BELOVED BRETHREN, I saw so very few of you before I left, and for such a little moment, that I felt anxious to write a line, being separated from you in presence and not in heart.
When I took my place, my heart misgave me a little at leaving you all, but on looking to the Lord I felt it was more my natural heart, and that I was in the path of faith in going to France. I found, on going home from the Friday prayer meeting, a letter which confirmed me in the purpose of going speedily, but which at the same time will shorten my absence some weeks at any rate; nor indeed is it my present purpose to be long out of England, my thought is to visit the South of France and return at once, or at any rate make no stay in Switzerland.
The same faith which has led me, and made me feel it right to go, gives me confidence, beloved brethren, that the Lord will keep you true to the blessed testimony of His own faithfulness and grace. I would urge upon you walking in thorough unity, showing all confidence one in the other, and casting all that may arise at once on God. His faithfulness to His church, and people who trust in Him, is infallible, and He cannot but help you in all for which you look to Him. I do not doubt His care over you. I trust that those who take part in any service, needed for all, will do it together with common consultation, and that it will be done diligently as a duty. I say this, dear brethren, because uneasiness creeps in where this is neglected, and soon produces discomfort, which hinders both unity and blessing.
It is written, Where two or three agree as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. There is another thing I have on my heart to say, and that is, that as far as brethren can they should visit others, of course they must wait on the Lord's leading for it, but it will minister to fellowship and unity in brotherly love, and that is our joy, beloved brethren. For the rest I commend you to the Lord, He will guide you in waiting upon Him. If we assume nothing at all beyond what we are- a company of poor saints waiting upon God according to His will- we shall infallibly meet Him in blessing.
I believe we are not properly aware, few at least, of the unfeigned importance of the position He has set us in testimony of separation from evil and waiting on Him, but the secret of all strength in it is assuming nothing. Not expecting to be like other Christians, as the Israelites who would have a king like the Amorites and other nations, and thus falling back into the common path of unbelief, but truly waiting upon God. If there be gift, blessing Him for it, but swift to hear and slow to speak, counting God's presence more precious than all, and while desiring God's ordinance in the testimony of His word to sinners; and if any can give a public testimony, accepting it, not counting the routine of a sermon necessary to the course of the saints.
Peace be with you, beloved brethren; may the Lord give you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Give my love to dear old S_____. I do trust the brethren will visit him now that he cannot come out. If anyone writes to me I pray him to let me know as to B_____'s and G_____'s children. I suppose dear G_____'s hardly yet through, but it is well, as I trust, and do not doubt, he feels. B_____'s, I believe, were better. Again peace be with you all. Your devoted brother, J. N. D.
Postscript, No. 1.- Since I came up I have other letters which make it probable that I could not stay in Switzerland, if so disposed; at least the French troops are on the frontiers, and the Swiss have been marched to watch them; and moreover Mr.—and two sisters are gone to stay at one place in France, which might have detained -me. The brethren at R- Street are getting on quietly and happily, and though my toil, I doubt not, is not yet closed as to service, of which I am persuaded none of the brethren scarce know at all the evil met, yet I have been greatly encouraged and comforted.
I have a letter from dear -, who has arrived at Bombay, and is happily lodged at a Christian's. He says, "And so I pray also the Lord that the brethren at Plymouth, who are simply gathered in the Lord's name, may never be dismayed in looking at their own weakness in meeting, but be glad that there is nothing to look to but to Him who is in heaven, the only One all eyes are fixed on; and that the brethren may constantly look for Him, who will come and not tarry, yet a little while and we shall see Him face to face. In the moment we limit His coming as unconnected with any circumstances, we begin to make our nest in the foliage of this world. And the dear brethren too at Plymstock I do never forget. Give to all of them my most affectionate salutations." He closes by saying, " Salute much all the brethren at -, -," &c.
Have the kindness to tell the dear—brethren of it, with my kindest love. It is a long letter with all the details of his voyage, and some interesting particulars as to his search into the prophetic question which I cannot here give. Peace be with you, most beloved brethren. Be of good cheer. Glory with Christ is ours; the love of Christ is ours. Only let us trust the Lord and we know not how much blessing is in store for us, though we ought to know how faithful, infallibly faithful, He is. The Lord has led out several to labor here of the younger brethren, and I have found others whom I trust He is so leading. I quite trust He is working. He has led me wonderfully every step of the way. Your devoted brother in Him,
POSTSCRIPT, No. 2.-Dearest -, as I had to acknowledge your £2 for the Swiss brethren, for which I thank you much, I send the enclosed letter, which is for all the beloved brethren (to whom I feel more closely knit than ever) through your hand. In much love to you, and kindest remembrance to Miss -. I trust the baby is getting on..
London, November 6th, 1846.
J. N. D.
MY DEAR BROTHER, I most gladly answer your letter, as far as the Lord enables me; perhaps we shall see each other (the Lord willing) in Dublin soon. I distinguish entirely between the church and prophecy. I do not believe the church is the subject, though it is the recipient and depositary, of prophecy, as Abraham was of what should happen to Lot. The church has its own proper present relationship to Christ, out of which the scripture does not know it, but it (having received the Holy Ghost) has the mind of Christ. You may except the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, but which is really description, not prophecy, of events, though connected with, and closing and crowning them, when the heavenly government is brought into full connection with the earth.
Prophecy gives the course of earthly events, the wickedness of man, or the dealings of God. But the church is not earthly; its life is hid with Christ in God; it has its place with Christ while He is hidden: when He appears, it will appear; we await the manifestation of the sons of God, Hence it was hid in God from the foundation of the world (Eph. 'and the prophets do not speak of it; only it is true that it maintains (or ought to have maintained) the testimony of the kingdom during the interval of the rejection of the Jewish witness. As inheriting the promises, as being in Christ the seed of Abraham, it comes in, and maintains by divine wisdom their constancy and unfailingness. But the age is the same age as that in which Christ was upon the earth-" the harvest is the end of the age." Hence the church cannot be the subject of prophecy. It was not, as being a kind of wisdom hid in God, and is now made known to principalities and powers, and now it is not the subject, but the depositary, of prophecy-not earthly, but heavenly, though on earth in testimony of what is heavenly, and of a hidden Christ, with whom it is one. Hence, what relates to it is, as I have said, only seen when it comes down out of heaven, having the glory of God. Hence it has no place in prophecy.
We are properly nowhere, save in the extraordinary suspension of prophetic testimony, or period, which comes in between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel, or at the end of that age which was running on when Christ was here, the close of which was suspended by His crucifixion; His return to establish it then, according to Acts 3, being precluded by the rejection of the testimony of the Holy Ghost, which followed-finally declared at Stephen's death. Whereupon the doctrine of the church in union with a heavenly Head, without distinction of Jew or Gentile, was fully revealed, and entrusted to Paul, who had joined in that rejection, in a ministry beginning, not at Jerusalem, but Antioch. In the Revelation, therefore, until the heavenly Jerusalem is revealed, the church is never, properly speaking, seen at all. The living creatures, or the twenty-four elders, may be taken-as to which I do not decide-as a symbolical representation in part of those who compose it, viewed in certain positions, but I certainly apprehend that the period spoken of in the Revelation (or from chap. iv.) is the interval between the removal of the church from the place of testimony, and the manifestation of it in a glorious testimony, as already stated in chapters 21, 22. Whether this had a partial fulfillment since the church failed in giving a testimony on earth at the beginning, and there were but a few imperfect witnesses, I will not say. I dare say it has, but whatever general principle of a year-day system may be admitted, there is no proper literal fulfillment of it, I apprehend, but in that which is to come, in which on earth, as such, the church will not be witness at all.
The great point for us is, to get distinctly the church's place, and the church's faith, and the church's own distinctive relationship as bride of Christ, to be revealed with Him, and to be faithful during His absence. What knowledge is given us of others, and of God's way towards them, and of their witness when the church is not there, is dependent on the sovereignty of God in gift, and our faithfulness in our walk in our place.
The present course of events are not revealed signs to me, but the church ought to discern these times. It is the rapid, but, as I judge, for the present arrested, development of the spirit of the latter day, which will issue in apostasy and delusion on one hand, and in the forming of the Roman empire on the other, and the preventing collision between northern and western Europe, till the great catastrophe take place in Palestine. Signs, I judge, are for those who have not been faithful enough to keep or find the bride's position (we are children of the day), a mercy to those in the latter day circumstances, but which would not have been needed had they apprehended the church's place, and been separated from the world to be in it, and taken the properly heavenly place, wherein we await only the marriage with the heavenly Bridegroom, who comes to receive us, and take us there where He is.
Such, dear brother, is the grand answer to your inquiry. If this, in connection with your own thoughts, suggest any difficulty, I shall be most glad, for myself, to hear them from you; it is thus we learn, and, if the Lord afford time, to answer them. I write from the midst of much occupation. I have sixteen long letters to answer, besides yours; so I say, Adieu. Peace and grace be with you. Salute the beloved brethren with you, though I know them not by-sight. In Jesus we shall know each other. Very affectionately yours in Him,
May 1St, 1848. J. N. D.