The following Gleanings are extracts from the published Letters of J. N. D.,* presented in this form with the view of enabling many to profit from the spiritual teachings, practical remarks, &c., contained in them, whose means may not allow them to purchase the volumes. May Christ become increasingly precious to each soul that reads them.
Publishers' Note: These extracts are generally arranged in the order in which they appear in the three published volumes of JND's letters. Each extract is followed by a number referencing the original page in the Morrish edition of JND's letters which was current at the time of compilation and publication (presumably in the late nineteenth century). We regret that these numbers do not appear to consistently correspond with all of the Morrish editions of JND's letters; and they are even less relevant to more modern editions.
GLEANINGS FROM LETTERS OF J. N. D.
His presence is always blessing. {5} [63261]
This country (Ireland) is much blessed, by the expectation of the Lord's coming becoming a wonderfully practical thing in it. {14} [63262]
The Lord is always good and righteous, specially to them that know Him. {28} [63266]
I do feel every day the infinite deficiency of one's labor, and do long for the abounding of this labor in myself, and to see the Lord's vineyard continuously dressed and cultivated, so that no need should appear, and laborers in it, whose hearts were in its ministrations. Oh, what wise hearts, what patient hearts, what large hearts, in the scope of all the necessities, and the infinite grace that suits them, ought those hearts to be! What a heart of prayer that ministers to, feeds, and cultivates, the Lord's vineyard, and the hearts of the children of His saints, the plants of the Lord's planting; watching every noxious weed, seeing roots of bitterness before they spring up and claim their right by prescription to the soil! {30} [63267]
The Lord in His death, I believe, had His ear bored, and became a servant forever, refusing to go out free because He loved His Master, His wife, His children. Now, whatever special exaltation may be the fruit of His travail as Man, His abiding glory is as Head of the new race, Man perfectly blessed in the place in which man ought to be, in the presence of the God of blessing. {34} [63268]
The great truth of the divinity of Jesus, that He is God, is written all through Scripture with a sunbeam, but written to faith. I cannot hesitate in seeing the Son, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, and thus it shines all through. {35} [63268]
In the midst of much unfaithfulness, I have always found Him faithful – I can bear witness to it – and more than faithful, always full of mercy and goodness. {40} [63272]
May God keep you in humility, and give you a firm and quiet faith which, recognizing the duty put upon you of serving Him, has nothing to do but obey Him, and to do His will. {41} [63272]
I hope that God will keep you from every bond save the bonds of Christ, and that He will rivet these bonds of security and joy more and more. {43} [63272]
Christ will be a sure friend, and even if we begin to sink in the water, will stretch out His hand and lift us up. It is sweet to have His hand in any case, even if our failing foot has led Him to stretch it out. {44} [63274]
Alas! feeble is he who even unconsciously leans upon man. {45} [63275]
I find a little simplicity goes a great way, and finds no knots, where men have tied a hundred –if God is there. {46} [63275]
Man's acceptation is not God's approbation, although God can give it us to favor the propagation of the truth; but if we stop at the result, we are at a distance from the source, and that becomes a snare to wither up our soul, instead of a means to lead us to those upon whom we should pour out His riches. {47} [63276]
Resurrection leaves behind, in the tomb, all that could condemn us, and ushers the Lord into that new world of which He is the perfection, the Head, and the glory. Now we are united to Him. {57} [63281]
The obedience of Christ during His life tended to the perfection of the sacrifice; it was not expiatory, but perfectly acceptable. It was a question of the acceptability of His Person as necessary to His work, but that obedience was not expiatory. He would have remained alone if the corn of wheat had not fallen into the ground; but His entire obedience rendered Him perfectly pleasing to God, as it also was itself (see Phil. 2). {58} [63282]
As Adam was not head of the old race until after his fall, so Christ is only Head of the new race as risen from among the dead. He places them in His own position as a risen Man; they begin with Christ there. {59} [63283]
The law not only condemns conduct, but men. The law does not only say, "Cursed is everything," but "Cursed is every one who continueth not." Thus we must be under the curse if we are under the law. But it is because we are not under the law that we can make use of it, if needs be. {60} [63283]
Where charity is warm, there is no difficulty. {61} [63284]
Humbleness alone can save us getting out of one ditch into another. {62} [63284]
Let us remember that communion is a matter of eternity, this sweet and precious eternity which Christ has won for us, of which He Himself will be the center and the glory. {64} [63285]
The joy which is in Him is infinite and eternal – a joy which only those who enjoy it know, or can conceive. {65} [63286]
We have nothing but His will to direct us in the short passage of the pilgrimage here below. What happiness to have such guidance! {65} [63286]
It is not what you think of Christ's work, but what God thinks of it, that saves. Your knowledge of what God thinks of it, by faith, gives peace. God says to Israel in Egypt, not when you see the blood, I will pass over, but "when I see the blood." He it is that has been offended, He it is that judges, and He it is that has accepted the ransom in justice as He gave it in love. He is faithful and just to forgive us. {75} [63289]
Christ has made peace by the blood of the cross. Christ has done all, and has left us nothing, but thanksgiving and praise. {76} [63289]
That all might be grace, God has willed that it should be by faith, and though faith produces immense effects, it adds nothing to the thing it believes. Christ and the efficacy of His work must be, and be before God, all that I am called to believe them to be, before I believe it. {76} [63289]
Seek to tighten the links of charity among yourselves; without making any great external appearance, but in simplicity, attach yourselves to each other, while seeking one sole end, the welfare of all – the being together, staying yourselves on God, and in the seriousness which His presence gives. His presence always gives humility, one is more firm, but self is annihilated when one is before Him. {84} [63292]
What need the kingdom of God has of workmen who apply Christ to souls by the Word, and give them the rest that they need, even amongst the children of God! {86} [63293]
One recognizes the hand of one that is known; we do not stop at the circumstances that appear to us mysterious, we refer in them to Him, and all is changed; the heart is softened by it, does not wish it to be otherwise, but the will is not in rebellion, and we are comforted near Him, feeling more than ever that He is our all. What a precious lesson, what a glorious position! God alone could have placed us there. {87} [63294]
Remember that His ways are not as our ways, and that the heart of Jesus, of Him who smites us, has itself passed through all the trials through which He makes us pass; that He cannot make us taste anything for our good without having drunk Himself all its bitterness to the dregs. He knows what He is doing; He suffers all that He inflicts. It is His love, His knowledge of all, that makes Him do all that He does. Let us have full confidence in Him who has been tempted in all things like unto us. {88} [63294]
May God keep you all, beloved, in His holy keeping. Walk humbly, close to Him, and He will not fail you. {94} [63296]
I can say to all, that propitiation has been presented to God. They have but to look there, and going to God by that blood they will be received; they have nothing to wait for. They will not go unless the Father draw them, but this is a matter of sovereign grace, with which I have nothing to do in my preaching – in my teaching, yes, but not in my address to unconverted souls. {119} [63307]
We may pass through strait and difficult places, but He is not the less faithful; only let us look to Him, and He is there, even when He seems to forsake us, in order to put faith to the proof, and to make us known to ourselves. {121} [63307]
It is time we should rouse ourselves and buckle on our armor, if we have what is worth contending for, and not look merely to others to help, while I am sure I will render all the help I can; but it is a time of putting faith to the test, and they that quit themselves like men will not lose their reward. {127} [63309]
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. {140} [63312]
Having been in the third heaven did not give [Paul] the strength; it in a certain sense necessitated the weakness, and then the strength came in. We do not know how to be weak, that is our weakness. {142} [63313]
It is wonderful how near one can be to the spring, and yet, like poor Hagar, not see it. The bottle does not hold out in the desert. {145} [63316]
"He that searcheth the hearts knoweth" (it does not say our mixed, feeble, imperfect desires, but) "what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God." His intercessions are according to God; while, alas! our apprehensions and utterance of them always fall short of this. Still, what the Searcher of hearts finds in us – that which He hears and receives – is this mind of the Spirit – this intercession of His according to God. {149} [63318]
The Lord is infallibly faithful, and never leaves His sheep, nor fails in dealing with them, though that may indeed run across our ways sometimes, and so much the better, if they are not His. {154} [63319]
He may cause many to learn things they might not be disposed to, but He will abundantly bless if they wait upon Him and keep the word of His patience. {154} [63319]
Act graciously and humbly through the Lord's goodness, but firmly from God. It is not a time to let the enemy in when he has been discovered. {155} [63320]
Oh how my soul longs that His people should be separated to Him, and even with understanding of what is awaiting the world, and still more of what they ought continually to await themselves! May God give me grace to be faithful in bearing this testimony, and everywhere, according to the door that He will open, in season and out of season; for His own, so dear to Him, need it. {159} [63324]
I think that at the end of Phillipians 3, the way in which we wait for Jesus Christ as Saviour, is to deliver us finally from the whole course of this world, such as it is. {160} [63324]
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. {162} [63325]
One learns in all circumstances that Christ is all. What I desire is that He may be so completely everything in the secret of each day, that it may be an accomplished fact in the outward relations of life. {166} [63327]
One ever learns more, and learns it everywhere, that all is spoiled here below; Ichabod is written on the relations of God Himself with the world, at least, of men with Him. But then one finds that faith finds its way through all. {166} [63327]
I have only one precious word to say to you: keep close to Jesus, you know you will find there joy, strength, and that consciousness of His love which sustains everywhere and makes everything else become nothing; there is our life and our happiness. {166} [63327]
Symbols have this character, that they give the moral character, as well as the facts. {170} [63332]
Let us be happy in the thought that in cleaving to Him we shall enjoy all the brightness and the joy of His light. How happy one is to belong to Him, and in His light to see light! How brilliant and glorious is this light to those who are from home, awaiting the rising of the Morning Star, and the coming of this precious Saviour, who will set them in heaven as the rays of His glory, and the jewels of His crown, as the intelligent sharers of His glory, as the bride of His heart! This Star has already risen in our hearts; may it not grow dim there! May brethren learn to enter into all that Christ is in suffering and in patience, that thus they may enjoy morally His glory when it comes. May the peace and the presence of our precious Jesus be with you all, dear brethren. He is in every way our infinite blessing. {172} [63329]
I have been struck of late, by seeing how much more interesting David is than Solomon; for if the latter shows us more fully the time of blessing and peace under the reign of Jesus, the former presents to us the Person, the afflictions, the sufferings, and the heart of Jesus, and to us this is worth all the rest. {172} [63329]
The truth of God is ever more precious; it strengthens and nourishes the soul, for it abides forever, and because it reveals Jesus, and attaches us to Him, the source and power of all good. {172} [63330]
The misery of man unfolds itself more and more before my eyes in the Word, but accompanied by this truth that it is fleeting. I speak of the history of the world; His goodness abides forever. {173} [63330]
One is weary of man, but on the other hand, what patience on the part of God! For, happily, He is not wearied by man, though even an Elias was. {173} [63330]
The simplicity of a life of faith has charms that they do not know who never tried it. {173} [63333]
Oh! for laborers, who after God's heart might present Christ to souls. It is the testimony that is wanted – after that, judgment. The wickedness of the world brings grace and testimony – the failure of testimony, judgment. And we are living in serious times. A poor half-way testimony without faith is what is sought for now, when certain truths cannot be denied. {174} [63333]
Wisdom is not always with the prudent: "The fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil that is understanding." {176} [63335]
Do not be anxious about the church, as if the Lord did not care and act for it – be anxious for it. It is our life. {176} [63335]
But a sifting must be. I feel no surprise whatever as to any one. My only surprise, if such a word be permitted, is God's own abundant grace to myself. But it is a sorrowful thought that many whom we cannot doubt to be saints are blind to the privilege and testimony of God. The Lord give us grace to know how to win, as how to be faithful ourselves. Nothing but His Spirit can guide us. {176} [63335]
I am glad that you are making experience of the value of that inner life which is developed in communion with the Lord. The outward life, however blessed it be, can never give us that which is here communicated. It is the knowledge of Christ that matures the soul. It is true that to neglect our duties is not the means to make progress in it. For He communicates Himself, and we cannot command communion outside the path of His will, while in the accomplishment of that will, we dwell in His love. {177} [63336]
One saw the Word of life and truth laying hold of souls and forming them and fashioning them for Christ; I speak of souls converted or attracted. It is remarkable when God works, the manner in which the truth becomes as a living part of the soul, and this refreshes the heart. {178} [63337]
There has been an evident movement of the Spirit. What need we have to cast ourselves entirely on Him in the work, and how simple it is when we do this! There is one thing that gives strength, it is to keep close to Christ. God works at the same time for us, and gives us refreshment; but our part is to keep close to the Lord. The pressure of the work without that, even of that work which is our duty and our business down here, contracts the heart, tends to make us lose that largeness of heart, that capacity of presenting the love of God freshly to souls, which alone can truly introduce into this world the element that it needs – that these poor souls, withered and unhappy through sin, have need of; and if one has a heart large and full of love apart from this proximity to Jesus, the love evaporates itself in mysticism, in that which is human under pretext of being divine. {179} [63337]
It is in Christ that all our thoughts are adjusted, set right, judged, and purified. {180} [63337]
Mysticism, while boasting much of its feelings, never gets beyond desire; while simple Christianity, giving the knowledge of salvation, puts us into full possession of the love of God. I know that He loves me as He loves Christ; that love has saved me; it was He who desired me. In love He had need of me; and this love is perfection in Christ. In peace I contemplate this love, and I adore it in Christ. I dwell in Him and He in me. {182} [63338]
I have never seen a mystic whose idea of love was not entirely at fault in its very nature: it was something in man, which needed to be satisfied, instead of being something in God, which satisfied the heart profoundly, infinitely, and perfectly. Thence, unheard-of efforts to abase oneself, to vilify oneself, and to speak evil of oneself, as if a saved one could be anything in the presence of a Saviour, instead of being nothing and forgetting himself in the presence of so much love. {182} [63338]
If we try to find in man, in his love to God, something as good as the love of God to us, then we talk about it, and fancy we are humbling ourselves. This is but the vanity of the heart which knows not God, and knows not itself either; it is the true character of mysticism. {183} [63338]
God, His holiness, His majesty, His righteousness, His love, has found His rest in the work and Person of Christ: I have found mine there. {183} [63338]
In Christ I see a divine heart, reflecting the perfect certainty of a love whose perfection cannot be questioned. It is peace. {184} [63338]
The Christian is humble ... because he has given up seeking good in himself, to adore the One in whom there is nothing else. {185} [63338]
God being infinite and His work perfect, there is always in Him, even when our peace is perfect, that which awakens all the energy of an affection which cannot satisfy itself, although perfectly assured of the love of Him whom it beholds. {185} [63338]
One sometimes wonders that a good part of the life of a devoted and spiritual person should be spent in mistakes and wanderings; one asks oneself how the presence of the Spirit of God, necessary to produce this life, comports with these mistakes. I say, on the contrary, that as regards the government of God, it is a necessary consequence. Can God place His stamp of approval upon that which is contrary to His thoughts? Will He refuse blessing in answer to real devotedness, because there is error? He cannot sanction the former, nor refuse Himself to the latter. What is the consequence? Blessing is found, as well as His tender care. He maintains the foundation, even through all the wanderings; but He abandons to their natural consequences the evil, and the false confidence which accompany it; otherwise He would be justifying evil. {188} [63338]
Satan ... always makes use of the flesh when we allow it to act. {189} [63338]
If we wait upon God, there is no danger. If we rush on, He must let us see the consequences of it. {189} [63338]
Christ Himself begins with "Blessed, blessed"; it was natural that this should come forth from the heart of Him who came from heaven; but He ends with "Woe unto you, woe unto you." Was it that His grace had diminished? No, indeed; it had but been tested, approved more glorious, His unfailing faithfulness more than ever assured to our hearts. But He could not be at the end what He was at the beginning. It is the same with the work. But the love and blessedness of the one who understands this grace are greater than before. {190} [63338]
Now, when it is Christ Himself who sets the heart in motion, He acts upon the new man, as He also forms in us that new man which the wicked one touches not. His presence acts upon the conscience, silences the flesh, reduces the man to nothing – his vanity, his self-love, and his good opinion of himself; the whole man is judged in His presence, and the work produced is of Christ Himself, whatever may be the vessel. If there is danger of its being otherwise, a thorn in the flesh is sent. {191} [63338]
You are entering, I think, upon that period of activity which makes a life of reflection a far more hidden life than before. This is a very real advance in Christian life. I liked divine philosophy, it is still to my taste. As long as the external life is composed of this, we have the appearance of being far more spiritual and deep. Thus, the steam which escapes from the engine, appears to have much more force than that which draws the heavy train, which only appears to offer resistance to the movement that it is sought to give it; but it is when hidden for the most part, that the force really acts. In this way its reality also is put to the proof. And why do I say that it is real progress? It is because it makes less appearance before men, because it is more entirely before God, with whose approval we must be satisfied. We must be content to possess the thing with Him, nay, to find it in Him; but that is to possess it in reality. It is the principle of moral perfection, to enjoy things instead of accrediting oneself with them in the eyes of others. {197} [63342]
Active Christian life is a common life of service, in contact with human passions, faults, and weaknesses, in a word, in contact with the flesh. But to act in it, to introduce God in it, and this is what Christ was, there must be power, we must be really in communion with Him – participating thus in that nature that nothing encroaches on, and which shines in its own perfection in the midst of all – to be above all that we meet with. {197} [63342]
Jesus was the most isolated of men, and, at the same time, the most accessible, the most affable; the most isolated, because He lived in absolute communion with His Father, and found no echo, no sympathy with the perfect love which was in Him; the most accessible, the most affable, because He was that love for others. {198} [63342]
The consciousness of being isolated in His love, so that others did not even understand how to profit by it, does not, for a moment, arrest His energy and activity. {198} [63342]
What was then the life of this Jesus, the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? A life of activity in obscurity, causing the love of God to penetrate the most hidden corners of society, wherever needs were greatest. {199} [63342]
Jesus was always the same: and the more He apparently compromised Himself, the more He manifested Himself in a perfection which never belied itself. {199} [63342]
The toilsome life of Jesus was spent in seeking souls in all circumstances. It went through everything that could put it to the proof, but we see in it a divine reality which never failed. {199} [63342]
How many souls are whirling in pleasure, in order to silence the moral griefs which torment them! {200} [63342]
What glory, when all the principles which have been formed in the heart by faith, blossom in heaven, and are reproduced in the fullness of their results, according to the heart of God. We must wait while walking by faith. {201} [63342]
The ground which the enemy gains can only be over the flesh and over the general testimony: it is sad, but understood by the faithful one. {203} [63343]
Alas! decline is the continual tendency, but the Saviour never declines. {203} [63343]
The Lord has an intimate government of the soul which is infinite in love, but which one has to heed if one would have His face with one. {207} [63344]
At times one may have merely to go straight forward in the energy of His grace for others, and there is joy in service without much thought of self; at other times He leads in the way of exercise for our own good. {207} [63344]
Death now but sets us free to go to Him in that new sphere, where He has forever left behind the power of the enemy, and where there is nothing but blessing, far from the power of him who used it against Christ. {210} [63345]
It is time to go on without thinking of people, in setting up the importance of the Lord Himself. {211} [63346]
The need of union is felt. Of this there are two kinds, respectable courteous union among men, and the unity of the church of God. {211} [63346]
We ought to have more faith and prayer, believing the Lord to be nigh, that a people may be called out to meet Him. {212} [63346]
Want of power becomes very sensible when there is imitation. {214} [63348]
We ought to love the church and seek its good, surely more than a David or godly Israelite, or Jew could Jerusalem, and seek its good for Christ's sake. {214} [63348]
We are bought with a price, and are not our own – happy and blessed to be so in a world stranger to life and God. To maintain such a position Christ must be everything. {215} [63348]
The exercise and forming of the affections towards Christ, and the study of His towards us, is of the deepest importance; but how narrow our hearts are to embrace all His thoughts towards us. What a thought that He should delight to tell out how perfect He thinks the church (I say church, not as interpretation, but application by analogy [Song of Solomon]) and to press it on her that He may assure her heart and awake the affections, which in one so feeble, must have confidence to be able to be in exercise. This is very gracious, but to be expected from Him. What is there that cannot be? {216} [63348]
It is not an easy thing to be content with being simply that which we are in reality before God. {217} [68528]
Times of "revival" make manifest the thoughts of many hearts; but to learn, in a day of grace, to be still, and know that God is God, is completely above the education of the flesh. {217} [64277]
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 sense of their own fall. {217} [64277]
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 blessing. {217} [64277]
If the wells dug in Abraham's days have been filled and stopped up with earth, we have to do with a God who can bring water out of the stricken rock and make it flow in the parched desert, to refresh His thirsty and weary people. I do not envy the labor of those who dig channels in the sand for watercourses which, after all, may take another direction. {217} [64277]
God's way of acting in all times of blessing, consists in reproducing the glories and the work of the Lord Jesus. The darker the long night of apostasy becomes, the more distinctly the Light of Life is seen. The word for the remnant is, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." He is the only center of gathering. Men may make confederacies amongst themselves, having many things for their object, but the communion of saints cannot be known, unless each line converges towards this living Center. The Holy Ghost does not gather saints around mere views (however true they may be) on what the church is, on what it has been, or may be on the earth, but He always gathers them around this blessed Person who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. "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 may be certain that Satan and the flesh will seek to resist this work and way of the Lord, or to overthrow them. {217} [64277]
We have need to be watchful against boasting, as is the habit in these days; we need to be still in the presence of God. There is so much independence and self-will almost everywhere. {218} [64277]
"We shall do great things" is the most inappropriate cry that could be heard just at the time when the light has made evident how little we have done. {218} [64277]
If any one speaks of separation from evil without being humbled, let him take care lest his position become simply that which at all times has formed sects and produced heresy in point of doctrine. {218} [64277]
As to our service, we have seen our precious Lord and Master, in profound self-abasement, wash the feet of His disciples, making Himself an example – to whom? To us, assuredly. Now I know no service at the present time which is worthy of Him or acceptable to Him, if not done in humiliation. This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God, so dear to Christ, is dishonored in this world, if it is scattered, ignorant, afflicted, he who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. True service of love will seek to give according to the need, and will never think of slighting the objects of the Master's love because of their necessity. 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 for them in all things and everywhere. Such men in the hands of the Holy Spirit are real helps for the children of God; and they will not contend for a place of distinction or for authority amongst the scattered flock. The communion of a man with God about the church will show itself in a willingness to be nothing in himself, and such a one will rejoice in his heart to spend and be spent. {218} [64277]
The great Shepherd will not forget the work done in His name with a willing heart for His beloved sheep, so poor and needy. Abundant praise, and an unfading crown of glory in the day of His appearing, will be the portion of those who act thus. God will remember all He can remember, and nothing will lose its reward. {219} [64277]
May the Lord make us all more and more peaceful, confident in Himself, in these days of trial. {220} [64277]
"When I am weak then am I strong" is a lesson Paul had to learn by a very humiliating process. {220} [64277]
An apostle with a thorn in the flesh learns the sufficiency of the grace of Christ. {220} [64277]
Neither the anger nor the prudence nor the pretensions of man can do anything in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I freely own that I have no hope in the efforts which many make to assure themselves an ecclesiastical position. When the house is undermined in its foundations by an earthquake, it matters little how one tries to make it an agreeable dwelling-place. We shall do better to remain where the first discovery of the ruin of things by man's deed has placed us, with our faces in the dust. Such is the place that belongs to us by right, and after all it is the place of blessing. {220} [64277]
All we can do is to walk watchfully, but peacefully, thinking of the interests of the Lord Jesus, and having nothing as to ourselves, nothing to gain and nothing to lose. The path of peace, the place of testimony, is in seeking to please God. {221} [64277]
It is clear that afflictions are trials of faith, as well as chastening; so we ought not to suppose that what happens to us is always for the purpose of chastening, properly so-called. There is discipline as well as chastening. {222} [63349]
Want of dependence on God, pride, may cause us to fall into many failures; the soul is not restored before that which has given occasion to these failures is judged in the heart. {222} [63349]
Christ's perfection was not to act, but to suffer; in suffering there was a more entire surrender of Himself. {223} [63349]
What a mercy to be kept in the secret of His grace! {226} [63351]
One great thing we have to seek is, that communion with Christ Himself be as strong as all the doctrines we hold or teach. Without that the doctrine itself will have no force: besides, we ourselves shall not be with God in it, and after all, that is all. {227} [63351]
Negations are nothing to build on, though conscience be a ground of conduct. This many have not understood; and because separation from evil may have been a duty, have supposed it to be a ground of union and gathering. {229} [63352]
It is a time to be entirely heavenly, for the earth is far from God, and daily its darkness closes in; but we belong to the light, and await another day. {232} [63353]
Man, away from God, is not only evil, but contemptible. {233} [63354]
Let us be very watchful that the inner life, communion with our precious Saviour, be the true source of our activities. May we be faithful to the will of God in our walk, and large-hearted towards all His children. {242} [63359]
We ought to remember also that we come on the scene when everything is already spoiled; however, Christ is sufficient for everything. We must seek to separate the precious from the vile, and we can count upon His grace. {244} [63360]
Faithfulness to Christ before everything; I know not why I labor and suffer if this is not the principle of my conduct. {249} [63361]
If we bear many souls upon our hearts, He knows how to bear them not only on His heart but also in His arms. How happy one is to be the object of His care! How tender and faithful it is, and what wisdom! He keeps us here for our happiness and joy; He takes us to Himself for still greater joy, when this world is not suitable for us. May we but know how to live for Him, entirely for Him; and by Him, in order that we may know how to live for Him. It is just when we desire to live for Him, that we feel that we have not the power to do so without Him. But then, how He sustains the life! in what a precious way we learn His faithfulness! and how far even a little food will carry us, because Christ is presented to us in it in so large and full a way.
Yes, our business is to be with Him, that our life should be Himself. The springs of life in the soul are then deep – deep as God Himself; it is fed by what is pure, by what binds it so directly to Himself that everything acquires a strength which it is impossible to have otherwise. A well-nourished life thus becomes a well-filled one. {250} [63362]
I see looseness is an easy road, but I prefer following Christ. {252} [63363]
I repeat, living grace bringing in grace, Christ by the Holy Ghost from heaven, to souls, can alone really gather and recruit souls. {257} [63365]
To mention only the name of Jesus, is a sweet smelling savor shed forth for one who rejoices deeply in Him in his soul. {258} [63366]
The whole question with me is, the real faithful maintaining, as far as in us lies, the glory of the Lord Jesus, for its own sake, and as the basis of union. {268} [63373]
I value yet more than any means of receiving the truth, the precious Saviour who is the subject of it – and that in all its simplicity, receiving it as a little child; the more I desire to be a little child, and I am ever seeing more that one must be such if God speaks. It is my joy to be a little child, and to hear Him speak. I may add, that the perfection of the Word, its divinity, ever develops more to my heart and understanding. {270} [63376]
If it be His will a little further or a little nearer, all is far, far off heaven, and all on the way thither; and heaven is near enough everywhere to make earthly distance nothing. I am, as few think, a pilgrim and stranger upon earth. I see all kinds of evil in me, great laziness and sloth among the number. I have no home – though countless mercies; on earth my home, for the home belongs to the heart, is the place of His will; for the rest, it will really be in heaven; and Montpellier, Dusseldorf, or New Zealand – what is the difference? {273} [63380]
In spirit all is well. We are only going along the road where Christ has left His blessed footsteps, and the cross characterized it. We have to suffer with Him, but it is but the road, and all right; one thing only is needful – that to live be Christ. The rest all perishes, and in simply doing His will He is always with us, and all is peace. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. We know when we have walked a little way with Him in whom we have believed. {274} [63380]
One has committed one's happiness to Him in the proper sense until another day. Then He will gird Himself, and make us sit down to meat, and come forth and serve us. Glorious place! What a sense of His love, and what joy and glory to Him thus to serve even then, and see the fruits of all His work and toil of grace. Till then it is ours to serve, and be girded, with our lamps burning, waiting constantly for Him. Simple-hearted faith will doubtless have conflict, but will be always happy in Him. {274} [63380]
We must value Jesus for His own sake to wait for Him. {275} [63380]
One of our mercies is, that He keeps us from all evil by filling us with His own good. Filled with that all is well everywhere. {275} [63380]
I desire to be a Christian and nothing else, passing on, knowing no man after the flesh. {278} [63381]
To be servant of all is what Christ is essentially in grace – it is what love is at all times. {283} [63383]
I have been much struck with the reciprocity of interest about us between the Father and the Son in John 17. They are not separated from each other in their love for us: we are the common object of it. The Father has given us to the Son; the Son has saved us in order to present us to the Father. He prays for us because we belong to the Father, but the Father will keep us because the Son is glorified in us; and so on. This is very precious, and it gives us a profound idea of this love. The Father and the Son are occupied in common about us. The Son taking care that we should know the Father as He Himself knew Him, and He desires to present us to the Father according to His own heart, so that the Father may find His delight in us. {293} [63390]
The essential quality of the new man, as it is seen in Christ, is dependence on God, and obedience. It lives with God, and in the consciousness of its real relations with Him. Now this relation is to wish nothing, to do nothing without Him. The new man cannot. {296} [63393]
It is of the utmost usefulness to cultivate a healthy spirit, which does not search after questions, but piety. It is of this that Paul speaks to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:44Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. (1 Timothy 1:4). Thorns never nourish us. This sort of thing is a proof of a bad state of soul. {297} [63393]
We have the only-begotten Son, He who concentrates in His own Person all the affection of Him in whose bosom He is. {298} [63394]
Nothing is more beautiful than the communications of God with Abraham: he knew the Lord when He visited him at Mamre; but in the presence of others, while showing Him special respect, he leaves Him in His incognito. When once the two angels have departed, and Abraham is alone with the Lord, he opens out his heart to Him, with perfect intimacy and entire confidence. This whole chapter [Genesis 18] is perfectly beautiful. The spiritual man ought to maintain propriety. He lets himself out in blessed confidence when he is alone with God. {301} [63395]
The important thing, and one that is often wanting is, that Christ should be all; it is to know that we are of the new creation which is in Him, and even that we are the first-fruits of His creatures; that we have to live as being of the new, in this world which is not the new, but the old creation, long ago put to the proof, and judged. And what blessedness to be of the new, where all is of God, where all is perfect, and in the unchangeable freshness of the purity of its source! It is infinite blessedness, and ours according to our very nature, only we must have objects. The more I go on, the more the deliverance of souls from this old creation, from this world which passeth away, is the desire of my heart, and that the devotedness of the love of Christ should govern the hearts of brethren. {302} [63397]
The coming of the Lord is our hope, we desire that that which is mortal should be swallowed up by life; but it is good for us to feel that death has entered this scene, that all is passing, that with our last breath all is gone, except the responsibility which has accompanied us all the way through. {303} [63398]
Our place is to meet everything in service, in the patience and power of Christ. {308} [63400]
There is a God above all adverse circumstances and undesirable influences. And our path for power is in letting patience have its perfect work. Our casting things on God has a wonderful retroactive power on our own souls in breaking down will and what in us cannot link itself with the divine nature. The signs of an apostle were wrought in all patience. We are subjects in many and even in all cases, where we think ourselves agents; and where hindered evidently so. Besides that, there is a positive bearing on God's part wonderful in comparison with what (alas!) is often the measure of our faith. Trust Him. He has power to work where we least expect it. {309} [63401]
It is important that we should feel, that faith may be in exercise – or rather that is faith – that not only God is great and glorious, and able to help and love, but that He has linked His glory in love with His saints. This is a most precious truth; when I can say, He (Christ) is glorified in them, I can ask confidently. See Moses, "Thou hast brought them out of Egypt." {309} [63401]
The saints, however foolish, are very dear to God. {310} [63401]
It is not an effort to copy (though we do copy) but to be, or rather so to draw from the Head, that what we are in Him be not hindered in its manifestation by evil. {310} [63402]
What a sure and immutable source of happiness we have – divine and immediate nearness to God! He has adopted us to Himself as children (see Eph. 1), and given a nature capable of enjoying it, and the Holy Ghost as power (unlimited in itself), and that based on a redemption which places us fully in unclouded favor and fully known love, exercised and accomplished towards us in it, in a position as assured as the value of the redemption itself – eternal redemption. {311} [63402]
I have been these latter times in general very happy with Him, but it has been with a look into the blessedness before me in His presence, which has made me feel how little one sees into it as one ought, though at the same time how great it is; but it is a wonderful light into which one is permitted to look; I speak of the happiness of His presence in light. {311} [63402]
How much, with us all, the "myself" at the bottom, finds its way through certain points of our character. If it is of a disagreeable or tiresome stamp, we are such to others; if it is of an amiable stamp, we are amiable to others; but there is no difference really; and we find difficulty in judging this "I," when it presents itself with certain characteristics, under certain features. By looking at Christ all is right, because the bottom is reached. {312} [63403]
How beautiful is Christianity – beautiful in itself, beautiful in its perfect adaptation to all that we are, and in a Christ who has participated in all, except the sin which would have spoiled all. {312} [63403]
What a sight for angels, to behold God, an infant in a manger, and no room for Him in the inn! {312} [63403]
The power and energy of the Spirit raise us to a point where we are not found really in personal faith. A moment comes when each walks in his own faith, when the Lots ... will go away to the well-watered plain, to these scenes where the outward appearance of blessing, as far as flesh can judge of it, hides the elements which are preparing for judgment. The power of grace had brought out Lot with Abraham. The plain of Jordan receives him who had not, for himself, laid hold of the call of Abraham. He was a righteous soul. {313} [63403]
What a position is ours! What known relationships with God, in which we walk according to the new life in which we are accepted in Christ; a life which enjoys Christ, the measure of our acceptance and of our relationships – Himself also the life: happy everywhere (according to the will of God) because we are everywhere in Him, and in this sense, always ourselves. Still the tranquility in which we can enjoy Him is very sweet. {314} [63404]
What a scene that is of Stephen before the Sanhedrin! Perfect calm; heaven opened the history of man, who always resists the Holy Ghost, and trusts in a temple deserted of God; man filled with the Holy Ghost – himself the temple – bearing testimony which they resist. See him, while they are killing him, quietly kneeling down to pray for them, a perfect reflection down here of Jesus, while beholding Him on high. The whole judgment of man turns upon the testimony of this chapter; and his whole position in Christ is there depicted. {314} [63404]
The superiority of the Christian life, as being untouched by evil or by the enemy, is very striking; this truth has produced a very deep impression upon me, and has rejoiced me. I knew well that a Christian ought thus to walk; but here (in Philippians) is one who has done it, and who knows what this life is. This is encouraging; whatever may be the means by which it is produced, be it a messenger of Satan, if necessary, or any other thing, such is the result. We are associated, through it all, with Christ, who can do and does all, and He is in us; so that it is more intimate than any circumstance whatever. What strength, what blessedness of life that gives! in oneself, for we enjoy Christ; in difficulties, for we trust in Him, and rejoice under all circumstances; in cares, for this life, which has Christ for its object, delivers us from them; in real trials, for the peace of God keeps the heart. {315} [63405]
I have had much joy in the thought that our names are written in heaven. What repose! God makes no mistake; He knows whom He wishes to place there, and it will be suitable; we shall not be unfit for such a place. What joy! and if we have to wait, we have what heaven will not give: to work for the Lord where He is rejected; to serve Him well. "His servants shall serve Him," it is said, but that service will be either a service of joy and goodness in which we shall be superior to those who profit by it, or a service in which we shall glorify God directly. But it will not be bearing the reproach of Christ, in the place where we have the glory of participating in His sufferings, even in a very feeble measure. May He give us to be faithful until He comes! {315} [63406]
What a precious thing to have God revealed in Christ! How the Person of Christ stands out alone against the background of the scene of this world, to attract our gaze, and associate us in heart with God. {317} [63408]
Christ is unfolded there (John 1) in so complete a manner! He gathers around Himself; He must be God, otherwise He would be turning us away from Him. He says, "Follow me." He is the Man who makes the way, the only way across the desert; for, for man there is none, since he is separated from God. On the Man Christ, heaven is open; He is, as Man, the object of heaven and of the service of the angels of God. {317} [63408]
He who came from above bears witness of what He has seen, and in Himself He reveals heaven. He gives – He is – the eternal life, in order that we may enjoy it. What a thing to say, that heaven, its nature, its joys, what it is, should be revealed to us by the Word and by the presence of Him who dwells there, who is its center and glory! {317} [63408]
Now, without doubt, Man has entered into heaven, but it is none the less precious that God should have come down to earth. Man admitted into heaven, is the subject of Paul; God, and the life manifested upon earth, that of John. The one is heavenly, as to man, the other divine. This is why John has such attraction for the heart. There is nothing like Him. {317} [63408]
There are two classes of religious movement at this time. The first takes the Word, sees man, the child of Adam, dead through sin, and will have nothing but Christ, His death, His resurrection, a heavenly state. The second class holds with the world, maintains worldly connections as an accepted system, and does not consider the world as a system to be passed through by motives outside of that system. People wish to have part in the movement; there is zeal, but they wish to remain self, not to become Christ. {317} [63408]
The strength of God is with us, to make us walk in communion with Himself. {318} [63409]
Without the protection of God the simplest things become insurmountable, the most excellent, at least the most amiable motives become snares. {320} [63410]
I entreat you to keep very near to Him, that you may know what there is to be done in His name, that you may be encouraged, and that the light of His countenance may sustain your faith. His support is worth all else. {326} [63413]
One feels that one is not of this world. The heart is compelled to ask itself, Am I following Christ for the love of Christ, because He has the words of eternal life, because as He said to follow Him is to serve Him? Am I not inclined to accept the course of the world that I may have rest in the world? Serious question for the heart! {326} [63413]
The humanity of Jesus is incomparable; His was a true and real humanity; body and soul, flesh and blood, like mine as far as humanity is concerned, sin excepted; but He appeared in circumstances quite different from those in which Adam was found. {334} [63419]
Our precious Saviour was Man, as truly as I am, as regards the simple abstract idea of humanity, but without sin, miraculously born by divine power; and more than this, He was God manifest in flesh. {337} [63419]
The Holy Spirit is a power that detaches us from everything, and binds us to that which is invisible, to Christ in heaven, and to the love of the Father. {356} [63423]
A simple gospel, a gospel which is one, and which Christ is, often surprises, and at least commands the thoughts of the world. The new neutral gospel, which admits Christ to perfect humanity, and which the evangelical school are generally too dull to discern the evil of, is horrible to me, and a true Christ withers it astonishingly. {366} [63430]
Holiness precludes all sin from God, righteousness judges it. {367} [63432]
Conviction of sin under righteousness is a very useful thing if grace be fully preached with it, and both unite in Christ. {367} [63432]
Be of good cheer, ... we must work for a little while, and with a strength which is not our own, but which is enough for everything; and we work under the eye, and encouraged by the goodness of Him whose love never fails us. Count upon Him, abide in Him, feed on Him; then work patiently on, according to the strength He gives you, "strengthened with all might according to his glorious power." {382} [63441]
I see in the Word, and I recognize in myself, the total ruin of man. I see that the cross is the end of all the means that God had employed to gain the heart of man, and, consequently, that it proves the thing to be impossible. God has exhausted all His resources; man has shown that he was wicked, past recovery; the cross of Christ condemns man – sin in the flesh. But this condemnation having been expressed in that another has undergone it, it is the absolute salvation of those who believe, for condemnation, the judgment of sin is behind us; life came out of it in resurrection. We are dead to sin, and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. {384} [63442]
Christianity teaches the death of the old man, and his just condemnation, then redemption accomplished by Christ, and a new life, life eternal, come down from heaven in His Person, and which is communicated to us when Christ enters into us by the Word. {384} [63442]
That people should believe that God loves the world is all right; but that they should not believe that man is in himself wicked beyond remedy (and notwithstanding the remedy) is very bad. They know not themselves, and they know not God. {385} [63442]
The Lord is coming, ... the time for the world is passing away. What a blessing! May God find us watching, and thinking only of one thing – of Him about whom God thinks – Jesus, our precious Saviour. {385} [63442]
Work is a favor which is granted us. Be quite peaceful and happy in the sense of grace; then go and pour out that peace to souls. This is true service, from which one returns very weary, it may be, in body, but sustained and happy; one rests beneath God's wings, and takes up the service again till the true rest comes. Our strength is renewed like the eagle's. {386} [63443]
Enormous preparations for war are being made everywhere. What a small thing is the wisdom of man! But what of that? The Lord is coming, and we belong to heaven. In the church there is neither Greek, barbarian, nor Scythian. We are Christ's servants, sure of our Master's victory, a victory which will give peace to the whole world; meanwhile, in the place where He has set us, witnesses to the peace which God gives even now. {387} [63443]
Truth is eternal and love endures forever; both are in our precious Saviour; let us hold them fast through grace. {398} [63451]
I believe that it is a fine moment for one who is decided. We must be Christians in good earnest, and accept the foolishness of God as wiser than men, and the weakness of God as stronger than men. A humble walk, in entire dependence on God, looking unto Jesus, is singularly blessed in these present days, and soon will come the rest. {399} [63453]
There is no event between me and heaven. There are between this time and Christ's judgment of the earth. Now we are blessed with Christ as His bride and His body, we appear with Him, reign with Him: the great peculiar blessing of the church is being associated with Christ Himself. {401} [63454]
You must not confound peace and communion. One may have peace, not have the least thought of anything being imputed to one, and not have the joy of communion, because there is something that grieves the Holy Spirit, or some forbidden thing that the heart retains, or a state of soul where there has been evil, and where, though recovered from it, the work of God in the heart is not accomplished. {403} [63455]
Humility before man is often the best proof of restoration before God. {404} [63455]
I prefer being behind your expectation as a man, to failing in faithfulness, in a truly divine interest for your soul before God. {404} [63455]
The forgiveness of God is for me the source of happiness; it leads me to rejoice with those who are pardoned, not to impute evil to them or to remember it. You can count on that; what I look for is a melted heart, softened, distrustful of self, a heart where the new man prevails in every respect over the old man. The evil of the old man is easily forgiven, when there remains (in a practical way) but the new. {404} [63455]
Obedience is the path of power. {407} [63457]
Our spring of labor must be in the Lord, not in effects. He has to say, "Then have I labored in vain and spent my strength for naught and in vain: yet is my judgment with the Lord and my work with my God." We are often encouraged, as He never was; but we must depend on Him for energy to work. Perhaps I am wrong to say "never," for the woman at the well of Samaria evidently was sent to His soul, when driven by jealousy out of Judæa, and one anxious soul showed Him the fields white for harvest, and gave Him meat to eat man knew not of. But we must be in the secret of the Lord to have this kind of encouragement. {410} [63459]
I think we ought to look for fruits as a sign that God is working with us, but it should not be the spring of labor, but our intercourse with Him so as to have His mind. {411} [63459]
I dread the saints getting tired of unworldliness. It was the first decay of Christianity; it is always our danger. {418} [63464]
The gracious Lord has shed His light over my path here. What is my thankfulness for being permitted to serve Him, I could not tell to man. How bright the prospect when it is over, no tongue here can tell. {429} [63469]
To know that we are risen with Christ, in Him before God, alters all. It sets us free before Him, and free from the power of what was contrary to Him. He is our life, and accepted before God, our path is through the wilderness towards Him. Blessed thought! soon we shall see Him, and be with Him in unhindered adoration of heart forever. {430} [63470]
He appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That work is finished. It can never be added to, nor taken away from. Its value does not change. But the Spirit of God works in us to shew our need of it, makes us see that we are sinners, that we are lost in ourselves, leads us (perhaps by deep and painful convictions) to the sense that there is no good in us, that when even to will is present with us, how to perform that which is good we find not. We find not only that we have sinned, but that there is a law of sin in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin in our members. But when – really humbled about this and convicted in our own hearts, removing all pretensions of righteousness in ourselves – we turn to Christ, we find that He has died for this, that He has been a sacrifice for sin as for the sins that burdened us – has been made sin for us, has put it away for us by the sacrifice of Himself.
Thus we get peace and liberty of heart before God, because the sin is put away between us and Him; Christ has made a full expiation. Sin does not exist as between God and us. When He looks on the blood of Christ He cannot see sin in the believer, because when Christ shed that blood He put it away. Thus we get liberty and power too, because submitting thus to the righteousness of God, having Christ for our righteousness, we are sealed with the Spirit, which gives us power and shows us Christ, so that we get strength and joy, and are able to glorify Him, {432} [63471]
We should look for more power. In all our journey we want to be more wholly Christ's, enlisted by Him and our hearts in it with Him. But oh! we are poor in inward springs; we get on, but our life does not pass enough between our souls and Him. It is not that I am not happy and confiding; I trust Him with my whole heart, but I want something more decided. It is a great point to be where He would have us. There is never free power else. Yet the harvest is plenty and the laborers are few. {436} [63474]
One owes it to Christ not to put a false statement as to divine righteousness. {437} [63474]
The Adamic race is not closed actually save for faith. God since the cross holds it for lost and condemned, while dealing in infinite grace with it as such. Faith sees it is all over with it, since it has rejected Christ; its moral history is closed. The ends of the world have come upon us, and the judgment of the world (morally, not its execution, of course) took place in the cross. {439} [63475]
Our place as Christ's servants is to serve peacefully, where He calls, and to wait for all personal blessing till we get it with Himself, working while it is called to-day. Our sabbath will be with Him. This gives great rest and joy, too, now; but it is a joy which always looks forward. {442} [63477]
What a character it gives to the life we have now, going into the new and heavenly place by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, before the world, after all its present state, and out of it in spirit now, but (blessed be God) in communion with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ; our conversation and πολίτευμα in heaven. {447} [63480]
Everywhere the manifest work of the Spirit of God is seen, and the violent efforts of the enemy. What we have to do is to persevere quietly, but with redoubled devotedness, in the Lord's work. This is a time in which faith is manifested by that quietness of soul which flows from confidence in God, and that devotedness which shews that one has the consciousness that everything traditional, everything external (evil excepted) is crumbling to pieces. The way is a very simple one, if the heart is simple; a very peaceful one, if the heart enjoys communion with God; happy there, we peacefully discern what will be most for His glory. {448} [63482]
There are three ways of looking at Christ: as dead and risen; as ascended and seated on high; as coming again. Now of these three great branches of Christian truth – justification through the death and resurrection of Christ; the formation of the church in connection with Christ ascended and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; and the second coming of Christ to receive His saints and judge the world – the Reformation did not go beyond the first, the preaching of justification by faith. The last two were not even touched, so to speak. Similarly, Christians in general do not see these truths at the present day. Neither the distinctive calling of the church, nor the character of the Lord's coming again for us, is entered into beyond sayings and opinions. These are the great truths to present to their apprehension, rather than to begin with the ways of meeting. {449} [63484]
I am, I trust, more loose to the world than ever, and feel I belong only to another world, and I bless God for it. {453} [63486]
The Word is ever richer to me: I have been lately occupied with the difference of Ephesians 3 and 1. The latter puts the Christian in his position before God, the former fills us with Christ up to all the fullness of God, setting us in the fullness of that divine center, in the apprehension there of the whole of that in which God glorifies Himself, in the intimacy withal of Christ's love. {455} [63486]
As I get on I feel it is a more natural thing to belong to God: to be out of it an unnatural state. This has made me happy, and given a peaceful character to my spiritual feelings. Sovereign grace has put us, in the second Adam, in this relationship; but to be in relationship in peace is the only normal state. And that is peace, but then it makes one so much the more feel that the world is a wholly outside thing, a sorrowful scene of minds, souls, actively in confusion. Yet even we have to be athirst for God; if we have seen Him in the sanctuary, not only we long for our Father's house, but love the ways there, though they pass through the vale of tears – but athirst for God; and in this we are satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and praise while we live, because we have His favor, which is better than life. The Lord keep us both patiently and fervently near Himself, drawing from that source of blessing and truth. {456} [63486]
I dread pursuing figures with an unsanctified spirit; they are most instructive when we have solid truth as the base, but the mind may run into all ideas by them. {461} [63489]
What joy to know oneself united to Him! It adds a joy untold to every sweetness; it is the source of it too. Surely He is all. {465} [63490]
For me, I work on till He call me. {465} [63490]
May you find the blessed One ever near you; that is everything. Faithful is He withal and true. In His eternal presence, how shall we feel that all our little sorrows and separations were but little drops by the way, to make us feel that we were not with Him, and when with Him, what it is to be there. Oh, how well ordered all is! I ever long more to be in heaven with Him before the Father, though I desire to finish whatever He has for me to do; and if it keeps me awhile out, it keeps me out for Him, and then it is worth while, and grace. {465} [63490]
I have thought too of little fruit. I find that while specially happy in evangelizing, my heart ever turns to the church's being fit for Christ. My heart turns there. God knew, I suppose, that I was too weak and too cowardly for the other; but I reproach myself sometimes with want of love for souls, and above all, with want of courage, and love would give that – it always does; but in the consciousness of my shortcomings I leave all with Christ. He does after all what He pleases with us, though I do not seek to escape blaming myself through this; and if He is glorified I am heartily content with anything, save not to love Him. {466} [63490]
Trust in the Lord, and be of good courage, be strong, and He shall stablish your hearts. I am not afraid while He lives and is Jesus. {476} [63495]
Why is it said that we are light, and not love? They are the two names that God gives Himself. I have a thought about it: what do you say to it? See how, in Ephesians 5, the two names of God are the models we are given to follow, that is to say, God, under these two names which reveal His nature; and in each of the two cases Christ is the expression of it in man. What a privilege! What a vocation in the world! Ah, how poor we are! When love leads us, men are indeed those for whom we give ourselves; but God, He to whom we offer ourselves. (ch. 5:2). This is what renders it perfect. Perhaps this helps one to understand why it is we are light, and not love. {477} [63497]
I do not know what else we have to do down here but to know God better and to serve. {477} [63498]
Workmen must have faith in all they have to do with. Often laments and inquiries as to the state of brethren are mainly the want of faith as to those who express them. {478} [63498]
The Lord is the same everywhere – and so is man morally! {479} [63498]
I feel nothing more important than singleness of eye and devotedness at this moment. It is the way of light, the way of joy of heart with Him who is the only source of true joy, and the source of eternal joy. {480} [63499]
The Lord arouse His saints by His power, that He may give them light. {480} [63499]
I am daily more convinced that evangelicalism with partial truth is the abandonment of what Paul taught. {482} [63500]
The cross and the crown go together: and more than this, the cross and communion go together. The cross touches my natural will, and therefore it breaks down and takes away that which hinders communion. It was when Peter rejected the thought of the cross that Jesus said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense unto Me": it is with a rejected Saviour we have to walk. The whole system of the world is a stumbling-block to turn the heart from God – dress, vain show, flattery, even the commonest things which tend to elevate nature. All that puts us into the rich man's place is a stumbling-block. Heaven is open to a rejected Christ. Remember this. God's heart is set upon carrying His saints along this road to glory; He would have us walk by faith and not by sight. Whatever tends in me to exalt the world that rejected Christ is a stumbling-block to others; in short, anything that weakens the perception of the excellency of Christ in the weakest saint. {484} [63503]
I want no narrowness; I dread it; but simple faithfulness of testimony is what we must seek: narrowness is not a testimony, but a hindrance to it; but with looseness as to truth one has nothing to testify to. But then we must make the difference of wisdom, and of a law, and of want of their knowledge of position, and a bad conscience. {485} [63504]
We never ought to be discouraged, because the Lord we trust in never fails, nor can. {486} [63505]
It is a solemn time, and the enemy very busy: looseness is easier to the human mind than conscience. {495} [63510]
Devotedness and faith are the chief things nowadays: there is movement enough, what is wanting is what answers needs; supply this as far as you can according to the requirements that come before you, and be content to sow, happy if you reap; the Lord says, "One soweth and another reapeth"; if we are doing His work we shall reap in His time, if we do not grow weary. {504} [63514]
Keep near the Lord, He will give you strength; He renews our strength, we go from strength to strength – His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He is ever good, ever faithful: "He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous." {505} [63514]
It is a narrow path, but a narrow path is a simple one, if you are ready to serve others, and to do only what you have to do. {506} [63515]
The point I take to be fatally dangerous is confounding private judgment and conscience. We see the full-blown fruit of it in the present state of Protestantism, where private judgment is used to authorize the rejection of everything the individual does not agree with. {506} [63516]
There is never in Scripture liberty given to the human will as such: we are sanctified to the obedience of Christ. And this principle, our doing God's will in simple obedience without solving every abstract question which may be raised, is a path of peace, which many heads miss who think themselves wise, because it is the path of God's wisdom. {510} [63517]
Ignorance of the truth is one thing, our common lot in many ways; opposition to it another. {514} [63517]
The Lord has a long look out. Our faith has to wait for Him. {523} [63522]
Be of good cheer; our God is never baffled in His ways: not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him – how much more does He care for His children whom He loves and cherishes, His dear children, as He calls us. {551} [63529]
He makes all things work together to the good of those who love Him. He weans us in every way from this world, that He may attach us to that One for which He has created us anew. This is only a place we are passing through, where Christ was cast out. We pass through it, and, bereft of all here, we have only to work for Him and to glorify Him. God's hand is always better than man's; His seeming harshness even is better than the world's favor: the spring which guides it is always love, and love directed by perfect wisdom which we shall understand by-and-by. Meanwhile, He has given His Son, that we may be able to be certain that all is love. It is a world of sorrow, but where Christ has left His footsteps, indelible proofs for faith that love has entered this world of sorrow to take its part there in grace. Look then to Jesus ... He bears a part in all our afflictions; and be sure that the love of God will not forsake you. {552} [63529]
Excitement with an attractive preacher would easily be, but steadily walking as not of this world is another thing. {557} [63532]
I have no doubt He will secure His own testimony, though if we have got out of a low place He may put us into it. We may have Bochim because we have not Gilgal. {561} [63534]
I do not think it such a difficult time to the simple-hearted. Faith in one sense is a difficulty only solved by God's grace. It is a difficult time if we seek to mingle the world-church and the path of faith; but the path of faith itself is always the same, and the Word to guide, and the Lord to give strength. It may be an evil time, the days evil, but that is not a difficult time; it was an evil time when the blessed Lord was born, but I do not know that the Simeons, the Annas, and Marys and Elizabeths found it a difficult time. Such will be sorrowful times, and they require the patience which separates the precious from the vile; but following the Word is always simple for the simple, and humble, and always happy, because the Lord will be with us. {565} [63537]
We must never expect conscience or delicacy with heretics. Our part is to trust the Lord, and be as firm in testimony as possible. I have always found gracious patience with mistakes the way, but when with God, treating Satan as Satan, when I saw it was so, by grace, he had no power. I have seen most striking cases of this. {568} [63539]
He is faithful and never fails us; He never has failed. {570} [63540]
Courage and patience will do everything, but give love; that the soul must have with and from God. {572} [63542]
"Nots" are dangerous things in scriptural subjects, because the Holy Ghost teaches by positive truth, and we must know every case to use an exclusive "not." {573} [63543]
If we look to Him, all is simple; we see our way clearly, and we have motives that do not leave the soul a prey to uncertainty. It is the double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways. {577} [63545]
How happy we are to be under the guidance of the Lord, to have the heart filled with Him whose thoughts are eternal, and who is love, who has so loved us and given Himself for us; who gave Himself to God, as to His own perfection, but still to possess us – blessed be His name – and to have us with Him forever. It is sweet to feel that He nourishes the church and cherishes it. {578} [63545]
Before God, when Satan is treated as Satan, half the work is done; and more, for then God acts, although He exercises faith. {589} [63548]
I am sure the Lord will and does approve the path of patient consistency, and contentedness to be little and despised, and He will make wonderers know that He has loved them, who, though with little strength, have so walked. {589} [63549]
Worldly religion, and religious worldliness, is the pest of this day, and, though the patience of God be great, and most gracious, will never stand in the day which shall try all things. {592} [63549]
Christ came from the Father to make Him known to us as He knew Him; we come from Christ to make Him known as we know Him; this is true ministry, a happy and blessed thing, but serious in its character: "Peace be unto you," said the Lord, "as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." What a mission! if even we are not apostles. {598} [63552]
There is no solid peace when experience is fed on; there is no crop by plowing, but no good crop without it. {604} [63555]
It is a great thing to have thorough separateness of walk in the narrow path, and a large heart for Christ's saints and poor sinners too. I do look for devotedness and seeking the souls of the poor. "The poor have the gospel preached unto them"; they should be sought out and cared for too. There is a largeness, not of heart, but of way, which is disliking the narrow way for one's conscience – for one's feet: Christ does not suffice us, and we want something to fill up a void. I admit the danger in defending one's walking in the narrow way – to be occupied with the evil we cannot walk in, and so judge, and get shut up. But a deep sense of the evil is very important; but then that is always felt with Christ, which makes the heart tender and large for those dear to Him, even if going wrong. The eager condemnation of others in what is wrong may be connected with vexation at their not going with us. So perhaps they ought – surely if they have light; but the heart will grieve over the persons as dear to Christ if walking with Him, and not merely judge the path as unfaithfulness, or their unfaithfulness in walking in it. {607} [63556]
I feel devotedness to the Lord as belonging to Him a capital point in these days: we are His, bought with a price, and to manifest the life of Jesus in all our ways. {610} [63559]
There is a restless activity in those who are on false ground, which to a spiritual mind betrays where they are. Quiet firmness in a right path I believe God will bless, though faith may be tried for a while. {613} [63560]
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" – a liberty in which the Spirit leads, and not the energy which is of the flesh; then the Lord alone will be exalted, for no flesh shall glory in His presence. Then God is everything and man nothing. May the one object of all our hearts be, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever! Amen. {614} [63561]
It is precious to have Him daily more unfolded before our eyes. {617} [63563]
We are ever so ignorantly confident when not guided by the Word of God. {621} [63565]
If I think of the Lord, and of His perfection, how He always had the right word ready, the right feeling of heart, how He always was as man before God, the wisdom of the love that was evinced in Him, I feel how poor I am in my best endeavors to serve Him. Thank God, the work is His own – by us according to His great love. {621} [63565]
The work of Christ is perfect: He knew all our sins and all we were when He gave Himself for us, and has put all away, made us, if our sins were as scarlet, as white as snow. Think of your being really as white as snow before God, and you are bound to believe that, because it is the sure and revealed value of Christ's blood. Death has put an end to all we were in God's sight. {625} [63425]
What a wonderful thought that the Son of God should love a poor thing like you, and want (He who wants nothing) to have you with Himself for your happiness and as a part of His own, the fruit of the travail of His soul. See what a difference this makes of death; it is not dying as some think it; it is going to Him, to One we love, to One we know, to One who has loved and loves us; it is departing, and being with Christ. {626} [63425]
We have necessarily a good deal to learn, and till we have learned ourselves we never know fully the value of Christ so as to leave the heart at rest. But grace can keep us waiting on Him while this process is going on. {627} [63481]
Christ became a man to be near my heart, and I trust Him, and God thus in Him. {627} [63481]
Learn your own heart, but cast your need on the perfect grace of Christ, and find what His heart is for us in patient and loving mercy. You will find peace and rest. {627} [63481]
Grace does not lend itself to levity and license in the doctrine itself. It is not bursts of steam; the engine must move onwards, and move on with a great deal to be drawn. {628} [63567]
We find not a few who like to hear new truth, but who have no idea of walking in the truth in a practical way. We must have patience, we must have a large heart, but a heart which acknowledges nothing but Christ for its end, and follows Him, or, at least, seeks to do so. We lose our time with amateurs. There is real dignity in the truth, which demands from one to respect it in a practical way. {628} [63567]
In these last days we need firmness, and a large heart which knows how to "take forth the precious from the vile." Obedience is firm and humble; grace, meekness, love ought to be there. But the truth needs not man: man needs the truth. Love feels the need of seeking souls; but souls should submit to Christ and acknowledge His grace. {628} [63567]
How puny we are in comparison with all His grace and all that will reveal itself to us when we shall be with Him in glory! {629} [63567]
May God teach us to take up our cross and follow Him who alone is worthy of it. Some would let go the truth, because it is difficult to reconcile it with charity. Hold it fast: we are sanctified by the truth. Christ Himself is the truth. I admit the difficulty, but grace is sufficient for us. {629} [63567]
As regards settled peace, the great secret is the full and abiding consciousness that in us there is no good, and looking ever at Christ as our only, and our perfect righteousness before God. But there is another kind of peace which we must not confound with this, the peacefulness of heart which flows from conscious relationship with God. When this is in simple exercise, we rest in the sense of His perfect goodness and enjoy it, and this is very sweet to the soul. {639} [63574]
Our present relationship is a constant source of joy, and to be carefully cherished; our righteousness, on which it is founded, is unchangeable in the presence of God. The gracious Lord keep us walking diligently. {639} [63574]
If I say a thing is in Scripture, one text proves it: if I say it is not, I must know the whole Bible perfectly. {640} [63575]
I dread narrowness, but I love distinctness of position. {652} [63582]
May He keep your own soul very near Himself. That is life and strength. We have a plain path; may we know how to walk in it with His strength. What is eternal alone is; but our path here connects with it. It is a strange connection, yet, when Christ is in it, simple and all one. {652} [63582]
It was not worth while to give a long history of the prosperity of Job, but the Holy Spirit of God has given us details of all that took place in his difficulties. It was worth while; and it is for the profit of His own to the end of the age. It is there that the work of our God is found. May He give us to have entire confidence in Him. It was the first thing that Satan destroyed before – and in order that lust might enter into Eve. Now the entire life of Jesus was the manifestation of love to regain the confidence of the heart of man. Without doubt he needed grace; but it is what He was, God showing Himself to man that he might trust in Him. His death does not diminish the proof of His love. {655} [63584]
END OF VOL. I.
VOLUME II.
The person who makes light of John's writings, makes light of the manifestation of God and of the Father, and makes his own acceptance before God the only thing of importance now. This is a very bad state of soul, and such are clearly on low ground. {5} [63587]
We want laborers. Oh! that the Lord would raise up single-eyed, devoted workmen, coming direct from Christ to those around, enduring hardness too betimes, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. He has raised up some, His name be praised, but we need many more. We have to pray the Lord of the harvest, and may He grant them. {10} [63590]
Dead to sin, to the world, to the law – this I find in Scripture; but not to the old creation. And this is the place of every Christian, and he is to hold himself so. But dead to the old creation, God does not say; for it is God's creation, and every creature of God is good. Live above it; in its present state all well, and better, if it be given to us: but death to the first creation, and breaking every link with it, is not true, whilst we are in the body. Scripture does not say so, and Scripture, I say again, is much wiser than we are. There is a new creation, and, as in Christ, we are of it – I think we may say, the firstfruits of it – "of his creatures," at any rate. {26} [63594]
It is wise and safe not to go beyond Scripture. Fresh truths and mighty powers fill our sails, and it is well; but they may, if we trust them and the consequences we draw, carry our minds on to rocks hidden underneath the surface. The Word of God checks, or keeps us rather, in the right and safe course. The first intentions may be right; but when not so kept, when one's mind is trusted, it may run into open ungodliness – the common result of the human mind being trusted with mighty truths, or rather trusting itself with them; and in these days this has to be watched. {27} [63594]
The Lord has a present government which is often very humbling for us: but He has a long look out, and it is grace and faith looks out after it. "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." {29} [63597]
I have been struck often, how individual souls grow in adverse circumstances, and that is the first point with God, though we ought as a whole to have the order and beauty of God upon us. {30} [63597]
What I dread for all of us is the world, loss of earliest undividedness, not exactly in spirit, but in way and habit and testimony. I know no word more settling to the soul than "Be careful for nothing." How often have I found it so, when I have said, How possibly for church sorrows? – "For nothing." And it is not if you can find His will, ask. But present your requests to God, and His peace shall keep your hearts. {30} [63597]
God is always good and faithful, and very patient with us – when we think of His holiness, He must be indeed, since we are such a poor expression of the life of Jesus. {31} [63598]
Christianity has no rights but God's in the world, and that is in a rejected Saviour, who indeed has all power, but has left the cross behind Him in the earth. With the consciousness of this, and love for souls, we can go on with faith, but for Him. And where He has no place, we have none. We must submit as He did. And He opens, and no man shuts, and shuts, and no man opens. {33} [63599]
I do not doubt our hearts can be puffed up in doing feats. I have seen this. We are called to serve more than to do, and in serving to follow. I look for patience (it was the first mark of apostolic service) and guidance, but I see such a thing as great boldness in Christ Jesus. Of course, when the flesh comes in, Satan can use it, if grace preserve not. But the difficulty I have found is conscience driving when there was not peaceful love enough, enough of Christ to do it wisely. But there is a light boasting of preaching adventures in the world sometimes, which is painful. {33} [63599]
I find the Person of the Lord more and more everything in the Word. It is unspeakably blessed to see Him, and God revealed in Him, in this world. How wondrous to have God revealed in a man amongst us. The whole Trinity was first fully revealed when He took His place in the first right step of His poor returning people in grace, and became the model of our standing here – Son, owned of the Father, anointed and sealed of the Holy Ghost all heaven open, only no object above for Him, as for Stephen, but Himself the great object of heaven down here. Then in that place He takes another part – conflict with the enemy. What a testimony to the Word too, that one verse is sufficient for the Lord, as authority as the obedient man, for Satan, to leave him not a word. {34} [63599]
If Christ have taken a strong hold the path is simple, and the young may be saved many a pang. If Christ's, they will surely learn the world is nothing, and its friendship enmity with God; but it is better, and happier, to learn it in the blessed company of Christ than in regrets on a dying bed, or a heart repentant at loss and unfaithfulness. I do not expect young Christians to have learned everything, but the Lord expects them to be faithful to the light they have got. “And to him that hath shall more be given." {38} [63602]
As to going through the world as a trial and exercise of faith, we have all to do it. It is like the ordinary sinfulness of our hearts, and ministering to it, a process through which we have all to go, to have our senses exercised to discern good and evil, and Christ become everything to us, and we more like Him. Oh, how surely we shall feel in that day, that all that was not a heart given to Him was loss and wretchedness. {38} [63602]
If we get near to the Lord, if we are in communion with God within in the holy place, we see all saints with His eyes, as dear to Him, washed in Christ's blood, and His in the power of the Holy Ghost, and they are clothed by faith and desire with what belongs to Him, objects of Christ's delight and the fruit of the travail of His soul; then intercession for them is easy, and faithfulness to them becomes easy and gracious too. But we cannot judge aright if we are not there: our judgment of certain things may be right, and our rejection of them in our ways, but we judge them without, as forbidden things, and that so far is all right, but within, while this judgment is only deeply strengthened, other thoughts and feelings come in with it which can be had only there. The evil and loss for the saints of the wretched path of worldliness – the dishonor done to the Saviour, the ruin of their testimony – is far more deeply felt, but because they are seen in Christ, not merely because they are wrong. We may fear for them, but the heart will carry them to God, to Christ, because they are His. Moses would not have the people cut off on the top of the mount; he called the faithful to cut them off when below, and both for the same reason. He connected the glory of God with the people – an extreme case no doubt, but which shows us that divinely given love for God's people on high is the spring of severity even, if needed, below. God's glory was the plea for and against the people. {38} [63602]
I see the identification of the people with God's glory alone, was the spring of Moses' prayer; and the same thing made him call the faithful to cut off his neighbor and brother down here. {41} [63601]
I am called to walk as a son of the house, that is to say, as Christ walked. If we fail, we reproach ourselves for it a thousand times more than when we were outside, hoping to enter the house; but the question of knowing whether I belong to the house is not raised; it is because I do, that sin has so horrible a character in my eyes, so unsuitable to what I am, a child of God thus clothed – so horrible, when I think of what Christ has suffered on account of that sin, {42} [63603]
Remember that Christ is your righteousness from God, but the righteousness of a soul convinced of two things, first that it has no righteousness, and then that it has need of righteousness, need of being at peace with God – a need produced by the consciousness of its sin, without the hint of a desire that God should be less holy than He is. {42} [63603]
It is a serious thing, whatever be the goodness of God, to find peace with a God of holiness. Christ has made peace; but He would have us feel what it is to have need of it, in order that we may know it. Our hearts are so subtle and wicked, that following on peace comes negligence. We feared sin before, and now that we are freed from this heavy burden, we go forward not only more easily, but alas, often carelessly. Rejoice before God, and not without God, for the peace which He has given you; rejoice in trembling. It is the means of preserving peace, by grace. Moreover, pay great attention never to say anything that goes beyond your experience; nothing is of more importance for our own souls. {43} [63604]
Men of the world, as well as Christians, feel all things shaking, an irresistible torrent rising, professing Christians at their wits’ end. The peaceful testimony from a position which God secures is of moment to souls, and however weak it may be individually as such, it tells on people's hearts. {46} [63605]
I have been thinking of one of the joys of heaven, after Christ – and it will be His joy, seeing of the fruit of the travail of His soul and being satisfied – seeing all the saints perfect according to the heart and mind of God Himself, and His who has sought and saved them. What satisfaction and joy that will be! Truly it is what one's heart desires now. Then it will be perfectly satisfied, and Christ glorified in it; and this, thank God, will surely be. {47} [63605]
The apostle says not only "I have suffered the loss of all things," but "I count them but dung." The excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus gave permanency to his estimate of what was in the world around him, and [what it] gave to him as a natural man. That third chapter of Philippians gives us the principle of walk which stamps its energy and character on the Christian course, a positive active energy with an object in view. {49} [63607]
"The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways"; even in natural things the man who has one object is energetic and full of force. It is this continuance in the judgment of the worthlessness of all things that marks the place Christ has in our hearts, gives true joy and liberty, and makes us a bright witness for Christ in the world. Only remember that he that seeks finds, that we need force every moment, and that the manna of today will not do for tomorrow. {49} [63607]
Do not be lazy in divine things, for this can produce its fruit even in those who are sincere.
{52} [63608]
"Stranger" is a word sin has brought in. In Latin and in more learned languages it means an enemy; such is man. In heaven none can or will be a stranger there, nor any stranger to Him; and it is a blessed thought, for the love of God makes all one, and such ought the church to be. {52} [63609]
The Lord has patience, and where He has patience, we ought to have it too. {69} [63618]
God always gives the strength we need for the work He gives us to do, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. {69} [63618]
Remember that God is love, and that He is always thinking of us: "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous." {69} [63618]
All things are rapidly progressing and breaking up; but we have only to be perfectly peaceful and quiet, and earnestly seek from God that we and all the saints who seek His face, may be faithful and devoted. {72} [63620]
The Lord prepare His people for Himself. One thing we have to do – to live for Christ, for what is not seen. It will be seen, and then how glorious. But I do not like to look at this only as wilderness, and that as rest and praise. We have the love of God, and the fullness of Christ to enjoy, if we walk with Him; and how free from hindrance then, I need not say. But it ought to be well known, though beyond all our thought. {72} [63620]
We are not to be occupied with evil, or be in any way terrified with the adversary, as if the Lord had not the upper hand. He has overcome, and is leading on to a full blessing, when the enemy will be bound. We must go on in the confidence that power belongs to Him, is in His hands. I do not mean that they are not perilous times; but in them, we have to look out of them to Him who cannot fail us, who is full of blessing, and whose grace is sufficient for us, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness. {73} [63620]
I always dread my work not being solid. {76} [63621]
The Lord is all we need, and He is perfect. {78} [63622]
His sorrows must ever be a depth into which we look over on the edge with solemn awe; we could not be there and still be; but it exalts His grace to the soul to look into that depth, and makes one feel that none but a divine Person (and one perfect in every way) could have been there. But it requires an exercised, and I believe a very humble soul to look in, &c. {79} [63623]
What Christ is before God is what we are, because we are in Him: but if we are in Him, He is in us, and His life ought to be manifested in all our ways. {85} [63625]
There is no true holiness until we have peace; after we get peace holiness for its own sake is the desire of the soul. {87} [63625]
The love of Christ directs the eye on them He loves. {101} [63632]
It is not any question of Person or dignity as to the Holy Ghost that hinders His being the object addressed in prayer, but the place He holds in the divine economy. He does govern as we are led by Him, but our communion is with (objectively) the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. It is eternal life to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Yet without the Spirit, and a divine Spirit, we could have no communion and no knowledge. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us: our bodies are His temples. But it is as in us He works, leading us objectively to the Father and the Son. But God dwells in us: by the Spirit we know the Son is in the Father, a divine Person thereby; we know we are in Him, and He in us. And in Romans 8 we find Christ and the Spirit in this respect identified. The Holy Ghost is a divine Person and in the unity of the Godhead adored and worshipped. He is the immediate agent of all that God does – immediate to the effects. But His place in the divine ways is not in the same way objective – as divine and as personal, but not in God's ways so objective. {101} [63632]
Chapter 17 (John) is neither priestly nor advocacy, in the sense of Hebrews and 1 John 2. It is essentially putting the disciples in His own place with the Father, and doing, and looking to the Father to do when He was gone, all that was necessary for their being, and being maintained, in this place. {105} [63635]
What can be more solemn than the judgment of that which God established on the earth, that which had been dear to Him? If Jesus could weep over Jerusalem, how deeply ought His people to feel the thought of the coming judgment of that which had a value far more precious than even Jerusalem. {112} [63639]
The faithful will assuredly enjoy a far more excellent portion, a heavenly glory, but the Christian system, as a system on the earth, will be cut off forever. {114} [63639]
In this state of disorder I cannot know, as at the beginning, all those who belong to God; but as to my own walk, I am to associate with those who have a pure heart. {115} [63639]
It is a frightful principle to say that we cannot distinguish between the children of God and the people of the world – besides it is not true – a frightful principle, for it is said, "By this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another": now if I cannot discern them, I cannot love them, and the testimony which God would have is lost. In the next place, it is not true practically, for we enjoy brotherly fellowship, and every faithful Christian makes a difference between a child of God and one who is not. There are some that we do not discern and that God knows: this is not denied. But in this respect the passages which I have quoted from 2 Timothy guide us. What would become of family affection if a father were to say to his children, You cannot tell who are your brothers and who are not; you must associate with everybody without any distinction whatever? {116} [63639]
As soon as man was left to himself, he fell, and, unfaithful in his ways, has fallen from his first estate, to which he has never returned. God does not restore it, but He gives salvation by redemption and introduces man into an infinitely more glorious condition in the second Man Jesus Christ. {117} [63639]
If we are in grievous times, has not the Word given us principles by which we may trace the way in which we ought to walk? If any one has the conviction that we are in those sad times of which we read in 2 Timothy 2, 3, and will be before God, who has given us those principles, in full confidence in Christ, the result as to his convictions will not be doubtful. May he know how to walk with God! {119} [63639]
Let us remember that in every position in which the first Adam failed, man has been gloriously restored in the Second. {119} [63639]
If the ark is taken, David and Solomon are raised up: if Jesus Himself is rejected, it is that He may be raised. {122} [63640]
If I am in Christ, the life of Christ is the only and perfect rule of my life. {127} [63642]
Grace and truth have in no way come by the law, but by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The law was not annulled by His coming, but fulfilled: we are not under law, but under grace. We do not sin because we have died with Christ; we have died to sin, to the law, by the body of Christ. This is true liberty, being made free from sin that we may live unto God in the new life which we have received from Christ, strengthened by the power of the Holy Ghost, Christ being the only object of our life. {128} [63642]
The absolutely perfect and living rule is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him all written rules are united in one solitary living example; but the written rule which ought to govern our whole life is the New Testament. The Old Testament gives the most precious light, and illuminates the path of Christians by the light of divine faith working in hearts; still, before the rending of the veil, it could not be said, "The true light now shineth," save in the life of Jesus Christ: He was the light of the world. For this reason when the Holy Ghost gives as examples of walking in the path of faith, the faithful of the Old Testament, He adds, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith." The faithful have, each for himself, gone over a little bit, of the path of faith: Jesus is the beginner and completer of this path. {128} [63642]
Happy is he who keeps by His side to learn how one ought to walk, and who understands the riches that are in Christ, the beauty of His ways, to enjoy communion with Him, pleasing Him every day more and more. {129} [63642]
It gives a resting-place for the soul, a known Person – may we not say a loved One, though we know "Herein is love, not that we loved Him, but that He first loved us"; but that word "first" lets the other come in at least. But the joy is in looking at Himself, and seeing what He is, "the chief among ten thousand. ... altogether lovely." Oh! it is blessed and joy to rest on what He is; to be at home with Him, and adoringly so, but confidence, and confidence in the interest He takes always in His people. {138} [63649]
It is happy to have only the Word to follow, and to know that it is the Word of God. What an immense mercy to have His Word, the revelation of His grace towards us, of Jesus the perfect One, of the counsels of God, and what God has ordained for our glory. It is in. His kindness towards us that, in the ages to come, He will show forth the immense riches of His grace. {142} [63653]
I have never seen a soul living in its experiences and occupied with itself, with whom the "I" had not a place, without the person's being aware of it, and even without his having a suspicion that it was so. The Lord Jesus, in His infinite grace, uses us, but it is a bad thing to be occupied with ourselves and not with Him. We do not become acquainted with ourselves by thinking about ourselves; for, while we think of Him, the "I" disappears; one is in the light, where one is not when occupied with oneself. {144} [63654]
I feel deeply how only One can keep His church, even humanly speaking, for we all know (it is always true) it outreaches one's hand. But what a comfort to be able to apply to Him for its blessing, whose ear is ever open, who can, in grace, reach all, and whose interest in perfect love is far deeper than any interest of ours, only that He graciously allows us to have a part in it. May we know how to use the privilege! {146} [63656]
Nature of course shrinks from suffering: still when it comes, if we are with God, strength and joy are there. {147} [63656]
As to suffering for Christ, I am sure if the Lord lead one into trial for His name, He will give us strength to glorify Him. We can do nothing. But if living with Him in the secret of our souls, we shall not find it hard to die for Him. See how bright Stephen was, how quiet, kneeling down to pray for them. He was full of the Holy Ghost. {148} [63656]
The Lord make us ... to find Christ everything, that whatever comes with Him we may joy in, so be with Him that we have the consciousness of common interests, though He be Master, but who have His secret with us, His counsels, His objects – stewards who have His interests at heart more than their own, and then go to see Him and be with Him. How sweet will that word sound, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" – poor and worthless creatures that we are! Well we must go with Him now, take up our cross and follow Him: "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me." There is a great deal in that word. May He keep us near Himself. It is Himself that makes all clear and simple to the soul. {149} [63656]
Our conversation is in heaven. Now a Christian can live thus, and ought, and the flesh not intrude; only he must be much occupied with Christ, for Christ's own sake, otherwise, when there is no actual evil thought, his views, judgments, feelings, are natural ones, as to what he is passing through. They ought to be Christian ones. {150} [63658]
It is not so much arranging, as bringing in Christ. Sweeping away snow is long work; if the sun is well up, it is gone. A night covers the earth a foot deep – what millions of men could not do – a day takes it all away if God's warmth comes in. {151} [63658]
Things are breaking up fast, all feel – ours a kingdom which cannot be moved, that is a comfort; may it lead us to serve God reverently. {153} [63660]
I feel a Christian ought so to live to Christ as the motive and spring of all within, that nothing but Christ should come out – be there to come out – though the flesh be ever the same. But if we are in Him, He is in us, and the flesh is for faith dead, and we have to carry about the dying daily. {153} [63660]
One has to work on in grace seeing the evil to be overcome, even if the more we love the less we are loved. We work for Christ, and His love was perfect. {155} [63661]
Engineers must plan a road, but all the carters in the country know it is good when made; so men taught in the Word may point out a path which the mass of brethren would not have discovered, but which they see to be Scriptural when suggested. {157} [63663]
Our comfort is that the blessed Lord has His people on His heart, and we can trust Him.
{157} [63664]
The simpler we put Christ's dying for our sins, the better. All these great truths are facts, in which I admire the wisdom of God, as the simplest can thus understand them (through grace) and the strongest intellects must bow and take them as such. When we inquire – and people inquire about everything now – there are depths in it which none of us can fathom. {158} [63665]
Now judgment is according to works, God taking account of the degree of light in pronouncing the judgment, see Luke 12. But judgment is according to works, and that is judicial exclusion from God's presence, whatever degree there may be in actual infliction of punishment. {159} [63665]
Man was driven out of God's presence at the beginning, and besides future judgment for works, finds, when his eye is opened, that he is lost now; though this be concealed from those walking by sight, when the veil of sense and the show of this world is gone, he finds it is forever. {159} [63665]
This was a wonderful mystery, a perfect victim, spotless before God, perfect in obedience, perfect in absolute self-surrender, perfect in love to His Father, perfect in His love to us, able as a divine Person to sustain the weight of God's glory in the place of sin, that is, as made sin for us, not only "in the likeness of sinful flesh,” but "for sin." "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him"; and Christ as Man is in glory at the right hand of God. {160} [63665]
God's love provided the Lamb, but God's righteousness required the propitiation, and by the cross alone the righteousness and love and majesty of God are secured, and what He is made known. The Son of Man must be lifted up, and the Son of God is given. {160} [63665]
All our work feels the effect of our state, and a heart full of Christ and the seriousness of dealing with souls for eternity, which we feel when full of Him and speaking from Him, gives weight and unction to it. It is being emptied of self which enables us through grace with watching and praying, to do this. But carrying about the dying of the Lord Jesus is the condition of this. The energy of Moses which killed the Egyptian did not stand before Pharaoh, though it showed the energy which God would use when He had broken the will in connection with it. The energy is just the suited vessel, but we have to learn in the breaking of it, that the excellency of the power is of God. {162} [63666]
There are three elements of the Christian life: the first is being in the light as God is in the light – no veil. We must find ourselves in the presence of God fully revealed. If we cannot stand there, we cannot have intercourse with Him. The second is, that being thus in His presence, it is not, with us, the selfishness of the individual, but the communion of saints by the Holy Ghost, in the enjoyment of the full revelation of God Himself. The third is that we are white as snow, so that we can be with joy in this light, which only makes manifest that we are all that the eye and heart of God desire in this respect – what our hearts also desire, in His presence. {164} [63668]
Following Christ wholly the world or the human heart will never stand. {181} [63675]
To give up ease for the cross is not pleasant to the flesh. {216} [63691]
May we ourselves ... remember that soon there is but one thing that will be a comfort to us, to have followed Christ wholly. Blessed privilege! the fashion of this world passeth away; but that is forever, and infinite blessing. Soon we shall see Him as He is, and in the glory of which He is worthy – joy infinite it will be to our spirits. {216} [63691]
He is our portion, and I believe the Christian should walk in the constant sense of divine favor, that favor that is better than life, so that the soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, though in the dry and thirsty land where no water is {216} [63691]
So was it with Christ. He felt everything; His tenderness was perfect, and yet how perfect His submissiveness. {217} [63692]
It is astonishing how much often remains as a sediment at the bottom of the heart in a man, gracious in the main of his life, which the rod of God stirs up when He thrusts it in – often underlying all the contents of the heart, yet always to be carried off by the living stream of the waters of His grace – not merely faults, but a mass of unjudged materials of every-day life, a living under the influence of what is seen, or unjudged affections of every kind. All that is not up to the measure of our spiritual height is then judged in its true character, as connected with flesh before God. {218} [63692]
It is astonishing what progress a soul sometimes makes in a time of sorrow. It has been much more with God; for indeed that alone makes us make progress. There is much more confidence, quietness, absence of the moving of the will; much more walking with, and dependence on Him, more intimacy with Him, and independence of circumstances – a great deal less between us and Him – and then all the blessedness that is in Him comes to act upon the soul and reflect in it; and, oh, how sweet that is! What a difference it does make in the Christian, who, perhaps, was blameless in his walk in general previously! {218} [63692]
His love is far better than our will. Trust Him; He may well be trusted; He has given His Son for us, and proved His love. {219} [63692]
If He strikes, be assured He will give more than He takes away. {219} [63692]
It is a world of sorrow, and the longer we know it, and the nearer even we walk to the Lord, the better we shall know it to be such. {220} [63693]
It is only in the part which has to be broken and corrected that we suffer: a touched affection, when Christ is with us in the grief, is of infinite sweetness, though the sweetness of sorrow. It is only when the will mixes itself up with the sorrow that there is any bitterness in it, or a pain in which Christ is not. {220} [63693]
There is a mass of things in the sincerest of us of which we are not aware, which are not brought into subjection to God, which work and shew themselves unsuspected. God breaks in upon us: how many things He shows – how many cords He cuts at one blow! {220} [63693]
Christ never makes a breach except to come in and connect the soul and heart more with Himself; and it is worth all the sorrow that ever was, and more, to learn the least atom more of His love and of Himself; and there is nothing like that, like Him; and it lasts. {221} [63693]
We little know what high and blessed things we are called to. Oh that the saints knew it better! To be with and have common joy and communion with God! {221} [63693]
What a God we have to do with! and all in love! And when the storm is all passed, the brightness for which He is preparing us will shine out unclouded, and it will be Himself – Him we have known in all this tender care. {221} [63693]
The divinity did not screen the manhood from the taste of the terrible cup, but enabled Him to drink it. He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit to God, as He cast out devils by the Spirit of God. And though God of course could not die – no more even could a human soul – yet there was no separation of the natures. Let nothing weaken our sense of the full propitiation for sin. {224} [63694]
The Son as a divine Person of course could not die, looked at apart; but He who was Son died and gave Himself, not as apart, but in all the infinite value of His Person and in His divine love to us. {224} [63694]
Man is set up, and Christians so used to it, that all God's thoughts have to be brought in as new things. {225} [63695]
We know we shall reap if we faint not. I do not expect to war, and not find combat and difficulties. We shall reap if we do not faint in the war. {227} [63696]
Faith should pierce through and see the things that are not seen: things get their true value in another world, and faith when vivid sees them there. {237} [63703]
What an honor! God has sanctified us to Himself, and cannot have us rest where He cannot; but the promise is left us of entering into His: but we need to be weaned from this world, to have our hearts there. {238} [63704]
In heaven all is good. God is there, and only goodness and holiness, and nothing inconsistent with it. We cannot be simple, or want simplicity there, for God fills everything, and we and all are what He would have us. It is an infinite "I am" of good. But Christ was something else. He was divine good, and infinite, but good adapting itself, showing itself infinite in being always itself, and yet adapting itself to all the wants, sorrows, miseries, sins, that were in this poor world. We get to God, get to the Father by it, because He has got to us. {239} [63705]
God present puts us in our place, and Himself in His place in our hearts; and what confidence that gives, and how self is gone in joy! Our great affair is to keep in His presence; and the diligent soul shall be made fat. He that seeks, finds. {241} [63705]
If our hearts are not close to Christ, we are apt to get weary in the way. All is a vain show around us; but that which is inside abides, and is true, being the life of Christ. All else goes! When the heart gets hold of this fact, it becomes (as to things around) like one taken into a house to work for the day, who performs the duties well, but passes through instead of living in the circumstances. {241} [63706]
To Israel the cloud came down, and they stayed; it lifted up, and on they went. It was all the same to them. Why? Because had they stayed when the cloud went on, they would not have had the Lord. {242} [63706]
One may be daily at the desk for fifty years, yet with Christ the desk is only the circumstance; it is doing God's will, making manifest the savor of Christ, which is the simple and great thing. {242} [63706]
Not a single thing in which we have served Christ shall be forgotten. Lazy alas! we all are in service, but all shall come out that is real, and what is real is Christ in us, and this only. The appearance now may be very little – not much even in a religious view, but what is real will abide. {242} [63706]
Our hearts clinging closely to Christ, we shall sustain one another in the body of Christ. The love of Christ shall hold the whole together, Christ being everything, and we content to be nothing, helping one another, praying one for the other. I ask not the prayers of the saints, I reckon on them. The Lord keep us going on in simplicity, fulfilling as the hireling our day, till Christ shall come; and then "shall every man have praise of God" – praise of God! Be that our object, and may God knit all our hearts together thoroughly and eternally. {242} [63706]
We must have faith in the Word to repent. What word? It was, with remission of sins, to be preached in Christ's name. Christian repentance implies grace, I mean recognizing grace in a measure. Repentance is for me practically – judgment of the past in the sense of grace. {242} [63707]
The cross convicts of sin, where really understood, more deeply than anything. {243} [63707]
It is not the old Adam reformed, which is our life, but the last Adam, Christ, is our life. {246} [63709]
It is, as I have often said, not by what we find, but by what we bring, that we can serve in Christianity. It is as much a question of trusting in the Lord as legalism. Living in the good with Him, you carry it in with you into the service and circumstances of the church. One sees when good comes. ... You must not want the support of the walking well of the church. It is the greatest comfort, but you must be for Christ whatever the church needs. And that you can be by walking in the place which He would have you in, and looking to Him for strength. {248} [63710]
We count on Him, not to have this world our rest – God forbid! – but for sure, unfailing love, and ever watching over us. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous. He must wean us if He will use us, and make us know ourselves too. Our part is to be very near Him, that a lowly heart is judged in everything by the light, as He is in it, for there we are placed – walk in peace, and serve directly from Himself, come out from Him to others. This is true service; indeed, if it be not thus, service is a danger to ourselves. {266} [63717]
Things not seen seem to me more real than they have ever been, as in like manner does the revelation of grace in the life of the Lord here below; the pains which He takes to assure us of His love, the way in which He puts us in the same relationship as Himself with His Father, while the Holy Spirit at the same time always presents Him to us as Son of God, in the dignity of His Person: divine knowledge, divine power over creation (Matt. 17:24-2724And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 25He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. 27Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee. (Matthew 17:24‑27)), but at the same time "us," "Me and thee." {276} [63723]
For the prayer of faith, or rather the promise to it, there are certain limits as to the certainty of answer, such as "in My name," "'according to His will": “if ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will," "if two of you shall agree"; besides what stops prayer, as a sin unto death. But then I see no limits put to the expectation of faith if God gives it. If it be my will asking amiss to consume it on my lusts, I cannot expect an answer. But the Lord contemplates the giving of faith and certainty of answer for drying up of the fig-tree or removing a mountain, and whatever I can ask believing, I receive it. This is a very important principle. {280} [63726]
Where the mind is formed by the words of Christ, when they abide in one who lives in dependence on and confidence in Him – one thus abiding in Him, having Him in spirit, and his mind guided by Christ's Word, his will is (so to speak) Christ's – he asks what he will, and it will come. {280} [63726]
"All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive." This supposes faith and intimacy, so to speak, with God. The heart is supposed to be in His interests, and then, if there is faith as a grain of mustard seed, a mountain goes. {281} [63726]
It is never said Christ has entirely put away sin in any sense. He came once in the end of the world "to put away sin." But the result is not yet produced. Faith knows it is effectual and rejoices. But the Holy Ghost convicts the world of sin, because they believe not in Jesus, so that there they are – sin increased upon them by the death of Christ. But I repeat, it is never said Christ has put away sin. He has done the work that does it, so that in the new heavens and new earth righteousness will dwell. {282} [63727]
What do they mean by original sin? If it be the nature ( ... ) that is not put away at all, but condemned in the cross. If it be the relationship and standing of the sinner, it is not changed till he believes. Only the cross is the adequate and glorious ground on which, God being glorified and the blood before His eyes, He can send to every sinner beseeching him to be reconciled; but that proves he is not, till he answers to the call. {282} [63727]
Our word is not confirmed by accompanying signs. This does not trouble me. It demands more of the heart's confidence, confidence in Christ, and that always does good. But it strengthens the heart greatly to be assured of it. Then if there are difficulties on the way, these are but difficulties to overcome. {287} [63731]
If you feel that the Lord has entrusted you with His Word, has put it into your heart, not only for yourself, but for others (Gal. 1:15,1615But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 16To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: (Galatians 1:15‑16)), then fear nothing: faith tested is faith strengthened; it is to have learned your weakness, but to have learned the faithfulness of God, His tender care even in sending the difficulties, that we may be there with Him. And if you have the assurance that God has entrusted you with His Word, do not be troubled if you are set aside for a time. {288} [63731]
In the midst of corruption and superstition, it takes much patience to wait on souls for their full deliverance; but grace and redemption, clearly seen, do deliver, the rest passes away as a cloud. Though a habit of mind, it is really Satan's power, and is gone where Christ's power is, and the Son and the truth have made free. {294} [63734]
I thank God, I do trust devotedness is growing; and under grace, growing infidelity and superstition bring many souls to hear where a full Christ is preached. Complete salvation I find of all moment now. It strikes at the root of all superstition, and builds up the soul on an everlasting foundation. Blessed comfort, fruit of infinite and perfect love! And soon we shall be like Him and see Him as He is. Unspeakable joy and wondrous grace! We wait for His Son from heaven. {294} [63734]
Remember that God, even our God, has better thoughts for us than rest or a portion here. He is educating us for a blessed and eternal rest, free from evil and all that would cause it, and He is bent on the blessing of His children; and moreover He is bound by His holiness to purge us suitably (though most graciously) for the place He has called us to. How often He lets Satan do this painful work, and try and sift us as Job! But His hand and will are behind it all. He gives His saints up to Satan's hand to a certain point, but only so far as to bring the heart fully to a bearing before Himself, and enter into deep questions with it, breaking down its pride. {295} [63735]
A Jehovah of Israel stood engaged to bless, and punish in government, most patient, no doubt, but still in government, which manifested outwardly the sense He had of such and such conduct. But the Father stands engaged to much deeper work. He keeps us in His own name as a holy Father, and thus deals with us according to that which, as such a Father, He would work in our souls. For such a blessing He is bringing His children in inward life to Himself. Alas! how much there is often to be done in us! {296} [63735]
Be assured His love makes no mistakes with us. It is certain and infinite. We know it, poor wretched sinners as we are, by the gift of Jesus. And oh! what is our eternal portion in grace – yea, glory with Him – compared with wearying troubles here below? {297} [63735]
The Gethsemane of Matthew has just now interested me deeply: Jesus a victim without human resource; man completely fails Him. See how He turns from the deep anguish of His prayer to His disciples who were sleeping. His gentleness betrays no other emotion than love for them. What calmness! The soul which at the very moment was trembling with agony at the thought of the cup which He had to drink, shows only the gentleness which finds an excuse for His poor disciples, while reproaching Peter with a tenderness sweeter than praise. {298} [63737]
I desire the largest, fullest charity to every member of Christ's body, but it is not charity to acquiesce in sin in their walk, but the contrary. I must keep my own walk pure and faithful to Christ. {300} [63738]
If I live in heaven, if my surroundings are there, my citizenship, if I am waiting for the Lord, instead of everything for me being shaken, all can only be perfected in glory; but in so far as we cling to what is earthly, the shaking, the uprooting of that which is second nature, is painful. A tree lives from its roots. {301} [63739]
We do not sufficiently see that the things which are not seen are revealed to us. That which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit," communicated by words which the Holy Ghost has taught; and, lastly, these things are discerned by the Spirit. These are the three steps in the knowledge of divine things. Then, also, he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. {302} [63739]
We cannot be too far from the camp, which is going into utter ruin visibly. {311} [63745]
God has made me a lonely person; I never expect to find help in what is not out and out for Christ only, so that I am less disappointed, and go on my way looking for what God will give. Christianity works by what it brings, not by what it finds. {312} [63745]
The more we go on, the more we shall find that most Christians will not follow. They do not give up Christ, but have not faith to go right on in the path He would. The Christian world looks for great results. It is not the time. In the midst of the evil surrounding, the first point is to have what is true and solid, especially to begin thus. In a closing dispensation this is specially the case. This was the Saviour's work. {312} [63745]
Do not expect others to go with you who have not under God counted the cost, or rather, been directly moved by Him, but expect Him to work by the truth and grace you bring. There will be first last and last first; but He will never fail us – the feet I always say in the strait path, the heart as large as you can. {312} [63745]
Of course every Christian is a servant of God and of Christ. But service in every house is different, one may be a butler or a scullion boy. There is moral authority in a gift. Official authority is another thing. If I have the Word in power, I shall have authority in the consciences of those to whom it is addressed. {313} [63746]
God prepares us for heaven by cutting little by little the ties that still attach us, as children of Adam, to earth. Christ takes the place of everything; and thus all goes on well, and for the better. {318} [63751]
Death is not an accident that happens without the will of God: it has no more dominion over us; the risen One holds the keys of it. How immensely blessed to know that He has won a complete and final victory over death and over all that was against us, so that there is entire deliverance! We are delivered, save as to the body, out of the scene where evil has its power and transported where the brightness of God's countenance ever shines in love, where there is light and love only, where God fills the scene according to the favor that He bears to Christ as the One who has glorified Him in accomplishing redemption, according to the perfections which were shown forth through that work. There was a needs be for God to be manifested in these perfections in answer to the work of Christ; it was due that He should respond to the work of Christ in love, in glory, in the expression of the delight that He found in it. The name of His God and Father in love was unfolded in all its splendor; "Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns." He was "raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father." He then declares that Name to His brethren, and Christ praises Him in the midst of the congregation. This is where I wanted to bring you by these remarks that might otherwise appear somewhat abstract. All this favor shines upon you: what God has been for Christ as man, because Christ glorified God as regards sin that dishonored Him – what God has been in bringing Christ into His presence in glory – that He is for you, who are the fruit of the travail of His soul. Think of that. ... Moreover, Christ has become infinitely dear to us because of what He has done for us. He gave Himself because He loved unboundedly. There is nothing in Christ that is not yours; He cannot give more than Himself, and what a gift that is! {318} [63751]
It is in thinking of Him – of Himself – that one has joy. You are not a joyful Christian. I understand it, I know it: there is discipline in that. Christ has not had the place that He ought to have had in your soul. You see, I hide nothing from you. But that is not all: you have not confidence enough in His grace. Own all that might be a cloud between your soul and His love. You do it, I know; but the grace, the deep perfect love of Jesus, the love which is above all our faults, and gave itself for all our sins, the love which took occasion of our very weaknesses to show its own perfection – of it you do not think enough. That love divine but also personal of the Saviour will fill your heart; Jesus will fill it; and you will then be not only in peace but joyful. I attach more importance to peace than to joy. I should wish to see you habitually in a joy more deep than demonstrative; but if Jesus is in the bottom of your heart, that Jesus who has blotted out all trace of evil in us, in whom we live before God, then your joy will be deep. May it be so. Oh! that your heart may be filled with Jesus Himself, and with His love, and with the sense of His grace. He has saved you, He has washed you, He has become your life, in order that you may enjoy God. What could you have more than Himself? You can see His goodness in the peace that He gives you, and in the way in which He surrounds you with such care and affection. {319} [63751]
How blessed, when every trace of that which has kept us bound in some way or other to this world of misery and evil will have completely disappeared, and when we find ourselves in that light where all is perfect! Therefore trust yourself to His love. {320} [63751]
Our part is simple; to hold close by the Lord, and to do His will; all else is loss, and disappears. With Him all is blessing, and forever, only now we have to go on by faith. It is a blessed thing, too, to be strangers where He was a stranger. Soon we shall be with Him in the house where no stranger comes – all are at home there. {322} [63753]
I find going home, a sweet and happy thought, and the Lord is there. And what more can one ask save to occupy till He come, if that is to be the yet brighter way? Find out His will and do it, and all is bright. {324} [63754]
To a spiritually intelligent mind, the Word of God carries an authority beyond all cavils. {353} [63764]
They shall be all taught of God; and when the conscience is reached, and the will subject, and therefore the mind silent, we have the peace which certainty gives (and uncertainty as to what is all-important is misery), and blessed growth in what God Himself has revealed for divine blessing and joy. I do not receive the Bible, that is, a revelation of God from the hands of men. I receive paper and ink. The revelation I receive from God directly – "They shall be all taught of God." The revelation is a divinely-wrought conviction, and, I repeat, in the conscience. {354} [63764]
It is pleasant to see simple souls full of joy, and that by the Spirit, for it is eternal joy, while wise ones are ever learning. {367} [63773]
One thing is a comfort, that Christ will cherish and nourish His own: one can count on His fidelity. It is a comfort when all is adverse. {367} [63773]
Nor is there a time when spiritual nearness to God is more known, where there is faith, than when all is gone wrong. But the great thing is to be near Christ, and to be constantly near Christ, where the soul is kept in peace (is not recovering it for itself), and thus in the sense of love, that then our service may flow from this dwelling with Him, and carry the stamp of it. How did Christ reveal the Father? "The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." He declared Him, and could declare Him, as in the present sense of the love of which He was the object, which He enjoyed in His bosom. He was perfect, and we are failing servants, but that is the only way of all carrying the unction of His presence. {368} [63773]
I draw a conclusion, a just and holy one (Rom. 5), that if I am reconciled by His death I shall be saved by His life. Yea, we joy in God; and if I say too God is for me, nothing shall separate me from His love, fully manifested in Christ – that is where I am. What happiness! This is the joy now which will also be our joy forever. {371} [63775]
To judge oneself is often necessary and useful, but if that produces distrust, it is evil; the spirit of legalism is there; the heart of God is judged according to what we find in our own – a sad way, if we desire to know Him. {372} [63776]
The law says, Love; it is a righteous demand. But the gospel, Christ Himself, says, "God so loved," from this the new nature, and power to conquer sin, flow. The demand to love does not produce love, and the demand for holiness does not make holy. But also the fact that we have a new nature, does not give liberty – desire for holiness, no doubt, but not strength, nor liberty. Redemption gives us first of all liberty, placing us before God, justified and accepted in the Beloved; the conscience is purified, and we recognize the love that is in God. Then comes up the question of the dominion of sin, and if we are not clear as to redemption, liberty in the soul is lost. {372} [63776]
God says, "Ye are dead" – "crucified with Christ." I accept it, quite convinced that good does not exist in me, and I reckon it of myself that I am dead. Then, after that I bear, more or less faithfully, in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus; but it is a consequence – an important consequence, for our communion depends on it. But it is also important to look constantly to Jesus, and to the love of the Father, because that encourages the soul. There is positive goodness in Him, strength also that He exercises on our behalf, but by looking to Him we are enlightened. {373} [63776]
If a child habitually neglected his father, and did not take the trouble of knowing his mind and will, it is easy to foresee that, when a difficulty presented itself, this child would not be in a position to understand what would please his parent. There are certain things that God leaves in generalities, in order that the state of soul of the individual may be proved. If, instead of the case I have supposed of a child, it were a question of a wife towards her husband, it is probable that, if she had the feelings and mind of a wife, she would not hesitate a moment as to knowing what would be agreeable to him; and this even when he had never expressed his will about the matter. Now you cannot escape this testing: nor will God allow His children to escape it. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." {373} [63777]
As to a convenient and comfortable means of knowing the will of God, as one might have a receipt for anything, no such thing exists – of knowing it, I would say, without reference to the state of our own soul. Another thing – we are often of too much importance in our own eyes; and we deceive ourselves in supposing some will of God in such or such a case. God perhaps has nothing to say to us thereon, the evil being altogether in the stir we give ourselves. The will of God is perhaps that we should quietly take an insignificant place. Further, we sometimes seek God's will, desiring to know how to act in circumstances, where His only will is that we should not be found in them at all; and where, if conscience were really in activity, its first effect would be to make us leave them. Our own will places us there, and we should like nevertheless to enjoy the comfort of being guided of God in a path which we ourselves have chosen. This is a very common case. {374} [63777]
Be assured that, if we are near enough to God, we shall not be at a loss to know His will. In a long and active life it may happen, that God, in His love, does not always at once reveal His will to us, in order to make us feel our dependence, when there is perhaps in the individual a tendency to act according to his own will. Nevertheless, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light"; whence it is certain that, if the whole body is not full of light, the eye is not single. You will say, That is a poor consolation. I answer, It is rich consolation for those whose sole desire is to have the eye single, and to walk with God – not, so to speak, to avoid this trouble in learning His will objectively, but whose desire is to walk with God. {374} [63777]
You cannot exempt yourself from the moral law of Christianity. {375} [63777]
The Lord must be known intimately in order to be able to walk in a way worthy of Him.
{375} [63777]
It is written that "the spiritual man discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no one.” {375} [63777]
It is then the will of God, and a precious will, that we should only be able to discern His will according to our own spiritual state: and, in general, when we think that we are judging circumstances it is God who is judging us, judging our state: our business is to keep close to Him. God would not be good to us, if He permitted us to discover His will without that. {375} [63777]
It might be convenient just to have a director of consciences; and we should thus be spared the discovery and the chastisement of our moral condition. Thus, if you are seeking how you may discover the will of God without that, you are seeking evil; and it is what we see every day. {375} [63777]
One Christian is in doubt, in perplexity; another, more spiritual, sees as clear as the day: he is astonished at the uncertainty of the other; he sees no difficulty, and ends by understanding that it lies, only in the other's state of soul. "He with whom these things are lacking, is blind, and cannot see afar off."
{375} [63777]
As regards circumstances I believe that a person may be guided by them; Scripture has decided that. It is what it speaks of as being “held in with bit and bridle." "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye" – such is the promise and privilege of him who has faith, is near enough to God to understand by a single glance from Him. God who is faithful has given the promise to guide him thus. He warns us not to be as the horse and the mule which have no understanding of the will, thoughts, or desires of their master. They must be held in with bit and bridle. Doubtless even that is better than to stumble, fall, and run counter to Him who holds us in; but it is a sad state – and such it is to be guided by circumstances. Undoubtedly, even then, it is merciful on God's part so to act, but very sad on ours. {376} [63777]
Is the necessity of acting always so extremely pressing? If I do something with the full certainty that I am doing the will of God, then it is clear that an obstacle is no more than a test of my faith, and it ought not to stop me. It stops us perhaps through our lack of faith; because, if we do not walk sufficiently near to God in the sense of our nothingness, we shall always lack faith to accomplish what we have faith enough to discern. {377} [63777]
God may permit, where there is much activity and labor, that Satan should raise up obstacles, in order that we may be kept in dependence on the Lord; but God never allows Satan to act otherwise than on the flesh. If we leave the door open, if we get away from God, Satan does us harm; but otherwise his efforts are only a test for faith, to warn us of some danger or snare, or of something that would tend to exalt us in our own eyes. It is an instrument for our correction. That is, God allows Satan to trouble the mind, and make the flesh suffer outwardly, in order that the inner man may be kept from evil. {378} [63777]
The rule that is given you is excellent, where and when it can be applied; that is, to do what Jesus would have done in such or such a circumstance. But are we often in the circumstances wherein the Lord would have been found? {378} [63777]
It is often useful to ask myself whence comes such a desire of mine, or such a thought of doing this or that. I have found that this alone decides more than half the difficulties that Christians may meet with. Two-thirds of those which remain are the result of our haste, and of our former sins. If a thought comes from God, and not from the flesh, then we have only to address ourselves to God as to the manner and means of executing it, and we shall soon be directed. {379} [63777]
Remember only that the wisdom of God conducts us in the way of God's will: if our own will is in activity, God cannot bend to that. That is the essential thing to discover. It is the secret of the life of Christ. {379} [63777]
"Lo I come to do Thy will, O God.” ... "I delight" to do it. It is the place of a porter to wait at the gate; but, in doing so, he does the will of his master. Be assured that God does more in us than we for Him, and what we do is only for Him just in so far as it is He Himself who works it in us. {380} [63777]
When the will of God is not manifested, our wisdom often consists in waiting until it should be. It is the will of God that, zealous of good works, we should do good always; but we cannot go before the time, and the work of God is done perfectly when it is He who does it. {380} [63777]
I remember saying to dear ___, that our giving up the world, and the world giving us up, were two very different things. It is the latter tries all the elements of self-importance, which lie much deeper rooted than we are aware. There may be some little sacrifice in giving it up, but we have a sufficient motive, but what motive for being despised? it is really our glory, for Christ was, but then He must be all, and that is saying a good deal. {381} [63778]
We should like to go always with a full, favorable wind, but this does not make a good sailor. {384} [63778]
We cannot make a visit right without His hand. {384} [63778]
We are not aware what poor creatures we are, and the wonderful grace which watches over, deals with, and uses such; and we have the treasure in an earthen vessel, "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us " (2 Cor. 4:77But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)). {384} [63778]
Fitness for heaven is not connected with progress in Scripture: "He hath made us meet." It is natural to suppose greater spirituality is more capable of enjoying; but the object is so great after all, it eclipses us, and we must remember Christ is our life, and there, all else is gone. {385} [63779]
Most Christians need to be enlightened as to salvation and their position in Christ. They confound their standing and their state. There are very few among them who understand the first verses of Hebrews 10. For my own part, I teach, but I am always learning. {393} [63784]
The Saviour is indeed coming, and in that day all that has not been of Him will be vanity and nothingness, and even now it is nothing more, but faith alone perceives this. May God give you, dear ___, to live close to Him. {394} [63785]
When one allows oneself to go after folly, after those things which belong to the old creation, the soul has no longer the divine strength which is needed to walk with Him without distraction; but, on the other hand, to walk thus is liberty and peace: it is a good atmosphere. (Phil. 4:88Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)). {394} [63785]
What are we doing, living near God, waiting for His Son from heaven? What else have we to do? What else would we have done when the end comes, when we see His face? {395} [63786]
An exercised soul is a great thing; "herein do I exercise myself" day and night – yet well imbued with love. {395} [63786]
Poor Christendom! What a sovereign mercy to be out of the camp! {397} [63787]
Blessed be His name! He is above all our weaknesses. {397} [63788]
We must be more than content, if the Lord says, "He hath done what he could." We, at least I, cannot say it, though I seek to serve Him. {399} [63790]
The perfectionists say I want people to be more perfect than they do. I said, Certainly I do. {401} [63791]
We have to give our testimony in the midst of acknowledged ruin; the more we feel it, the better. {403} [63792]
Unworldliness, nonconformity to the world, self-denial, abnegation in love to others, is what is called for, for love is the end of the charge committed out of a pure heart. {405} [63793]
It is a narrow path to keep from the evil – unspotted from the world, and yet in the full grace of divine love towards all. {409} [63795]
If God opens the door there is no difficulty with Him. We are poor instruments, but He is able to do anything. {409} [63795]
That we are in wonderful times is evident, but the Lord, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all that is needed for this and all times. {413} [63798]
I read, "Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, to all patience." What do you think of such a result of glorious power? I think a great deal of it. {413} [63798]
May you only have one object: to follow Him wholly! {414} [63799]
The toil makes you see the difficulties, though He makes us look to Him in and through them: in rest you feel the sure power of His grace, without much else, but toil and rest are all with Him. In looking back I feel His grace to me has been wonderful, grace towards a poor unworthy creature – that I feel deeply – but wondrous with it. More and more, as one goes on, He is all to the soul, and beyond all our thoughts; yet we know the love that passeth knowledge. {415} [63800]
It is not His mind, I believe, to take out of weakness. In the state of the church it becomes us to take part in her sorrows. {416} [63801]
True separateness to the Lord in the truth is what will give the testimony now, in home, life, spirit, and walk in every way. And what is there that remains but doing His will while waiting for Him? {420} [63803]
The truth is uncomfortable for the sinful soul, and the enemy acquires power over the soul if it be unfaithful. {421} [63804]
It is wonderfully sweet to feel that we near home: long, often difficult and painful work (although it is a wonderful privilege to do it), and then, eternal rest with the Lord. Soon the glory: the grace of God, the Word of God ever more precious, the Lord Himself – all soon, not for faith, but for sight. {421} [63804]
Christ who is all – this must be all. {424} [63805]
Day by day we have to follow His will, and Christ is the same and all everywhere; and we have to work while it is day, and then be with Him in the fullness of God's rest, when He comes – when He shall be satisfied, seeing the fruit of the travail of His soul. {427} [63807]
This presence of the Holy Ghost down here, as truly sent from above as the Son was (though in a different manner, and consequent on the accomplishment and establishment before God of divine righteousness by Jesus Christ), is the key and center of all that belongs to the Christian state. Righteousness has been established before God in heaven, and perfect love shown to the sinner on earth. Christ has made good both perfect love on God's part towards man in his sins (for God so loved that He spared not His Son), and perfect righteousness for faith before God (for Christ is our righteousness before God). Of this the Holy Ghost is witness in the gospel (being sent down because Jesus is on high) in the whole creation under heaven. {428} [63808]
I believe it is of the last importance that the church should have a right hope. That hope is, the coming of the Lord to take the saints, already called, into glory with Himself, the church taking her place as the bride, the Lamb's wife. Consequent upon this He will set aside the power of evil and establish the kingdom in power, blessing and glory. The nominal church, not members of Christ, will be spued out of His mouth: Babylon judged, as well as all power of evil set aside: full communion and glory for the church with Christ, and the judgment and then blessing of the world as that which we ought to look for. {430} [63808]
As to life: that eternal life which was with the Father has been manifested to us in Christ, and He is become our life. His precepts, walk and words, in which it was expressed in Him, become the rule and direction of that life in us. This is the rule, the Spirit is the power. God has given to us eternal life, and that life is in the Son; and "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Hence, through the Spirit, since it is in the Son, we have fellowship with the Son, and therefore with the Father. Inasmuch as this life is in Christ in the power of resurrection, we shall never fully have our place and glory till we are risen, though to depart and be with Him be far better. {430} [63808]
What a noble figure that of Paul, even when he was unable to do the Lord's work; what dignity, and how he rises morally above the greatness of this world! We shall see him in heaven, but what is still better for him and for us, we shall see the Saviour who has so loved us. What joy ineffable, that of seeing Him face to face – yes, the One who has so loved us! It will be true joy to me to see all the saints perfect, according to the Lord's heart, when He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. But amid all, He alone will be the object who will fill the heart; we shall be eternally satisfied, being with Him, and filled with His presence, and the fruit of His love in the Father's house. Grace be with you. {432} [63809]
The more we study the history of the beginning of Christianity, the better we understand where the conflict is at all times. {433} [63810]
I feel, though desiring assuredly to see the saints happy, and the prosperity of His chosen, my heart looks more to His coming and to see Himself. That will be joy, and He will tell us what He thinks of us, and I am not afraid of that, for I am sure it will be true, and infinitely full of grace. Of good in myself I have no idea; of evil I know, alas! much: but I know what He is to me, and yet it passes knowledge. Yet that is a step further on; it is knowing His love in itself, apart from all judgment or grace in view of service, though a word of approbation would be untold delight, but that between Himself and oneself: but His love I am sure is a source of infinite delight. {435} [63812]
My heart longs that the Lord may be glorified in the walk of His own; that they may glorify Him, not only by avoiding evil, but by maintaining close communion with Him, and, separated from the world in all their ways, may be to Him for a testimony, and for a testimony that their hearts are elsewhere because their treasure is. {436} [63813]
The Lord, dear ___, be with you and yours, and multiply His blessings. May He keep you near Himself in lowliness and joy of communion! It is not our rest – there remains one for God's people – but what a reason! "it is polluted": we belong to what is of God and is holy. {437} [63814]
I see many bad elements at work: may the Lord keep us feeling that the Head can never fail. {440} [63817]
No one ever knew what it was to be alone as the blessed Lord did. {441} [63818]
We fancy often that the apostles soared above human feelings: it was not so. Where the apostle [Paul] was most largely blessed, he was among them "in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." {441} [63818]
If we know ourselves, we understand our nothingness, and know that God does everything, and that we have nothing which we have not received. {442} [63819]
I am, more than ever, wholly His; I do not say this in the sense of true purpose of heart, but I mean that He has entire right over me, and that He is all. All else is but vanity; everything else is passing too, everything else changes. My heart is content to serve Him, as a poor redeemed one who owes himself to Him, as long as He can use me; content that He should be fully glorified, and He will be. {442} [63819]
If the head thinks, it is always skeptical, can be nothing else, because it is altogether unable to comprehend God. He would not be God if human understanding could measure Him. God sets the conscience in activity in its true position through faith alone: we are subject, and acknowledge God in His transcendence. {444} [63821]
The enemy often enters by the back door, because we are occupied at the front door. There is One, His name be praised! who is ever watchful; my confidence is in Him, He nourishes and cares for His assembly, as a man his own flesh. What consolation! I can say, weak as I am, He is ever more everything to my soul. What else should He be? {445} [63821]
Working is all right when it is with Christ, and serious, when a person is led of the Spirit of God to it, but setting to work is another thing. The whole tone of Christianity suffers by it. {447} [63822]
Devotedness and unworldliness, I believe to be of the last moment, and that especially in these days. But Martha's running to Jesus was not what Mary's state was, who waited till she was called. {447} [63822]
I am sure Christ only and His service are worth anything. All else passes away, to say the least – well, if we are not hindered by it here. {449} [63823]
Nor shall we be weary of the way when we see the Master's face; nor now, if our eye is fixed on Him – sad we may be, but not weary. But there is a sad want of looking after souls – the first confiding commission of Christ – what was on His heart, "Feed my sheep." {449} [63823]
It is worth while to be cast down when there is a God "who comforteth those that are cast down." What grace, when one thinks that the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity stoops to think – and that with infinite tenderness – of all our trials and of all our infirmities; and that even His Spirit, who dwells in us in the midst of these infirmities, intercedes in us when we know not what we ought to ask! Besides, He makes all things work together for good to those who love Him. If rest were down here, it would be another thing; but it is not so. We are on a pilgrimage, and God makes us feel it in our circumstances. He detaches us from what is dearest down here; He weans us, and thus, without being aware of it, we ripen for heaven. {449} [63824]
Only keep close to Him, consult Him; spread out before Him your difficulties and your requests; above all, dwell with Him in your soul, feeding on the Bread of life. This sustains us, fills our hearts and affections, and we go on satisfied. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps the heart. {450} [63824]
If the heart of man loves confidence, much more does the heart of the Lord, for He is goodness itself. {452} [63826]
God is sufficient for everything, and when sin brought in death, trial, and mourning, the Conqueror of death and of the enemy afterward entered, became man to participate in all and to give us a hope, which has made a gain of death itself – a perfectly certain hope, a love from which nothing can separate us. {453} [63826]
Sorrow is a good thing, and makes God a more abundant source of joy. {455} [63828]
I think I may say I never knew anything but sorrow as my portion, though with ceaseless mercies, but rejoice in it all, though I see, and rejoice in seeing, weakness and infirmity in myself all through, and what I now judge as fault. Take heart and be patient – "Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." {456} [63828]
While conscious of all around us, we have to go like a horse with blinkers, looking straight forward, undistracted, an afflicted and poor people that call upon the name of the Lord. He remains the same, and the Word remains the same. {459} [63830]
We cannot realize the blessings which belong to us if we do not comprehend all the saints in our Christian affections. (Eph. 3:1818May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (Ephesians 3:18)). Not to walk with them in a path that is not according to the Word is not saying that one does not love them, but just the contrary. {460} [63831]
How all will appear vanity then that is not Himself and His glory! We ought to realize this more now. {466} [63837]
Truth and truthfulness is always itself, and ceases to be itself when it is not that; though it should be in no haughty spirit, but in lowliness and obedience. {466} [63837]
It must be in combat we get on. It was so with the blessed Lord Himself, perfect in all His ways, so that He gave assuredly no occasion, as we sometimes may, to the enemy – none; yet they would easily find occasions of reproach. {467} [63838]
The coming of the Lord is evidently spreading, and taking effect in souls. Infidelity meanwhile raises its head. ... But we wait for the rest that remains. I am content to labor, most thankful to be permitted to do so, but my heart longs for it too. {468} [63838]
We must follow holiness and truth, with energy and constancy; for everything and all will be tested. Many indeed celebrated ones vanish in the fight, and some thought not of are found to love the Lord. {471} [63841]
He plows up the heart, but only to sow good seed. {471} [63841]
So goes this world, but life and death are only parts of the same passage, and life far the hardest of the two; for to die is to go to Him; to live, to be present in the body, but absent from Him. Still it is a privilege to represent Him in this world; but who is sufficient for it? for, if we walk tolerably, still if the heart is not full of Christ, what issues from it is not properly from Him; there is not the spiritual intelligence of what suits – "Worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." {471} [63842]
It is of all importance to keep a large heart, with the deep conviction that a close following of Christ ourselves can alone maintain a clear testimony, alone is faithfulness. {472} [63842]
The personal faith which feeds on Him alone keeps the soul, and keeps it in true progress. {472} [63842]
Do not be afraid of full grace. Be well sure that does not mar holiness: whatever deadens the conscience does, but this does not. Would a child's sense of a mother's love weaken its desire to please her? And as to power which we need, in grace alone it is found; then press consistency with our calling as much as you please, you cannot do better. Fellowship in the heart with Christ keeps the sense of our standing in Christ steady, and is the saving power of the heart practically in our walk. May He – oh, may He keep us near Himself! {472} [63842]
We cannot live on yesterday's manna. {472} [63842]
Infidelity is rampant here, and the question is daily becoming more and more, Christianity or anti-Christianity; and so as to the Word of God. But we have only to work on. "Let thine eyes look right on," it is written. {473} [63843]
Holiness is closely connected with the glory He is in, and that we shall be with Him in when He comes. {473} [63843]
Whether men carry out successfully is a grave question for their consciences, but has nothing to do with what is right. {475} [63845]
What use is full doctrine, blessed as it is, if the saints walk [as if] full truth and worldliness can go together? It is worse than nothing. {476} [63846]
We must wait on Him; He only has power, and He works in grace. Prayer and supplication to Him will surely be answered. Constant dependence in the sense of our own nothingness, and in us no good thing, and Christ all, and the utmost simplicity of truth fed by the Word, and that in our ministry, and we shall be happy with Him and serve Him. {477} [63846]
It is a great thing to follow God in His work. {478} [63847]
Oh, what a difference! to dwell with God and to be treating about the thoughts and cavils of men who do not know Him, and seek to get rid of Him. It is terrible; but only makes one feel the grace that has made us know Him by, and only by, the blessed revelation of Himself. Not a trace of anything – not an atom of the beauty of grace or a moral thought! And His Word shines out in itself, as superior in its nature in it all, as the sun and all the beauties it displays to pitch darkness and a trackless marsh. {479} [63848]
The desert is no part of God's purpose: it is of His ways. His purpose was redemption and glory in Christ, the second Man. But in the desert the old man and new are contrasted, are defined, and we learn God and learn ourselves. {480} [63848]
It is a great thing to trust His love, and to walk with His secret in our hearts. {489} [63855]
Soon, dear ___, Christ will be all fully. May He be all to us in the time of faith! {493} [63858]
The nearness of the Lord's coming is of all importance, and the enemy naturally seeks to turn souls aside from it; but that will only draw the attention of those who are taught of God to it. The present expectation of the Lord is connected with all the feelings, all the duties, and all the relationships of the Christian. {497} [63862]
Paul says, "I count all things but dung that I may win Christ"; and, alas! he had to say to the Philippians, "all seek their own." He can awaken us to live more to Him: may He give this to us! {503} [63866]
It is a blessed thing to serve Christ in the present course of service, though we have laid up all our happiness with Him for that day. {503} [63866]
I think we have to remember that our part is to go in the strait and narrow path, to follow the Word, and let all move on around us under God's hand. {503} [63867]
It is not always in the correction of the failures which come before us that sources of unhappiness are healed; they disappear when souls are nourished upon the riches which are in Christ. We must think of this; we must, while ourselves feeding upon Christ – and He gives us to feed on Him without stint – cause others to breathe a new atmosphere, where Christ is, and, if souls are exercised before God there, they are transformed into His likeness, so that their affections flow out even as His flowed out in this world. It is a great thing to say, and undoubtedly we find ourselves far from our Model, but in proportion as we realize Christ in our hearts we reflect Him without being aware of it. The "I" disappears as a motive principle, and the life of Christ is manifested. Real exercise of soul is necessary to produce this result: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," says the apostle. "Death works in us." There are however these three things. "Ye are dead" (Col. 3); this is the judgment of God. "Reckon yourselves to be dead"; this is what faith does, in answer: it is liberty through the grace of the Holy Spirit. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus"; this is the practical carrying out of it. If we had not the two first, the third would make the monk; with the two first it makes the saint, where Christ is all. {505} [63868]
Let Christ be fully before us, and every right feeling will be engendered in our heart. We may be grieved for Him, but our hearts will walk as His did through the world. {507} [63869]
May He keep us both simple, humble, and devoted, Christ our all. {508} [63869]
The first effect of His working is to distress and trouble us, because we cannot say that all is ours, and then look to our state and our fruit and our feelings, to know if we are His; that is, we look to the work of the Spirit in us, and so to the imperfect fruits in us, of His working, which cannot give us rest, and ought not. Jesus does not say, Find out your state, and you shall have rest, but, "Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden," as you are, "and I will give you rest." Our rest comes not from our being what He wants, but His being what we want. He has made peace by the blood of the cross. That is all settled for those who believe in Him. {508} [63870]
My old song is – the feet in the narrow path and the heart large; because it makes the eye single, and banishes self. {510} [63871]
There is no telling what folly man's mind will run to; still, soundness in faith, fundamental truth, will keep the soul from these human wanderings. {514} [63874]
All is laid up for us there – I suppose to be more fully enjoyed, but the same joy – and that is satisfying: let us work in hope. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, yet all is still to come: we have it now in an earthen vessel. For some time past the weather has been so bad, that the swallows have left in despair – gone in a body, not one left! But higher up it is always fine, and there our hearts have to live. {524} [63879]
The last days are rapidly coming on, or rather developing themselves. Open, impudent infidelity is now the order of the day, and the dark desert of popery: but, on the other hand, the Lord is evidently working. {525} [63880]
There is this true and deep consolation for you and me and for all who are His, that, be as it may, He will be perfectly glorified in us in all according to the counsels of God. For me, I know it well, it will be His grace that will be glorified, and I shall be satisfied with it. ... God knows by what road He is leading His own; one thing is certain, it is that Jesus will rejoice in the travail of His soul, and will be fully satisfied with it; and He will not be satisfied, His love will not, without seeing His own in the most perfect blessedness near Him. If His love is satisfied, we may well be. We shall enter into the rest of God, where His love, His fixed purpose, His character, will be fully glorified in all that surrounds Him, and "He shall rest in his love," as He works now according to that love. For the rest, I believe that we shall rejoice more in the fact, that Christ is fully glorified, than in our own glory. {526} [63881]
God would have us not only say, "We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ," but add, "I am manifested to God." Be much before Him. {529} [63883]
Until we are delivered, sin has dominion over us; when we are, Christ is our strength. Constant dependence and watchfulness are necessary; we must watch and pray lest we enter into temptation; but then, instead of sin having dominion over us, the strength of the Lord is there. {530} [63883]
May God keep you close to Himself! Do not shrink from it, if He probes your heart; He does it to do you good at the end. It is His infinite grace when, in spite of everything, He continues to occupy Himself constantly about us. {530} [63883]
That is the world of God's purpose, this, of experience and exercise. {531} [63884]
I am sure whoever undoes what is wrong will find the blessing of it. {531} [63885]
How good to be nothing before God! In the first place it is true, and then God is all, and what a God we have! Remember that in the path of His will there is deliverance and communion with Him. {532} [63886]
Our minds, though in many things the expression of the inner man, yet after all are only the shell, not the kernel, and pass with this poor body as such; and Christ is all in the simplicity of eternal blessing. {534} [63888]
We cannot hasten God; He, when He is working, will have things real. {544} [63896]
The great point is to be nearer Him in heart than even the work, and then we do the work from Him, and in some measure as He would. {549} [63900]
Diligence in your business is all right, but do not let it get between your soul and God. If you are not as bright with Him, and more and more so, search out why, and look to Him, for He giveth more grace. {551} [63901]
Were we alone in the world, His grace would be sufficient, and blessed be His name, perpetual company. {554} [63902]
The Lord be with you and all His beloved people. I often think what joy to see them all exactly what Christ would have them, so that He too should be satisfied! {555} [63902]
"Rejoice in the Lord always" and "Be careful for nothing." What sweeping words, leaving us without excuse for not being happy! For "nothing" takes in everything, and "always" leaves no time out, only it must be "in the Lord," Christ suffices for all, "to be full and to be hungry." And it is not to blame for care, but to make "our requests" known, and God's peace (for He is not shaken by or uncertain as to what comes) will keep our hearts. {555} [63903]
A little leisure enables us often to see all things quietly with Christ's eye. {558} [63905]
I had rather have Christ's care than my own wishes a thousand times, though of course we may be tried by it. {558} [63905]
It is a great thing to trust God and look to Him; it carries you through everything. {559} [63906]
It is a sad world! It makes heaven sweeter because there is not, and cannot be, any evil in that which will be around one. But Christ, as manifested here, was good in the midst of evil: that we shall have only in memory in heaven; only He who is it, the Manna of the desert, will be kept up for Canaan's knowledge and joy. He is it now in spirit. Faithfulness is known where faithfulness is needed. It is in darkness down here that light rises up for the righteous. What so dark as Christ's death? Yet all depends on it even for Him as Man. I see frequently in the New Testament it is when He sees the power of evil, and bows, that all the prospects of His glory open upon Him. {586} [63922]
When man entered into the glory of God consequent on accomplished redemption, the Holy Ghost came down, till He comes to take us up. This connects the hope and the power of life and heavenly calling with accomplished redemption: Christ, Man at the right hand of God, is the central point. {587} [63923]
We have to seek, amidst all that is passing around us, to minister positive truth and blessing, Christ and what is eternal; and for that we must live of Him, and with Him too, and not much mind what passes around us, save as God brings it before our eyes. It is Christ – the positive good – the world wants, and saints too. {587} [63923]
I have unclouded confidence in His faithfulness to the end. {588} [63923]
Walk in patience, doing only what God gives you to do. {589} [63924]
Man must lose his nature before being disposed to obey the law: it is therefore necessary to be born again. {591} [63925]
It is said that faith is but the hand that receives salvation, but what disposes us to offer the hand? It is the grace that works in us. {592} [63925]
Christ was what He said, and what He said was what He was. Men will be judged by His words. {595} [63928]
The righteousness of God is simply God's righteousness, a quality or attribute of His. We are made the righteousness of God in Him, because Christ would not see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, if He had us not thus with Him. But the display of God's righteousness is in His going to the Father, with the judicial part, that the world having rejected Him will see Him no more – that is, come as Saviour. {595} [63928]
Where I see the soul delivered is when, having adequately learned, for it is experimental, that it has no strength at all, and there is no good in it, it is wholly off the ground of its Adam responsibility before God, and any responsibility connected with its acceptance, and has passed by personal, divine teaching, wholly off that ground, while fully recognizing that responsibility, but finding itself lost on that ground, and passes by redemption into a wholly new place, that of the Second Man, now risen from the dead, and that livingly, with the Holy Ghost to give it its power. This is the basis, for He is now glorified also. This involves our being dead with Him, but it is not in its highest form connected with that or resurrection with that blessed One. {595} [63928]
Though all Christ said was Himself, yet His life was the faithful and true witness. {596} [63928]
END OF VOL. II.
VOLUME III.
Scripture, and the infinite preciousness of Christ, opens to me more and more: His preciousness is infinite, and yet how near; what comfort in passing through the wilderness! "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." We must seek to realize these things: how little we believe they are real facts! {1} [63929]
I think I see that Christ is presented in glory as one who leads us on in energy, conforming us to what He is according to the glory; and that when the question is of nourishing the inward life, and the affections and character, it is the humbled Christ on whom we have to feed. {3} [63930]
One's own soul suffers by being constantly occupied with evil. It is not the place of communion. {6} [63932]
There is a kind of violence which grace is entirely above. It ought to be above all. God's ways are His own and wonderful. {6} [63932]
Be assured that God knows how to manage His own affairs. He has shown it. {6} [63932]
My place of refuge and of news is with the Lord, and it is a blessed place. {7} [63933]
On His faithful love we can always reckon – oh how surely! {7} [63934]
Everything seems to show we are closing in to the end; at any rate, our part is to be ever waiting for Him, who has loved us, and will make us like Himself. It is God's own rest we are called to enter into: what likeness to His thoughts and delights we must have to do so, and how blessed that is! but this is our portion. {8} [63934]
I feel daily more that heaven is our place; all our living associations are there, and Christ is all there; the rest is to go through, through grace drawn from Him: "of his fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace." {8} [63935]
Occupy yourselves with Christ that you may be refreshed and strengthened. It is a great thing to pass through sorrows with Him; they are then turned to a well, and grace comes down too. Pray for the saints – all of them – carry the sorrows to Christ, and in your own spirit bring Christ to the sorrows. {10} [63936]
Often, even in seeking to do good, we do not sufficiently expect God to act, who alone is able to do good. {11} [63937]
If we wait on God, erroneous doctrines become inlets to clearer truth. {16} [63940]
His way is "in the sanctuary" if His way is "in the sea," and if we are with Him there, the sea bows to His power; but to none else that I know of. {29} [63946]
What a joy, besides Christ, to see all the saints exactly what His heart would have them; what an immense joy – all to His glory, the eternal witness to the efficacy of His work! {33} [63947]
How His ways are shown out in Hosea 14; and how He lets them know where alone they will grow, namely, in His presence! They will confess their sin and their weakness: He says, "I will be as the dew in Israel," then "he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon; his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." May we be among the wise to understand these things, and know them! {35} [64339]
Where activity is distinctly wanting is in bringing up Christ to souls, and devotedness to Him, unworldliness, a life where we do one thing, a home, dress, manners, which say Christ is all. There is danger of being too much occupied with evil. It does not refresh, does not help the soul on. "Abstain from every form of evil," but be occupied ourselves, and occupy others with Christ. {38} [63948]
God is a jealous and a holy God – blessed be His name, a God of infinite grace. {38} [63948]
Even if the Messiah and Son of God (Ps. 2) was rejected, it was only to bring out the Son of Man in the glory of the Father. God is never baffled. {48} [63955]
How precise God's government is! We have only to lean on Him, and all is right. {48} [63955]
Seek the good, leave the evil to God, only keeping a good conscience. He says, "Be still, and know that I am God." I waited," says Christ in Spirit, "patiently for the Lord." And then there will be a new song in our mouths, and blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. {52} [63959]
He who is lowest and lowliest will be most blessed. {53} [63960]
Satan's efforts and power He can easily break, humbling us in the meantime; but His judgment who shall withstand? I ask myself, I ask you, how far can we say, "To me to live is Christ"? {55} [63960]
Patience with any human effort to maintain evil will prove its nothingness more than a restless feeling: it gives weight and gravity to the testimony, and it enlists God with us. {57} [63961]
We must look to God that He may work. I feel increasingly, what we all know, that the work for God is the work of God. {58} [63962]
I am greatly enjoying the Word: its fullness and perfection are more than ever wonderful to me; but all that we learn in the Word is bound up in Christ, and we receive it from Him, from this fullness. {58} [63962]
May the Lord graciously raise up laborers in His harvest! My heart is only there when not with Christ in heaven – there where, through grace, it will ever be. I find all that is not seen evermore, and alone, real – my affections sometimes dull, but the purpose of my heart ever there: I cannot conceive having the heart anywhere else. {60} [63964]
One cannot do an instant without Him, and oh how blessed it is to trust Him! I feel all our work ought to be directly the immediate expression of God's mind, and it is a very solemn thing to work (and wait) directly from Him. What a thing to say in this world! {61} [63964]
The line between narrowness and fidelity is a very narrow one. But the Spirit of Christ can guide and keep us on it. The unity of the body cannot be touched, for the Holy Ghost unites to Christ: all those who have been baptized by the Holy Ghost (that is, received Him) are members of the body. It is "the unity of the Spirit" we have to keep; that is, to walk in that power of the Spirit which keeps us in unity on the earth, and that needs endeavoring. {63} [63965]
All our thoughts are poor things, but not the Object of them. {64} [63966]
Eternal life in full is conformity to Christ in glory, according to the purpose of God. As life we receive it now: they did even when He was here, though, till the Holy Ghost came, they little knew what they had received. That He did quicken them, see John 5:25: but when the Holy Ghost came, Christ in glory – the pattern of this life in glory – was revealed, and attached itself, so to speak, to the life which existed in the saints, and thus became the hope and formative power of the life of Christ in the saints here, and so their spring of joy. {64} [63967]
If we trust God, we shall see God's end of things. And, blessed be His name! all is just as He would have them; and we are but on a journey. Still God ought to be glorified here. {65} [63967]
The Word of God is always new, and His love always more precious. I continually find something new in the Word which nourishes the soul and reveals to it the love of God, and His ways. {66} [63968]
It is by the Word that we live in this passing world, and it clearly reveals to us the things that are not passing, the heavenly things. {66} [63968]
We must follow God, and not run before Him; and how great was the Lord's patience! {67} [63968]
In waiting on the Lord there is a strength that nothing can resist, and a hand that can move everything, and a wisdom that can guide it, and – shall we not say? – alone that does – I must. {67} [63971]
I have been interested lately in the thought, how the heavenly divine holiness of glory is the only one – the same now. One has only to draw the veil, and it is there in perfectness, here under a veil. See 1 Thessalonians 3:12,1312And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: 13To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:12‑13); as many others. This sets us practically, wonderfully in heaven though, in a poor earthen vessel. {68} [63971]
He guides everything, just as I, sitting in a carriage, might guide it; and orders everything according to the counsel of His will. It is well to journey thus, and the Lord is faithful in making everything contribute to the blessing of those who love Him. {70} [63972]
I have been much enjoying the thought that the whole life, holiness, condition of soul down here, is but the making good of what we possess up there. {70} [63972]
Love to all the saints is a necessary ingredient in the heart's going up to God. {76} [63978]
Keeping aloof, looking to God, one is above the heaving and breakers, and walking on a rough sea is the same as walking on a smooth one. {77} [63979]
I am not, dear ___, a pessimist, because I may say, since my conversion, I never had a thought of any good in man or myself, while fully admitting amiable and nice natural characters, as I think the Lord did. But He did not trust it; He knew that all true good was beyond and behind. {78} [63980]
We do not know how deep and wide divine thoughts in connection with man go; but we know the Father has given us to Christ, and we shall be like Him, and brought, identified with Him, into the Father's house. Those whom the Father has given Him, at all cost He will bring back to Him, according to His own heart and purpose. It is a bright and blessed prospect. {78} [63980]
The Lord is faithful, and full of tender compassion; of whom should we be afraid, except of ourselves? There we have reason. Trust in the Lord, and be doing good. Our time is a time to sow, but, if faithful, the sheaves will come in due time. It is by faith and patience we shall inherit: God means it to be so. {79} [63981]
Now I would deprecate levity in so solemn a thing as the consciousness of our relationship to the Father. I had rather see a man deeply exercised in Romans 7 than taking up the doctrine of assurance with levity. {86} [63987]
I see in the Scripture the Christian looked at as not only in Christ, where there is no "if," but as running the race to attain actually the glory, as actual men in this world, and here I find "if," and working out our salvation with fear and trembling, and the responsibility of the saint comes in, but with a sure promise of being kept. And this is the difference in the character of the assurance; one is in an actually accomplished redemption, with the knowledge (John 14) that we are in Christ: the other, glory, is not an accomplished thing, as is evident; it is certain through the promise of God. See Romans 8, "Whom He justified, them He also glorified": the whole chain is there from beginning to end, and depends on His faithfulness in keeping us. And this distinction is morally very important, because it maintains constant dependence, but dependence on a faithfulness that cannot fail, which is most important for practical spiritual life. As regards my path, I am kept, and if so need it, but do not doubt God's faithfulness in doing it. I cannot speak of danger as to redemption, it is accomplished, but for my wilderness journey there is; but there is a keeping which exercises my dependence and faith. (See 1 Peter 1:4,54To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:4‑5)). See, too, 1 Corinthians 1:8,98Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8‑9) – where he then goes on to blame them for everything – and the far happier testimony in John 10. {86} [63987]
I do not believe that hurry in acting is the way of God. {91} [63990]
I rejoiced greatly that you were getting on with positive blessing; but we have to watch, for the enemy always does, and if we are not looking actively to the Lord we lose our safeguard, and when distracted from Him he gets in, and often unconsciously: duties, occupation of heart with them, loss of spirituality, and the sense of the preciousness of Christ, worldliness, and then all the feebleness of walk which flows from the heart not realizing Christ as motive and power, the light of His presence, and the soul in the light before Him. {92} [63992]
What I fear everywhere is the world – often unsuspected. We have need of positive diligence in seeking His face, so as to prove He is with us. "The secret of the Lord is with those that fear them." Our salvation is accomplished and settled, but the government of God which goes on according to His nature and holiness and wisdom, is a most important thing. He is faithful and full of love; but oh, what a difference to walk in the light of His countenance, to be in His secret! {93} [63992]
___ I trust will learn that Christ is worth a lot of lumber, and gold too, and what is a great thing, worth it forever, and worth it now too. {93} [63992]
It is a great joy to me, that we shall be eternal witnesses of the efficacy of His work for the whole host of heaven, and even for the Father – the fruit "of the travail of his soul" and not one (oh how glad will it be!) who will not be exactly what His heart would desire, and so presented to God – a bright and blessed time. {94} [63993]
Anything that touches the glory of the Lord, and our heart-estimate of Him, is of the last moment, and must be near the heart of him who loves Him. {97} [63996]
I know well how few know deliverance; but it is a great thing to know that I, a poor worm, should be before God and the Father in the same acceptance and favor that Christ is, loved even as He is loved. But it is the greatness of infinite love. {108} [64003]
Who is willing to be dead to what nature and flesh would desire? Yet that is the only way of deliverance. {108} [64003]
Knowing we are nothing is the place of blessing, for then God is everything; and the place of strength, for then Christ can put forth His strength. {108} [64003]
Strength for service may be found, in what is with in alone between us and God, may be found, in the third heavens; but strength in it is found in Christ, when we are kept in the abiding consciousness that we can do nothing. We all know it. If we have not a permanent thorn in the flesh, we must at any rate return to the camp at Gilgal. {108} [64003]
There are three things I find in the often trying and toilsome life of faith: first, trusting God that nothing can hinder His accomplishing His purpose. All that his brethren did to frustrate the accomplishment of Joseph's dreams, just led to that accomplishment. They sent him to Egypt. The hard and wicked accusation against him in Potiphar's house put him in prison, where he met the butler and baker, who brought him where the dream was fulfilled. Next, for us, simple obedience, taking God's mind for wisdom, and doing His will. He has a path for His saints in this world, in it they find Him and His strength, though perhaps the life of faith be dark: then, if we know the purpose of God, light is in the soul. But the path He will guide us in. It may seem dark, but, if His, it is the way of arriving at His rest. But a single eye, seeking nothing but Christ, is the secret of certainty of walk, and firmness as having the secret of the Lord with you. But what a calling! we have to walk worthy of God who has called us to His own kingdom, and yet what a joy to be thus associated with Himself! And we know His purpose is to glorify Christ, and so we seek that, in walking worthy of Him and serving Him in love. {111} [64005]
Did you ever notice Luke 12 The two things looked for in us? First, watching; its reward, making us sit down to table in heaven, and ministering the blessing to us; and then serving in what He sets us to do, and the reward of that, ruling. But the first is wonderful, that He remains forever our servant in love. How blessed to have Him, and be His! {112} [64005]
There is progress in the Song of Songs. First, He is ours; next, we are His; and then, I am my Beloved's, and His desire is towards me. That is wonderful to say! The riches of Scripture, both for knowledge and for affections, is beyond our thoughts – no wonder, as it comes from God; but it is all ours. But the perfectness of our place is wonderful; and I do not mean now as to glory, true as that is, but morally. He is given to be the Object of our affections who is sufficient for the Father's; and to have Him in His path down here even is the food of the soul. Energy comes from seeing Him up there (Phil. 3), likeness to Him from feeding on Him down here. (Phil. 2). {112} [64005]
I have a horror of all notions, they are not Christ and His unsearchable riches, and if the soul is full of Him, notions do not rise or suggest themselves. {115} [64009]
As has been said of old, we are to bring ideas from Scripture, not to it. {116} [64009]
These notions are the product of men's minds, and not what flows from the fullness of Christ, and that is the evil, and if we harbor them, it tends to shut Him out. But we have to bear with idle notions, and not strive. The best thing is to bring in Christ, and they fall or collapse by their own emptiness. {116} [64009]
Spiritual life wants cultivating; it is this we must look to, that there may be a true testimony.
{117} [64012]
It is never said of the church, but of Christ, He is all. "Christ is all, and in all" – "all" as object, "in all" as power of life to enjoy Him, and know the Father. {117} [64012]
It is a great comfort to think He is always right, and always does right. {118} [64012]
May He keep us near Himself, and that Christ may be all, so that our life may be the production of Christ, and nothing else. His coming will indeed be joy. Our full happiness is laid up in treasure there. We wait for it till He comes. Till then it is the word of His patience and serving Him. {124} [64015]
While Scripture puts us into the glory with Christ and like Christ, it carefully guards the personal glory and title of Christ. {130} [64017]
The heavens were as open to Stephen (through Christ's death) as to Christ when He came up from Jordan; but Stephen looks at Him as an object, as Son of Man, and is changed morally into His likeness: heaven looks down on Christ, and, instead of conforming Him to anything, the Spirit seals Him as He is, and the Father owns Him as He is. It is down here He says, "The Son of Man who is in heaven." {130} [64017]
Hasty conclusions are not always wise. Firmness against false doctrine is always right. {132} [64017]
I wonder sometimes how in sovereign grace God has revealed Him to me. I feel nearer, more at home in the Father's love, yet conscious of unworthiness, but more in the sense that all is pure grace. That there was no good in me, I learned, in one sense thoroughly, that is as a fact, some eight and fifty years ago, and I have, I hope, a deeper, clearer sense of it now, not seeing it, of course, as God does – for who does? – but at least with Him; but thus more in the sense of present, sovereign goodness in Him. And that is blessed, for that is what will be forever, when no sin will remain and where sin can never enter; but that love is a sanctuary in which we walk while passing through a world of snares, "the provoking of all men. ... from the strife of tongues," and the more the crossing and entanglement of what is without, the sweeter the rest of His presence; and soon there will be nothing else, and even here He makes all things work together for good to them that love Him: but the rest is better, but the other leads to it even here. {133} [64018]
Christ has a priesthood which calls us above (Heb. 7:2626For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (Hebrews 7:26)). Such an one "became us," because we belong there; but a priesthood which can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because we are down here. He enters into all these as knowing them, and so lays hold on our hearts, but to lead them up to higher and holier associations where God dwells. How gracious! There as an object we see Christ glorified, and are led on, for we are to be like Him and with Him. This gives energy to spiritual life. We look back to Him in humiliation, and this engages our affections and forms our heart and Christian character – gives us delight in His perfection – "let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Thus feeding on Christ, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we abide in Him and He in us. The heart finds its food, its strength, its everything in Him, and our responsibility and the desire of our heart – so that it is the law of liberty – is to please Him, and walk as He walked, worthy of the Lord. What a calling! As He is so are we before God; as He walked so would we walk. Would that we could! In one sense we can, for His grace is sufficient for us; but we soon find, in looking at Him, how far we are behind. Cleave to Him. (John 14:19,2019Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:19‑20)). {134} [64019]
What I still dread is worldliness; it weakens the spring of all. For what is there but Christ? He reveals the Father; He is eternal joy, and present life too. We do not enough feel that what is not seen is revealed to us. See 1 Corinthians 2. How could we look upon it if it were not, or how set our affections on things above? Perhaps as one draws nearer we see clearer, or are more occupied with it, but it seems to me all. People go on around me with their occupations, and I suppose must, and I know ought in one sense; but it seems to me another world which ends in nothing. At any rate, the fashion of it passes away – Christ, and His Word, and they who do God's will, never. All that is eternal; only we have to seek His guidance to serve Him, with His wisdom and according to His will. {136} [64020]
Christ is everything. May you be given to keep Him constantly before your eyes. Our strength is to know our own nothingness, and have Him as everything. He never fails, cannot fail, and, if we walk in His path and words, manifests Himself to us, so that we should have joy in our souls and strength in our service. {137} [64021]
We often make use of the Saviour in His grace, so suited to our need, and that flows so freely towards us – who thinks of us, of all our difficulties, of all our weaknesses – and we are quite right, for He makes us pass in peace and safety through a world of sorrow and dangers; but it is another thing to have the heart lifted up above the world, whilst passing through it, and attached to Him in heaven in such a way that that which fills the heart now is also the Object of our hope. {138} [64022]
Moses did not seek to have his face shine, nor even know when it did, but when he had been with God it did so. {146} [64026]
Wherever Christians, so far as I have seen, set up to be a testimony, they get full of themselves, and lose the sense that they are so, and fancy it is having much of Christ. A shining face never sees itself. The true heart is occupied with Christ, and in a certain sense and measure self is gone. The right thought is not to think of self at all, save as we have to judge it. You cannot think of being a testimony save of your being so, and that is thinking of self – and as I have said before, it is what I have always seen to be the case. {146} [64026]
There is much more reality in a living loving care of us, than we are aware of. It is faith for us now, but what is not seen is eternal. {149} [64029]
I trust ___ gets as sure at six years old of God's love as I am, through mercy, at 80. I can look back along life and see how gracious and perfect He has been all through, and that my years cannot measure all the mercy and faithfulness He has shown to me. {151} [64031]
Chastening is good for us – we seldom wait sufficiently on God. He goes on straight in His way to the end of purposed blessing, while the petty ways of man cross each other in a thousand directions, and where only men come to nothing: where the Lord is at bottom the motive, He leads us into His straight way in the end so faithful, so patient in goodness. The Lord give us to have Himself always before us – the eye on Him, the heart looking for Him, who shall receive us to Himself, and have nothing imperfect. {152} [64032]
I am sometimes afraid the importance of the great facts of Christianity almost sets aside the thought of souls. This would be want of love, a central, vital point of Christian truth, and of the state of our hearts. I always feel that I fail in it. Christ is everything to me; that I know; there my heart is at rest. Though my affections are poor, the link is there; but I feel that my heart does not go on enough to those He loves. Well, He will be perfectly glorified in every one of us; that is a comfort. Though I feel my want of energy in love, He guides us in what we do. Patience and perseverance I understand, at least, in a general way. {153} [64033]
We ought to be empty of all but what comes from Him, and its source in us. As far as it is so, it makes us very serious to be so in derivative communion with God, and then in thinking of the world around us – full of joy too, and according to the nature of God. Such was Christ's life, and He is our life; but poor creatures we are, even when devoted, but He is our strength, a strength made perfect in weakness. {154} [64034]
The Lord loves His church, and does not cease His care for it. Nothing will fail of His purposed grace. {163} [64039]
It is not that there are not deep things in the Word of God, but if we search it with His grace and Spirit it is always plain for us on the top; then we have it from Him. The cream is on the surface, not that we do not search and study, but that when we get it from God it is plain and on the surface. Till then we must wait till He teaches us. {166} [64042]
As to eternal life: in the full sense of it it is Christ Himself, and that revealed as Man in glory. (1 John 5:2020And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)). But its essence is divine life in the Person of Christ. (1 John 5:2,122By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. (1 John 5:2)
12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)). In Him was life, and that life He has in manhood. (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)). But this has a double character; the Son quickens as Son (vs. 21) and then we are, when dead in sins, quickened together with Christ: in one as Son of God, a divine Person; in the other, a dead man whom God raises. Now life and incorruptibility were brought to light by the gospel. For eternal life was manifested in the Person of the Son, and when He was risen and glorified, shown out in its new full character in Man. If we be risen with Christ, "when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory." Now till He came this never was displayed, nor according to God's full purpose in man, till He was glorified: but I have no doubt the Old Testament saints were quickened and they will be perfected. Still it was as much in Christ humbled as in Christ glorified. 1 John 1 was before the world, and that is its essence, only now brought to light in connection with the incorruptibility of the body in resurrection (or changed) a spiritual body. {171} [64045]
No one who has not life can have to say to God really. {172} [64045]
What we have to cleave to is Christ: in Him we know the Father, and He is that eternal life which came down from heaven; in Him, too, as glorified on high, once crucified, we are introduced into the holiest. He has sanctified Himself, that we may be sanctified through the truth. {173} [64046]
We have to go through a world full of experiences, and Christian life in it thus, with which as ministering we have to do. Our great affair is so in our own souls to have Christ formed in us, and so to know Him experimentally in the little world of our own souls, that all that is of self being judged, then only Christ may come out, whether as testimony of life in the big outer world, or in that which we apply to others in ministry; and to wait on Him so that we may be guided in doing it. {174} [64046]
What a life, an honored life, a Christian's is if it be a Christian's! {174} [64046]
What an immense privilege that we are set to bring out divine things on earth, and soon shall enjoy them where there will be naught else! {175} [64046]
Christ never ceases to care for the church. He may see good to try us, but He is a match for any mischief-maker. {183} [64048]
I find two things in the New Testament as to our joys and sorrows: first, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice"; and nothing separates us from His love. Still, we are poor, feeble, exercised creatures as to what passes here, and, however faithful, may be cast down, though doubtless ought not to distrust. Then I find, "God who comforteth them that are cast down." Ah, I say, it is worth while being cast down for such comfort as that! And this is not faith that rises above the circumstances, but grace that meets us in the circumstances; and think what it is to have God occupying Himself with us in our sorrows, when we remember who He is. {187} [64055]
I was always a solitary soul, thinking more for, than with people: but it is good to be more alone – most good, if it be more alone with Christ. What a place that is! {187} [64055]
I have often said there is loving up and loving down. In loving up, the higher and more perfect the object, the more excellent the affection: in loving down, the more wretched and worthless the object, the more truly divine and without motive the affection. Both were perfect in Christ. He gave Himself "for us," but "to God" (Eph. 5). {188} [64055]
I know of no Christianity where Christ is not all. {188} [64056]
There is no perfection but glory with the blessed One, and no other to be aimed at, and this always keeps us lowly, for what are we compared with that? Ah, when we study Christ's life too down here, and what His heart and motives were, how shallow we are, how He must be everything, and how deep and far beyond our view the sufferings of His soul down here! {188} [64056]
God pursues His own ends through circumstances, when we are often governed by them, or at any rate influenced and hindered. And how He bears with us! {188} [64056]
We hear nothing more of the prodigal son, once he found his father; all is what his father was to him. {191} [64059]
We do not sufficiently consider that it is He who works the good, and He alone who can do it, and He arranges everything. {195} [64062]
Whether here or there, Christ is everything. {196} [64062]
The Lord will guide with His eye, if we look to Him at any rate as poor horses or mules, in His faithful love, if we do not. {198} [64063]
What source of good is there if not God? and there everything is good. I always thought that; and have learned it too, and praise God that I am nothing, and God everything. {200} [64065]
I feel that I belong to the other world. For long years it was my object, because I looked for the glory of Christ, and nothing else but the salvation of souls. But it is sweet to belong to the Father's house and to feel that, and to realize in closer consciousness a deeper sense of the endless love and pure grace of the Father, and what Christ and His love is. I know that He is my righteousness, and I have not to think of myself, except of my footsteps here; and it is good to think of God as the Father, and of Christ His Son. {200} [64065]
Think of Christ and the Father's love, and all will be well, and well forever. {203} [64066]
It is always so pleasant to see God working in blessing, and souls opening under the rays of His grace; for what He does, though it may be in a short moment, is eternal. {220} [64071]
It is not a good sign when people do not like a yoke being put upon them if the yoke be God's Word. "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." We like our own will. There may be a bondage which is not of Christ, if it is that of man on the new man, but subjection of will is the secret of all peaceful walk in this world. It is Christ's work which gives peace to the conscience; but it is a subdued will, having none of our own, which in great and in little things makes us peaceful in heart in going through a world of exercise and trial. All in us, morally speaking, is sin, and having done with that, we live in what the Father is for us, and on what Christ is – a wondrous exchange. Self is always alienation from God; that is, in its working. {220} [64071]
Christ must be all to us or we shall soon be discouraged, and this true of everything. When Christ is not everything, and the Father's love the air we breathe for life, we are not going right. {220} [64071]
It is a world for death, but death is gain in Christ. {222} [64073]
The Lord's sense of death at the tomb of Lazarus was deeper far, I believe, than Martha's and Mary's, tempered with divine sustainment of life, but feeling what death was more than they did – not exactly the loss of Lazarus, that was their sorrow, but all that death meant for the human heart, and as God saw it in love. {222} [64073]
He is the resurrection and the life. Wonderful that He, such in this world, Master of death, steps then into death Himself for us! But oh, how perfect in all things He was! {222} [64073]
Christ is all, beloved: everything else will pass out of sight: but He, blessed be His name, never. He who is not ashamed to call us brethren is, nevertheless, seated upon the Father's throne. It is a wonderful redemption, and He who accomplished it is infinitely precious. {223} [64074]
Let us keep close to the Lord, for He would have us there, and let us recognize our own nothingness. The true Christian condition is this, that there should not be a thought nor a feeling in the heart of which He is not the source. This is the realization of the word, "To live is Christ." But what grace, what watchfulness, is needed, for us to come near it! {223} [64074]
Do not do feats as to bodily effort; the Lord's servant has to endure hardness sometimes, and it is a good thing; but there is no good in doing it on purpose. Enduring is right; I would there were more of it; but a single eye takes out of seeking even this. What a blessing to have the heart purified, and all light by this, till we come to where there is no darkness at all – the blessed place where God is, where Christ is glorified. There all the saints will be forever adequately to His glory, the fruit of the travail of His soul, for He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Think of His being satisfied! His love is perfect now. We need polishing, but there are elements in us, because Christ is there, which will come out in perfect beauty, when the rough stuff, which makes its surface now, is wholly off forever. Here it has to be worn off, detected by various exercises, that conscience may be exercised with it, and thus the internal, moral fruit wrought; but then it shall be perfect in itself! {224} [64076]
With Him it was only the coming out of the perfect thing; there was no inconsistent crust, not even individuality, to rub off. He was just what He should be to manifest God, and man in perfection to God, every moment. {225} [64076]
Difficulties I have no doubt you will find; there are a certain class which are only in the path of faith, but the joy of the Lord is with us in them. In the last days, too, perilous times shall come, we read, and that we must experience, but the light and strength of the Lord is there. What a bright picture we have in Luke 2 of the poor and unknown remnant who walked with God in the midst of the unparalleled wickedness of Israel! {225} [64078]
The Christian has no future but glory. All he has to do is to do God's will at the moment, and the rest is all in God's hands; only we know that glory awaits us. {227} [64079]
Be content to be tired and work hard, but do not do feats, which some of us are inclined to do – true laborers too. Do what Christ gives you to do with patience. {231} [64082]
Here or there, it is where God would have us, that is our place, and where we may expect a blessing and the consciousness of His presence. He may and does keep us, in His patient and perfect goodness, everywhere, but it is in the way of His will that His presence is revealed to us, so that we walk in the light of His countenance. He kept Abraham in Egypt, but he had no altar from Bethel back to Bethel. {232} [64083]
For our own sakes too He is everything, light to the soul, but the blessed expression and communicator of the love of God; and for this there must be real diligence. All that is around us, and even real duties, are constantly soliciting us away from Him, and tending to weaken us spiritually. When we cleave to Him, all goes on smoothly in the heart, in the consciousness of His love: we know how to confide in and count on Him, nothing separates us from His love. The distractions of the world lose their power, because the heart is elsewhere: nine-tenths of our temptations would not be such at all; as a mother who thought her child was run over by a train would not see fine things in the streets on her way down. And what are really our duties we should serve Christ in. A holy intimacy with Christ is the strength and light of the soul, and He encourages us in it, for He is full of love. {233} [64083]
It is a gracious and blessed Saviour we have; He delights in our being near Him, and soon will have us so forever, and like Him too. May He make you more and more like Him daily! Oh cultivate intimacy with Him; it keeps the conscience alive and the heart happy. {233} [64083]
May we know how to follow hard after Him, and we shall find His right hand upholding us! {235} [64084]
We are quick at seizing the reins, when we see danger ahead; but the Lord knows better than we do what has to be done: in due season He will deliver all who look to Him. {246} [84607]
Anyway, I am what He has made me, at least in any good; and there nothing, and He everything. Thank God it is so! only then we have to realize this in every-day life – Christ all, and that nothing else show itself. If it were only so! Still we can delight in Him, and joy in His love, and that will never end. Then our joy will not be pent-up; now it is, like steam, to carry on the work of His grace, but oh! what a burst there will be of it, when in port, and it does not spend itself, but grows, for the Object is infinite. {253} [64090]
The Lord be with you; it is a privilege to serve in these last days – more difficult, perhaps, but a brighter testimony than ever. Devotedness and lowliness, that is what I seek. It is very hard to be nothing, though we know it; the very energy of service takes you out of it, unconsciously: but near Christ, and in love, we forget self; and that is just the measure of godliness and spirituality. {254} [64090]
Scripture unfolds itself, when you look to God and study it. {254} [64091]
Do not reckon yourself lonely: it is a good thing to be alone with God; I have been always alone, but I bless God for it. Not that communion of saints is not happy and a blessing: Paul thanked God and took courage, but it is alone with Him that we get stuff, and there only; where else should we? And in these last days the true lasting work must be from Himself. There is no true work, I well know, but of Him; but the Scripture makes a difference of the last days, where the keen discernment and, therewith, the earnest love and grace alone can be found, to carry us through the tangled web of men's minds – and always calm because with Him. "They looked unto him and were lightened": we should wait on His working. {255} [64091]
You will find plenty to swim over, sometimes rough, without going to Epirus; but we are, and sweet is the thought, in the same boat with the Lord. All things become real as we grow old, through grace; yet He is always the same, sufficient for the young, and sufficient also for the old, and so full of tenderness and grace. May we be kept humble, so as to know Him, and all the resources that are in Him, and they are in Him for present difficulties, and even loneliness – for He has felt it: "Ye shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." So you can say, 'I and Christ that is with me.' "That take and give," He says to Peter, "for me and thee" – to think of putting us so together!
{255} [64091]
We shall know as we are known, and God be magnified in all His ways. {269} [64176]
There is tender compassion for the poor in the things of God. {270} [64180]
If I give an account of myself to God, I must do it completely, or I should lose something of the goodness of Him who has called and saved me. {288} [64274]
Death is written upon our fairest hopes and our fondest joy: but where sin and death have come in, grace and the Son of God have come in after them to more than make up what was done. {314} [64234]
The more one goes on and gets out of the vain show in which men walk and into reality, the more Christ is everything. {315} [64234]
Infidelity may do to amuse and deceive the mind while the spring of life flows, but when it begins to ebb, and more when it dries up, what can it do or say? You may be an amiable, clever animal with it, not by it, but a divine affection never crosses its path. {315} [64234]
Oh, if the Lord Himself was not the workman, how hopeless would be the thought of reaching all the souls that are in need. It is a comfort then to be able to look to Him, that His eye and grace may reach them. We read of the eyes of the Lord running to and fro through the earth to shew Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him; and we may reckon on His grace too, to follow in faithful mercy all the need of His beloved people, and this is a consolation. {316} [64238]
I went through a day's mental process as to the Word, at the time I was set free. This may have strengthened me as to it by grace. But God's Word has ever since been God's Word, from God. {326} [64251]
Oh! how different is the simple Word of God! How refreshing and strengthening, and from Himself! I dread filling my mind with notions, but reading any quantity of them only shows how wretchedly poor they are. How should man's mind reveal God's thoughts? Rationalism and mysticism may resist or mingle them up, but they remain themselves and only themselves. Revelation all these things deny, and that is the real point. And what a thing it is to have one! {326} [64252]
Philadelphia is a church without pretension which keeps Christ's Word and does not deny His name; which further keeps the word of His patience; which still expects Christ, though it may seem He will never come; He is waiting, and in the patience in which He waits – for the longsuffering of God is salvation, He is not slack concerning His promise – taking His Word to guide and still waiting; and such will be kept. {329} [64096]
Mais parce que vous êtes malade, I come to visit you, and what shall I bring? Christ. But you have Him and that gives communion, and communion in what is eternal which makes it very blessed; and if we are feeble, the Object is not. It has struck me as very blessed that God should reveal to us all His thoughts and mind in which He glorifies Himself. {333} [64098]
I have been writing a kind of preface or introduction to the Bible, ... and it presented itself to me in this way; that all time was a kind of parenthesis in eternity, in which all that was eternally in the mind and character of God, wrought out on the earth in time, should be brought out in its glorious results and display – His glory and its accomplishment in the Son in the future eternity. And all this is given us in Scripture; the basis connected with man's responsibility in the Old, and the divine operation of grace in the New. The more one studies it, the more one finds God, and, alas! man too, in the Bible. {333} [64098]
It is a great thing to have concentrated affections – Christ forming them, so that in having Him in our hearts we may know what is in His; and what a blessing that is! Concentrated, means practically, personal; so that I get at His heart, and know what is there, and that there is that personal affection there. {335} [64099]
After all He loves us personally; but He loves us perfectly in this, that whatever He enjoys He brings us into the enjoyment of. Then it is divine; which stamps its character on all the details. That chapter (John 17) is greatly the expression of it, as putting us in the same place as He is in Himself. But we must know Him to know what His love is; and it will suffice forever. {336} [64099]
Grace refers more to the source and character of the sentiment, mercy to the state of the person who is its object. Grace may give me glory, but mercy contemplates some need in me. Mercy is great in the greatness of the need, grace in the thought of the person exercising it. {336} [64100]
There is a difference between work and being laid aside; but though I see many things for which grievously to blame myself, yet my work was always Christ, and now my leisure, if such I can call it, is Christ. {337} [64101]
What a happy thought that you and I are tending to see the blessed Lord and be with Him forever! What a blessed thought! It is often a happiness to me to think that we shall have not only Christ – which is the great thing – but that then not one of the saints will be anything which is not perfectly pleasing to Christ. It is what we have earnestly to seek now, and He is our strength and wisdom to carry it out; only let our eye be single and Christ everything. {338} [64102]
Hold fast to Him. Count on abundant grace in Him, to reproduce Him in the power of the Father's love; and be watching and waiting for Christ. {345} [64108]
END OF VOLUME 3
APPENDIX.
Divine truth is of such vast extent, and is so many-sided, taking up the nature of God, His dispensations, His ways with men, their responsibility, the positive revelations of His counsels, the moral and eternal relations which flow from what He is, and from what other beings are, that on all points the truth may be looked at in many ways, and one fills up the gap left by the others. I see this even in the apostles. John speaks of the nature of God, Paul of His counsels, Peter of His ways. All have the same truths; only as one goes on everything becomes increasingly absorbed in Christ. {369} [64125]
It is the teaching of God and not the labor of man that makes us enter into the thoughts and the purpose of God in the Bible. We search it without doubt, but the cream is not found through much labor of the mind of man. I do not think that any one will believe that I do not wish that it should be much read, but I do wish that it should be read with God. {369} [64125]
I see two ends of an immense rainbow, I suppose that they never meet. Were I able to see the whole, I should only deem that my parallel line has only destroyed the bow; that not only are the beauty and the unity lost, but that which was in the nature even of the refraction which is necessary to the existence of the phenomenon. The Word of God is the communication of divine things to the understanding (rendered capable by the Spirit) of man; but we know in part, and the whole not being communicated as God knows it, as indeed it could not be, and ought not to be, we often lose it by attempting to put it into a frame. {370} [64125]
When he says that the knowledge of self is the business of the whole life, I think this a very sad idea. God makes us known to ourselves simply as a means; the object of life is to know Christ. Fathers in Christ have known Him who is from the beginning; and one does not even know oneself except by knowing Him. To be occupied only with evil (and there is nothing but evil in oneself) is a sad life, and it is not the thought of God. His desire is that for our happiness we should be occupied with Him. It is a thought as false as it is sad, and it means nothing but ignorance of the grace of our God. The truth is just the opposite of this, that I ought to be occupied only with Christ, and that this is the grace of God to me. {375} [64125]
Alas! why are we not dead to ourselves in the practical sense, in order that we may be nothing but pure instruments of His wisdom and grace! {381} [64130]
It is of all importance that our inner life should be kept up to the height of our outward activity; else we are near some spiritual fault. {382} [64130]
May the Lord Himself come! This would fulfill our highest desires. {383} [64130]
We have need to remember that the world and the church – at least, if the latter be faithful – do not accord, and we shall cleave to the one and despise the other, or we shall hate the one and love the other. {383} [64134]
He was the despised and rejected of men. It is good to be in His place; it is to be in His school. It is easy to leave the world. It is when the world leaves us that the heart is put to the test. {384} [64134]
Soon shall we see Him. May He deign meanwhile to keep us near to Himself, and may we walk in simplicity with largeness of heart and faithful conduct, until we see Him as He is, and be forever with Him. {387} [64137]
Strengthen yourself in the Lord, and may His peace so sustain you, that you may be able to walk in peace. In spite of everything, Christ watches over us and over His church. This is our comfort and safeguard, whatever may betide. {387} [64137]
It is needful for us that we should pass through the sorrows as well as the joys of the work of the Lord, happy if our sorrows are His and His joys ours. {388} [64141]
What trouble St. Paul had because he insisted on maintaining the gospel at the height of the grace which had been revealed to him! {389} [64141]
For the testimony, it needs decided, morally decided persons, persons who for the love of Christ have broken with the world. One such is worth more than a thousand laggards; I am speaking of the testimony. {389} [64141]
A real workman, a "man of God," is a great, the greatest treasure in the world. {391} [64150]
We must be content to take the place that faith has, but I am persuaded God will own this to be His, and that is what a heart filled with Christ wants. {392} [64153]
If God were indifferent to evil there is no holy being to be the object of my love – nothing sanctifying. God does not own as love what admits of sin. {396} [64155]
The Lord keep us in the way of His steps, and in the abundant witness of His grace. {399} [64160]
Be ever content with quiet service and seek much communion and constancy with Christ in His work, and the Lord bless you in all things. He is goodness itself. {399} [64160]
If it be a question of sins, you, my reader, you have yours, and I, I have mine. If it be a question of our nature, of our flesh, we are but one, one sole nature, one sole mass. Hence the apostle turns to the heads or sources of our nature, whether as to good or as to evil: Adam and Christ. {403} [64189]
Jesus was a Man of sorrows, and indeed none like His. And His love is perfect sympathy as well as deliverance. {410} [64159]
His grace is sure, in its path does not fail; nothing escapes or happens without it. This is a great comfort – first our will, subtle as it is and meddling with the best affections, is broken and there is submission; then comes the sense of positive love. Any sense of failure even on our part, if such there be, is lost in the sense of the perfect love and ordering of God. He takes the place of the reasoning of our minds, and all is peace. This is a wonderful thing, for after all even as to our ways we cannot answer Him nor account for one of a thousand. He does use all to set our hearts right, and gives softened peace like a river. {410} [64159]
If we go down into Egypt, we have no altar till we get back to the one we had at the first, when God brought us to worship Him where our tent and our altar were in the land of promise. {419} [64197]
I have been very ill, perhaps I should say very low, it was an attack with night fever accompanying it when already quite worn out. My first part when so low (and God graciously set me to it) was to repass and judge all my ways – not my activities, which, however wanting, were really for Christ, but all that had passed in my own mind according to His Spirit where I had allowed any evil in my mind. Then I got into a spirit of direct worship in which I was very happy, and full of God's presence, not exactly dwelling on His love, which I had often enjoyed, but worship – God put in His place, God enjoyed in and for Himself as God; and then much thought, happy and profitable, how I should feel if Christ came – looked at humanly, so to speak, I suppose Mary's would be the place, she sat still in the house. I felt the unspeakable joy of one look of His favor; and so I passed my time (most kindly cared for) but alone. I had flowers from the famous poet Longfellow's garden, for God can provide even these from where He will. {420} [64198]
The West Indies are a question of service, and he that saveth his life shall lose it. I like neither winter seas, scorpions, nor heat; but the gracious Lord will take care of me, if it is His service, and His will that I should go. {422} [64204]
The questions and difficulties of men's minds belong to men's minds; the proof and sap of God's Word belong to God's Word, and to Him who gave it: and the contrast of the power, riches, depth, moral instruction in which God's own nature is displayed in it, with the arbitrary suppositions of men, make the latter appear in their naked poverty and littleness. In it I find the whole display of God's nature in Christ, in reply to all that came out of the heart of man: goodness in the midst of evil; the heart of God meeting the need of man's heart. We shall see Him as He is, and be like Him; but oh! how is the Word its own proof, and how has it its own power, though surely nothing but the Spirit of God can give it that power in us. But in walking with God, alone can we draw out its sweetness and feed upon it. I believe that the Spirit of God is a positive teacher in this respect, and may give, if He sees fit, developed thoughts of its contents; but if rivers are to flow out we must drink for ourselves as thirsty for it. {429} [64235]
When one is near heaven, when Jesus is all, one place scarcely differs from another; God remains God, holy and love, and man remains man. {435} [64243]
Paul had no wife, and no home, and no fortune, and tells us he had no certain dwelling-place. {439} [64246]
Our feelings may be dull, and we may look to them, but the blood of Christ has always its same value in the sight of God. He cannot, as undervaluing it, see iniquity in us. Hebrews 10 develops this fully. There can be no altering or repetition of the blood. Imputed guilt does not exist for the believer: but he may fail, and by this his communion with God is interrupted; the operation of the Spirit is to humble him, and lead him to confession – most profitable, but not communion. The Word applied by the Spirit works in the soul to judge sin according to Christ's death, and then its putting away according to it, and so the enjoyment of the love which did it; and then communion is restored. {445} [64253]
As a general rule God makes us pass through the wilderness. There (Deut. 8) He humbles us and proves us to know what is in our heart, only learning what is in His, that He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous. {453} [64260]
What a difference when you have found the universal mind of God in the Word! In vain people reason – if kept by grace – there they are, blowing with their breath at a mountain to upset it; it remains just where it was, and the character of presumption looks like madness if it was not malice, and the total ignorance of what they are, and what the mountain is – the only thing proved; but the believer gets truth out of it, and the eternal power of the Word is more clearly recognized. {502} [64126]
The Word abiding in us, and the unction of the Holy One can alone deliver us from the world, and antichrist in his various forms. The world and its spirit are not discerned else, so that I expect delusion. {503} [64127]
I have no great light and no great difficulty as to the glorious place. I believe there will be a visible glory which will have in a certain sense a place for man to see it: it is the glorious state of the saints, not the saints simply. {505} [64127]
Men cannot be satisfied with death; God Himself is rousing them; and Satan would seek to bring in an activity not subject to, and outside God's Word, the only guide in such cases, not merely into truth, but hindering the will from being active, which, acting by the mind, just makes heresy, and (whatever the thoughts) cannot profit, because it makes God subject to it. {512} [64143]
The ruin was utter as regards man – the Reformation a wonderful thing, but Luther's flesh terribly strong – a mixed thing, though the action of the Spirit of God astonishing – God's work. It is not Luther, himself by himself proves it to me; he was merely one remarkable instrument in it. It is just its springing up here, there, and all around that proved God was at work. {512} [64143]
How old are the divisions of man, how little his history. {513} [64144]
It is a blessed thing to trust the Lord in everything, in light, and in darkness as appears. He always governs, and always according to the principles we love because they are the expression of Himself. {518} [64151]
It is a comfort, after the toil and labor of the way, to feel that after all one's own proper portion is preserved and kept in Him, so that even before we go hence we can, when He gives us a little leisure, rejoice in His infinite and precious love. The perfectness of Christ, when the soul rests on Him, fills and satisfies when we can occupy ourselves with it, as it has sustained and helped us through the toil and danger of the road. He has been manna for the journey through the wilderness, and we are entitled to feed on Him as the corn of the heavenly land, when in spirit we pass beyond Jordan. This supposes that our souls have perfect rest in Him as the true sacrifice, and our effectual and accomplished redemption.
{522} [64178]
In the various scenes and many conflicts I have been in, and the experience of my own weakness, I can bear testimony with my whole heart to His most gracious, faithful, and unfailing love, and bless Him for His great patience too, with me. {523} [64178]
All changes but that to which God would attach our hearts forever, and He evermore weans our hearts from all that does change, to make us perfectly happy in Him. {523} [64178]
Union is always good in itself, but faithfulness to Christ comes before even union. {525} [64190]
Do not relax fidelity to Christ and the truth for the sake of avoiding narrowness. Our normal condition is having but little strength, and not denying His name and His Word. {526} [64190]
How good God is to go on working, in spite of the infirmity, the failure, the sins which are in the midst of His own people! {527} [64190]
Peace be with you; and may our good God, always faithful and full of grace, guide and sustain you. Never be discouraged or anxious about anything, but make your requests known to God, and His peace shall keep your heart. Remember that Christ is ever faithful, and cannot fail His own. {527} [64190]
If a man was to prove to me that a doctrine involved unholiness, I should know without more it was false; as was said to me yesterday, I am free to sin – that must be false interpretation. {531} [64202]
God works through a great deal of inaccurate statement, if real truth and grace is there – only the effect bears the mark often of its origin – so He does through imperfect work. One can only trust Him quand même. {534} [64200]
As you enjoy Christ for yourself saints will find it out, and that will be your testimony to them. {536} [64206]
If we seek His face, He will always lead us right. {539} [64229]
I dread intellectualism, too. But following the Word in evil days is not intellectualism. Still watching that love and active love be in full play is important. But it is well to take a warning from any. {539} [64229]
The Lord be with you, dear ___, and help you in your work. It is a mercy to be allowed to work for Him. The time will come when we shall know all else is vanity. Keep close to Him: there only is strength or help or wisdom. We must expect combat, and sorrow over failure, but let our eyes look straightforward. The Lord exercises us in these things. We have only to do His will, and walk in grace to others as those who may be tempted themselves. {540} [84606]