3, Howley Place, Harrow Road, London, W.,
April 5, 1872.
My Dear Sister in The Lord,-Amid a whole forest of difficulties and impediments to writing, my heart has carried its purpose and desire to write to you. I had just got in measure free to do so, when B—-'s note, containing a copy of J——'s, reached me, and, shortly before it, the news of——'s death by cholera.
The battle-field of life! But, thanks be to God, no uncertainty upon it, to those that believe God's word, either as to themselves or as to those who, through Jesus, sleep in Him.
It is only by the Spirit of God's presence with us that we have received power to say, " I am Christ's," and " Christ is mine " It is His presence, personally, with the new nature given to us, that is our power of feeding upon such truth as, "Go tell My brethren, Behold, I ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God, and your God." I find it important to keep very distinctly before the mind, that fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, is only for us in the New Creation. In that, nothing breaks down; in that, there is no unshipping of anything in the storms or hurricanes of providential or governmental kingdoms. Yea, the very effect of the slaughter of the sheep, killed all the day long, is but to realize more and more, that the threads of life are in that which cannot be cut, the root and source of life, Christ Himself, in glory at God's right hand. "I, yet not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2:2020I 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. (Galatians 2:20)), is one of Paul's own peculiar expressions. " I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The "I" that was crucified together with Christ, and died together with Him, is what I was-a creature made for its Creator's glory and praise, but in its lapsed condition living from itself, and by its own power, and to itself-this I reckon dead; the I, yet not I, is myself as part of the New Creation. My selfishness is bowed before the love of Rim, who gave up glory in heaven, on the throne, to become a man to die for us-who lives, and in love thinks of us,-a living Man in heaven, and whose love will find its own expression, when He presents us to Himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. In God's love in giving Christ, and in Christ's love in enduring all for us, selfishness in us finds its deathblow, as well as sentence. But Rom. 6 goes further, because it not only makes an appeal to our hearts' affections, but shows God's thoughts and counsels, anti His view of Christ's death; that He, occupied with Christ's death, counts me dead who believe in Him; and that I am bound to count or reckon myself so too. Now this meets the difficulties of the greatest and of the least of us. We that believe have been brought out of that system in which self is looked at as everything, into another, in which Christ is looked at by God, and us too, in Him, the alone One. He only is the fountain, stream, end of all God's good pleasure, but we get our place both in Him before God, and with God in His thoughts about Him; for the Spirit is in us.
However little I am among men, or among the saints of God, or you, the question with God is, Is Christ magnified in us, and in our bodies, whether it be by life or by death? A slave might do this in the midst of slavery-live as rejoicing in Christ, as using His resurrection power (2 Cor. 10:1111Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. (2 Corinthians 10:11)), in all the details of the life of a slave, and do it all to Christ. An apostle might not succeed so well as the poor slave in this. For what is characteristic distinctively of an apostle, was, to have seen the Lord, and be one sent by Him as a messenger for the Lord's own self. Paul had not life-eternal life in Christ, more than had Phoebe or Onesimus.
Now it is just in possessing, and walking in this life, that you can magnify Christ in your body, whether it be by life or by death. The dewdrops on the trees and flowers can reflect the light of the rising sun; you in your retirement and suffering, bereavement and hidden life, can live unto God through Christ. This is just what I referred to, when I spoke to you of glorifying God and Christ in the furnace. However little you are, the thread, the pulse of eternal life, the knowledge of Christ who was crucified, and who arose, and lives up there in heaven, is possessed by you; and now He is coming again shortly, and if these things become the power of your life down here, if you walk down here as seeing, and waiting upon Him who is up there, He will be magnified in your body by your walk.
All the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, is unveiled to us, and the tiniest of us can reflect Him; can shine as Himself.
My dear child, I pray for you, that Christ may be lived to by you. Excuse haste, for interruption upon interruption has been mine. Tell your mother I hope to write to her.
Your brother and fellow-servant,
G. V. W.