiences will surely be those who have passed out of them into the enjoyment
of that "liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." The knowledge that such
guides have, in their own exercises of soul, gone down to the extreme point of
"O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" commends them to those who
still need help, and gives the proper character and weight to these words, "I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Those who are out can lead out. My
reason for saying anything on Mr. Bourdillon’s tract on Romans 7:1-25, and "the
experience described," is, that I more than question whether he is a guide of
this kind. Moreover, as the tract is stated to be "the substance of an address
delivered at the aggregate clerical meeting held at Tunbridge Wells," and since
"published by request," it takes a place of unusual importance under this
commendatory form of clerical sanction, and leaves it fairly open to remark. It
is not my purpose to review the tract, but to state the main design of the
writer, so that, if his object is unscriptural, one may be excused following the
course he pursues for himself and recommends to others for accepting the
experiences of Romans 7:1-25 as properly descriptive of the Apostle Paul and
ourselves, or of a christian state. The object of Mr. B. is to make this
scripture "the narrative or picture of a soul’s progress and condition. Yet,
though an individual history, it has (he tells us) at the same time a
representative character — it furnishes a sample, an instance." He says that
"the apostle describes himself — here PAUL appears in every word. It his own
soul’s autobiography, it is his portrait self-drawn." Mr. B. is true to his
object in the use he makes of this scripture, and having declared it an
autobiography of the apostle and a portrait of Paul, he attempts to reduce the
declared wretchedness of the soul’s experience down to the lowest dilution by a
misapplication of other scriptures in Paul’s writings (such as, "lest I should
be a castaway," etc.) Mr. B. turns the key in the door upon the apostle finally
as to all hope of actual deliverance out of the prison and his captivity, and
calmly says, "it is the voice of distress, it is an appeal for help; yet I hear
not so much in these words the cry of a chained captive to be set free, as that
of a soldier in conflict, who looks round for succour.

I quote no farther for the moment, but turn most gladly to say, what a mercy,
and what a comfort, for us, as believers in Christ, that another ear was open to
that cry of wretchedness, and a heart that could interpret it so differently as
to give deliverance (not through our incessant conflict as soldiers, and
continuous cry for succour), but by His own death and resurrection out of it,
and ours too. "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord," is our song!

Here let me remark, how needful it is that we should be on the same degree of
latitude, and sailing by properly adjusted compasses, if we would make even our
ordinary geographical observations with correctness and certainty. Surely it is
of much greater importance for the soul and its exercises that the guides should
remember Paul’s own exhortation to his son Timothy, "Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth." And now let me seriously ask those who read their Bibles for
themselves, is this the purpose and object of the Holy Ghost in writing the
seventh chapter of the Romans, namely, to show a man that "in himself, that is
in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing" and to leave him under the power of the
evil that he would not do? Is the object of this scripture to pass and re-pass a
soul through life-long experiences under the holy law of God, which lead him to
cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" and then to leave him
in hopeless conflict with self and indwelling sin, with a parting word that the
wretchedness and the cry are not so bad? In short, is the individual a soldier
in conflict (a faithful soldier, too, as Mr. B. tells us), or does Romans 7:1-25
describe one who is "sold under sin" — "brought into captivity" — instead of
ever getting out, or gaining an inch by conflict, and finding instead that the
tyrant in power (sin), "taking occasion by the commandment, deceived him," and
turning it to his own advantage, by means thereof slew him? The idea of conflict
as a soldier is entirely foreign to the chapter — there is no battlefield named
— we do not fight with "the law of God." It is not the surroundings that are in
question, nor is it by enemies that the soul is confronted, but the question
whether the law is a power in my hand for life, by obedience, and for
righteousness before God; or whether the commandment which was ordained unto
life, I found to be unto death? Did it detect the very lust in myself, and give
me the mastery over it? or did it convict me of indwelling sin only to give all
its strength to sin, and prove it to be my master, with power to lead me into
"captivity" by the law of sin, which is in my members? Another, stronger than
myself or that which chains me down as a captive, can alone deliver; and,
instead of being like "a faithful soldier," I find myself a slave to sin and
lust in my members; a criminal by the law of God, which forbids it, and under
death and condemnation, as the judgment of Him against whom I have offended.
Will a culprit in his cell fight with his walls, or a slave in his chains with
his manacles — much less talk of being a soldier, and "a faithful one," in
conflict? Nay, a slave has the experiences of a slave, and a culprit the
feelings morally of a culprit, under the law, as in this chapter, which forbade
and detected the sin, in the very lust that conceived it. It is the discovery of
oneself and "the motions of sin" in one’s own members, which raises the cry of
"O wretched man that I am."

There is no thought of another person, much less of an enemy, external to
oneself, with whom to fight; nor is the cry to be delivered from outward enemies
(like the cry of soldiers worsted on the battlefield), but "wretched man that I
am," one who has found out another and deeper kind of wretchedness in the sense
of what I am, in relation to all that is in myself and what I carry about with
me, as part and parcel of myself, when brought to light, and tested by the
righteous claims of God upon me, through "a law which is holy, and just, and
good." The human way of deliverance from an exacting power is no doubt by means
of conflict; but the divine way is by death (our old man has been crucified with
Christ), in which every claim is met and answered; for who can press a demand on
one who has died, or who can arrest a dead man?

Mr. B. does himself an injustice, therefore, by thus denying there is full
deliverance out of the wretchedness of chapter 7 into "the glorious liberty of
the sons of God," chapter 8; and he does the scriptures a greater wrong, and
Paul who wrote them, by declaring "that from verse 7 to 13 he describes his past
transitional state; and that from 14 to 25 Paul describes his present and
spiritual condition." This is too in the face of the confession, "O wretched man
that I am," and in presence of the cry, "who shall deliver me?" We may well ask,
are these the meagre fruits and spoils of Christ’s sufferings and death? are
these the poor triumphs of His glorious ascension? is this the liberty wherewith
Christ makes free — a closed door, and a cry from within? On the contrary, does
not chapter 8 declare our deliverance from "the body of sin and death" by our
own death and resurrection with Christ, and that "there is no condemnation?"
Does it not affirm that "we are made free by the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus," and that "we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit?" Moreover,
we have life in union with the risen and glorified Christ, we enter upon our new
relations with God the Father, as suited to such a life as we have in the
ascended Son of man, the second Adam, and "have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry Abba Father?" Further, "the Spirit itself beareth witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together." We have thus been delivered from the
condemnation and wretchedness felt by the quickened and renewed soul when
passing through the experiences of one "under law," as in Romans 7:1-25, without
"power to perform," and are established in the life, and liberty, and love of
God, through grace, as indwelt by the Spirit, the witness and seal of the
promised glory, till Christ comes to carry us there, of which Romans 8:1-39
treats.

We may fairly ask each other, in the joy and deliverance of this chapter, were
not these the objects of the Father’s counsel, and of the work of Christ by His
death and our redemption? What a triumphant answer verse 29 gives to this
question — "Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren!" Dare we
say we are left as soldiers, to fight our way out of wretchedness in a hopeless
conflict, if we can, and perhaps to fight our way into the liberty and
blessedness of chapter 8 as we best may; or gladly own positive and actual
deliverance out of one and introduction into the other by the grace of God,
through the trouble and travail of Christ’s soul (rather than by exercises of
ours), when He suffered "the just one for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God?" Finally, what a different object the Holy Spirit puts before Paul, and
those whom he represents, to what Mr. B. does, who locks them up under the law!
What different utterances they employ, if we will only let Paul speak of their
"present spiritual experiences" for himself: for "I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

If Mr. B. had told us how necessary it is that we should have "the sentence of
death" written upon the flesh, and all the expectations as to the works of the
flesh under the law, and that we should individually accept this sentence in our
souls before God, and say, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no
good thing," he would have done some service at the present time. If he had
further shown the hopelessness of any one in that condition striving to get out
by any efforts of his own, and had "shut him up to the faith of Christ" as his
only Deliverer, he would have really helped on many souls, by showing death at
the cross to be the door of deliverance, and not their own conflict with some
foreign power. If Mr. B. had written as "one who knew the law" in this respect,
and spoken as Paul did to others "that knew it," and said, "Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye
should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God," he would not have sung the dead march of
despair as proper christian experience, but have gladly celebrated his
deliverance and marriage with Christ on the bright morning of His resurrection,
with all those that are His.

M. B. does violence to Paul in chapter 7 by shutting him in upon the
wretchedness which it describes, and does dishonour to Christ by denying Him
there as an actual Deliverer. Mr. B. says truly, "we tread on holy ground when
we enter on this question; let us walk warily, let us think gently and
reverently. But I cannot but believe that this faithful soldier was sometimes
worsted." Be this as it may between Mr. B. and the apostle, our question is not
whether Paul was worsted or anything of this sort about Paul, but whether Christ
was worsted, so that He did not actually take His people out from this
wretchedness of Romans 7:1-25 and put them, by His own death and ours, into the
liberty and glory of Romans 8:1-39? Is a Christian to be told, as Mr. B. does,
that deliverance is not a change of place and relationship with God, in and with
Christ by the Spirit, according to the utterances and experiences of chapter 8,
but a temporary and occasional relief, etc., "to a weary and a faithful soldier
in conflict?"

"The experience described" denies it to be one of a spiritual crisis merely, a
stage or period passed through once for all, and then done with; but of a state,
an oft-recurring conflict. "Again and again was the attack renewed, for the evil
was ever present with him, again and again the battle had to be fought. Often,
doubtless, the conflict was short and sharp, and often must the same experience
be gone through."

Let me solemnly ask, is all this exercise of one under the law to be falsely
styled christian conflict, in the very forefront of its companion, chapter 8,
the magna charta of our christian deliverance, and privileges, and victories?
"Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us."

There are conflicts, as in Ephesians 6:1-24, and elsewhere, proper to a
Christian as such, when consciously seated in heavenly places with Christ, as
the Head of the body, the church; and would to God Mr. B. had led forward the
soldiers of the cross to that struggle, as Paul does there — "Finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; put on the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; for
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the
heavenlies." Will Mr. B.’s tract lead his readers out upon that battlefield?
Nay, may I not, in faithful love, ask rather this question — are Mr. B. and "the
aggregate clerical meeting" there for themselves, and have they ever taken rank
or place in this conflict?

Whatever Romans 7:1-25 may be and is, it is not wrestling with wicked spirits,
much less in the heavenly places; and whatever questions are raised, they
certainly are in connection with "flesh and blood," and the law given by Moses.
The "aggregate clerical meeting" will do well to ponder these things at their
next gathering, or before. On the other hand, it is possible to "frustrate the
grace of God," as the Galatians did, and to resist "the truth of the gospel," by
"building again the things that have been set aside or destroyed." Suppose Paul
had fraternized with the Galatians in the objects they were pursuing, would he
not have been as foolish and bewitched as they? Did the path they took confirm
them in the liberty of Christ and of the Spirit, or lead "back again into
bondage?" Will Mr. B., in the face of this Epistle to the Galatians, venture to
shut up Paul, and those whom he represents, in the hopeless captivity and
wretchedness of Romans 7:1-25, or hear him, as he warns those who desired again
to be in bondage? "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till
Christ be formed in you; I desire to be present with you now, and to change my
voice, for I stand in doubt of you." It is a serious consideration, that in this
way there may be a resistance of God and a fighting against Him, by denying the
rights of Christ as our Deliverer and refusing the deliverance which He has
effected for us from under every yoke. This unbelief as to our complete
deliverance out of our natural Adam-standing and sin-state, as well as from "the
body of this death," as described in Romans 7:1-25, in and through Christ, is
surely no conflict with the devil or the wicked spirits, either in heaven or
earth, but a very unchristian resistance of God in "the truth of the gospel"
respecting Christ Himself and His saints, which those who are guilty of it will
do well to confess before God and the church. One is led to ask, why are these
efforts made by such as the Rev. Mr. B., and sanctioned by aggregate clerical
meetings, with requests that their statements may be published, etc., which, in
effect, lead back again, or confirm souls in the captivity and wretchedness, on
account of which Christ died and rose again, that He might deliver them, and set
free for ever? Does Moses and the law suit them personally, and perhaps
ecclesiastically, better than the Headship of Christ, and the action of the Holy
Ghost in the church? Does Judaism, with its ritual and liturgy and distance from
God, correspond more with their order and worship than "the rent veil" of
Christianity, and our liberty to enter into the holiest, "as kings and priests
unto God?" Otherwise it is more than strange after "the house has been broken
open," and a full deliverance preached by Paul himself, that he and those whom
be represents should decline to come out into the liberty of Christ through
death and resurrection — strange that he should have once stood up for his own
freedom and rights "as a Roman" citizen, against the authorities of the
Philippian prison, and compelled the rulers and the magistrates to come and
beseech them, and bring them out, and desire them to depart out of the city, and
yet that when the title and rights of Christ, and Paul’s too are fully in view,
as in Romans 8:1-39, he should not insist upon his heavenly privileges against
the authorities of the law, and the body of sin and death, to detain him, as a
free-born citizen of heaven! Unpardonable that he should forget "the old man had
been crucified with Christ," and lead us back (as the apostle of the Gentiles)
into captivity, and put us with himself under their dominion, to experience
deeper wretchedness, and cry out for deliverance never gained, and there abide
in that state, as "our present spiritual condition." But the apostle neither
says nor does nor accepts nor suffers any such things as are reported by Mr. B.
in this tract as "his present spiritual condition." On the contrary he cries out
to the Galatians, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." When Paul writes to these
Philippians of his "present condition," as to sufferings and conflicts, they are
entirely of another character, and spring from another source than Romans 7:1-25
— "for unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him,
but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me,
and now hear to be in me." By these remarks and quotations, I mean to show that
there is in this way a fighting against God, and a departure from Christ, by the
unjudged evil and hardness of the natural heart, through which the wilderness
journey is turned again into a provocation, and, as a consequence, the people of
God, in the experiences of their souls, are kept out of their rest, and turned
back in heart to Egypt. In principle this is done by Christians, when they
refuse deliverance out of all their captivity through Christ their Deliverer,
and declare they are "tied and bound by the chain of their sins," and confess
themselves to be, what they originally were, "miserable sinners," in spite of
all that He has accomplished below, and the place He has taken as their
intercessor at the right hand of God in heaven, as the second Man crowned with
glory and honour. They will neither go out by redemption, nor enter in by faith,
with their Forerunner; they will not quit Egypt and cross the Red Sea with a
song in their mouths, nor go over Jordan with their Joshua into Canaan, or take
possession (in present communion with the Father’s love and the Son’s joy
through the power of the Holy Ghost) of their proper birthright, in the
heavenlies. In conclusion, let me say, there is a widespread religious system in
Christendom at the present day, a corruption of Judaism and of true
Christianity, which falsifies the believer’s present standing and state and
experiences, as accepted and complete in Christ before God even our Father.
Moreover, it falsifies the relation of the Holy Ghost as the witness and seal of
our union with Christ in life and righteousness and earnest of glory, and of
ourselves as indwelt by the Spirit, and knowing "our body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost, which we have of God."

Paul says to us, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the
flesh;" but Mr. B. would bring back, and keep the apostle (and those whom he
represents) in the captivity and wretchedness of one under the law. Mr. B.
leaves Paul and others in the experiences described in Romans 7:1-25, crying out
for deliverance, and yet never actually delivered out of them, nor brought into
liberty for present communion and joy. All will do well to mark the contrast
between these two systems. J. E. Batten.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: S.   THE BOOK OF JOSHUA," AND "THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
========================================================================

"The Book of Joshua," and "The Epistle to the Hebrews." The leadership of the
people of Israel by "the ark of the covenant and the priesthood," under Joshua,
when the time was come for them to cross over Jordan into Canaan, form the
magnificent forefront of this book. Besides this, their history reveals the
coming forth of "the captain of the Lord’s host with the drawn sword in his
hand," followed by their victories, and overthrow of all their enemies. Nor is
this all; for it is not till after this clearance is made, that "the tabernacle
of the congregation was set up at Shiloh," under Eleazar the high priest, in
order that the covenant relations of Jehovah with the twelve tribes might be
seen to stand upon election and grace, and be maintained inviolate amongst them,
on what God was in Himself. Moreover, "the tabernacle at Shiloh in the land of
Canaan" was as necessary a part in the book of Joshua, as opening the way of
approach to God for Israel as worshippers; as was Gilgal, and their recurrence
to it, indispensable in the history of their conflicts, for their renewal of
strength in the day of battle.

If we look into these subjects we must take a larger view than this circle
embraces, and think of the nation of Israel in their primary relations to
Jehovah. For this we must obviously refer to the books of Numbers and Exodus,
that we may not lose sight of the original ways of God and His purposes, as
declared to them by Moses, when he was their commander and mediator, and Aaron
their great high priest. Indeed this link is manifestly kept up in the early
chapters of the book of Joshua, and applied in a most encouraging way to him by
the Lord, who said, "As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee, I will not
fail thee nor forsake thee." Besides this assurance to Joshua personally, as the
appointed successor of Moses, there was the necessary continuation of the high
priest, and the Levitical priesthood in their midst for services connected with
the ark of the covenant and the order of the tabernacle at Shiloh, which neither
Joshua nor his armed men dare touch. Each of these great functionaries held
their respective appointments directly from the Lord; and the two in their
combined action, whether in the sanctuary of God, or in the camp of Israel,
carried out the mind of Jehovah concerning His own holiness and majesty, or His
people’s glory.

Indeed, the priesthood and the tabernacle were indispensable as the way of
approach for them as worshippers; whilst outwardly the relations of God with
Israel by the ark of the covenant were manifested in the sight of all their
enemies. This was true during the ministration of Aaron in the wilderness, or
the Levites with Joshua when Jordan fled; or when marching round the city
Jericho, and the walls fell down flat. Moses and Aaron were inseparable in their
varied ministries at their exodus from Egypt, as were the priest and the captain
at the door of the tabernacle in Shiloh for the settlement of the twelve tribes
in the promised land. Indeed, these orders and services were not only
established by God at the first, but when Aaron died on Mount Hor (as recorded
in Numbers 20:1-29.) "Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon
Eleazar his son," as the Lord commanded him. So likewise when Moses was to die
on Mount Abarim, and he prayed the Lord "to set a man over the congregation," he
was directed to take Joshua and put him before Eleazar the high priest, and give
him a charge in the sight of all the people. The connection, and yet the
contrast between these two, are also marked in Numbers 27:1-23, "And he shall
stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him, after the
judgment of Urim before the Lord, at his word shall they go out; and at his word
shall they come in; both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all
the congregation."

It is necessary to gather up this divine order given to Moses respecting the man
who was to succeed him for a commander — as had been previously done on Mount
Hor concerning the successor of Aaron as a priest. "And Moses did as the Lord
commanded him; and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and
before all the congregation. And he laid his hands upon him and gave him a
charge." The book of Numbers (and especially chapters 20 and 27) introduces to
us Eleazar and Joshua, and the latter is seen to be under the guidance of the
former, who was to ask counsel of God by the mysterious Urim. This order, and
these enactments and appointments (one need scarcely say) are the basis for the
onward history of Israel under Joshua, and the anointed priesthood with "the ark
of the covenant of the Lord your God;" and also "the ark of the covenant of the
Lord of all the earth," which they bore along. This ark was not only the witness
of Jehovah’s presence, but the symbol of His relations with His people; and
embodied typically to their faith by the costliness of its construction and its
marvellous contents, together with its staves and rings, the coming forth from
God of the Word made flesh. In due time Christ would begin His mysterious
journey in this wilderness world, or else, like the tabernacle at Shiloh, dwell
among them, or later still in Jerusalem, fill the temple itself. In result He
would finish that work which the Father had given Him to do for His own glory,
and our eternal redemption, to which the ark and all the vessels of the
sanctuary pointed.

It is of the greatest moment for us who are Christ’s, and who are now sealed by
the Holy Ghost, to gather up this precious fact, that God always takes care of
His own glory; and of the full and final blessing of His people according to His
purpose; yea, that He never lets them be separated, or pass out of His own
hands, but works them out together, because (wonderful to say) He has made His
people and their blessedness a constituent part of His glory. How suited,
therefore, was this ark of the covenant to be in advance of the twelve tribes on
their way to rest in the habitation of God, upon the mountain of His holiness,
that Mount Zion which He had chosen for the full display of Himself in the midst
of His people, in the still future day of their millennial joy. Such was the ark
at Gilgal. On our part, we may charge ourselves that we neither separate our
present communion with God from the pathway of His own glory in the life we live
on earth; nor accept any other object for eye or heart, than Christ Himself, in
whom and through whom the glory of God and His people’s present and eternal
blessedness meet, and are counselled and established.

Every eye was upon "the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God" who had gone
forth before them to find a resting-place worthy of Himself, and in which to
keep His appointed feasts, and to share his delights with Israel, whom He had
chosen. Their journey out of the wilderness had begun, for "it came to pass
after three days, that the officers went through the host, and commanded,
saying, When ye see the ark, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye
shall remove from your place and go after it." Besides the hidden but glorious
contents of the ark, as typifying the Christ of God, since manifested in His
life, and death, and resurrection, and besides being the external and abiding
symbol of God’s presence in sovereign goodness, the ark was a witness from
Himself of the manner in which He was to be known by them, and approached. This
was two-fold in its declaration. First, Israel was to learn by it that God, as
Jehovah, had put Himself into covenant relationship with them, "it was the ark
of the Lord your God" by means of which (or rather what it foreshadowed) not a
jot or a tittle of all He had ever promised should fail. Secondly, they were to
learn by it that God, as creator of the heavens and the earth, would pass before
them in His majesty and power, to make a way for them and drive out all their
enemies. Therefore it was "the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the
earth," for He weigheth the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance, and
taketh up the isles as a very little thing. These are some of the
characteristics, both of the hidden and manifested glories of the ark that
preceded them, and which charged itself with the entire weight and burden of the
people, and the dangers and difficulties of the way. They and the ark were to
inaugurate a new history, for God had come out of the heavens to walk with His
people on the earth, and lead them into His rest. In the next place, who are the
persons which demand our attention in this movement out of Shittim? This company
is "the priests the Levites," who are appointed to bear the ark, which, when
Israel saw to be in motion, was their signal for advance, "then ye shall remove
from your place and go after it." This the congregation do, and the first act
they behold is the way in which God gets glory to Himself, or puts a seal upon
His own title, as "the Lord of the whole earth," by the power through which
Jordan, when it intercepted their path, was driven back, and stood up as in a
heap. Nor was this merely an act or seal to the title and rights of God as "the
Lord of all the earth," (for how could He be this if Jordan were allowed to bar
the way?) but Jehovah loves to give the seal to His own people, at the same time
and by the same act, that He is the "Lord your God," for it was when the
priests’ feet that bare the ark touched the brim of the waters, that Jordan
rolled itself back. The priests and priesthood thus gain a distinguished place
in the book of Joshua, and are in the foreground because of their consecration
and appointment to the services of the sanctuary. "And the priests that bare the
ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan,
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people," etc.
The prominence of the priests, as bearing the ark, does not interfere with the
place of Joshua (in this Joshua 3:1-17) as the leader, for he "spake unto the
priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant;" nor indeed, throughout the
book, when Eleazar comes out more distinctly into the forefront, to divide their
inheritances.

Indeed, the value of these records is, in the concurrent action of Eleazar and
Joshua, where they can be combined, as in Joshua 14:1-15 :, Joshua 17:1-18 :,
Joshua 19:1-51 :, and Joshua 21:1-45 :, which we need not anticipate just now.

We shall thus find as we proceed with this Joshua 4:1-24 :, and Joshua 6:1-27 :,
that the priests with the ark of the covenant, have a much larger footing as
well as Eleazar and the tabernacle at Shiloh in this book, than we are
accustomed, or perhaps know how, to make room for or give to the fact,
especially when we come to apply it to ourselves and Christianity, and still
more so when we attempt to run a parallel between the book of Joshua and the
writings of Paul. Leaving this too for the moment, the priests, with the ark,
whether in Jordan or when over it, and confronted by a great city instead of a
river, are not only in prominence, but take the lead of the whole congregation
and the armed men as at Jericho, or else stay in the danger, till all beside are
gone clean over, as in Jordan. In Joshua 4:1-24, "twelve men" out of every
tribe, were to take up twelve stones out of the river, "where the priests’ feet
stood firm," and carry them over, and leave them in the place where they would
lodge that night. Besides this, "Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of
Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests stood which bare the ark of
the covenant," as a memorial that the twelve tribes who had risen up, out of the
power of death at Gilgal, were the same people who had been there. In this
typical history of the children of Israel we may observe, that at the Red Sea
they neither left twelve stones in its bed, nor took twelve out with them upon
the other side. On the contrary, Pharaoh and his captains, with their chariots
and horses, lay dead at the bottom, as a witness that the mighty power of the
enemy which held them captive in Egypt had been overthrown, and that the depths
covered them. "But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of
the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand, and on the
left." Thus the Lord saved them that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, whom
they saw dead upon the shore, whilst He put the song of redemption into their
mouths, saying "The Lord hath triumphed gloriously." The Red Sea was a memorial
between Jehovah and His people, that the antagonistic power which held them
captive and refused to let them go, had been all broken in pieces; but Jordan
was to be the overthrow of an opposing power of the enemy that refused to let
the people enter into their inheritance. It is in these two ways, we have still
to watch against the devil. God brought them to Himself at the Red Sea, having
on the way sheltered them by "the blood of the Lamb as roast with fire," and
then taught them redemption by power when they sang unto the Lord, "Thy right
hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." Beyond this difference in the
ways of God with them or with us in our redemption out of Egypt by blood and by
power (as confirmed to us now by the sacrifice and vicarious death of Christ)
all that generation was cut off in the wilderness. They had crossed the Red Sea,
but in their journey onward, they proved how incapable flesh and blood were, to
walk with God, much less to keep company with Him. A further lesson was taught
by Jordan, beyond redemption by blood and by power as known at the cross and
foreshadowed by the Red Sea, namely that the people thus brought to God must
pass through their own death and resurrection by figure of the twelve stones in
Jordan, and the twelve stones out. They were to begin another history with the
ark of the covenant, and their new circumcision at Gilgal, with Joshua and the
passover and the captain of the Lord’s host, with the drawn sword. The priests
bearing the ark were not to be seen in the bottom of the Red Sea, but the
enemies lay there, who had been consumed as stubble by the wrath of the Lord. On
the other hand, no Canaanites were in Jordan, nor was a single foe overthrown
there; but it was sanctified to the Lord and to Israel, by the priests and the
ark of the covenant for glory and victory; as much as were the waters of the Red
Sea "when they returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the
host of Pharaoh in terrible judgment."

It is to our purpose here, as believers in Christ, to notice that at this
juncture the epistles of Paul take up these types from Exodus and Joshua, and
carry them out unto their fulfilments, in Christ, where He now sits "at the
right hand of God." The one to the Romans, which is founded on deliverance and
redemption, accomplished typically at the Red Sea, is generally admitted. So
also Jordan finds its spiritual application in the Colossians, by our own death
and resurrection, as united to Christ who is our life and Head. May we not, or
rather must we not, on the same principle say, that the tabernacle at Shiloh, in
the land of Canaan with Eleazar, find likewise their similitudes and
accomplishments throughout Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews, in our great high
priest, "passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God," as maintaining the
relations of God with His people here below on the ground of His own sovereign
purpose and grace? How necessary were Shiloh and the tabernacle as the witness
of this to the Israelites in Joshua’s day. And how indispensable for the
Hebrews, and to ourselves, for whom Paul wrote his epistle, leading them on into
"the heavenly calling [by faith] under the apostle and high priest of our
profession!"

Further yet, the agreement of the battles in Canaan with the epistle to the
Ephesians, and our spiritual conflict with principalities and powers in the
heavenly places, is admitted on the same principles of exposition. Nor do I
judge that this group of epistles by Paul cannot be separated one from another
(however profitable and necessary it be to distinguish them) without loss to the
typical book of Joshua, and far greater to the completeness of Christianity, and
our own relations to the heavens and the earth, of which they treat. "And it
came to pass when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were
come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were
lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their
place, and flowed over all the banks, as they did before." It was on such a day
as this that "the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they
feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life."

It was on the selfsame day, too, that the Lord put honour on priesthood, and
even upon the soles of the priests’ feet, when they touched the brim, or stood
firm in the midst of that Jordan till all the people had passed over. It was
when they reached the dry land for themselves that the waters returned to their
banks, and all because of "the ark of the God of the whole earth," which they
bore. Moreover, "those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua
pitch in Gilgal, and there they encamped. And he spake unto them, saying, When
your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these
stones? then ye shall let your children know that Israel came over Jordan on dry
land." Gilgal and the twelve stones, were a witness yet further "that all the
people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty; that ye
might fear the Lord your God for ever." Beyond all these memorials of rivers and
their stones to the twelve tribes, was the witness they carried everywhere to
God, that He was "the Lord their God" by relationship with them through the ark,
for they had followed it in triumph to the other side; and likewise that He was
"the God of the whole earth," for Jordan had fled away and stood up as an heap
before Him. It is in this double title and character that the Lord now appears
before them and "all the people of the earth" at Gilgal, as a God that doeth
wonders. But there was another lesson at Gilgal, for "at that time the Lord said
unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel
the second time," for a people in the flesh had been cut off, even all the
previous generation, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. This new or second
generation of the children of Israel, had in Jordan accepted their own death and
resurrection before God, by "the ark of the covenant," which they followed, and
were to learn their further separation to the Lord by circumcision at Gilgal, as
suiting for the land into which they had now entered. The Colossian epistle in
particular, takes these great typical facts out of the book of Joshua and
connects them with our history as new creatures in Christ, and applies them to
us as on our way with the second Adam into the new creation of God, as "not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit" (beyond Romans). We pass on, and are circumcised
with the circumcision of Christ, made without hands, in "putting off the body of
the flesh." Moreover, as dead and risen with Christ, "our life is hid with
Christ in God;" and as in the power of the Holy Ghost (Gilgal) we "set our mind
on things above," not on things upon the earth. As spiritual men, we are over
Jordan with "the ark of the covenant" which precedes us, and subsequently "with
the tabernacle and Eleazar at Shiloh," which maintained the relations of God
with them through priesthood, in the times of the judges, and Eli and Samuel;
and in which He has planted us (see Hebrews 8:1-13 :) in the sanctuary which the
Lord pitched. To this we belong, as a heavenly people, though actually upon the
earth, and in the time of need; yet in respect of the heavenly calling we are
the heirs who are "entering into rest" with Joshua and David’s Son and Lord, for
"there remaineth a rest" for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:1-16 :)

We may remark here that the walls of Jericho fell not by strategy, nor by the
strength of the armed men, but "before the ark of the covenant, and the priests
who bore it," and even then not by sword or spear, but when the priests blew the
rams’ horns. Indeed, it is as a victorious and a worshipping people who follow
the ark with the priests, through the water floods, or walking up straight into
the city of Jericho upon its prostrate walls, that the Israel of God first shine
forth in the greatness of the Almighty, who refuses every obstacle, and makes a
way for Himself and for them. Perhaps before going out with the captain of the
Lord’s host, and much more in using the sword in our holy war, it is of more
moment than we conceive to listen to the voice of the Prince, who bids us "loose
the shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." Some
oversight as to this, and the right of the ark to the forefront, and the
pre-eminence in Israel, may have occasioned the sad reverses of Joshua through
the boasted sufficiency of the two or three thousand armed men who went up
against Ai and were driven back, so that the hearts of the people melted, and
became as water. Possibly the same neglect may have occurred as regards the sin
of Achan and his concealment of the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold,
because of which trespass the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
Where was "the Urim" of Numbers 28:1-31 :? Be this as it may, "the ark of the
Lord, and the priests," were in the midst of the host, not merely as a token of
the covenanted blessings to them outwardly in the land, but also as a means of
approach as worshippers on their own part, and of consultation, too, by Him,
when needed, through Eleazar their great high priest. Joshua, as the leader and
commander of the people, failed to take counsel, either directly by the ark, or
immediately by Eleazar, "at whose word they were to go out and come in, even he
[Joshua] and all the congregation." Under this double failure of Achan and Ai,
"Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face, [and mark] before
the ark of the Lord," until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put
dust upon their heads." And alas! in this breakdown, by which Joshua had
separated himself and Israel in its unity from the guidance of the ark, by
accepting the counsel of the men who went to spy out Ai, he is further betrayed
by his own mouth and the hard thoughts of his heart against God. "And Joshua
said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over
Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God
we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of Jordan." So it is with us of
today individually or collectively. We must either maintain ourselves in the
right, by going when and where the ark goes, and by taking counsel of the Lord,
and getting the victory in His sufficiency, or else be brought back in
humiliation and confession before the Lord from whom we have departed, and, like
Joshua, fall down before the ark, and wait for God. In the midst of declension
and departure like this (if indeed it be such) how good of the Lord to recover
His servant by grace, and to the true thought and care for God’s glory! "O Lord,
what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies"; for the
Canaanites shall hear of it, and "what wilt thou do unto thy great name?" God
who waited upon them, by the mystery of the Urim, and Eleazar the high priest,
in His own excellency and sovereign power as at Jordan and Jericho, now
condescends to the prayer and contrition of Joshua and meets him upon the ground
"of a broken and a contrite spirit." The unity of the twelve tribes had likewise
been violated, by this detachment of two or three thousand men; and these
breaches and offences are taken in hand by the Lord, in rebuke and chastisement,
in the matter both of Achan’s trespass and of Joshua’s oversight. The unity of
the tribes is righteously insisted on by God, who says "Israel hath sinned," and
He will have them all to share the shame and blame of Achan: so likewise in
Joshua 8:1-35 "the Lord said to Joshua, Take all the people of war with thee,
and arise, go up to Ai: see I have given the king and all into thine hand." A
foreshadowing of "Ichabod" casts its dimness on the book of Joshua at this point
where the ark is offended by the negligence of the leader, for certain it is,
that from Joshua 7:6, when "he and all the elders of Israel fall upon their
faces before it till eventide, and put dust upon their heads", the ark of the
covenant of the Lord retires. It only comes out again in Joshua 8:1-35 to
sanction "the altar in Mount Ebal, unto the Lord God of Israel, which Joshua
built, an altar of whole stones, upon which they offered burnt offerings to the
Lord and sacrificed peace-offerings." And afterward Joshua read all the words of
the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that Moses commanded,
before all the congregation of Israel. After this retirement of the ark we
necessarily find ourselves upon lower ground, where human thoughts get into
place, and also natural expediency. We read of strategy and ambushments on the
one hand, where Joshua is successful; but on the other, we see him and the
princes overmatched and outwitted by the craft of the Gibeonites. Still God
abideth faithful, for He cannot deny Himself; but we sadly miss "the ark of the
covenant," and the soles of the priests’ feet, and the blowing of the rams’
horns, and the victories which were won simply "by faith," as the Spirit tells
us in Hebrews 11:1-40 :

Though the order of battle be thus changed, and the fighting more like
"wrestling with flesh and blood," yet the conquest is sure, and the kings of the
countries are killed, and the confederated nations broken in pieces at
Jerusalem, with its wilful king, Adonizedec, as a type of the latter-day
overthrow, in the greater confederation of Revelation 19:1-21 : under the beast
and the false prophet.

Grand it is to see the eternal God come forth to their help upon the heavens,
and in His excellency in the sky — "yea, to cast down great hailstones upon the
enemies of his people, so that they were more who were slain after this manner
than those whom the children of Israel slew." As "the possessor of the heavens
and the earth," and as the Creator of all they contain, He puts honour again
upon Joshua, by commanding the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in
the valley of Ajalon, at the bidding of His servant.

After all these conflicts, by the ark and its priests, and the shout of the
people, at the first, or by the Prince of the Lord’s host with a drawn sword, or
by the flesh and blood wrestlings under Joshua and his spear at the close, the
thirty and one kings are slain, and the land rested from war. Israel is in quiet
possession, and the time is come for them to inherit the land according to their
tribes, as the heirs of the Lord’s inheritance.

It is at this new point of their history that Eleazar personally takes his
place, in conjunction with Joshua, for the distribution of the land at the door
of the tabernacle. "Caleb" also takes a distinguished place, as "an heir of
promise," and claims the mountain of which "the Lord spake to Moses." As to the
common allotment "of the children of Israel, Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the
son of Nun," distributed their inheritances to them in Shiloh. When difficulties
arose, as in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, they came near before
Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, for their settlement. The
tabernacle, in Joshua 18:1-28 :, also takes its permanent place at Shiloh, where
the whole congregation of Israel were assembled together. So that, what Gilgal
was to Joshua and the armed hosts for power in their days of conflict, Shiloh
and the tabernacle were to Eleazar and the priesthood, for maintaining the
precious relations of Israel with Jehovah, as a worshipping people, in the time
of peace and rest. Concerning the tribe of Levi and the Levites, they had no
part among the people, "for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance."
The tabernacle and Shiloh take their place as a new centre, in chapter 18:, from
whence Joshua sent out the three men from each tribe to pass through the land,
and describe it by cities, into seven parts, in a book. On their return to
Joshua, "he cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord; and there he divided
the land unto the children of Israel." Their travelling days, by the pillar of
cloud by day, and of fire by night, were over and gone, and their migratory
character as a people was to give place to citizenship in due season; but at
present, under Joshua, they are only as dwellers in the laud. "These are the
inheritances which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads
of the fathers," divided by lot in Shiloh before the Lord, at "the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation." So they made an end of dividing the country. As
a yet further proof of the important and necessary place which the priest holds
throughout these chapters, we may notice, in Joshua 21:1-45 :, that "the heads
of the fathers of the Levites came unto Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son
of Nun, and spake unto them in Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, respecting the
cities and suburbs which Moses commanded should be given to them to dwell in."
Finally, upon this point, in chapter 22:, touching "the great altar, Ed," which
had been set up on the other side of Jordan, it was the priest, Phinehas, son of
Eleazar, who was sent with ten princes to investigate this grave matter. On
their return, "the children of Israel blessed God," and gave up their intention
of going to war against Reuben and Gad.

These quotations and references to the Book of Joshua have shown us "the ark of
the covenant of the Lord" as going before the congregation, and borne along by
the priesthood. A space of two thousand cubits was to be left between the ark
and the people, "that ye may know the way by which ye must go; for ye have not
passed this way heretofore." Need we say that, in Christianity, the Holy Ghost,
as the glorifier of Jesus, gives this place and precedence to our blessed Lord,
as having superseded the splendour of the typical ark in the full and eternal
glory of His person? This will be readily admitted when we follow the synoptic
Gospels, and view Jesus as the Messiah, with the repentant nucleus of Israel,
and baptised with them in Jordan, as the antitype of this ark of the covenant.
The heavens opened over this scene as He begins their history over again, and
the voice of the Father, and the descent of the Holy Ghost as a dove, do more
than accredit these associations between "the ark" and another generation of the
people. The Messiah, who goes before them, to lead them, by a way they had not
heretofore gone, into the kingdom of heaven, is also their true Joshua, to clear
the way of every obstacle. If they had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, "they
might say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and
it should obey them." As the Son called out of Egypt, He had come into the
wilderness, and met His forerunner, at the end of the law and the prophets, who
prophesied till John. There the Messiah stood, with the Baptist in Jordan, as
the veritable Ark, between Jehovah and Israel, to begin a new history as the
"fulfiller of all righteousness," and in grace to identify Himself with them, as
come in the flesh, and to carry all their sorrows and griefs, as a disgraced
people. God had driven them out of the inheritances in Canaan, into which the
typical ark, under Joshua and Eleazar, had formerly brought them and planted
them. As their Messiah, He had not only been accredited from the opened heavens
by the voice and the dove, in these new relations with a repentant people,
accepting a baptism of John in the waters of Jordan, but Jesus had also been
"led of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil." The wilderness and the solitary
place are made glad by reason of Him who, by His obedience to God, made the
desert to rejoice, and blossom as the rose. As the Son of Abraham, and Son of
David, according to the flesh, though Son of man, and Son of God (like the pure
gold of the ark), He overcame the tempter morally first, and by means of the
temptations to which He submitted. Unswerving in His obedience and devoted
allegiance to the Majesty of God, He overcame the devil, and said, Get thee
behind me, Satan. He has entered into the strong man’s house in righteous title,
and proved Himself, as the tempted Man, stronger than he. He then goes forth
upon His mission as the Deliverer, with His disciples, to proclaim "the glad
tidings of the kingdom of heaven," to preach repentance for the forgiveness of
sins, and to cast out devils from the men into whom they had entered. Such was
"the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God," when originally given out in
pattern to Moses, and when borne along upon the shoulders of the priests under
Joshua and Eleazar, in "the form of shittim wood, and the pure gold," in the
forefront of the great congregation of Israel. Such, too, was "the ark of the
covenant," when "come in flesh and blood" into the midst of this same people,
disgraced by their disobedience, and driven out of the land into which Joshua
had led them aforetime. What a moment was this! Will they welcome this
Joshua-Jesus, come to begin a new history with them morally, by repentance and
confession of sins to the Jehovah they had offended when in Canaan by their
idolatry? He began this wonderful ministry in their synagogues, when He opened
the book where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord." But such beauty and glory as this, which dwelt in
Him morally, and come so close to them bodily in grace, as to be in real flesh
and blood in their midst, required other eyes and hearts to appreciate and
worship; "And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?" They have lost the sense of
what "the shittim wood and the fine gold" of the typical ark represented to
their fathers, nor can they see "the form and comeliness" in the mystery of the
Word made flesh; and fail more deeply by refusing Him thus in the glory of His
humiliation. They will not follow this "ark of the covenant of the Lord" in
their midst, but rise up, and thrust Him out of the city, and lead Him to the
brow of the hill on which their city was built, "that they might cast him down
headlong." They refuse "the acceptable year of the Lord," and have rejected
their Messiah, the true Ark of the covenant between God and Israel, till another
day, when His people shall be willing in the day of His power.

We may now turn from the synoptic Gospels to the Holy Ghost’s subsequent
testimony to Jesus in resurrection, as by Paul to the Hebrews, and see how "the
ark of the covenant" is again brought out, and presented to another generation
of Israel. The ark in this epistle, however, is no longer known after the flesh,
nor as in the world, but as gone on before, and passed through the heavens for
faith. Jesus sits there on the right hand of the throne of God, as the veritable
"Ark of the covenant of the Lord," once given out in pattern to Moses, and
constructed by Bezaleel, and carried by the Levitical priesthood over Jordan to
Shiloh, and by David to Mount Zion. Surely the Holy Ghost, as the Glorifier of
Jesus, is bringing back to the Hebrews by Paul the essential glory of the Person
of the Son, who, by His accomplished work on the cross (as foreshadowed in their
tabernacle and its services), has substantiated all the promises of God to their
fathers, and made them yea and amen to "the children of faithful Abraham." What
is the ministry of Paul, in Hebrews 1:1-14 :, but the embodiment "of the ark of
the covenant" in the Book of Joshua; and beyond all that, the indestructible and
incorruptible shittim wood, or the finest and purest gold, could prefigure of
Him that was to come? What is Paul’s testimony to the Hebrews of his day, if it
be not another presentation of Christ to their faith and hope, according to the
glory, above the brightness of the sun," which had arrested the man who did so
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth? A pattern to them, and an
example!

We may ask again, what is Paul doing with the Hebrews (as a new generation), if
it be not acquainting them with the personal glory of the Messiah, like "the
light which had appeared to him" before he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and
"there fell from his eyes as it had been scales?" Under this anointing it is
that Paul writes to his kinsmen, "God having spoken in many parts, and in many
ways, formerly to the fathers in the prophets; at the end of these days has
spoken to us in the person of the Son, whom he has established heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds." Indeed these glories far exceed all
types, for this Son is not only the Creator of all worlds, but "the possessor of
the heavens and the earth," although He humbled Himself to pass along before His
people, in "shittim wood and fine gold," veiled under "the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God," and in the hidden character of "the Lord of all the
earth." But again, as to the brightness of its light, Paul says, "Who being the
effulgence of his glory, and the exact expression of his substance, and
upholding all things by the word of his power, having made by himself the
purification of our sins, set himself down on the right hand of the majesty on
high." Nor is this marvellous glory only that which the Son (as the true Ark) is
essentially in His Person; but relatively He has in grace purged our sins, and
officially as the Priest sprinkled the blood before the mercy-seat, where God in
His holiness dwells, and where Christ has sat down.

What is all this but the antitype of "the ark of the covenant," and of "the true
tabernacle," which goes before the people of God, and which, in this precious
chapter, this remnant of Israel is exhorted to follow? Moreover, the kinsmen of
Paul after the flesh had, like himself, refused Jesus in humiliation, as the
Child born of the virgin, in Isaiah 7:1-25 :; so that he can present Him now in
the magnificence of His exaltation, as indeed He had appeared to Paul "above the
brightness of the sun." Taking a place, he says, by so much "better than the
angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they." For to which of the
angels said He ever, "Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee"? And again, "I will
be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son?" And again, "When he
bringeth in the first-born into the world, he saith, And let all God’s angels
worship him." Besides this presentation of the personal glories of the Son, as
the only "Ark of the covenant between the Lord and his people," whether with
John the Baptist, in Jordan, on earth; or much more by His death and
resurrection to the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; He
concentrates likewise in Himself all relative and official glories, as King and
Priest. He passes along before us, too, as "the appointed heir" of the
inheritance, yea, and of all things. Moreover, the blessed promises and
prophecies in this chapter touching "the throne, and the sceptre, and the
kingdom," are all to be fulfilled in the city of Jerusalem, in the coming day of
their millennial rest and prosperity, by redemption through His blood.

It is to be observed that Hebrews 1:1-14 : is more in character with Isaiah
9:1-21 : and His exaltation, than with Isaiah 7:1-25 : and His humiliation. In
this, "the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called
Wonderful," etc., "and of the increase of his government and peace there shall
be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and for ever." And
are not these relative and official glories made sure to David and his son, by
an everlasting covenant? What does it mean, "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will
perform this," in Jerusalem and Mount Zion, if it does not find its place, and
form part of the glory of "the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God?"
Doubtless, "these mercies of David" and of Israel are made sure to him and to
them by the actual death and resurrection of Christ; but does this fulfilment in
the heavenly places first, disconnect them from the typical ark and the priests,
when they bore it along, in wood and in gold, into the land of Immanuel? It is
significant that Paul propounds the same enigma (from Psalms 110:1-7 :) as the
Messiah did, "Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies a footstool
for thy feet," only with this difference, that Paul quotes it to account for the
absence of the Messiah from the earth, as rejected by His enemies; and Jesus,
that He might oblige the Pharisees to confess that David’s Son must be David’s
Lord at the right hand.

These were the ways of "the ark of the covenant" (in which they had not
heretofore trodden, and for which, typically, they were to leave a space of two
thousand cubits), in order for them "to come to Mount Zion, and the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,"
etc., when "the Lord of all the earth" will come forth, and reign before His
ancients gloriously. Nor were the throne, and the sceptre, and the government,
and the kingdom in Mount Zion, the only mercies promised to "the appointed
heir," and spoken of by the Messiah when upon the earth, or by Paul, in his
Epistle to these Hebrews, when he bade them go after the Ark, which had really
taken the way of Jordan, to reach its place of rest in glory. Either they took
part with the enemies of the ark, when "in wood and gold," or when it passed
along "in flesh and blood," or when it took the way "of death and resurrection
to the right hand," and would "be made a footstool for his feet" another day; or
else they formed part of the new generation of Gilgal and Shiloh who believed,
and were entering into rest, in the city for which Abraham looked.

They had come out originally (Paul tells them in his epistle) by "the way of
Mount Sinai, and the voice of words," and the former covenant of works; but the
ark of "the covenant of the Lord your God" refused to travel by "the mount that
might be touched, and that burned with fire." it takes its path through "the
tabernacle" of Moses in the wilderness, and then upon the shoulders of the
priesthood across Jordan, in the days of Joshua, onward to Shiloh, by Eleazar,
and finally is carried up by David, under other patterns, and another ministry,
to Mount Zion, and then put into the temple of rest and peace, in the reign of
Solomon, where the staves are drawn out. May be, these stages of the mysterious
journeyings of the ark, and its spaces, are the ground-work of Paul’s Epistle to
the Hebrews, and, if so, would illuminate and illustrate the Book of Joshua,
whether for Jews, or for Gentiles, or Christians with their heavenly calling.

Certainly he bids "the children of Abraham" come forth, and follow the "true
ark," in the first chapters, as "anointed with the oil of gladness," to conduct
them into "the great salvation" of the second, where the ark (in flesh and
blood, and by the passage of Jordan) goes down with the priests to the bottom,
and stands firm till all the people are passed over. They were baptised unto
Moses, in the cloud and in the Red Sea; but they came up out of Jordan under
"the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God," to possess the land. In "flesh
and blood," too, Christ takes the place of Joshua as "the Captain of our
salvation," made perfect through sufferings." He took part of the same "with
these children, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage." What is this action, if it be not in type,
meeting the whole strength and power of Jordan, at the time when its waters
overflowed the banks too? They left twelve stones in the bed of the river, and
they carried twelve stones out, as the abiding proof to their children that the
tribes of Israel had followed the ark and the priests by the path they had not
heretofore travelled, of death and resurrection, to Gilgal and Shiloh. Besides
this, He, "the ark," in flesh and blood, and as "Son of man," in this Hebrews
2:1-18 :, takes His place as "the appointed heir of all things," according to
the scope and power of David’s Psalms 8:1-9 :, "in the world to come," and all
things put under His feet, according to "the everlasting covenant, ordered in
all things, and sure." The ark of the covenant, or "the brightness of the
glory," which came forth in the beginning of this epistle as the express image,
and in the effulgence of the eternal Son, whom all the angels of God worship,
enters by another way in chapter 2: "The ark" reveals itself here under the
coverings and curtains, in the glory of His humiliation, and seen in the
likeness of man, "for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham." Moreover, "in all things it behoved him to be
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest, in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people." As the "Captain of our salvation, he was made perfect through
sufferings," and now, for loving sympathies as the High Priest, he has qualified
Himself, being tempted, "to succour them that are tempted." He has identified
Himself as the ark with the congregation in the Book of Joshua, by "flesh and
blood," with the nucleus of a new generation in Jordan, by the baptism of John;
and now, as on the other side of its waters, with "the children" and "the
brethren" in the true tabernacle, and in the midst of the great congregation, by
a real death and resurrection with Him. "He who sanctifieth, and they who are
sanctified, are all of one," becomes the new principle and manner of "the ark of
the covenant of the Lord your God," when revealing itself in its other relations
to us, in the tabernacle of Shiloh, on the way, or in the sanctuary of its
permanent rest in heaven, and "made without hands." (As in Hebrews 7:1-28 :)

How graciously Paul seeks, in other parts of this epistle, to win these
believing Hebrews away from the shittim wood and the pure gold; yea, and from
the mere "likeness of flesh and blood," and their associations with an earthly
Messiah, as well as from their typical history under Moses and Joshua, by giving
out the summary of all these, from "the ark of the covenant" passed on before
them. "Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum; we have such an
high priest, who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, a
minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man." Indeed we must own, that the Hebrews is the only epistle which
teaches us what christian priesthood is, and which introduces to us "our great
High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, passed through the heavens." Its connection,
therefore, with the Book of Joshua, in which "the ark of the covenant" borne by
the priesthood, and taking the way of Jordan into the promised rest, is of real
importance, and is analogous in many respects to "the rest which yet remaineth
for the people of God" (in Hebrews 4:1-16 :), and into which "we who believe are
entering," though the space may be yet between the ark and ourselves. The
temple, it is true, is not named in the Hebrews, for how could it be, seeing
that its patterns were not even given out till Solomon was in view, and after
David had brought up the ark "from the fields of the wood at Ephratah?" We may
turn for a moment from the ark, and its connection with Joshua and the drawn
sword, to notice Eleazar and "the tabernacle which was pitched in Shiloh" for
the worship of Jehovah, as this forms another centre. Indeed we may ask, What
would all the fighting in Canaan be worth, or the conquests, if the
relationships of God "by the ark of the covenant" were not maintained with His
people in their midst; and if Eleazar and the tabernacle were not at Shiloh, as
the way and means of their approach to Him as worshippers? Again, we may
inquire, Are not these three typical things, which are the prominent
characteristics of the Book of Joshua, namely, the ark of the covenant, the
Captain of salvation, and the priest in the tabernacle at Shiloh, the groundwork
of Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews? To be sure, the book is typical and earthly;
whereas the epistle is matter of fact, and heavenly; but such differences as
these are familiar to us, and natural to the christian standing, with the ark at
the right hand of the throne, in its proper place of rest, and the journey, with
its combats, over and ended. It is as out of Jordan, by Him who destroyed the
whole power of death, and as one with the Priest who has made propitiation for
our sins, and as one with Him who sanctifieth, that the "holy brethren" are
addressed as "partakers of the heavenly calling," and exhorted to "consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."

"Holy brethren" come into place in connection with the ark and the priest in the
sanctuary, so that, perhaps, this part of the epistle has more to do with
worship, from Heb 5:-10 :, than with the ark of the covenant, and our following
it through death and resurrection, at the time when Jordan overflowed its banks,
as in chapters 1:, 2: No doubt the tabernacle in the wilderness was taken over
Jordan, and became the tabernacle in Canaan, for "the whole congregation of the
children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of
the congregation there." Thus we find, in chapter 4:, the wilderness, and the
journeyings, and the grace for "the time of need," side by side with the rest of
creation, and the rest of Canaan, and the rest that remaineth for God and His
people. In short, there is no temple in the Book of Joshua, nor any temple in
the Hebrews, but there is a tabernacle instead, with Eleazar, and pitched at
Shiloh; and, correspondingly, we have the true one in Hebrews 8:1-13 :, "which
the Lord pitched, and not man." Indeed, it is because Shiloh, and the
tabernacle, and Eleazar the priest are in such prominence in their own circle in
the Book of Joshua, that the correspondence becomes so important in Paul’s
epistle as the antitype.

Moreover, "the heirs of promise" are looked at by God, and encouraged on their
way, in Hebrews 6:1-20 :, to lay hold upon the hope set before them, by the
immutability of His counsel, as Joshua had done, in Joshua 18:1-28 :, to the
children of Israel: "How long are ye slack to go and possess the land which the
Lord God of your fathers hath given you?" There is this difference, however, and
a most important one, that Paul says to his Hebrews, "whither the forerunner is
for us entered in, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever, after the order of
Melchisedec." Paul had not to fight that he might get possession, but Joshua
had. The Forerunner Himself, "the appointed heir" of all the inheritance, had
already entered in, and appeared to Paul when on his way to Damascus. There is
yet a difference to be noticed in the Book of Joshua, and one that brings Caleb
forward as a claimant, in Joshua 14:1-15 :, and which gives him priority and
prominence as a true heir, amongst his co-heirs. Indeed, he takes the centre of
this circle, on account of his faith, and is remarkable for endurance and
patience, whilst following the ark on its return journey into the desert, as he
was famous in energy for conflict with the Anakims at Mount Hebron, when on the
other side of Jordan.

We may pass on now from the "holy brethren" with their heavenly calling, and the
pilgrims and strangers in "time of need" — yes, and from "the heirs of promise,"
with the hope of citizenship in the land, to their final rest on Mount Zion, as
in chapter 12:, with the ark of the covenant, to look at a further glory of the
Son, which Paul connects with "their father Abraham." "For this Melchisedek," he
says, "who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed
him, is king of Salem, and priest of the most high God" — to whom Abraham gave a
tenth part of all; who is first, being by interpretation, "king of
righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace." It
appears to me that this slaughter of the confederated kings in the time of
Abraham, like the overthrow of the Adoni-zedek, and the Jabin confederation, in
the days of Joshua, has very much in common with the yet coming confederacy and
slaughter "of kings, and captains, and mighty men," in the Apocalypse, and
particularly in Revelation 19:1-21 : In a certain sense the Book of Joshua is
more like a clearing of the inheritance for the heirs, and putting them into
possession of the promised land, with Eleazar and the tabernacle at Shiloh, as
the connecting link of relationship with Jehovah, than as reaching further into
their history. After Gilgal and Shiloh came Bochim, and after Joshua and Eleazar
came the Judges; nor does Israel come out again in lustre till the time of
Ichabod had passed by, and "the Lord’s anointed King" was crowned, and Solomon
sat on the throne of the Lord, instead of David his father, and the temple was
filled with the glory of God. "Ye are come to Mount Zion," etc.

Melchisedek is I submit, outside the Book of Joshua, and far beyond it, though I
do not doubt it rightly comes in on the way with Paul’s Hebrews, as he leads
them forward to "the heavenly Jerusalem, and city of the living God," and will
get its actual fulfilment in the grand millennial times of the true Solomon’s
reign. Wonderful as the Book of Joshua is typically, yet, in some respects, it
is short of the Hebrews; of course, I mean as regards Melchisedek and the ark of
covenant, in its connection with Mount Zion, under "the king of righteousness
and king of peace," in the heavenly Jerusalem, which is, after all, their line
of march and of inheritance, only under Paul’s leadership. As regards ourselves,
as believers in Christ, and as true worshippers, "who worship God in spirit and
in truth," in the holiest, where He dwells, and where the ark of the covenant
rests, and where Christ is sat down, we all know increasingly how precious this
epistle is to us, as our new and completed Book of Leviticus. It may, and does,
come short of the Colossians, and Ephesians, and some others, but it contains
what neither of those does; and, above all, makes known to us the anointed "High
Priest of our profession," and this, too, in the essential glory of His person
as Son, as well as in His twofold relations of the only-begotten Son of God, and
the exalted Son of man, set over all the works of the Creator’s hands. The Book
of Joshua does not lose by it.

Besides these, we have His glorious offices, as High Priest "passed through the
heavens," as Intercessor, living in the presence of God for us, and as Mediator
of the new covenant to the house of Israel, when "the Redeemer shall come to
Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob." The Great High Priest "passed
through the heavens," even Jesus, the Son of God, is essential to Christianity,
and for christian worship and intercession. Such an High Priest became us, and
Paul’s Hebrews (who followed the ark, up to the right hand of God, by faith),
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, made higher than
the heavens. The priesthood and the priest must be equal to the position of the
people, whether earthly or heavenly, and be made higher than their calling, and
these give their character to the holiest, where God is, and to the worshippers
and their worship, as in Hevrews 9:, 10: The practice of elucidating Paul’s
Epistles to the Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians, by the various chapters in
the Book of Joshua, and their distinguishing records, is quite right (and vice
versa), but neither of those epistles, be it remembered, takes up priesthood or
worship. The relations of God, therefore, which were maintained by the
tabernacle of witness, and Eleazar the priest, at Shiloh, in the time of Joshua,
must be passed over in any real exposition of this book; or an epistle is wanted
which recognises these relations, and applies them to ourselves and priesthood
as over Jordan, and why not this Epistle to the Hebrews? If the answer be, that
it is an epistle for the wilderness, this is freely admitted, but not for "the
time of need" only — for the tabernacle was in the land of Canaan, as we have
been examining. The classification of the Hebrews for priesthood, and its
introduction, with Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians, under their characteristic
differences, would make the group complete, and enable us to take up and
elucidate all the parts in the Book of Joshua, under these four epistles of
Paul. In this way the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests
bearing it, as well as Eleazar and Shiloh, with the tabernacle for worship,
would be no longer in the background, or omitted as they generally are. But
enough has been said to call attention to the fact, and to help in the
consideration of the real character of the Hebrew epistle as a complete
reference to the Book of Joshua, and this is the main object in these remarks.
In conclusion, and as a summary, I judge that the ark of pure gold is
beautifully embodied by "the express image and glory" of the Son, as in Hebrews
1:2-3, and that the Shittim wood of the ark is as perfectly represented by His
manhood as the only-begotten Son, in verses 5, 6. Moreover, "the body prepared
for him," and in which He came to do the will of God, was the embodiment of the
two tables of the covenant which the ark contained, but which were, in like
manner, taken out, and magnified in Himself, who said, "Yea, thy law is within
my heart." What, too, are the central chapters of Hebrews, touching the Priest
in heaven, but the transfer of "Aaron’s rod that budded," and "the golden
censer," out of the typical ark, into their own proper place in the presence of
God for us? Again, what is "the golden pot that had manna," but the person, and
words, and works, and ways of Jesus below, and of which this precious epistle is
the exposition? So, likewise, as to the tabernacle itself (with Eleazar and
Shiloh), wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread, what is
Paul uncovering to his Hebrews in our epistle but the things themselves, in
their great Antitype, who is passing before them in the glory of His person? But
enough for inquiry and suggestion, though "Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith," and "so great a cloud of witnesses" form a marvellous company — of whom
the world was not worthy! J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 18: S.   THE EIRENICON
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The Eirenicon; or, A United Christendom.

Dr. Pusey’s bold proposition of a united Christendom, published in his
"Eirenicon," has been more than welcomed of late by ecclesiastics in the
Anglican Church. The silence which prevailed for so many months on the direct
proposal, led some to suppose the idea was likely to be confined to the author
and the book which developed the scheme. This conjecture deepened in the minds
of many, as they heard rude-spoken men take up mere ritualistic observances in
their grosser forms, for the purpose of proving modern innovations or practical
departure from the Establishment. The Eirenicon, however, has made a path for
itself, and opened the way to others far removed from the popular outcry, and
the material symbols of worship which excite the multitude. Leaving this region
of agitation and strife for the more scholarly interchange of thought and theory
Dr. Pusey’s Eirenicon is now accepted. The symbolical "olive branch" has been
made matter of fact by the encyclical letter to the Patriarch of the Greek
Church, by the late Primate of England. True, the Dean of Carlisle (Dr. Close)
was roused against his superior, and to the pitch of declaring "rather be my
hand withered than I should hold it out to the Eastern and Western Churches,"
adding a hope "that the Pope would deal with the encyclical, as he dealt with
Dr. Pusey’s Eirenicon, nail it to the church doors." In spite of this
exceptional voice, though a loud one, the Primate, the Patriarch, and the Pope,
are no longer confined within their own circles, but may meet each other as the
centres of their ecclesiastical systems, but upon the avowed possibility of a
united Christendom — the preliminaries are under consideration. The circle
narrows, as the Dean of Canterbury (Alford) issues his proposals for union
between Churchmen and Non-conformists at home. The original principle is
maintained by him, but for the moment to be experimented on within the range of
an ordained ministry (no longer "clergy’’) of England, and to be practically
manifested by an interchange of pulpits, and a more mellowed social intercourse
between the respective ministers and congregations. The Dean of Westminster
(Stanley), while open to the full width of his primate, yet puts into the
picture his own tints and colours; and in this way, artistically illuminates
what else would be too much in the sombre grey of pietism. He practically gives
up the idea of an existing Establishment, and foreshadows a social revolution —
the church itself being civil society. For instance, the Dean would abolish all
distinctions between clergy and laity, and would recognize every man a minister
who is capable of rendering good service to the community. On the other hand, if
the Church and State should continue united, it is because the Church is not
more holy than the State. The Politike, or State, he says, is as much invested
with "divine authority" as the Church; Paul appealed to the tribunal of Caesar,
and in this way recognized the supremacy of the State over the priesthood.
Further, the Dean asserts there is an advantage by merging the Church in the
State, as it affords scope for the growth of various opinions, and favours such
changes as the State may see fit to effect, thus ignoring the existence of a
body of revealed doctrine, which it is the Church’s privilege to hold and to
inculcate as being the ground and pillar of the truth. To crown all, Dean
Stanley selects Gallio as the model statesman (though often reviled as a
careless libertine), for he shelved the true judicial attitude towards petty
sectarian squabbles, of which he would take no cognizance. The Anglican group in
this sketch, though too heterogeneous and contradictory in itself, for any
combined and really practical purposes connected with the evangelical party,
gathers up strength from this confusion, and in this growth of various opinions
finds an advantage over all the old ideas of uniformity and agreement. Scope is
moreover demanded for the spread of mind and will thus liberated from the
shackles of a revolution, and a corresponding responsibility to divine authority
over conscience and faith.

One may well ask, What can be the product of these ideas but uncertainty upon
all points respecting which the word of God is definite and obligatory? What is
a united Christendom but union on the differences which mark it and have made it
what it is? What is fraternization with the Eastern and Western churches but the
further abandonment of the modicum of truth which made them different from each
other? It is no wonder that national establishments should seek shelter under
the covering wings of this Eirenicon, of larger or smaller diameter, in face of
the declaration that the Politike is as much invested with divine authority as
the Church. Such a fusion is but the embodiment of the prevailing idea of church
extension. What is there left, but that civil society in the nineteenth century
should boldly take the place of the Church on earth, and that all distinctions
should be set aside in the common abandonment of the claims of the truth of God?
Shall we ask such a question as whether Christ can own this confederation? Is
civil society what He loved and gave Himself for? or is it what He will present
to Himself "a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing?"
horrible thought! If so, what and where is the vine of the earth, which is to be
cast into the winepress of the wrath of God? The spirit of sacerdotalism is fast
taking the place even of evangelical doctrine; but this change, serious though
it is, as regards the effect produced on the masses, is but a consequence. The
originating cause springs from the partial (where not complete) denial of
revelation, and of the authority of God, by His word and Spirit, over conscience
and faith. The masterminds, the guiding spirits of the present movement, which
have stepped into this place of divine prerogative, have sacrificed the truth
and all certainty between God and the soul to a sliding scale, which
accommodates itself to the conjectures or speculations of philosophers and
religionists. Fraternization or union is the absorbent of all else: and what can
the value of such a unity be which is only successfully reached in the measure
of its departure from the truth and from God? By what rule can this abortion be
estimated as it lays hold on the two extremes of Popery and Unitarianism at the
same moment?

If we drop the National Church (this troublesome excrescence of the State), and
look at the schools to be established for religious education, it is only to
discover the same turbulence of spirit in debate and action, upon this new
problematic question. Strange that in the same country and moment, and by the
same legislature, "The Educational Bill" should be announced with a "conscience
clause," when the Establishment of the country has grown weary and old under the
weight of such restrictions; and only sees liberty and daylight as it cuts its
way out from the entanglements, by the surrender of conscience. What can the
State do in the double dilemma which the church and the schoolhouse impose upon
it, but Gallio-like say, "If it were a matter of wrong, or wicked lewdness,
reason would that I should bear with you; but if it be a question of words, and
names, and of your law, look ye to it."

Legal obligations were formerly in operation, and members were bound to profess
the christian doctrine. Tests and Corporation Acts were also in force; but these
have long since been pronounced grievances, and are expunged from the records of
the State which inflicted them. Vain are all the bulwarks, and an educational
clause besides, which the legislature imposes as a last and puerile attempt to
check the infidelity which threatens to carry everything along with it that is
even a shade better than itself. The word of God and the relation of conscience
to divine authority thereby is set aside: the direct link with what is Supreme
has been broken, and the whole world is drifting and at sea. The real question
at issue cannot now be what it was. New forms of old corruptions are developed
as the energetic movement of unbridled will rushes onward to its object. For
instance, the State Church principle was formerly the antagonism to
Nonconformists; but this has in measure ceased and given place to a far graver
matter, the question of today being between Christianity and Infidelity. In the
education scheme which was lately the subject of a petition from the Oxford
University to the then Primate, the thing dreaded was a system which would make
all christian teaching in a high sense impracticable, and would hand over even
the government of the Universities and of the English youth to those who deny
the first principles of the christian faith. What a spectacle was presented as
the Archbishop received with one hand this petition from Oxford, begging that
the floodgates might not be opened to superstition and infidelity; and with the
other holds out a letter of amity to the head of the Greek church, proposing the
closest brotherhood. The solemn word of Isaiah’s warning to a similar
confederation in Israel’s history may well be quoted in conclusion and as a last
appeal to a united Christendom. "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall
be broken in pieces; and give ear all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and
ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall
not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand,
and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say
ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;
neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself;
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a
sanctuary." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 19: S.   THE GLORY OF THE SON, THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES, AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
========================================================================

The Glory of the Son, the Valley of Dry Bones, and the Mount of Olives.

I desire to mark an analogy which exists between the prophecy of Ezekiel, and
the earlier part of the Gospel by John, in reference to the ways of the Son of
God, when presenting Himself to Israel and Jerusalem, both in the temple and at
the national feasts; in other words to point out (and in a yet fuller sense) the
correspondence between "the vision of the glory" which appeared to the son of
Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans; and "the glory of the only-begotten of the
Father" when beheld by John, in the person of the Son Himself, sent forth from
God and come into the world. In this light, the object of Christ’s coming and
the work that was given Him to do were twofold — embracing all that God had
spoken, and promised by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world
began; and comprehending also the secret counsels and purposes bound up in the
Son of the Father, which lay hidden in God from before the foundation of the
world. Even Moses was taught somewhat of this difference, when he said, "the
secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed
belong unto us and to our children for ever," etc. Indeed such a manifestation
as "the Word made flesh and tabernacling amongst us" was necessary, in order to
embody and accomplish all that the Spirit of prophecy had foretold of the
earthly and heavenly relations between God and His people in and through Christ
Jesus. Upon this hangs likewise the ultimate blessing of the whole creation,
which was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope; for creation itself shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The
Son who lay in the bosom of the Father could alone declare Him. He was "the One
whom God had made strong for himself," and it was He alone who could as the
Christ of God make every promise and type; "yea" even as He has by His death,
and exaltation in the glory put His "amen" to all the hidden counsels that were
from everlasting, prepared in Him as the second Adam. The Gospel of John opens,
as is evident, with the glory of this person who was with God, and who was God,
and who was in the beginning with God. The glory of the incarnation brought Him
into our midst as the great mystery of godliness, "God manifest in the flesh,"
and in this grace to us He took His place in the human family, and entered upon
His relations with the sons of men. The Baptist’s testimony to Israel, that this
was likewise the Messiah-Jesus, by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon
Him like a dove, identified Him with, and yet put Him far beyond the typical
"likeness of the glory of the Lord" in Ezekiel’s vision; which is content to
fill its place as a lesser light, and to be eclipsed in the presence of the
opening glories of the Christ of God. Indeed this was the characteristic feature
of all prophetic ministry, and we may say of the prophets themselves; for
however willing the people were for a season to rejoice in the light they
kindled, yet the "greatest of them that were born of women" said of Jesus, "He
must increase, but I must decrease." John rejoiced greatly to hear the
bridegroom’s voice, and to point Him out to the hopes and expectations of the
people, adding, "this my joy therefore is fulfilled," as he withdrew into
obscurity. The glory in the vision of Ezekiel was a pattern of the intimacy
which existed between Jehovah and His people; and became therefore the test as
to how this intercourse had been maintained on their part, while it abode in
their midst as the outward witness of the favour of God. Measured by this
standard of responsibility, the glory was offended and grieved as it took its
course through the land of Immanuel, and beheld the temple with all its
abominations, the city filled with idolatry and its corruptions; till, hovering
alternately over one and the other, it abandoned the guilty scene, and took its
flight from the Mount of Olives, up to its own place on high, in hope of a
future day. (Ezekiel 11:22-23.)

Since those typical times the Son of God in His manhood-glory has traversed the
same path, "as the fulfiller of all righteousness" on their behalf if they could
so receive and welcome Him; but He was grieved in His turn by the
hardheartedness of the people, and hid Himself when they took up stones to kill
Him. His only refuge was in ascending up to where He was before; and Jesus,
knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the
Father, was also received up in glory from the mount called "the mount of
Olives;" till in the coming day of His millennial power His feet shall stand
there again, and ten thousands of His saints with Him. Israel too shall be
willing in the day of His power.

It exercises and humbles the soul to discover how everything which came forth
from God to men has been thus either grieved or refused, and compelled to retire
into the heavens till another day — whether set up in type and figure, or as
since in substance and by personal appearance; for where is Christ? The
beginning of the Gospel of John held out a promise of something different, for
when the forerunner said, "behold the Lamb of God" to two of His disciples, they
left all and followed Him. The glory of the only-begotten of the Father was thus
acknowledged, and our Lord became the new centre of gathering upon the earth.
They abode with Jesus that day and only left the house to tell others what they
had found, and gather them also to the Lord in this new place of blessing. The
activities of love which dwelt in the bosom of our Lord led Him the day
following to go forth in other glories, into Galilee, in the devotedness of the
willing and obedient servant. It was this personal acquaintance with the Lord in
the house that became the spring of testimony in the two disciples who had
enjoyed it. Besides their own peace in His dwelling, they were able to tell
others who the Christ was they had found, as answering to all that Moses and the
prophets had written in the scriptures concerning Him. The words "come and see,"
which had gathered them to Christ, put Nathaniel also into this pathway of life
and blessing. Jesus saw him coming, and said, "behold an Israelite indeed in
whom is no guile." The question, "whence knowest thou me?" got its answer from
the Lord, "when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee," and on this Nathaniel
confessed Jesus to be "the Son of God, and the king of Israel." The first ripe
fruit from under the national fig-tree, where Nathaniel was sitting, was
gathered by the Lord; and the secret was divulged to this Israelite indeed, of
"the opened heavens, and the angels of God [henceforth] ascending and descending
upon the Son of man," the gathering point for Israel and the world, and the
uniting link between the heavens and the earth. Precious revelation of a yet
future day, when the nation shall be ready like its Nathaniel, to own the person
and glorious titles of the anointed Christ, and be born in a day! Prophetically
we know, that Israel itself will be delivered from all guile, and be no longer a
hypocritical nation. God will turn to them a pure language, and put His laws
into their hearts, and make them to be His peculiar people. In that day saith
the Lord of hosts, ye shall call every man his neighbour under the vine and
under the fig-tree, and great shall be the peace of His people. The marriage in
Cana was beautifully in keeping with these exhibitions of the personal glories
of Christ, and His royal title as Son of God, and king of Israel, and opens out
the works by which He was to be acknowledged. "This beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples
believed on him." In this two-fold character does He pass before us, into the
further revelation of this Gospel; that (being accredited by the glorious
majesty and grace of His person, on the one hand, and by the manifestation of
His power in miracles on the other) He might be owned and accepted in Israel. He
comes to Jerusalem, as in spirit Ezekiel had been carried in his day (see
Ezekiel 8:1-18 :) to the city of the great king, to see if she is ready to arise
from the dust, and put on her beautiful garments now that her light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon her. There is a promise of joy in the land,
for Jesus was called and His disciples to the marriage; but alas! the vine of
Israel and its grapes are like the fig-tree with its one Nathaniel, and prove
unequal to the occasion. "The mother of Jesus saith unto Him, they have no
wine," and how can they celebrate the wedding, or make Him a feast? The
Israelite without guile, sitting under the typical fig-tree, left it for the
"Immanuel," when He was walking through the land; and now the One who came up to
the wedding must take His place in another character, and act as the Lord of it
by turning the water into wine. The time of figs was not yet, nor did the vine
send forth a goodly smell. He had come into His garden, but the winter was not
over, nor was the time of the singing of birds yet come. Made of the seed of
Abraham and David, He had appeared in their midst at the marriage; but the words
He spake to His mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not
yet come," show how He felt the barrenness of Israel in those relations
according to the flesh; and that to meet this need He must manifest forth His
glory in far deeper words and mightier works than as the royal Son of David and
king of Israel. The Bridegroom would be taken away from them, and the children
of the bride-chamber fast, till in their millennial day they say, "blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then Israel shall blossom and bud and fill
the face of the whole earth with fruit. Jesus leaves the vines and the
fig-trees, and comes out of His garden into the city of Jerusalem, for the Jews’
passover was at hand. This centre of light and blessing, the beautiful temple,
is next to be tested whether she is suited for the reception of her Lord, and
may be found more in keeping with the character and ways of the Son of God, who
comes into it that He may fill it with His glory? Will she open her gates, that
the Lord of hosts, the king of glory, may come in? The "hole in the wall" to
Ezekiel, in the vision of the glory, or the visit of the Messiah to the door of
the temple, only disclosed its abominations. Alas! for the house of prayer, it
had been turned into a house of merchandise, and had become a den of thieves.
Jesus made a scourge of small cords, and drove them all out of the temple,
poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables, saying to those that
sold doves, Take these things hence. The feasts of the Lord with His people
could not be established in the harlot city, and its temple — all — must be
cleansed, and the people baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The zeal
for His Father’s house had eaten Him up, and He who drew Nathaniel out from
under the fig-tree, and turned the water into wine at the marriage of Cana, now
presents Himself in the temple in the mystery of His decease, saying, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This spake He of His body.
An exceptional Israelite, one without guile, had been found, and in faith
confessed the Word made flesh; but as to all else, Jesus did not commit Himself
unto them, because He knew all men. The light of the world had walked in their
midst, and the glory had shone upon the heart and ways of man, and this is the
condemnation from His lips, "who knew what was in man;" that when known in this
searching light he is not to be trusted, Jesus did not commit Himself to them.
This verdict was substantiated even to Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees, who
came to Jesus by night, owning Him as a teacher come from God, and as one with
whom God was, because of miracles which He did. But He who knew what was in the
man, knew that the ruin and alienation in which man and Israel stood from God
lay far deeper than ignorance, which might be met by a teacher come from God —
and by such a teacher! This man of the Pharisees, though a ruler of the Jews and
a master of Israel, yea (and because he was all this), must not hold his
intercourse with Jesus upon the mere footing of God’s wisdom and man’s ignorance
— and is put back. Nicodemus, a first-class man (and this is very important, now
that "the true light" shineth) is told that he will not do, with all his
standing and attainments, for the kingdom of God. He must be born again, born of
water and the Spirit, and enter in by the cross — through the knowledge of the
Son of man lifted up, as the antitype of the brazen serpent, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. This master of Israel
must disown his standing in the flesh as tested by the glory and accept a new
one with Christ, through redemption by His blood and the quickening power of the
Spirit. A question of purifying is attempted by the Jews, in this chapter (John
3:1-36), but purification of the flesh, which was characteristic of Judaism, had
produced nothing. At the cross of Christ man as he was in the flesh has been
discovered and disowned, for the last Adam was upon it in death; and christian
purification is only by means of that death, which has put an end to the flesh
for ever: "ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit." Nathaniel was drawn out
by the glory of the person; now Nicodemus is shut up to the efficacy of His work
on the cross — and the water and the Spirit — that he may thus get rid of
himself, and be born again, and enter into the kingdom of God. The man of the
Pharisees when at his best is set aside, and at Jacob’s well the woman of
Samaria who met Jesus when at her worst was accepted, so that the disciples
marvelled when He talked with her. The light of the glory in which He walked,
and into which He brought her, shone in upon her conscience, and in that
searching light she owned herself and her state. "He told me all things that
ever I did," and confessed Him, "Is not this the Christ?" Precious discovery of
herself and of Him! But He came to do much more than this, "if thou knewest the
gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" — and with this He
filled her vessel. The cross for the master of Israel, and the living water for
the woman of Samaria, showed that the grace and truth come by Jesus Christ could
be no respecter of persons. The temple, having likewise been superseded by the
body of Christ, necessitated a corresponding change as to worship. It could no
longer be restricted to places, any more than to persons; and thus Jerusalem and
Samaria are set aside. The new order of worship is this: God is a Spirit, and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Christ being come
as the true light, and giving eternal life to them that believed on Him; the
religion suited to man in the flesh, in the temple at Jerusalem or elsewhere,
goes away with it; and the true worshippers are they that worship the Father in
spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. The way to see
and to enter into the kingdom of God had been shown to Nicodemus; and now the
Samaritan is to be sanctified as a worshipper of the Father, and drawn away from
her water-pot and Jacob’s well, as Nathaniel the "Israelite indeed" had been
drawn out from under the national fig-tree, and Nicodemus from his Pharisaism.
The light and the life are doing their work in love, wherever the ear is opened
to hear His words, or the eye anointed to behold His glory.

Israel’s unbelief and unpreparedness to receive the king into the city, or the
glory into the temple, force Him to gather around Himself into His own solitude
and counsels, any who could lift the veil of "the Word made flesh," and say with
the Samaritans "this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." The pool
of Bethesda and its multitude of impotent folk, waiting for the moving of the
water, might have risen up to condemn the nation and its priests and rulers, who
lay under the heavier pressure of God’s displeasure, and yet waited not for the
Lord of that pool to deliver them. The blind and the halt and the withered
watched for Bethesda’s angel to come down, though only one out of the crowd, and
he the first who stepped in after the troubling of the water, was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had. The Word that was with God, and was God, must needs
come to this place; and He calls out the man, who told the disappointing tale of
many a one "stepping down before him." But He, before whom all the angels are
but worshipping spirits, had come to heal the people of all their sicknesses and
diseases, and was at the pool where they lay, if they would but let Him take the
place as greater than the angel.

Jesus said to the impotent man "rise, take up thy bed and walk, and immediately
the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked, and on the same day was
the sabbath." Man can rest, and be at home in a ruined state of things with
which he has grown familiar; but there God can only work to rescue him from the
misery he is under. A feast of the Jews, the pool of Bethesda, and the sabbath
were together, in strange connections, through Israel’s transgressions; for in
its normal state God had said, I will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt
upon you, and will take away all sicknesses. Into this scene of wretchedness the
Lord of the sabbath entered, not to rest, but in quickening power to deliver out
of the ruin of the old, and to bring into the new. As the life and the light,
and full of grace and truth, He proclaims the great fact "My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work." He passes through their midst, as the quickener into
life, and the raiser of the dead. In this chapter He walks in the majesty of His
own person as one with the Father, going under our entire wretchedness in divine
power and grace, to raise up those who were bound in fetters of iron. "He that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."

Israel with its ordinances and feasts of the Jews and the sabbath on the one
hand, confronted and contradicted by the pool of Bethesda and its multitude on
the other, give occasion to the Lord to identify Himself with the Father in the
counsels which brought Him into the world, and to exercise that almighty power
by which the morally dead could be quickened. The old creation is before the
Lord, with the vineyard which He had chosen, and the pleasant plants and noble
vine which He had brought out of Egypt, and placed therein. Such cultivation as
He had unweariedly bestowed had not produced grapes; the boar of the wood, and
the wild beast of the field, had devoured it. Forgetfulness of God, and
satisfaction with a state of things suited to themselves only led them to throw
over all this moral evil the covering of the sabbath, and impugn the right of
Christ to work recovery in their midst or even to alleviate their misery. They
vainly use the law against Him that made it and magnified it, and sought in
violation of the law to slay Him whose power and grace in healing the impotent
man they could not deny.

New and divine sources of life-giving power are here opened up; for as the
Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will. The Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment likewise, because
He is the Son of man. Death and the grave are also in prospect overcome, in the
righteous title of "the Word made flesh." The hour is coming when all that are
in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, they that have done
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the
resurrection of damnation." To Him as the Son of man the Father has thus given
authority over all flesh (upon its proved incapacity and ruin, under ordinances)
to give eternal life to them that believe, whilst in His own prerogative as
equal with God, whatsoever the Father doeth, those things also doeth the Son
likewise; for as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. Having thus passed through this valley of dry and dead
bones, and presented Himself as the quickener and the raiser of the dead, if
they will accept Him and take deliverance and thus enter into the rest of God in
Christ; He quits the scene, saying, I am come in my Father’s name, and ye
receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. As
in the vision of Ezekiel, so in fact with Jesus in their midst, the bones were
not only dry, but very dry.

John 6:1-71 lays the groundwork for the exercise of such a life-giving power as
this in the death of Christ; for how else could it be either bestowed by Him, or
received by us? There is a beautiful correspondence here between the living
bread come down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall live for ever; and
the living water of which the Lord said to the woman of Samaria it should be in
her a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Besides this, Jesus is
presented in the glory of His person, as "the bread of God," the incarnate One,
who came down from heaven to give life to the world. This glory is manifested to
us in that new order of manhood, by which He who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God (Jehovah’s fellow) made Himself of no reputation, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross that He might there connect
Himself with the mighty ruin to overturn it—and then gain through redemption,
resurrection, and finally by ascension (to "where he was before") the triple
crown of glory, which lay before Him. By such a path did Jesus enter the dark
valley, where "the dry bones of the whole house of Israel lay thick around Him"
so very dry, and so many, nor would they be wakened up from their moral death in
trespasses and sins, nor stand upon their feet, breathe He never so
encouragingly upon them. Jesus said unto them, "I am the living bread which came
down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever;" but if
this presentation of Himself shook the dry bones of Israel, it was only to
relapse into an alienation still deeper, and if it moved the broken sticks of
Ephraim and Judah for a moment, it was but that they might sink back again into
the stiffness of death. The Word made flesh has dwelt among them so that it
could be said, "behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,"
and by others "we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth." It was this glory in the person of the Son
that now walked through this world, and cast its bright beams upon "every man
coming into it;" if so be that men would respond to it, and take life, and walk
in the light of life with this glory; "to as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name." The
glory finally in the person of the anointed Christ, the Messiah of Israel,
re-entered the temple of Jerusalem, and rode into the royal city too; but only
to be grieved afresh; as it was prophetically, when in type Ezekiel was the
recorder of its visitations from place to place. The nation was familiar
historically with the faithfulness of "the glory of the God of Israel," together
with the "pillar of cloud" which led them from Egypt, through the wilderness
journey; till in the days of Solomon this glory found its rest in the temple
which it filled, and where it made itself at home with that favoured people.
Protected they had been, in every step of their wondrous journey into Canaan by
it, and blessed under its covering wings, when brought into the habitation and
house which Jehovah had prepared for His delights with His people; and now the
promised seed, the Messiah Himself, the Jehovah-Jesus, the Son of God, was come
down into their midst to lead them back and establish them in all the covenanted
blessings and promises which they had forfeited. Are they ready? The result of
Jerusalem’s visitation by One greater than its temple, and greater than Solomon,
is before us; but this inspection on the part of the glory must necessarily lead
to the exposure of the moral state of the temple and its worshippers, which it
detected, as well as of the city and its rulers, when tested by their readiness
or unreadiness to welcome the presence of the God of Israel in the glory of "the
Word made flesh." Alas! the temple had become "a den of thieves:" a fitting but
awful presage of the royal city itself, which shortly after gave forth the
betrayers and murderers to shed the blood of Him who in pity and compassion
"wept over her and said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem how often would I have gathered
you, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; but now
your house is left unto you desolate." Entreated, and tested by the glory,
though He spake as never man spake (as they themselves said), all was refused
and lost by them in the rejection of Christ the Lord — and the glory retired
from the city!

One only path remained in grace, and this lay among "the valley of dry bones."
The Lord took His place among the Jews when in this condition morally, as these
chapters describe; but if they were in this state of death, He on that account
was in their midst, as "the breath who had come from above the four winds" of
heaven to breathe upon them. In this chapter He had gone in and out amongst
them, as the quickener of the dead, the restorer to life, the recoverer of sight
to the blind; and these living proofs of His power (who were made every whit
whole) were walking about in their streets to convict and condemn the rebellious
children. The promised glory came amongst them to lead them out into peace and
blessing with Jehovah, if they would accept the hand stretched out to deliver;
and the valley of dry bones, with the all-sufficient Saviour of His people there
in fulness of grace, characterized the ministry in love, which followed them,
and which put them to the test, up to John 6:1-71. It is then that Jesus spoke
to the disciples which followed Him, of the necessity of His death, in order to
give life to them; and that they should have the real "bread of God" to sustain
that life. Even they stumbled at these new ways, in the open valley — the four
winds of heaven were inadequate to the moral ruin. Often had they heard the
sound thereof, but as Jesus said to Nicodemus, "thou knowest not whence it
cometh, or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." The
Holy Ghost must needs come into this valley, and do a greater work than He did
in creation, when He moved upon the face of that mighty chaos to bring light out
of darkness, and order out of confusion. Except a man be born of water and the
Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God or stand in this new connection
with the Son of man who came down from heaven and yet is the Son of man which is
in heaven. "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I
in him." It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing — the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life — is what the
Lord of glory proclaims in this valley of dry bones, when He was passing through
it. Many said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? but Jesus in spirit is
carried yet further and asks, what and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up
where He was before? and from that time many of His disciples went back and
walked no more with Him. With others "the bones came together, bone to his
bone," and the word which was spirit and life in Christ had caused them to live,
and they confessed Jesus to be the life, saying, "to whom shall we go but unto
thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe and are sure that thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Nationally the time of figs is not
yet — these are but gleaning grapes, two or three from the uppermost boughs,
four or five in the outmost branches thereof, who are thus gathered out into
place and companionship with the rejected Son of man into another and far higher
glory in the heavens.

Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand, and His brethren said, "If thou
do these things, show thyself to the world, for neither did his brethren believe
on him." But the pathway of our Lord is determined on, and lies through the
untrodden regions of death and resurrection, that He may give life to the world.
His time for showing Himself to Israel at the feast of tabernacles and then to
the world go together, and is not yet come. "I go not up yet to this feast;" the
world and Israel are alike too, in their enmity; "the world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." "Your
time is alway ready, but my time is not yet come, and when he had said these
words he abode still in Galilee." Instead of any contradiction in this action of
Christ at the feast time, there is beautiful moral order; "about the midst of
the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught" passing on into His own
heights, when He said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me, if any man
will do His will, He shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether
I speak of myself. They keep their feast as though all were right in Israel, and
the glory still filling the temple of Jerusalem; not realizing the fact that the
Lord of the temple had passed through it, only to make a scourge of small cords,
and to justify that strange act, by saying, "the zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up." But a greater zeal than that now takes possession of the Lord, as He
reveals Himself in the descending steps of His sufferings and death; for He
cannot lead His people into promised blessing by any other path, than their
redemption by blood; nor will He take any other road to His own glory, or to His
kingdom, than through His sufferings. The glory will wait upon Him on the
morning of the third day, at the door of the sepulchre! In perfect keeping with
this, Jesus says to the Pharisees and chief priests and officers who were sent
to take Him, "yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent
me; ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and whither I go ye cannot come."
One great necessity was declared to the man of the Pharisees, the ruler of
Israel, at the feast of the passover; when Jesus deposited the secret to
Nicodemus of the lifted up Son of man, in order to see and enter the kingdom of
God; and now at the feast of tabernacles, He reveals another great necessity.
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying; If
any man thirst let him come unto me and drink, he that believeth on him as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; but
this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, for
the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that the Son of man was not yet glorified."
Precious Jesus, what grace hast Thou shown to Thy rebellious people — deeper
than the depths of the humiliation that brought Thee down upon the level with
man on earth, or into the valley of dry bones, must Thou needs descend to serve
him. Into Thy sufferings and baptism of blood hast Thou gone on the cross, as
"the lifted up Son of man," to redeem them; yea down into the very dust of death
hast Thou been brought, fast bound by the pains of death, that God Himself might
loosen Thee from them. Thine agony and atoning blood as the Paschal Lamb have
turned the relations between God and man into a feast of the passover, for Thy
willing people, and as the basis for all the remaining feasts. Out of the depths
of the grave, and the heart of the earth hast Thou been raised, having won all
the glory for

Thy Father and Thyself, and for us, which death and the eater would yield to
none but Thee. By ascension to the right hand of God, as the glorified Son of
man, the Spirit will yet come down and breathe upon the valley of dry bones at a
future day, when the whole house of Israel shall stand up in the power of life,
and the two sticks of Judah and Ephraim become one. "Behold they say, Our bones
are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off from our parts; therefore
prophecy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will
open your graves . . . . and will put my Spirit in you and ye shall live, and I
shall place you in your own land, then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken
it and performed it, saith the Lord." In conclusion, we see in this group of
chapters, the journey of the glory through the midst of Israel and the world,
down into the dark valley, in order to grasp this mighty ruin as He alone could,
and make Himself in grace responsible for lightening it up, and bringing "his
own glory and the glory of his Father and of the holy angels" back into it, that
all the world may be filled with the glory of God. The lifted-up Son of man on
the cross, and the lifting up of the glorified Son of man to the heavens, were
necessary, in order to the descent of the Holy Ghost, and for the gathering out
of the church first. This other company, brought out with Peter, upon a present
confession of Jesus, as the Christ the Son of the living God, during His
rejection by the Jews, and the judicial hiding of Himself from both houses of
Israel, was now to be manifested upon the earth. The valley of Ezekiel’s vision
will be opened up, and bone come to its bone, a very great multitude, according
to the Spirit of prophecy, when that same Spirit from on high is poured out upon
the people to make good all their latter-day blessing. The offended glory, and
the Lord Himself once rejected, will again return in the person of their
crucified Messiah; holiness shall then be upon the bells of the horses, and the
pots in the Lord’s house be like the bowls before the altar. In the meanwhile,
the new and heavenly family are distinct, and distinguished in these chapters,
as brought out to the Lamb of God, the Word made flesh, and these can say, "we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth, and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." They
dwell with Him, accompany Him in all His ways of patient love in the midst of
His Israel according to the flesh, and are His associates in service and
testimony after to the heavenly things themselves. God is gathering out through
Christ a people for the heavens, into the Father’s house, in contrast with the
feast of tabernacles, which was the record and witness that God dwelt with
Israel on the earth, and blessed them where they were with natural blessings in
the earthly places. Peter and others make the confession which identifies them
with Christ now and hereafter; for when Jesus said to them, Will ye also go
away? they reply, "To whom shall we go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of
eternal life; and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of
the living God." The "hard sayings" and tests of chapter 6 brought to light the
secrets of all hearts, and put all to the proof. Peter and those with him
witnessed at that time a good confession, and go on with their Lord, and
continue with Him through His temptation; others (who are sifted) go back, and
"from that time walk no more with him." On the other hand, the refusal of Christ
to accept the footing of the feast of tabernacles for Himself and Israel and
Jehovah in chapter 7: as the present way to prosperity and blessing in Canaan,
and a millennium on earth; and His refusal to show Himself there, or in the
light of it to the surrounding nations and the world, became a test to the men
of progress then, and religiously to the ritualists of that day, as well as now.
"Every man went to his own home," and thus they broke company with their
Messiah, and refused Him, and the heavenly things; but "Jesus went unto the
mount of Olives," into the counsels of the Father concerning Him, and the hidden
glories to which that death and His departure to the Father should introduce
Him. Thus the One in whom the glory dwells has in spirit departed from the
house, and the nation, and its temple, and the feast of tabernacles, to the
mount of Olives; just as the typical glory did, in the prophetic times of
Ezekiel. Moreover, it is by the way of the east (after the Lord’s shout and the
glory, in the twinkling of an eye, have caught us away to be for ever with Him)
that He and it alike return; for His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount
of Olives, which is before Jerusalem. Like the disciples, we (in the meanwhile)
follow Jesus into the place of rejection here, and by the way of the mount of
Olives to the right hand of God, into oneness with Him and the Father, where He
now is; as being identified with Him in grace, in every thought and purpose
which the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory has counselled in
Him for the everlasting ages.

United to Him, and members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, our
suited prayer is that He "may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might,
and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to
be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him
that filleth all in all." J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 20: S.   THE PROMISES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES.
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The Promises to the Seven Churches.

There is a point of much interest, which I desire to trace, in connection with
the promises to the seven churches. It will be found, on an examination of these
promises separately, that they embrace all that God had committed to man, or to
the nation of Israel, under responsibility to the Giver; but which had been
forfeited either through weakness or wilfulness, and had been in this way stolen
by Satan out of the bands which were incompetent to hold them.

God had been good, supremely good, as these promises or actual gifts prove,
which He so bountifully showered in the pathway He had chosen for Himself and
His creatures. Into this path He had, in sovereign grace, called out the
patriarchs to walk with Him as "the God of glory," and with His people Israel
under the covenant name of "Jehovah." But a driven-out man from Eden, and a
scattered nation from Canaan, tell plainly and sadly of Satan’s triumph, of
man’s disgraceful defeat, and of God’s consequent dishonour. Nevertheless, this
great fact was established, that the creature to walk with God (as a receiver of
blessing) must in life and nature correspond with Him whose delight it is to
bless: otherwise must responsibility be, when man is put to the test, but a
temporary triumph for the devil. The book of the Revelation introduces us to
"One like unto the Son of man," who laid His right hand upon John, saying, "Fear
not; I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold,
I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." It is
the presence and position of such an One as He who thus proclaims Himself that
turns the whole course and order of things round again to God, for His eternal
glory with His creatures, but only as redeemed by the blood of His own Son. By
His intrinsic obedience when on earth, an obedience unto death, and by His
righteous title as "the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the
kings of the earth," He gathers up, and connects with His person, as Son of man,
every promise and gift which man had forfeited, and holds them till the day when
all the promises of God which are now made yea and amen" shall be manifestly
established "to the glory of God by us." In the meanwhile, till Christ comes to
receive us to himself, He gives to those who "have an ear to hear" a present
communion, in the joy of knowing that these promises and gifts are embodied in
Himself; and those can best testify how precious this fellowship is who have
tasted deepest what forfeited blessing means.

These remarks may suffice to introduce our subject to us, and in confirmation of
the fact that the Lord, in His visit of inspection to the seven golden
candlesticks, gives these promises out afresh, in connection with Himself to
this last vessel of responsible testimony on the earth before He comes, let us
take them up in the order in which they are presented by John in the Apocalypse.
To the church in Ephesus He says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of
the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Here we get the
earliest of the forfeited gifts between Adam and the Creator in the garden of
Eden, "so God drove out the man." But in the new title of "I am he that liveth"
the Lord grants the promise in redemption order, as well as in resurrection
power; and leads the overcomer to eat of the tree of life (of which Adam never
ate) which is in the midst of the paradise of God, where the first man never
was. A garden in Eden is lost, it is true; but the paradise of God is gained.
The flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the tree of life, is sheathed
by the knowledge of a crucified Christ; and He who was dead takes the place of
the cherubim and affirms, "I will give to eat of the tree of life and in the
paradise of God."

Let it be observed, this new bestowment is not merely regaining a place of
blessing between God and man, but, being now embodied in Christ, acquires a
fulness of meaning which His own worthiness before the Father brings into it,
for the eternal delight of Himself and the redeemed, where the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil never grew. The promise to the church of Smyrna is
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life . . . . He
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." This recognizes the fact
that sin had come in where the Creator and the creature were once together,
walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and that as a consequence the
crown had fallen from the head of Adam, the fine gold had become dim, and death
stood before him as the penalty inflicted — the wages of disobedience. But this
dark cloud is dispersed by the bright shining of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ; and makes even death to be the new measure of faithfulness (as it
was in His own pathway upon the earth), and puts upon the head of all such the
crown of life. Thus each promise gets its fulness from Him in whom God has been
glorified; and so death, in the pathway of an overcomer by obedience, is made a
power by which he reaches the crown of life. He shall not be hurt by the second
death, for "he that loseth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal." Even Satan, who had the power of death, knows by the risen Lord his
own defeat. Death cannot hurt. "We have the sentence of death in ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead." Moreover, as
regards Satan, "Thou shalt bruise his heel, but it shall bruise thy head." The
promise to Pergamos carries us into the world since the flood, and connects us
historically with Israel’s journey out of Egypt. "To him that overcometh, will I
give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the
stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it."
Man had eaten angels’ food, as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven."
Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead, but Jesus said, "he that eateth of the
bread that I shall give him, shall live for ever." The names of the twelve
tribes had been engraved, by the skill of the cunning workman, upon all manner
of precious stones; and set in the breastplate of the great high priest of
Israel. But these have become things of the past, like the garden which the Lord
planted in Eden. Hosea had stood in the midst of a guilty people, and prophesied
"the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a
prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without teraphim." But forfeited blessings are again gathered up by Him who has
since trodden this path (as the son called out of Egypt) and substantiated in
Himself for this same people in the future day of their history: when they shall
say "blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." In the meantime, while
all is hidden between the Lord and His heavenly ones (for our life is hid with
Christ, in God), we get in Himself the hidden manna, and a white stone, and in
the stone a new name written, "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth
it." And this is given out to us by Himself in the new associations in which by
grace we "have been circumcised by the circumcision of Christ," as one with Him
in a new and heavenly position, while hidden from all below. We, as new
creatures in Christ, can well understand, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost,
what these secret interchanges mean; and what the white stone records — "as
Christ is, so are we in this world." Paul was familiar with the stone, and with
the new name, and was teaching the Galatians the lesson by it, which they were
so slow to learn, that our purification is by death, when he said, "I am
crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me, and gave himself for me." The promise to the church of Thyatira is
"he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I
will give him the morning star." Here likewise was Israel’s place of
pre-eminence among the surrounding nations, though now a forfeited one. Assyria,
Egypt, Babylon, and Rome, have in their turn broken in upon her, and spoiled
her, like the wild beast of the field, and the boar of the wood. Since those
days the hope of Israel, the Messiah, has been in their midst, and wept over the
city, saying, "If thou hadst known, even in this thy day, the things that belong
unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes." And finally, "Jerusalem
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the time of the Gentiles is
fulfilled." Be that liveth and was dead has recovered this position of
pre-eminence by His own righteous title, and holds it for Israel, till the time
comes when she "shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with
fruit." In the meanwhile, He who has embodied this forfeited place of rule and
kingly power in Himself, gives it out to the overcomers of today in association
with Himself; "even as I have received of my Father." Nor is this all, for as He
connects us with this grant, and promise which is peculiarly His own, He unites
us in a hope of which He alone is the fulfilment, "and I will give him the
morning star." The saints will be with Him too in the day of retributive
righteousness, when He comes out from the opened heavens upon a white horse, and
when the armies which were in heaven follow Him, "clothed in fine linen, white
and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should
smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth
the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God." (Revelation 19:1-21.) Ignorance of
the ways of God, and of His purposes in Christ, can alone explain the fact that
the Church has thrown itself into the world’s vortex as a peace-maker, and so
missed her place of real testimony between God and mankind, as regards the
coming forth of the Lord from heaven "to judge and to make war." That He was
clothed in a vesture dipped in blood forms no part of the Church’s present
testimony, and indeed how can it, since it would be against herself for being in
a voluntary alliance with the world? Neither the consciences of men are aroused
by such a coming forth of the Lord, nor the love of Christ acknowledged, which
delivers from this impending wrath upon the living and teeming millions of
Christendom, by the preaching of a present salvation for today by faith in the
atoning blood of the Lamb. The promise given next to the Church of Sardis
carries us still farther on in the history of God’s ways with the nation of
Israel, and takes up its priesthood. "He that overcometh, the same shall be
clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of
life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." In
king Solomon’s days, when the ark was placed in the temple and the temple filled
with glory, "the Levites, the singers, all of them arrayed in white linen, could
not stand to minister by reason of the cloud," which had taken possession of the
entire scene in the name of the Lord. Further, "her Nazarites were purer than
snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies,
their polishing was of sapphire;" but the same prophet adds, "their visage is
blacker than a coal, they are not known in the streets, their skin cleaveth to
their bones." Zechariah shows Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord,
and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. The filthy garments, or the
defiled priesthood of Israel, are set aside prophetically, as it will be really,
in the future day of their national acceptance, when the fair mitre on the
priest’s head, and the change of raiment in connection with "The Branch," will
enable God to remove the iniquity of that land in one day. He who is the first
and the last has likewise secured this forfeited place of blessing in Himself,
adding to it (as He gives it out to the overcomers of this day) the assurance of
its perpetuity. "I will not blot his name out of the book of life [like the
blotted page of Israel’s history], but will confess his name before my Father,
and before his angels." Our own personal security, and the permanence of every
purpose, are alike found in a present companionship with Christ, till He comes.
We have it not in the outward display, in which it is to be manifested, and on
this account we hold all blessing not merely upon His title who deserves it and
has the keys of death and of Hades, but in the delight of His own love. "They
shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." What a place and portion does
our sojourn on earth afford us, the little while that we are waiting for His
shout and our rapture! The promise which is given to the church of Philadelphia
brings us to the culminating point of Israel’s history in its connection with
the throne of God; and the earthly centre, the focus of this world’s light, the
city of the great king. These links which constitute the theocracy, in which
they lived and made their boast were all broken, and Jehovah "profaned his
throne by casting it to the ground." The vision of Ezekiel most touchingly
relates how the glory (which was the witness of the Lord’s acknowledgment of His
people) moved away from its place, till, like Noah’s dove, finding no rest for
the sole of its foot, it took back the sad tale of desolation to Him from whom
it had come forth. This too has been secured by "the Prince of the kings of the
earth" for Himself and for the government of God, and till the day of millennial
glory comes gives it out to those who now suffer with Him in communion with
Himself. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God: and
he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God: and the
name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of
heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." This is the promise
to Philadelphia, an assurance that all which had failed on the earth and been
forfeited would now be committed no longer to human responsibility, but be seen
to come down from God out of heaven to abide for ever. Material pillars and a
material temple are superseded; just as stones have been set aside in the
spiritual house for living stones, and as God and the Lamb finally take the
place of the temple and the city, for that which is perfect is come. In the
meanwhile, the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, says,
"I will write upon him that overcometh the name of my God, and the name of the
city of my God." What new links of living associations with Himself, in the
sanctuary and the glory, are these as He thus puts us into connection with the
New Jerusalem, the city of the living God, which is to bring back again the
glory of God! But besides this catalogue of blessing, the Lord adds, "and I will
write upon him my new name." What is this? For many and various are His titles
and names of renown. The angels introduced Him as Jesus-Emmanuel, the waters of
Jordan gave Him forth as the Messiah or the Christ, the anointed One, the
temptation in the wilderness as the victorious Son of man, the cross as the Lamb
of God for sinners slain, the sepulchre as the destroyer of him that had the
power of death, resurrection as the Captain of our salvation, ascension into the
heavens as the Great High Priest and Advocate at the right hand of God, so that
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Redemption by His blood
is the new circle into which everything that yet groans is to be brought; and
resurrection by His power, the new holding by which all blessing is maintained
for ever. Moreover all His enemies are to be made His footstool. There yet
remains a new name in which Christ will be manifestly known when He comes forth
to put all "the families in heaven and on earth" into relationship with Himself
and God. What a day will that be when God and the Lamb are eternally together,
and give a new character to the entire scene! Our present joy is in communion
with Christ, in the power of this new name, as we keep the word of His patience
till He comes.

There is yet another promise to the Church of the Laodiceans: "To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and
am set down with my Father in his throne." Promise and prophecy had alike
announced Jesus, the Messiah, as the rightful heir to the royalties of David’s
throne. "He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." In this
title, and with these claims, He presented Himself to Israel when He rode into
Jerusalem upon a colt, the foal of an ass, "and all the people cried, Blessed be
the king of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord," But this choicest gift
of Jehovah’s love they rejected, and set up over His head, when they crucified
Him, "This is Jesus, the king of the Jews." Therefore He is set down with His
Father on His throne, cast out by the world! Yet this place of blessing, though
forfeited on their part, He holds in His own personal title as "he that liveth
and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." The rejected king of Israel —
rejected by those to whom He came in grace — is nevertheless the One who says,
"Even as I also overcame;" for though death and the grave were the limits of
Satan’s power, there was a path which the vulture’s eye had not seen, and
resurrection to the Father’s throne declared Him, beyond all controversy, to be
the overcomer. "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." It is a present
fellowship with Himself, in a way that the world knows not, in which He gives
the promise, "I will grant to sit with me on my throne;" for the Church by faith
through the Spirit can look into the future and distinguish between the Father’s
throne where the rejected One is set down, and the Son’s throne on which He is
to sit and reign, and trace the effect which will follow this change of
position. How precious for our souls to discover that throughout all the
confusion in the pathway of forfeited or rejected blessing from the
starting-point in Eden to the Father’s throne, the Lord Jesus Christ has been
the glorifier of God and the Saviour of the lost! Promises and blessings which
were originally put into creature hands are now made "yea and amen in Christ."
Gifts and callings which were necessarily on creature responsibility are waiting
to be opened out to the glory of God by us. The creature itself is no longer
dependent upon its own expectations, but stands on the new footing of
redemption. Another life has been brought into the world by the incarnate Son of
God, and, by His death and resurrection, is communicated to all them that
believe. "He that hath the Son hath life." The hour upon which heaven and earth
waits is that of which He said, "Of that hour knoweth no man, neither the angels
of God, but my Father only." He will then quit the Father’s throne to sit upon
His own throne. From that point and by that act above all things below will
change into their own respective places and correspondence, either caught up to
be for ever with the Lord; or by judicial power commanded to depart — consigned
to the lake of fire, where the devil and his angels shall be later.

We are come to the end of the history of God’s goodness to man in the flesh, and
therefore of forfeited blessing. It is unspeakably gracious in our Lord (who has
recovered all that was lost both for Himself and for God; and keeps all in His
own hands for the coming day of universal glory) to anticipate that time and
give, as we have seen, all these spoils to the overcomers, during the period of
His rejection, in a known enjoyment with Himself. In the light of this love, we
can accept these promises to the seven churches, and eat the fat and drink the
sweet, and know the joy of the Lord to be our strength; while the world is
running its own course heedless of the gathering storm. Or we may take the
assurance of the Lord Jesus, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid." How very precious to find our souls drawn aside from
the glory of man by companionship with Christ; and as overcomers, through a
closer walk with Him, to hold these various promises in the secret of the white
stone, "and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it!" We become independent of everything under the heavens, by being
thus consciously united to Christ, and in all which comes down from God out of
heaven. All our blessings, while we are waiting for the Lord, are descending
blessings; for "every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of
lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning." We owe nothing to
the flesh, nor to the world, nor to Satan, except it be to maintain the fact
that we do not. On the other hand we are not our own, but bought with a price,
and are set by grace in that new place of glorifying God in our body and spirit,
which are His. The overcomers have but a little while in which to do a great
deal. "Behold I come quickly" is His parting word to Philadelphia. "Hold that
fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown," is the encouraging word to us
till He does come. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 21: S.   THE SMOKING FURNACE AND THE BURNING LAMP.
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The Smoking Furnace and the Burning Lamp.

Genesis 15:1-21.

I desire to express a few thoughts to your readers on some of the various
groupings of the scriptures. Every one, for example, must have been struck with
the family circle at Bethany, and the outflow of divine and human affections
which made that scene of resurrection, power, and life, what it was — but that
Lazarus, was a man who came forth from death and the grave. What was true and
suitable, when the time was come for Jesus, as "the resurrection and the life"
to form the centre of that circle was equally in keeping with the ways of God as
Creator, when the man and the woman were originally introduced into the world,
as the heads of the whole human race, and when God walked in the garden of Eden
in the cool of the day. This man came out of the dust of the earth, and was
called therefore Adam. The woman was formed out of the man and was called Eve,
or "the mother of all living." How different!

Another and a very distinct group came out from the ark with Noah upon the world
that now is. These had typically "seen the end of all flesh," by the waters of
destruction, for man had corrupted his way upon earth and filled it with
violence. These close up the history of Adam and the creation, and begin another
from the ark as the witness that all who were therein had passed through and
over the death and judgment which had swept all else away! Every one must have
lingered in company with this new group of Noah and his wife, and their sons and
daughters, and two of all kinds of cattle and fowls and creeping things — all
these "found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" and the altar with its cloud of
sweet savour, in fellowship with which the rainbow of the covenant encircled the
horizon of their faith, unmistakably reveal the new ground of their intercourse
with God. The Creator, who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, has come
forth from the thick darkness — not of original chaos, but of death and
righteous judgment at the flood — to bless this second group through "the sweet
savour" which He smelt.

"The God of glory" came in (after Babel and the confusion of tongues) to call
out Abram from the whole world besides; and it is with this patriarch as the
bead of the family of faith and those grouped around him with whom we shall have
particularly to do in what follows. Genesis 14:1-24 and Genesis 15:1-21 may give
us the diameter of our circle.

Here and there we find in the Old Testament some illustrious stranger
introduced, such for instance as Jethro, "the father-in-law of Moses," who seems
for the moment to be a leader and commander of the whole scene and then
withdraws. So here in these chapters, Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest
of the Most High God, is the prominent person in action, and takes precedence of
"the friend of God;" so that for the time that then was, and for typical
purposes (as we know from Hebrews 7:1-28 :) he met Abram returning from the
slaughter of the kings, and brought forth bread and wine and blessed him. The
comment of the Holy Ghost upon this illustrious visitor is remarkable. "Now
consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the
tenth of the spoils . . . . and without all contradiction the less is blessed of
the better." But this group in Genesis will not get the commanding colour unless
we add, "For this Melchizedek, being by interpretation king of righteousness,
and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace; without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life; but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually." The
patriarch thus met and thus blessed was in himself the separated one unto God —
the only one upon earth with a "calling" — called out from the whole world to
walk with God, and that too in the character of the God Almighty.

What a delight to see the head of the family of faith — and in this sense "the
father of us all" — thus encouraged and so distinguished! How truly is he the
representative man of the new race of men, who are partakers of that faith,
without which it is impossible to please God — a faith which identifies them
with their calling and with Him who calls, as well as with the blessing
wherewith they are blessed, and puts them consequently into a place of
separation while in the world, out of which they are called as pilgrims and
strangers. Melchizedek blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of the Most High
God, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God, which hath
delivered thine enemies into thy band. And be gave him tithes of all." It is
instructive and encouraging to see "this head of the family of faith" wrought
upon by the double power of the calling and the blessing — when in the place of
real separation — so that by faith he put to flight the armies of the aliens,
and wrought deliverance for "his brother Lot and his goods, the women also and
the people" who had been attracted into another and a very different path, by
the well-watered plains of Sodom. What a warning, or else an example, for all of
us! Nor is it merely in victory and rescue that Abram is a witness, but likewise
in his steady refusal to the king of Sodom to accept from a thread even to a
shoe-latchet (or anything that was his) lest he should say, "I have made Abram
rich." Thus early do we get an example of one who would not morally defile the
head of his Nazariteship!

It is to such an one that the word of the Lord comes in Genesis 15:1-21 :
saying, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." Nor
is the faith of our father afraid to put God to the proof, according to this
announcement. "And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" One of
faith’s earliest lessons is here before us — the faith which gives glory to God,
by letting Him in to take the place which is according to His own mind. God had
made Himself known in calling as the God of glory, and in blessing through the
priest of the Most High God as possessor of heaven and earth: He had also proved
Himself stronger than all that was against Abram. What could faith say to the
possessor and doer of all things, but "What wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless?"

Abram’s faith puts God into the place of a giver, and this is what the living
God is, and this is the way to give glory to Him. Moreover "the bread and wine"
brought out to Abram by Melchizedek is a great warrant and foreshadowing to us
in all our intercourse with God. Nevertheless that which is first in order for
our communion with the Father in His own thoughts is often last in manifest and
outward accomplishment. No doubt this order has been observed by many in the
types of Leviticus, where the burnt offering takes the precedence of all others,
though in the actual experience of our souls, when first awakened, we began with
the sin offering, as requisite for a guilty conscience. In these two chapters
Abram seems growingly alive to the fact that this must be God’s order, if He
begins to act from Himself towards the man who is His friend! Indeed we (in our
day) may well say that some of the profoundest secrets are here coming out; for
what is the setting aside of Eliezer the steward but the making room for a child
of promise, the son in the house? Just as we find in Genesis 16:1-16 : with the
realities of Sarah and Hagar, or Isaac and Ishmael, and the yet further reality
that the "son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman,"
which things are to us (in New Testament language) "an allegory," of yet deeper
mysteries touching Mount Sinai and Jerusalem which is above! In short the
external ways of God are but the history of the steward and the stewardship, for
this is what man under responsibility to God, from Adam downward, surely is, and
therefore the time must come when the unjust steward must be "put out of the
stewardship." As those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin with the Son in
the house. The Old Testament is in this way the history of the stewards, and
"the kingdom of God taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof." The New Testament is the revelation of the Son, and the Father,
and the Father’s house: and it was into this path in principle and type that
Abram was being led, though in his lessons he had to offer up his son Isaac,
symbolically on Mount Moriah, and receive him back from the dead again in a
figure; for the time was not yet come nor the true son of Abraham born into the
world. Another thing to be noticed is, that when Abram measured himself by
himself he was childless and had no heir; but as soon as he viewed himself in
the vastness of God’s thoughts, all similitudes and comparisons by things around
him fell infinitely short of the Lord’s intentions. So "he brought him forth
abroad and said, Look now towards heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to
number them; and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." A most important fact
springs out of this look toward heaven, for the Spirit says, "He believed in the
Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness." He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God,
and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to
perform. This is what God imputed to him for righteousness, or giving God His
right place and Abraham taking his — as it is written, "who against hope,
believed in hope" that he might become the father of many nations, according to
that which was spoken, "so shall thy seed be." Indeed we may add, that the whole
family are justified on the same principle as their head; "now it was not
written for his sake alone, but for us also to whom it [righteousness] shall be
imputed, if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who
was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." The
"God of glory" likewise proclaimed Himself to Abram, as "I am the Lord that
brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" An Isaac
had been substituted in the house for Eliezer, and now heirship is to be
established in the son, instead of a steward; and the inheritance itself
grounded upon a covenant of which "God is one," and the only one, and therefore
unconditional, because based upon sacrifice and promise. "And he said, Take me
an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of
three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon," and he divided them in
the midst, and laid one piece against another, but the birds divided he not.
Abram as head of the family of faith, and made righteous by faith, stands before
God as the exceptional man, called out to be blessed and to walk with the
Almighty, on the ground of covenant and promise; and now he must needs pass
through, by types and shadows, the ways and methods by which God will establish
all to him and to his seed in the latter-day glory. The "God of Abraham"
exercised his soul according to truth, as well as in grace, and so "when the sun
was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great
darkness fell upon him." The "friend of God "in Genesis, and "the man after
God’s own heart" in the Psalms, are alike instructed by the Spirit to look
beyond their own histories, and those of their respective sons (whether an
Isaac, or a Solomon), and to see by faith in the far distance, a greater than
either; so that when Jesus was on earth, He could say, "your father Abraham saw
my day, and be saw it and was glad." The Holy Ghost in the Acts witnesses as the
Spirit of prophecy in David, that the sweet Psalmist of Israel being a prophet,
and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit upon His throne;
"he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption."

Abram in earlier days passed through "the horror of great darkness which fell
upon him" and into which his younger son David, both in the flesh and by faith,
likewise entered and perhaps yet more fully. The heifer, the she goat, the ram,
the turtledove, and the young pigeon, had each a voice to the faith of Abram,
and a deepening voice; a horror, as he took unto him all these and divided them
in the midst, and laid each piece one against another! Who was to walk in this
new pathway of life, and death, and substitution, but "the burning lamp?" and
who was to be justified as the Giver, but "the smoking furnace in type? and who
was to learn the security of the inheritance, and indeed of all covenanted
blessing by such means as these, but "the man in a deep sleep, under the horror
of a great darkness?" and who had asked, "Lord God, how shall I know that I
shall inherit it?" And may we not (upon whom "the ends of the ages are come")
pause here to speak to one another of Abraham’s greater Son and David’s greater
Lord, the Son of man and Son of God, who in the days of His flesh poured out His
soul unto death, when this "deep sleep" was before Him and "the horror of
darkness" really come? "And lie taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and
began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy, and saith unto them, My soul is
exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here and watch. And he said, Abba
Father, all things are possible unto thee: take this cup from me: nevertheless,
not what I will, but what thou wilt." "And being in an agony, be prayed more
earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the
ground." "But this is your hour and the power of darkness." Our souls well know
that beyond Gethsemane (the last Adam’s garden) lay the cross, where the Lord
Jesus our Saviour took up more than remained in the deep sleep of the patriarch.
The hour that could not pass by was come and He who alone could enter into that
horror of darkness did. Then and there He was in fact what "the divided pieces"
were in type; for He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, suffered the Just One for the
unjust. His own self bare our sins in His body on the tree, that we being dead
to sins should be alive unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. On
the cross, too, He submitted to "the smoking furnace," and under the searchings
of that fire vindicated the righteousness of God by the wrath which He endured,
whilst the offended holiness found its food and satisfaction in the perfection
of the offering, which it consumed. "And it came to pass when the sun went down
and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between
those pieces." The furnace and the lamp have each done their respective work at
the cross and the sepulchre, for "from the sixth hour there was darkness over
all the land unto the ninth hour, and about the ninth hour Jesus cried, Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" The Lord who had trodden this fiery path and come up out of it, when He
rejoined His disciples, reproved them: "O fools and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into his glory?" The bread and wine to the head of the family of
faith, in type from the hands of Melchizedek; the victims and the divided pieces
in Abram’s deep sleep, and the ground of all promise and covenanted blessing in
the shed blood, culminate at the Lord’s supper, as we sit now around His table
to show forth His death till He come. These are handed out to us in their new
fulfilments by the glorified Head and Lord from the heavens, where He now sits
as the real Melchizedek, in their true and accomplished meanings. The man from
the third heavens, "caught up into paradise" says, "I have received of the Lord
that which also I have delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in
which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks he brake it and
said, Take, eat; this is my body which was broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me." After the same manner He took the cup, saying, "This cup is
the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance
of me." "It is finished" closed this work of the burning lamp, and "the rent
veil" by the hand of God superseded the smoking furnace; and when the fowls came
down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. But the first man who was created
in the image of God had also a deep sleep, though of course no horror of
darkness nor offerings, for there was no sin. "The Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs and closed up the
flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he
a woman and brought her unto the man." We shall do well to contrast this deep
sleep that fell upon Adam with the deep sleep which fell upon Abraham, and what
issued from both under the mighty power of Him who is wonderful in counsel and
excellent in working. It was before the fall, and while Adam was still in "the
image of God," that the typical Eve was formed from his side and brought to him,
the product of that deep sleep, during which the help meet for the man was
created, the one only good thing lacking where all else was pronounced to be
"very good" to the eye and heart of Him who had created all things. "And the
Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone."

We all know from the Holy Ghost’s teaching in Ephesians 5:1-33 to whom this one
only paradisiacal symbol pointed, since the very words of the first Adam are
quoted in application to the coming marriage of the Lamb, "for this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two
shall be one flesh: this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church." We may well remind ourselves, how close we must be upon the second
coming of our Lord, seeing that He has Himself passed through in fact the deep
sleep of death and the grave whereby to gain His Bride, the Lamb’s wife; "except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit." The Lord repeated by His death what God had said
at creation, "it is not good for man to abide alone;" so He bought His Church by
His own blood, and brought her out by redemption-title into the new creation of
which this Second Man is the beginning, and Lord; and into which He is about to
come with His Eve! So likewise (as we have noticed) the horror, and the
darkness, and the deep sleep of the head of the family of faith, have been gone
through in fact by Him in whom all types and symbols concentrate. The blood of
the everlasting covenant has been shed by Christ, and accepted by God; a pathway
by which Re can be brought back again in the day of the Son of man’s glory, not
only as the possessor of the heavens and the earth, but according to His
promises to Abraham, and to his seed, and the inheritance, and to fill the whole
world with His glory. "It shall come to pass in that day I will hear, saith the
Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth
shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel."

There is yet another thing to be remarked in the grouping of Genesis 15:1-21 :
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a
land that is not theirs and shall serve them: and they shall afflict them four
hundred years: and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and
afterward they shall come out with great substance."

Other important principles are introduced here, such as the government of God in
connection with His people, and His promises, and the time of final blessing, as
well as the judgment of God amongst the nations and their overthrow. No doubt
this was typically carried out in the record of God’s actings by Moses, in the
land of Egypt, when Pharaoh would not let the people go. "Now the sojournings of
the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years."
And it came to pass, "even the self same day it came to pass, that all the hosts
of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed
unto the Lord for bringing them out." "Thus the Lord saved Israel out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore."

It may be needful to say a word perhaps upon verse 16, "for the iniquity of the
Amorites was not yet full," seeing that so many of the Lord’s people of this day
have no idea of God allowing iniquity to come to the full; but on the contrary,
are expecting evil to diminish and gradually to cease. If we transfer this
principle of the growth of evil from the Old Testament to the New, or even from
Genesis 15:1-21 : to 2 Thessalonians, we shall perhaps discover what a measure
of insubjection of mind still exists in reference to the character and growth of
the evil described in chapter 2: "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:
only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way, and then
shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit
of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming." For, "God shall
send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that they all might
be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Indeed it is difficult to conceive how a revelation from God, closing as the New
Testament does with the Apocalyptic woes and vials and trumpets and plagues, can
be understood in any other way than of the coming judgment upon a widespread
apostasy, or as Abram in his day was taught in the fact that the "iniquity of
the Amorites was not yet come to the full."

It will have been seen by these sketches and groups and their applications,
whether of Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, or Solomon, in the ancient chronicles,
that they have each and all found their common centre in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Types, prophecies, and promises have all been made "yea and amen in him unto the
glory of God by us." All covenanted blessing for the earth and for the heavens,
which have thus concentrated in His person and work on the cross, wait only for
the second coming of the Lord, when they must all as truly emanate from Him in
the day of His glory and shine forth like the brightness of the morning to chase
the darkness away and fill every heart with gladness and all tongues with
rejoicing. The blessed hope of the Lord’s coming, and our "gathering together"
to meet Him is full upon many a soul as the present and peculiar calling of the
Church. When the heavens have received us, with our Lord, who is to introduce us
to the Father and to "present us holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable in his
sight," all will then have reached the climax and be in position who are to go
upward, as truly as all below will rapidly form into crisis under the imperial
beast and the antichrist, who are to go downward into the lake of fire!

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full
of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither; I will show
thee the Bride the Lamb’s wife: and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great
and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a
stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." In the order
of the new creation, everything is seen to come down from God out of heaven,
having the glory of God; whereas in the order of the old creation everything was
made out of the dust of the earth, and proceeded from man the creature, to the
Creator. God’s order is changed. The steward is outside the new creation, and
the Son of God, once manifested in the flesh, is become (according to
everlasting counsel), in "the dispensation of the fulness of times," the new
centre, around whom all things are gathered together, both which are in heaven,
and which are on earth; in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 22: S.   THE SPIRIT OF GOD," AND "THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST
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"The Spirit of God," and "The Baptism of the Holy Ghost." In order to understand
these subjects of divine revelation, and yet to distinguish them in
dispensational action, it is necessary to learn from the word of God the present
standing and relations of a believer in Christ to the Father and to the Son, as
compared with the previous calling of Israel into a place of blessing on the
earth. It will be seen that" the Spirit of God" is connected with each, as
likewise with the nation and the church, but in different ways; whilst "the
baptism of the Holy Ghost" (at Pentecost) brings out from the world into a
present portion with Christ glorified in heaven. Indeed it is this, and the
blessings which flow from union with Christ, our new Head of life, founded on
eternal redemption through His blood, and opened out by His resurrection and
departure to the right hand of God in power and glory, which characterise
Christianity and Christians, and distinguish them from the economy of Moses, and
the position of Israel in the Old Testament, as a "people under law and in the
flesh." In bringing these observations to bear on the subjects proposed, I would
say, in the first place, that "the Spirit of God" could not bear witness to
Judaism as an economy, or to its ritualistic and sacerdotal observances, except
to say, that "the law made nothing perfect," and to add further, "that the way
into the holiest was not made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet
standing."

"The Spirit of God" declined to witness to man under the law, and to its
ordinances, by Moses and Aaron, for the simple reason, that "in burnt-offerings
and sacrifices for sin God had no pleasure," inasmuch as there was a remembrance
of sins. "The Spirit of God, which moved upon the face of the waters" in the
chaos of creation, could and did act likewise upon the creature — man — at every
time, and under any circumstances, in this ruined world. Judaism, though an
institution from God, started with nothing perfect; it did not possess in itself
a perfect sacrifice, or a perfect priest, or a worshipper made perfect; and
therefore the Holy Ghost waited on the person of the Son of God, and tarried in
His testimony for the coming in of Jesus as the Saviour, "the Lamb of God, that
taketh away the sin of the world." This refusal on the part of the Spirit to
witness to the polity of Moses "and the worldly sanctuary" is stated in Hebrews
9:8, and that He waited for the "time of reformation." His readiness to bear
testimony "to the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered
himself without spot unto God," is unhesitatingly declared, as well as to the
purged worshipper, and to the new and living way which was opened into the
holiest "through the rent veil." This is the basis of our communion.

Hebrews 10:14 affirms this to be the glorious truth of Christianity and of the
perfections of Christ, throughout the length and breadth of its revelations,
namely, "This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat
down on the right hand of God." For by one offering "he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us."

"The Spirit of God" thus tarried for Christ, and then rested upon Him, when He
took His place as "the sent One from the Father," and entered on His ministry
and work, for the glorification of God, in the midst of men below.

Indeed one peculiarity of John the Baptist’s testimony was this — "upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." We have further before us from this scripture
the two great parts of Christ’s ministry: one, as "the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world;" and the other, "he which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost." The first was accomplished by His death on the cross below, and the last
by His ascension into the heavens as the glorified Son of man. Our redemption by
His blood, and our acceptance in the risen Christ, was a pre-requisite to any
witness of the Spirit of God to men. He did wait upon Christ, and rest upon Him,
as we have seen; but the work of redemption could be the only basis of our
intimacy with God, and by which "he could shed his love abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost." It is, then, as believers in Christ "we joy in God," by whom we
have received the reconciliation. "The men whom thou gavest me out of the
world," as Jesus said to the Father, must first be born again of the Spirit, and
become partakers of eternal life and of the divine nature, before the Holy Ghost
could bear record to them as new creatures, or come and dwell in them as "the
Spirit of adoption, and witness to us that we are the sons of God." The descent
of the Holy Ghost is consequent also upon the departure of Christ out of this
world, and His exaltation at the right hand of the Father. "If I depart, I will
send him." Moreover, the Holy Ghost tarried for the glorification "of the Son of
man in heaven," even as He had waited upon Him at His incarnation, and rested
upon Him, when on the earth. This is the first and prime object of the Spirit,
namely, "He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine, and show it unto you."
United as we are with Christ, by the power of the quickening Spirit, He can then
witness in His turn to us, "that as Christ is, so are we in this world," and
"make our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost." "Ye have an unction from the
Holy One," etc.

It will be easily perceived that all which has been stated, and which
distinguishes us as Christians, flows from the grace of God into which we are
called by the Son of His love, and from the perfection of Christ’s work on His
cross below, as well as from the glory into which He has been raised above. In
this range of blessedness which pertains to the new creation, and of which the
Son of man, as second Adam, takes the Headship, our prayers can have no part in
the way of means, either as to "sending the Holy Spirit, or receiving His
baptism." We are introduced by sovereign grace into this circle by the Father’s
love, and the prayer of His beloved Son, "Father, I will that those also whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which
thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." In
an earlier chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus had spoken of this further witness
and presence of the Holy Ghost in the midst "of his own who were in the world,"
as the result of His own prayer entirely. "I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." In John
16:1-33 : also, the coming of the Spirit depended upon the Lord’s absence from
His disciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him." Once more, in
John 14:1-31 :, which is very precious, because out of the range or need of our
prayers, as touching the Holy Ghost and any of His relations (which prayers some
suppose to be necessary to bring Him), Jesus says, "but the Comforter which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name," etc. The presence of the
Spirit of God on earth depended thus on the departure of our Lord — upon the Son
of man being glorified — and on the double action of the Father and the Son, as
further stated in the following verse, "but when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth
from the Father, he shall testify of me," etc.

It is evident that our Lord’s own prayer to the Father, and not ours in any way,
whether past or present, have to do with the descent of the Holy Ghost, or with
any of the relations which He undertakes and carries into effect, for the
accomplishment of the Father’s purpose, and the Son’s glory. Indeed this is the
only ground taken by the Lord when He actually leaves the disciples in Acts
1:1-26, and is carried up in a cloud into heaven; "being assembled together, he
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the
promise of the Father, which," saith He, "ye have heard of me." "The baptism of
the Holy Ghost" was thus a future thing, though proximate, yet not connected
with His resurrection from amongst the dead so much as with His departure and
place in heaven, as "Head over all things;" therefore He said to them, "Ye shall
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." This descent of the Spirit
of God was in effect the fruit of Christ’s own request to the Father, and not an
object of prayer on the part of others. It was a promise of the Father’s, and
further, a promise of the Son, for He adds, "which, saith he, ye have heard of
me." Moreover, His prayer, and this promise to send, coupled the fact of their
"receiving power" with the descent of the Spirit, "but ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses to me,
both in Jerusalem . . . . and to the uttermost parts of the earth."

Here it is of all importance to acknowledge a further peculiarity of this
dispensation, namely, that another and a new sample of men was left behind at
Christ’s ascension, and bidden to tarry for "the promise of the Father," and
"the baptism of the Holy Ghost." This new company waiting below were connected
with Christ, "the first-fruits," who had gone up as the wave-sheaf before God,
and as associated with whom James writes, "Of his own will begat he us, with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."

Before the Lord had ascended, and taken His own place as Head of the new
creation, the Holy Ghost could only witness and abide with one person on the
earth, and that One "the Word made flesh." The Spirit of God could not witness
to the perfection of Israel, even when under Solomon in all his glory, for they
were a nation in the flesh, and separated to God by external ordinances, and
were a responsible people to Jehovah their King, both by covenant, and as under
His government. It may be proper to notice here, that the Holy Spirit could, and
did, bear testimony to all that the God of Israel was and did amongst them by
His words and ways, and could likewise act on any individual — for Jehovah was
sovereign. The prophet Isaiah records this historically in Isaiah 63:1-19 :: "As
a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah caused him to rest; so
didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name." So in their
journeyings, "the angel of his presence saved them, in his love and in his pity
he redeemed them," etc. The presence of the Spirit was likewise amongst them
from the onset, for the prophet says, "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses
and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with
the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him?"
And, lastly, "but they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit; therefore he was
turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them."

Besides this recognition of the Holy Spirit in the general history of Israel,
and the ways of God towards them in government, we may as well introduce here
the cry of David, "the anointed of the God of Jacob," when he prayed, "Cast me
not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." This
penitential cry is often quoted to prove a coming and a going away of the Holy
Spirit in Christianity as in former days (so little is the abiding presence of
the Holy Ghost realised); but the dispensational difference which has been
already described is a sufficient answer to any such difficulty. In whatever
ways the Holy Spirit was with Moses, as the leader and commander of God’s people
Israel, and in whatever way the Holy Spirit was with the sweet psalmist as the
spirit of prophecy — or with the long line of the prophets in Old Testament
history — yet the Holy Ghost, as such, was never a witness to an economy which
consisted in types, and shadows, and patterns of the heavenly things to come,
and stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, imposed on them until
the time of reformation. The Holy Ghost waited for the heavenly things
themselves ere He could become the indwelling Spirit of a believer in Christ,
and the witness to the second Man, as Head over all things, or as the earnest of
the inheritance, and as the anointing and seal from God the Father to His many
sons. He could not be this till that "which was perfect was come."

We may now return to the Acts, to witness, as a matter of fact, the descent of
the Holy Ghost, which "filled all the house" where the men who tarried were
sitting. His coming was not what they had to pray for then or now (as some
affirm), when all were waiting in confident expectation of the gift. Nay, all
depended upon the Father and the Son, as touching "the promise, which ye have
heard of me!" Cloven tongues as of fire, which sat upon each of them, were the
result of Christ’s "prayer" to the Father, and of His own faithful love to those
whom He had left behind; and so "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and
began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." The
baptism of the Holy Ghost, which was promised "not many days hence," was come,
and they were under its grace and power. For the first time on earth there were
"men in Christ," united to Him who had gone up to heaven by the presence and
power of the Holy Ghost who had come down. He further claimed them in Christ’s
name, and possessed them for Himself as His temple, being one with the glorified
Head on high; "and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." What had been
promised was thus accomplished, and the Holy Ghost was present on earth as the
other Comforter sent by the Father, "to abide with us for ever." He takes His
place likewise as the formative power here, in uniting the members of Christ
together, "for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body," whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have "been all made to drink
into one Spirit." His power and presence, as we have said, is formative of the
present dispensation, and therefore necessary for the carrying out of the
Father’s counsels as to Christ and the church, "which is his body, the fulness
of him that filleth all in all." The presence of the Holy Ghost upon earth in
divine power is requisite, therefore, for the counsels of God, and for the glory
of Christ, in gathering the members of His body into this unity; and in
fashioning the bride, as the Lamb’s wife, in expectation of the day when the
marriage of the Lamb shall have come, and the bride have made herself ready. The
Holy Ghost, and His presence and actings on the earth, as sent by the Father and
the Son, "this other Comforter," is, further, a constituent part of our faith,
because essential to Christianity itself, which is dispensationally in the power
of the Spirit. "The baptism of the Holy Ghost" is thus indispensable to "the
church of the living God;" nor could there be "the body of Christ on earth,"
till His descent at Pentecost had witnessed afresh to the Lord as Head above,
and made known to us the presence and power by which "Christ and his members"
were to be formed, and united as one body. "So also is Christ." There was no
such work or operation as this till the Head was seated in the heavenlies; on
the contrary, up to the cross, and the crucifixion of Jesus, there was a
doctrine of baptisms and "laying on of hands," with a crowd of ordinances, which
only "served for the purifying of the flesh," before that Christ arose, as may
be seen abundantly in the Old Testament, and the synoptical gospels. A baptism
by water, in Jordan and elsewhere, was connected with John’s ministry, as the
forerunner of the Messiah; but this was for repentance and remission of sins,
and recognized man as still under the law. The disciples also of Jesus baptized
with water; but there could be no "baptism of the Holy Ghost," even in
connection with the Lord’s ministry, before His death and crucifixion; for there
was nothing on earth with which God was "well pleased," or in which He "could
rest with pleasure," except the Son of His own love, and He was buried. Our
eternal redemption by the cross of Christ has put us on the other side of the
flesh and the world and the devil’s power and dominion; and our union with
Christ by resurrection has associated us with Him in life, and "as new creatures
in the Father’s counsels and love," which were pre-determined before the
foundation of the world. It is this "mystery, which was hid in God," but is now
brought to light, and manifested in the glorified Son of man, that the Holy
Ghost witnesses to, and declares to us by the apostles, under the anointing of
the Spirit, in the epistles. This opens out the place, as well as the objects
and ministry of the Holy Ghost, in this present dispensation, and which required
His descent to carry out. He had, moreover, to form upon the earth that glorious
church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, which Christ will finally
present to Himself when He comes to fetch her.

"The baptism of the Holy Ghost," having relation to the members of Christ, is
therefore more corporate than individual, seeing that it is by it we are brought
into the unity of this body with all our fellow-members, and in which we are
respectively set as" it hath pleased God." His bestowment and presence cannot
therefore be the subject or object of our prayer and supplication, seeing that
the day of Pentecost is the record of His descent; and not only this, but that
those who waited the few days as representative men received this baptism, and
"were all filled with the Holy Ghost," and united to Christ as the Head with
ourselves. On our part His presence is to be acknowledged as abiding with us for
ever, and this forms our new responsibility as "men in Christ;" for example (and
individually), "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption;" and again (as in the assembly of God), "Quench not the
Spirit," despise not prophesyings.

We have thus looked at the Holy Ghost, not only as a Person revealed to us in
Christianity, as one with the Father and the Son, but chiefly as taking His
place of co-operation on earth, in this dispensation, and consequent upon the
departure of the Son to the Father. He is also the energizing power in
quickening, and gathering, and uniting the members of Christ to their Head in
heaven, by "the baptism" of the Holy Ghost. This, as we have said, is a more
corporate action of the descended Paraclete at Pentecost, than as a proper
personal expectation, and not, therefore, to .be understood or restricted to us
individually, like the indwelling of the Spirit, or as the Spirit of adoption.

Besides this formative power of the Holy Ghost, between the Head in heaven and
the members of Christ on earth, and this baptism, by which the body is gathered
out and completed, and the "unity of the Spirit" maintained and kept, there
remains yet to be considered what this new order of man is, and what this new
company of men are, who come out of "the upper chamber" in Acts 1:1-26 : — for
this is individual. Personally they are new creatures, born of God, and one with
their departed Lord in the Fathers love and counsels, in the many-mansioned
house. As to their description and nature, they are "men in Christ," and
correspondingly "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost," and tongues as of
fire sat upon each of them. Thus are they distinguished from all the Jews in
Jerusalem and Judea, and from mankind at large. Their characteristics are,
first, that they are individually united to Christ in life and righteousness,
who is gone up; and filled with the Holy Ghost, who has come down. There are
thus men upon the earth who are "not of the world, even as Jesus was not of the
world" — men who are one with the Second Adam above, and are to represent Christ
below as heavenly men, and to "walk as sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation," etc. Moreover, while this was their
peculiarity, as gathered out from the children of men, it was also their normal
state and description, as seen in "the Holy Ghost’s actings" throughout the
Acts. Perhaps one of the most convincing and remarkable proofs of this is
supplied in chapter 6:: "Wherefore look ye out among you seven men of honest
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," etc. Another may yet be added: "And
when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together;
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God
with ’boldness." Proofs of an opposite kind may also be stated, which sprang
from the enmity produced in those who were of the wicked one, against those who
were one with their Lord, and the consequent persecution "against the church"
which was at Jerusalem, so that the disciples "were all scattered abroad."

"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling
men and women, committed them to prison;" they that were after the flesh
persecuted them who were after the Spirit. Another proof of the contrariety
which thus originally existed may be gathered from the declension and growing
apostasy of these last and closing days, when the difference has been so
completely lost that the world cannot find anything like enough to Christ, or
sufficiently unlike itself, against which to stir up its enmity, or to call out
its persecution. This fact, however, ought only to give more earnest desire "to
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called," in the true confession of
what has been let go and departed from, through the craft of men, and by the
subtle wiles of Satan. Our responsibility is in the acknowledgment of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the distinctive relations in which by grace we
have been set, and in the confession that our sufficiency is of God. The rights
of Christ, and the privileges of His own, and the mystery of the church, are
inalienable and indestructible, and it is only adding to the confusion and
declension to say, "who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down from
above; or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again
from the dead." Nor is it different in principle to pray for the descent of the
Spirit, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which were promised by the Lord, and
sent from the Father and the Son at Pentecost, and which characterize
Christianity itself as the only adequate power on earth, whether for the
formation of the church of God, the body of Christ, or for making ready the
bride of the Lamb. The recognition of this "baptism of the Holy Ghost" is the
church’s responsibility, and should, in these days of departure from the truth,
be acknowledged and carried out, by a withdrawment from all the sects of
Christendom, the existence of which violates this "unity of the Spirit," and by
a refusal to co-operate with any, and all, who accept and build upon this
general declension which we see around. To make this condition a common ground
of alliance in confederated action is the sin of the day, and to use it as a
platform for united prayer and supplication to God, as is, alas! so usual
amongst the sects, is sad. Thus to turn round what is our shame, and reproach,
and default, into an occasion (not of repentance and confession), but of
combined effort by prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit, and for the baptism
of the Holy Ghost, is a very grave artifice of the enemy. The one grand
distinguishing mark of Christianity was the promise of the Father, which was
fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Ghost, as "the other Comforter," and "He
was to abide with us for ever." The outward manifestation of His power, in the
way of miracles, gift of tongues, raising the dead, and recovering of sight, may
have been withdrawn judicially from the church, because the presence of the Holy
Ghost has been forgotten, and treated as a thing of the past, and almost out of
mind. Even in these last days, just on the eve of the Lord’s own coming and the
church’s rapture, it is made the absorbing object of united supplication by the
sects that the Spirit may be poured out, or that the Pentecostal baptism of the
Holy Ghost may be received. The resource of faith now is in true repentance and
confession; not in conferences for the descent or baptism of the Holy Ghost, but
by "praying in the Holy Ghost, and building ourselves up on our most holy faith,
keeping ourselves in the love of God," etc. The remedy is not by unbelief in a
new form, and repeated by Christians towards the Holy Ghost, as it once was by
Israel in reference to the Lord, saying, "who shall bring him down from above,"
but what saith it? "The word is nigh thee," etc. "He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." The relief is to be found in the
unfailing grace of God to those who still get into the place of His mind through
His word, by the teaching and guidance of the Holy Ghost, which remaineth
amongst us, "whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
Confession that He has been sinned against, and dishonoured, and grieved, is the
right and true exercise of soul before God in days like these. Dependence on the
grace of Christ, and the Lord’s unchanging love to His own, are the open doors
for the reliance of faith, in any departure from Himself above, or in
forgetfulness of the Holy Ghost’s presence and operations on the earth. But to
refuse humiliation and confession (which would be so proper) because of this sin
against the Holy Ghost, and to combine in earnest prayer for His bestowment or
outpouring, and baptism, is to overlook the church’s responsibility, and to take
an antagonistic position to the truth of the dispensation. It is virtually to
say His descent at Pentecost has been falsified or forfeited, and that it
depended not upon the promise of the Father and the Son "to abide with us for
ever," but on the faithfulness of the church to Christ.

Any who at this present time have, on the other hand, taken this ground of
confession and humiliation on account of the sin of the professing church, and
refused to join in united prayer that God would send down the Spirit afresh,
have found by faith and obedience the sufficiency of the Lord’s love, and the
real presence of the Holy Ghost in their midst. Unbelief and Saul’s armour have
been by them refused, to make room for dependence and the power of the Spirit.
The twos and threes who thus meet together now throughout this kingdom, and in
other lands, have found the faithfulness of Christ in their weakness to be more
than enough, and there "am I in the midst of them" has been the rallying-point
in many a time of trial. "Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word,
and hast not denied my name," has often cast them in the confidence of
dependence upon the grace and sympathy "of him that is holy, and him that is
true," who has, in faithful love, "set before them an open door, and no man can
shut it." Not by might, nor by power, "but by my Spirit," saith the Lord, has
been their refuge: and the encouraging words of Paul to Timothy ("Be strong in
the grace that is in Christ Jesus," for patience and endurance, on the one hand;
or else, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might," for conflict,
on the other) have strengthened the feeble knees in prayer, and nerved the
outstretched arm in the hour of danger, Instead of entreaty for the Holy Ghost
to be sent (a more unhindered power in the Spirit has ever been their request).
And they remember the word of the Lord by Haggai to Israel, in their declension
and apostasy, "Yet now be strong . . . . for I am with you, saith the Lord of
hosts." This recovery and power lay in the fact of Jehovah’s presence in their
midst, as it is in these perilous times too: for the "foundation of the Lord
standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his; and let
every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

After the manner also "in which the Holy Spirit was with Moses and the people,"
when Jehovah brought them up out of Egypt with His glorious arm, as has been
previously referred to, so Haggai says in his prophecy, "according to the word
that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth
among you, fear ye not." The confidence and assurance of the remnant with
Zerubbabel rested upon the word, "for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts,"
having for its counterpart, "so my Spirit remaineth among you," and they proved
by faith and obedience their sufficiency to be in the living God, unbelief,
especially in an evil day, may easily turn the path of faith and dependence into
a provocation, as did Israel in the wilderness, or as does the professing church
now.

Forgetfulness or ignorance of "the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost" on earth,
or of "the Lord’s faithful love to His own" which are in the world "unto the
very end," has caused the prayers and supplications of Christians to be neither
in the truth nor in the Spirit. Their persistent maintenance of sectarian
systems and church establishments, which not only prove, but are themselves, the
departure from scripture, as respects the glorified Head of the church in
heaven, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost into one body on the earth, has
stopped the way for ages to the manifestation of this "unity of the Spirit."
This denial of the one body on earth has, on the other hand, thrown open its
flood-gates for union with the world, as seen in the multiplied religious and
political associations of today, crowned by "an Evangelical Alliance." As the
legitimate fruit of this spiritual fornication, the truth of Christianity, and
of the rights of the Son of man on high, have been sacrificed to the world’s
advancement. The formative power of the Holy Ghost for quickening and gathering
men out of the world into oneness with the ascended Lord, as Head over all
things to the church, has been in this way surrendered to "the prince of the
power of the air," for the advancement of man in the flesh where he is, and the
development of his faculties, in order to make the wrong world what it seems to
be. Besides this downward road of departure from the glory of God by the
responsible church on the earth, and from the glory of Christ in His Headship in
heaven, through the wiles of the enemy, there still lies, as we have seen, the
unbelief of the Lords own people as to the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost
with us for ever — not merely to quicken those who are dead in sins, and to
dwell in those who are thus born of God, but to "baptize the members of Christ
into one body, and to make them drink into one Spirit." The Holy Ghost, ever
true to the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son, has not changed in the
work which brought Him down at Pentecost, but is carrying it out; and "my Spirit
remaineth among you," together with, "I am in your midst," are the rallying
assurances for faith and obedience today. No sect on earth, and the refusal of
any, and every one of them, clears the way back "to the unity of the Spirit, in
the bond of peace," and opens the heart to the abiding truth and preciousness of
the "baptism of the Holy Ghost." It is not by abandoning to the enemy’s craft
the great fact of our dispensation, namely, the Spirit’s presence in power on
the earth, "to gather together in one the children of God," or by having
recourse to united prayer, and begging that He may be sent in power to baptize,
that any who are in the snare will get out of the spider’s web, but by the
acknowledgment of the truth, that He abideth faithful to the objects which
brought Him here, and thus take their places in the one body.

"Be strong," "fear not," are handed down for faith from generation to
generation. Moses rehearsed them to Joshua, with the addition from Jehovah
Himself, "As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee." Haggai, in the last days
of Israel’s past history, reassures the remnant of their sufficiency for an evil
day (and in the midst of general departure too) by the abiding faithfulness of
God, and the presence of His Spirit. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in
the fire," etc., are the encouraging words to "him that hath an ear" to hear
what the Spirit saith to the churches. Let all be careful not to reduce the Holy
Ghost’s presence in formative power in the church of the living God down to our
own individual relations to Christ, and the Spirit’s operations in us, wonderful
and blessed as these are, lest we should be satisfied merely with what He
witnesses of to us, and of which He is the earnest and seal, and so overlook the
glory of the Head. May our hearts, in the sense and enjoyment of all that is
individual, be the more free to acknowledge what is collective and corporate, by
the Spirit’s power, and baptism into one body, for the glory of Christ, the
Lord, and for the glory of God the Father, in another relation to Himself
personally, as "the members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." That
the Lord nourishes and cherishes these members now is a present fact, and proof
of what the Holy Ghost has come down to gather together in the unity of the
Spirit. He abides with us, in the exercise of this divine power which unites the
members thus to Christ, and forms the body on the earth, in hope of the
approaching nuptial day. In conclusion, let our corporate relations to Christ
and the body, at this present time, be understood, in the love that nourishes
and cherishes each one of His members, and be added to our individual ones, that
many who desire to know the truth of the church of God, but are still in the
sects around, may take their place outside them all, in the true unity of the
Spirit, and by this acknowledgment of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as members
of Christ, and of the same body, refuse to be schismatic, and bad builders. May
many be thus practically led into the realisation of their oneness with Christ
and the church, that in the enjoyment of an extended communion and fellowship
with all saints, they may "endeavour to keep" it with those who do. Beware of
surrendering "the church of the living God," and the truth of "the body and
bride of Christ," and the necessary "baptism of the Holy Ghost," as present
realities, to the enemy of Christ’s glory, and to human tradition. The object of
Satan is to keep man where he is, and to make him active, benevolent, and
philanthropic, in the darkness of this "present evil age," of which he is the
ruler. He seeks to get Christians off the ground of their heavenly calling, that
they may religiously become citizens and dwellers upon the earth, and so deny
their dignity as God’s fellow-workmen in another order of things, for the new
creation of God, with the second Adam, our glorified Lord and Head.

Satan encourages any use of Christianity or Christ, yea, and of the Holy Ghost,
that can be applied for the improvement of the world, and the advancement of
mankind in it, and thus triumphs over those who blindly accept the slavery "of
sweeping and garnishing the strong man’s house," as false to their confession of
Christ, in positive separation of life, and walk on earth; as well as untrue in
a daily denial of the world, the flesh, and the devil. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 23: S.   THE TESTIMONY OF OUR LORD
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"The Testimony of our Lord."

There is a difference, I judge, between what is called "the present testimony,"
and "the testimony of our Lord;" and, further, between this and "the testimony
of our Lord," in its external and kingdom character, of which Paul writes to
Timothy, when all in Asia had turned away from him.

Present testimony, for example, may be, and I suppose was, the subject on which
the prophets of the Old Testament wrote to Israel, as meeting their then state,
whether in the days of Isaiah, Haggai, or Malachi, as distinguished from the
testimony of Jehovah Himself, when He dwelt with the people of Israel in the
wilderness, with Moses and Aaron; or in Canaan, with Joshua and Eliezer: or in
the days and reign of king Solomon, when Jehovah filled the temple with His
glory, and entered into that rest with the redeemed nation.

Whatever the character of "the present testimony" of the prophets was, as
varying to suit the declension and final departure marked on the sliding-scale
of Israel’s apostasy; yet the original testimony to Jehovah Himself, and His
purpose to lead and establish His people in unfailing blessing (as well as to
judge and destroy all their enemies, from Pharaoh to Anti-christ) was
introduced, and shone out brightly here and there, to sustain the faith of the
remnant, and guide their hopes to a yet future day.

Isaiah was called forth, to declare to Israel in his prophecy their state as a
worshipping people, when tested by "the throne, high and lifted up, and the
holy, holy, holy One" — for this was their relation to God in privilege, as
their Jehovah. Long after this came Ezekiel, whose ministry was characterized by
"the glory of the God of Israel," and when this was also applied as a
measuring-line, and cast over the nation and people morally, it ended in
judgment and condemnation. The testimony both to "the throne of the Holy One,"
and to "the glory" which followed them in the wilderness, and dwelt with them in
the city of Jerusalem, was violated and forfeited. Like Isaiah in his day, so
Ezekiel saw the glory depart, and became the witness of the sad consequences to
the rebellious people — nevertheless, he prophesied of its return with the
Messiah, and the nation’s ultimate blessing, when the whole world shall be
filled with the glory of God. Thus, in the ministry of the prophets, we get
present testimony, and yet the original and future testimony of Jehovah to
Himself connected therewith, in His unfailing power and goodness. When we open
the New Testament, we find the same distinction maintained in the ministry of
Jesus and His disciples, as regards "the testimony of the kingdom of God," which
was then preached to the Jews, and presented in the person of Christ. He took
the highest place in it on earth, when on the Mount of transfiguration with His
disciples, He shone forth as the sun in majesty and glory — all was ready on His
part. This testimony to the "Son of man coming in His kingdom" was changed,
however, and became "present testimony," by the parables of our Lord in Matthew
13:1-58 :, because it had to do also with the state and condition of the nation,
in their then alienation of heart from Jehovah-Messiah.

Consequent on the rejection of Christ and the kingdom, and His exaltation at the
right hand of God, as "Head over all things to the church, which is His body,"
it is obvious that any and all subsequent testimony must suit itself to the
glory of His person as sitting there; and if in full manifestation, as embracing
both the heavens and the earth. The counsels of the Father’s love (which had
been hidden in God), and His outward government, henceforth take the double
character of what was visible and invisible in their communication to men; or
seen and not seen. The Second Man, accordingly, as the rejected King and Lord,
crowned with glory and honour by God in heaven, became the subject of external
and general testimony to the world, which had crucified Him; whether as making
known the riches of God’s grace, for life and salvation, through faith now, or
as the coming King, whose claims and titles will be established; by God in power
and judgment; so that "every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Besides this outward and general "testimony of our Lord" and His Lordship, there
is (as has been expressed) the internal or hidden testimony to the church which
is His body, and confined by the Holy Ghost to those who are, by grace and
heavenly calling, the members of Christ in life; and brought into this unity one
with another by the baptism of the Spirit. These two kinds of witness are
plainly seen in the various epistles of Paul and others; that is, the external
and internal testimony of our Lord. For instance, "that the preaching might be
fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear," as an outward testimony; and
"the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which
was kept secret since the world began," as the gathering testimony into the
unity of the Spirit. In applying these remarks to a given epistle (namely, the
2nd to Timothy), may it not be that Paul goes over with his "son in the faith"
the constituent parts of this outward and general "testimony of our Lord, and of
Paul his prisoner," of which Timothy was not to be ashamed, etc.? an external
testimony, not only to every creature under heaven, but to professors then or
now, and also suited to "the last times," of which the epistle treats; beginning
from "a promise of life in Christ Jesus," and extending to His future coming as
"the Judge of quick and dead, at his appearing and his kingdom." The whole
breadth, in short, of what makes up Christianity in external testimony,
reserving the revelation of "the mystery" of the Head and the Body for other
epistles, like the Colossians and Ephesians; and not even introducing it hero,
with "the great house, and its vessels to honour and dishonour." Does not this
epistle contain a public and important side of "the testimony of our Lord,"
about which Paul exhorts his son in the faith? If it does, it is easy to see in
what this testimony consists, in its various chapters, as an external witness to
men of the displacement of the first Adam by the appearing of the Second; and
then of His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God to take the
kingdom, till He returns as the Judge.

Reference has already been made to the opening "Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ
Jesus." Also, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love, and of a sound mind," for its public declaration. And, "be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God."
These verses declare another life in Christ Jesus, promised by God, which has by
the incarnation long ago passed out of promise into accomplished fact, and of
external public manifestation to the world. Life and incorruptibility have been
brought to light by the appearing of Jesus Christ. God maintains by power and
courage in His servants what qualifies them to be the witnesses to Christ, and
to this eternal life in Christ, which necessarily sets aside the first man, not
only as to the counsels of God, but now, in fact, as to his sin-life and nature.
The pre-Adamite Man in divine philosophy is Christ. A second Man in Adam’s
world, walking through it as the life and the light of men in quickening power,
cast down all the pretensions of mankind, and raised the persecutions and
afflictions which came upon Paul, and in which he exhorted Timothy to be a
partaker. God’s "own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus,
before the world began," and by which we "are saved, and called with an holy
calling, not according to our works," reduced the creature down to clay in the
hands of the potter, and is the next part of this testimony of our Lord. To this
is added what Christ did on the cross, as the ground of God’s new action in
grace towards us, for eternal salvation and effectual calling. The appearing of
our Saviour Jesus Christ has made this "purpose of God" manifest in fact. This
testimony of our Lord also affirms that He has "abolished death, and brought
life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel;" of which Paul was
appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher among the Gentiles, for the
obedience of faith. The confidence and assurance of Paul are then stated. "I
know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded he is able to keep that which I
have committed to him against that day." He also exhorts Timothy to hold fast
the form of sound words, and to keep that good thing which was committed to him
by the Holy Ghost.

We have thus the qualifications which God knew to be needed, and which He
provided, that the testimony of our Lord in itself might be preserved
uncorrupted through "faith and love which is in Christ Jesus," and that the
witnesses might not be ashamed or afraid in delivering it. Looked at in relation
to God and to the Lord, it would, in effect, turn the world upside down, and
finally turn Satan out of it; even as it had put aside man as self-sufficient,
in all his pretensions of life, wisdom, or righteousness — because Christ, and
the purpose of God in Him before the world was, have come in to take effect.
God’s new order in His new creation is this — "Christ is all, and in all." A
double testimony, which thus makes nothing of man, except to save him, and which
makes everything of the Second Man in the efficacy of His death, as coming into
it, to abolish it and sin too; a testimony which affirms His titles and
prerogatives as Judge and only Lord (now that "He is raised from the dead," and
gone back to the Father in glory) was too revolutionary and extreme to be
entertained. Those even who had embraced this testimony (purposed by God in
grace and wisdom before the world was, and now brought into it by sovereign
power, through the appearing of Christ) had turned away from Paul. This record
ends the first chapter, the refusal of the testimony is complete as regards
those in Asia.

"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," and
remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, raised from the dead according to
my gospel — are the subjects of the second chapter — "wherein," as Paul says, "I
suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not
bound." Jesus and the resurrection (as forming another part of this public
testimony of our Lord), whether among the Jews at Thessalonica, or among the
Athenians at Areopagus, was not only a new doctrine, but led to the accusation
that the apostle was "a setter forth of strange gods" by preaching it. Jesus and
His appearing, by which be brought life and incorruptibility to light, was the
resource of those who were under the law of sin and death: and also was the
avowal on the part of God to rescue man out of the fallen and sinful state he
was in. "Jesus and the resurrection" proved also the rejection by the world of
the One who had come into it. Philosophy at Mars’ hill was overthrown by this
"strange god," who had entered by incarnation, and departed out of the world by
ascension. Corrupted Judaism was overturned as a religion on the earth, which
had not kept these prophetic records of Jesus and the resurrection, as its
divine deposits and treasures. That He had abolished death, and brought life and
incorruptibility to light, were new doctrines, and strange things, even to the
nation of Israel; and to the Gentile prisoners, who were groaning in their
chains, fast bound in the snare of the devil, and led captive by him at his
will. The whole world was turned against its Deliverer and Lord. A new and
heavenly association with Christ, through His own death, and our death made good
in His resurrection, is the next part of the testimony — "therefore I endure all
things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is
in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead
with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with
him," etc. But now, as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, and the testimony of
Jehovah’s power, when the typical rod in Egypt wrought their deliverance from
Pharaoh; so do Hymenaeus and Philetus, and men of corrupt minds, resist divine
truth, and become reprobate concerning this faith and its glorious triumphs,
presented to them by the appearing and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Paul is himself in chains. The righteous judgment of God must finally accomplish
by power this "testimony of our Lord" on behalf of those who wait for the
salvation which is in Christ with eternal glory. Therefore Paul charges Timothy,
"before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead,
at his appearing and his kingdom," to preach the word, and be instant in season
and out of season. The outward and visible witness to the glory of Christ’s
person, and His rights, titles, and prerogatives made good in resurrection, will
thus be established another day, and manifested in "his kingdom" of power and
public rule, when all His enemies shall be trodden under foot. There is another
King, one Jesus, to come in, "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood."

Paul, the prisoner of the Lord in this world, will receive and wear "the crown
of righteousness" in that which is to come at that day; and riot to him only,
but to all them also that love His appearing. Is not this the nature of Paul’s
preaching, in its external and kingdom character? The roaring lion would have
swallowed up this witness of "the testimony of our Lord," brought in against the
"liar and murderer from the beginning." "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me,
and strengthened me," Paul says, "and I was delivered out of the mouth of the
lion." In the confidence of "Jesus and the resurrection," and the Lord’s
appearing to "judge the quick and the dead," in the coming kingdom; Paul accepts
the sentence of death below, "keeps the faith, fights the good fight," knowing
that there is laid up for him a crown of life and righteousness with the King of
kings, and Lord of lords, in that day of unfailing and eternal glory. Thus the
circle of external testimony is complete in its constituent parts respecting the
Lord Himself, by His appearing — His rejection — His death — His resurrection —
His reappearing as Judge of quick and dead, and as the rewarder (of a crown of
righteousness) to those who enter with Him into His kingdom and glory. The
kingdom, and its outward public manifestation, is a subject of testimony in 2
Timothy, as well as of its fulfilment. The church, the body of Christ, is the
unseen bride of His own affections, to be displayed in the Father’s kingdom,
when the marriage of the Lamb shall come, and the bride have made herself ready.
She has veiled herself from outward gaze in the meanwhile, and does not at
present form part of the public testimony of her Lord, in the times of the great
house, and of evil men and seducers! The elect, who are called to obtain the
salvation of Christ with eternal glory, are in the secret of the mystery, and in
the enjoyment of the Bridegroom’s love; in the blessed hope of His voice from
the mountain tops, and the shout that shall call them up to meet Him, and be
like Him, and be with Him. Till then "we are the epistle of Christ," known and
read of all men. This may mark the difference between this external testimony of
our Lord in 2 Timothy to the world, and the inward or gathering power of the
epistles to Ephesus and Colosse; and between things seen and unseen. Yet their
combination is essential, as constituting the entire testimony to our blessed
Lord, whose glory fills the heavens above and the earth beneath, and in which He
establishes finally both the church and the kingdom. J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 24: S.   THE THRONE OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN
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The Throne of God and the Son of Man.

It is important to distinguish between the ways of God in government on this
earth, whilst nations and peoples are living upon it, in all the busy activities
of human enterprise; and the judgment after death, which awaits mankind, when
"small and great, stand before God, and the books are opened." The difference
maintained in the scriptures between a first and second death is marked and bold
— at the end of a "threescore years and ten" life, in this world; or in the
beginning of that undying life of woe hereafter, when "whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." There are, further,
important distinctions, and varieties in the present ways of God, towards the
Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church, some of which it is my object to notice. So
real indeed is this difference in the governmental actings of God in time, that
a Gentile can never with propriety take on himself the responsibility of a Jew —
nor a Jew charge himself with the responsibilities of a Gentile — nor a
Christian with either. Moreover when Christ was on the earth, and standing in
His own peculiar relation to each of these classes, who has not loved to trace
Him in the perfectness of His own paths, and intercourse with each, as He enters
into the narrower circle of the nation of Israel, at one time; or passes into
the broader one as a man, in the midst of mankind; or at last in that new group
of men and women, who were the nucleus of Christianity, and of a new-born
Christian people? He weeps over his own city Jerusalem before He leaves the
world. He sends the Holy Ghost down from the heavens, when He is gone up there,
"to gather out from the Gentiles," a people for His name; and He is coming a
second time to call away the Church from this earth, when "the marriage of the
Lamb is come." Who does not see these differences in result, as "the Jews, and
the Gentiles, and the Church of God" in their various relations to Christ are
viewed now in the light or shade of their respective histories; or when each is
glorified in the glory of the coming Lord and of the approaching King and His
kingdom?

What will be manifestly true in outward form and fact then, when "the oil of
joy" and "the garment of praise" take their place and do their work, had an
equal reality, but a very opposite one, when dispensationally and "in the days
of his flesh" that blessed Jesus, who will fill all hearts with gladness,
"offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears," as He
entered into the afflictions of His people, or took His place as "the Man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief." It is to this part of the wondrous life of
Christ, in these varied trials of man and of Israel, when He went His weary way
through this earth, that the following remarks will be confined — the past; and
with this part of that engrossing past! Before the great mystery of godliness,
"God manifest in the flesh," had appeared, Isaiah had been called forth in that
magnificent outburst of prophecy, to measure the nation and its worship, by
nothing less than "the throne and the temple" of the sixth chapter, and "the
holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts." What less than this standard could the Jehovah
of that day apply to "the Commonwealth?" Indeed we shall see that whenever God
introduces any fresh manifestations of Himself in power and grace, these
necessarily form in righteous government the new responsibilities of the people.
And Isaiah will say, "Woe is me, for I am undone," as he weighs himself in these
balances, "because I am a man of unclean lips;" or, as he applies this standard
of the throne and the temple and the Holy One to the state and condition of all
around, he will add "for I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips," and
assign as the groundwork of the whole action "for mine eyes have seen the King
the Lord of hosts!" The theocracy of Israel was maintained in their midst by the
throne and by the temple, and Isaiah must first, as the testifying witness from
Jehovah to His people, judge himself in the presence of the Holy One, as we have
seen, and then go forth with the balances of the sanctuary, and declare
everything according to truth and to God, as he does throughout his prophecy,
with the reserves of Jehovah’s grace and the resources of the people either for
present faith, or else for a future day in sovereign power. The throne and the
temple had not only distinguished Israel, but likewise the glory had travelled
along with them in their journeyings, and accompanied them to the last; and had
in temple days of rest made its abode in their midst. What a people are they
under Solomon their king!

Another prophet from "the river of Chebar" must in his turn be called forth to
estimate morally the condition of Jerusalem according to "the vision of the
glory!" And who has not mourned, as chapter after chapter shows us the reasons
why the glory is first grieved, and then seen lingering over God’s centre of
earthly blessing — hovering upon the city and the people till, hopelessly
grieved, it departed! The principle is a very simple, but very important one,
whether viewed in the light of Isaiah’s "throne and temple," or Ezekiel’s
"vision of the glory;" and the principle is this — whatever God bestows, if
rightly used, becomes the sure guarantee and measure of the people’s blessing;
and if not held for Jehovah’s honour, He cannot accredit His people in their
disobedience, and will "profane His throne by casting it down to the ground,"
and by recalling the outward and visible glory, as in Ezekiel’s time. It is not
my intention to go into the touching details of these two prophecies, but only
to seize the characteristics which mark each in its way; and which especially
bear on the subject of this paper. I might add that Jeremiah is as perfect as
these two prophets: only he of course will not be charged to view the state of
the nation, and its responsibilities, by "the royal throne," or "the visible
glory," but will report all according to the two covenants of Hagar and Sarah,
or of Mount Sinai or Mount Zion. Hence, he will say in the depth of his
Lamentations, "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is
she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations and princess among
the provinces, how is she become tributary!" And now that prophecy has brought
to light present delinquency and the threatened forfeiture of all that Jehovah
had given, except they nationally repented, what greater prophet than Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, is yet to follow? what greater person than these, or any
of their predecessors, is yet to come in upon the scene, and vindicate the
offended rights of the throne of Majesty, and of the grieved and departed glory,
and of the broken covenants? Should there be any such One in reserve, as there
surely is, upon the pages of each of these three prophecies, yet how shall He
"when the fulness of the time is come" vindicate these to the full, without also
going down into the righteous consequences of the nation’s disobedience in this
earth? Inflictions had come upon them on account of what Isaiah, and Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel had respectively been commissioned to bring to light, and upon what
righteous plea are these to cease and be changed, save upon the fact that He,
who in due time would vindicate and secure by Himself the offended rights and
claims of Jehovah, would also by entering into the sorrows and afflictions of
His own people, and suffering with them, cry out from their very depths to
Jehovah, and be heard because of His own perfections and obedience, and in this
way discharge all preceding liabilities, and even found a new claim before God
as a man, and an Israelite, on the double title of His own glorious person and
of having glorified God upon the earth! What a pathway was marked out for the
blessed Lord, if we call to mind the Levitical types and ask ourselves, who is
to take them all up and fulfil them, but He to whom they point?

Again, when the prophecies come before the mind in their double character of
present consequences governmentally, as well as of future recovery and
blessings, who is there that can clear away all the existing obstructions and
charge himself with the formation of new, and abiding, and permanent positions
upon this earth, whether for man or for Israel, but He whose meat and drink it
was to do the will of the Father who sent Him, and to finish His work? Who could
magnify the law and make it honourable, but that very Jesus whom the law could
not measure? As regards all besides, whether under Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel,
the law disclosed the fact "that the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch
himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it."
Jesus alone has found "meat out of the eater, and honey out of the strong." The
line of the promises and of covenanted blessings from the first to the last,
whether as centred in Adam, Abraham, Noah, or David, are all "made yea and amen
in Christ," and will as surely be "to the glory of God by us" in their
respective times and seasons. Do we think of ancient prophecies? the Lord
Himself will tell us, "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John." Do
we think of the whole of the Old Testament, as to its applications and
fulfilments in its long line of shadows, and types, and fingerposts? that same
Jesus will say, "These are the words that I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and
in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me." The place which John the
Baptist held is remarkable in every way. All previous testimony gave place to
him, and as "the prophet of the Highest," in the song of Zacharias, or as "the
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God," in the older strains of Isaiah;
or in the more modern narrative of Matthew, "The same John had his raiment of
camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts
and wild honey" — all these witnesses serve to tell us that the greatest of
those "who are born of women" will readily give way to the alone Lord, whose
paths he was making straight. Who does not love to hear John himself say, "Ye
yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent
before him;" and again, "He must increase, but I must decrease." "He that hath
the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and
heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy
therefore is fulfilled." The prison in a later day, and its voice by John’s
disciples, "Art thou he that should come or look we for another?" will tell us
how this "friend of the bridegroom" would readily precede his Jesus Messiah as a
suffering witness, and change his joy into present sorrow if "the way of the
Lord and the highway of our God" took that course. Still later, "John the
Baptist’s head in a charger" will declare how worthily in all respects, both in
life and in death, he would "make straight in the desert" at one time, or in
"the rough valley neither eared nor sown" at another time, the ordered goings of
"the desire of all nations." Precious thus to anticipate the ordained path and
the appointed steps which Jehovah-Jesus would tread; a path as truly ordered in
the counsels of eternity as ever they were taken in time: or as when the body
"thou hast prepared me" was necessary, in which every purpose from everlasting
to everlasting was to be carried out in the veiling manhood below! Promises and
types, prophecies and testimonies, the throne and the temple, the long line of
anointed kings and the longer line of consecrated priests, have all done their
work and served their purpose: and what a work and purpose was theirs!
Refreshing as every soul has found it, to view the incarnate and suffering One
in the lights and shadows of the past, with what joy do we bid adieu to
testifiers and prophets, yea, to the very last and greatest of them, and feel
our relief as we rest our eyes and hearts on "One" object, and only "One," in
the whole universe around us — "Jesus, the Lamb of God," and He "dwelling
amongst us." The ways of Jehovah in government and in grace will all centre in
this delight of the Father’s bosom. Nothing less than what is personal, and
personally perfect, is now between God Himself, in the supremacy of His own
holiness, and men on the earth, "publicans and sinners," with whom this "child,
born into the world," will grow up; and as He grows form a new foundation for
His joys and sorrows, His delights and His sympathies. No longer with "the
morning stars," who shouted for joy when, as the Creator, day after day, He gave
them their fresh occasions of praises and of songs, till "the seven days’ work"
was finished; but in a ruined world, where all was wrong, and sinners in their
sins around Him; where all was one universal groan to God in felt misery, and in
a yet more fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation hereafter. He,
He Himself, is come into our midst in grace; these groans and tears, these sighs
and sorrows, and their deep, deep causes, measured in their infinite extent as
towards God, and Satan, and man, upon this earth in time, and in hell eternally,
have gone up to the bosom of the Father, and brought out "the Son of his own
love," as when in typical times the unconsumed bush, and the fire, and the voice
called out a Moses as the deliverer of a captive people. Then "the Lord said, I
have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard
their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and am come
down to deliver them . . . and to bring them up out of that land," etc. Now all
eyes are upon this Jesus-Emmanuel, the Son of the Highest, in the place of the
lowest; come "not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and, in due season,
"to give his life a ransom for many." The heavens, and the earth, and hell, are
each and all, for these varying reasons, moved at His coming. Anointed of the
Spirit, and led of the Spirit, according to every declared thought and purpose
of God, and every manifested act and deed in righteous government amongst men
and Israel, He will measure the whole claims and calls upon His own person; and,
single-handed, for He has no fellow, stoop down to greatness and victory; and
stoop He will to vindicate and justify God in the very place where man by
independence and pride had lost himself and ruined all that had been
munificently put under his lordship. Man, in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, has now embodied and charged and taken all upon Himself that concerns
the glory of God in His ways upon earth — and, as a stranger in the earth, He
will nevertheless be at home with "a sinful man" in a boat, or with "a woman at
the well," or with "a master in Israel." If He leaves the place of the stranger,
and takes that of "the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," it will be to
learn in spirit, with a widow of Nain, how to descend into the depths of her
troubled heart, as His own sympathies entitle Him to do. Will He leave Nain for
Bethany? it will be with Mary and Martha to enter into their sorrows and
sufferings, and make Himself master of the whole scene, as He mingles His tears
with theirs, and surpasses them all in His own perfectness, as He groans to God
and according to God. He will take up the whole range of sin, and death, and the
grave, and corruption in the depths of genuine human feelings; as great in the
tears He shed as in the groan He uttered, or as in the voice which cried
"Lazarus, come forth!"

If we narrow the circle of our observation, and see Him in the midst of "his
own" after the flesh, in more strict Israelitish associations and goings, who
does not love to view the Messiah with a repentant remnant, "confessing their
sins" in the swellings of Jordan? Will He join them there and identify Himself
with them in those depths, for other reasons, and be to the broken heart and
troubled conscience a nobler guarantee of a safe passage to blessing than ever
Joshua and the typical "ark of the covenant" witnessed in (externally) a more
triumphant period of their history? He will do this, and if a "Jesus baptized"
goes outside and beyond the scope of John’s thoughts and ministry, He will give
the key to His prophet and forerunner by saying, "thus it becometh us to fulfil
all righteousness," and all will be well between them. Sorrows and their reliefs
met together at Nain; tears, and groans, and their resources met together at
Bethany: just as a repentant people in their sins and "the fulfiller of all
righteousness" begin to settle these matters with the heavens and with Jehovah
in the waters of Jordan.

Jesus-Emmanuel is making everything His own concern, in living obedience to His
Father, or in loving sympathies with all around Him; and in the midst of His own
sorrows and sufferings going down in moral perfectness, where none but He could
make a path for Himself, and out of that new place, where devotedness to God,
and obedience as a servant, and sympathy as a man, and sufferings in grace, had
led him to cry to God out of such trials and sorrows, and only cried to be heard
and answered. The Gospel by Luke will take us along the lonely paths of this
sometimes solitary Man, though never an isolated One. How could this be with
Him, who had come down into the whole range of God’s dishonour, and of Satan’s
triumph, and of man’s disgrace and defeat? No, never withdrawn from "the
Father’s business," though often withdrawn from surrounding things about that
business, we find Him throughout Luke as the dependent but confident One. "He
withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed;" and if we quit this
wilderness, Luke will tell us, "It came to pass in those days that he went out
into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." What a night
was this! — the Son of man upon this earth, taking on Himself all the failures
and liabilities of men in their relation to the powers of God in righteousness,
and justifying the Judge of the whole earth by accepting the consequences of
their disobedience, and making that the very starting-point of His own walk with
God and men below. Where could He look but to heaven? with whom could He speak
on matters like these, but with the Jehovah of Israel? and to whom could He pray
but to Him who accredited this Son of man at the outset by the voice from the
opened heavens, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased?" Our blessed
Lord will not only take all these accumulated liabilities on Himself and glorify
God by their means, but, whilst doing this in righteous obedience and suffering,
He will carry all their weight and pressure to God, and in "the night seasons"
not be silent; yea, "meditate on thee in their night watches." At this point we
may connect the offended holiness of Isaiah’s day, in its separation from
backsliding Israel, with the re-establishment of the Holy One, not as yet with
the nation, but with the true Israelite, the Messiah and Head of that people, as
"the Spirit of God, like a dove descending, lighted upon him;" or as the
annunciation by the angel declared to Mary, "that holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Precious fruits are these in their seasons! Likewise the broken covenant of "the
Lord our righteousness," as proclaimed in the time of Jeremiah, will no longer
be estranged from "the wilderness of Judea." The Messiah is in the baptism of
Jordan, as the "fulfiller of all righteousness," and the heavens are opened to
Him. In like manner the grieved and departed glory of Ezekiel’s day will await
Him, till He in righteous title walks up the mount of transfiguration, and when
"as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was
white and glistering." The voice from the excellent glory, "this is my beloved
Son," will find its resting-place once more, and neither the glory, nor "the
Lord our righteousness," nor "the Holy One of Israel," will ever be grieved
again; but "holiness upon the bells of the horses" in a coming day shall be the
"ribbon of blue," and "thy people shall be all righteous" will be their
millennial name under "the new covenant" and their Mediator; and Ezekiel’s
"vision of glory," with the Spirit and the wheels in all their activities, shall
be the new characteristics of the relations of Jehovah with His beloved people,
when Jerusalem shall shake herself from the dust at "Arise and shine, for thy
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." In His own person,
the Messiah, Jehovah-Jesus, has secured the old relationships between the Lord
and that nation, and will make them good for the people by His work upon the
cross, where (having vindicated the righteous government of God in the earth by
His living perfectness) He will glorify His Father still further, by means of
sin, and death, and the grave, and will charge Himself with our personal
transgressions and judgment, and, as the sacrifice and substitute, suffer — "the
just for the unjust to bring US to God." Positions, and new ones, as regards
their foundations and stability, are won for Israel, and through Israel for the
Gentiles upon the earth, in the coming dispensation. Redemption by blood, and
resurrection in life and power, in the ascended and glorified Lord and Head,
must have their place and get their hold in every future position, and how
securely will all feet stand upon this Rock of Ages! — the stone which the
builders once refused, become now and for ever "the head of the corner." In the
title and ways by which He has thus won back and secured all that was out of
place and out of position, both for man and for Israel, by His own personal
righteousness and obedience — by the descending steps which He took and which
led Him into the consequences of His people’s rebellion, when living in their
midst, that in all their afflictions He might participate and be afflicted and
take all their sufferings up according to God. A new footing was found for Him
who did all this, and a call made on "the throne of the Majesty in the heavens"
from the righteous Sufferer below! Another and a new link is thus formed between
God and this "Son of man" — between Jehovah and this true Israelite. And He who
has secured all by going down into their sorrows and trials is become the
procurer of reliefs and mercies and blessings for them on the way. Their
Messiah, who will be the leader of their praises, in the future time, when the
great congregation shall once more shout and fall upon their faces, in the
consciousness of full and everlasting deliverance, is now the leader of this
same people in their present condition, and the foremost in their midst, as "the
minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made
unto the fathers." The Jerusalem over which her Messiah wept, when her sons and
daughters "would not be gathered," the city of the great king, which could not
penetrate the veiled majesty and glory, when He rode into her very centre as the
meek and lowly One, sitting on a colt, the foal of an ass — the nation under its
Caiaphas, which condemned Him as a blasphemer, when He at last lifted the veil
and confessed Himself to them — the people who mocked Him, and denied Him in all
His rights and titles, will yet be pardoned for these added enormities on the
person of the Jesus-Emmanuel, according to that prayer, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." Nevertheless, in righteous government Jerusalem
shall receive "at the Lord’s hands double for all her sins," till "her warfare
is accomplished" and her iniquity and blood-guiltiness forgiven. "How is the
faithful city become an harlot: it was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in
it, but now murderers . . . therefore saith the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty One of
Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies."

How really Jesus made all their sorrows His own, and how truly He took all up
with them, according to God, when in their midst, is not only witnessed by His
tears over Jerusalem, but at the close of His varied ministries, and when He had
been rejected in them all, and He is forced into the place of the "Prophet," as
the witness from Jehovah against them! He will even then say "for the elect’s
sake those days shall be shortened." If He sees nothing but their passing
through the time of tribulation "spoken of by Daniel the prophet," He will
precede them in the thoughts of His own loving heart, and say, "then let them
which be in Judea flee to the mountains, and let him which is on the house top
not come down to take anything out of his house." His considerate pity will
direct "him which is in the field," and awaken afresh His companions, as He
says, "Woe unto them that are with child, and to them which give suck in those
days." Moreover, He will guide them in that distressing hour of their yet future
punishment, as well as associate Himself with them in John the Baptist’s days,
and say, "pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath
day." He will enter with them into the very dangers of that hour, and leave a
word of caution for His elect, "then if any man shall say unto you, Lo here is
Christ, or there, believe it not; for there shall come false Christs, and false
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders." Precious it is to hear Him
add "inasmuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect;" and
then close up these last words of parting sorrow with "behold I have told you
before" — perfect in everything, as He alone could be! The foremost in our
sorrows and griefs and sufferings in the governmental ways of God on the earth
is viewed also in the light of the future by Isaiah, where He says, "Behold my
servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my
Spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles . . . . He shall
not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the
isles shall wait for his law." This Spirit on Christ below, or as the Spirit of
prophecy on Isaiah, or as the Spirit in the Psalmist of Israel, or as the
descended Spirit in Paul, will associate each in his varied relations and in his
respective seasons, with the marvellous history, past, present, and future, of
Jehovah’s favoured nation! Like the Moses of their earliest days when, in
intercession for the sin of the people, he said, "If not, I pray thee blot me
out of thy book which thou hast written," so will Paul take up the accumulated
sins and heavier condemnation on account of a rejected Messiah and a crucified
Christ and Lord, in Romans 9:1-33 : "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are
Israelites," etc. The apostle who "travailed in birth" a second time (for the
Galatians bewitched), till Christ was formed in them, will turn his aching heart
back upon his" kinsmen" in the flesh, and even say in deeper tones, "I could
wish that I myself were separated from Christ, for my brethren." The Paul, who
with a broken spirit said "Many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is
destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things," will exceed himself, and go into depths where tears and
travail in birth cannot be the measure of his heaviness and continual sorrow of
heart, as he declares, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." We may well ask, in the surprise which
such language creates in our souls, what character of sorrows and sufferings are
these, in behalf (not of the Church, but) of a people "to whom pertaineth the
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the
service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as
concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen?"

How little we even know of such sympathies, and sorrows, and heavinesses, and
their effects, whether in an apostle or in a Messiah as He bore all upon the
perfectness of His own heart, with this very race of people, during the three
and thirty years of His exercised soul according to the holiness of God! Can a
Moses in ancient days outshine in the depth of his feelings their own
Messiah-Jesus? Will the apostle of the Gentiles go beyond his Lord and Master in
this dispensation, in this "continual sorrow of heart," in this "truth in
Christ" to which "the Holy Ghost is witness?" Who among us will not rather
confess that there are ranges of sorrows and sufferings in the scriptures with
which we are but little acquainted — classes of experience in the Psalms, the
prophets, and Moses, which we may do well to learn unshod; and in this, as in
all other respects, sit at Jesus’ feet and be taught by Him? Shall our
selfishness as Christians only lead us to know our blessed Lord as easily
touched with our infirmities, now that He is in the heavens, feeling what every
member feels? or shall we know Him also as entering into the state and condition
in which any of the members of His earthly people suffer, that He may be as
perfect in sympathy with them below as He is with the Church now that He is on
high? No, rather let us bow down in worship and adoration as we see Him doing
the Father’s will from first to last, and marvel as we are taught; "for it
became (God) to make the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings."
"He suffered, being tempted." "In all their afflictions, He was afflicted."
Precious Jesus, Emmanuel, Messiah, the Christ, and Lord! Son of man, Son of God,
the Son! J. E. Batten. (On the testimony of T. B. Baines.)


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  CHAPTER 25: S.   THE CROSS OF CHRIST
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"The cross of Christ." The cross is the place where all that was against us, our
transgressions and iniquities — in fact, the things done, and the nature which
did them — were laid upon Christ: "our old man is crucified with him." He bore
the full judgment of God on their account in His sufferings on the cross. He
carried them all down to death, under the wrath which He endured, that He might
leave them in the place of ashes, having made atonement by the shedding of His
own blood. God has there put an end to man in the flesh, to sin and sins, by the
judicial death of Christ as our substitute; and Christ, having brought these
things under the eye and hand of God to be thus dealt with, has for ever put
them away from before God, and from us, by the sacrifice of Himself. The cross,
moreover, is the place where the nature of God has been vindicated; for the full
claims of His holiness, and majesty have been met, and His glory established, by
what Christ has borne, and the judgment that fell upon Him there. The penalties
too, which divine righteousness inflicted on the man who fell, have been met,
and endured, and set aside; yea, more than this, for Christ has "taken the cup"
from the hand of God and drunk it to the dregs. What was contrary to God is gone
for ever, and gone by death. Nothing remains but the blood in the prevalence of
its own efficacy, shed where we were, and because of what we were, as sinners in
our sins; but carried in where God is, in the supremacy of His holiness; and we
are thus "reconciled to God by the death of his Son."

Again, the cross is the place where all that was contrary to us has been taken
out of the way; the middle wall of partition, which separated man from his
fellow (the Jew and the Gentile), has been there broken down. "Christ has
abolished in his flesh the enmity . . . . for to make in himself of twain, one
new man, so making peace."

Besides this superiority in the flesh, of which the Jew properly boasted against
the Gentile previous to the cross, there was also the corresponding "handwriting
of ordinances," which maintained this difference, as long as Christ was known
according to the flesh. But at the cross this religious superiority is also set
aside, and Christ has taken that out of the way, and blotted out what was
contrary to us as Gentiles, who were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in
the world."

Thus, in this threefold aspect of the cross, there is an end made of man in the
flesh before God in Christ; and all that once separated a sinner from God has
been for ever put away by the sacrifice and death of our Substitute, who was
nailed to it. Again, we have seen how Christ destroyed the enmity between flesh
and flesh which separated man from man, and broke down the middle wall of
partition which Judaism sustained. Lastly, we have traced how religious
ordinances, which favoured the Jew and were contrary to the Gentile, have been
blotted out, and "taken out of the way, Christ nailing them to his cross."

How plainly may we see thus the breakdown of all that man was in the flesh,
whether by his birth, circumcision, or religion, at the cross of Jesus Christ!
Truly must God in righteousness judge, and set aside Jew and Gentile, who had
thus condemned, cast out, and crucified the Son of His own love, sent in grace
and mercy into their midst. How can He any longer recognize or sustain
distinctions in the flesh, when the most distinguished of men were "the
betrayers and murderers" of Christ? Where would righteousness be in a scene like
the cross, if God did not put down for ever, not only distinctions, but the
flesh itself, which had rejected Him in the person of His Son? This He has done
in the double form of death by judgment on the old Adam, and by the introduction
of another life, declared to be His free gift in the Second man. There is yet a
further lesson from the cross for those who by grace can say, "I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. but Christ liveth in me;" and it is
this. The cross discovers to such what the world is — this busy, active,
self-willed world, which has rejected and killed the Saviour, the Prince of
glory, that it might be left free to pursue its principles and objects, in its
own way. Can there be a link then between it and one who is Christ’s? Surely
not, if there be any true-heartedness and loyalty according to God and to
Christ, as the rejected One! No, the last link is broken, as the spirit of such
a one (disentangled once and for ever from all that is of it and in association
with it) says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." If
the cross be this, as regards God and Christ — sin and holiness — the flesh and
the world — death and Satan — Jew and Gentile, where can we learn the true
character and measure of these things, except in the place where all that was
our own was judged, condemned, and brought to an end? For example, can we
discover the nature and heinousness of sin anywhere else, as we are taught it at
the cross, where "he who knew no sin, was made sin for us;" and who could only
put it away from the presence of God by the sacrifice of Himself? We may look
into ourselves, and see and feel something of what indwelling sin is, as
measured and estimated by a guilty conscience, or a terror-stricken heart, and
say, "O wretched man that I am!" But is this to be compared for a moment with
the cry of Him who said, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" We may
think of the punishment of sin "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched;" but can any discovery of the righteous desert of transgression, as
borne by those who committed it, be compared with what sin must be to the nature
and being of God who could not pass it by when imputed to His only begotten and
well-beloved Son, who knew no sin?

We do well, as believers in Christ, to celebrate the triumphs of the cross as
regards God and ourselves, and its victories and gain to Christ raised from the
dead, and crowned with glory and honour on high; but where shall we learn the
lessons it has to teach us respecting all that God has blotted out and cast
behind His back for ever? Shall we forget that this same cross which has
purchased our liberty, and is the witness of our eternal salvation, tells us
that Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and
purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works?" How can a Christian
practically set himself in correspondence with the thoughts of God since the
crucifixion, but by death — his own death — in the true confession of the
darkness and death, under which the whole world has brought itself, by the
rejection of Christ, and in which He has left it, who is the resurrection and
the life? Our way out from under the whole power and range of what once
separated us from God is by death. "It is Christ that died, yea rather that is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." The penalties which are exhausted by Christ on the cross, can no longer
shut out and separate us from God; on the contrary, they are the open doors of
faith’s deliverance, as we follow our ascended Lord to the throne of the majesty
in the heavens. "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are
yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s." The death which Jesus died
enables us now to read without terror, that "by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned" — because we know Him who put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

It is of great moment for the believer to learn that our undisputed passage out
of this world is by means of these very penalties which the righteousness of God
inflicted on the man who sinned. "The wages of sin is death," and these wages
have been paid (not avoided) by our Substitute, and we are free. By man sin
entered, death entered, and the law entered into the world; and these held their
undisputed title and sway, when we were born into it. Moreover, each of these
three mighty powers (being what they are in relation to mankind) had their
respective dominions. Besides this, we know that because of what we personally
were by nature, and on account of actual transgression we added to their power;
but neither of them has a title to pursue us beyond the limit of death’s
dominions; and this very death has been accepted and paid by Christ, as our only
discharge. We are "free" by death (not by life) though a Christian, in virtue of
another life communicated, asserts his deliverance by his obedience. These three
dominions of sin, death, and the law, are plainly treated in Romans 6:9; Romans
6:14; Romans 8:1, and our deliverance is as fully declared to be from under
each, by death. "Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." Again,
"knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead: dieth no more: death hath no
more dominion over him."

How different are the lessons from life unto death in the first man, and death
unto life in the Second man! The first was a defeat, through the temptations of
the devil: the second a victory, through resurrection from the dead "by the
glory of the Father." And as to ourselves, "sin shall not have dominion over
you, for ye are not under law but under grace." Finally, the cross is the
vindication of the "throne of the majesty in the heavens" to those who dwell
there, against all that outraged the government of God in the earth beneath. The
great High Priest at "the right hand of God" is the guarantee to faith of the
coming glory, which is God’s answer to the cross, and of the travail of Christ’s
soul in death. In the meanwhile, God has sealed us as heirs, joint-heirs with
Christ, by the Holy Ghost who dwells in us. Morally as men, and judicially as
sinners, we are set right with God by the cross of Christ — "there is no
condemnation." Moreover, the reproach of Egypt the world that we came from is
rolled away from us," as we pass into the glory by ascension in the image of Him
who died to bring us there. A further demonstration will thus be given of what
the cross has introduced us to, as we settle in for ever in the mansions which
He has gone before to prepare for us in the Father’s house.

Here we might close, in the happy acknowledgment of what the cross delivers
from, and establishes the believer in, were it not that (during the little while
we are waiting for the Lord, and carrying on the testimony of present salvation
in the world where the cross of Christ is still preached, through the
long-suffering grace of God), the scriptures point out three dangers, where the
crafty power of the enemy lies concealed. The first is found in 1 Corinthians
1:17; "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel; not with wisdom
of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." It is plain
there is a double warning here — putting baptism, which is an ordinance (or, as
is now affirmed, a means of sacramental grace) in the place of preaching the
word, by demonstration of the Spirit, in saving power to him that believes; the
other, pulpit oratory, as though the cross of Christ could gain anything in its
effect on the conscience by excellence of speech. The next danger is pointed out
in Galatians 5:11, where Paul asks, "if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet
suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased." Here it is equally
plain that something good in the flesh and the consequent improvement of the
flesh (for this is what circumcision supposed) is the thing which makes the
offence of the cross to cease; for the cross is the denial of man in the flesh,
with all his pretensions. It is therefore an offence to man as such, by showing
him that he is the betrayer and murderer of the Son of God, and that there is no
salvation for him as a sinner, except through the blood of Christ, which proves
his guilt. The last danger presented is in Galatians 6:12 "As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." What is this fair show
in the flesh, but an acceptance of the prevailing and established religion of
the day, and so escaping persecution for the cross of Christ, which denies the
formalism of mere outward and established pietism? In this instance, persecution
(the natural accompaniment of the true confession of the cross) is separated
from it; just as in the former examples circumcision did away with the offence
of the cross, and excellency of speech made it of none effect. How little the
pulpit and the churches of Christendom have attended to these warnings of the
apostle is too notorious to require any comment. J. E. Batten.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 26: S.   THOUGHTS ON JOH_3:1-36
========================================================================

Thoughts on John 3:1-36.

It is of great moment that the children of God should observe the fact, that we
are not only spoken to in the scriptures, according to our actual state, but
addressed as standing in the various relations which the Father’s counsel has
purposed — or else in what the finished work of Christ has set us — or on
account of which the Holy Ghost has sealed us. The gospel of John is perhaps one
of the most striking instances of this, for with what ease, and how in keeping,
are we at once taken up to the heights, when "in the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God!" We are expected — as belonging to
the new creation, as the newly begotten and new born ones — to be as much at
home in the mystery of "God manifest in the flesh" and tabernacling in the midst
of mankind, as we have been familiar with that far later beginning in time when
"God created the heavens and the earth," and when He "breathed into Adam’s
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Indeed we are spoken
of by John as having been once born into the world "according to the flesh, and
by the will of man," much more as a point of contrast than of interest; far more
as marking the state which we have left for ever, than as tracing a history to
which any lustre attaches: in truth, to be born out of this condition — to be
born of God — to be no longer confined in the circle of what is measured by time
and man’s defeat; but to pass out of all on the warrant that "as many as
received Christ, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name." This is the evangelist’s new charter, and our title
for passing from death unto life, from darkness unto light, and out of the whole
scene of Satan’s power into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.

What a redemption is ours; but what else could it be, when it is accomplished
"by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot?" It is only when the conscience and soul are thus at rest with God, as to
His holiness and our sins, that we can at all feel in our proper places, or be
led onward to view the Lord Jesus as He was in His own essential being — the
eternal Son — the co-equal with God. Into whatever depths He may have descended
in time, when He was found in fashion as a man, and up to whatever heights He
may have been taken by resurrection, to the right hand of the Majesty on high,
the Son of man in the heavens, yet this is not the path by which we are called
to know "the Word" in the opening verses of this gospel. We are led to worship
and adore Him where the steps which led to His incarnation are not yet in view,
any more than the pathway of His present righteous exaltation by ascension
glory, which has taken Him back to God. In the stillness of these two
unparalleled verses, "the Word was God," and "the same was in the beginning with
God," there are no steps, all is equality — "the same." Creative power, in the
first chapters of Genesis, is the rising up and going forth of this Son, for
"all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was
made." He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast. It is not,
however, as a Creator-God that this gospel occupies us (though His creative
power and title are maintained), but as the Saviour-God, come into this very
earth He had made, when all was forfeited and ruined, to be known as "the Lamb
of God who taketh away the sin of the world."

What a wreck did the first man make! But what remedies and resources will the
Second man establish for God and for the sinner, so that the very God, who once
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is hourly doing a far greater
thing! For He it is who "hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

Redemption-work by the cross, resurrection-power from death and eternal life in
the Son, are the new subjects of our evangelist. "In him was life, and the life
was the light of men; and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not." These give out the character and dimensions of the work at
the cross, by which He could bestow that life on others, and dispel the moral
darkness which eclipsed Him. "This is the will of him that sent me, that every
one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day."

Besides His own essential and divine glory, and what He was to be in relation to
others, there is, further, what He came to reveal, and what He brought as
opening out the resources of God’s grace and power. As to the first of these He
could say, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son which is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." What a mission is this! One
which in all its parts could only be carried out and made good to us by His own
sufferings and death. As to the second of these it is said, "For the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." And how these two
ministries are interwoven, as we see the anointed One pursuing His services in
successive chapters.

Another great charm of this manifestation of the Word made flesh, when looked at
from our own point of view, is that John marks Him out as the "Son of God" after
His birth, from the fact (additional) "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit
descending and remaining, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."
We shall do well to hold fast these parts of the Son’s ministry as given us in
this gospel, including the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

How precious is it to see, in our turn, that men upon earth find out the value
of this Christ. John, looking upon Jesus as He walked, will say, "Behold the
Lamb of God;" and now his two disciples will bid farewell to John and "follow
Jesus." Jesus on His part will turn Himself round to them and say, "What seek
ye?" and upon the enquiry, "Where dwellest thou?" will give them a hearty
welcome as He invites them to "come and see." What new intimacies are here! what
new links are being formed by this very One who was awhile ago "with God and was
God," but has now brought Himself in a human heart to sinful men, who, at His
own request, come and see where He now dwells, and are at home enough with Him
and in His presence, to "abide with him that day!" Oh! triumph of divine love,
for He who brought "grace and truth" is with those who need it, and they will
settle it to perfection in each other’s company.

Yea, more, the conscious blessedness of being with Jesus in this dwelling-place
of love will lead Andrew forth to find his own brother, that he may taste and
see what and who this Messias is, "and he brought him to Jesus" — this new
centre on earth between God and His creatures — and a man too! What a reversal
of all that separated itself off, and was scattered to the devil, when Adam
fell! "And when Jesus saw him coming he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona:
thou shalt be called Cephas." Here He begins to write upon us "the new name,"
and what a name is this, which by interpretation means "a stone!" What a day of
all others was this to them and to Him!

"The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and
saith unto him, Follow me." What grace and truth are come by Jesus Christ we may
well say, who see Him, whose "years are throughout all generations," measuring
Himself out to us by hours and days, and the day following; and giving Himself
forth as "the Lamb of God" at one time, or "the Messias" at another; apprehended
as the "Jesus of Nazareth," the son of Joseph, by Philip; and confessed in the
far different glory by Nathanael, as the Son of God, the King of Israel!

What a cluster of ripe fruit is springing up around Him, as He thus discovers
Himself, and is thus acknowledged, only to be exceeded by His own assurance,
"Thou shalt see greater things than these. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." "Who is
this Son of man?" they may well say in their inmost souls, as some did boldly
ask, when speaking afterwards of His resurrection from the dead, "what this
rising out of the dead should mean." Here too God has for Himself a "kind of
firstfruits of his creatures" — each in his season, and each a proper
representation of his class, and all to come out in full, when the latter-day
glory shall manifest to sight these living agencies in all their activities
between the heavens and the earth — "ascending and descending upon this Son of
man — "the man whom God has made strong for himself." In passing onward into
this gospel, we shall learn how Jesus will put Himself into the place of all
previous types and ordinances, to fulfil them, and supersede them, as indeed we
have already observed Him, taking the place of the Paschal Lamb, as pointed out
in that character by John. So He will disturb Nathanael from his reveries, under
the typical fig-tree, but only to own the Antitype (as an Israelite, in whom
there is no guile, must do), and bring him to the confession of the nation’s
faith at a yet coming day. And now we reach the marriage at Cana, which has its
own peculiar objects too; for if the beginning of the first chapter has given
out the mystery, and revelation of His person, and relations, to the faith of
His elect people, so will the second chapter introduce us to "this beginning of
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory."

Here we may observe, that the glory of the first chapter has its pathway through
the gospel — His personal glory, as I think ("and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth"), and shines
brightly in its own peculiar grace at the end. The manifestation of His glory by
this beginning of miracles has also its own conspicuous line — His official
glory, if we may so say, as well as its own typical meaning for the yet future
day of Jehovah’s millennial relations with His earthly people when "the land
shall be married" and the Lord shall rejoice over Jerusalem like a young man
rejoices over his bride. How truly will He in that day turn the water into wine,
and how consciously will all own that the finest and the best has been kept till
the last! Jesus was then in their very midst, and was doing on a smaller scale
what He will do on the larger one, when they shall say, "Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord."

What an opportunity this people had of acknowledging their Messiah, as Nathanael
had just done! Will they in their turn say, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God,
thou art the king of Israel?" Here comes in, as always, the dark side of the
picture; for man and the nation with its city and its temple are to be put to
the test. Jesus may shine forth in His personal and in His official glory, by
words and deeds; but are there eyes that can see, and hearts that can understand
Him, and faith that will receive Him? "And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem." He is ready to give Himself out to the nation and
to the world according to "this beginning of miracles," and to manifest forth
His glory by acts and deeds, and change all into a marriage scene, with the word
"draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast," if they will accept
Him. Is the temple made ready for His reception; or will He say "make not my
Father’s house a house of merchandise?" He will go up to this beloved Jerusalem,
and to its magnificent temple; and present Himself in each, according to promise
and prophecy; and now according to the claims and titles of His own person, and
wait the issue. What an hour for them and for Him! And He "found in the temple
those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting;
and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out." What
strange action is this for the Lord of the temple, as His disciples remember
that it was written, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." The grace and
truth which came by Jesus Christ may and will characterize His ministry in the
midst of men, as this gospel will fully show us; but He must visit this house,
the place of Jehovah’s holiness, in another character; righteousness shall go
before Him on this errand, and His zeal will vindicate the offended Majesty of,
and set aside this outrage on, the Holy One of Israel, by the scourge and the
authoritative command, "Take these things hence." "Then answered the Jews and
said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things?"
What an answer does He give them out of the depths of that zeal which has eaten
Him up, as He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Care and zeal for the majesty, the holiness, and the word of Jehovah, God of
Israel, will lead Him to test these builders further as they talk of "forty and
six years;" and as He speaks of these "three days," and then a rearing up, "He
spake of the temple of his body;" and so will we, and join His disciples who,
"when he was risen from the dead," found the key to this temple, as they
"believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said."

What assurances reach the soul in ways like these, and how different from "the
many who believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did;" and how
unlike again to these of whom it is said, "but Jesus did not commit himself unto
them, because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for
he knew what was in man." The temple and scourge of small cords have told their
own story; and now the searcher of hearts, in the exercise of His divine
prerogative, will pronounce His judgment on all that man is, and not commit
Himself to them. The great centre of light, the temple of Jehovah’s glory, has
gone out in obscurity long ago. The typical glory hovered over its threshold and
then the city, till Ezekiel witnessed its departure; and now the Son of God in
His day has come to the city of the great king, and to the house of prayer for
all nations; but only in His turn to be grieved away, as He says, "Your house is
left unto you desolate, and ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." He must needs supersede the
temple and take the place of it by His body, as He had before set aside the
Paschal Lamb by being announced as the Lamb of God, or as He will in the next
chapter supersede the typical brazen serpent, by saying, "So must the Son of man
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should never perish, but have
everlasting life." This must be our one thought as we now pursue our path more
rapidly, that Jesus will step into the place of all previous types and
ordinances and supersede them; and, in these new relations to God and to men,
will enunciate the wondrous doctrines of grace and truth which came by Jesus
Christ in contrast with the law which was given by Moses. He will find His first
scholar in this new school in a master of Israel, and reveal Himself to a man of
the Pharisees in the grace of the cross; and to this ruler of the Jews in the
truth of those strange lessons, taught by "the wind bloweth where it listeth,"
and by being "born of the Spirit," and yet adding, "Marvel not," for these are
the new ways, whether of seeing or entering into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
has found himself the presence of "a teacher come from God" and will suit
himself to the occasion, by inquiring as a learner, "How can these things be?"
But it is not as a teacher and a scholar that the precious lessons are to be
learnt which Jesus came to unfold. No, they must each pass into the deeper place
of a Saviour and a sinner, and then settle the upbraidings of a guilty
conscience and of a sin-stricken heart, by the ancient shadow of the "serpent
which Moses lifted up in the wilderness," giving Himself out to Nicodemus, if he
can receive Him in this then mystery — "even so must the Son of man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth in him should never perish, but have eternal life."
In passing on one feels constrained to say, Alas, how many are still in the
place of the man of the Pharisees and in company with this master of Israel,
instead of travelling on with Jesus, to learn Himself and the cross, and prove
how the side, and the hands, and the feet put to silence all the "hows" of
Nicodemus, and turn to flight the doubts which gave them birth. "And when the
fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away." What a rebuke for the
present hour! This chapter tells us further of another question which arose
between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. The ruler had his
questions and the Jews have theirs; and may we not add that these very
questionings have been stereotyped to us, whatever their difference, from that
day to this? "How can these things be?" is the form in which an unbridled mind
will put its difficulties or its objections; and questions about purifying the
nature of man by ordinances, or by sacraments, or the value of ritualistic
observances between God and the soul, are but the exercises and uncertainties of
an uneasy conscience. Let us thank God when simple faith in His word takes the
place of our reasonings, and when the blood of Christ at once purges and speaks
unbroken peace to the conscience and to the heart of the feeblest believer. J.
E. Batten.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 27: S.   TO MR. R. P. SMITH ON "CONSECRATION, ETC
========================================================================

To Mr. R. P. Smith on "Consecration, Etc."

Dear Brother In Christ, A friend at B-d has forwarded me the note you wrote him,
in which you say (upon my letter, in the Bible Treasury of January), "I hope you
cannot endorse p. 207, Colossians 1:1-29, where consecration and trust are
spoken of as turning back to Judaism." A bare extract like this, on such an
important subject as consecration and trust misleads, and would be as shocking
to me as it can be to you, for nothing is further from my thoughts, and I
venture to add from the letter as such. It is due to yourself and the truth in
question to connect this bare extract with what precedes and follows it in that
column. For myself, I am content on its re-perusal, to leave it without
alteration to the candid consideration of all. The letter does treat a kind of
consecration, which you put in connection with other things, such as trust in
mere promises, a momentary cleansing by blood, and a re-adjustment of nature,
and calls this "a turning back to Judaism, and reducing Christians to an inward
realization of a lower purity." The letter puts in contrast with this a
believer’s present position as united to Christ, the second Adam, in life and
righteousness, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and
called. As regards "scriptural holiness," and our separation to God, I suppose
christian circumcision to be "the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,
by the circumcision of Christ;" and further, as to the world, we are unsettled
and crucified to it, by nothing less than the death of Christ.

Carried thus outside the flesh and the world by death and resurrection, "our
life is hid with Christ in God; and we set our affections on things above, not
on things on the earth," and are settled with the Son of man in heaven. A
holiness and a consecration which unsettle nobody from their worldly or
ecclesiastical surroundings surely go in the face of this Colossian epistle,
which says, "wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the
world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?" etc. Is
it not a solemn thing to say to those who are inclined to come out, "The worst
thing you can do is to leave your church?" What must a person do who follows
this advice, but accept for a basis the earth and its national establishments,
"after the commandments and doctrines of men," and so give up the distinguishing
ground of real Christianity, "not holding the Head from which all the body by
joints and bands having nourishment ministered, increaseth with the increase of
God." If "scriptural holiness" be a separation from the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ, and likewise from the world and its rudiments by the
death and resurrection of Christ, how can that be called holiness which
unsettles nobody in their ecclesiastical and political surroundings? Will you
take this query into the secret of your own soul with God, and judge it
according to the light of His word, in the power of the Holy Ghost?

There was, and will be, a consecration and trust in promises, with other things
which characterise Judaism, as they are enumerated in the opening verses of
Romans 9:1-33 :, but they have a millennium for their display in permanent
blessing upon earth. The position in which Paul then stood was one with the
ascended Lord, outside all these privileges and covenants which pertained to his
"brethren according to the flesh." He was identified with a rejected Christ in
his pathway on the earth, and united to the glorified Son of man in the heavens
by death and resurrection, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost." "A man in
Christ" has died to all besides, and must be unsettled practically as to himself
and all his surroundings below, if he would be in correspondence and communion
with Christ as the Head of the new creation of God. "He which stablisheth us
with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us, and
given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." Moreover, as touching "the
promises of God, they are all made yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God
by us." They are made sure to us as a present portion in Christ, and are ours in
the title of heirs and joint-heirs with Christ!

Having said this much upon our true christian circumcision, and the unction and
anointing of the Holy Ghost which we have received of the Father, and which
abideth in us, allow me to make an extract or two from "The Higher Life," simply
to show another consecration and trust taught by the author which is something
worse than a turning back to Judaism. As to "political surroundings" Mr.
Boardman asks, "Is there anything in the office of our civil police, if
discharged honestly, prayerfully, boldly, to grieve the Spirit of God, or cause
the frown of the most High? No more is there in being a soldier or sailor." (See
p. 60.) Again, "Havelock’s enlistment was as hearty under the banner of the
tribe of Judah as under the lion of Britain." His biographer says "of his second
conversion," that "the scriptures opened to him in yet greater fulness, and his
consecration to his Master’s service assumed yet greater intelligence and
force." (Page 62.) As to "holiness and consecration" Mr. B. further writes, "It
would be useless for Satan to ply us Protestants with the peculiarities urged on
Romanists; we could not be driven into petticoats, dignified as robes," etc.
Satan "plies us with notions more Protestant, but not one whit less fictitious
and deceptive. Would you be a whole-souled disciple of Christ? He says of your
person, You will have to conform all your personal habits to a rigid rule first
of all. You must put on the strait-jacket of propriety tight-laced. It would
ill-become one wholly consecrated to God to wear ornaments or elegancies. Gold
and jewellery and costly array must be wholly eschewed." (Page 122.) Again, "the
truth is, we are never really entirely the Lord’s freemen until we are free from
the trammels of all these trivial questions, and at full liberty to follow the
Lord in whatever dress, or position, or business, or company, or circumstances,
the providence of God, and our own judgment of proprieties, and our own ability
and taste, may dictate or require." (Page 125.) Solemnly, and as followers of
Christ, we may well question this range of "consecration" and of "scriptural
holiness," whether it be yours which unsettles nobody, or Mr. Boardman’s which
settles people down in their "gold and jewellery and costly array," and if
disturbed in their conscience told to attribute their disquietude to Satan’s
deceptions upon Protestants! I must ask you in conclusion, Can this kind of
teaching be brought into the light of the New Testament, except to be condemned,
much less tested by the example and ways of Christ and His disciples, or the
formative power and baptism of the Holy Ghost? Is this kind of consecration and
holiness what is meant by, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body?" or is
it not "a turning back to Judaism" or something worse, and "reducing Christians
to an inward realization of a lower purity?"

I will not reply to these questions myself, but in brotherly love, and in
confidence in the Lord, leave the answers for you to make to Him whom you are
seeking to serve, so that you may be able more skilfully to guide the many souls
who look to you into the true way of holiness and personal consecration.

Yours affectionately in Him, J. E. Batten.


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  CHAPTER 28: S.   WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
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"Watchman, what of the night?"

Isaiah 21:11. The watchman of that early time, and as under the spirit of
prophecy, said, "The morning cometh, and also the night; if ye will inquire,
inquire ye, return, come." God has never let the night-time of the ruin of
creation and of man — no, nor yet of Jerusalem and of His people Israel — pass
out of His own hands; and to them that look for Him, all will yet issue in "a
morning without a cloud," when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise, with
healing in His beams.

Another (and he, the anointed apostle for these last times) sent to us from the
risen Son of man, exalted above the night of chaos and of ruin, and seated in
the glory of God, cries, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand, let us
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light." The prophet and the apostle are each right, and in the mind of the Lord,
in their respective occupations and seasons, giving out these varied lessons to
the people of God.

Isaiah, in the midst of the earthly family, is directing their thoughts as to
the night and morning, in relation to the two centres of the earth, Jerusalem
and Babylon. Paul, in the midst of the heavenly family, is instructing the elect
Gentiles what to do, and what to be, in these present church ruins, and in the
night-time of an evil world. Paul writes to those united to the Lord, who has
been cast out of it till the morning comes, and the word by this watchman to us
is, "Ye are all the children of light, and of the day, we are not of the night,
nor of darkness, therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and
be sober," etc.

Many of those who are instructed in the school of God, know that the ministry of
an Old Testament prophet, and his prophesyings, can only find their opportunity
and place, when the people to whom he is sent have failed in the original
blessing where God had set them, for, as we have said, God never allows even the
ruin to pass out of His own hand. The ministry of "an apostle by Jesus Christ,
and God the Father, who raised him from the dead," is of a different order, and
reveals the hidden things which were "kept secret from before the foundation of
the world, and which God ordained to our glory," with Christ. The blessing of
the church in the heavens, by His divine callings and separations in a risen
Lord, and the final prosperity of Israel, and the nations on the earth, by their
bounds and divisions, together with the deliverance of a groaning creation, into
redemption-light, are alike in the counsels of the living God, and to be
manifested in glory. It is equally in His own hands to meet and set aside
Babylon and the Gentile nations then, as to establish Jerusalem, and make her a
praise in the whole earth, with Christ hereafter. The watchman said, by Isaiah,
"The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return,
come;" and these are the alternations which lie before us for inquiry and
examination. Originally everything in creation that God saw was good, and there
was no evil; but, as in a moment, all was changed, and everywhere there was
evil, and no good. Originally too, the blessing of God that maketh rich rested
on every creature, but, as in an instant, the blessing was nowhere, and the
curse of God lay heavily on all around. In creation the evening and the morning
made each day, but in history with man, it is the morning cometh, and also the
night, alas! Still, He has not cast away the heavens and the earth that He
created for His own pleasure with the sons of men, nor will He suffer the mighty
ruin to pass into the power of the enemy of God and man. But what will He do, in
whose hands are the issues of life and of death? Only to think for a moment of
God Himself standing in the breach, and acting upon the supremacy of His own
goodness, over all the evil and the misery; yea meeting the usurpation of Satan,
and the outbreak of sin in the creature, by falling back upon His own sovereign
power and electing love. God’s only resource was in Himself, nothing could
challenge His omnipotence, or escape His omniscience, or go beyond His control.
He alone can say, "Hitherto shalt thou go, but no further, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed." How will He, and how can He, bring down His own
immensity and infinitude in grace into the circle of morning and night? How
connect them with Himself inside the range of men and things, where all is now
in ruins and wretchedness, and when all that was morning has become night, and
gone down into darkness?

He who said, Let there be light, and there was light, and who made a firmament
in the midst of the waters, to divide the waters from the waters, can bring in a
sunrise to form a morning where there is none. In the earliest records of His
ways, He did it after this creation-pattern of dividing the one from the other,
when He acted as the Possessor of the heavens and the earth. For example, "when
the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the
sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel." When this supremacy of God, by act and deed, in dividing
the nations, is anything more to man than an historical fact, it becomes a very
wonderful thing. Marvellous indeed to set their bounds, and, further, that God
should come out into the midst of mankind, to divide them, and to act upon His
own sovereignty in grace — yea, to begin a register, by which to chronicle an
earthly family for Himself in their generations! This supervision and care makes
one understand that some purpose of God, which He has ordained for His own
glory, and the blessing of His creatures, is to be ultimately reached in the
circle of manhood, notwithstanding the expulsion of Adam from paradise. One only
begins to discover what this divine secret can be of dividing a nation from all
others, and a race from races of men, when we recall the promise that "the seed
of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head." This wonderful registration was
therefore strictly maintained till after Jesus, the Immanuel, was born, to whom
God pointed, according to the genealogies that went before, and which closed by
His incarnation.

It is remarkable, too, that our early progenitors were guided to call their sons
by names, not only significant of their own faith in this promise, but that
their off-spring were the rightful heirs. The two books of Chronicles, which
contain the generations of Israel, and their kingly history, maintain these
facts in their general character, and prove likewise that God held that elect
nation always in His mind, by starting their genealogies from Adam and Seth. The
first of these books is in harmony with the dividings and distinctions in the
six days’ work of creation, and with God’s intention of thus bringing out a seed
for the accomplishment of His purposes, and the establishment of covenanted
blessings in the midst of Israel and the tribes, as "an elect people" on the
earth. The second book opens grandly with the record of this accomplishment, in
the typical David and his son Solomon, reigning on God’s throne in Jerusalem.
The king and his kingdom are established in Israel, and divided off from the
nations, as the wonder and admiration of the whole world. Consistently with
these objects, the first book begins its genealogy of the family, or household
of God, in the elect line of Adam, Seth, and then Enoch. It commences thus the
history of the elect tribes, in the registry of Jehovah and His people, by going
back to the man created in the image of God; and closes their antediluvian
ancestry with the Enoch who walked with God, and was translated that he should
not see death. A precious type this of the heavenly family caught up, on the one
hand, and an early intimation that Israel will really be connected with them,
and in blessing likewise, in the time of their happy millennium.

It is a point of much interest and significance to notice here, that in this
Book of Chronicles, where God is writing up His people, or setting Israel as a
firmament to divide the nations from the nations, the Spirit refuses to
introduce or make any mention of Cain, that wicked one, and his posterity. I
judge this was that the earthly family might be rightly identified by descent,
and as born after the flesh, with the promises of Jehovah; and, moreover,
distinguished and divided off from all others, as they afterwards were, by
circumcision. Indeed we may ask, in passing, how could the man who went away out
of the presence of God, and became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, be a
link in the chronicles of an elect people? On the contrary, Seth, or the
substituted and appointed one (instead of righteous Abel, whom Cain slew), is
the man with whom the generations of men and their genealogies begin anew in
Genesis 5:1-32. "And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight
hundred years. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven
years, and begat sons and daughters." Israel’s genealogies, which include the
birth of the Messiah and finish with it, are on this account full of interest;
nor is there any other ancestry or generation worthy of record, save it be "the
dukes of Esau, and the dukes of Edom," which stand apart in an unenviable place
of their own, and outside.

Succession in the flesh was thus established by God, and became their pride —
yea, everything — to a true Israelite. On this account, as "an elect people," it
was their only remaining glory and boast, on coming up out of Babylon, that they
could be still reckoned by their genealogies and families, because the promises
were made to "the Seed" of their father Abraham. Thus "the Tirshatha" says, in
Nehemiah 7:1-73 :, "My God put it into mine heart to gather together the nobles
and the rulers of the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy, and I
found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first," which
identified them with the city of Jerusalem and the first Book of Chronicles.
Morally and prophetically, we may add, as well as by adoption and birth, they
were the descendants of an elect seed, to be brought out in due time as the
ordained family, and an appointed nation, for the introduction of covenanted
blessing upon the earth. This was promised through Abraham, the friend of God,
as the heir of the world, and confirmed to David, the man after God’s own heart,
as the anointed king, whose greater Son is yet to rule and reign over it, from
the rising to the setting of the sun.

It may be further observed, that the First Book of Chronicles closes its earthly
and typical programme with David’s charge to Solomon, and with the transfer of
all the measurements and patterns which he had received by the Spirit of God,
concerning the temple of peace, and rest, and glory that was to be built. For
"the palace," as he says, "is not for man, but for the Lord God," who was coming
to take up His abode in their midst. Nor can David happily close his eyes upon
that day and generation until he, as the head of Israel, unites with the chief
of the fathers, and with the princes of their tribes, in offering their gifts of
gold, and silver, and precious stones, to make the place of the Lord’s feet
glorious in that hour of their morning glory. As the sweet psalmist, under the
anointing oil, he exceeds them all when he sings or plays upon the harp,
touching their bright millennial day; or when, as a worshipper before the ark,
he dances on its way to the place of its rest; or as now joyfully making
preparations for the temple to receive it. How excellent is he, too, as the
leader of the prayers and praises of the great congregation: "Now, therefore,
our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name . . . . O Lord our God, all
this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thy holy name,
cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own . . . . And all the people blessed
the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the
Lord and the King." The first book of genealogies, and its arrangements of order
and service for the throne and the kingdom, together with the magnificent
architectural plans and buildings, with its yet costlier gifts and preparations,
is in manifest distinction to their accomplishments and construction in the
Second Book of Chronicles. Who can measure, for example, the contrariety and the
distances between the opening verses in each book? Or who would attempt to fill
in the immense gap of time and circumstance between them, by a narration of the
historical facts, except as gathered from the word of God? It is like coming up
out of the night of chaos into creation again, with a new company, as we open
the first book, and read of an "Adam, Seth, and Enoch," who was translated that
he should not see death. Nor is this feeling of surprise lessened when we open
the Second Book of Chronicles, to read, as in the morning light, "that Solomon,
the son of David, was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with
him, and magnified him exceedingly." What a tremendous chaos is thus being
filled up by God in history! It is like a new beginning in the midst of other
and elect creatures, and of a better creation, so that one scarcely knows where
we are in this new genealogy, which has given birth, by the letter and order of
the first book, to such a man as this Solomon of the second; and yet a man
endowed with wisdom such as never had been, or shall be; and invested with
honour and power, by the hand of the living God, such as Adam had not before the
fall.

Within the beauty of this enclosure, too — "Immanuel’s land" — one might ask
again, "Watchman, what of the night?" and what has become of the curse on the
ground, when all flows with milk and honey? In the presence of this Solomon,
inducted into the highest place out of heaven, and invested with royal majesty
as a king, before whom all other kings bow and pay tribute, and queens do
homage, one may almost think of the fall, and of the man whom God drove out of
Eden, as a bygone thing, a dream that is past away with the night, and
obliterated in the peace and prosperity of this new centre of the world’s
jubilee. The earth seems to invite the heavens to come out, and hail the new
morning that is come, and make merry and be glad with the elect people whom God
is leading into His "rest in Zion." Moreover, Jehovah has left the tent and
tabernacle, in which He dwelt and journeyed with the twelve tribes of these
genealogies in the wilderness, and is ready to accompany them, and the ark of
the covenant, out of the First Book of Chronicles into the Second, and to draw
out the staves, when its final resting-place in the temple is completed. The
Lord will Himself then appear, and fill the whole house with His glory, so that
there shall not be room even for the priests to enter in, because God is in His
holy temple. The Second Book of Chronicles introduces us, in its early chapters,
to scenes like these, and the whole world is wakened up, on this break of day,
to lay bare its treasures, and mines of gold, and all the precious things in the
depths of the earth, because God has risen up out of His place, and is coming in
with the brightness of the morning into Jerusalem, to make it "the city of the
great King." What change — yea, what mighty revolution — in favour of mankind,
can have come up before the God of heaven and of earth, that all kings and
countries should be tributary to Him on this great occasion of His temple on
Mount Moriah? Again, we may say, "Watchman, what of the night?" when Hiram, king
of Tyre, is a willing servant, and lays the forests of Lebanon at the feet of
Solomon, with cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees in abundance. He provides
also a cunning man, endued with understanding, who is skilful to work in gold,
and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber. In purple also, and
in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson; for Jehovah was coming forth into this
kingdom and its costly temple. "Likewise men to grave any manner of graving, and
to find out every device that shall be put to them, with thy cunning men, and
with the cunning men of my lord David thy father;" for this sun was to rise upon
Solomon without a cloud.

What can such mighty changes mean between God and His creatures? What can they
betoken, but that the watchman’s morning cometh in?" Is the Creator finding out
a rest for Himself once more in the works of His own hands? and are men become
so good, that He gives out patterns to them, and calls their cunning ones to be
master-builders and artificers for Him? Are the plans and methods of the divine
order so enlarging themselves, as that He who built all things above and below
should ask men to build Him a house? And such a house! Or, perhaps, wearied in
maintaining righteous government in the midst of men upon the earth, is He about
to forego the records of the cherubim at the garden-gate? Does He not remember
the destructive deluge, when a world that then was perished? or the cities of
the plain which were burned with fire and brimstone, because of the exceeding
wickedness of its inhabitants? Can He have forgotten Babel, and its city, and
its tower; or the day when He confounded men’s tongues, and set at naught their
speech? But there is no room for any such doubtful inquiries; on the contrary,
it is in the full knowledge that Adam and Eden are gone for ever, and that an
end of flesh in the world before the flood had come before God, and perished,
that He has thus divided a nation from the nations, and separated by genealogy a
generation from the families of men; that His own purpose of grace by election
might surmount the deluge and the flaming sword. He has therefore brought in
promises, and a covenant, and a calling-out, and established these in Abraham
and his Seed, which is Christ. He has also set up mediation by Moses, and
priesthood in Aaron, so that the dark night of ruin might give place to the
morning light, and the great day of atonement. God is adding the glory of
kingship to these others, in the person of Solomon, whom He now sets upon the
throne of his father David, and establishes him over the kingdom of Israel. No,
God is not unmindful of His judgments in the earth, but in the midst of them He
remembers mercy, and works for His own glory. Nor is He come forth to repeat
Himself, or to inaugurate another beginning, with His creatures; but He is
bringing out and completing in Solomon and a theocracy, all the reserves of
wisdom and grace, which God had kept in His own power, and still postpones for
manifested blessing, till the second coming of Jesus-Immanuel, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords. Solomon was responsible (like Adam) for maintaining
these treasures which had been put into his hands, and for using them to the
glory of God. Jehovah had thus given out all He had to bestow (except, last of
all, His Son), and set up these resources before their eyes in Moses, and Aaron,
and David, and the times that went over them. Now, "kingship" is to be displayed
in Solomon, and the watchman’s cry is heard again, "the morning cometh, and also
the night." And is this what God is doing with the elect king, in the midst of
His elect nation? Is He in very deed making one more display of Himself, and one
more appeal to them, and this almost the last, before the night, that terrible
night, comes again, and He sets the best thing aside that He can do for the
welfare of His earthly people? Is all this to share the same fate as Eden, and
must God come into it all one day, and profane His sanctuary, and His throne,
and His kingdom by casting all down to the ground? Alas! He has done all this,
and Jerusalem "is trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles
are fulfilled." What a lesson does this historical picture present to Judah and
Israel, and the civilised world, in their forgetfulness of God, and in this day
of their boasted progress and prosperity, whilst they are in a mistaken
defiance, making out histories for themselves by their self-sufficiency. But the
judgment of God, by driving out or casting down, plucking up or cutting off,
never comes in to take revenge on departure from Himself, and what He creates or
bestows, till He can say, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I
have not done in it? wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes?" If we repeat the inquiry in the light of this
patient consideration of God, and yet of human responsibility, under such
accumulated grace and outward prosperity, as marked the ascent of King Solomon
to the throne of his glory, the answer must be plain. And what would this answer
be but this — that the moment of his grandest elevation was the one of his
greatest danger, and the ripest hour of his vast power and dominion was but the
precursor to his declension and downfall. And why? Because, though an elect
vessel, like the nation was an elect nation, yet was he but a man in the flesh,
and still in a sinful nature, outside Christ and the Holy Ghost. The time was
not come for them to stand before God, as we now do, upon the ground of
accomplished and eternal redemption by the work of Christ upon the cross. Nor
could "they reckon themselves dead unto sin," and to the law, by the body of
Christ, and be thus made "free to be married to another, even to Him that is
raised from the dead, that they might bring forth fruit unto God." However
favoured Solomon might be, and was, yet it was by endowment; whilst as the head
and king of Israel, he was responsible by his own obedience, in the position he
held, for maintaining them in unbroken relationship with Jehovah, their Lord.
These great drawbacks, as to his manhood, made him a celebrity by what God had
heaped upon him, and not because he had earned them, or was competent to retain
them as part of his own being. There is only One — the Son of God — of whom it
can personally be said, "’Thou art worthy to receive all wisdom, and glory, and
riches, and power," and He had not yet come into this world (though promised) by
the mystery of the incarnation. A heavy thousand years had to roll round,
weighted by the saddening tale of the decline and fall of a theocracy, in the
midst of Israel; and made sadder by their rejection of the marvellous ministry
of the prophets (even though accompanied by their lamentations and tears),
before the fulness of the time came for God to send forth His Son. The Messiah,
their only Saviour and Deliverer, will then be the light to them that sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death. The first man, Adam, in innocency, and in
the image of God (before history had begun), was at home in an unspotted
creation, with Him who made it; yea, God walked with the creature He had formed
for His delight in the cool of that unclouded day. When all this was lost, and
marred by Satan and sin, and it repented God that He had made man upon the
earth, and the world that then was perished by a flood, God, in His sovereignty,
called out one and another to walk with Him, upon promise, and blessing, and
future happiness to be established in an elect seed, according to covenant. What
else could He do in wisdom and grace, when all present and created good, even a
paradise, had been forfeited, and the gates of Eden closed — yea, man driven
out; and God had retired into His own place to consider, leaving a curse behind
Him, in righteous judgment, upon a groaning creation? Adam’s world has been
since buried by the waters of a deluge, weighed down, moreover, by the violence
and the corruption of the millions who inhabited it. In this world, since the
flood (or Noah’s world), God formally called out Abraham to begin this new line
of His election, as the genealogies of the First Book of Chronicles have taught
us. These have given birth to, and perhaps close up, this illustrious line of
elect vessels with Solomon, till Matthew and Luke add the generations which
bring in the Immanuel.

We have taken this short review of two worlds, in order to give weight, or
prominence to Solomon, the man of endowments and attainments, conferred upon him
by God, in contrast with all who ever were before, or shall come after him; and
it is with this wonderful Solomon, in whom the expectations of the world
culminate, the Second Book of Chronicles begins, with its bright morning in
Jerusalem, followed by its dark night of captivity in Babylon. He is before the
world, and before the heavens, and all who dwell in them, to stand or fall in
the place where never man was seen before, in royal majesty and imperial power.
He is responsible for their use to Him who bestowed them; and yet, having this
unheard-of opportunity of bringing glory to God, and blessing to the ten
thousands of Israel and the nations, by their rightful exercise, what a new era
in the history of God and mankind is in view, and depending on the fealty and
obedience of the only competent man, too, upon the earth, for he has not his
fellow! Adam was perfect as a created being, and a creation hung upon his
allegiance to the Creator. Solomon is perfect, not as a creature, but set apart
as an elect vessel to receive the favour of God, and to be enriched by him in
mind, body, and estate, so that, by reason of his endowments and attainments,
"he was wiser than all men, and his fame was in all the nations round about."
What an unparalleled hour in history! what an opportunity for the wisest of men!
what an occasion for the world in its throes, and under the bondage of
corruption, if it could be delivered by superhuman wisdom and power!

Nevertheless, in the counsels of the Godhead, this problem had to be wrought
out, as to the competency, or incompetency of a fallen man, even when sustained
and endowed to the utmost, to hold and to use what was entrusted to his hands
for the glory of God, and his own happiness, and the welfare of his
fellow-creatures? The great men of successive ages may well be dumb before this
greater man of a previous age. The bold men of the nineteenth century may
stagger, and bow their heads before the man "whom God magnified exceedingly
"three thousand years ago, and respecting whom He said, there never again should
be his like. It was God who brought out this problem before the world (of the
insufficiency of the creature), and that it might not be left an open question
for generations which should come after, but be settled in the life-time, and by
the living ways, of no one less than king Solomon and this most favoured nation.
If, besides all these endowments, men speak of genius, let them, but they must
pale before him who uttered three thousand proverbs, and whose songs were a
thousand and five. If they rejoice in the created works around, and think
themselves masters of all the eye can see, or the heart desire — let them, but
they must give place to him "who withheld not his heart from any joy." He spake
of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of
the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of
fishes.

Whether one sees him on the throne in government, and exercising justice and
judgment; or in the temple, before the altar of the Lord; or upon the scaffold
of brass, as an intercessor and a worshipper, between Jehovah and the
commonwealth of Israel — all is as complete and exact as the laws of the
sanctuary and of the kingdom demanded. Indeed these were the birth-place and
great beginnings of a history, and of a name that rose up in its strength and
brightness over the haze and darkness of a vast universal declension — like the
sun that dispels the gloom, and drives away the mists, till it mounts into its
own supremacy, and rules and makes the day. "Watchman, what of the night? The
morning cometh, and also the night." God acknowledged and put His own seal upon
all this opening prosperity, by the glory that dwelt in the temple, and filled
the land. "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and
largeness of heart, even as the sand which is on the seashore." Who would think
of, or dare to repeat, an Adam, sinless and in innocence, with whom God was so
close, that there was no room for an intermediate providence, nor any necessity
for its exercise? Are God and men still so one as to walk and be together, or
have they ever since been separated off by sin in a fallen creation? Nay, not
only has He closed up all such direct and immediate intercourse between Himself
and the creature, but measured the distance, and maintains it still, as a God
superintending all things by His providence. He is sitting in the heavens in His
righteousness, and they upon the earth, with the curse and the sweat of the brow
upon every child of Adam, and the groaning of a blighted creation all around.
Moreover, who would think of, or dare to repeat, a Solomon, not sinless like
Adam, but sinful in his nature, as born of the man who fell, yet made
illustrious, and made a celebrity, by conferred gifts and endowments which he
received of God, and which were commanded in a moment of time to rest upon him,
in answer to his prayer?

Men may possess the same faculties, but where and when have any stood forth as
he, to be wondered at, not because of their attainments, but some who were not a
Solomon one instant, and became one the next, by having had to do distinctly and
directly with God? May it not be said, yea, must it not be admitted, that
first-class education, and its necessity in the nineteenth century, cannot
measure the distance, much less do away with the gulf, between those who are
under its high pressure, and an endowed Solomon; just as, for other reasons, a
kind and a merciful Providence maintains a distance now between the Creator and
His creatures? Did Solomon become one under tutors and governors, and by the
slow and measured steps of examinations, and degrees, and honours, as the
hardly-won fruit of collegiate study, which are accepted in the present day as
the high road to advancement and preferment, for place or power, in the world as
it now is? No; he was the wise man, made such out-of-hand, by God, in a moment,
just as truly as when He breathed into Adam’s nostrils, and he became a living
soul — the image representation of God in manhood; but where and what is he? In
due time Solomon closed up the progressive history of this elect people
according to the flesh, in the generations and genealogies of the First Book of
Chronicles. But who and what was he in the Second Book? The morning cometh, it
is true, but also the night. Alas! "the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his
heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice,
and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other
gods; but he kept not that which the Lord commanded." The allegiance which was
due from the creature to the Creator, in the creation, but which was violated
and broken up by Adam’s sin; is come to naught a second time in Solomon, who was
seated in glory and power upon the throne of God’s government in the earth. The
crown has fallen from his head, and the sceptre from his hand, and the kingdom
from under his feet, and the two staves of beauty and bands has God broken
asunder, "for Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and
after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites." An important interval, or
dispensation, yet remains to be noticed in the history and ways of God with men,
between Adam, without any government, before government (like Providence) could
have any place; and Solomon, as the representative and administrator of a
theocracy in the city of the Great King, where government in righteousness was
indispensable, on account of the holiness of God, as well as of sin and the
flesh. Intermediately the law was given by Moses, and proclaimed, yea,
established the claims of Jehovah upon the elect nation for the worship and
devotion which were His due. Besides this, they were morally responsible for
obeying and loving Him for all the goodness and mercy which, as the God of
providence and the Jehovah of Israel, they had known, together with their
fathers, all the way from the house of bondage to the Canaan of rest, into which
He had brought them. At any rate, if this were a problem, it had to be wrought
out into proof, like the others; for they had entered into covenant with God,
and had returned their answer by Moses, at Sinai, "All that the Lord hath
commanded us, we will do." This was, in fact, the time of the world’s probation,
brought to light, it is true, in a handful of people and a sample nation, but
under all the advantages and encouragements to love God, and their neighbour as
themselves, which He could introduce by outward prosperity and plenty, and by
calling them up to Jerusalem, that they might keep "the feasts of the Lord" with
Himself, and find their joy in His presence. But they rebelled, and vexed His
Holy Spirit, wherefore He was turned against them, and became their enemy; and
now, what is become of this highly-favoured and select nation, and when are the
feasts of Jehovah kept, or with whom? and where is Jerusalem, the city of the
Great King? Alas! Ichabod is the sole epitaph, and the one record of forfeited
blessing, and of departed glory — from the drawn sword in the hand of the
cherubim at the garden-gate, to the trodden-down Jerusalem by the feet of the
Gentiles.

It is time to ask now, what is the solemn result of these trials and tests of
such a distinguished man, and what our lessons by God in this history, and of
His ways with a nation, in the brief record of his reign? Or rather, what should
be the effect of this great proof in such a king, and of an elect people, when
gathered round God Himself, with His glory in the temple, and this endowed man
upon His throne, as the guarantee (if there could be one outside Christ) of
permanent and universal blessing? Ought not the leaders and great men of modern
times to allow such an one to challenge them all by the question, even if they
do not like to answer him, "What can the man do that cometh after the king?"
Nay, is it not presumption, if not a presumptuous sin, for the men of this
period to suppose the problem of what man is, and is worth, in his relation to
God, and to his neighbour, and to the world, to be an open question still, and
left for them to solve? This, too, in the face of the prophecy which challenges
all, "What more could have been done for my vine-yard that I have not done?" Do
any of them come up to Solomon, or can they excel God? Will the scientists, and
the men of mark and renown, say they are at an advantage, because experimenting
amongst a non-elect people, instead of an elect one, which was so beloved, and
placed under law to God? Will they tell us it is better to begin the problem in
the midst of Gentile nations, with whom God does not stand in any relationships
of this kind, than with the nation which He chose, and brought to Himself? Do
they think it in their favour to make laws of their own, and establish various
forms of government, and set up thrones of their devising in their modern
cities, rather than to bow their heads, and learn their lesson from the ruins of
Jerusalem, and the cast-off people they are treading under their feet? Do they
judge it to be in their favour never to have had a Solomon, qualified and
endowed as he was, and under the direct guidance of God, that so they may be
free of Him, and be left to their own inventions and expediencies, under
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon? If the reigning emperors and kings, with their
empires and dynasties, are agitated and perplexed, or sometimes overthrown in
the struggle between absolutism and democracy, or betwixt imperialism and a
republic, do they think this uncertainty an advance upon the theocracy of the
God of Israel? They will do well to remember that the divine form and principles
of political economy, and of jurisprudence, were long ago determined by God, and
are indelibly written by His finger in the Pentateuch; as well as the patterns
and form of the temple, and its priesthood and worship, in the two books of
Chronicles. Neither the throne nor the altar has been overlooked. Be it so, that
all this greatness and magnificence have come to naught, with an elect people,
who had God in their midst, and as a wall of fire around them; what can those do
who come after? Is it better to be without Him, and safer and wiser to take
counsel with their own hearts, that their dignity and honour may be publicly,
and far more fatally, seen to proceed from themselves?

If it be further said, Yes, but this Second Book of Chronicles ends with the
captivity of the people, the carrying away of all the golden vessels into
Babylon, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the transfer of governmental power
from Israel to the Gentiles, and "the morning cometh, and also the night," is
fulfilled in their history; be it so. But what, I repeat, is such a lesson for
them "who are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, and without God in the world" — who are non-elect,
unendowed, and uncovenanted? Will such come out into history at a premium on
their predecessors? We shall see. In the meanwhile the elect nation and her
kings are set aside by Jehovah.

If we here close up their two books of Chronicles for another and a brighter day
in the millennium of their history, and go with the children of the captivity,
it will be only to see that God abides faithful to His own, and advances Daniel
into a new place in this strange country. He becomes the prophet of woe to
Babylon. The captive Israelite is the one who is anointed by Jehovah to reveal
to the great king Nebuchadnezzar, as the head of the Gentiles, all the secret of
his dynasty, and its destiny and doom. The four grand divisions of the golden
image, which troubled the monarch in his night visions, and which include what
is now called "the civilised world," but which none of the wise men could divine
to their master, are brought to light by this child of the captivity. It is
Daniel’s hand which thus early writes "Ichabod" upon all the grandeur of the
king and his kingdoms. So distinguished is this elect vessel in a strange place.
The man who shines brightest among the nobles, and imports a grandeur and a
glory into Babylon to which it was a total stranger, is this Israelite; for
Daniel stands in a holy lustre, be it in the palace, or at the gate of the king,
or when in the lions’ den. This is the great charm in their opening history,
that Daniel eclipses all. The transfer of power from Jerusalem, or rather the
use of it when thus committed to Nebuchadnezzar, put the sentence of death upon
his palace and his kingdom, and indeed upon himself. It was but taking Jonah
into the ship. God was angry with him for his pride, and sent him into the
fields to eat straw like an ox, till his nails became as birds’ claws. In like
manner the transport of the golden vessels from the temple of Solomon to
Babylon, and their profanation at the feast of Belshazzar, brought out the
handwriting upon the wall, "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin," which put the sentence
of death into him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed. So, again, when
the king of Babylon had set up the idol-image, and the fiery furnace was
prepared for any who refused to fall down and worship it, the three elect
children of the captivity were thrown therein, but only to be joined by another,
and that one like unto the Son of God. The sentence of death was transferred
from the three elect ones, who were in the flames, but not burnt, and gave birth
to the decree, that whosoever spake anything amiss of the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, should be cut in pieces. Alas for Babylon and its great
idolatrous king at the commencement of this history, and for his non-elect and
unchronicled descendants! Thou art this head of gold, and that crowned head
driven out of the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, and debased to the level of
a beast! But perhaps, as an empire, their future is brighter, though he must be
a bold man, and something more, who would stop us to raise such a question upon
the four beasts, or the ten toes of Daniel’s prophetic image, in this nineteenth
century. Such an one must be forgetful of their great iron teeth, devouring much
flesh, to which all the newspapers bear witness, and which all the world knows.
Only let them look at the future in the records of Daniel, or in the Apocalyptic
visions of John, and demand in their turn, "Watchman, what of the night?" as
being their two books of Chronicles — and what are they? The handwriting in
detail of that selfsame finger which wrote their history in brief upon the
palace-wall of Belshazzar says, their "morning cometh, and also their night."
They rise up as a great host of people, "without God," at their beginning in
Babylon, and "without hope in the world," at their close. Idolatry, maintained
by absolutism, was the rise of the power, in the hand of the great monarch, at
the first, and proved by the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up, and
commanded all people to worship. But perhaps, religiously, their future is
different, and they may call on the living and true God, and be better at the
latter end — nay, vain is any such expectation, for Revelation 13:1-18 says, "He
had power to give life unto the image of the beast; that the image of the beast
should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed." Blasphemy and profanity were in the palaces of Babylon
at the first, when the finger wrote upon the wall, and at the close, the
handwriting in Revelation 13:1-18 declares, "He opened his mouth in blasphemy
against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven." Their last end is even worse than the first. But perhaps, politically,
the history of imperial power in the hands of the four great empires, of gold,
silver, brass, and iron, may bring up some correctives; not so either, for these
metals, in their fourfold character, prove the deterioration of delegated power,
and at the close, a "stone, cut out without hands, falls upon the ten toes of
this image, and it is destroyed — yea, becomes like chaff upon the summer
threshing-floor." But yet again, Babylon and its descendants may have "hope in
their end?" Not so either, "for the kings of the earth, who have committed
fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for
her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning" ascending up. "Without God"
at the beginning, and "without hope in the world" at the close, embraces these
nineteen centuries of Nebuchadnezzar power, or Gentile greatness. Their doom and
utter destruction stand out in contrast with the chronicles and prophecies of
the elect nation of Israel, "to whom still pertaineth the adoption, and the
glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and
the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh,
Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever."

If we now turn from these prophecies to their present history, it yet remains to
see how Israel and the Gentiles answered God, when He woke the world up once
more by the light of "the day-spring from on high," and by the songs of the
angelic hosts at the coming in of Christ, the Son of the Father, by the mystery
of the incarnation. "Last of all he sent to them his son." The question is no
longer the competency of Adam to retain a paradise upon the sole condition of
allegiance to the Creator; nor of the sufficiency of Solomon to govern the elect
nation in Jerusalem, with Jehovah in covenant relation to the throne and the
temple; nor of the Gentiles, in their use of power for the glory of God, when
transferred to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar; but will they reverence the Son, and
welcome Him as the Saviour, the King of kings, and Lord of lords? "Glory to God
in the highest, on earth peace, and good will to men," was the new song given
out from the heavens to the earth when Jesus was born. Another morning is come;
must another night succeed this? Deliverance and blessing were to issue forth
from heaven, seeing that all hands were incompetent below to keep what God had
bestowed, or to retain the place of honour and power in which He had set them
for His glory. The groan of creation — the captivity of Israel — the idolatry of
Babylon — left no hope in the world. The cry of the oppressed once more went up
to God, and so the multitude of the heavenly hosts brought in their melodious
anthem, and piped unto them of the Child born — would they dance? God had yet
one Son, and He so loved the world He had made, and the men in it, that He sent
Him forth as the Redeemer of Israel, and the Saviour of the world. The innocent
first man — the endowed king — the elect nation, on the one hand; or the head of
gold, and the image, in its continuation of silver, brass, iron, and clay, on
the other; had forfeited their thrones and dominions, their kingdoms, and their
sceptres and crowns; — can they appreciate deliverance, or will they yet do
worse? Yes, far worse than all, for when they saw the Son, they said, This is
the heir, come, let us kill Him, and seize upon His inheritance. And so they
cast Him out of the vineyard and the world too, vociferating up to God, We will
not have this man to reign over us, and that man the Son of the Highest — yea,
God manifest in the flesh. The whole world had grown so old in wickedness, that
it could not estimate such an intervention in supreme goodness as God sending
forth His Son to save the lost and the undone. Herod, the king, was troubled by
tidings of the birth of Jesus the Saviour, and all Jerusalem with him. The high
priest, Caiaphas, rent his clothes, and Pilate washed his hands of innocent
blood, when his lips had given sentence against Him. The Son of God, the
incarnate One, come down to walk with men upon the earth, and to go about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, has been refused, cast
out, and crucified. The trial and the test at this time were not, "Thou shalt
love the Lord with all thine heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," but will men
consent to be loved by Him who has come after them in love? Alas! they refused
to be loved by God, and compel even Jesus to say of them, "For my love they are
my adversaries."

They take Him out of the manger, and lead Him to the brow of the hill, and then
to the cross, where they crucify Him between two thieves; and God has looked
down upon all this. Yet the earth moves upon its axis still, and a God in
providence makes the sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain
upon the just and the unjust. What a God He is! If mankind ever had the sense of
what was righteous and true in His sight, they would have accepted the sentence
of death in Adam’s transgression, when confirmed by the flaming sword at the
garden-gate; and if they carried the sense of grace, they would cling to the
promise of deliverance through the Seed of the woman, and shadowed forth by the
coats of skin which God made, and wherewith He clothed them. But it was not till
four thousand years had told their sad tale to the heavens, and all who dwell
therein, of the growing distance and enmity below, that the cross bore witness
against the world itself by the rejection of Christ as its king, and of Jesus as
the Saviour come to seek and save those that are lost. The earth and its
inhabitants had long ago broken down, when tried representatively, before the
law, and the kingdom of Israel. Then God called it out into His presence, to
learn its insufficiency for restoration and re-establishment under such a
government as He had set up in Jerusalem. The world itself, and all its
pretensions (and at their highest and best too), had suffered collapse, when its
representative man and representative nation failed towards God, and wrought no
deliverance in the earth.

Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, with the ten toes, may deny this great and
summary collapse as conclusive, and expand and inflate themselves and their
kingdoms, as they have done, and are still doing, but only to suffer a heavier
judgment and doom by their experiment, and break down finally under the
responsibility of power in their own hands. Worse than this, far worse; for it
was under the power and rule of the fourth beast of the image that Caesar’s
representative acted, and that the Roman soldier pierced the side of Jesus with
his spear. Human enmity came forth, instead of love to God, and wickedness had
found its victim at last in the Son of God’s grace, and their common outlet at
His cross and in His blood. This was the crisis, and a night of darkness. What
must the Judge of the earth do now? Can there ever be a morning again? Will He
submerge the world by water a second time, in righteous anger? or will He
destroy it by fire? God had a remedy after the deluge, and brought in the law,
and an economy by Moses, whom He installed as the mediator between God and men.
Has He yet a resource? Besides this, it was the school-time, when the Levites
taught the people, and instructed them in the right ways of the Lord. Israel was
at school, and under its schoolmaster. After (or rather with) an elaborate and
wondrous system of education in this sample and elect nation, He established
government by a theocracy in the midst of this experimental people. The best
that God could do with men as they were, and the choicest sample of mankind too,
came to naught, and they were driven out of Canaan. Neither education nor
government availed. After Jerusalem came Babylon and the Gentiles, and their one
only point of agreement, as determined by Caiaphas and Pilate, was to condemn
Christ, and crucify Him. This was the cross, where the whole world, which had
broken down morally, rose up in defiance and rebellion against God, and against
His Anointed. Wickedness and hate have overstepped themselves, by reason of Him
who was their object and victim. A climax has come, and the whole world is in
blood-guiltiness before God; but He will not, yea, cannot, determine this new
enormity by water, as He once did, nor by melting fire, as He will do at the
last day. And why? Because He had His purposes of grace and redemption to bring
to light at the cross, and by means of the precious blood they had shed. That
act, which was the outlet of man’s hatred of God and of Christ, becomes the door
for the inlet of His infinite love to sinners. He will not take up the
crucifixion of His Son as a murder at His cross, though it be so horrible, nor
be ruled by it in vengeance today, but use it as a door into the acceptable year
of the Lord. By means of the cross God can proclaim forgiveness to the betrayers
and murderers, in proof that, high as the world’s hate rose, His love was yet
higher, and overreached it, even to pardon it, through faith in the atoning
blood, which was the very proof of their guilt. In this forbearance and grace
the Father and the Son are one; for, as when the woman whom the Pharisees
brought to Jesus in her sin — in the very act, as they said — to be stoned, and
He would not condemn her, but stooped down, and wrote on the ground, as though
He heard them not; so has God, in grace, been acting during this long day of
patience and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but all should
come to repentance. After the blood-guiltiness at the cross God comes out in
grace, beginning at Jerusalem; and this is indeed as the light of another
morning — "a first day" — and becomes the time of salvation, through the blood
and death of Christ, during which God refuses to hear the accusation, or enter
into judgment upon this sin with mankind. There is an alternative still between
God and man at the cross — salvation or judgment, and herein is wisdom, to be of
one mind with Him, and thankfully accept justification by faith in the blood of
Christ, and eternal life, through His death and resurrection to the right hand
of God as the head of the new creation. Union, by the Holy Ghost, with the Son
of man there, and in the glory, is the new position which the gospel of God
proclaims and offers to the chief of sinners. Christ is gone! In conclusion, we
may and must ask, Is this alternative accepted for "the obedience of faith among
all nations?’’ Are they rejoicing in the glad tidings of God’s salvation, and
looking for the second coming of Christ, to take all those who believe up to the
Father, as redeemed by the blood of His Son, and to be manifested as the heirs
of God and joint-heirs with Christ? The Lord and the glorified saints are the
appointed kings and priests unto God, and they will order and put the world all
right, when He takes to Himself His great power, and reigns on the throne of His
glory, as the greater than Solomon, to establish His interests in righteousness
and peace on the earth.

"The morning cometh, and also the night," and it is at the dawn of another and a
new dispensation from above, by the coming of the Lord; and in the face of such
an administration as this will be, it is that the antagonistic path completes
itself, into which the god of this world has led the counsellors and the great
men of these nineteen centuries. Do any inquire, as the watchman bids them, what
the night-time is of this nineteenth century? and what is the fatal and final
night? The answer is this: "So he carried me away in the Spirit into the
wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names
of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." Moreover, "she had a golden cup
in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication." Isaiah’s
watchman cried out in his day, "If ye will inquire, inquire ye, return, come;"
and Daniel the prophet, as well as the Apocalyptic apostle, the two watchmen who
chronicle the approaching end of this age to us, cry, "Blessed is he that
readeth, and they that hear," for the time is at hand! John, who describes the
depth of the darkness of this horrible night-time, as well as its coming and
closing judgments, cries out, "The ten horns which thou sawest upon [and] the
beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and
shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." Once more, the watchman cries,
"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the
kings of the earth." In the bygone chronicles of God’s actings with men,
probation and their education were His own care, till they "changed the truth of
God into a lie," and then, judicially, "God gave them over to a reprobate mind,
because they did not like to retain him in their knowledge." These, as well as
the theory and establishment of government and rule over the nations, are things
of the past, and on the page of history; and yet these are the very subjects
which the senates and parliaments have recommenced, and which occupy them in
their midnight sessions, as if they were out upon a voyage of discovery. How
tedious and disappointing they find it, none knows so well as themselves, as one
premier supplants his fellow and forms another cabinet, or dissolves the
existing house of assembly and introduces a different policy; nor will we stop
to inquire, for pity’s sake. Enough for us to know they are in the darkness of
the night, and labouring for very vanity. They have the wrong man in hand to
make better, and the wrong world to garnish — the Cain, who went out from the
presence of God at first, and, lastly, Barabbas instead of Jesus, when they cast
Him out and killed Him — the God who came back into it in the person of His
only-begotten and well-beloved Son. Woe be to the world that refused the mystery
of the Child born and put Him into a manger, and, when wearied of Him, took Him
down from the cross, and offered Him a sepulchre! Life and peace to a world, in
which redemption out of its ruins is preached through the death and resurrection
of Christ, is God’s only remedy, by the Holy Ghost sent down from the Father and
the Son in heaven, in the gospel of His grace, and in which world a free pardon
is proclaimed through faith in the precious blood of Christ which they shed.
This refusal of God’s only resource, as the Judge of the whole earth, is like
demanding a new trial (if one may thus speak) at the throne of His Majesty,
where the rejected Son is sitting, "till his enemies are made his footstool."
This demand is boldly maintained, moreover, by a refusal to accept the humbling
fact of the worthlessness of man, as proved by his breakdown educationally in
the school of Moses, or under the economy in Immanuel’s land, when King Solomon
reigned over the nations; or, finally, by the enmity and outbreak of the
civilised world against God and His Anointed at the cross. In their eyes He is
still without form or comeliness, for man and the world and the devil are the
same; neither is there any beauty in the Son, or value in His work of
redemption, that they should desire Him or it. If any think it may be otherwise
now, and that national Christianity, together with the pretentious Congress in
eastern and western Europe, may yet float these nations; or give them favour in
the sight of God by the mockery of their established but contradictory
religions; one only need point any such to the boasted "union" of the Church and
State throughout the Roman earth, to falsify every expectation of "a morning
without a cloud" from the mother of harlots and her daughters in these alliances
with the beast. "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of
the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a
little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him!" J. E. Batten.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-j-e-batten/
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