Correspondence

 •  8 min. read  •  grade level: 6
9. M., Glasgow. “What is meant by blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?”
In Matt. 12 The Lord had, by the Spirit of God, cast out a demon. The wretched Pharisees blasphemously charged Him with doing this by the power of Beelzebub. He showed the absurdity of this wickedness, and then explains the solemn fact, that whilst sin against Him might be forgiven, as indeed it was—repentance and forgiveness beginning at Jerusalem—but to reject the testimony of the Holy Ghost, and speak against Him, to such there could be no forgiveness. Compare this with Luke 12:1010And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. (Luke 12:10). Christ has been rejected and murdered: pardon was to be proclaimed to the murderers. He is gone up to heaven, and the Holy Ghost has come down, and is on this earth. But there is no pardon, neither, now nor in the millennial age to come, to those who reject and speak, against the Holy Ghost, as they did blaspheme against Christ. How very little is it known that the Holy Ghost is on this earth!
In Matt. 24:40, 4140Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (Matthew 24:40‑41), the Lord is, as you say, speaking of His coining in judgment on the quick as it were in the days of Noah; and, looked at from that point of view, one will be taken away by judgment as it was in the days of Noah, and the other left for the millennial earth. (Compare Luke 17:24-3724For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 25But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. 26And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 31In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 32Remember Lot's wife. 33Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 34I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 35Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 36Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 37And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. (Luke 17:24‑37); Zech. 13:8, 9; 14:1, 2, 58And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9)
1Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:1‑2)
5And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5).) No doubt all this will come upon the world and upon the unbelieving Jews, as unexpectedly as the flood in the days of Noah. The center and scene of these judgments will be Jerusalem. The nations will be gathered there as the eagles gather from all sides to devour the carcass of a beast. Isa. 66:15, 1915For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. (Isaiah 66:15)
19And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. (Isaiah 66:19), show us that a remnant will escape. The Lord suddenly comes, to the joy and deliverance of that remnant.
The hopes of the church had not as yet been revealed. Still we must not forget that from Matt. 24:3131And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31) to 25:30 we have a break, or parenthesis, in which the Lord gives the most important instructions and warnings to the whole of professing Christendom during its entire history. He does not, however, name the church as such, but takes up corporate and individual responsibility.
The promise to believers, as you know, is quite another thing. (John 14:1, 21Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1‑2), &c.; 1 Thess. 4 Thess. 4) No doubt, in that sense, the separation of friends and families is a most solemn fact. If the Lord should come to take His own to be with Himself this day, who would be taken and who would be left behind of all we know? who would be taken to be forever with the Lord? May the Lord awaken every careless reader of these lines, and especially the careless members of christian households.
10. Τ. Florence.—The Parable of a penny a day.—Matt. 20:1-161For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. 2And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 8So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 9And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 10But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 11And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 12Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 13But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 14Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 16So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20:1‑16)—How little was this parable understood! “A penny a day.” And how little is it understood now! We must read it in connection with what goes before, and as meeting Jewish thought. The disciples were amazed at the young man who had every Jewish mark of the divine favor, and yet he went away, and the Lord had expressed the strange thought to them, that it was hard for the rich to be saved. They were exceedingly amazed, saying, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus pointed them to God: with Him all things are possible.
This is the occasion of Peter’s question: “Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee: what shall we have therefore?” Now read the Lord’s reply—the reward shall be at the incoming time, in the regeneration. “Ye which have followed me” shall be thus rewarded, “and shall inherit everlasting life.” “But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Connected with this follows the parable which sets forth the principle that it is not man’s labor, and work for God; but Gods goodness and grace to man. It is omitted in Mark and Luke. By comparing Mark 10:3131But many that are first shall be last; and the last first. (Mark 10:31), it is evident that it was told them as they were going in the way—He going up to Jerusalem to offer Himself the sacrifice for sins.
Spoken then to the Jews, He begins with the dealings of God with them. He took them from the rest of the world, and made an agreement with them, a righteous agreement: so much work, so much pay or reward. No grace, but righteousness, and God would keep His agreement. Each step after this is a step in grace— grace upon grace. At the third hour He found men in need in the market place, and He took, compassion and said, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. They trusted His word and went. So of the sixth, and so of the ninth hour. All this was the goodness of the householder seeking the needy. They who believed his word, went into the vineyard. But when the eleventh hour came, it certainly looked too late to hope for any to take compassion on the unemployed. No man had hired them. They too are invited, and without any bargain, they trust his bare word—and they are not disappointed. There are four parts in the parable. These may answer to: first, the law, which if a man keep he shall live; secondly, the ministry of Christ; then, thirdly, the gospel by the Holy Ghost sent clown from heaven in the beginning of the history of the church; and now, fourthly, the present eleventh-hour testimony immediately before the coming of the Lord, of the riches of His grace, after centuries of dark rejection. Yes, it is an act of grace on God’s part in the last three cases. And the Jew who made his own bargain, as always, murmurs at the grace of God. In His vineyard, grace has shone out more and more. This is the theme of Jesus; but how little they understood Him! He was on the way to die for them—to take the lowest possible place. They were desiring to take the highest in the kingdom! Precious lesson! Everlasting life to all who have believed His word. To the Jew and to the Gentile, God is seen the Seeker of the needy.
11. J. W., Harwich. It is not for us to “define the difference between socialism and co-operative societies.” It is enough that God says to us in His word: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” &c. (2 Cor. 6:1414Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)) We understand any voluntary association with this world’s confederacies, to be yoking together with unbelievers. The believer is in Christ—in Canaan, so to speak—he is not an improver of Pharaoh’s Egypt, or of Satan’s world. As a social question, too, one must perceive these are the last days of intense selfishness, as long foretold. (2 Tim. 3:22For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (2 Timothy 3:2).) “For men shall be lovers of their own selves,” &c. Class against class, seeking by cheapness and selfishness to prepare this doomed world for that social earthquake foretold in the word of God. (Rev. 6.) It is no use talking of our commonwealth being in heaven whilst our politics are in and of Satan’s world. Oh, to really come out and be separate from them, and to walk down here as heavenly men in possession there, so as to be delivered from all the wiles of Satan here. What should we think, if any one told us our Jesus belonged to a co-operative society when He was down here? Would it have become the Holy One of God? And He says, “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.”
12. C. T., Grimsby. The Holy Ghost is dwelling here in Christendom. (See John 16:1-151These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. 2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 3And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 12I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13Howbeit 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. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. 15All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16:1‑15).) He convicts the world. He. is here, though the world cannot receive Hi in. “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 7:5151Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (Acts 7:51).) But the presence of the Lord, as explained to us in Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20), is quite a different thing. How few there are truly gathered together to His name! Some gather on Establishment principles, some on Dissenting principles, and others on what they may call divine principles.
But all this may be far short of being gathered to the name of the living Lord, the Son of God, surely present where two or three are so gathered., Let us examine ourselves on this all-important matter. Do we believe He is present where we gather? Do we honor Him thus present? Or do we despise His holy presence? If a difficulty arise, do we look at that difficulty in the fear of the Lord, just as we should do if we saw Him in our very midst? How supreme the privilege to be in His presence, without a cloud or spot, in the full, unhindered intimacy of His infinite love; in the calmness of His perfect and everlasting peace, without a care, a burthen, or a wish! Ah. that is the true sabbath, of rest. And it is ours. May we enjoy it more and more forever.