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RO 25:11{What we call life here below is a system of difficulties, permitted or put together, within and around us, calculated to bring us quickly to our wits' end, if we tried to show our competency, truly, but the rather prepared as the occasion for Christ to show His grace and loving care of, in, and toward us, as we pass along through them all. He wants the occasion in which to show out that " I am with you"; and " It is I "; and shall we repine or be unwilling to have it so, as that the whole journey down here shall be a history of His triumphant love ever leading us about, and causing us to be, in all things, more than conquerors through Him that loved us? We are poor things indeed-had nothing of our own but our sins; but "knowing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich," now we are His and He is ours; and His heart is set upon us and cares for us, and He will lead us on until His own presence is our dwelling place forever. The Lord enable us more to lay hold of that handle of everything which is the Lord's; and not of that which I, or man, or Satan can say, that is mine, not the Lord's. Stones are hot in the sun, but they often keep what is below them cool and moist. Not " our leanness, our leanness " should be our burden, as we pass along here below, but rather " what a Christ is He who has found and picked me up." I set my face to Him-ward and would strengthen my soul in Him. Body, soul, and spirit in me belong to Himself alone, and I would have them wholly His until He comes to take me to Himself. May I not say, and you too say, " Amen and Amen for ourselves to this.
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In these " last days," those who, in the fear of the Lord, have acted on the word in 2 Timothy in purging themselves from the vessels to dishonor in the " great house " and also in following righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart," have found how truly they are " perilous (‘ difficult ') times " —in which the pretensions and the energies of man are highly manifested. It is not an easy thing to be content with being simply what we are in reality before God. Times of " revival" reveal the thoughts of many hearts; but to learn in a day of grace to abide in peace, and know that God is God, is completely above the education of the flesh.
The spirit of the age affects many Christians who labor to restore the "old things" for the service of God, instead of being broken before Him by the feeling of their own fall. I do not at all doubt their sincerity, but I fear that they have not judged themselves, that they know not the actual state of the ruin that surrounds them; so that they cannot have an adequate confidence only in the living God, as in the God of all resources in the midst of this scene where man has failed in everything.
We ought never to be afraid of the whole truth. To confess openly what we are in the presence of what God is, such is always the path of peace and of blessing. If it be thus when even only two or three are found before God, there will not be disappointments, nor fallen hopes. If the wells dug in the days of Abraham have been filled and stopped up with earth, we have nevertheless to do with a God who can make water issue out of the rock, even when struck, and cause it to flow in the parched desert to refresh His people, thirsty and fatigued.
I do not envy the labor of those who dig canals in the sand for the streams, which after all may take another course.
The active ways of God, in all times of blessing, consist in reproducing the glories of the work of the Lord Jesus. The darker the long night of apostasy becomes, the more distinctly the light of life shines. The word to the remnant is, " Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts" (1 Pet, in 15). He is the only gathering point. Men make among themselves confederations (Isa. 8:11-1411For 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, 12Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 13Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (Isaiah 8:11‑14)). having many things in view; but the communion of saints cannot be known unless every line converge on this living Center.
The Holy Spirit does not gather the saints around simple views, true as they may be, on what the church is, on what it has been, or on what it may be on the earth. He gathers them always around this blessed Person who is the same yesterday and today, and forever! " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them " (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)). We are certain that Satan and the flesh will seek to resist this work and this way of the Lord, or to overthrow them.
We have need to be guarded from boasting, as is the case in these days; we need to be kept peaceful in the presence of God: there is so much independence and self-will almost everywhere. " We shall do great things " is the most unbecoming cry that can be heard at this time, when the light has made evident how little has been done.
God has made us know His truth as that which delivers us: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free " (John 8:3232And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)). This liberty is not that of the flesh, because it penetrates our hearts with all the reality of a separation well known to God, who is holy. Thus one gets straight into His position with one's heart humbled and broken. If anyone talks of separation from evil without being humbled about it, let him beware lest his position be simply that which at all times has formed sects, and has also produced heterodoxy in doctrine.
As to our service, we have seen our precious Lord and Master in profound abasement wash the feet of His disciples, giving Himself as an example-to whom? To us assuredly. Now I know no service at the present time which is worthy of Him and agreeable to Him, if not done in humiliation (cf. Acts 20:1919Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: (Acts 20:19)). This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God so dear to Christ, is in this world dishonored, dispersed, ignorant and afflicted, he who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. The true service of love will seek to give according to the wants of, and will never think of putting shame on, the objects of the Master's love, because of their necessity.
The men taught of God for His service come forth from a place of strength, where they have learned their own weakness and their own nothingness. They find that Jesus is everything in the presence of God; and Jesus is everything for them, in all and through all. Such persons in the hand of the Holy Spirit are real helps for the children of God; they will not contend for a place of distinction, or authority among the scattered flock. Communion of man with God with respect to the Church is shown by a frank disposition to be nothing in it, and thus one will be happy in one's heart in spending and being spent.
In our personal remembrances we have lessons to learn with fear and trembling.
May the thoughts of power never occupy our hearts too much: " Power belongeth unto God " (Psa. 62:1111God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. (Psalm 62:11)). For some years there has been a time of excitement, men seeking power everywhere, and crossing seas to find it. Many thought of the church; but it was rather the church in power.
They have felt and said that the power was lost; how regain it? From that time they became occupied with earthly things, as if they could work deliverance here below.
Some may recollect how Satan put man forward, and the result has been the same everywhere. Whatever the form that such efforts adopted in days of confusion and excitement, they were invariably agreed to let all go on perceiving their deception (for all failed in their objects, and the result was only sects). There were even mortal marks of hostility against the Lord Jesus; or if His name was left untarnished, they prepared, nevertheless, the way for the terrible result of annulling the presence of the Holy Spirit, who alone can glorify Jesus.
The Great Shepherd will not forget the labor done in his name with a happy heart for His dear sheep, poor and necessitous. An unfading crown of glory and abundant praise in the day of His appearing, will be the portion of those who meanwhile act thus. God will own all that He can own and none will lose His recompense. I am not surprised at the disappointments which have followed all the efforts men have made in the church to introduce some formal system of ministry, authority or government. God cannot allow men to come and arrange the ground on which in these days He is pleased to find and bless His saints. We know very well what is the path of the flesh, which is completely indifferent about the fall of the church: it is to occupy a place among men where God has not granted it.
There is great instruction in the conduct of Zerubbabel, related in Ezra (3.). The son and heir of David takes his place with a remnant returning from captivity. He is content to labor in Jerusalem, without a throne, without a crown. In building the altar of the Lord and the house of God, he simply served God in his own generation. Heir of the place that Solomon had formerly occupied in the days of prosperity and glory, he speaks neither of his birth nor of his own rights; yet is he faithful in all the path of separation, grief and struggles he is obliged to pass through. May the Lord render us more and more peaceful and confiding in Himself in these days of trial. "When I am weak, then I am strong," is a lesson Paul had to learn by a very humbling process. If we speak of our testimony on the earth, it will soon be evident that it is all nothing but weakness, and, like the seed that is lost by the wayside, the testimony will end all the same for our shame. But if the living God has by us, on the earth, a testimony to His own glory, then the feeling of weakness will only draw us more directly to the place of power. An apostle with a thorn in his flesh learns the sufficiency of the grace of Christ. A little remnant is gathered and assembled, having nothing in which it can boast in the flesh; but it is thus that it is suited to remain faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus, when that which seemed to be something before men has failed.
Neither anger nor prudence nor pretensions of man can do anything in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I have no hope in the efforts that some are making to insure themselves an ecclesiastical position. In an earthquake, when the ground is undermined from its foundations, it matters little for a man to see how he can make his dwelling agreeable. We shall find it better to remain where we are set by the first discovery of the ruin of things in the hands of men, and with our faces in the dust. Such is the place that belongs to us if right, and after all it is the place of blessing. In the Apocalypse, John learns the actual state of the churches, falling at the feet of Christ. He was afterward taken to heaven in order that thence he might later on see the judgments on the earth; but evil in the church can never be well known, save when one is humbled at the feet of Jesus.
I have read of a time when several gathered together in such a grief of spirit that for a long time they could not utter a single word; but the floor of their meeting room was moistened with their tears. Were the Lord to grant us still such meetings it would be well to frequent these houses of tears: " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy " (Psa. 126:55They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (Psalm 126:5)). It is not only for an earthly remnant that that is true, but it is also written for us. I should willingly make a long journey to join persons thus afflicted, but I should not take a single step with a view to receiving, at the hands of the most excellent of men, power to overthrow all to-day, and to reconstitute tomorrow.
All that we can do is to walk with vigilance, but peacefully, thinking of the interests of the Lord Jesus; as to ourselves having nothing to gain and nothing to lose. The path of peace, the place of testimony, is to seek to please God. We need to be very watchful over ourselves, lest, after having been preserved from the corruptions of the age by very precious truths, made known to us in our weakness, we should be caught in the net of presumption, or launch out into insubordination-a thing that God never can own or tolerate. " Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace." The word of God is the same to-day as ever. All that has happened has not changed His purpose, which is to glorify the Lord Jesus. If we are humbled before Him, all that belongs to the glory of Christ will be to us of great moment. And what do we wish more?
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Evil as the days are, and ragged and dirty as the path is through which we are called to pass (a path where false profession has made sloughs and mires, and wherein the high way is broken down) yet there is a bright bit at the end upon the earth, even that terminus wherein shall be heard, ere the Spirit leaves the earth, ere the Bride has gone on high, those blessed precious words, " The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." Professors may not know where the Spirit is now; and many may be saying "and where is the church, that assembly which was set up at Pentecost? " But faith can look on high, faith can see, read and know the living thoughts of the risen and ascended Lord, and faith knows how His heart and mind have the assembly, the Bride in them and carry her there; and faith, too, feels and owns the claims which are upon oneself to live and walk here as part of this same Bride which shall be adorned and meet for her Lord: a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, in yet a little while, I want the reality of that, His present love to be more tasted, more enjoyed, more practically lived upon by myself and by those He loves who are here below.
And surely now is the time for this. Rebecca on her camel's back (Gen. 24), as Rebecca leaving her kindred, and Rebecca journeying through the strange journey, needed to stay herself upon her good fortune and to feed herself with her high calling: when she came to Sarah's tent hope was in measure changed to sight.
And it is not an unreasonable thing, either, to urge this. He who is on high is as much set now on giving forth to us, daily and hourly, as He was set once, in time past (Luke 9:51;12:50; 13:3351And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, (Luke 9:51)
50But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! (Luke 12:50)
33Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. (Luke 13:33)), on getting to the cross where He made an end of our guilt, having borne there the judgment due to us; or, as He will be in the time to come, when He will bid us rise up hence and come away with Him. His face, now unveiled, He shows to us on high; His faithful love He proves now to us down here; and He lets us know too, that to His heart and mind that coming is no secondary thing of little importance. If once He cried, " I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished," so now He says, " Surely I come quickly." One great grief to Him when He was down here, was that none of His own shared with Him His thoughts—were prepared for His self-renunciation. Just so now, I judge that His joy is in those who do think of what is now dear to His own mind, what He is about to bring out to light when He comes to be admired in all those that believe (2 Thess. 1:1010When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (2 Thessalonians 1:10)).
I used to think that I had lively faith, communion and hope; but as I get older I find myself more like a babe faithfully watched over by a mother's eye, and seem to get more satisfied to see what His thoughts of today are about me and what His plans for the morrow. Less account made of my feelings, more of His. Less notice of my faith, more of the fact that He died in my stead. More consciousness of the worth of His presence in heaven as a fact, than of the feelings which the knowledge of it produces in me—more counting on the certainty of His coming back, in order to put the finishing stroke to what He has wrought than of the flutter of expectancy. Not that the work wrought in us by the Holy Ghost has sunk in value in my thoughts, but that I look more at the outgoings of that work in me. To me to live is Christ. The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Individual attachment of the soul to the person of the Lord seems of growing importance. He bare the wrath in our stead; He has confessed in heaven above His love to us; He means to come and fetch us home. How can I say such things and not want to see HIMSELF, His own very self? True, when He comes, the scene will be surpassingly grand and blessed—Himself, the Resurrection and the Life, corning out from God to turn the low estate of those who have trusted in Him, to an occasion in which to show forth the glories of His own divine Person as the Resurrection and the Life. He will come and will call up out of the grave all that believed in Him—and then, standing on the cloud, will cause the life wherewith He will have quickened those that are alive and remain to His coming, to burst forth; and then their bodies shall be as instinct with His life as the souls of His people already are; and He will catch them away to be with Himself forever in the Father's house. Most blessed as this, the doctrine of 1 Thess. 4, is—my soul seems to find its deeper more individual portion in chapter i. I appreciate Him; and do so in the very presence of God: He loves me and I love Him, and I wait for Him to come from heaven. The individuality is so blessedly seen on the one hand, and the contrast between this divinely wrought love to Himself and the poor world all around. It is, too, one's portion for to-day, just where we are now.