Collectania
George Vicesimus Wigram
Table of Contents
A Few Words on the Scriptures
The Scriptures are the means by which God speaks to our consciences. They speak judgment on all around. The knowledge of them brings us into new things, into a new place. They give us the mind of God; our God providing the fullness of His own mind to detect the evil that is around us. They lead the saints on in their circumstances here. " Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we, through patience, and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope" (Rom. 15:4). When truth comes from the Spirit, it is truth in Jesus, glorifying Christ; truth set up in Him, and that is truth. The child of God can rest on it. The character of the Spirit's teaching is, Jesus risen. When we get into the truth of Jesus set in heaven, we never lose it (Eph. 1:18, &c.). This is a standing thing for a child of God never to lose, and that is the Spirit's teaching. The power of this truth enabled the apostles to witness against apostate things, and brought them into the hope of future things.
In the close of Matt. 12, we find our Lord passing condemnation on the generation of the flesh. Though He had before been subject to His parents, yet now, having taken a new standing, and being in new standing and circumstances, He looks at the new family and says, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" " He came unto his own, and his own received him not." The new thing that we get into now is, in principle, the " whosoever." Matt. 13 brings out all the principles of this. We get the mystery connected with the field, and we get the children gathered out of it; and here we see the double character of mystery. We get first Christ and the Church in it, and we have Satan's working too; and that is what is going on in the field in connection with the present dispensation. One is set up in the resurrection, connected with the mercy of God; the other is set up 'in the flesh, and therefore cannot get beyond the flesh. It is the other side of the flesh, that our Lord begins the parable of the sower. The word was planted in them, it was quickened in them, the word communicated life to them. The parable of the sower brings out the grace of God, and the enemy's effort to neutralize it. But the disciples had no intelligence about it. They had not got beyond the flesh. When our Lord spoke to them about the cross, they were offended, they did not know what they were brought into. They did not understand then the love of God to the sinner, as meeting him in all his misery; they did not know anything about the resurrection. The word of the risen Son of God gives nothing to the flesh, tells the saint to mortify it, and brings him beyond it. The word to the Church at Smyrna was, " Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Here was the grain of mustard seed. It was sown, but it grew badly; it grew into a great tree. The Son of man would not rest in it, but the birds of the air lodged in the branches of it. Now they could not have lodged
in a grain of mustard seed, but they could in a great tree. This was a warning given to the saints, not to rest in it. The parable of the woman hiding the leaven, I believe to be parallel with the woman in Zech. 5. These parables, I do not think, are preceptive, but prophetic. It is the Lord telling His disciples what the enemy would do. The treasure which the man found and hid, I believe to be the children of God; they get their resting-place, their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. He hid them; the field was not hid, but the treasure found in it. Satan may try and spoil the field, but our comfort is He " knoweth them that are his," and the Lord's own are hid in a hidden place of blessing. In these parables therefore we get two things,-the Lord's working, and the development of the working of Satan. Let us beware of everything of Satan's working; we see much of it in these days. Temperance, for example, is a good thing, and the children of God are to be temperate in all things; but if there is an association for temperance, set up in the flesh, and the name of the risen Jesus is not in it, then it becomes a bad thing. Judas could not get any fruit from his intercourse with Jesus, because he did not get beyond the flesh.
The Glory of the Bride, the Lamb's Wife
Perhaps no one subject is more replete with blessedness than the glory of the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. Whether we look at the grace that first brought us into it, or whether we look at the unfoldings of this love in the glory of the marriage; however we look at it, it is just marvelous! We are left in astonishing wonder. It is just, dear friends, as we become familiar with it, just as attention is directed to the sources, the springs of the joys of the bride, that we shall not only see the amazing joy that belongs to her, but we shall see ourselves cut off from the world. And this is why it is peculiarly blessed to my own soul, to trace this love where it rises, and to follow it to all the glory that it leads to. It fills me with wonder! The source of Jewish glory was in time. The Lord made himself known from time to time to the prophets. When He came to Moses, He spake thus:- " I am the God Of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." As this God, he came to send them out of Egypt. He divided the nations among them, and gave them Canaan (as He had promised) for their possession. Still, His love to them was altogether in time. They could not go back further than Abraham. The covenant with him was the highest bond of Jewish blessing, and was still in connection with earth. Eph. 1 shows us that the foundation of our joy and blessing is much deeper. It takes me up into the bosom of the Father; it shows me that in Jesus we have the spring. of -all the Church's blessing; it shows me that the Church is infinitely beyond anything connected with time. We read, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now when I trace up, dear friends, the line of blessing belonging to the Church, I find that it has its rise, not in Abraham, but in God Himself. These are things especially blessed to my soul, to know that it is altogether divine, altogether heavenly. In the book of Genesis, we shall find everything there molded with the eye of God resting on the glory of the Church in Jesus,-the mind of God overruling everything in Creation, which was to be gradually ten-folding the riches of Redemption. First, we see Adam out of his sleep, representing a state of weakness and humiliation, getting a helpmeet for him. Here, my beloved friends, we have the blessed action of God. Who dictated to Him the form of creation? It was His own mind, and it was to represent the glory of Christ and the Church. But when we get to Gen. 2, we find enough to make us silent with amazement. There we see God showing forth to us the beauty and glory of His own grace. In Heb. 2 we read, "he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." All this riches of grace came out from the Father. We are told that Abraham sent for a wife for his son Isaac; this God did when He gave-the Church to Jesus. When the time for the marriage is come, and for which we are waiting, how wonderful will be our portion, beloved! The most glorious thing of all will be the person of Jesus. Is it not so, that the thing the wife values above all else that she has, is the person of her lord? She shares with him in all that he has,-his possessions, his house are hers; but she does not rest her affections on these. She knows that she has them, but she is the wife; and it is that-which gives joy to her heart. This love is beautifully unfolded to us in Solomon's Song; there are the daughters of Jerusalem, but there is one above these. It is her beauty that he wonders at. I think I see Adam set forth as the strong one, while she is the beautiful one. Now the glory of the Bride is, that she has the person of the Lord. The joy of the Church, as the Bride, is, that she will be like Him, and see Him as He is. There will be no loveliness in Jesus then that she will not have too. His name will be written on her forehead. She will be no longer in disguise. All the moral glory, and moral beauty of her beloved, will be hers. We shall then be altogether like Him, and be able to know all the glory of Jesus. Where do we now read the Father, but in the face of Jesus? God hath now given us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. But it is when we see Him, that we shall be like Him; not as he was once, His visage marred more than any man's, and his form more than the sons of men. There will be nothing then to hinder the going forth of all the fullness of the Father's love. We see Jesus not making much of His own love, but showing out the Father's. I do judge, dear friends, that we ought to know our proper portion, and that is, the person of Jesus. I agree with what has been said about Messiah's kingdom. I believe that if we can realize the glory of the Bride in connection with present humiliation, we shall find that it will separate us from everything here. Our glory comes down out of God, and has altogether to do with the person of Jesus, and this cuts us off from everything earthly; this will just lift us up altogether, and give us power over all circumstances. It is only as we realize the power of the glory, that we shall be able to remedy the things that are wrong; and it is by realizing the power of our union with Christ, that we shall separate from the world, and this will unite us to one another. If we look at our beloved friends as forming part of the glory of Jesus, I am sure that we could not suffer anything to come in to separate us from each other.
Is the Honor and Power of This World Any Part of the Endowment of the Saints, According to the Word?
I feel this question to be one of immense practical importance. When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, the Jews—as they had done before, when they said to God, " All that thou hast said unto us we will do "-asked Jesus, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Man flatters himself, that all that is necessary for him to know is, what he ought to do, and he will do it. Jesus did not flatter them, but said, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." There are a very large number of believers in the world, who do not at all recognize their position before God. There are very many of whom it may be said that they are not unbelievers, and yet by their position in the " world cannot be addressed as Christians. The Word of God does not recognize them as in a Christian position. This should show us the importance of not being in a position to intercept the Word when it speaks, but to be able to say, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;" and of so walking, as to be discerned by the world as those who are not of the world.
There are some also who think that because they are Christians there can be nothing unchristian in their position. While nothing can alter a believer's relation to God, there may be many things in his positions which the Scriptures cannot recognize. I confess I can think of no other relations scarcely, in which the Word of God recognizes the Christian, than the natural ones,-as husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, master and servant. It is possible that we may be in a position of hostility, like our Lord, "When I am for peace, they are for war." I might suppose that the relation of subject and prince being recognized in the Scriptures, we ought to take part in the power of the world; while others may go to the other extreme and fall into a fearful mistake, that if it were wrong for a Christian to act as a sovereign, it must be wrong for him to act as a subject. Paul, in his epistle to Timothy (1 Tim. 2:1, 2), exhorts them to make " supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority." While we are in this world, we are commanded to submit to the powers that be. But as to the saints themselves being those powers, is another thing. Surely none would say they wished to abide where God's glory must depart; and God does not abide in the high, easy, comfortable places of this world. All that is in the world a Christian is called to give up. Is the honor and power of the world any part of the endowment of the saint according to the Word? I must broadly answer, No. The answer to this last question would be brought into a very narrow compass when we read those words, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." We find the Jews wanted to make Him a king, but He pointedly rejected it; and I cannot see any opening or authority in Scripture for a Christian to say, Our Lord had nothing to do with the honor or power of the world, yet I may. Again, when one came and acknowledged Him as Master and Lord, and said, "Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me," Jesus answered him, " Who made me a judge or a divider over you?" I believe it to be essentially wrong to touch anything of the mechanism of this world. I do not want to go into all the depths of the question, but all I have to do is just to ask, What did Jesus do? and upon that ground I safely take my stand. Who is the highest person in the rank, of this world? The Scriptures tell us Satan is; and therefore the higher I get in the world, the nearer I get to Satan. Jesus is at the bottom of the ladder, Satan at the top; and I would ask those who desire the high places in the world, " Is it best to sit nearest Jesus or Satan?" I have never seen any good from a saint's association with the world's glory. Our work is in the Church, yet while we cherish the Church of God, we should remember to pray for those who are in the world, who are not yet manifested. It is a most wicked thing for the child of God, who knows he is in a wrong place, to ask, How shall I do God's will in my own way? The language of our hearts should be this, that He would cast down imaginations, and everything (high) that, exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring, into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. It is not for a believer to choose his own place, and then ask God to show him what to do in that place. Again, there is often a fear of bringing the light of truth really to bear upon our position. One great practical difficulty, so to speak, is, having dug at the foundation, to go no deeper. God would say, Go very deep; but we say, We have not man's leave to go deeper. The question with us should not be, Where will these principles lead us but if they are of God, let them lead to the Antipodes, let them take us out of the world, what matters that?
Dear friends, what the most ignorant wants, is honesty; it is a single eye that we so much need, if we shrink, as I believe many do, from an increase of light. Oh, dear friends, let me warn you that that is a fearful darkness which is brought on by a man's own disobedience and rejection of the light. There are two things I desire for the saints,-that we may be guarded from the knowledge that puffeth up; and if we do get more perfect knowledge, that we may with the knowledge get more honesty.
Truth Learned in Communion With God
There is one thing that binds our affections to all the family of God, the knowledge that we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. But as to this knowledge, when we come in the power of the Spirit, we do not look at truth save in connection with God. The value of truth is, that I get it in communion with God. The basis of this dispensation is Jesus and the resurrection; and I say, beloved friends, that it is only as we get into the power of this that we can know the power of communion with God, and grow in the knowledge of truth. The Lord met Peter, and gave him a commission; He met John, and gave him one; and He gave Paul a commission too; but I see a distinct character in each of them, though they were all given in the resurrection life. To Peter He says, "Feed my sheep, feed my lambs," especially directing him to look: to the house of Israel. Paul's commission was based on the resurrection too, but he was to be a witness of something further still; Jesus at the right hand of God, was the truth he was called to be a witness to. Then our Lord seems to send John on a new commission, also based on the resurrection, but a new commission, and one that went still deeper; it was based on the love of God. And so it is, beloved, the more we find out the guilt of man, the more we find coming out the depths of the grace of God. Little did the Jews think, when they crucified Jesus, that they were striking their shafts into the bosom of the Father. When the Lord manifested Himself to. John, when banished to the Isle of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the object that John was first struck with when he turned round, was the person of Jesus. Then we have the effect of the presence of Jesus on John, the beloved disciple: " When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." And then we get something, which to my own soul is peculiarly blessed. Jesus stretches out the pierced hand, and says unto him, " Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." Nothing changes the first and the last.
I do not think the epistles to the seven churches are given to us as a guide for discipline. We see throughout the addresses the gradual progress of evil, and in the midst of surrounding declension the Lord seems to direct the faithful ones to Himself, as one in whom they will find a position suited to their need. He comes forth to tell them, that though lost in everything that was outward, they had their portion in Him. The Lamb is the Head of the Church, He is the one in whose heart the Church dwells; but I see Him in chapter iv. as the Lamb in the midst of the throne. In chap. 6 I see saints not in glory, but " the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held," under the altar, crying to the Lord to avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth; and it was said unto them, that they should rest for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled. I judge the four first seals to be providential trial, and not judgment. The Church cannot be in the judgment; and until I saw the truth of the remnant, I thought otherwise. In chapter 8 we find Jesus standing at the altar exercising the office of High Priest, in intercession for His saints. And in the same chapter we get the pouring out of the judgment, which is a proof that the Church cannot be in them. But we do read of saints being on the earth at that time. The Jews could not be called the saints now, but after the Church is removed, they will then be the saints. There is one thing that I have been especially struck with, and that is the importance of remembering that it is the mind of God we have to learn, which we cannot do from isolated portions of Scripture, but from the united testimony of the Word. I see nothing that stands between me and the Lord's coming for me; and come when He may, I have the certain knowledge of having Jesus, and with Him of having all things.
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