Handfuls of Purpose

This edition of Handfuls of Purpose is a reprint of sixteen lectures delivered years ago by a devoted servant of Christ, W. T. P. Wolston, M.D. These lectures were Part 3 (Miscellaneous Subjects) of the original work, entitled Handfuls of Purpose. They have been used for much blessing to both saints and sinners, and they are happily commended to both young and old for refreshing ministry. The gospel of God concerning His Son is set forth. Precious ministry of Christ to refresh the saints’ hearts is also to be found to meet many needs of the dear saints of God during our passage through this world which we have proved to be but a spiritual wilderness. The author also carries us along in this volume to the coming of the Lord for His saints. This is the true and proper hope of the Christian, not to aid in world betterment, but to look on the passing scene with lifted gaze awaiting the Morning Star; then we will hear His voice calling us to meet Him in the air. And when that moment arrives we shall “ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

May we wait and watch for His return as those who are awake in the night, anticipating the rising of the Bright Morning Star.

Preface

The title of this little volume has been suggested by the command which Boaz gave to his reapers at Bethlehem, in regard to that earnest young gleaner Ruth, “Let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them, and rebuke her not” (Ruth 2:16).

Of Ruth, it is then recorded, “So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.” She was a wise gleaner; she carried nothing away but the golden grain; the straw she left in the field. I would ask my readers to do the same.

These addresses, given to companies of Christians under very various conditions, some a quarter of a century ago, others more recently, were briefly taken down by some hearer, and the notes have been revised.

That there is much straw in each “handful” the Author is well aware, but if there be enough of the golden grain of God’s precious truth to help a troubled inquirer, recover an unhappy backslider, cheer a feeble believer, or stimulate a fellow-servant, his object will be gained.

To the loving care of the “Lord of the harvest” the volume is prayerfully commended.

W. T. P. W.

46 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh

16th December 1898.

David or Faith's Experience

(1 Samuel 21; Psalm 34)

It has often been observed that the Book of Psalms is intensely experimental. It is not of course that in that book we rise to the full height of Christianity, but the One whom we know now, fully revealed in the Son, is the One whom the Psalmist knew, and the exercises that he passed through are very similar to the exercises that the saints of God pass through in this day. There is consequently in them that which is very helpful to our souls. I have no doubt that in every age many a saint has drawn comfort from many of these Psalms. David was a man after God’s heart. And, beloved friends, it is a great thing to be a man after God’s heart.

A noticeable point of the thirty-fourth Psalm is the circumstances under which it was written. What I have read to you in 1 Samuel 21 tells us the moment when David wrote it. At least that is the heading of the Psalm. Now I do not think that anybody will say that the experience of David in 1 Samuel 21 was anything exceedingly creditable to a saint. He fled from Saul, and he got the bread, and the sword, but not in the simple way he might have done. It is a great thing to get your bread, and your sword rightly. You may not always obtain it after a divine way.

When you come to the end of the chapter you see David down among the Philistines, and then taking shelter under their king-Achish-who was an enemy of God’s people, and God does not support him. They said, “Is not this David the king of the land?” (1 Sam. 21:1). Yes! And here was the king flying, and taking refuge with the Lord’s enemies. And then David “changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard” (vs. 13). Not a very nice thing for a saint to do. Then King Achish says: “Lo, ye see the man is mad; wherefore have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence?” (vss. 14-15). This word of the king evidently touched David, and we read, “David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam” (22:1).

In the cave of Adullam David was in the right place, and his experience was, I presume, recorded there. Every saint has experiences, and the person who has not had them is not a Christian. I do not say that you and I ought to have experiences like David, but if a man has in any measure been wrong, it is a very blessed thing, when he gets right, to express his recovery in the language of Psalm 34. It is very simple, very practical, and very wholesome, and I daresay thoroughly known to most of us. It is a Psalm that always reaches my soul every time I read it. If you do not want it I want it, and I am very thankful for it.

You will find that the Psalm is divided into five sections. The keynote of it is, “at all times.” “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (vs. 1). It reminds me of a New Testament servant, deprived of liberty, not flying from the foe, and taking refuge among the enemy voluntarily, but a servant shut up in the walls of a prison, and out of it there rings the trumpet-note of Holy Spirit liberty and joy, “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice.” So said Paul in the epistle to the Philippians (chap. 4:4). And now I find David saying, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” You may depend upon it his soul was thoroughly right when he penned that line. Have you always been right? Have I always been right? You know I have not, and I know you have not, because you and I are exactly alike, since “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man” (Prov. 27:19).

The first four verses, which is the first section of the Psalm, celebrate what the Lord is-Jehovah. Of course, brethren, when things are all nice, and smooth with us, we can sing like nightingales. Oh, then we are such a happy people! But then, the storm comes, and trouble arises, and difficulties cross our path, and we do not sing, do we? “I will bless the Lord at all times,” expresses a beautiful state of soul. “Giving thanks always for all things” (Eph. 5:20) is the New Testament echo. “Is any merry? let him sing psalms,” says the apostle James (chap. 5:13). No matter what the circumstances be, this will always be true, if a saint is right with God, “I will bless the Lord at all times.”

If we follow the Lord along His pathway, we find Him saying in one of the darkest days of His pilgrimage, “I thank thee, O Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:25-27). Let us mark this perfect Son and Servant, for such was He, I need not say. As a Man He was our example. He has passed the road we tread, “leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). This is beautiful. He could truly say: “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” There is nothing so refreshing as to meet a praising saint. A mourning saint, or a murmuring saint, does not do you any good, but a praiseful saint, full of the goodness of the Lord, and the delight of what the Lord is — if you meet with such a saint — he leaves his impression on you.

But again, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord” (vs. 2). It is an Old Testament saint anticipating the New Testament injunction, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31). “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” Lovely words! Look at the effect of this boasting. It is very impressive. There is nothing that impresses people like this. It may be a testimony that produces hatred, but there is no testimony so powerful. Look at the sixteenth chapter of Acts, and see two captive servants of Christ in a loathsome Roman prison, with their feet fast in the stocks. With bleeding backs, cold and hungry, they “prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:25). There was a wonderful testimony in that prison that night. How could these men be so bright and joyful under such depressing circumstances? What was the secret? It was their joy in the Lord.

“The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad,” verse 2 Continues. It is only the humble that fully take in the import of this boasting. If able to boast thus, I shall be certain to find some who will thankfully join me, and be glad. Who are they? They are not the high, nor the proud, but they are the humble. It will produce gladness, deep gladness in the heart of others, that your soul is so constantly and abidingly in the joy of the Lord, and making her boast in Him.

“O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together” (vs. 3). Fellowship is sought now. It wants others to be in its company. And then the last verse of the section gives, so to speak, the reason for all this. Now we get the basis of it. “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” You will find the speaker is delivered himself, a verse or two lower down the Psalm, but here he is delivered from all his fears. I think the Lord oftentimes works to deliver us from our fears before He delivers us from our foes. Here is a man who was delivered from the fear of the trouble, before he was delivered from the trouble. It is the discovery of what God is. It is the soul deepening in its acquaintance with God, no matter what the difficulties may be.

In the next few verses (5-10) we get really what the salvation is. You are instructed in what the salvation is that God ministers to the soul that thus really turns to Him. It is a statement of a broad universal principle, no matter who it is. “They look unto Him, and are enlightened. Their faces are not ever ashamed” (vs. 5). The sure effect of the soul having to do with God, is that it is enlightened. I am not talking of conversion now. It is true the soul is enlightened when it is converted, but here it is more in the pathway. It is a principle of the deepest importance. If you and I look to the Lord, what will be the effect? He will give us light. Why? Because God is light. And what He loves above all is to lead a soul into light, and your face is never ashamed. I have no doubt David was ashamed as he remembered the sorrowful circumstances of 1 Samuel 21. We hang our heads too as we think of much of our pathway. That is quite right. But you will never hang your head when you look at Him. Oh no, you have the sense of the blessedness of having to do with God.

And now note the next thing: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (vs. 6). What poor man was that? Of course David was the writer of the Psalm, but I have no doubt that that “poor man” was Christ. You will find in His pathway here He was always crying to God. It does not follow that there will always be deliverance from circumstances. That is not the point. In a world of evil we must never forget that righteousness may suffer, but God governs. In these six verses (5-11) you have really a little epitome of the pathway of the Lord Jesus. Where He now is, exalted in glory, is the divine answer to the cry of His blessed and holy soul in all His pathway here.

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them” (vs. 7). A remarkable statement, beloved friends, and yet what an immense comfort for the soul to feel that it has angelic walls, so to speak, round it. If you fear the Lord, you are encamped in a safe place. You have many an illustration of it in the New Testament and in the Old Testament too. Take the apostles in the fifth chapter of Acts: “Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth” (vss. 17-19). Take Peter in the twelfth chapter of Acts: “And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord; and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent His angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews” (vss. 6-11). How God steps in, if He pleases, in a remarkable way, to deliver His saints! But it is always “them that fear him,” whom He delivers.

And now you have a call. “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (vs. 8). The Hebrew word for man here is very striking. It is the mighty man. It is not the word expressing a poor weak man. No, it is a mighty man. And what is the secret of his might. He trusts in God. He has all his springs in God. You will find there are three things here. There is fearing the Lord, trusting the Lord, and seeking the Lord. In the eighth verse it is, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” In the ninth verse, “There is no want to them that fear him.” And in the tenth verse, “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” This is a moral set of holy principles that keep the heart always blessedly in touch with God. The soul, exhorted to taste what the goodness of the Lord is, will taste it if these principles are active.

In contrast with this the Psalmist says, “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” (vs. 10). The Lord is the One who meets the soul in every possible circumstance. He uses the lions as an illustration, because the lion is the master of creation. “A lion is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any” (Prov. 30:30). Spite of that even they might hunger, but “they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” Now there is a little difficulty perhaps with some as to this. You say, I have sought a good many things, but I did not get them. It does not say in our Psalm that they sought the things, it says they sought the Lord. We all of us would like many things which we regard as good for us. But by-and-by we shall be thankful that we did not have them. It has been the curse of his life to many a saint that he obtained what he longed for at some time. The coveted thing was not good; but determination laid hold of it. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psa. 84:12). Lay hold of that, dear friend, and if something you have desired is withheld, be sure it was not good for you. If you accept this your heart will say to Him, Blessed be Thy name, I am sure it was not good for me, Lord. There is great sweetness in this, “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”

That is the general principle of the way in which the Lord deals with us. The soul is conscious of the light of His presence. You have the sense that the Lord saves you, and that the angel of the Lord is round about you. Then you have the conviction, I am looking to Him, I am counting on Him. If you do not get what you wanted, after a little you will certainly say, O Lord, what a good thing it was that Thou didst not let me have it.

We come now to another section of our Psalm, I think from the eleventh to the sixteenth verses you get the Psalmist giving us most beautiful instruction as to the secret of a happy, progressive, and blessed life. He says, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (vs. 11). There has been a good deal about the fear of the Lord in the first part of the Psalm, but now he fully explains it to us. There is one verse in a previous Psalm that is very instructive in connection with this. “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever” (Psa. 19:9). I think that gives you the keynote of the scripture, as regards the fear of the Lord. Without this you cannot progress in practical holiness, or sanctification.

I believe David teaches us the true secret of it. Now, beloved, this is not the condition, the state of heart that keeps back from the Lord. It is the path of progress — not of the backslider. Another writer — Solomon — says, “Happy is the man that feareth alway” (Prov. 28:14). It is not the fear of judgment and wrath, but it is that holy and blessed fear in the soul, which the Spirit of God always begets, a fear lest we fail so to walk in everything as to please Him.

If you will turn to the book of Proverbs, you will be interested to see how you get “the fear of the Lord” spoken of so very frequently there. In the Proverbs I believe God gives us the furnishing of the understanding. If you have time, read a chapter every day of your life. It will preserve you from much sorrow and trouble in your pathway here. I want to point out the way, in the structure of the Bible, in which it is connected. The next two books, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, have to say to the heart. You have the conscience in the Psalms, the understanding in Proverbs, and in the next two books, the heart. They are the complement of each other. In Ecclesiastes Solomon talks of the heart, only to confess that it is empty, and in the Song of Solomon it is more than full. In the one the heart is too big for the object — the world, all under the sun — and in the other, the object — Christ — is too big for the heart. One book is heartache, and the other is heart’s-ease. The secret of divine peace and joy is found in the Song of Solomon. It is occupation with the love, and the Person of Christ

But now for the Proverbs. You will find seven times in this book what the fear of the Lord is stated to be. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7). The fear of the Lord is the first step to knowledge and progress. Now pass on to the eighth chapter. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:13). Things which He hates, we should, or His fear is not in us. Next we get, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). There is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge may puff me up, but wisdom will never puff me up. Knowledge is the apprehension of the truth, but wisdom is the capacity of using the truth. It is the way in which the soul, led of God, can use what it has rightly, and divinely. Then, “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened” (Prov. 10:27). It is very similar in its tone to what we shall find in our Psalm. Next we read, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (Prov. 14:27). A sure way of escaping Satan’s snares is of priceless value. Sixthly, we read, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility” (Prov. 15:33). Wisdom is always willing to learn, it is only fools who need no instruction. And now lastly, “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life; and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil” (Prov. 19:23). Abiding satisfaction is a sweet fruit of this holy fear. You will find now that this verse chimes in with our Psalm most beautifully. If you want these points illustrated they are all visible in the dying thief on the cross” (see Luke 23:40-43).

Now turn back to our Psalm. “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” It is presented as a daily practical thing. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?” (vs. 12). That question appeals to each of us. Do you love life? Do you want many days, and to see good? Is it good you are seeking? Here is the instruction how to secure these blessings. “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile” (vs. 13). It does not begin here with my heart. It begins with my tongue. “Keep thy tongue.” Oh, that is a most difficult job. How do you find it? We all know how hard it is to keep the tongue. But here it is. Are you set to see good? That is the question. I know the people who are desiring good, by the way they use their tongues.

And now, why so keep the tongue? Well, I think the sixth chapter of Luke will answer that question. “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (vs. 45). What is really filling my heart will come of my tongue. And therefore you can always tell what my heart is occupied with, because I have a tongue. I cannot long deceive you.

When you come to the epistle of James you find a great deal about the tongue. Strange to say, it is not very often read, and yet that is a most important epistle. No saint gets on rightly that is afraid of James. “For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom” (James 3:2-13). Yes, it is quite true, “in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.” I am quite sure I am not that man. But I think it is a beautiful thing to find such a man. Do you know him? No, nor do I ever expect to meet him. Let us meet him in you. A son was once complaining to his father of the evil in the world. Said the old man, “Improve the world by one man, John!” that is, begin the correction with number one. Wise old man!

And now pass on to Peter’s first epistle, where he quotes from this thirty-fourth Psalm. He there exhorts us: “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9). We are to carry blessing to others. If my tongue does not carry blessing to others, it is a great pity, because a Christian has been blessed by God infinitely, and he is left by God in this world to be a blessing to others. Some people say to me, “All these Psalms are for the Jews.” Peter does not leave them all for the Jews. He knew better than that. I am sure it will be a very useful thing for our souls if we heed what he says. Thus then he quotes, “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (vss. 10-12). He stops there. He knows how to quote the Scripture. He omits the end of the sixteenth verse of the Psalm, which runs thus, “To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” He does not go on with the Psalm, because that will only take place by-and-by, when the Lord Christ as a righteous King reigns, and righteousness will judge all evil at once. The man that lets his tongue wag wrongly in that day will be cut off.

But even now, in the government of God, if I am not careful of my tongue, I may come under His discipline. The seed I sow will certainly bring forth its corresponding crop by-and-by, and so will what you sow. I speak very plainly, for I get about a good deal among the saints, and I could not tell you the mischief that is done by unguarded language, and letting forth that which is not profitable. Ah, beloved, God give us all to be more careful.

I must not, as a saint, allow that which is not profitable to issue from my lips. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Eph. 4:29). All conversation either ministers grace to you, or it corrupts you. I do not think we ought to turn aside the keen edge of the Word of God in respect of this.

But to return again to our Psalm, we find the instruction of wisdom bidding us “Depart from evil, and do good” (vs. 14). This sweetly harmonizes with “ But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb. 13:16). Think of Jesus, He “went about, doing good” (Acts 10:35). What the Psalmist by the Spirit presses on us here, is what the blessed Lord Himself illustrated in all His unselfish pathway here.

“Seek peace, and pursue it” (vs. 14), is the next injunction. How we are reminded of the Lord’s words here — “ Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9). Again,” Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15). The man that is not a peace-maker is, in the spirit of his soul, a peace-breaker. Why? Because he is not walking in carefulness before God.

Again, turning to the epistle of James, we find that “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (chap. 3:18). We are called to walk in peace, and, beloved friends, it is a blessed thing to be a peace-maker.

The Apostle Paul in the fourth chapter of Philippians exhorts us to follow in the pathway of Christ, saying: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, 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. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (vss. 6-9). It is not only that if you are prayerful and thankful, the peace of God will keep your heart, but if occupied with Christ yourself, you will carry with you the sense of the presence of the God of peace. And it is a lovely thing, beloved, for a saint to be passing through this world in that character.

But we are further told in our Psalm that “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry” (vs. 15). How comforting, striking, and also encouraging: only let us mark well that it is the righteous He ever thus regards. The doom of the unrighteous is given in the next verse, “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth” (vs. 16), which points distinctly to the judgment of the ungodly in a day to come.

Now you come to the fourth section of the Psalm, which is an experience I have no doubt that the blessed Lord Jesus knew full well. “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (vss. 17, 18). What kind of man could God walk with? With the man of a contrite spirit. If you want to secure the presence of the Lord, what must there be? A broken, and a contrite heart. In plain language, there is a moral state that engages the company of Christ.

From the nineteenth verse to the close is the last section of the Psalm. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (vs. 19). That is the principle. He delivers in His own way, in due time, because He has His eye so upon His people. “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (vs. 20). Who could that be, but the blessed Lord Himself, when on the cross? Who could deny the application of this passage to Him? It is absolutely prophetic, and the apostle is very careful to say, “That the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken” (John 19:36). How God preserved Him! What a sense, beloved, our souls should have of the preserving hand of our Lord.

Then you get in the last two verses a contrast. “Evil shall slay the wicked; and they that hate the righteous shall bear their guilt” (vs. 21, margin). That is a very striking statement, but illustrated all through Scripture. Evil turns round upon a man that indulges in it, and slays him. It is a broad principle. “And they that hate the righteous shall bear their guilt.” That shows the righteous retribution which God must administer. But the Psalmist adds, “The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall bear guilt.” The same word.

How blessedly, does the Spirit here, by the pen, and the lip of this really restored man, teach us to find all the springs of our souls in God. May His grace indeed lead us more and more to walk with Him, and to pass through this scene, as a blessing to others, while waiting for His Son from heaven.

“My heart is full of Christ, and longs

Its glorious matter to declare.

Of Him I make my loftier songs;

I cannot from His praise forbear.

My ready tongue makes haste to sing

The glories of the heavenly King.

Fairer than all the earth-born race;

Perfect in comeliness Thou art;

Replenished are Thy lips with grace,

And full of love Thy tender heart.

God ever blest, we bow the knee,

And own all fullness dwells in Thee.”

The King in His Beauty

(Psalm 45)

It is a great point for us to sock to cultivate that in our souls which comes out in this Psalm. What the King is Himself is that with which the queen is occupied. We should be occupied, in like manner, with what Christ is. We are very apt to drop down into occupation with the blessings which His gracious hand bestows upon us; but in this Psalm it is not what the King does, but what He is, that is dwelt upon. What the Lord values is a heart that delights in Himself.

“My heart is inditing a good matter.” The margin shows the meaning of inditing to be boiling, or bubbling up. I fear we are not often in this state. It is a great thing to have the heart boiling up with love to Christ. Instead of this, we are often at the freezing-point very far from the boiling-point in the measure of our devotedness to Christ. What the “good matter” is, the verse explains: “I speak of the things which I have made touching the King; “that is, what I know of Him; not what I have received from Him, but what He is to me. It is the place His blessed person has in my soul. Mary of Bethany chose to be with Himself. She sat at His feet, and listened to His words. To be near and with Him was what her soul desired.

Affection for the Lord marked her condition, and her place was at His feet. She was absorbed with the person of Christ. And did she lack intelligence? No; but it was not her object. She brake her box of precious ointment over Him, and Jesus said, “Against the day of My burying hath she kept this.” She feared she might not again have the opportunity of doing it. Others made a feast for Jesus; but surely you would not feast one you knew was about to die. Mary’s act was in keeping with the circumstances of her Lord. The feast was not so; she was at the feast, yet it did not occupy her. The One for whom the feast was made did. Her heart boiled with love to Him. She was the only one there really in the current of His thoughts. The Lord by His Spirit make our hearts to boil with real, true love to Christ! Love can only be satisfied with love. He loved us unto death, and He seeks in return the true affection of our hearts for Himself. He is worthy of it, beloved brethren.

“My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” It is easy to speak of Christ, and to praise Him, when the heart is boiling with love to Him. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” If we are silent in worship and praise, it shows the heart must be empty. Christ as an object does not fill the affections. You say, The Spirit must move us to worship. Yes; but if there be not worship, it is evident you are not moved. It is quite true we are to be subject, in the worship of the assembly, to the leading of the Lord only. So we are taught in the first epistle to the Corinthians; but in this Psalm there is subjection to the Spirit of God, and withal a heart overflowing with that which it knows concerning the King. I envy the state of soul here manifested. Listen to the language: “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips.” The address is to Himself. She is so near she can speak to Him. This is further than the bride in Song of Solomon ever goes. She says much about her Beloved, but not much of this nature to Him. He is to her the chief amongst ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One; but the one here is so near she can speak to the King; and all slips out so easily: “Therefore hath God blessed thee forever.” In such intimate nearness there is acquaintance with the mind of God as to His purpose concerning the One He delights to honor.

“Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness.” There is a right sense of the majesty of His person. He was outraged by man, and the puny but guilty arm of man had been raised against Him in the hour of betrayal and falsehood; but the day would come when He should ride prosperously because of truth. He was the meek and lowly One; but “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted”; and the result of His lowly grace would be His exaltation. “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity: therefore, O God, [marg. reading] thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Here He is saluted as God; and in Psalm 2 by God as His Son. He is anointed above His fellows; He is preeminent amongst the fellows. Who are these fellows? Hebrews 2 shows that we are His fellows: “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” He leads praise in their midst (Heb. 2:11,13). And again we read: “We are made partakers (or fellows) of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Heb. 3:14). He is anointed with the oil of gladness, and the precious ointment drops from the head to the skirts of His garments. In the day of Christ’s glory, when He will ride prosperously, we shall be with Him, and shall share that glory; the oil of His gladness will drop on us.

“All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.” There is fragrance in Christ, and that should come out in us. “We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15).

“Kings’ daughters were among thy honorable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” When the King is spoken of, the bride is Jerusalem; so this Psalm has a millennial bearing. Israel will look on Him whom she rejected and pierced, and will mourn. The Lord will save His people from their sins, and in divine righteousness give them a place in His presence. “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” Then will she consider, and incline her ear to Him. She is to forget her own people, and her father’s house. But what does this teach us? That there must be the bringing in of Christ between the soul and everything here. Nature must be distanced by Him; I must forget it. Christ must be my first object. Is He the first consideration with us? or is it self and our houses, and the care of them — the family, the friend, or the father’s house? The Spirit of God here says, “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;” and Jesus said, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37).

“So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.” He will then see beauty in thee. You will then be for Christ what Eve was to Adam; and there is the other side: “He is thy Lord; and worship thou him.” The claims of the Lord weigh with those who have Christ as their object. What joy when our souls in any measure enter into this Christ eclipsing everything, and worship freely flowing out to Him. And we read of the beauty of the King’s daughter that she is “all glorious within.” Here are her moral adornings, graced in the virtues of Christ. His beauty is that in which she shines, and because of it He gets praise: “Therefore shall the people praise thee.”

What is God now doing? Is He occupied with our blessing, our comfort? or is it not rather with the glory of the One He delights to honor — with Christ, whom He will set as the center of all things and Head over all? God seeks praise for Him; and this because of what we now are morally, as in spirit and behavior, like Christ, adorned with His virtues; and in another day, because of what we shall be when like Him, and with Him in bodies of glory like unto His own glorious body, when we shall be manifested as “ the sons of God,” as the fellows of Christ, and endless glory will be our happy portion. The Lord by His Spirit keep His dear Son before each of our hearts, that we may have the sense that He is ever near and with us. May we walk with Him, and ever remember

He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.”

Reciprocal Affection

(Song of Solomon 4)

It is a blessed thing to cultivate in our hearts, not only the sense of what God has done for us, but

also what He in grace has made us to be for Himself. It is most blessed to get away from ourselves, and entering into the secret of God’s presence, there to learn what those sentiments are which fill His heart. The Spirit of God makes those who believe in Christ to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; so the Apostle Peter says in his first epistle (1:8). That is our side of this joy, but “it is meet that we should make merry and be glad,” is His, for the Father has His joy as well, and it is boundless. He rejoices to have children near to Him — children who can enjoy Himself. “Christ suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God;” and “ we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Rom. 5:11).

It is that we may enjoy Himself that we are made nigh by the precious blood of Christ. It is not merely what He gives us, but Himself, who is to be the portion of our souls, and this is the fruit of the new birth. Because born again, we enjoy God Himself. “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But what is this new birth? It is our getting a new nature, which has the capacity to enjoy and understand and know God. The soul gets this as the fruit of His grace. We are made to enjoy God; but then He has His side as well. His joy is to have His children near to Him, and we are to have the sense that there is nothing between our hearts and Himself. Thus we see there is the joy of the Father, and the children’s joy likewise. In chapter 4 of the Song of Solomon we see Christ’s part in this joy. The relationship here presented is not that of father and children. Of that the words of our hymn speak —

Thou the prodigal hast pardoned,

Kissed us with a Father’s love;

Killed the fatted calf, and called us

E’er to dwell with Thee above.

Clothed in garments of salvation,

At Thy table is our place;

We rejoice, and Thou rejoicest,

In the riches of Thy grace.”

In the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon it is the bridal relationship which comes out. It is the joy of the Bridegroom and of His bride. We are prone to read this book so as to find Christ in it, and our hearts glow as we trace Him in its various scenes; but it is very sweet to turn for a moment and learn what the bride is to Christ. No language could be more lovely than that which we find He uses with regard to her. Listen to Him! “Behold, thou art all fair, my love” — all fair; “there is no spot in thee.” Yet the more we know of Christ, the more we know of ourselves; and as we walk with God, as the years roll by, we take lower and lower estimates of ourselves. Each year we think less of ourselves than we did the year before. So much is this the case that the heart is apt to become legal. The exceeding worthlessness of what we find within us is so apparent to us. How blessed then, notwithstanding all we see ourselves to be, that Christ says of us, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (vs. 7).

It is blessed to dwell upon the Lord’s thoughts of His people; to think of the Lord’s pity, and of His compassionate love, though that is not the love referred to in the Song. Here it is the love of complacency. He is rejoicing over His bride, and He speaks of her beauty and of her comeliness. But how can He find in us that which can delight Him? He does find that which is the joy and rejoicing of His heart, though not because of what we are in ourselves. It is all the result of what He Himself has invested us with. Jacob found in Rachel that which met the desires of his heart; and we find in Christ that which satisfies us; and Christ finds in His bride, the Church, that which delights His heart. “Ah!” you say, “it may be so when He will have presented us to Himself’ a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.’ Then the Church will be holy, and without blemish. Then all that which is worthless shall have been dropped, and only that which is His own perfect workmanship will abide.”

But that is not the moment to which this chapter points. That day of glory and exceeding joy will come; but what we find here is something more wonderful than what will then be shown forth. Here we learn that even now, whilst we tread the sand of the desert, on our way to the glory that awaits the bride and Bridegroom, He finds in the Church that which delights His heart. He waits in heaven at the Father’s right hand for the nuptial day. Whilst then He is the portion of our hearts, He finds in us the portion of His heart. Look at what He says. As the Bridegroom speaks of His bride, the expressions of His love and appreciation deepen. He says to her, “Thou hast ravished,” or taken away, “my heart; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.” Do we think of this? Do we believe it, beloved, that we are a joy to Him? We might well say of Him, that He has stolen away our hearts; but when He says we have ravished His heart, surely it is a wonderful thing. His delight is found in us; in the one He calls His bride.

It is not the individual believer, but the collective thing that is here spoken of. It is always the body of believers when the bridal affections of Christ are referred to; but in order that our souls, as a whole, may walk in the power of this wonderful truth, we must each individually be in the enjoyment of it. Each saint must dwell on that which Christ is seeking for in the assembly of His saints. It is through grace alone, I need not say, that any of us can enter into this — His joy concerning His own. But, I repeat, unless each one is individually enjoying it for himself and herself, we shall not, as a whole, answer to that which Christ is seeking us to be for Himself. There must be in your soul and in mine the sense of what we are to Christ. When this is known, and the heart has tasted it a little, we sigh to know it more deeply.

Look now at the response He gets from the bride. In chapter 1 she is heard to say, “Thy love is better

than wine.” She knows His love, and it is better to her than all beside; but His language exceeds hers. Hear what the Bridegroom says to her: “How much better is thy love than wine!” (4:10). What grace in Christ to say this of such poor heartless ones as you and me! Yet this is the estimate Christ forms of any little love He now finds in our souls to Him. “Thy lips,” He continues, “O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue.” Every word that falls from the lip, all that is the fruit of grace in the soul, is to Him like the droppings from the honeycomb. In Scripture honey indicates that which is food as well as refreshment. How such a scripture as this judges us! What has our conversation been? Has it been that which could feed as well as refresh the heart of the blessed Lord? “A garden enclosed,” He says,” is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” All this means she is entirely for Him, only for the Bridegroom. Ah, beloved, it is blessed when the soul gets to this! All that I am, and all that I have, belong to Him, to Jesus only. I am to be for Him here, and He says I am His own. He wants me for Himself. Is not His desire enough to make each soul surrender fully to Him? “He died... that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15).

But the Bridegroom enlarges on what the bride is to Him. “Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits: camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” Such is Christ’s appreciation of “His own,” and we should have the sense of all this in our souls, of what He sees His people to be. If we carried in our souls more the thought of what we are to Christ, He would be more to us. The eye would then be more off our lives, and off one another. Then would our gaze on Him be more steady, and the joy of our souls be more calm and holy. Then we should be more jealous of that which would cause any distance between our souls and Christ. We would watch with eagerness its approach, and be able to shun it.

But He cares for His glory, and does preserve us for Himself; so we read, “Awake, O north wind.” He sends His north wind, bearing its wave of trouble to rouse the careless one. We do not like this; but it is good and wholesome for the spices in His garden. It shakes them out. The wind gets through the branches, and the fragrance is poured forth. Trouble checks us. It casts us on God, and presses out that which is of Christ in us. Thus we learn what He would teach us. Then He can vary His dealings; the wind is changed. He says, “Come, thou south wind, and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” He gives deep enjoyment of Himself. He makes the sun of His presence to shine in upon our souls, and the heart turns to Him, and says, “Let my Beloved come into his garden.” The joy of communion is then known and enjoyed. Then the heart says: I am all for my Beloved. “I am my Beloved’s, and his desire is towards me. Let him eat his pleasant fruits.” The soul enters into His thought as to His bride. And how does He respond to her desire to have Him near her? “I am come,” He says, “into my garden, my sister, my spouse.” He appreciates that which is devoted to Him. He says, as it were, “It is all mine; “for, “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.” As the soul enters into communion, and is conscious that He draws near, the heart goes out more and more to Him, and says, “Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”

But as we thus muse on this joy of communion between the Bridegroom and His bride, we may well bow our heads in humiliation, and say, How little have we known of it! How little can we have been the joy and rejoicing of His heart! True, very true; yet faith lays hold of God’s estimate of things.

Turn for a moment to 2 Corinthians 11:2, and see how the apostle sums up this matter. “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” The Song of Solomon does not go beyond the day of espousals, but Paul points to the nuptial day, when the espoused one will be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. What does he mean by a chaste virgin? It is one who is true, about whom a breath of reproach could not have been; so he warns them: “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” We need more of this simplicity, brethren — the simplicity that is in Christ. Let our souls awake! Let us be able to say before Him, “He is everything to mc, and I am everything to Him.”

Jehoshaphat's Victory: Prayer, Fasting and Praise

(2 Chronicles 20:1-30.)

I sometimes ask young converts how they can best please the Lord. How can you best please the Lord? I should very much like to hear what you would say. I have had all sorts of answers. One said to me,” Work for Him.” It is a very blessed privilege to work for Him, and a very sweet thing service is. But there is something better than service, and there is something far more important for the saint to get into his soul than even the thought of service.

I was very much struck once, when a beloved brother, now gone to his rest, said to me, “How can you best please the Lord?” I began thinking, and he said to me, “Turn to the sixty-ninth Psalm, verses 30 and 31: I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.” Of course, I saw his point then.

But how beautiful this is, “I will praise the name of God with a song.” Of course, the ox and the bullock present the simple thought of service. There is something the Lord enjoys more than service.

How can I best please the Lord? “I will praise the name of God with a song,” is the divine answer. We often have prayer-meetings, but I wish we more often had a praise-meeting.

Jehoshaphat had one, in the striking chapter we have read, under very peculiar circumstances.

It was a crisis in his history. We have to meet crises, individually, and I think collectively too. Jehoshaphat and all about him were then confronted by a very great difficulty. “It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi” (2 Chron. 20:1-2). Well, what did they do? “And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” Ah, you will never get a right real praise-meeting, until you first fear, and then fast, while seeking the Lord. That is it, my brethren. Do you set yourselves to seek the Lord? I am a very useless piece of goods if I am not setting myself to seek the Lord. How can we get on without His power and grace? Do you ever have a fast-meeting? I recommend you to have one. I will tell you where you will come out at the end of it. You will come out a great deal nearer heaven than before it.

Prayer and fasting are often found together in Scripture, and their importance is clear. When His disciples inquired why they could not cast out a demon, our Lord replied, “This kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). Again, when the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” the assembly of God at Antioch apprehended the gravity of the call, fell into line, so to speak, “And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3). The assembly was fully identified with their mission by fasting, prayer, and laying on of hands. I think when it says a fast in Scripture, it means a fast. Frequently one hears it said, “That means a moral state.” Do you think it was only a moral state at Antioch? The moral state existed, and it showed itself by a material fast, which was not commanded, so far as we read. I fear that word moral is going to ruin us. If we said we were going to have a fast-meeting tomorrow, I wonder how many would be there? Would you and I be there? I shall never forget a day, when a lot of dear young brethren, in London, whose hearts were troubled about the lack of devotedness, and greatly desirous of a revival of interest in the gospel, said, “Might we meet before God for a day of fasting and prayer?” It was arranged, and I spent the day with them. It was about the best day I ever had on earth.

Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast, and Judah gathered themselves together. I think they felt the difficulty. With one consent they gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. They said, Lord, what are we to do? The heart of God was charmed that day. Yes, charmed. It is what He longs to see, His people counting on, and confiding in Him. “And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord” (vs. 4). Notice, they came out of all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. You show me one good, bright, earnest, fervent brother in a district. He will have a fine effect upon those round about him. Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord, and then all Judah began to seek the Lord. That was the effect. You have one man moving many here, and you will find that God has always had His men all along the line of testimony. He prepared them, and communicated His mind to them, and then used them to affect others. Here then you have fearing, fasting, and praying, an invincible trio, for Scripture well says, “Two are better than one ... and a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:9-12). Let us all go in for the three.

“And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in Thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand Thee? Art not Thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend forever?” (vss. 5-7). Jehoshaphat turns to God in a most simple way. Oh, beloved brethren, get hold of God, hang on Him simply. We have a great deal too much of hanging on men nowadays. We are not hanging simply and sufficiently on God. This man hangs confidently on God, as he prays, “Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend forever?” He has a beautiful grip of God’s purposes, as he refers to Abraham. Jehoshaphat was a bold man. Nobody ever had said that Abraham was the friend of God.

Had he said that God was Abraham’s friend it would have been only blessedly true, but to call him “Thy friend” was faith indeed.

But Jehoshaphat recollected that in a day when the thunder-cloud of God was about to burst on the godless cities of the plain of Sodom (see Gen. 18-19), God had made known His mind to Abraham. We all tell our friends our thoughts and plans. When Abraham learned that judgment was about to fall on Sodom, he began to intercede for Lot, a saint settled down in a worldly filthy city, with his family terribly mixed up with the world. Judgment too is hanging over this scene, and we should occupy the lovely place of intercessors for a doomed world. I wonder if the Holy Spirit could write about you and me, that we were the friends of God. What showed Abraham to be God’s friend was that he was a man whose heart was devoted to the interests of the Lord, and that interest showed itself by intercession for God’s people. How I long for this, my dear friends, for you, for myself, and for all God’s people.

Jehoshaphat reminds God of Abraham’s devotedness. He says, Lord, you used to have a friend down here. We talk about God being our friend. Hallelujah for that! But Abraham was the friend of God. That is manifest, for nearly two hundred years after this, God, by the pen of His prophet, in an appeal to His people, endorses Jehoshaphat’s statement, saying, “But thou, Israel, art My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend” (Isa. 41:8). “Thy friend” says Jehoshaphat. Yes, “My friend!” replies God. It was faith that secured Abraham this splendid title. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:21-23). No earthly title can eclipse that heavenly honor, “The Friend of God.” Let us all go in for it. It is a great thing to be God’s man, and God’s friend, in a day of declension as this is.

Let us continue Jehoshaphat’s prayer. He reminds God that He had given the land of Palestine to His people Israel: “And they dwelt therein, and have built Thee a sanctuary therein for Thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in Thy presence, (for Thy name is in this house,) and cry unto Thee in our affliction, then Thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom Thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of Thy possession, which Thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children” (2 Chron. 20:8-13). God’s house in Jerusalem was then the gathering place of His people, and there prayer was to be made in days of difficulty. Now the house of the Lord is the assembly, and its gathering center is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I have the wonderful privilege today of taking up before God all that concerns Him, in the name of His own blessed Son, with the assurance that He will hear and help. God is a God of encouragement, and what He delights to do for our souls is to encourage us.

Ah, my friends, it is a great thing to have the Name of the Lord as our center, and to taste the joy of the Lord in our midst. To ensure this, what God wants is simplicity. He wants you just to be what you are. And what are you? If you are a believer in Jesus, you are a child of God, an heir of glory, and you are of the company of the sanctified. You belong to that blessed One on high. You are His, and He is yours. And all His heart, all His strength, and all that He is, is yours; and “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” So that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear. What shall man do unto me?” (Heb. 13:6). The fact is, a saint that is right with God, goes through this dark world like a glow-worm. As you pass through this scene, you go with the exhilarating sense that you have no power save that which is of God, and that is infinite. You have, and are to count on all the resources of God being with you in the day of battle. What a wonderful thing it is to be a saint of God in the night of Christ’s absence.

Look now at Jehoshaphat’s many enemies. Bear in mind that they were his blood relations. Very often our greatest difficulty arises from our relations, according to the flesh. The children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, were Judah’s relations according to the flesh. They were descendants of Lot and Esau. The difficulty was to know how to deal with them. Jehoshaphat’s prayer was charming. “We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee” (vs. 12). Ah, that is beautiful” Our eyes are upon thee!” The Lord help you and me, beloved brethren, to turn our eyes more upon Him. Whose eyes were turned Godward that day? “And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” Do you bring your children to the prayer-meeting? “Oh no,” you say, “we leave them at home.” They were wiser in Jehoshaphat’s day. “Oh, but we cannot keep them quiet.” Then there must be something wrong at home — a screw loose somewhere. It is not the divine order for the men to come to the meetings, and to leave the little ones with the wives at home. But you say, That was a great crisis. I admit it was a crisis, but “Thou and thy house” is a great principle all through Scripture, and in proportion as we neglect it I believe we restrain God’s arm.

“Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation; and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz: and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you” (vss. 14-17). Notice that Jahaziel was a Levite, one of the sons of Asaph. He was a singing man. I like to meet a singing saint, one who is marked by constantly praising the name of God with a song. It was one of these singers that came out that day. He was, so to speak, a simple brother in the meeting, but he had the mind of the Lord that day, as he rings out to the praying congregation, “Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” How beautiful! The work is God’s. The whole testimony is God’s. And it is a great thing to let God do His own work in His own House.

I believe the secret of much of our failure and defeat is, that we are rather like Uzzah (see 2 Sam. 6:1-8). We think He cannot do without our help, but He can. God can take care of His own ark — Christ.

The great point is to have the sense that God is ever working for the glory of His blessed Son. Nevertheless I think we should sec a great deal more of His work made manifest if there were more prayer and fasting. When saints are not very happy, they sigh. If they are happy, they sing (James 5:13). If you are walking with God, you will pray with the man that is afflicted, and, if you are happy in your soul, you will sing with the brother that sings. It is the Spirit that produces joy in the soul, and that relieves itself in song. The question of having a voice, as men say, has nothing to do with it. I remember a dear brother, a fisherman, who was in the Edinburgh Infirmary when I was a Resident Physician there. He had leave to go out on the Lord’s Day mornings to meet with the saints for the Lord’s Supper. On his return, he said: “Oh, it was graund, the presence o’ the Lord, and the singin’ was se sweet. Ye ken, doctor, I hae nae v’ice, se I canna’ sing masel, but I aye mak’ a joyfu’ noise.” His heart was overflowing with the grace of the Lord. And, brethren, the Lord stir us up a little bit more to that. He loves to hear our songs.

“Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you,” must have been a most cheering and comforting word to them in that day of difficulty. If the Lord is with us, we are all right. But if the Lord is not with us, it is an awful thing. To merely have the ark in the midst as Israel had (see 1 Sam. 4:1), without the presence and power of God, will not do. Assumption God will always expose. He can take care of His ark, or, if need be, let it pass into the enemy’s hand, for their discomfiture. God will have reality, and all we have to do is to be what we are, confessedly nothing.

“And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord” (vs. 18). There is a distinct step here. God’s testimony leads now not to praying and fasting, but to worship. Jehoshaphat is a worshipper, and all Judah with him. The sense of God’s gracious answer to their cry brings about a worship-meeting. You cannot manufacture that; you cannot get that up. Worship is the overflowing of a heart filled with what God is. You never can get it save by the power of the Spirit of God, and you cannot have it apart from the delight of the soul in Christ. When He fills the vision of our souls there is real worship.

“And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever” (vss. 19-21). Now you get the song breaking out. You have had the fasting, the prayer, and the worship, and then the song comes out. All was very simple, and very proper. Jehoshaphat’s faith was in full exercise, as he says: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” Confidence in God secured full deliverance, and faith sang its songs of victory before a blow was struck. “Praise the Lord; for His mercy endureth forever,” rent the heavens. That is, they really had a thanksgiving meeting over the victory before the battle began.

The appointed singers lead the army, and the moment the song begins to rise to the Lord, the Lord begins to work. “And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped” (vss. 22-24). There is no battle, and no fighting. All the difficulties melt away, as every foe helped to destroy another. “And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day” (vss. 25-26). What a victory! Their only work was a three days’ gathering of the spoil, and on the fourth day a renewed worship-meeting in the valley of Berachah, followed up by a return home with joy.

It is a great thing if saints are animated by a spirit similar to that given in this scene. It will lead them to fling their souls into God’s work, not only the gospel, but every branch of it. The evangelist’s is an important gift, but if the evangelist has done his work, what a privilege all saints have in taking care of the new-born souls, to nurse them, and lead them on. That was evidently found in the Church in early days. Each servant and his work was intimately connected with the assembly. His heart was in it because Christ was in its midst. On the other hand, the assembly was deeply interested in his work. If God make you the means of the conversion of a soul, my heart ought to be interested in that person, to feed, and lead such an one on.

Without denying this, I often hear this kind of a speech, “Of course it is right to help, but as I do not see what I can do, I have a little difficulty.” I think that little word “I” is the difficulty. “I” is just a straight line, and you would think it to be the smallest, whereas in fact it is the fattest and biggest letter in all the alphabet. It would be a real victory if we could drop the “I” altogether, and just inquire, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). My brother, that is the whole point. Do not forget that the Lord “gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch” (Mark 13:34). To every one of us He has given some little bit of service to do for Him here.

Jehoshaphat’s victory was followed by great praise and joy (vs. 26). They had a real praise-meeting in the valley of Berachah. That is the valley of blessing. If our hearts are set to win victories for Christ now, we shall have praise and joy too, as we see souls won for Christ. That is not everything, because we may not always be privileged to see this fruit of the gospel. Our responsibility is not to bring all the world to Christ, but our responsibility is to bring Christ to all the world I repeat, we are not responsible to bring all the world to Christ, but I believe God has given us the privilege, as well as responsibility of bringing Christ to all the world. How are we answering to this responsibility?

When the day of blessing and thanksgiving had concluded, we read, “Then they returned, every man

of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalters and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord” (vss. 27- 28). They get back to the assembly, as it were. Because you know, beloved brethren, every Christian ought to be like a bee. The bee goes out and labors all the day, and then it comes laden to the hive. If you have gathered anything, bring it back to the hive. We must love the assembly, and live for it too, in the widest sense. Paul writes of “the love which ye have to all the saints,” not only the nice ones (Col. 1:4).

The point is, the assembly of God is still on earth, and we should each live in view of it. You are not the assembly. I hope you do not think you are. Do you, who in this city gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, think you are the assembly? You are of it, and thank God you are gathered on the ground and basis of it, but we must not forget that we are not it. It includes all God’s saints on earth today. I shall never forget what our dear brother, Mr Darby, once said at a meeting at Torquay in November 1863. There had been a good bit talked that day about our being “God’s testimony.” “Well,” said he, “brethren may be God’s testimony, if they keep their heads down, but if they do not they will be a testimony, not to God, but a testimony to their own folly and weakness.” Wholesome words! Let us heed them!

We are apt to get a little lop-sided. We all need to get back to Scripture. Scripture corrects us, as well as directs us. God always supposes you will go right. If we should go wrong, correction comes in to help us. We are not to think that we are the people, and that wisdom will die with us (Job 12:2). It will not! God has given us light and truth. Let us seek grace to answer to it, by going out, and living Christ on every hand. It is not what I say, but what I am, that is of such importance.

In connection with the truth of the assembly, let us never forget that, though we are on the ground of it, we are not it. There are thousands of saints in this town who are part of God’s assembly. They are not in function and order. They are in disorder. And the effort of every one of our souls should be to help them in the Spirit of Christ, and in no other way can we do so.

Who is on the Lord’s side,

Who will serve the King?

Who will be His helpers

Other lives to bring?

Who will leave the world’s side,

Who will face the foe?

Who is on the Lord’s side?

Who for Him will go?

Not for weight of glory,

Not for crown and palm,

Enter we the army,

Raise the warrior psalm;

But for love that claimeth

Lives for whom He died:

He whom Jesus nameth

Must be on His side’

Fierce may be the conflict,

Strong may be the foe;

But the King’s own army

None can overthrow:

Round His standard ranging,

Victory is secure,

For His truth unchanging

Makes the triumph sure.

Nehemiah and His Workers

I desire for a few moments, beloved brethren, to direct your attention to Nehemiah 8, which shows us the result of being devoted. We find in this chapter the deepest blessing that could be imagined for any soul. Nothing in the history of God’s ancient people presents a greater picture of the grace of God. The blessing of the faithful ones is seen to be higher even than in the palmy days of King Solomon. I speak of it that together we may encourage our hearts in the Lord, and that we may inquire what similarity there is between our circumstances and those of the remnant in Nehemiah’s day. Those of whom this chapter speaks were a little company just emerged from captivity. They were setting themselves to please the Lord. Blessed object for any people, beloved!

Turn for a moment to 2 Chronicles 1:1, and you will there find a point of great importance. It is said with regard to King Solomon that “God was with him,” and in Pentecostal days this fact was acknowledged with regard to the Church. God was known to be in the midst of His gathered ones. He showed also He was there in the judgment of evil which appeared amongst them. A holy fear controlled the hearts of men, and we read, “By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; and of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them, and believers were the more added to the Lord” (Acts 5:12). Also in verse we read, “Great fear came upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these things,” so that in the world it was known God was with His saints, and amongst the saints themselves there was a wholesome fear of that which would not please the One whom they knew to be with them.

But things had changed since the days of King Solomon. All had turned aside, and the children of Israel had been carried into captivity. In their exile God spake to them by His servants, and in Nehemiah we read of a few who had answered to the prophet’s call. We find in 2 Chronicles 36:23 that Cyrus, King of Persia, took up the prophet Jeremiah’s warning, and issued a proclamation to the captives in Babylon. These were his words: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth bath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with hint, and let him go up.” That which marked the King of Israel in the days of magnificence and power, we find promised to the one who set himself in the day of ruin, to please the Lord his God, and to obey His word. What wonderful encouragement! A company had gone up according to the decree of Cyrus, and in Nehemiah 1:1 we find them at work in the land of Judaea.

In Ezra we get the account of the building of the house. The setting up of the altar, and building of the house in the name of the Lord, may be regarded as a picture of that which God has done in these last days through a remnant of His people. The power of the name of Jesus has been asserted as God’s gathering point for His saints. We are gathered by the Spirit of God, now in this world, to the divine center — the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus is to us what the altar and the temple were to the returned captives of Judah. Look at Nehemiah 1 and you will see amongst these people a picture of deep devotedness to God. The house was built, and the altar was there; but the condition of the remnant who sought to do the work of the Lord was far from what it should have been. This devoted servant of God saw this, and what did he do? He betook himself to prayer. “Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant, which I pray before Thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against Thee....These are Thy servants and Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power” (vss. 6-11).

It is blessed, beloved, when by the Spirit the question is raised in our hearts, “Is there amongst us that which suits the heart of God?” and more especially when the result of such heart-searching is to send us to our knees in self-abhorrence before God. The state of the remnant exercised the heart of Nehemiah, and prayer to God was the resource his soul prized. There is a personal character about all this, and individual teaching for each of us, beloved brethren. If the condition of the remnant in Israel was to be raised, the work of individual self-judgment was the means to that end, and if we, as a whole, are to be revived, we must begin at home. In such a way Nehemiah acted. “He sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (chap. 1:4). His sorrow was real and deep; his countenance was marked by the sorrow which burdened his spirit. The king remarked his looks; for Nehemiah was sad in the presence of the king, who said to him, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then Nehemiah told the king the cause of his sadness. “The city of my fathers lieth waste,” said he, “and the gates thereof are consumed with fire” (chap. 2:3). And the king encouraged him to make known his desires; but what does Nehemiah first do? Ah, this is beautiful! “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” When there is real desire to do God’s will, there will be much looking to God, to know what the desire of His heart for His servant is. Having prayed, Nehemiah makes his request to the king. He asked for twelve years’ leave of absence, that he might do the work of God, and rebuild the waste places of Jerusalem. He prayed to God before he made his request, and the desire of his heart was granted. The king also gave him letters to the governor, and an escort for the way.

Thus prospered, Nehemiah came to Jerusalem; but, alas! he found no one interested in the work he sought to do, and, single-handed, what could he do? Well, by night he surveyed the city. Thus he made himself acquainted with the state of affairs, and then he tried to interest the children of the captivity. “Come,” said he to them, “let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.” Then he told them of the goodness of God, and the king’s words to him; and what effect had this upon them? They said: “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (chap. 2:18). Such was the effect of devotedness in one man. The influences of one such on those round about is unspeakable. The Lord stir up our hearts, each one, that there may be this real devotedness working amongst us!

But no sooner is this real devotedness manifested than opposition shows itself. What would now answer to the devotedness which we see in Nehemiah? Souls being in the place the Holy Spirit would gather them to, and, when there, the heart answering to the claims of Him to whose name they are gathered. Beloved, if you give yourself to this, you may expect to be opposed. Satan ever sets himself against that which is really for God. Nehemiah and his brethren soon found this out. They were loaded with scorn by Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian. How would you have liked that? See how Nehemiah met his opposers! He said, “The God of heaven will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build the wall: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (chap. 2:20). Nehemiah knew who sent him to do the work, and he purposed to do it as God would have him. He took up very exclusive ground. What an example he is to us! I exhort you, and seek for myself to go in for this thorough carrying out of God’s will. We are to seek to please Him, and He will prosper us.

The third chapter of this book is very interesting. It shows the record God keeps — how He marks our doings. Each company of workers is spoken of, and what each one did. Notice what is said of the Tekoites. They were so devoted that when they had finished their own work they directed their efforts elsewhere, and repaired “another piece” (chap. 3:27). But another thing is said of some amongst the Tekoites; for everything is marked by God — “Their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord” (chap. 3:5). I call this chapter a specimen page of the book of eternity. It shows what note God makes of the actions of His saints. It is the Old Testament parallel to what we get in Romans 16 of the New Testament. There again the deeds of saints are recorded, and divine comment made upon them. Phoebe is spoken of as a servant of the Church, and the succorer of many. Such was the letter of commendation the apostle could send with her when she went into a new gathering of saints. Alas! it is not often we can write such letters regarding each other. But some one asks, “Are not all the letters of commendation the same?” The apostle’s were not all the same, if we may judge from Romans 16 He is careful to give each credit for the service which marked him; and in Nehemiah 3 the Spirit of God notices the particular work which each company, and even individuals, did in the service of the Lord in that day.

Just look at verse 10, where the work of an individual is recorded — “Next unto them repaired Jeclaiah, the son of Harumaph, even over against his house.” This is very instructive. The Lord sees and knows what is needed to be done over against our own houses. He takes knowledge of the work of saints, even when engaged on what they deem very small service. Home labor is little seen by man, but God marks it well. It is most important service. You may not be able to pray in the assembly; it is not the place God has given to some to do so; but have you unconverted ones at home? Do you seek their souls for Christ? Do you seek so to live that Christ is commended to them? This is service very pleasing to God, and in His book you will find it has its own record. “Jedaiah worked over against his own house.”

But some may not have houses of their own; they lodge in the house of another. Then the service of such an one we find mentioned in verse 30, “After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.” He did his bit of work there, and it also is taken into account. The service of the sisters has its record here also, “Next unto him repaired Shallum, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters” (vs. 12). A lovely sight! There was a thoroughly united household — the daughters heart and soul with their father in the work of the Lord. But all did not work alike, and that also the Lord takes notice of in verse 20, “Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece.” We may well labor earnestly, for who is the One we are called to serve? The Christ of God. And the building, of which we are the living stones, is the habitation of God through the Spirit. An earthly city was the object of desire with the remnant in Nehemiah’s day, but how far surpassing is the one God has given to us — the Person of the Christ! We are living stones of the temple He builds.

What motives have we to be in earnest, beloved! Our calling is a heavenly one; but like the returned

captives of whom we have read, we have come out of Babylon. We have made our exit out of that which will culminate in the spiritual Babylon of Revelation 18. They came from the literal city. We do not come out of the house of God; it would be a mistake to say that, for we are part of that house; but we are to separate ourselves from that which is not according to the Word of God — from the evil that has crept into the house of God. Our calling is to please God. Have we all set out with purpose of heart to do this? If we are faithful in this we may expect opposition; mockery and anger too may be hurled on us. This the remnant of Israel got.

“When Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves?” (4:1-2). But there was more than this. Tobiah the Ammonite heard what Sanballat said, and he also spoke contemptuously, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall” (vs. 3). Thus was the work of these true-hearted servants despised on all hands. Sanballat mocked them, and Tobiah looked upon their work as contemptible. And are there not Sanballats and Tobiahs now, who speak of the truth for which we contend in a similar way? Alas! there are amongst the children of God some who, from lack of knowledge of what the Lord, by His Spirit, is doing in these last days, oppose His truth most warmly, and have said of us, “Their work will all come to nothing.” Now, let us learn from the captives of Israel how to meet such mockery and contempt. We read (4:4), they prayed, “Hear, O our God; for we are despised,” and so forth. They told God they were despised, and they contented themselves to leave their defense in His hands. They believed He would care for His work and justify them.

Further, we read (4:6) the people “had a mind to work.” Perhaps now and then we have a mind to work; but do we come together to pray about the work, as did Nehemiah and his people? Thus only can we be strengthened to go on to the praise of God. If there is not more expression of our dependence on God, the Lord will break us up, beloved. Prayer was always the resource of the captives in Nehemiah’s day, and it should far more characterize us. As the enmity against these servants of Jehovah grew hotter, the more we read of their unwavering confidence in God — “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night” (chap. 4:9). They prayed, they watched, and they worked with a mind. They were in downright earnest. Ah, my friends, would to God these traits were all more seen in us!

But it was not all bright; decay began to show itself amongst the workers. Read chapter 4:10, “And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.” Here is the beginning of internal weakness. Hitherto what hindered success came from without; but now faint-heartedness appears in the workers; yet there was amongst them a devoted one, who was equal to the moment. Let us see how he acted: “Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall,” said Nehemiah, “and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (chap. 4:13-14). And what effect had these words of Nehemiah? “And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.” Blessed effect! Their hearts were turned to the Lord when they felt their feebleness; thus were they strengthened to go on. They counted on the great and terrible God, who brought the work and counsel of the sneering to naught, and the faint-hearted burden-bearer was again set heartily to work.

But the workmen were watchmen as well as builders. Read verse 16: “From that time forth, the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons ... every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so budded.” The sword and the trowel are as needed in our day as in theirs. Then at verse 23 they seem to have reached the highest point of devotedness: “So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.”

I pass over chapter 5 with but little comment. There was internal trouble, and it came out. It is a poor thing when we fall out amongst ourselves. Satan is not careful what instrument he uses if only he can stop the work of God. His greatest victory is when discord is sown amongst the Lord’s people. From verse 15 we learn what it was which ever kept the soul of Nehemiah right: “But so did not I, because of the fear of God.” Thus was his heart in the presence of God.

In chapter 6 we find the enemy making another and most determined effort. If he cannot succeed by attacking the captives from without, and if the internal trouble is settled, he will now try to get the remnant to be less exclusive. “Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of One. But they thought to do me mischief” (chap. 6:2). Here is the cry for union: “Why are you so exclusive? Cannot you join with us in the work of the Lord? “Now, beloved, Nehemiah teaches us, and Jeremiah also, how we are to meet all such advances. God in His grace has called us out from the evil that has come into His Church, and we must be careful not to lessen in the eyes of others, nor to lose the sense in our own souls, of the distance between the ground on which we are, and that out from which we have come. Beloved saints of God are where we were, but true love will cause us to walk in the light we have received, that they also may learn and obey the truth in the love of it.

Listen to what Nehemiah said to the messengers of Sanballat and Geshem, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (chap.6:3). This was a beautiful answer. So sure as we depart practically from the ground of thorough separation to which our Lord has called us, our strength will be seen to go. Any vacillation brings in weakness. In the world it is said, “Nothing succeeds like success;” but, amongst saints, “Nothing succeeds like consistency.” Nehemiah said, “Why should the work cease whilst I come down to you?” And Jeremiah said another very plain, and most helpful word, which it is well we should heed, each one of us: “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth; let them return unto thee, but return thou not unto them” (Jer. 15:19). The separated one must say, “I am here for God, and I must abide with God.” But if Nehemiah will not listen to this proposal, Satan will put forth one more effort. Tobiah, Sanballat, and others, sought to make Nehemiah afraid, but again he goes to prayer. In everything he turns to God, and at verse 15 we read: “So the wall was finished in fifty-two days. And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.”

Then chapter 7:2 shows that Hanani and Hananiah were put in charge of Jerusalem, and a very beautiful thing is said of one of these men. Of Hananiah it is said,” He was a faithful man, and feared God above many.” A lovely thing to be able to say of a brother in the Lord. May we merit such a comment! Let us seek so to live, that in truth this could be said of us.

In the eighth chapter two things come out — a deepening love for, and intelligence in, the Word of God. “The Levites caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”... And all the people wept when they heard the words of the law (vss. 7-9). Ah! the word had great power that day on the hearts and consciences of the people. And what followed this real heart-searching? Blessing, of course. “Nehemiah and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said, Mourn not, nor weep, neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” And at verse 12 we read of great mirth, “because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.” They wept, for they knew how weak they were; but joy filled their hearts because God was their strength. It is well to feel our weakness, and to acknowledge it; but what cause for joy when we learn the strength of the Lord is ours! The joy of the Lord must be that which sustains us. Then we have strength outside, and in spite, of all circumstances. Individually we ought to be so happy and so sure of our position that we have a portion to give to others. Streams of blessing should flow from us; we should be a refreshment to every one who crosses our path.

Now I think we learn, from what has been traced in Nehemiah, that as the darkness increases so does the blessing of the soul that is faithful to God. 2 Chronicles 30:26 confirms what I have just said. There we find that the joy at Hezekiah’s passover exceeded all since the days of Solomon. Then we read in 2 Chronicles 35:18 that the passover kept in the days of Josiah surpassed any since the days of Samuel; but what is said of the feast in Nehemiah’s day, which the returned captives held after the wall of the city was finished? It excelled any since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun; “and there was very great gladness.” There had been no feast of booths since the first that Israel kept when they entered the land. It was the brightest point in all the history of God’s ancient people for the one who was faithful to God, though the surrounding darkness was greater than at any other stage of their history. So, no matter what the difficulty, there is joy as deep, for the saint who will do God’s will, in the days of decline, as in the first days when all was as God set it up.

What a comfort this is for us! Then let nothing hinder us; for if we make Christ our object, and “ have a mind to work,” our joy and blessing will be as great as was that of the Pentecostal saints, when all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and gladness and singleness of heart was characteristic of each one of them.

“I will never leave thee,

Never thee forsake;”

At Thy words, Lord Jesus,

We fresh courage take.

All may seem against us,

Everything give way;

Thou, O God, art for us,

Thou dost win the day.

Every source may fail us

In the deadly strife;

Thou, Lord, still remainest

Our eternal life.

Blest with every blessing

In Thyself above,

There in fullest favor

Loved with perfect love.

“I will never leave thee,

Never thee forsake;”

At Thy words, Lord Jesus,

We fresh courage take.

Daniel: Devotedness in Difficult Days

There is great profit to be found in the study of Daniel’s life. It is not Daniel as a prophet I turn your attention to, but Daniel as a saint, and a servant of God. You and I are not prophets. We are all saints. Daniel was a servant, and, through infinite grace, God has given us also the privilege of being His servants. We get the moral features brought out in this book that should ever mark the servant in a day of ruin, and confusion, among God’s people.

We are constantly reminded of the ruin, and the broken state of the Church. So patent is this that many a heart has said, “I will give it all up.” My dear brother, you may be a Daniel in this day of confusion and ruin, if you only have faith and purpose like him. Ten points strike me in Daniel’s history.

1. A Separate Man

Nothing could exceed the ruin in Daniel’s day. God’s people were in captivity. His house was destroyed, and the vessels thereof adorned the idol temples of Babylon. Daniel and his friends were captives in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, a godless monarch, who cared nothing for God or for His people. Of these captives, of royal and noble parentage, the king had selected a certain number. “And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; children in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah” (chap. 1:3-6). They had to undergo a three years’ curriculum at the college of Babylon, and were to live during their worldly pupilage, with all the surroundings of idolatry, and subject to immense temptation. There is no person exempt from temptation, but I conceive that Daniel and his fellow-students were subject to peculiar temptation, to drop their faith and their Nazariteship.

Now, beloved brethren, where Daniel made his first stand, is where we must begin. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (vs. 8). Daniel “purposed in his heart.” It is a fine thing to be a man of purpose. And I tell you what it is, you are no use, and you will never be of any use, unless you are a man of purpose. Barnabas, when he visited the young converts at Antioch, “Exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23). Paul could say to Timothy, “Thou hast fully known my purpose” (2 Tim. 3:10). I seek to cheer the young. Be men and women of purpose. So here, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” In plain language, he was a separate man. He was a self-denying, separate man, and an obedient man too.

This man had learned, I do not doubt, to read the Scriptures. He knew that the king’s meat had been offered to idols, and he also knew God’s mind as to the fat, and the blood. “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use; but ye shall in no wise eat of it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Lev. 7:23-27).

Then, moreover, he had read the sixth chapter of Numbers, where he learned that there was an opportunity for him of being a Nazarite in a day of difficulty, by being out and out for God. He would rise to that privilege, so he declined the king’s wine, as well as his meat. He would deny himself. He doubtless had carefully studied Leviticus 11 and 20. You know, what we feed on makes us. I am not talking only of the body now, but what the soul is occupied with. The first thing I notice is that he refuses entirely that which nature would have accepted and enjoyed. I have no doubt the devil said, “There is no use whatever in your setting up to be a Nazarite in this day of ruin; you are in Babylon, do as Babylon does.” I have a purpose in my heart, replies Daniel, and he stuck to it.

Having refused the king’s portion, Daniel chooses, and is allowed pulse and water. His action emboldens his fellows. They join him, and we find God blesses them. “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (vs. 17). Their education is from God.

2. An Enlightened Man

“Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm” (vss. 18-20). The moment you set yourself to really follow the Lord, it is wonderful what light the Lord will give you. Wisdom and knowledge will be vouchsafed to you in abundance, for you will be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” and will “ increase in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9, 10). “Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams,” and at the end of the three years at college is tested. The examination day came, and these four young men came out at the top of the class. When they came in, the king communed with them. They had apparently to go through an examination before the king.

I believe we meet with examination days when perhaps we least expect them. Where my soul is, and what I have been occupied with, really is declared then. The place these captive students get is a great encouragement. The world is before you, and I know very well the temptation it is to Christian young men and women to rather fall in with its ways. Sometimes they think it is necessary in order to get on in the business they have in hand. To me it is very nice to sec that the godliest of the lot were at the top of the class in Babylon. There is no gainsaying it, for “ in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm” (vs. 20). You give me a downright devoted saint, and you will find, in the long run, that he is ten times better than the most instructed worldly man, because he has light from God.

3. A Prayerful Man

When you come to the second chapter you find Daniel in difficulties. The king had asked the most preposterous thing. He called on his wise men to recall and interpret a long-forgotten dream. It was a

dream of many years ago manifestly (vs. 1). All the wise men were to be cut off if they could not declare it. “The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain” (vss. 10-13). Unless they could meet this difficulty there was nothing for them but the sword. But we find a very nice thing. Daniel goes to the king for time, and to God for light. “Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (vss. 16-18). In plain language, beloved friends, Daniel got his brethren together, and they had a prayer-meeting. Are there difficulties in your way? Have a prayer-meeting. That is my advice to you. He tells his brethren the difficulty, and gravity of the situation, and then says, We must have a prayer-meeting.

Well, what is the result? “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven” (vs. 19). And what is the next thing? Away goes Daniel to tell his brethren? No! You have beautiful order in his soul.

4. A Praiseful Man

He has a worship-meeting next. He blesses God. And you will find his soul goes out to God in a most beautiful way. “Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are His: and He changeth the times and seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank Thee, and praise Thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee: for Thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter” (vss. 20-23). Oh, how his soul reveled in what God was. What a true hold that man had of God. How his soul was entranced with the blessedness of having to do with God. “Thou hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee.” Mark that little word “we,” will you? He had sought the fellowship, you see, of his brethren in the matter of prayer, and in his thanks to God he takes his brethren in. He has deeply the sense in his soul of the blessedness of having to do with God. You have here then a separate man, a devoted man, a man whose ways are suitable to the Lord, and one who is intelligent in God’s ways. As a result he can tell the king exactly what is coming.

5. A Prosperous Man

“Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king” (vss. 48-49). Rewarded, and exalted himself, he does not forget those who were at the prayer-meeting. Everything is shared with them.

What a beautiful saint Daniel was! To me there is something very charming in his character. He reminds me in this way of the Apostle Paul, There was nothing small about either Daniel, or Paul. How little we are! What miserable pettiness and selfishness we often betray. We have been called to the enjoyment of the fullness of God’s things, and to alway continue sharing these things with others is of immense importance.

Daniel was a prayerful and praiseful man, and then, sharing all he received with his brethren, he prospered (see also 6:28). Here is the secret of a prospering saint. Mark, if I have light, it is not for myself, it is for others. We are only vessels, and God puts the light in us, hence, whether it be the gospel, or the truth connected with the Church, we are responsible to circulate and pass it on. And I believe, the truth that you and I may glean and gather, if we do not use and circulate it, will soon moulder in our very souls. We become the subjects of spiritual dry rot. Many of God’s dear children are suffering from this disease. They acquire truth, but no one else benefits.

Why? They have been so busy with themselves — so self-occupied, so self-absorbed — that they really have no time, and no heart to think of others. They keep, only eventually really to lose — for it dries up — what they should have been passing on. I think Daniel gives us a beautiful lesson in that respect.

6. A Faithful Man

The fifth and sixth chapters go together in illustrating this point. In the fifth he is brought in before King Belshazzar, and he is faithful indeed, as he foretells his doom. I am not speaking now of Daniel as a prophet, but as a saint. He is a fearless and faithful man, as he exposes the king’s sins, and tells Belshazzar what his end is to be. Look at his independence. How really independent is God’s man in every way. Nor does he want any reward. “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another” (vs. 17). He does not want the world’s gifts. Not one bit. He is dependent on the Lord alone. He receives everything from the Lord for himself, and he has something for everybody else down here. He is faithful to man in the fifth chapter, and, even so, made “the third ruler in the kingdom,” which ended that same night. How beautifully faithful he is to God in the sixth chapter we shall now consider.

7. A Hated Man

Daniel’s faithfulness, trustworthiness, and consequent promotion, led to his being well hated. I believe, beloved friends, to be thoroughly hated for Christ’s sake is a wonderful thing. When a man is here really for God, and the light, the truth, and the grace of God are streaming through that man, he is sure to be hated, and if he be hated for Christ’s sake, let him thank God. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets” (Luke 6:22-23). This the apostles did, for we read: “When they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:40-41). And again, it is written, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). The apostle Peter also says, “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled” (1 Peter 3:14). “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified” (1 Peter 4:13-14).

The root of the hatred against Daniel was his ever-increasing promotion by the successive monarchs he served so faithfully. His history in connection with Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus embraces seventy years. His exaltation commenced by Nebuchadnezzar making him a judge (Dan. 2:49), Belshazzar made him prime minister (vs. 29), and Darius continued him in office, with the added post of what I may call the king’s accountant-general. “It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first; that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage” (Dan. 6:1-2). This lofty position he received because he was so trusted.

“Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm” (vs. 3). An excellent spirit was in him. That is a very nice feature, beloved. A man’s spirit is infinitely more valuable than his communications. I may say, by God’s help, many a nice thing, and you may hear, enjoy, and then forget it. But if I have done anything nasty to you, you will never forget it. Oh, to be a Daniel in spirit! We shall never be prophets. We are not called by God in that way, but we can all cultivate an “excellent spirit.”

Daniel was not only a man of excellent spirit, but a man of practical righteousness, for his accounts were all right. Are your accounts all right? His moral uprightness and integrity, in all matters of trust, enhanced his value in the eyes of King Darius, who “thought to set him over the whole realm.” This raised the hatred of the Chaldeans. “Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him” (vs. 4). They thought to trip him up, but “could find none occasion nor fault.” A man of excellent spirit, and faithful, and no error or fault found in him. What a lovely character! Oh, how like Christ! “I find no fault in this man,” was said about the blessed Lord, and here is His servant morally like Him.

Daniel’s exaltation by the king does not exalt him in himself. The higher he goes, the lower he is in his own eyes. Blessed man!

Foiled in their effort to lower him in matters relating to the kingdom, his enemies take another course. “Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counselors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree” (vss. 5-9). What effect has this edict on Daniel? None whatever! He does not alter his course a hair’s breadth, but having faith in God, you will find that he is

8. A Preserved Man

“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God” (vss. 10-11). Daniel’s action was based on the Word of God. He had heard God’s Word saying that if His people were in captivity they were to pray to Him, and to look toward His house. “Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; if they return to Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which Thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Thy name: then hear Thou from the heavens, even from Thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Thy people which have sinned against Thee” (2 Chron. 6:37-39). Daniel acts on this scripture. He does not shut his windows, nor increase, nor lessen his petitions: he is just that day what he had been every day before. He was a very even saint. It was not the great difficulty that took him to his knees thrice daily. It was his custom, and of course his enemies found him in prayer. What a happy thing for saints to be known as prayerful, and to be found thus upon their knees.

Well then, he is cast into the den of lions. “Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake, and said unto Daniel, Thy God, whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee. And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of music brought before him; and his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” (vss. 16-20).

The point of this chapter is that the devoted man will be the delivered man. I will guarantee that Daniel had the best of it that night. I believe Darius spent a wretched night, fasting, and sleepless. I think if you and I had gone down to the den of lions we should have found Daniel sleeping soundly. Faith in God, and a good conscience are rare bed-fellows, specially in a lion’s den! The king spake in the morning with “a lamentable voice,” as he said, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? “How cheerily Daniel answered here: “O king, live forever! My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God” (vss. 21-23). He is a delivered man, and in the end of this chapter you find he is a prosperous man. “So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian” (vs. 28).

When you come to chapter 9 you find that he is unmistakably

9. A Man IdentifiedWith God’s People

Chapter 9 shows us Daniel again in prayer, and deep humiliation before God, on account of the sins and transgressions of His people. “In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from Thy judgments....Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name: for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name” (Dan. 9:2-5; 9:17-19). Nothing could exceed the moral beauty of this prayer. I beg you to read it all carefully. The man who is most clear of the sins confessed, is the one who confesses them most really to God. The sins of all Israel he owns as his; and while speaking in prayer is visited by Gabriel, and sweetly instructed as to Israel’s full restoration (see vers. 21-27). He really eats the sin-offering before God.

10. A Man Greatly Beloved

In the tenth chapter you will find he gets a wonderful revelation from the Lord. “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphas: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of His words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And He said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when He had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling” (Dan. 10:5-10). How near the Lord comes to him, as he says unto him, “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved I” What a touching address. He entered into the sense of how deeply the Lord loved him. The sense of the love of God is deep joy to the soul. “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved.” What a thrill must have gone through his heart as he heard it.

God sets great store by a character like Daniel’s. That is shown in Ezekiel 14 I do not know if you have ever noticed it. It is beautiful the way in which God speaks of His servants (vs. 14). “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God” (Ezek. 14:14-20). Noah was a just man, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Daniel was greatly beloved. He was a man whose outward character was spotless. And Job spake the thing that was right about God.

I commend this aspect of Daniel to your study. Just quietly work out in your own hearts the moral line that is marked through this book, and see how preserved is the man who is devoted, and separate, and how God can instruct, use, and comfort him. And the Lord give us beloved to be encouraged. I admit that there are great difficulties on all hands. But you and I may be little Daniels in the spot where we live, although the Church is all in ruin. May the Lord give us grace to be such for His own name’s sake!

Overcoming: Its Secret

(Matthew 4:1-11; 1 John 2:12-29)

It is, perhaps, not known to all, because many are young in the knowledge of the Lord, that the expression found very frequently in the epistle of John, “little children,” has a peculiar meaning in two places in the epistle, which I will point out to you. You will find “little children” a great many times in the epistle, but you may safely score out the word “little” in every one of those places, except in verses 13 and 18 of chapter 2. The word the Spirit of God uses commonly in the epistle is “children.” That is common to the whole family. It includes every child in God’s family.

For instance, in the first verse of chapter 2, it is, “My children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” A child of God is not supposed to sin. It does not say that he does not, but he is not supposed to practice sin, but righteousness, since the end of the chapter shows that he is born of God. “If ye know that he is righteous, know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (vs. 29). The child is expected to resemble the Father.

In the twelfth verse again it is, “I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Every child of God knows that his sins are forgiven. I want to be distinct about this at the beginning, because, if you are not clear as to the forgiveness of sins, you will not be able to enter into that which is in the verses that follow.

It will help you, to notice that from the thirteenth verse to the close of the twenty-seventh verse is a little parenthesis. In that section of the epistle you will observe there are three classes addressed, Fathers, Young men, and Little children, and addressed twice over. The apostle addresses all the classes in verse thirteen. Then, in the first half of the fourteenth verse, he addresses the fathers, and in the last half of the verse, he addresses the young men, and so continues to the end of verse seventeen. And then in the eighteenth verse again, you get, “Little children,” that is, the babes in Christ, and their instruction continues to the end of verse twenty-seven.

You have thus three classes in the family of God, which are marked off from each other by a spiritual condition which is the result of growth and experience. It is not a question of age as regards the length of time you may have known the Lord. But it is spiritual growth, and spiritual progress. There are fathers, and there are those that are young men, but there are those also who are babes. And to them, with great affection, the apostle writes more fully than to the others. Elsewhere in the epistle the instruction is what belongs to all God’s children in common.

And now, first of all, before I touch the three classes, look at the twelfth verse: “I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Now, it is very blessed to sec that is where God starts. If a believer in His Son, you are in His family, and you are there as a perfectly, and absolutely forgiven child. You are there as a child, and the first thing you know is this relationship. There is one thing too that every child of God is entitled to know, and supposed to know, and that is, that his sins are all forgiven. He is in the enjoyment of the blessed knowledge that everything that was between him and God has all been put away by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the testimony which is proclaimed in the gospel. “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). That which the gospel presents, every child in the family of God is supposed to enjoy, for it is the common property of every member thereof, and, if he does not enjoy it, he is not in the privilege of the family.

Well now, come to that which is specific. “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning” (vs. 13). What marks a father is the knowledge of Christ. He knows Christ. Christ is before him. It is Christ that forms his life. It is all Christ. Christ his soul feeds on, Christ he is sustained by, Christ he is upheld by. He has not a thought, so to speak, apart from Christ. Christ is the subject of his conversation. In fact you will know a father by this. And the saint that is not this is not a father. We may just as well let our souls feel the truth of God’s Word. “Ye have known Him that is from the beginning.” Christ indeed is everything to the one who is a father.

Oh! there is something very blessed in meeting with a saint that is in this condition. You cannot go near that Christian without being impressed. The soul that is living in the abiding enjoyment of Christ, is a father. And observe, the apostle can say no more. Because to know Christ, to know the love of Christ, to be in the enjoyment of that which is unfolded by Christ is everything, beloved friends, to the believing and loving soul. Because what will be our joy forever is Christ. Our hearts will delight in the ever-deepening enjoyment of the knowledge of that blessed One, who fills the very heart of God with joy.

Then he passes on to the young men. “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one” (vs. 13). That which marked them is this, they were superior to the wiles and the power of Satan. Now so far from Scripture supposing that Satan is to overcome us, you see that what it records of a young man is this, that he possesses an energy of soul that leads him so to walk, and so to act, that Satan is overcome. How that takes place I think we learn in a later verse.

And now he speaks to the little children. “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father” (vs. 13). Now if you were only converted last night, and you have the sense that God has forgiven you, well, at once, after forgiveness, there always comes the reception of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of sonship (see Acts 10:43-47; Eph. 1:13). I see in Scripture, that the soul receiving the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of pardon, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, receives the Holy Spirit also. You not only receive the forgiveness of sins, but you receive the Holy Spirit.

Peter, when preaching to the household of Cornelius, did not tell them they should receive the Holy Spirit. What he did say was this: “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” And then we read, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.” And I beg you to notice, three verses after, that Peter says, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?”

He told them that, upon believing on Jesus, they should receive the forgiveness of their sins, and we see that they received that blessing, because they received the Holy Spirit also. It is the reception of the Spirit that puts the soul in its new place before God. “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (Rom. 8:9). If you are in the Spirit, the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Further, the moment you have the Holy Spirit, He sheds the love of God abroad in your heart (Rom. 5:5). What is the next thing? The Spirit of sonship. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:13-16). We are the children of God, and having received the Spirit of adoption, we cry, “Abba, Father.” Wondrous words! They are used only thrice in the New Testament. Once by our blessed Savior when addressing His Father, in the agony of Gethsemane’s garden (Mark 14:36), and twice they are put into our lips by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).

How good it is to find the beloved apostle John saying, “I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.” The essence of Christianity is in these words. And, beloved young Christian, let me say this to you, Above all things cultivate the knowledge of the Father. If you leave yourself in the hands of the Spirit of God, He will lead you to a very deep and blessed knowledge of the Father. This is what Christianity really is. It is the revelation of the Father through the Son.

Go and read John’s Gospel. You say, It is all about the Son of God. Yes, that is quite true. But the keynote of that Gospel is the word “Father.” It occurs a hundred and twenty times. What does the Lord say there? “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Christianity consists in the revelation of the Father by the Son. The Father is made known to all the family by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Therefore, the first thing you find is this: “I write unto you, babes, because ye have known the Father.” And beloved friends, there is nothing more blessed for a soul than the knowledge of the Father.

But I will tell you what I have noticed. I find there are very few children of God today that are in the happy enjoyment of the Father and His love. When John says here, “Ye have known the Father,” he contemplates them as in the enjoyment of their relationship to the Father. You know the Lord said to Mary, after He was risen from the dead, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). Only three days before you might have seen the blessed Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, in the deepest agony, as He contemplated the cup He was about to drink. And we hear Him saying, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Now in the eighth chapter of Romans, I read, “We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” That is the blessed term of relationship, and enjoyed relationship and affection too. That which fell from the lips of the blessed Lord in the sorrows of Gethsemane, is the very first thing that comes off the lips of a new-born soul, “Father.” Again, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). This is normal Christian language, and what the Father is seeking to hear.

Many dear believers in the Lord today, though they be believers, and though they may have received the Spirit of God, enter very little into the enjoyment of the Father, and the knowledge of the Father’s love. Therefore, I would say to those here tonight who are young, Oh, seek, above all things, to have your souls bathed in the enjoyment of this blessed realization — I am a child of the Father. Your relationship now, is the relationship of Him who, when here, said, “Abba, Father.” Of course we must remember that we are before the Father on the ground of redemption. That is the ground, beloved, that enables you and me by grace now to take up and enjoy this relationship before God.

And here the Spirit of God shows us that life is in the Spirit of the Son. I believe in this epistle it is life in the sons. It is what is made known to the soul, and made good in the soul by the power of the Spirit of God, and the very first thing is this, you know the Father, for every child knows the Father.

Then, the apostle again says to the fathers, “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning” (vs. 14). What more could he say? Beyond Him there can be no reaching. He is the object and the center of all God’s thoughts, and purposes, and counsels. And thus the father, enjoying Christ, and having the whole vision of His soul filled with the glory of this blessed One, who is from the beginning, cannot get beyond that. It is the result of Christian experience. All that is of the flesh is recognized and judged, and only Christ remains. He is ever better and better known. What He is, is realized. This is the most advanced step of Christian experience. There is nothing of self in it. Christ is all. We may be long in reaching this step, but, thank God, it may be reached.

Then, again, he addresses the young men: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” Now here is a Bible statement. Very often the language of our souls is, “Oh, how weak we are!” Well, in ourselves we are more than weak. But it is a great thing to see the place and the power God gives us. If we are not strong, why are we not strong? I find here that the young men are strong. I think the secret of their strength is this: “The Word of God abideth in you.” The evidence of their power is this: they know and keep the Word of God.

Will you turn to the opening verses of Matthew 4? Because where Christ was, when on this earth is exactly where you and I are. His path and ours is the same. We are going through the world, though we belong to another scene; we are children of the Father, and our home is not here. We are passing through this scene, in dependence upon God, surrounded by the very things that surrounded the Lord when here. But there are things that we have that He had not. We have the enjoyment of fellowship, which is a very good thing. He could not have fellowship with any one. He walked alone. But you and I now, we have that which is blessed and happy in our pathway here, the fellowship of the saints of God, and that is a very great cheer as we pass along. You and I have to pass through the same world as the Lord passed through. He had temptations. And have not you had temptations? How do we get on when temptation comes? This is very clear, that the one who overcomes the wicked one, only does it by the Word of God.

Let us now look at Matthew 4 You see there are three temptations. Observe — “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil” (vs. 1). It is a very remarkable thing that. The Lord was full of the Holy Spirit. And He is actually said to be led by the Spirit of God into temptation. It was of course absolutely necessary in His pathway. How otherwise could He succor us in temptation? He has known what it was to be tempted in all points, yet without sin. The temptation, you will observe, is threefold. You and I have never known the depth of temptation He knew, for the outward circumstances of the Lord were more difficult than ever yours and mine are. There was no one who ever had so little of the outwardly expressed favor of God as He. Born in one man’s stable, and buried in another man’s tomb, He truly said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). If it was a question of tribute money, He said, “Show me a penny” (Luke 20:24). Why? He had not a penny. I do not believe there is one here that has not a penny in their pocket. Therefore, outwardly, there was none who ever had so much against him as He. But, oh, inwardly, what joy and peace in the Father’s love!

You see that after He had fasted, and been tempted of Satan forty days, the tempter comes again. It was a last assault on a truly dependent man. And it is very striking, he tempted Christ just like he begins to tempt you. Do you think you are a child of God? He says to Christ, “If thou be the Son of God.” He flings a doubt upon it. It was suggesting a doubt, at the same time suggesting disobedience. “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Jesus does not, like Eve, parley with him. “He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (vs. 4). Now you will find, I think, if you look at these temptations, that they come in a threefold way, just as the apostle says here to the young men, “For all that is in the world, (1) the lust of the flesh, (2) the lust of the eyes, and (3) the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” The lust of the flesh was the bread, the lust of the eye was all the kingdoms of this world, and then you have the pride of life, that is, display — that you are the object of God’s favor.

Luke presents them in their moral order. The order as given in Matthew, and again as given in Luke, is different. You get the historical order in Matthew. That is the real order. Look at Luke 4, and you will see the difference. First of all there is the bread, and secondly, you have the temptation on the mountain (vss. 5-8). “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan.” If you have a pencil, take it and score out these words. The Spirit of God did not write them, and the best manuscripts have them not. How they came here is simple. Some one, copying the Scriptures, observed when he came to Luke 4 that there was no command to Satan. Judging that a previous copyist had omitted them by mistake, he inserted them, and that so carelessly that he quoted, not from the fourth, but from the sixteenth of Matthew, where the Lord says to Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan” (Matt. 16:23).

But now observe how the command to Satan could not be in Luke’s account. As it exists in our English Bible we should understand that Satan was bidden to depart, and he did not do it, if these words be allowed. On the contrary he remained, and renewed his temptation. But Satan did depart. That is the whole point. He was bidden to depart, and he went. The sword of the Spirit slew the enemy. As it now stands it has the ugly appearance that Satan was bidden to go, and he would not. The simple truth is, that the Spirit of God, leading Luke to write this temptation in its moral order, guides him in entirely omitting the words, “Get thee hence, Satan.”

Luke’s moral order gives us first of all a personal temptation, then the worldly temptation, and lastly, the spiritual temptation. That is the way Satan gets at us. He knows how to tempt us on the personal side; if he cannot get at us that way, he will tempt us on the worldly side; and, if he does not succeed there he will tempt us on the spiritual side. That is the way in which it comes. The personal temptation was to help Himself — make the bread; the worldly temptation, to receive all the kingdoms of the world at Satan’s hands, without suffering, and not from God’s; the spiritual temptation was to test the truth of God’s Word, and he gives Him a text: “If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee: and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Psa. 91:11-12).

Carefully notice, that Satan leaves out four words of the ninety-first Psalm. The four words are these, “In all thy ways.” Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.” You will observe, it is never the way of a saint to put God to the test. Quite true, the ninety-first Psalm did apply to Him. But it is not the way of a saint to put God to the proof as to whether He would be as good as His word.

Now you will notice, beloved friends, that in each case it is not only that Christ quotes Scripture, but He quotes it as Scripture. He says each time, “It is written.” And it is a very remarkable thing that all the Lord’s answers to Satan are quoted from the book of Deuteronomy (chaps. 8:3; 6:16 and 6:13-14). The Lord gained the victory in every instance by the Word of God. It was the outcome of His blessed simple dependence on God, and of having the Word of God in His heart. He proved the truth of the Word, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psa. 119:1). Satan retires vanquished. And observe, “Angels came and ministered unto Him.” They delighted to see a man overcome Satan by dependence and obedience. They saw that in Christ. Do they see it in us? The secret of strength lies very much in this: having the Word of God hidden in the heart, and implicitly obeying it.

When I am in a difficulty, do you think the Spirit of God will help me to a scripture I have not laid up in my heart? No! I believe if I have been careless, and lazy, in reading the Word of God, I shall not have the Scriptures really hid in my heart. The Spirit of God cannot bring to my memory a scripture I have never read. And I press this, beloved friends, we cannot over-estimate the importance of having our minds stored with Scripture. “The word of God abides in you,” is what the young men are commended for. Their thoughts were formed by God’s Word. You get the knowledge of God by His Word, and of Christ Himself, first of all, for He was the Word. But then, you and I have to hide that Word in our hearts. And that is why in the 119th Psalm, there are only two verses that do not refer to the Word of God. Study that psalm carefully. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word” (vs. 9). Notice the 174th verse, “I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord; and Thy law is my delight.” It is either the Word of the Lord, or the commandment of the Lord, but in every verse it is the Word. Let us all, therefore, remember the value of Scripture in the history of the soul of a saint.

“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” The Lord overcame him, we have seen, by dependence and obedience, no matter what the character of the temptation might be. And so, in the history of every saint, the Spirit of God loves to recall and bring to remembrance, in each moment of difficulty, some little bit of Scripture that has been learned in days gone by. But having the Word, the Spirit of God can use it, and it becomes a weapon in His hands against the foe. The result is sure. There will be, in plain language, certain victory. I need not say more to press upon you the great importance of the study of the Scriptures.

Then the apostle goes further, in addressing the young men, and he says now, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (vs. 15). There are two things, you will observe, in regard to the young men. They are the Word, and the world. I am quite sure of this, if the Word does not engage my attention, the world will. The great point is this, that God has a world into which He wants to bring His children. The Father’s world is that scene of which Christ Himself, Personally, is the center. This word of warning is very instructive, for there is many a young man who has at first overcome the wicked one, and then, after a while, he himself has been overcome by the world. If I am not watchful the world will overcome me, and the consequences thereof are sad indeed. He says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” That does not mean that a man is not converted, but that, if you love the world, you do not get the love of the Father. The love of the Father is not in this scene. It is in another world altogether. It is the world of which Christ is the moral center.

Then he adds: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (vs. 17). The Lord Jesus said: “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psa. 40:7- 8). When here He did God’s will only, and that is why the apostle Paul says, “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done (what Jesus did) the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36). You will find, beloved friends, that all through the New Testament the doing of the will of God is a very important thing. For instance, “Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17). I shall never know what the will of the Lord is if I am not near Him in the history of my soul. That is a clear case. A man who is doing the will of God, is not living for himself. His only thought is to do what God wishes. And that is exactly what the blessed Lord did here. To this we are also called, nay more urged, as Paul says: “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2).

The Apostle John a second time also addresses the “little children,” and gives them a long bit of instruction (vss. 18-27). We are in the last time, and there is much opposition to Christ. What is to sustain the babes? The fathers live on Christ, the young men are going on in the knowledge of Christ, and now, you babes, do not you make a mistake. You are surrounded by everything that is against Christ. An opposing element is all round about you, and many Antichrists. They had come into the assembly, but they had gone out. They were really servants of Satan. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (vss. 18-19).

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (vs. 20). It is delightful to see here how the simplest and youngest babe in the family of God has the capacity, by the Spirit of God, to know what is right, as well as what is wrong. One frequently hears this sort of expression, “How can I know?” and, “How shall I be able to meet a difficulty like that?” Perhaps, you have never listened to this word. Read it again. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” There is a capacity, which even the youngest member of the family of God has, to detect what is of God, and what is not of God. It is a principle of immense importance. He knows what is the truth, and what is not the truth.

But, further, “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” (vs. 21). Is not that very striking? It is a very remarkable word. There is a divine competency by the Spirit of God, even in the bosom of the youngest saint, to detect what is of God, and what is not of God. The Spirit of God, I need not say, is the divine and blessed competency.

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? he is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also” (vss. 22-23). The soul who really knows the Son of God is in touch with the Father. And that is the kernel of Christianity. That must be held firmly. Hence the exhortation: “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (vs. 24). Cleaving close to that which God has given you in His blessed Word, you cleave to what is from the beginning. And what is that? Christ, of course. The revelation of the blessed Son of God, and the Father made known in Him who became incarnate. “Hold on to Him therefore,” is the word of the Spirit to the young believer. If that which is from the beginning abides in us, there will be ever-deepening enjoyment of this blessed relationship, in which we stand to God as our Father.

Further, the knowledge of the love of the Father, and of the Son too, will be increased, and we shall enter into the enjoyment which the Father has in the Son. The effect is that you continue in the Son, and in the Father. A wonderful place, beloved, for our souls to be in. We are in the Father, and our hearts are charmed as we behold the beauty of the Son. It is reciprocal joy. “And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life” (vs. 25). Our souls are set really in the enjoyment of eternal life. It is the knowledge of the Father and the Son.

“These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you” (vs. 26). Here we have the reason of the apostle so addressing the babes. We must not shut our eyes to the fact that there is seduction all round about us. But we get their safeguard immediately presented: “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (vs. 27). Let us not misunderstand this verse, for I have heard it said, “Oh, I can get on without teaching.” I do not think you will. If a man despise teaching, you may depend upon it, that person never grows, or gets on. The Lord has given helps, and teachers. But the point is this, that the young soul has an anointing of the Holy Spirit, and there is no necessity for the teaching of new things. The path is made very plain. The Spirit of God in you is the competency for the apprehension of the truth, and for the enjoyment of the truth, and you do not, in that sense, need anything.

You have everything in the knowledge of the Lord, but at the same time, one knows what an immense boon it is if a teacher, sent by God, come along, who knows the Word of God better than yourself. You then learn afresh, and are helped to more fully enjoy what the Lord gives. The unfolding and ministering of the truth of God to the soul is ever the Spirit’s aim. And bear in mind, what we receive is not for ourselves only, but it is to be circulated. If you do this, you will enjoy it more yourself, and fit yourself, I believe, for God to give you more truth, and more enjoyment of His love.

It is sweet to see here the perfect way in which the babes are set up in this scene, and having concluded addressing these three classes, the apostle comes back in the last two verses of our chapter to the whole family: “And now, children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (vss. 28-29). He desires that their walk and ways should be such, that the apostles might have credit from Christ in the day of His appearing. A very beautiful desire on the part of a man who had been used of God in blessing to their souls. He longed that their souls should be kept in the abiding, and ever-deepening enjoyment of the love of the Father, and the Son, and that they should be preserved from every error as they passed through this scene.

Thus there are three classes here. A father is in the enjoyment of Christ; a young man is marked by his soul’s deep love for the Word of God, and separation from the world; while the babes know the Father, and have a competency by the Spirit of God, to clearly perceive what is, and what is not the truth. May God, in His grace, give us all to set our hearts to go on to learn more of Christ, and thus be true over-comers in a day of seduction and declension.

The Beatitudes

(Matthew 5:1-16)

The particular aspect in which the Lord is presented in Matthew’s gospel is, as the Messiah, the King. Matthew writes specially for Jews, to testify that Jesus was really the Messiah, though rejected. In the first chapter we get His genealogy on Joseph’s side of the house; of course really He was not Joseph’s Son. Had he been Joseph’s Son really, He could not have been our Savior; but in order that He should by right succeed to the throne, He must be proved to be legally Joseph’s Son.

Really, He was Son of Mary, and Son of God, but God devised a way by which His legal right to the throne of David should be indisputable. By Jewish law, from the moment Joseph was espoused to Mary, she was looked upon as legally his wife, and any fruit of the womb was regarded as his. Thus, therefore, Jesus belonged by legal right to Joseph, and was regarded as his Son. Luke gives the Lord’s genealogy through Mary, because Luke’s object is to present Him as Son of Man.

Matthew 2 shows us the wise men of the East coming up to worship Him, and Satan stirring up the world’s hatred and enmity.

Matthew 3 gives John the Baptist’s testimony, and the Father’s opening heaven to own Him as His beloved Son, and to testify to His perfect delight in Him.

Then Matthew 4 shows that, though Messiah, though God’s King, He is a real man, and a man in dependence on God. Satan comes on the scene, and Jesus confronts the enemy. Satan is utterly defeated, by that which is the most difficult thing for you and for me, actual dependence upon the Word of God even for every word He speaks. “It is written” is His unvarying answer, and Satan is foiled. Then He fulfills Scripture, for He Himself is the light (vss. 14-16). Then He goes forth preaching, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” You will never find the kingdom of heaven preached as nearer than “at hand,” — about to come. The kingdom of God could be said to be come unto them (Matt. 12:28), or among them, because the King was there, but the kingdom of heaven was as yet only at hand. It was connected with His rejection and ascension.

In verses 23-25 we have the manifestation of the power of the kingdom, though it was not yet set up. The power of the Lord was wonderfully manifested on every hand, and the fame of Him went everywhere. He presents Himself in the character of the Messiah-King, and His power was blessedly manifest.

Thus it is interesting to notice the connection between the fourth chapter and the fifth. In the fourth chapter you have the Person of the King, and His power manifested in vanquishing Satan on the one hand, and spoiling his goods on the other; and in Matthew 5, 6 and 7 you have the moral principles of the kingdom which He was about to set up, and what kind of behavior He looked for from those that were in the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is heaven’s rule over earth, in mystery now, because the King is rejected, but by-and-by to be displayed in power and glory.

What then is the kind of behavior that becomes His kingdom? The Sermon on the Mount gives the answer, and the first beatitude is characteristically descriptive: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (vs. 3). This is not a question of persons going to heaven, by-and-by, but of heaven ruling them now; it is how to go on before you get to heaven.

We are impatient, sometimes, and say, I should like to go to heaven. “Stop,” says God, “I will teach you how to live on earth, before you get there, how to live all along the road.”

He who is the King has now gone into heaven. He is out of sight, but He is the Head of a system, and the Lord unfolds here what belongs to that heavenly system, and how those who belong to it should carry themselves.

“And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him” (vs. 1). Moses had said, “The Lord Thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto Me; unto Him ye shall hearken (Deut. 18:15). As the Prophet-King He here gathers His disciples about Him, to teach them. He goes up into the mountain too, thereby, I believe, signifying His removal from earth, His going back to heaven, His being hid in heaven, for the time.

Do not suppose, because we have these three chapters consecutively, that the Lord uttered all the words we get here at one time. They are parts of different discourses, as we shall find from other gospels. Mark’s Gospel will help you largely in discovering this. It is quite clear that in the other gospels, for a special purpose, the Spirit of God relates all sorts of incidents, dislocating them from the time in which they actually took place, in order to present a certain picture. Here in Matthew we get repeated dispensational pictures, according to the scope, and design of the gospel, which reveals Jesus as the Great King. In Luke Christ’s sayings are put together with the object of presenting moral pictures, for Luke’s design is to present Him as a Man among men.

Here, then, Matthew puts all these words together to form a perfect whole, and to give a perfect picture of what the principle, of the kingdom are. On the other hand, a striking selection of sayings and incidents is evident in Luke 14, 15 and 16. These chapters give us a moral picture. In Matthew 14, we have earth, with its hindrances; in Matthew 15, heaven with its joy and blessedness; and in Matthew 16, in the case of the rich man, hell with all its terrible misery.

And now we read that, “When He was set, His disciples came unto Him; and He opened his mouth and taught them” (vss. 1-2). Oh, how He does love to have His own near Himself. You will notice that there are nine “Blessednesses,” and you will also see, they divide themselves into first, seven, and then two.

It is a common thing in the gospels to find seven, for seven is the symbol of spiritual completeness. We find seven parables in Matthew 13, seven loaves to feed the multitude in Mark 8, and the Lord is seen seven times in prayer in Luke’s Gospel. Here it is a complete spiritual picture of what should be the conduct of those who are His, while He is out of His kingdom.

These seven beatitudes are again subdivided. The first four I might call internal, the last three, external. The first four partake, broadly speaking, of the character of righteousness, and are summarized in verse to, while the last three have the character of grace for Christ’s sake, and are summarized in verse

1. BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (vs. 3). What is it then to be poor in spirit? Exactly the reverse of what you find in the world. In the world people stick up for themselves, stand for their rights. A person who does that is not in the kingdom of heaven at all, that is, is not in it in spirit. One who is poor in spirit, is self-emptied, self is out of sight. You will find a lovely connection with this in Psalm 41:1: “Blessed is he that considereth the poor” — that is, the poor Man; and who is the poor Man? Christ! That is, considering the poor Man does not mean giving alms, but considering Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It is a blessed thing thus to be self-emptied: poor-spirited the world would call you; that is it, but the Lord reckons such “blessed.” The Lord give us to know in our hearts the meaning of it.

2. BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (vs. 4). Why is it blessed to mourn? This is not merely the sorrows and trials that compass our paths oftentimes, though God does come in, and comfort our hearts in these. But do we not find ourselves in a scene where everything is opposed to God? Surely! Can we then love the Lord Jesus Christ, and pass through this scene, and not be mourners? Was not He a mourner when He passed through it?

“Love that made Thee a mourner,

It is not man’s to tell!”

The Lord is speaking here to those who are in relationship to God, and know the Father. To know the Father, to know God as Father, is the distinguishing feature of Christianity. Do you know God then as Father, and are you passing through a scene where His Son is despised, and set at naught, and are you not a mourner?

In John 11 at the grave of Lazarus Jesus was a mourner, not merely He entered into the sorrow of the sisters in truest sympathy, but before God He felt what a ruin this earth is, how completely sin had marred the whole thing, and He is a mourner, and God comforts Him. In fellowship with Him, must we not be mourners too?

3. BLESSED ARE THE MEEK. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (vs. 5). I believe that has its full application to the godly remnant of Israel by-and-by, but the principle is of deep value to us. What is it to be meek? It is to be like Him who said down here, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” That was said by Jesus in Matthew 11, in a very dark day. You could not imagine a darker day. John was doubting Him, and Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where His mightiest works had been done, were rejecting Him. What is His resource? He turns round to His Father, and takes everything from Him. He falls back upon His Father’s love, and perfect wisdom in all His circumstances. What is it then to be meek and lowly? It is to take everything, as He took it, from the hand of God.

Supposing I give you a cross word, if you take it from me, Satan instantly gets an advantage, and you are angry. If you take it directly from God, you say, “That was not very nice, was not very Christ-like, but the Lord must have had some good reason for letting that cross word come.” What meekness that engenders in the soul, when I take everything thus directly from the hand of God. What is it to be meek? It is a person who is willing to be trampled on, a person who takes everything so from God, that the bitter thing is sweet.

People often ask what “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) is, and they pass over the first two verses. I will quote them. “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love” (Eph. 4:1-2). You cannot get to verse 3 without passing through, and practically learning verse 2. We need all lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and forbearance in love, in order to keep the unity of the Spirit. “I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1) are wondrous words.

4. BLESSED TO HUNGER AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” (vs. 6). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, God will fill. It is a hungering, and thirsting, after practically meeting the mind of God. Do we know that? I suppose the reason why we know so little of what it is to be filled, is because we so little hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Now the subject changes. Hitherto we have had righteousness. It is a right thing to be poor in spirit, it is a right thing to mourn, it is a right thing to be meek, it is a right thing to hunger and thirst after practically meeting the mind of God. Now we come to the other side of the subject. Grace. Christ!

5. BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (vs. 7). What met us at first? Mercy! What keeps us all along the road? Mercy! What does the Holy Spirit bid us look for? Mercy! We have received mercy to begin with, but the biggest mercy of the lot is to be delivered from this place and scene of corruption, is it not. To be taken up out of it all to be with Himself will be an immense mercy. We are exhorted to be “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life” (Jude 21).

All through Scripture this word mercy abounds: it is a beautiful word, mercy. “Blessed are the merciful.” Ah, beloved, I believe we are a hard lot. God delights in mercy. If a person has this thought in-wrought in his soul, he will be quit of his hardness.

Not that mercy makes light of sin. Not at all! Those who are nearest to God have this too, they are “ pure in heart” likewise, for they are the most like Christ. We need all these things, but all these were manifest in Him. Was He not poor in spirit? Was he not a mourner? Was He not meek? Was it not His meat and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him? Was He not merciful? Pure in heart? A peacemaker? He was all these, and more, in perfection.

6. BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (vs. 8). There is no making light of sin, but the most exquisite tenderness to the poor sinner. The man nearest to God has the most intense hatred of sin, but the most intense love and tenderness to the poor sinner. The man nearest to God is always the hardest on himself, and the most tender to others, specially if they have failed! The further I am away from God the harder I shall be on others, while I let myself off tenderly — far too tenderly.

7. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (vs. 9). How easy to do the reverse, to make a little discord, and be a peace-breaker. The peacemaker shall be called, by the name you and I love best, a child of God. “Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26), is but one side of the truth. Prove that you are a child of God by your ways, is the thought. God is the God of peace. Show your relationship, and your likeness to your father, by being a peacemaker, is our Lord’s injunction here.

These last three blessednesses partake largely of the character of grace, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. They are the reproduction of Christ in us.

8. BLESSED IF PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Then there are two additional beatitudes which really summarize the other seven. First, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (vs. 10). That is, if you are poor in spirit, if you do not stand up for your rights, what do you get in this world? You get persecution, you are laughed at as a madman, because the difference between this world, as it now is, and in the millennial time, is, that now righteousness suffers, then righteousness will reign. Now you must do good, suffer for it, and take it patiently, for the kingdom is in mystery, and the King is hidden. By-and-by, when “a king shall reign in righteousness” (Isa. 32:1), when the kingdom is no longer in mystery, but displayed, then righteousness will reign. Now, in this world, if you do right, you may suffer for it, for now righteousness suffers. In the millennium evil will be put down, and righteousness will reign. Now, if you are poor in spirit, the world will say you are mad, why not stick up for your rights, why allow yourself to be trampled upon? This suffering may come in many shapes — in your business, your family, or from your neighbor.

9. BLESSED IF PERSECUTED FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. But there is more than suffering for righteousness’ sake. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake” (vss. 10-11). The blessedness of the tenth verse is very different from that spoken of in the eleventh. In the tenth you suffer for righteousness’ sake. In the eleventh you suffer for Christ’s sake, and that is a higher thing. If you turn to Peter’s epistles, you get the two brought out. “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully” (1 Peter 2:19). That is suffering for conscience sake, which has the character of righteousness.

Again, “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? “The world will try to harm you, and the devil will try to harm you. “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled” (1 Peter 3:13-14). That is suffering for righteousness’ sake.

Now look at the fourteenth verse of chapter 4: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” That is suffering for Christ’s sake. That is a higher thing: just as grace is higher, in a sense, than righteousness, so suffering for Christ’s sake is a higher thing than suffering for righteousness’ sake.

Well, if you suffer for Christ’s sake, what is to be your recompense? When you learn what is pleasing

to the Lord, and, in order to please Him, you have to do what would displease every one else, what does He say? “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” It is heaven, now, not the kingdom of heaven; and here is a lovely little word of gracious encouragement to the soul, “For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” That is, you have got into good company, do not mind. Do they say dreadful things about you? Well, let them, He knows all about it, let them, I say.

Of course, if the world can come and lay anything really true against you, you can only be humbled. If they speak lies, just rejoice. There is nothing that so spreads too as rejoicing. Just as in an army there is nothing so injurious as to have a few cowards among it. What did the apostles do in the Acts? “They departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:41-42). They were so happy that they blew the gospel trumpet louder, longer, and more sweetly than ever before.

“Oh,” you say, “I do not see the reward.” No. I will tell you why, because reward day does not come till the end of the term. And we are not at the end of the term yet, but term day is coming, so go on.

You will notice another difference too, in verses 10 and 11. In verse 10 it is, “Blessed are they.” In verse 11, “Blessed are ye,” because when it comes to positive suffering for Himself, He drops the abstract term as too cold, and applies it, “Blessed are ye.” Why? Because you are linked with Him now.

The Lord now uses two striking figures to show what His own should be in His absence. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (vss. 13-16). “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Now salt is preservative, it preserves from corruption. When the saints are taken out of the earth there will be nothing left but the dead carcass of a Christless Christendom, nothing but corruption. Salt answers to righteousness. But “Ye are the light of the world,” gives another thought. Light answers to grace. Salt merely preserves things pure from corruption, but light is aggressive, it drives out the darkness. So grace goes forth outside and seeks. “It giveth light.”

A Christian should be a candle, and what for? That his light may be seen, and the Father get the glory. The Lord is very careful not to say, Let your good works be seen, but, Let your light so shine, and why? What is your light? It is the life of Christ reproduced in you, and that being seen, it is Christ in you that is seen. That is the point. The world is to see Christ in you. It is not merely giving a testimony, but being a testimony. Not being a light-bearer, but being light; and so your Father gets the glory, for that is all Christ. The reflection of Christ in the life of a saint has this for its effect, men will glorify your Father which is in heaven.

On the other hand, how careful we should be in our walk lest we fail to give light. The world is quick enough to pick up our faults. The world is a close observer of the life of a Christian, and knows full well what is inconsistent with the name of Christ.

The Lord give us, beloved friends, to taste thoroughly in our hearts what He gives us here, that we may so walk, and so witness for Him, that the name of our Father may be glorified in us.

What grace, O Lord, and beauty shone

Around Thy steps below!

What patient love was seen in all

Thy life and death of woe!

Forever on Thy burden’d heart

A weight of sorrow hung;

Yet no ungentle murmuring word

Escaped Thy silent tongue.

Thy foes might hate, despise, revile;

Thy friends unfaithful prove;

Unwearied in forgiveness still,

Thy heart could only love.

Oh give us hearts to love like Thee-

Like Thee, O Lord, to grieve

Far more for others’ sins, than all

The wrongs that we receive.

One with Thyself, may every eye

In us, Thy brethren, see

That gentleness and grace that spring

From union, Lord, with Thee.

Personal Attachment

(John 1:35,42; 12:1-8; 20:10-18)

We have heard times without number, beloved brethren, that it is the loving heart that learns; and it is the loving heart that the Lord leads on. I just turn to these scriptures as illustrative of this precious principle. It is a question all through, you see, of a Person. It is an immense thing to know that Christianity is not a question of doctrines, but of a Person, and the heart being attached to a Person. It is not the head assenting to a scheme of truth, but truth wrapped up in the Person of a living Man, and the heart attached to that Person. There is a peculiar charm in looking at the Gospels, particularly John’s Gospel, in this way.

No doubt God has recorded these simple narratives for our help, and to win our hearts to His dear Son, after a similar sort. You see in the early part of John’s Gospel a beautiful display of Christ in this scene, and the various ways in which the Lord revealed Himself to many souls, and the way in which He attracted them to, and eventually attached them to Himself. You have the Lord attracting souls in the early part of the Gospel — like a magnet — drawing them out from one recess and another. He attracted hearts to Himself by the revelation of Himself, in a way that met the peculiar state of the soul He was attracting, and that is just what He is doing today. The work is peculiarly individual, and is done very quietly, whether it be in the case of Andrew and his fellow; Peter, Philip or Nathanael (chap. 1); Nicodemus (3); the woman at the well, and the nobleman (4); the paralytic of Bethesda (5); the woman in the temple (8); the man born blind (9); or Mary of Bethany (11); and they are but samples of many others of whom you read in the Gospels. They show the winsome way in which Jesus attracts souls to Himself, and ministers to them according to the skilfulness of His hands, and the integrity of His heart.

At the end of the Gospel you will see what a wonderful place some of these attracted ones have. You will find some of those hearts were able to minister to Jesus; were able, as it were, to present to Him a cup of cold water, as none else could, in the moment of His deep sorrow in this scene. It is a wonderful thing to be able to minister to the heart of Christ in this scene. It is like Genesis 24; the bride was chosen really by the Father; and the appointed servant took her to Isaac. Isaac loved her, and then in the hour of his sorrow — for his mother had died — it was by Rebecca that he was comforted. In Genesis 22 you have the story of the love of the Father to the Son. It is interesting to note that this is the first time in Scripture where you get love mentioned; the next time we find it spoken of it is the love of the Bridegroom to the Bride (chap. 24). He loves her, and she comforts him. That is exactly what you would expect to find in Scripture, the love of the Father for the Son first, and then the love of the Bridegroom for the Bride, he comforted by her. Yes, love is always personal, and reciprocal.

If you look at this scene where John opens his Gospel, it is beautiful. The Baptist sees the Lord, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Now, observe that no one follows Him, as the fruit of that testimony. It was a good remark made here today, that, It is not merely a work, we have to present, but a Person. When the work was presented, no one followed Him. The next day John’s eye rested on the Lord again, in a sort of contemplative way, and, as he gazed on Him, he exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). Immediately it detaches two of his disciples from himself, and they follow the Lord. The Lord turns and sees them following, and says, “What seek ye?” To them it was a suited query, for it raised the question as to whether affection really wrought in their hearts; but when the Lord speaks to Mary (John 20), He does not say, “What seekest thou? “No, angels may inquire, “Woman, why weepest thou?” but He says, “Whom seekest thou?” He has awakened in her soul affections that only Himself can satisfy, and He says, “Whom seekest thou?” Peter and John, after seeing the sepulcher, might go away home, but without Jesus Mary was homeless. Nothing could satisfy her but Himself.

No doubt the Lord begins with us often with “What seek ye?” but when love has its own way it is, “Whom seek ye?” “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” speaks volumes. Here He says to the two disciples, “What seek ye?” and the answer is very beautiful, “Master, where dwellest thou?” that is, Where is the place that we can always be sure of finding you? They really wanted His company. He says, “Come and see.” They abode with Him that day. There were two hours left of the day. But what was the effect of those two hours? Well, I know that if you spent two hours with Jesus, in the enjoyment of His love and His company, you would be obliged to go and get some one to share it too. Saints sometimes say they cannot preach the gospel! You could not help it if you were to spend two hours with that blessed One. If you sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to your taste, you would be obliged to go, you could not rest till you had got some one else to share the banquet with you.

We only notice Andrew’s voice thrice in the Gospels. First, he tells Simon of Jesus; next, he informs the Lord about the “five barley loaves, and two small fishes” (John 6:9); and lastly, he tells Jesus of the wish of the Gentiles to see Him (John 12:21-22). The first day he went off to get Peter. We hear very little after this of Andrew, but a great deal of Peter. Nevertheless, by-and-by, I think it will be very interesting to see the Lord’s estimate of, and reward to the man who was the means of Peter’s conversion. Probably he was not a great preacher, nor may you be; but he was a lover of Jesus, so brought his brother to Him. “Go, and do thou likewise.” If you were the means of introducing some one to the Lord, who turned out like Peter, it would be a very wonderful day’s work, though you did no more. Have you ever had two hours with Jesus? It would leave its stamp on you. I know if you had two hours with Him you would want three, and if you had three you would want four! and some one to share your joy and delight in Him.

I do not go into all the cases where the Lord attracts people to Himself. The man of the third chapter (Nicodemus) was drawn by a needy conscience; the woman of the fourth, by the achings of an empty heart; but in these and every other case it was the influence of His own Person. How blessed to see the Lord drawing hearts to Himself! That was the early part of His ministry. Towards the close of that wondrous life, God shows the other side of our subject, and He has been very careful to show it; but not till the last week of the Lord’s life does it all come out.

In John 12 we have the touching scene of the supper at Bethany, “six days before the passover” (that is, the Lord’s Day really, I suppose) and you get the moment when the Lord is “comforted,” if I may use the expression. In the hour of His rapidly approaching sorrow, the Lord’s heart — deeply feeling all that was coming — was met and ministered to by a heart long before attracted to Him. Mary is only mentioned three times. You have her first in Luke 10 Martha was busy about service, but Mary sat at His feet and heard His word. You always find her in the same posture, “at His feet.” The Holy Spirit is careful to record it. In John 11 she is there again. The Lord loved her, and I conclude she knew it right well, for it says, “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” It is very sweet to know the love of Jesus — not merely His love of pity, which meets us in our needs — but the love of complacency and delight. The Old Testament is very full of it in figure. How sweet to know yourself loved by Him!

In John 11 we find Mary at the feet of the Lord in the moment of her sorrow. She then tasted the sweetness of His sympathy, and her heart got more firmly knit to Him than ever. Then when the moment of His sorrow hovered in the distance — when she saw how His death was desired by the Jews, with the intuitive perception of love (nothing is so keen-sighted as love), when the appointed supper-hour came, she brought her alabaster box of ointment and poured it on His feet. It has been well said that Mary’s action was the only thing that was right and suitable at that moment. The heart that had learned the sweetness of His love, and the knowledge of His ways, alone had the mind of God for the moment. If you knew someone you loved was going to be cruelly murdered within six days, you would not make a feast. That is not the way you would express your love; so this heart that loved Him, that had heard His word, knew His fullness, and had learned His sympathy, intuitively felt the feast was out of place, but seized the opportunity of lavishing her love — her all — on the One to whom she owed everything. It was a comely act, never to be forgotten. He was alongside of her in her sorrow, she heard Him groan, and saw Him weep; now she is fitted, through affection, to be a comfort to Him in the moment of His sorrow, and to minister to His blessed heart as love alone can do, and, I am bold to say, she did the only thing that was suitable at the moment.

There was not one at that moment in the mind of God but this woman. She brings her box, and anoints the Lord with the ointment. She had kept it for His burial, but she had the sense — “If I wait till He is dead, I shall never break it over Him; the grave, out of which He took my brother, cannot hold Him.” It was affection that acted so sweetly here. I do not suppose she could have told you in words why she did it. The brethren all looked down upon her. Do you think she wanted to draw the eyes of the brethren upon her, or to display her devotedness? I think, had you asked her, “Mary, why did you do that?” she would only have said, “I do not know why, but I just know I did it.” It was the one right thing, and the Lord, as it were, throws His wing over her, and says, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached... this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” There will be thousands of Marys in heaven, but, of them all, one will be known as the Mary who did the right thing, in the right way, and at the right time, and it was her simple love to Jesus that prompted and wrought such a “good work.” If there is one thing above another that God appreciates in this scene, it is attachment of heart to His Son. Was not her act dear to the Lord? I could not trust myself to speak of what it was to Him, but you can infer His estimate of it by the eternal and world-wide publicity He declares her act shall have.

I now pass on to another Mary (John 20). She had not the intelligence of the first Mary, but she loved the Lord. The other disciples could go to their homes; Mary Magdalene had no home in this scene but the grave of her blessed Lord. He was gone, the light of her life was gone out with His death, and the world was a vast blank. Her heart was buried in the grave of her Lord. He had died. The angels greet her with “Woman, why weepest thou?” She replies,

“They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” She could say in the early part of the chapter to the disciples, “They have taken away the Lord; “now in this deep sorrow it is “my Lord.” Was not that sweet to the ear of the Father? Nor is this all — angels in no sense detain her. Methinks many of us would have taken a good look at these angelic messengers; she turns her back on them. Nothing but Jesus can meet and fill her desolate heart. Turning her back on angels, she sees a Man, and then she hears a voice which says: “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” He alone knew how to do it, and wondrously does He touch a spring in her soul. “Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away,” was her reply. Do you not think that her answer was most grateful to the heart of the Savior? A little affection for Himself goes a long way. He loves to have the simple, unfeigned affection of our hearts.

He knew He had her heart’s love, even though she loved Him dead; but it was Himself she loved. He says but one word, “Mary.” It is enough. She hears the voice she has heard before; she is at His feet, and He brings out to her that wonderful unfolding of truth, the like of which was never presented to any before, as He says to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.” He says to her, as it were, “You have had Me here, Mary, and lost Me; but I have a place up yonder that was always Mine; it was Mine from all eternity, but I was in it alone. Now I have come down, and died, and risen again, and I am about to return to that place of joy and rest with the Father; but I am not going back alone, I am going to share that place with others now.” He stands on a new platform before God, and says, “I am going to share it with My brethren; go and tell them.”

You cannot tell what a wonderful privilege it was for that woman to get that message from the Lord on that resurrection morning, and what a cheer to Him to get a heart really occupied with Himself! True, I repeat, she loved Him dead; but she loved Him. Was it not grateful to His heart? I believe it was deeply grateful to Him to find a heart that had not a single thing in the world but Himself. That was the first heart He met when He rose from the cold and silent tomb, and if He blessedly comforted Mary, be assured of it that her love was deeply prized by Him. Oh! to be more like her!

If the box of ointment in Bethany was like water to His thirsty spirit, and the dying thief’s blessed testimony — who owned Him when all the world was against Him — was a similar cheer to His heart, was it not refreshing to Him to see, as He came alive in this cold scene once more, a heart that could turn its back on everything in this world for love of Himself? I verily believe it was.

But things are changed now. He has gone to the Father, and He says, “If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father.” What a wonderful thing that He should care about the love of such hearts as yours and mine! We have heard much of His love today, the Father’s love, and the love of Christ. May the result be that we each more simply and truly love Him, while waiting for Him. Then we shall see His face, and rejoice forever in His presence!

Conversation

(1 and 2 Peter)

Let us consider a little the subject of conversation. What the Apostle Peter has given us thereon in his epistles, is doubtless the outcome of that which the Lord said to him, on that memorable occasion, in the twenty-first chapter of John, when he received his public restoration.

His first commission was, “Feed My lambs.” I have been struck, of late, in seeing how frequently Peter brings in this word conversation. A very important consideration is this: What is the practical outcome of the conversation of the saints? Without doubt its character will affect its results.

What a wonderful effect would be produced in this city if all you dear young men and women were thoroughly for God. What a power you would be. What a testimony too for Christ.

Peter bids us to be “holy in all manner of conversation” (1 Peter 1:15), and then speaks of six varieties thereof. I will point them out.

1. VAIN CONVERSATION. “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:17-21). There you have vain conversation, which is connected with fleshly religion. We must not understand it as being merely the talk of the lip. I think Peter uses it in a much larger way than that. What is the first thing he says? You have been brought clean out of that system of religion which suits the first man. You have been redeemed to God with the precious blood of Christ. The first thing, therefore, the soul gets hold of in connection with conversation is this, you are out of the old state. You are delivered from that vain conversation. That is Judaism, which has been received by tradition from our fathers. What we have to do is to shake ourselves clear of everything religiously which does not suit God. That is the first thing.

2. HONEST CONVERSATION. Now pass on to the next chapter. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12). Now it is honest conversation. Beautiful that! Now what are we? Strangers and pilgrims. What is a stranger? A stranger is a person who is away from home. Where is our Home? It is the place where Jesus is. That is home. He is not here. He is up there, and we are here, strangers, and pilgrims. We are not at home, but we are going home. A pilgrim is a man going a journey, and the point of our pilgrimage is home — heaven. Peter says, If you really understand what the grace of God is, you are a pilgrim. A pilgrim is a man who is on a journey, with the idea of returning home. Paul was a pilgrim, as he says: “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:22-24). That is the idea. You are away from home, but you are going home. Does your heart say, Yes, I am set for Him? On the road then you must have your conversation honest. You know we live in a very dishonest day. God says to you and me, See that you are honest. This is a word for all, but for men in particular. See that you have a heart, and a conscience, that is answering to the truth and light of God.

Now go further, and we find

3. CHASTE CONVERSATION. “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:1-4). Peter is here addressing women whose path might be very difficult. Cases are before his mind where the wife might be converted, and the husband unconverted. The husband might be won by the chaste conversation of his wife. That suggests the importance of the inside, the home-life. It is a fine word for a day like this. Chaste conversation! There is nothing of the nineteenth-century new woman there.

Then we are all exhorted to

4. GOOD CONVERSATION. “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear; having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing” (1 Peter 3:8-17). This is to be outside in the world.

Just notice how often “good” occurs in this chapter (see vers. 10, 11, 13, 16). Do you know what a Christian is? A Christian is a person who is blessed, and is sent out to be a blesser. You have been blessed of the Lord, and you are set in this scene to be a blesser, as Peter puts it here. You bless the person that is opposed to you. You are the reproduction of Christ in the scene out of which He has been cast. Do you want to see good days, if the Lord tarry? Refrain your tongue from evil.

Here I think we come to the actual talk of the lips, and what the effect is on ourselves, as well as on others. The Lord sees, and hears all. “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” The face of the Lord is as much against His own children, if they are doing evil, as it is against the children of the devil. Here he applies it in the practical walk of the Christian. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? Observe the good things here. Good days, follow that which is good, good conscience, and good conversation. My beloved, if you are doing good, following good, and feeding on good, you will see good days, and you will have a good conscience, and all the world will have to admit that yours is good conversation. More than that, God will yet so work that “they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”

Now pass on to the second epistle, where we read of that which must necessarily pain the saint of God, namely:

5. FILTHY CONVERSATION.

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:4-9). God must and will judge evil, but ere He did it in Sodom He delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. If Lot had had a grain of spiritual sense, and devotedness to God, he would have kept close to his old-fashioned uncle, Abraham. But like many another young man he thought he would get on in the world, and where did he go? He first pitched his tent towards Sodom (Genesis 13:12), and then he got inside it, and dwelt there (Gen. 14:12).

God gave him soon after a solemn warning, for he was taken prisoner, by Chedorlaomer and his confederates, and lost all his property to boot. Then his old uncle came again on the scene, and set him free, but heedless of his warning, back he went straight to Sodom. Perhaps he thought he could improve that godless city, like many a Christian today, who seeks to whitewash this present evil world, in vain. Eventually God had to drag Lot out of Sodom (Gen. 19). But he only got his soul vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked while in it.

Now there is no necessity for a saint today to be in Lot’s case. He was willingly and of purpose in Sodom. We have to pass through the world, but there is such a thing as being preoccupied. I will tell you a cure for preventing the conversation of the wicked getting into your soul, and vexing it. Get preoccupied. If you are preoccupied with Christ, there will be no room for this to get in. There is an immense amount of moral filth all round about. Be occupied with Christ, and with the good, the honest, and the chaste conversation, and all the filthy conversation round you will not affect you. If you do this, you may meet with persecution, but you will find in the long run, that the world will not trouble you much. If you take your stand for Christ, you will very soon find what the world will do. It will shake you off. You will never get your soul really vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked unless you are hail-fellow-well-met with them.

6. HOLY CONVERSATION. Now for the last point. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:8-14).

In speaking thus of the appearing of the Lord, Peter says, “What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” That is beautiful! The saint, born of God, and filled with the Holy Spirit, walks in an atmosphere of love — holy love — and he goes through this scene with holy conversation. He lives in a holy atmosphere, and carries it with him. That is, he is one separated to God, with whom he walks, and radiates the impressions resulting from God’s company all around him. I cannot seek anything better for you than that, while wending your way to the heavenly land, and the day of manifestation, and reward, that your souls might know what it is to go through this scene in the power of the Spirit of God. With all affection would I press on you Peter’s words, “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (vs. 14).

You see you have been delivered from “ vain conversation “ — the religion of men in the flesh — and you have no need to be vexed with their filthy conversation, because you are clear of it. You belong to heaven. And now what is to be your pathway? Honest conversation, chaste conversation, good conversation, and holy conversation. Well I repeat, if we were all really set thus to follow the Lord, I believe, beloved young friends, there would be a wonderful power in this town. Let us seek, with ever-increasing earnestness, the blessing of others. We are fully blessed ourselves, and are left here to be a blessing to others. May the Lord give us grace, each one of us, to set ourselves more simply and fully to follow Him.

We go to meet the Savior,

His glorious face to see;

What manner of behavior

Doth with this hope agree?

May God’s illumination

Guide heart and walk aright;

That so our preparation

Be pleasing in His sight.

The Gospel, the Church, and the Servant

(Ephesians 4:1-16)

I have before my mind, the Lord helping me, to glance a little at the way in which the gospel and the Church, the Assembly, are connected in Scripture, with the service that is afforded to us by the Lord in His grace. It is of vital importance to be clear as regards the service that is connected, on the one hand with the gospel, and, on the other, with the Assembly, as the Body of Christ, and to know what the relation of the servant is to Christ, as his Lord, and to the Assembly, of which he is an integral part.

Now, beloved friends, it is an immense mistake to separate the gospel from the Church. I do not see how that can enter anybody’s mind. The gospel is the revelation of the heart and nature of God. The Church is the tender object of the love of Christ. In it we have also the carrying out, in absolute power, of what were the eternal purposes and counsels of our God. These counsels have been developed in power, so that consequent on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, we have this wonderful new structure, the Church of God, the Assembly, called also the House of God. This Church is the object of the deep and tender solicitude of the blessed Lord Jesus.

It is a blessed thing to know what the Church is to Christ. I feel utterly incompetent to handle the subject as I would like to, but I count on the Lord’s help. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, unfolded the mystery, the truth of the Church as the object of Christ’s love and care, because it is His body. He was the “chosen vessel” — a servant of God specially called — to unfold this truth. But his ministry had two sides, for he was “separated unto the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1), as he says, “Whereof I Paul am made a minister” (Col. 1:23), and had to suffer “for his body’s sake, which is the Church: whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God” (Col. 1:24-25).

If I speak of the gospel, do I merely mean the tidings that would tell a poor sinner how to get rid of his or her sins? By no means! There is the thought of what it is to have the blessed God, in all the magnificence of His love and grace revealed and made known here, to the hearts of men, and they brought to know Himself, and brought into the joy of His own love. All such, so blessed, form the Church. You cannot have the gospel standing alone, and leave out the thought of the Church. And I believe the man who is seeking to do that is doing very poor and unsatisfactory work. No, they are really one. The gospel produces the Church, and the Church is sustained, or enlarged by the gospel.

I think the way in which the gifts are introduced in this fourth of Ephesians is very interesting. Paul was chosen to give out the truth of the Church. With this end in view he carried the gospel to the Gentiles, and the Jews would not permit this, but imprisoned him. It was his very love to souls that impelled him to carry out the gospel.

As a prisoner in bonds he writes this lovely epistle. “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:1). We do well to heed the Word of God, and see that we walk worthy, for we have been called to this. It is the calling from God. We have been called into association with Christ. We have also been called into a sphere that is absolutely and blessedly divine. Scripture calls it a “heavenly calling.” It is a wonderful calling, and Paul beseeches them to walk worthy of it.

The way so to do is next given: “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2-3). Now I have been at a good many readings on this chapter, and they have usually taken this shape. First, “What is the calling?” (vs. 1). When that has been discussed has come the query, “What is the unity of the Spirit?” (vs. 3). Why have you left out the second verse? We want the second verse. We never shall touch the meaning of the unity of the Spirit unless our souls are bathed in that which the second verse gives. That is the Spirit of Christ, the grace of Christ, the long-suffering of Christ. And do you think you are going to be a churchman without this second verse encircling you? Do not deceive yourself. You will never touch the truth of the unity of the Spirit, nor be in the power of what that truth is, unless your soul has been really bathed into, yea, dwells in the truth of this second verse.

Lowliness will save you from knocking your head against the lintel of a door that is not high. Do you grasp the figure? And if I am walking in meekness, I shall carry myself rightly when other people are not acting rightly towards me. How beautifully do we find this presented in Scripture as that which marked the Lord Jesus. You and I have to be exhorted to be meek, but the blessed Lord was ever the expression of meekness. He could truly say, “I am meek, and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). It is sorrowful how soon we can be the reverse. That a saint can resemble Christ in this quality is manifest, for “The man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3).

Perhaps you will say to me, I am surrounded by most difficult people to get on with. Very likely. Do you think they are worse than those who murmured at Moses? If so, there is a fine opportunity for you to show them long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. It is what God’s dear people everywhere need, and what every Christian needs the Lord will give us, if we seek His face.

It is only when the soul is in this spirit that it is able to keep the unity which the Spirit has formed. You cannot make it, and you cannot break it. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:4-6). The apostle talks of three circles here: the Spirit’s — reality, the Lord’s — profession, and God the Father’s — universal ubiquity. Then he says in the seventh verse, “Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” I apprehend this to mean that to each the Lord gives that grace in the way of gift, which He sees fit to bestow. With regard to our service, we have each an individual gift and place, according to His sovereign will, and infinite wisdom in the choice of His vessels. From Him comes every grace, every gift, but it is for the good of all. This is evident from verse 16.

But notice that it is only by love that we grow, and only by use that we develop what is given to us, in the way of gift. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Mere knowledge puffeth up, but love edifies, and builds up. It is only by the exercise of love that we can build up.

“Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Eph. 4:8-10).

Here you will observe the exercise of the sovereignty of the ascended Head in glory, who communicates a certain gift to you or to me, as He wills. All is His doing. If He has made you an evangelist, or a pastor, or a teacher, or if He has only made you a little help in the Assembly, it is all His doing, it all comes from Him. If you get anything that will help the saints, thank Him and use it. Remember there is something in every one. Do not let us forget that, because we are all here to help each other. “To every one of us is given grace.”

Now, see how beautifully the apostle traces all gift to Christ ascended. He came down, assumed manhood, and absolutely overcame the one who had been the victor over man. At first, in the wilderness, He defeated him morally, and then came out in His own blessed grace to meet captive man, and to deliver him in every way from the bondage of sin (see Matt. 4:23-25). But now He has passed, through death and resurrection, out of this scene, and He has gone on high, and although the powers of the world to come are in abeyance, and miracles have ceased, we are suffered to have a most blessed part in what He is doing now, and He counts upon our hearts to be interested in all that He is interested in.

There are three things in the eighth verse of this chapter. (1) He ascended up on high; (2) He led captivity captive; (3) He gave gifts unto men. When He came into this world He found Satan the captor, and man chained, so to speak, to the wheels of his triumphal car. Man was in captivity, led or driven through the scene by the devil. Now the whole thing is reversed. It is not now that Satan is the captor and man in captivity, but that Christ has been the Victor. He is now risen from the dead, the mighty Victor, and Satan is chained to the wheels of His car. “He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” These are two wonderful things. Satan vanquished, and man delivered, to become Christ’s willing vassal.

He gives the gifts unto men. That is, He makes you the depositary of a certain gift, and then He takes you, gift and all, and makes a present of you to His Assembly. He takes up you and me, who have been under Satan’s power, He saves us, delivers us, puts our hearts right with God, and brings us nigh to Him. And not only that, but He gives us the Holy Spirit, so that our eternity of gladness is begun here, as we go through this scene, and makes us the depositary of some gift by which we are to be the exponents of His grace in this scene He “went about doing good,” and we are to walk in His footsteps. That is Christianity, or I do not understand it.

The statement that He ascended up on high is a quotation from the sixty-eighth Psalm, which also says: “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it forever. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” (vss. 11-18). “The Lord gave the word,” and to us is accorded the immense favor and privilege in this scene, according to our little measure, of holding forth the Word of Life. It is not only a question of preaching. But the saint is a light in this scene of profound darkness. A light that comes from Christ in glory. He will come back, by-and-by, and He will put all things right, and He will not need our help in that day of manifest power, but now, during His absence, He will use us if we yield ourselves to Him.

Was there ever such a Master? Was there ever grace like His?

“Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” That is the basis of all this unfolding about gift. He has gone right down to the very depths where He overcame Satan, and ascended to God’s right hand. His present position and His glory give Him the privilege of making those who were Satan’s captives the vessels of His power to deliver others. We follow Him in a holy war against the common enemy of God and man. God fills the whole horizon of the soul here with Christ. Look as deep down as you like, He has been there. Look as high as you like, He is there. Nothing but Christ in victorious power is put before the soul.

And now He unfolds what He gave. “And He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers” (vs. 11). You have in your English Bible, most probably, a comma (,) before each of these gifts, but it should not be there. I do not think the point in the eleventh verse is that He gave some to be apostles, or to be prophets, but in the knowledge which He had, of that which was necessary to the carrying out of His own purpose, He gave the persons, in whom He had deposited these various gifts, to the Assembly. Now, as to apostles and prophets, we have not those in person here today, nor indeed do we need them. They have been, and have done their work. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22). The result in full of their work will be seen, by-and-by, in the “holy city, new Jerusalem” (see Rev. 21).

The work of the apostles and prophets was laying the foundation. That, I apprehend, we have in the writings of the New Testament, on which the faith of our souls is now built, and if once the foundation of a house be laid, you do not want any new foundation. The point is this, they are no more wanted. Consequently the idea of there being apostles and prophets now, in their primary sense, is clearly a mistake. We doubtless still have prophetic ministry in the sense of “He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Cor. 14:3). Ministry that reaches the conscience, that edifies, or builds up, stirs up, and comforts, is prophetic. The man that can speak in that way is a most useful gift. We all need it. And if there be a prophet here, thank God for it. But mark, he is not a prophet if he do not build you up, stir you up, and bind you up. The prophets of this order are in evidence today when the Assembly is in function, that is, gathered together; but as to apostles, there are none. They have done their work — laid the foundation — and passed off the scene.

But what of apostolic succession? It is a figment of man’s mind, and has no trace in Scripture. Successors they have doubtless had, and there are two very solemn scriptures which refer to them. Paul, in addressing the elders of the assembly to whom he wrote the epistle we are considering, thus describes

his successors: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). The Lord also gave the same Assembly commendation — in the second epistle to them — for having detected impostors. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars “(Rev. 2:1-2). The men, therefore, today, who assume to be either apostles, or their successors, are in a serious case. They are either “grievous wolves” rending the flock of God, or “liars,” easily, and surely to be so proved. These scriptures settle the whole question as far as the question of apostolic succession is concerned. Apart from these there is no mention of the subject in God’s Word.

But if apostles and prophets have passed away, let us thank God that there are still evangelists, and pastors, and teachers, abiding. Such gifts may not be done without, and the Lord continues to give them right on to the end. So long as the body of Christ is here on earth, so long will He give these gifts. Such, alas, is the confusion in the Church today that each gift may not be doing his work in divine order, and as a consequence, I think the servant of God today has to be a man-of-all-work. That is, he who is an evangelist may have to do a little pastoral work, and seek to teach also, just because all the pastors and teachers are not exercising their respective gifts according to the lines laid down in God’s Word.

First let us glance at the pastors and teachers. The teacher is occupied with the Book, the pastor more with the need of the soul. The latter is a very rare gift, while the teacher is a very useful gift. In Ephesians 4:11 you notice they are linked together, in a way quite different from the other gifts. Do you pray for the teachers? We ought to pray greatly for the teachers, but we are apt to forget our privilege in that respect. A pastor loves the saints, gets near them individually, and thus helps and leads them on. You can tell a pastor in a minute, by the way he prays for the sheep.

The pastors and teachers, however, would have little to do were it not for the evangelists. Their position is very blessed, for “How shall they hear without a preacher?” is God’s query. He answers it by sending out the preacher (see Rom. 10:14-15).

Let us look at what the Scripture tells us about the evangelist, and notice that this gift comes in between the apostles and prophets on the one hand, and the pastors and teachers on the other. There is a great difference in the work of the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. I think I might perhaps put this difference in such a way as the simplest can understand. What is the evangelist occupied with? He is occupied with the soul. What is the pastor occupied with? He is occupied with the sheep. And the teacher? He is occupied with the Book. Men have immortal souls, and what marks an evangelist is intense love to souls. Love for souls should mark every child of God, and if you have it not, is there not grave doubt whether you be one?

Love desires the blessing of others. If you have the enjoyment of the love of God yourself, you cannot be in a right state if you are not solicitous to get others to enjoy it too.

Let me now turn your attention to the Acts of the Apostles. What has greatly interested me lately is the way in which the truth went out in the beginning.

Redemption accomplished, and the blessed Lord gone on high, the Spirit of God came down on the day of Pentecost, and fell upon the hundred and twenty that were gathered together (see Acts 1; 2). Do not forget they were gathered together in prayer when the blessed Spirit of God fell upon them, and the House of God was formed upon earth. The effect of that was that “the multitude came together,” and the Spirit of God led Peter to preach, and three thousand men were brought to the Lord that day. It was a beautiful triumph of grace.

The day the Law was broken, do you know what took place? A very different effect was manifest. Moses cried: “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men” (Ex. 32:26-28). All the sons of Levi came to the help of the Lord that day, and three thousand men died. How beautiful is the contrast on the day of Pentecost. The day the Holy Spirit comes down, Simon the son

of Jonas (was he a Levite?), or Peter, as he is now called, drew his sword — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” — gave splendid testimony to Christ, and three thousand men were saved and added to the Lord’s Assembly that day.

What was Pentecost? It was the inauguration of the Spirit’s day. The Holy Spirit was upon the earth. Is He upon the earth still? Yes, you say, but He is not working now as He wrought then. I admit that, but shall we blame Him? Shall we blame God? I think if we turned the eye in it would be better for ourselves. A faithless Church, an Assembly that has lost the sense of what it is to belong to Christ, is sure to hinder His activity. Do not let us forget, however, that we are in the day of the Holy Spirit.

I believe where we are lacking today is in prayer. If you ever traced through the Acts of the Apostles you would be struck with how much prayer comes in. If you read the Gospel by Luke, where you get the lovely history of Jesus, as the dependent Man, you find that blessed One seven times bowed in prayer. Three times seven, and more, the saints are bowed in prayer, in the Acts. The weakness of our day can be easily explained. But we want to be encouraged, and surely what we read of, then, should encourage us.

We have in the Acts the history of a man — and the only man that I know of — who is called in Scripture an evangelist. It was Philip. He was one of those who were selected, if you recollect, to look after the money, and the poor. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:1-6).

In the seventh chapter of the Acts we get the testimony of Stephen, and for his testimony he loses his life. But how did he die? He died exactly like his Master, praying for his murderers. What did the blessed Lord say, when on the cross? “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And what does Stephen say? “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). Beautiful testimony to Christ.

Now the result of this was that persecution broke out, and they were all scattered abroad, and the disciples went everywhere carrying the gospel with them. “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem: and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:1-4). Why does the Lord allow that persecution? I have no doubt He had a divine purpose in allowing it, because you know very well in the end of Luke the Lord had told the assembled company of apostles and disciples, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). That is how it is put in the end of Luke.

But when you come to the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles you find that they were to wait in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit came down, and then they were told, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Now what were they doing? The apostles and all the brethren had stuck fast to Jerusalem. They made it a sort of spiritual metropolis. It is amazing how we like to stick to the old place, the old room, instead of going out. There they were, they would not go out of Jerusalem. The Lord says, I will broom them out, by sending persecution. Probably you say, The apostles stuck there still. They did stick still, but I do not think they were obeying the Lord in their action, and He raises up other servants, lesser, as Philip (8:6), or larger, as Paul (chap. 9). If you go far afield you will be obeying the Lord.

A right evangelist always works from the divine center. He works from Christ, and from the thing

that is nearest, and dearest to Christ, and that is the Assembly. Philip was in full touch with the nearest Assembly when he went down to Samaria, and “preached Christ unto them,” as recorded in the eighth chapter. In the end of that chapter the quality of an evangelist is sweetly seen in him. Commanded of the Lord, he leaves the flourishing work at Samaria, and travels one hundred miles to meet a poor anxious soul that had traveled over a thousand to get light from God. He met that poor solitary eunuch, and “ preached unto him Jesus.” I do like to hear a brother preaching Jesus. I do not think there are very many that can do it. You need to be very near the Lord to go and preach Jesus. It is easy to talk about Christ. When I was a young Christian I heard more about Jesus than I do nowadays. We have not enough of Jesus about us, nor the grace of Jesus, nor the ways of Jesus. We all of us need a great deal more of Jesus.

Philip caught a great many fish in Samaria, one in the desert, and after he had helped the eunuch he began at “Azotus, and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea” (Acts 8:40). This evangelist therefore preceded Peter in his remarkable mission to Cornelius, and I venture to think had to do with that beautiful work in Caesarea, recorded in Acts 10 In the twenty-first chapter you will find he lived there, and when Paul came thither he stayed with the full-fledged gospel graduate” Philip the evangelist.” “And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him” (Acts 21:8). The apostles had a greater idea of the evangelist than many people have nowadays.

Evangelists may not always be very intelligent. If this be the case, help them. If I am wrong, put me right. I really want to know the Lord’s mind, and to do it. Possibly Philip needed and desired help; anyway, I am very much struck with the fact that the greatest man that ever lived, save the blessed Lord, when he comes to Caesarea does not go to an hotel, nor to the mansion of the noble centurion Cornelius, but puts up with an evangelist. It would do you good to go and stay with a warm-hearted evangelist.

I have been very much interested lately in considering four things in relation to the gospel: What to preach; where to preach; when to preach; and how to preach. What to preach? Well, you will be interested to see the varied kinds of preaching in those days. It was many-sided. It was beautifully varied. You will find it to be so, if you just take the trouble to see what the preaching was like. But we all have to be like Jonah. The Lord said unto him, “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee” (Jonah 3:2). Young preacher, preach what God bids you; not what your brethren suggest, or expect, or your hearers like. Get your orders from the top, and stick to them. You must get the right kind of bait if you are going to catch fish. What we want is our hearts enlarged. Oh, for enlargement of heart! That is what we all want, my dear friends. It is a mortal disease physically, but it is the very thing we all want spiritually. A large-hearted saint takes in the purpose of God, the thought of God, and the grace of God, and, in His service proclaims the whole truth of God.

The evangelist’s sphere is the world. He brings Christ to it, and seeks to bring souls out of it to Christ. But, if instructed, he always works from the Assembly, and leads souls into it. You know what a pair of compasses is? An evangelist is like that — or should be. One leg is fixed, and the other you stretch out as far as it will go. Where is the fixed leg of the evangelist? In the Assembly; and his other leg, to use my figure, circles the world. He goes out in burning zeal, and whole-hearted energy to seek souls, wherever God leads him. The world is his parish.

My beloved brethren, let us listen to the Scriptures in this matter: “Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away” (Matt. 13:47-48). When the net was full, they drew it to shore. They work very hard. And mind there is downright hard work connected with the gospel. It is a very easy thing to stay at home, and toast my toes, and say, Thank God, I am going to heaven. But to go out, and labor for the Lord, and get hold of souls, is not so very easy. But they had their recompense. They caught the fish, and “gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” The vessel is the Assembly. You cannot expect to catch fish in the Assembly. You must go out into the dark waters around to catch them. And what is the water? It is the world, beloved friends.

Everything is in view of the Assembly, and leads to it. But the question arises, Is the evangelist for the Assembly? It is to be noticed that in the list of gifts, which edify it, in 1 Corinthians 12, that of the evangelist is not named. Is this the reason that saints do not need and enjoy the gospel? I trow not. I pity the saint that does not enjoy the gospel. There is nothing I like better than to sit down and listen to the gospel, and we must bear in mind that we live in a day when unestablished souls hover about, and perhaps even get into the Assembly. To all such the simple gospel is divinely suited.

The Lord said to Simon and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19); and what I understand by a fisherman is one who catches fish — not merely a man with a rod, or a net, that goes a fishing. The work of the evangelist is to bring souls to Christ first of all, and then to the door of the Assembly. My advice to you is, Do not introduce your own converts. Let the porters take them in. We read of the porters in Solomon’s days. Their names are given in 1 Chronicles 9:17-18; their number, four thousand, in 1 Chronicles 23:5; their courses in 2 Chronicles 8:14; and their service in 2 Chronicles 35:15. Are you a good porter? A few good porters in the Assembly are of great service, because the porters keep out what ought not to be in, and let in those who have a title to go in. It is a great cheer to a young soul when the porters can say, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord.” I like a good warm-hearted porter.

We have all had our work assigned to us, but let us remember we are all subject to Christ. The evangelist catches the fish, others should determine if they be good or bad. Then what is the relation of the evangelist to the Assembly? Is he under the control of the Assembly? Under the control of the Assembly! What, my servants under your control? My house and my servants belong to me, and not to you. The evangelist is of the Assembly, and, of course, if his walk and ways are not right, he comes under the discipline of the Assembly, but he is the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do I owe allegiance to anybody? Yes! to my Lord and Master, surely to none other. Then as to control? “One is your Master, even Christ” (Matt. 23:8-10). Of course as to doctrine, that is quite another thing. Being of the Assembly, if the evangelist’s doctrine is not sound, he is therein amenable to it. But for the Assembly to think that the evangelist’s business is theirs is a profound mistake. On the other hand, for an evangelist to seek to work in a spirit of independence apart from the Assembly, I should condemn with my whole heart.

If souls are reached by the gospel, what is the natural thing you wish? That they will gravitate to the spot where the Lord is. We might help these dear servants — the evangelists — and we should help them if we prayed more for them. They, however, must be left free to carry out the exercise of the gift which the Lord has given them, where, when, and how He would lead them. For the Assembly to pray much for them is a very blessed and happy thing.

If any whom I address feel that God has called them to this blessed service, let me affectionately urge you to be devoted. Yield yourself to the Lord. You have only one life, and if the Lord has put it into your heart to preach the gospel, go and do it. Do not preach sermons; be like Philip, preach Christ.

Young men, go out into the country, and tell the people, who perhaps never hear the simple gospel, the story of the love of Christ. Oh, you say, I do preach, but I do not catch any fish — I do not get any conversions. Do not let your mind be occupied with success. The Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21). He does not say, “Well done, good and successful servant.” The great thing is to be simple.

I remember what happened soon after I was converted. I was converted one Lord’s Day evening, and at the Lord’s Table the next. That was a great favor from the Lord, to put me at once amongst His saints, and I think I may truly say that I have been a Churchman ever since I was converted. Well, after two or three months I began to preach a little out in the country. But some of the saints said, Come and preach in the Room. The Room, of all places! The thought of preaching to these old, intelligent, and possibly critical brethren staggered me greatly. However, I was so pressed by them that I at length consented, and of course got up a most elaborate sermon. Thank God, I broke down in that sermon, which served me right, for I was trusting to my preparation, and not to the Lord. It is the only one I ever broke down in, all the days of my life, for, from that night, I learned to trust the Lord for His support and help when ministering His Word.

If you are going to be a successful fisherman, you will have to keep yourself out of sight. Wait much on God, and remember that men have immortal souls, and are hurrying on to a lost eternity. Then go, and tenderly, lovingly, and beseechingly preach Christ. Tell them of Christ, and, my dear friend, you will be sure of catching men for Him.

The Acts of the Apostles give us great variety in the way of presenting the gospel, and it is very interesting to see the way in which the gospel is connected with the Assembly, and the way in which the work went on. The gospel and the Church were never dissevered in the days of the apostles. The reason of that was their interest in each other’s work, and their manifest simplicity. Look at Philip with that beautiful work going on in Samaria, when so many were blessed. Peter and John came down. Do you think that was to examine the work of the evangelist? I do not believe it. The Holy Spirit did not fall upon the converts until they came down. God did not permit that until these men came down, and laid their hands on them. The reason is plain. The work of God is one, although the instruments vary. There was One Head in heaven, and One Spirit on earth, and the work. at Samaria was one with that at Jerusalem, for there was but “one body.” The apostles’ action, therefore, was to show the identification of the work. The Assembly at Jerusalem took deep interest in the work of the evangelist in Samaria.

Doubtless Philip needed, and gladly received the help of the apostles. He thought Simon was converted, but he was not. An evangelist must be a hearty, sanguine man, or he would not succeed. It is part of his gift to be just that. Nothing daunts him. He is like a cork on the water, the more drenching he gets, the higher he floats. He always comes up smiling. He is set in the name of the Lord, and by the grace of the Lord, to win souls for the Lord, and as long as he is here you will find that is what he will do. Preaching is not evangelizing. Many a man likes to preach to a large company, but do you ever find him dealing with souls. Such an one is not of much use. He is perhaps a splendid preacher, but he is not an evangelist. The going down of the apostles, in the case alluded to, was doubtless an expression of sweet and beautiful interest in the evangelist’s work.

When Paul was converted, “straightway he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20), before he got really into the Assembly. He was brought into the Assembly at Jerusalem by the commendation of Barnabas, and the saints soon recognized his worth, as he “spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 9:20-29).

Why did Peter report at Jerusalem the wondrous tidings that “the Gentiles also had received the Word of God”? (Acts 11:1). To share with the Assembly the victories of the gospel. Would that there were more of that kind of thing today, but alas, we are often too self-occupied to be interested in another’s work. They were then of one heart, one mind, and one soul. It was not with them the question of this gift or that gift. God was working, and no matter who it was by, all the rest were interested.

See how this is illustrated in the eleventh chapter: “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem; and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord” (Acts 11:19-24).

When the happy tidings of these things came unto the ears of the Church of Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas, all the way to Antioch, a distance of about four hundred miles. They were interested in it. When you hear there is a beautiful work of God going on fifty, or five hundred miles away, do you send some one to see how it is getting on? If you do, mind he must be a good man. The man they sent “ was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” That is the kind of man to send. If he is not a man of that sort, he will do a lot of mischief. They sent down that man to help the preachers, and the converts, and when he was come he was made glad, we read. It is a great thing to be always set to help everybody else. Barnabas comes and sees a company of happy saints, and of course he was made glad. A wonderful thing is the grace of God when it works. Why does He not work more in our midst? That is a serious question.

Now come to the thirteenth chapter, and see how the gospel spread from this same Antioch. “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus” (vss. 1-4). Now observe, it was no work of the Assembly. But the Assembly was allowed to have fellowship with what the Holy Spirit was doing. The Holy Spirit led these servants, but He lets the Assembly have fellowship. Could not you do the same? “And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” I would be very glad if you did that to me. Mark this, no hypocrisy. If I pray, and put my hands upon a man, I am identified with him. If I put my hand on my brother in prayer, I ought next to put my hand into my pocket, to help him, because “ the laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7). They were identified with these two men, and doubtless sustained them.

In the fourteenth chapter, you find Paul and Barnabas back again at Antioch. When they get there, what do they immediately do? Let us read: “And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia: and thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles” (Acts 14:25-27). They gathered the Church together, and rehearsed all that God had done with them. When you come back from a happy and successful gospel campaign, do you dear evangelists gather the Church together to share the good news? Oh, you say, we should not like to put ourselves forward like that. The saints would not come together for that purpose. I am very sorry for the saints. That is all I can say. If you were to go home and do it, probably some would say, He thinks a great deal of himself. If that be so, at least something else is manifest, the Assembly nowadays has lost its first love for the gospel, and its triumphs. In plain language, we are not so simple as they were in that day. God enlarge our hearts, for we need it.

Pass on now to the fifteenth chapter: “And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren” (vs. 3). There again you have the servants sharing their common joy with the saints, and causing great joy. That is what took place in those early days of freshness and simplicity. I am only telling you what the Lord has recorded, just to stir us all up. And if you are not happy, I am. I know the secret of all this communion in the effects of the gospel. They had all one heart for Christ. They thought only of the glory of Christ. Oh, brethren, the Lord give us to be more in the enjoyment of His love.

I have been greatly struck, too, with the way in which the Lord sought to educate, and then sent out His servants when He was here. “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth and another reapeth” (John 4:34-37). Oh, what an evangelist He was. Come from the Father’s heart, and laden with all its love, He traveled all through that burning desert to reach, and fill one empty, sinful heart. Son of God, we adore Thee I He went to death for you and me. Beloved brethren, what are we going to do for Him? Are not souls perishing on every hand? What are we doing? Are we carrying the light, the blessed gospel of God’s grace, to them. Mark, it is a responsibility laid on us. Here the Lord says, LOOK, the fields are white already to harvest. May He press these words upon your hearts and mine.

If we go elsewhere, we find it written: “But when He saw the multitudes, be was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:36-38). “PRAY YE.” Oh, how beautiful! In the fourth of John it was, Look ye; here it is, Pray ye. He, so to speak, says, I will take you into fellowship with Me in the work. I do not know that they did pray, but anyway He sent out twelve: “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease...These twelve Jesus sent forth” (Matt. 10:1,5). Oh, beloved, the laborers are indeed few. Do we pray after this sort?

In the sixteenth chapter of Mark, we find Him risen from the dead, and there He says in the fifteenth verse, “Go YE into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” That is it. People sometimes say to me, Where shall we preach? He tells you, “Go ye into all the world.” I quite admit, if you contend for it, that it was a special injunction to the twelve. But would you limit it to them? We have been noticing that “He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry; for the edifying of the Body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). That is to say, He gives in His blessed grace, all that is necessary for the pathway of the saints, and for the carrying out of His work down here, whether in the Assembly, or outside it in the world. “Go ye into all the world,” is an imperative command. Have we hearts to obey? Are our hearts so sweetly in tune with Him as to be ready to go.

This answers the question — Where to preach? If I look at the Apostle Paul, I find him preaching in all sorts of places. Hill-tops, river-sides, market-places, prisons, palaces, and synagogues, and his own hired house, all heard his voice. The point is that the servant is to be at the command of the Lord to carry out the testimony. His only exercise was as to how the Lord’s word was to be addressed to those to whom his Master had sent him. Nor was it a question of fellowship with the Assembly, though his oft-repeated request for their prayers showed how he valued their fellowship. If their hearts are right, they will be praying to the Lord for blessing.

The servant gets his commission from his Master. He wants no other authorization or commendation. “For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch” (Mark 13:34). He has authority from his Lord: that is enough. What will be the result? There will be a reward for all service rendered to Him by-and-by. The thirty-second chapter of Isaiah gives us a good illustration of the query, Where shall we preach? “Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass” (vs. 20). Sow beside all waters. What is the meaning of that? Diligent toil.

But there is not only the question of where to preach, but when to preach? Solomon furnishes a good answer; “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight: for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good” (Eccl. 11:1-6). In the East they sow the seed upon the waters, the water subsides, and the seed drops into a soft fertile bed. This is not preaching. It is you and I just being keen to drop the blessed seed of the Word of God in the soul, wherever God carries us. You are to be a person going about with the heavenly seed-basket on your arm, dropping the seed wherever you go. It may be to a saint. It may be to a sinner. The fact is, far too much is left to the preachers. Verse 4 teaches us not to be governed by circumstances. I think God often gives us a fair wind. It took Paul only a day and a half to come to Philippi from Troas with the gospel (Acts 16:11-12). But it took him five days to get back to Troas again (Acts 20:6). Do you think God has told us that for nothing? God did not put that in His book without purpose.

Go on with your work. Let nothing hinder you. That is the great thing for a saint today. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.” That is when to preach. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). Where to preach? All the world your parish. When to do it? Morning and evening, always at it.

How to preach is also of importance, and Scripture tells us how to do it. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psa. 126:5-6). They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. I think that is the How. There is a moral state. There is exercise of soul. And therefore you sow in tears, and reap in joy. That is a beautiful answer to the How, both in the way you go out, and in the way you present the truth.

Again we get an illustration of this in Paul’s history. “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1). Connect that with “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And Paul and Barnabas so spake that a multitude believed. It is said of George Whitefield that he so felt the love of God, on the one hand, and the need of souls on the other, that he often wept over them when preaching. Little wonder that they wept under him. The Lord help you and me to preach like that.

What God looks for is a willing heart. You may be as devoted as you like to be, and will be no more. You may yield all to Christ. There is no must when it is a question. of devotion to Christ. I never say to a person, You must. be devoted. But I sometimes say, You may be devoted, We all have the opportunity to be such, and it is a fatal mistake if we miss that opportunity.

There is a striking illustration of this in the book of Judges. Some of the people responded splendidly to Barak’s call, others held back. This is celebrated in the song of the fifth chapter, which I would ask you to study carefully in relation to the question of being devoted to the Lord. “Awake, awake, Deborah; awake, awake; utter a song: arise; Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam” (vs. 12.) They were anticipating the fourth chapter of Ephesians even in that day. No longer captives, but set free, a song alone became them. But some had no part in the battle, and no heart for the song, and so, alas! is it today.

“And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheep-folds to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Daniel remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea-shore, and abode in his breaches. Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field” (vss. 15-18). Reuben thought it was far better to watch his sheep, than risk their loss, while away on the Lord’s business. How is it with us? Are we seeking sovereigns or souls? Which is it? Is it Christ, Christ’s people, and Christ’s service that I am interested in? And to go wider, do I go out to win others for Him? If you are set to please and serve Him, you will have twice as much joy in your own soul. When we love “to hear the bleatings of the flocks,” that is, are commanded by our own interests, our business, our families, our worldly success, and so forth, we spoil our joy and do not often “utter a song.” That is, Reuben had a chance of being devoted, and missed it.

Now, this is really very solemn indeed, for if I miss blessing, I am exposed to the reverse. “Curse ye

Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye not the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty” (vs. 23). That is, if I do not respond to God’s call, which always leads to blessing, I come experimentally under a curse, a blight.

But, you say, does the Lord want my help? Well, you can take what you like out of that scripture. God keep you from the curse of Meroz. “They came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Their hearts were not free, and devoted to Christ utterly. Are ours? In His blessed grace He gives us the privilege of being thus His fellow-workers. It is a wonderful privilege to be among His helpers, albeit what we can do is little indeed. I expect to meet Lazarus in heaven. It was a wonderful day for Him when He was raised from the dead. How did it happen? You say, The Lord raised him. Quite true, but did He not say, “Take ye away the stone”? Very likely more than one had a hand in it. What did they do? They helped to push the stone away.

If you can do nothing more, you might be like a little boy whom the Lord had saved. There lived a great, big, and very godless man in the village. This little lad persuaded him to come with him to a gospel meeting. When they reached the door of the meeting room, the little fellow gave him a push in, and said, “Here he is, Jesus, save him!” And the Lord saved that man! It was all the little fellow could do, but he did it. He came “to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”

The Lord help you and me to yield ourselves unreservedly to Him. I take my orders from the top, and I recommend you to do the same. If you do, you are sure to be right, you are bound to be right. “He gave to every man his work.” Let us each do our own work, and seek only to please Him, till we see Him face to face. Oh, how we shall rejoice to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” about others, if He cannot say it to us. It will be well, however, to so devote ourselves to Him, that He may have the opportunity to say it even to us.

That the Church May Receive Edifying

(1 Corinthians 12:28-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5,29-40)

The first epistle to the Corinthians, we all know, differs largely from that to the Ephesians, but what has struck me much lately is the way in which the apostle brings the soul of the saint into the presence of God in connection with the truth of the Assembly. I will turn back for a moment to the earlier part of the epistle to show what I mean, for although many here have been long on the road, there are some younger ones, and it is for them I chiefly speak. It has often been said we are apt to forget the recruits. I say, thank God for the recruits! and thank God also for the recruiting sergeants — those who seek to get them into their places in the Assembly. We all have to learn, and we have to remember there are always those who are just beginning.

It is very interesting to see that of all the epistles in the New Testament those to the Corinthians are the only ones addressed “To the church of God” (chap. 1:2). This remark holds good also with regard to the second epistle. Both are addressed “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth.” The point was that in the midst of heathen darkness there was that which God could claim as His own, and address as His own. There was a spot where He was to be known and revealed, and where He showed Himself to His people. That was His Assembly. There is nothing more blessed for the soul to carry in mind than that. At the same time it is a very serious matter — I feel it increasingly — it is a very solemn thing to have anything to do with the things of the Lord, and the Assembly, just because it is God’s Assembly, not man’s.

As you run through the epistle this thought comes out in various ways. Go back to chapter 3. If it be a question of husbandry — “Ye are God’s husbandry.” If Paul and Apollos were fellow-workers they were God’s fellow-workmen. We too are His fellow-workers, we belong to God, if it be in your hands or mine it is God’s work. If it be a question of tillage — it is God’s field; or if it be a building it is God’s building — God’s temple. So in chapter 4, if it be a question of judgment of their stewardship, he says, wait till the Lord comes, and “then shall every man have praise of God.” This principle renders you independent of everybody, clear of every influence but this — “I have to do with God: I have to say to God.” It makes no difference if I be praised or censured of man. It is a small thing to me, says Paul, whether I am praised or judged — “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come.” Our souls are set down before God for everything in connection with His people, and His testimony, and His service.

A great deal more of the same kind is in the epistle, and a very striking word is found in the end of chapter 3 (vs. 19). “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” “The temple of God” is in view, and as I come up to this building — and it is God’s building — I see written over the portico, as it were, these words, “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” It conveys to me this thought — If you bring the wisdom of the world into this building you will be found out. When I come to the steps of the building, that is the first thing that strikes me. Remember this is God’s temple, and what is of the world — what is human — will all be found out and judged. Human wisdom is of no use there. There is another inscription inside the building to which I will come presently.

Passing on now to the chapter which I read, it is very interesting to see the way in which the truth that comes out in chapter 12 is introduced in connection with the parenthesis which intervenes between it and chapter 14 — which of course is a continuation of the subject, gifts and ministry. For many a long day I failed to see the reason why the apostle stopped his instruction as to the gifts in connection with the body in chapter 12. He stops his subject, as you observe, and then gives us the unfolding of divine love — what love is — and what it is not, in chapter 13, and resumes his instructions regarding the Assembly in chapter 14. I trust I see the point of it now. No matter what I may have, or you may have in the way of power — because that is what is unfolded in chapter 12 — no matter what you may have in the way of gift and power by the Holy Spirit, it is of no use without love. Manifestly power is not grace; spiritual power is not grace. A man may have a great deal of power in connection with a gift imparted by the Lord, but it is not grace. So whatever may be the greatness or measure of the gift in chapter 12, I do not think it is of the slightest use in chapter 14 — which is the Assembly in function, the sphere and field of its exercise — unless it be baptized into, and permeated with the spirit of chapter 13 — that is love. It is just what our brother was saying this morning — love is everything. You may not have gift, but there may be that which is more profitable — the outflow of that love which is the mark of a soul belonging to, and walking with God.

The supremacy and sovereignty of God in His Assembly is much pressed in chapter 12.

We read in verse 28, how “God hath set some in the church.” If in verse 4 Paul talks of “diversities of gifts,” then in verse 6 he says, “It is the same God which worketh all in all.” Evidently in Corinth (and I do not think, beloved brethren, Corinth was the only place where the tendency came out, if I know the history of the Church of God, whether in days gone by, or in our own) there was the working of the human will and mind, and a desire on the part of some to have a place of importance. Manifestly there was no desire on the part of Paul or Apollos to take this place, but there was the endeavor, on the part of some foolish men, to put either them, or others, up (see chap. 4:6-7). Notice how the apostle slays all this factionary work. “It is God that worketh all in all.” He would slay all schism, and division, and school and party of every kind. If it is a question of the body, it is not Paul or Apollos, but, “Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him” (vs. 18).

If I think of the church as it is presented here in Corinth, I sec that God has set the members in the body according to His own will. Do you know, beloved brother, why you are where you are? Why you are located just where you are? If there be true subjection to God, and subservience to Him, you will feel and own that you are in the spot where it has pleased God to set you, and that is everything. The moment I see that God has set that brother in his place, and this one in his, I am content, and say, Thank God for that servant and his ministry I It is his place, not mine, so, if I am right, I neither emulate nor ape it, being just satisfied with my own place and niche in the body (vs. 24). “God has tempered the body together,” and so forth. God has arranged all, for we read, again (vs. 28), “God bath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers,” and so forth. Here we have not a complete list of gifts, for that we do not get anywhere in Scripture. We have some mentioned in Romans 12, others in Ephesians 4, and many here, but not in any case a complete and detailed list. In each passage the gifts named are seen to be in connection with the special truth the Spirit of God is bringing before the saints at the moment.

Here it is striking to observe that the list includes no evangelist. The reason is not far to seek. The apostle is instructing the saints about their coming together, and the order of the Assembly before the Lord, and it is not there that the gift of the evangelist is in exercise. I feel strongly the force of what our brother said this morning, that the evangelist is of the Assembly, and belongs to it. No evangelist is working according to the truth, unless he is working in conjunction, and if possible, in whole-hearted fellowship with the Assembly, and he then naturally helps his converts to gravitate towards the Assembly. In the apostle’s days that was a natural thing, and the convert was like a fish out of water if he did not get amongst the saints. In the Assembly was the power of the Spirit: there the Spirit reigned, while outside, darkness and the devil reigned. Today, in the divided state of things which marks Christendom, it is very different, and I think an evangelist ought to be very careful how he foists his converts into the Assembly. For myself I am very careful how I seek to introduce any who profess to have been blessed by my ministry. I think my brethren are far better able to judge than I am myself of my work. This is a most important principle, and I think I see it in Scripture, for example, Acts 8, where Philip went down to Samaria. Philip is the only man in Scripture called “ The evangelist,” and a fine warm-hearted fellow he was — a real fisher of men — he caught a great many fish in Samaria, and he thought he had caught a great fish when Simon the sorcerer professed to believe, and was baptized. Philip would have brought him into the Assembly if the Lord in His grace had not sent down Peter and John to detect him and keep him out.

It is a great thing for the Assembly to be exercised about the reception of souls who confess the Lord. I would like to add a little word with regard to the responsibility of the saints generally in regard to the reception of souls desiring fellowship in the breaking of bread. This is far too much left to the two or three who may commend such. It is necessary, and very nice that they should be commended, but we ought to have in our souls more distinctly the sense that it is the Assembly that receives, as it is the Assembly who may have to dismiss or put away. If the saints were more exercised as to this it would be greatly for the profit of the Assembly, and tend to practical fellowship.

And now as to the gifts and their exercise, “God has set some in the assembly; first apostles, secondarily prophets” and so forth. We still have them, if I may so say, in the writings of the New Testament. We “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” of the New Testament. In other words, our faith rests on that which is revealed in their writings (Eph. 2:20.). Another subsidiary sense in which prophets still remain, we have in chapter 14:3. Pursuing, we read “ thirdly teachers.” The reason why you get the gifts placed in the order of their value — why you have them numbered 1, 2, 3 — is because the Corinthians were very full of their sign-gifts, and very much occupied with the man who had power to speak with tongues and the like, and they very little valued these other gifts which were of far deeper importance and value for edification. The Lord comes in and puts things in their true place, and estimates the gifts in their real value before Him, as made known by Him, and “tongues” are put last.

Among the rest we read of “helps.” That is a very nice little word, “helps.” There are many persons who may be helps in the Assembly who may not be the possessors of any very great gift. It is very nice to be a “help,” and it is very gracious that God allows us to be “helps” to one another, as well as to be His helpers. I was much struck the other day with a word in Judges 5. There was a great crisis in the history of Israel, and we see a certain company who did not rise to the occasion. “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty” (Judg. 5:23). It is a great thing to be always free, and fresh, and simple in heart, and ready to be in the hand of the Lord to do just what He would give one to do. Every one has his own little niche for God, and it is good to remember our Lord’s word when He “left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch” (Mark 13:34). We can all be “helps.” The Lord gives us each an opportunity in our little corner, to sweetly and simply serve Him and His people. This is open to every one.

I pass over chapter 13 — a wonderfully choice and interesting subject — for time fails to expound this “more excellent way.” Whatever gift you and I may be possessed of, it might be augmented, and if we do not possess any gift, I wonder if we are covetous in the sense of chapter 12:31? Brother, are you covetous after this sort? My young brother, are you covetous of “the best gifts”? If not, I have the privilege tonight of exhorting you to be covetous. Mr. Darby used to say, “If there were more devotedness there would be more gift.” True indeed, and if there were more devotedness to the Lord, more seeking from Him that we might be helpers to His saints, I am sure there would be more gift than there is. The apostle’s exhortation is very striking.

What is the “more excellent way”? This beautiful atmosphere of love of chapter 13. You remember the word of the apostle to his son Timothy, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). These three words bring before me these three chapters: chapter 12 is “power”; chapter 13 “love”; and chapter 14 “a sound mind,” and I sometimes doubt, brethren, if we have it; and certainly we have it not if love does not rule our ways and words in the Assembly unto “edification.”

I now pass on to chapter 14 for a minute or two. Verse 1. Prophecy has the double sense of (1) foretelling events, or (2) is that class of ministry which reaches the conscience and brings the soul into the presence of God. You have it beautifully illustrated in the case of the Lord with the woman in John 4 His word, “He whom thou now hast is not thy husband,” reached her conscience fully, as she says, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” Here, however, clearly, prophesying has a wider range than that, for “he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (vs. 3). It is a most blessed line of ministry that. “Edification” builds up. “Exhortation” stirs up. “Comfort” binds up. If the ministry is of a really prophetic character there will be the building up, the consolidating of the Assembly. And there is more than that, “exhortation” which stirs us up. I ask any one who looks over the scene today, Do you not think the saints of God want stirring up? I know I need it, and I am always thankful to the man who stirs me up. The ministry which stirs you up makes you to feel, I must wake up; I must lay aside this or that weight. And more than that — this ministry comforts, it binds up, it makes Christ precious to the heart. May the Lord give us more of that kind of ministry, beloved friends. I am speaking of the ordinary round of ministry in the Assembly day by day.

There is one word that marks this chapter. The keynote of chapter 14 is one word, “edification.” What will edify? That will always be a serious question to every one who possesses any gift. I may think I am edifying the Assembly, and be mistaken. If I do not edify, I think you ought to tell me. If my ministry is unprofitable, I think brothers ought to be faithful to me — while withal they are gracious and tell me that my ministry is not to profit, and then I trust I shall have grace not to plague you with it. The great point is, what will edify. You find that over and over again in the chapter. It is very important that what takes place in the Assembly should be of that character, and love would desist from continuing ministry which fails to edify. Note how this is pressed in verses 12-14, “Forasmuch as ye are jealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.” We are bidden also “to utter by the tongue words easy to be understood.” Often in our meetings there is a good deal that is not edifying, simply because it is not heard. How can you say “Amen” to a brother’s prayers if you do not hear them? You may say, The Lord hears. Yes; but if the part I take is to be profitable to others, I ought to speak so that you can hear, and so, plainly that you can understand. If it be the giving out of a hymn, or praying, I judge it ought to: be in a way that saints can hear. Here is God’s Word for it. I am only drawing attention to what is often lacking, and which many are conscious of. I trust the Lord will use His Word. Let us remember profit is the great thing, and what we can neither hear nor understand will not profit either me or others.

Another point I would touch on. “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge” (vs. 29). I apprehend this is an occasion when the Assembly is together. It may be open to question whether a meeting like this where I am now speaking is to be regarded as a meeting of the Assembly. It is, I know, a moot point; but I think “two or three” puts a limit on the number of speakers in a meeting of this kind. As to this I feel speakers need to be individually before the Lord. I name it, because one has heard of not only two or three but more speaking on such occasions; but I take it, the Lord has given us His mind very plainly here — “two or three,” and not more.

“If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace” (vs. 30). What does that mean? That the second has to wait till the first sits down? I do not think so. If the Lord gave a revelation to another prophet, he was to rise to deliver it, and the first would hold his peace and sit down. Now there is no revelation, and as another has said: “Order is before power. God is never the author of confusion.” Subjection is the great point here. It is beautiful to note the way the Spirit of God looks for profit. What is more profitable than to see a man subject to the Spirit? The prophet ought to be under the control of the power of the Spirit of God, and in subjection to Him, because he might have risen in the power of the Spirit to speak, and gone on beyond his measure.

May the Lord give us all to know what it is to be always before Him for real profit, not only now, but when we are at home in the little meetings from whence we all come.

The apostle winds up very beautifully with verses 39-40. This is what I see written inside the building,

all round the wall, as it were, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Outside the building I saw everything will be detected that is not of God, for “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” Now, inside there is what suits the presence of God, and what is to mark His servants and His saints in His Assembly. This injunction speaks for itself, and I desire to have the abiding recollection of it in my heart.

It is a wonderful thing when you think that the Church, the Assembly, is now the lesson-book of angels — that angels are to learn, beloved fellow — Christians, the manifold wisdom of God, as they see the Spirit’s blessed activity and power in God’s Assembly.

The Lord give us each to be more suitably filling our little niche, as individuals in His service, and likewise to know in our hearts the blessedness of being members of that body of which Christ is the Head, so that when we come into the Assembly we may remember it is God’s Assembly, and that all things may be done “decently and in order,” for His name’s sake.

Thy precious name is all we show,

Our only passport, Lord;

And full assurance now we know,

Confiding in Thy word.

O largely give, ‘tis all Thine own,

The Spirit’s goodly fruit:

Praise issuing forth in life, alone

Our living Lord can suit.

Henceforth let each beloved child

With quickened step proceed,

To walk with garments undefiled

Where’er Thine eye may lead.

Gift and Local Office

(1 Timothy 3)

Many saints have not a due and right sense of what ministry springs from, and so, in their minds, the exercise of spiritual gifts has been confounded with local offices. Now, an elder, or a deacon, might be a gifted man or not. Ministry is the exercise of a spiritual gift which flows from the Lord in glory, and belongs to the Church at large; while these appointments were purely local, and are only seen in certain Assemblies, where the Apostle Paul or his delegates had ordained them.

In some of the epistles the Assemblies are not addressed as having these local officers, while in that to the Philippians they are mentioned, and their qualifications are given in the first epistle to Timothy, as well as in that to Titus.

The word “elder,” as all know, means those who are not young, but advanced in years. The word is used about sixty times in the New Testament, but only a few of these apply to the Church of God, and we will look at these. A bishop had to be an elder, but not every elder was a bishop. The translators of our admirable English Bible, who were used to episcopacy, whenever they came to a word which might be translated bishop, so translated it, as in Titus 1:7.

The word ἐπώκοπος occurs five times in the New Testament. Four times it is translated “bishop” (Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:7; 1 Peter 2:25), and once “overseer” (Acts 20:28), and this is the real meaning of the Greek word. In addition we have the derivative word ἐπωκκοπῆ occurring twice, and rendered “bishopric” in Acts 1:20, and “office of a bishop” in 1Timothy 3:1.

The first time we get the word “overseer “ is, as we have seen, in Acts 20 There we read, “And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Church” (vs. 17). In the course of his address to them, he says,” Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Thus the elders and overseers are but two words expressive of one office in this case.

Next we meet with the word in Paul’s epistle to the Philippians. “Paul, and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons” (Phil. 1:1). The third mention is: “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2). “An overseer must be blameless; “this is clear from the previous verse. “If a man desire the oversight, he desireth a good work, an overseer then must be blameless,” and so on. Then we read: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop

must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre” (Titus 1:5-7). Titus is told to ordain “elders,” and then the qualifications of an overseer are given.

The last and most conclusive use of the word is in 1 Peter 2:25, “For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Have we all returned; have you returned? I If not, lose no time, but return at once to Jesus, the “Overseer of your soul.”

Let us now see what these elders were, and their qualifications. “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Tim. 3:1-7). It is clear that they were to be men of ascertained moral and spiritual weight, in the Assembly. Each was to be “the husband of one wife.” Of course this was necessary, for polygamy was common then, and a man might have more than one wife before he was converted, and afterward could not put them away, but it would preclude him from this office.

They were to be “apt to teach,” likewise, hospitable, and having their own houses in order; and if they ruled well, we see elsewhere, they were to be much esteemed. “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward” (1 Tim. 5:17- 18).

Now I believe that many of us have been bred with the belief that it is competent to the Church now to ordain or appoint elders, but if we see from Scripture who ordained them, and how they were ordained at first, it will help us.

But first let me carry your minds back to see what the Church of God really is. It is composed of those who have been redeemed by Christ, been washed in His blood, born of the Spirit, possess a new nature, are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and are thus baptized into one body. The Church of God in any place was a company known as God’s people, and, let me say, there was only one such company in one place, hence the postman would have known where to take a letter addressed to the Church of God. But it is not so now, nor could you open such a letter, nor could I. Who could open it? It would have to lie at the dead letter office till all the saints in the place should have come together, and then only could we open the letter.

In those early days, if we had asked the most wicked person in the place, they could have told you where the Church of God was. When the Church of God began, none but true children of God were in its ranks. You may quote the case of Ananias and Sapphira. That proves my statement. I am not going to discuss their state, but they were put out, God put them out by death, and we read, “Of the rest durst no man join himself to them” (Acts 5:13). Just as a wasp in a beehive is killed or driven out, so, if a false person did come in, the light was so great that he was manifested, and went out, or was put out. Would to God that it were so now.

Believers in Jesus are now linked with Him in glory, so that they are the members of His body, and such a thought as being a member of any other body is of man, if not of lower origin. No child of God should own such membership; it is not of God, and the New Testament thoroughly condemns the idea.

What we find in Scripture is that wherever the gospel was believed, the disciples were drawn together to the Lord’s name. A little time passed, and then the apostles entered that Assembly for a definite purpose, and that was to ordain elders and deacons, not to appoint ministers, for there is no such thought in all Scripture. If there be, it can easily be found.

There is one scripture, I am aware, which is the stock passage for the so-called “ordination of ministers,” but this, when examined, throws great light on this subject “ Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:1-3). Now, have you the coolness, not to say the audacity, to say that Barnabas and Paul were then ordained? Prophets and teachers ordain apostles! Impossible! “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28).

The second and third would be ordaining the first in the Church, if your interpretation were correct Again, I say, impossible They were “sent forth by the Holy Ghost,” and the brethren, prophets, and teachers if you will, knowing that “ the apostles Barnabas and Paul” (for so they are styled in Acts 14:14), were sent forth for a special work, did what was common then — they flung themselves into the mission with heart and soul — they fasted, and prayed, and laid their hands on them. Did they ordain them? If so, to what? It could not be to preach, for Barnabas had come on the scene long before. In Acts 5:36-37, he had shown great devotedness in giving his money. In Acts 9:27, he had manifested great spiritual judgment in introducing Paul of Tarsus to the Assembly at Jerusalem, and that Assembly a little later had commissioned him to go and see the grace of God in Antioch (Acts 11:22-24). Thereafter he brought Saul to Antioch, and together they taught that Assembly for a whole year, and then carried their bounty to Jerusalem (Acts 11:25-30).

Paul’s apostleship we know the source of, from his own pen. “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)” (Gal. 1:1). As far as preaching is concerned, he began that at Damascus directly he was converted (see Acts 9:19-22).

The laying on of hands has a different meaning in various parts of Scripture. The action of those at Antioch was clearly only that of identification with these two servants when called to a special service. The Church of God at Antioch identified itself heart and soul with the special work of a missionary nature that Barnabas and Saul were called to, and when they had finished their tour and their work, they returned “to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended (not ordained) to the grace of God for Me work which they had fulfilled” (Acts 14:26).

In the course of that tour they visited Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia. Souls were saved, Assemblies formed, and afterward we find the apostles returning, and confirming the disciples. More than that, enough time had passed by to reveal who were qualified to be elders in these Assemblies, so we read: “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed” (Acts 14:23).

Now mark who it was that ordained these elders. I know some learned ones would say that the Assembly chose them, and then the apostles came along and formally installed them. I am no scholar myself, but I am assured by others, who know the Greek language intimately and accurately, that the word χειροτονήσαντες, in our version rendered “ordained,” simply means “having chosen.” Evidently it was the apostles that chose them (Acts 14:23). And here let me say this is the only place in the New Testament where we see the apostles ordaining them. No doubt there were elders in Ephesus, as in Philippi, and Titus was told to appoint them in Crete (Titus 1:5).

But then some may say, Were not the people that composed the Assembly the right ones to appoint them, as in the case of the deacons in Acts 6:1-6? In no case do we read that hands were laid on elders. The only passage that looks like it, is where Paul says to Timothy: “Lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Tim. 5:22). But this, I judge, has a much wider meaning.

Hands were laid on deacons, by the apostles, and by them in every case. In the case of the chosen seven, recorded in Acts 6, the Assembly who gave their money were to have the right to choose their stewards, but notice there, that it was the apostles who installed them in office. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Pro-chorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:1-6). All that were chosen were selected from the murmurers. Grace is the great cure for murmuring. It was the Grecians who murmured, and though not called deacons the seven who did the work of deacons were all Grecians. Not even four Grecians, and three Hebrews, but all Grecians. What a lesson as to the power of grace when it be active!

We have seen clearly that it was the apostles or their delegates who chose elders, and they it was who laid their hands on the deacons, but you must remember that there was only one church in each city at that time. It was the Church of God, and embraced every believer.

We have noticed that Paul, in his charge to the elders at Ephesus, had said, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). I return to this occasion for the reason that Paul in his first epistle to Timothy says, “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:3). From this some have thought that Timothy was a bishop, and was left there to appoint them, but here in Acts 20 we see all the elders doing their work at Ephesus five years before Paul wrote to Timothy, so that theory will not hold good.

Let us now look at some other scriptures very briefly. “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17). We see here that there were some of the elders who “labored in word and doctrine” yet they were not appointed as ministers, as men now say. How did they get this power to labor in word and doctrine? That alone came from Christ, and flowed from Him as the Head of the Body. It was the exercise of a spiritual gift, which the Lord had given them, and had nothing whatever to do with their official position as elders. They possessed this power, over and above their eldership, in no sense because of it. And to illustrate this we have also Philip, who was one of the seven deacons of Acts 6. The persecution arising after Stephen’s death turned him out of office, so he went to Samaria, preached Christ, and the whole city is moved. It is abundantly plain that he had a gift — that of the evangelist — and he exercised his gift quite apart from his deaconship. To confound gift and office is to spoil both. They are distinct. Gift comes from Christ. Local office was always conferred by the apostles or their delegates.

Now, to come to another definite scripture, Titus, we are told, was left at Crete to appoint elders. Neither Timothy nor Titus were apostles, but apostolic delegates, who received from the apostles certain definite orders, and when Titus’ work was done, Paul tells him to be diligent, to come to him to Nicopolis (Titus 3:12). This shows that Titus was not the Bishop of Crete, as your English Bible says in its footnote.

The question now arises, Have we today the power to ordain elders and deacons? I say, No! Are you an apostle? No! Or sent by one, as Timothy or Titus? No! Then do not assume to do their work. You will probably retort, If there be no authority or power to appoint to these offices, why did God give them at the outset?

Your query is fair, but I think is not difficult to answer. At the first everything was in order, and such offices were comely, but God foresaw that His Church would all be broken up, and where was the value of perpetuating an office which, so far from keeping the sheep together, rather keeps them away from each other. You may say, That is strange, but I say, with no desire to wound any one, look at this city. The more carefully the respective elders of the different sections of Christendom do their work, the more effectually will they keep Christ’s sheep apart. The more each diverse set of elders labor the more thoroughly will they keep the “ Free” and “ Established “ and other churches separate, by the very fact of their trying to keep their flocks together.

The truth is, that man has gone on with a form, instead of understanding what God has given for an evil day. I ask you, Which is better, to do so, or humbly to take our place, as those who have not the power? Well then, you say to me, is there no rule in the Church? I thank God there is in His assemblies, yea, in everyone, yet I deny emphatically and plainly any power for ordination, ministerial, episcopal, or diaconal.

There are two cogent reasons for not attempting to appoint either elders or deacons. First, we have not the competent ordaining power, that is, apostles, or their delegates; and secondly, we have not the Church over whom to set them, if we had the power. It is, alas, broken in numberless fragments. Let me put the case this way. If Paul came into this city today, where would he begin to appoint them? Where is the Church? Broken up! Would he treat a fragment as the whole? Impossible! If he did so, he would but perpetuate the divisions which God’s Word so condemns.

As to ministerial ordination, I will only say that it is unknown in the New Testament. In not one single case can it be shown that a man was set apart by men to preach the gospel. If it be there, it can be produced, but it is not. Christ, the Head of the Body, gives the needed gifts for that to whom He will, and His prerogative no man can set aside without loss.

There yet remains another scripture or two which I will touch upon, because it will help us to see that the Lord cares for His Church when man’s will and disorder have spoiled His revealed order. He ever gives all she really needs. “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you: and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thess. 5:12-13). Who were those? I judge they were not elders, for spiritually they were but a year old. Are there none such now? I rejoice to know that there are many over me in the Lord, and I rejoice to know that the Lord has given these — not ordination — but spiritual power, and you know water soon finds its level.

And now look at another scripture, where there is nothing ecclesiastical, and found in the last epistle we would have thought of looking at for light and guidance as to rule in the Assembly. “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation....Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.... Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you” (Heb. 13:7,17,24). What were these? They were guides? Does putting a man into an official place make him this? No! Verse 7 speaks for itself. A man who brings to you the Word of God in a moment of difficulty, so that you know it is God’s Word, and your soul is guided by it, is a guide. You will own him as such, and remember him in your prayers, and welcome him, when he again comes along.

I own as a guide not one that takes a place as such, but one who brings me the Word of God, which does its work, and shows me my way. A guide may step out of a well-beaten path, to point out the way — well — let it be so, if it be the Word of God.

It is an immense comfort to know that, if apostles have ceased to be, and local offices are not to be perpetuated in the present ruined and broken state of the Church, the Lord in His tender love continues to His beloved people all they really need. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers He still gives, and guides He has always raised up when needed. The work of elders and deacons is done, without assuming the title, in every Assembly of God.

The guides show me the way from God’s Word. Men with pastoral gift there are still to help the souls of the saints, specially in private. And we have teachers too for the saints inside. But let us never forget that all gifts are the common property of the Church. They belong to the whole, and not to some little section, and wherever I see a gifted man I claim him, as from the Lord, for the whole Church, and would to God that he would take his place in His Assembly as such.

I trust it is clear to your souls that ministry is distinct from these local charges, which have disappeared, and so to continue them without divine authority is foolish — not to say sinful.

A Man in Christ and a Man of God

(2 Corinthians 12; 1 Timothy 6:6-12; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-8)

You will observe, beloved friends, in these scriptures, the occurrence of two remarkable titles, “A man in Christ” and “A man of God.” Of them I would speak for a few moments. A remarkable difference exists between the two.

Although every Christian be a man in Christ, it does not follow that he is, practically, what Paul calls a man of God. One gives us position, the other practice.

What a wonderful expression Paul opens with. “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago... caught up to the third heaven.”

Observe the effect of this on Paul. He kept it quiet for a long time. I rather think if some of us had such a revelation as he had, our brethren would have known about it very soon.

Now, what is a man in Christ? I tremble, lest I fail to convey the truth concerning it; but I will say what I trust may help the youngest soul here. If born of God, and possessing the Holy Spirit, you are “a man in Christ.”

The history of the first man is very sad. Where does that history end? It only ends in sin, shame, and death, in the scene through which we are passing.

What Paul learns is this, that there has come into this scene One who, Himself God, has become a man, that He might travel over the pathway of man in this world, and one loves to think there is no possible position that a saint could be in that we do not find the Lord taking up. I see two things in the history of that blessed Man. 1. The beautiful and perfect revelation of what God is. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him” (John 1:18). If I would know God I must gaze upon the Person of Jesus. 2. We have the perfect exhibition of the pathway of man, as he should be for God; not only that He comes to make known God to us, but to take up all the responsibilities of man; and once and again He is met by a voice that says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” At His baptism the heavens are opened for the first time, and the Father’s voice is heard saying, “Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). He does not say at the baptism, “Hear Him,” that goes without saying, as if every one would be sure to hear Him. Then again, on the mount of transfiguration, the end of the pathway is drawing nigh, and there Peter suggests the thought of making three tabernacles, “One for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias” (Luke 9:33). But the Father could not brook such an indignity as bringing Him on the level with the law-giver and the reformer. Their day had gone by, hence the word is, “This is my beloved Son: hear HIM” (vs. 35).

Though He might have gone up to glory from that mount, and none would have challenged His right, He turns, and comes down, and goes down into death, because if He had not died the corn of wheat must have abode alone. But on the cross He took up the whole question of man’s sin, and guilt, and state before God.

Not only did He bear our sins, but He was made sin. He bridged the entire distance between God and man. He closed up in His own death on the cross — where in grace He died vicariously — the history of man in the flesh, so that when Jesus was dead on the cross, one universal scene of death was the only thing before the eye of God; every other man was dead in sins, and Christ was then dead for sin. But what follows? Resurrection! The annuller of death rises from the grave, and meets Mary at its door. Her heart was full of affection for the Lord. She goes to His tomb, and is detained there. She was a woman who had now no home here, because He was absent, and therefore she remained weeping. He rises from the dead to meet the heart that was broken, and bleeding, in sympathy with, and love for Him. I wish we had half the affection which that woman had. She had seen angels, but turned her back on them. Which of us would not have been detained by angels? Then she turns her back on man — the gardener, as she supposed; but she hears a voice, and turns round and sees Jesus Himself, and He reveals the truth. A most blessed revelation indeed was it, namely, that He was going to a new place. He said, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Mary, I doubt not, felt thus: “Lord, I lost you, but now I have got you. Am I to lose you again?” How sweetly He calms such a thought in her heart as He goes on, and gives Mary her eternally unequaled commission, “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17).

There is a man gone up into the glory on the ground of divine righteousness. Man in Christ has gone into glory. The first man went into death as the end of a pathway of self-will, disobedience, and sin, and God let him stay there; and now there has come in this second man, this last Adam, who only reached death as the end of a pathway of subjection, will-lessness, and obedience, and God takes Him out of death and gives Him glory; but He does not go up to that glory until He has stopped by the way, to tell this loving woman, and commission her to tell others, that His Father was their Father, and His God their God. He links and associates us with Himself in the place where He is gone — that is what I understand to be “a man in Christ.” He brought Godhead to earth, and now He has taken humanity into heaven, and there you have a home. The Lord goes up, and the Holy Spirit comes down. Stephen sees Jesus in the glory. The devil cannot bear that, so he batters his head with stones, and silences Christ’s witness in death, in reality doing Stephen a favor, by sending him more quickly to be with His Savior, for Satan ever defeats himself. Saul of Tarsus was standing by, and Christ takes up this man who had heard Stephen’s testimony to Himself as man in glory, and, converting him, in the midst of his murderous work, makes him the “chosen vessel” and channel of conveying these glorious tidings to the Gentiles.

Stephen, who had seen Jesus in glory, dies in the likeness of His master; and then the Lord, as it were, says, “I will pick up that man who has heard I am alive in glory, let him see Me where I am, and then I

will enable that man to live, and testify for Me on earth where I am not.”

Second Corinthians 12 Coincides, apparently, with the time chronologically when Paul came to Lystra (see Acts 14:6-20). God gave him this marvelous revelation: “Caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4) — so far as we can judge just at a moment when, for Christ’s sake, his life was despaired of by others on earth — for the rabble “having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead” (Acts 14:19). It was the fitting moment to let a man, who had apparently done with earth, see what heaven was like. Thus in the wonderful wisdom of God He lets this blessed man, in this particular part of his earthly pathway, see and hear Jesus there; and then he comes back to earth, to the scene whence Christ was cast out, and there he freshly learns the sufficiency of the grace of Christ.

Everything that we possess is up there. All the springs and resources of the soul are in heaven. When Paul came down, what a dingy, murky scene must this world have seemed to him, after the unsullied glories of the scene he had been caught up to! What difficulties he came back to — all the dull duties of life.

Paul has this wonderful revelation, and then he gets the “thorn in the flesh”; and just as he received the “thorn in the flesh” — so the Lord sees good to let us have one — and we cannot get on without the grace of Christ. “My grace is sufficient for thee” is a lovely word for our souls at all times.

If you have a very difficult pathway, is not the grace of Christ enough? the arm of Christ enough? Ah! yes. The more we learn that He is our life, and we are just set here, and to be here for Him, the more deeply we feel we cannot get on a single inch without Him. We then hear Him say, “My grace is sufficient for thee” The Lord does not usually take away the difficulty, but gives strength to go through it. Paul is an illustration in his own pathway of this truth.

Christianity is the reproduction of the life of Christ in the life of the Christian. As “a man in Christ” I see the place grace gives me in glory, and am to taste the grace that flows from that glory for every exigency of the pathway here.

Now let us briefly look at the “man of God” in 1Timothy 6. The same man writes to Timothy — a fellow-servant young in years. He had a great desire for him, and he writes exceedingly plainly on the subject of godliness. Some suppose “that gain is godliness.” The injunction is: “From such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain.” Gain is not godliness, “but godliness with contentment is great gain.” This is an immense thing, but how is it to be attained? Lot wanted a little bit more than he had. He had not then this godliness. He was tested and failed. I believe the same test comes often across our path. If I am determined to get on in the world, God may let me, and then I shall find the word true, “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” is a good word to remember.

People say sometimes, “He died worth so and so.” This is a great mistake. A man never dies worth what he leaves behind, but what he has sent on before.

Do you want to be rich? You will fall into a pit. This is the point. “They that WILL [they want to] be rich fall into temptation and a snare.” It is not that there is any harm in money, but in the love of it.

I believe it is often proved to be with us, as you get it stated of Israel in Haggai’s day. They were dwelling in ceiled houses, and the house of God lying waste. Self was uppermost, but God was watchful of His people. His hand was on them, hence we read, “He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” How did the holes get there? I believe the Lord cut them.

Having warned Timothy thus, the apostle now exhorts and addresses him by a most lovely title. “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” He, as it were, says, You are here where man has cast God’s Man out, and here you are to be in the place of Christ. It is a wonderful favor to be God’s man in a dark world. The Shunammite could say, regarding Elisha, “I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually” (2 Kings 4:9).

What a nice thing that others can perceive the features of the man of God. In 2 Timothy 3 Paul points the way to you and me to be such. He says here, however, “Flee these things,” which he has named; and then adds, “Follow these things;” namely, “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”

“Lay hold of eternal life” is a remarkable word. You say, “I think I have got it.” are you quite sure of that? It is evidently something that he had to reach out and grasp; for was he not told to lay hold of it? It is what belongs to the man in Christ, but he is to lay hold of what really belongs to him, therefore he adds, “Fight the good fight of faith.”

In one aspect eternal life is ours now, as being the gift of God received by faith; in another, it is a future thing — “the end everlasting life.” That is the goal — the end of the Christian’s pathway.

Now turn to the next epistle. What Paul presses here is open to every saint of God. “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:14-17).

Scripture is that which our souls are turned back upon, and which really fits the man of God — whoever he may be — for his work. Then in chapter 4:5 we read: “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Do the work of the evangelist. People ask me, “Are you an evangelist?” “I don’t know,” I reply. I do not know or care whether I am one or not, if I can only do the work of one. The work of the evangelist is to bring Christ before souls, and bring souls to Christ. In the day when everything is out of gear, the servant of Christ is to be “man of all work.” When an establishment is in full working order there may be the tablemaid, the housemaid, and the cook, but when things are diminished, and retrenchment is the order of the day, then there comes as a necessity the “ maid of all work “; and so the servant of Christ may have to do a little bit of gospel work, a little bit of teaching, a little bit of pastoral work. Any service for Christ is sweet.

How beautiful to find this dear old servant of Christ now saying, “I have fought a good fight;” a lovely close to a grand history. He has spoken in these two epistles about some making shipwreck of faith (1 Tim. 1:19); some “departing from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1); some “denying the faith” (1 Tim. 5:8); some “being seduced from the faith” (1 Tim. 6:10); some “erring concerning the faith” (1 Tim. 6:21); others “overthrowing the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:18); others were “reprobate concerning the faith” (2 Tim. 4:18). But the truth that God had given him he had kept, hence he could say triumphantly, “I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). The devil wants us, dear friends, to give up that which God has given us. These epistles show us the value of holding it fast. What joy it is to be a Christian, a possessor of eternal life, passing through this scene of trials, but linked with heaven before we get there. It is very sweet to hear Paul now add, “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

Faint not then, fellow-believers, fellow-soldiers, for you will get a crown also, for it is for “all that love his appearing.” The Lord keep us in His infinite grace, knowing that we are men in Christ, and seeking to be truly men of God, going on simply, quietly, fervently, till we see His blessed face; and what an answer to all the exercises of the way will it be, when we see Him and are like Him, and with Him, forever in glory.

When wandering far from the Father’s abode,

The heart full of pride and hatred to God,

The children of darkness, of Satan the slaves,

‘Twas Jesus redeemed us-His merit that saves.

Our sins on the cross He on Calvary bore,

He blotted them out, and they are no more;

Now, pardoned and washed, we boldly draw near,

And cry “Abba, Father!” unhindered by fear.

Despised by the world, we’re strangers below,

But called to heaven we cheerfully go;

The Lord is our leader, and, strong in His might,

Though Satan opposes we fight the good fight.

We look for the day when Jesus shall come

And take all His blood-purchased brethren home;

When we shall behold all His glory and grace,

And a heaven be found in the light of His face!

Faith's Encouragment in Evil Days

(Jude 17-25)

It is quite clear the Apostle Jude writes for and contemplates the last state of things: what comes under the Lord’s eye, and what the saints have to meet. He is showing the resources are the same even to the very end, when such a state of things arrives as is depicted in the earlier verses of the epistle. This we see thoroughly fulfilled in the history, and present condition of the church. But the Spirit of God gives us a word of cheer, to carry us on at this time, when things are outwardly and inwardly so depressing. In Peter’s second epistle the Lord tells us what would be the corruption inside, whereas Jude unfolds the apostasy, that is, departure from first estate.

Jude addresses the faithful, however, and says, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost; keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Four sweet words: “Building,” “paying,” “keeping,” “looking.” “Building” — take care you do not pull down. What the Spirit prescribes here is building; this is beautiful, because Jude is describing decay, and dissolution, as the fruit of the corruption all around.

Faith is peculiarly sweet to the eye of the Lord when all is going to ruins. What is the warrant for saints meeting like this. “Building yourselves up.”

It is the end here, and there is a resource which is competent for the state of things, and enough to keep the saints joyful. Joy in the Holy Spirit is the expected, and suited state of the saints always. Is it not to be the same now? Surely. As the history of God’s people darkens, God ever raises a light; the deeper the darkness, the brighter the light. This principle is sweetly illustrated in the Old Testament, and I turn to three scriptures which show that the greater the ruin, the brighter the light, where faith was operative.

First, 2 Chronicles 30. Things were bad enough in Hezekiah’s day, with doors shut, and lamps put out, but he addresses all the people of God, and they came together and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, taking advantage of a privilege God allowed (see Num. 9:13). “Great gladness” prevailed, so they determined to have other seven days, and we read “ they kept other seven days with gladness” (30:23). Hezekiah got simply before the Lord, and as a direct and natural consequence, “there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem” (vs. 26).

They were very palmy days in Solomon’s reign, doubtless, but these were even better than they. You find, too, that when all were thoroughly happy before the Lord, they began to be occupied with the Lord’s interests. The people brought in the tithe of all things “abundantly,” and the priests and Levites were “encouraged” (31:4-5). When they began to give, the Lord began to bless. As the joy in the Lord rises, the interest in and care for His things break out, and “ heaps, heaps” (vss. 6, 12) meet the eye of the gladdened king. The Lord has given us a brightening up many a time, but, alas I how soon we sink down. So was it also in Judah’s history.

Secondly. Things got very low indeed till Josiah’s time. Then there was another revival. Evil was judged (2 Chron. 34:3,7). Then “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord,” and “Shaphan read it before the king” (vss. 14,18). The Word of God produced repentance and humbling, and thereafter “Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem” (chap. 35:1). And the record is given, “And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept” (vs. 18). It was the most remarkable passover since the kingdom had been established. Not even Solomon’s could approach it. What an encouragement for faith!

Thirdly. But, alas! enjoyed blessing will not keep the soul unless the eye be single; so deeper failure follows; the people go away again from God, and then into captivity. God’s grace, however, never gives up His own, and, through mercy, there is partial recovery in Ezra’s time. A remarkable revival occurs, and many return from Babylon to God’s earthly center, Jerusalem. This is but a type of what has happened in our days, in which the Lord has worked blessedly by His Spirit, revived interest in His Word, and gathered back His saints to divine ground. Nehemiah, following Ezra, begins to build his wall.

That was separation. Ezra built the temple, Nehemiah the wall, and many true helpers had he. Nearly all were in the work, sisters and all. Some built two bits, notably the Tekoites (Neh. 3:5,27), though of them it is said, “but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord” (vs. 5). Verbum sap. But the Lord notices every mark of devotedness, evidenced by repairing the wall, whether it be “Shallum and his daughters” (vs. 12), or Baruch, who “earnestly repaired” (vs. 20), or the priests “every one over against his house” (vs. 28), or Meshullam “over against his chamber” (vs. 30), for I suppose he was but a lodger.

Again does the Word of the Lord become precious, and heeded (chap. 8:1-8), and what good cheer it brought verses 9, to indicate, as “this day is holy to the Lord” twice fell on their ears, and “the joy of the Lord is your strength” was the trumpet call of the Spirit. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” How beautiful! If our hearts are delighting in Christ there is always strength and power, and understanding too, so the next thing is, they kept the feast of tabernacles. They anticipated the millennium; in fact, there was more apprehension of the mind of the Lord at this moment than there had ever been in their previous history — for “all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness” (vs. 17). Never in the brightest day of kingly power did such a thing happen. I just show this principle in the history of God’s people, that if there be faith, and a desire to follow His Word, the darker the day, the brighter will be the blessing, if there be only obedience; and the further into the ruin you trace them, the bolder does faith become in its action.

In Jude, who speaks of days of church ruin and failure, we are encouraged to expect great things, if only faith be in exercise. “Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” This evidently is the revelation of God — Christianity as such — on which we are to build. The trowel is ever to be in the hand; “building up,” not pulling down, is our business. The Christian is not an “Iconoclast” — a destroyer of idols — but a builder, an unfolder, and living expositor of the truth.

One brother was speaking this morning of the Holy Spirit as the Testifier of Jesus, and here the Spirit of God is the abiding spring of power, realized by our having none, and, therefore, in dependence, we are to be found “praying in the Holy Ghost.” Joy in the Spirit, is the result of our yielding ourselves unreservedly to the care and guidance of this abiding Comforter of our heart. We shall thus only be kept to the end, walking in “the communion of the Holy Ghost” and “the comfort of the Spirit.” We were exhorted to love this morning, but how can it be maintained? Here we get it: “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Yourselves the objects of love; born of God, you cannot help loving. If kept in the enjoyment of the Lord’s love, it flows out, you cannot help it, there is no effort. No apple tree tries to grow apples. Do not try to be anything; you keep yourself in the love of God, and you will be like the Son of God; you cannot help it. The atmosphere we live in will tell upon us, just as the ointment on Aaron’s head went down to the skirts of his garments and diffused an odor wherever he went (see Psa. 133). If we get near to the Lord we shall carry away some of the savor of His presence. We always become like the thing we are occupied with.

“Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not the Lord’s coming exactly, but the effect of it. It is connected with our being taken out of this scene, and into our home — heaven. We know we are welcome there — that it is our home: the Spirit even now conducts our hearts there; the more you go, the more you get the sense of the welcome there.

Christ is there, and Paul was always pressing thither by the pathway of resurrection from among the dead. It was his goal. When you wake up in His likeness you will say, “Bless the Lord, His mercy endureth forever.” The deepest desire of the heart will be gratified when we reach the spot the Lord is carrying us to. Do you mean it is not a mercy? It is the greatest mercy the Lord can bestow upon us. We have to serve here, and He is to be manifested in us. But if every saint here were caught up this afternoon before four o’clock, each would draw a deep breath and say, “Thank God, that is the greatest mercy I have ever known; I am out of the world forever, I am with the Lord, and like Him, and shall never wander from, or be unlike Him again.” The Lord, in His grace, keep us, and encourage our hearts to go on “looking.”

How beautifully the epistle closes with a doxology of triumph: “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” Is not that thought lovely? “With exceeding joy.” That is not ours, but the joy on Christ’s part, when He presents to Himself that Church He has loved, and cherished so faithfully these eighteen hundred years. It will be the day of the gladness of His heart.

The Lord enable us to go on “building” (do not drop the trowel!), “keeping”... “praying in the Holy Ghost,” and then “looking.” That fills up the whole life of the saint, and the next thing is, we find ourselves gathered home in the cloudless perfection of His own presence.

Well may we sing-

Lord, we can see, by faith in Thee,

A prospect bright, unfailing;

Where God shalt shine, in light divine,

In glory never fading.

A home above, of peace and love,

Close to Thy holy person;

Thy saints shall there see glory fair,

And shine as Thy reflection.

O how we thirst the chains to burst,

That weigh our spirits downward;

And there to flow, in love’s full glow,

With hearts like Thine surrounded.

No more as here, ‘mid snares, to fear

A thought or wish unholy;

No more to pain the Lamb once slain,

But live to love Thee wholly!

No more to view Thy chosen few

In selfish strife divided;

But drink in peace the living grace

That gave them hearts united!

Lord, haste that day of cloudless ray,-

That prospect bright, unfailing;

Where God shall shine in light divine,

In glory never fading.

Waiting and Watching

(Luke 12:1-42)

In the eleventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel you find the Lord definitely rejected by the nation. They attribute to the power of the devil, that activity in Him which led Him to cast out demons. So blinded was the nation of Israel that the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit, they attribute to Satan. This declared rejection of Himself becomes the basis, I think, of the Lord’s remarks to His disciples, in the twelfth chapter.

He speaks in Luke 12 as One rejected, as One who is outside this scene altogether, and He gives to us instructions of the most lovely nature, as to our walk during His absence. He indicates what the behavior of His own should be, and how, in every possible difficulty, temptation, and opposition that we could by any means be confronted with here, we should be sustained. The object of this is that our hearts should be kept just simply waiting for Him.

Although you will observe the coming of the Lord is brought in, it is introduced in connection with the kingdom. He is coming back by-and-by, and there will be rewards to those who serve Him during His absence. But it is very beautiful to see the way in which the blessed Lord clears away the things that are difficulties in every one of our souls.

The moral principles of the chapter are very interesting. Broad, blessed principles of truth of the most far-reaching importance, you will see the Lord brings out here. There was a large company gathered round Him, and they had not felt the force of the truth. But He knew the need of “His own,” and unfolded to them what their pathway should be while, in His absence, called to pass through this world.

“In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, in so much that they trod one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 12:1-3). He first of all warns us against a danger to which we are all exposed. “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” And the reason is this, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.” He warns our souls against being unreal — seeming to be what we are not. We have to watch against hypocrisy. It often takes a pseudo-spiritual form, that is, the desire to seem more spiritual than we are.

Take the case of Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5. You may say, it was a very solemn thing for the Lord to cut them off. Yes. But they had not given heed to the Lord’s word here, or else they would not have fallen into Satan’s trap. They desired to look a little more devoted than they really were. Are not our hearts subject to the same temptation? We know it. The Lord knows it also, and hence says to us, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Then He adds that everything is to come out. But the light has come in now, and what an upright Christian delights in is the light of God. He does not wait for the judgment-seat of Christ to declare his motives. “We are made manifest unto God: and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences” (2 Cor. 5:11). The springs of our actions bring out what we really are before God. A Christian should be perfectly transparent. If not, he is unlike Christ. You may read me through and through, says Paul, I have nothing to conceal, all is out now.

Then the next thing is, we are going through a scene, where there must of necessity be persecution for Christ’s sake. “And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him. Are not five sparrow’s sold for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten before God: but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (vss. 4-7). It is blessed to see what the Lord says here. They had cast Him out, and what could His disciples expect but similar treatment? It has not been your lot or mine to have it, but many of His beloved saints have. And what a comfort, to the martyrs of years gone by, must those words have been, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” Everything in this chapter is viewed as to its importance not in connection with the body, but with the state of the soul before God. Hence foes and fears are all pushed aside. It is not a question of bodies, or goods, but the soul in relation to God and eternity.

The fear of man is cast out by a greater fear, the fear of God. Nothing but the fear of God can cast out the fear of man. We shall stand in awe of men round about us, if the fear of God does not control us. But the Lord says, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body.” In the plainest possible language He cheers us, for the fear of God works most blessedly in the heart. Then He asks: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

Observe, in the fifth verse it is, “Fear Him,” and in the seventh verse it is, “Fear not.” There is no contradiction. Oh, no! In the fifth verse, it is the holy fear of a child, lest he should do that which would pain, or grieve the Lord. And then in the seventh verse, it is, you have the sense of the care of God. If God keep His eye upon the sparrow, how much more upon His servants, and saints. The care of God, in its exquisite particularity, is put in a way that is very touching. “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” There is the blessed, the deeply blessed interest which God has in us, and His eye is upon us in all the tender affection of a Father’s love. It is a great thing to cultivate the sense of this as you go through this scene. What a blessed thing it is to have this sense, I am so the object of His interest, that He has actually numbered the hairs of my head. If you had this sense, you could leave everything with God.

And now He goes further. “Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth Me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God” (vss. 8, 9). There is another thing now. It is not only that God cares for us, but that the Lord is going to confess us before the angels of God, if we confess Him here. That is the sense of His eye being upon us, and that He knows exactly what our pathway is, and, by-and-by, there will be a recognition on the Lord’s part of your path and my path, as we have gone through this scene. How this cheers a saint

He adds a third thing then. “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (vs. 10). That is a wonderful statement, because you see what the Lord speaks of is the testimony of the Holy Spirit through a Christian. That is, He says, I put you down there for Myself, and if a word is spoken blasphemously against you, it shall not be forgiven. Where is the Holy Spirit dwelling now? In the Assembly, and in the Christian, individually. And therefore, really, the Lord regards His people as being, and sets them up here for Himself. It is a wonderful place that the Christian occupies now, in this scene; and immense responsibility devolves on those round about us.

“And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say” (vss. 11-12). There you have the divine competency of the believer by the Holy Spirit in every possible circumstance. What could we wish more? The care of God, the recompense of Christ, and the sustaining energy of the Holy Spirit — and these for every child of God — are to furnish our souls in the time of our Lord’s absence. If persecution come, you will be sustained. The apostle says, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). You might get reproach. The apostles in Acts 5 “rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” A Christian must expect to have the same treatment as his Master. But no matter what comes, he has the support of the Lord, and the energy of the Spirit of God to sustain him.

Of course I take it for granted that when the Lord says, “The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say,” it is the Spirit ungrieved in a Christian, because we are to be here for Christ. It is not a question here of ministry in the Assembly — although the principle be true — but of what falls from your lips and mine day by day. Our words and our life ought to impress the world round about. If they take you before magistrates, “Take ye no thought what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” That is, in plain language, every child of God is looked at as being one through whom God speaks by His own blessed Spirit, and speaks in such a way that the world is conscious it is God that has spoken. This consideration makes Christianity a very serious thing. But I do not think, because the responsibility is so great, that our souls would shrink from that which the Lord gives us here.

At this point there is a break in the Lord’s ministry. A man appears at that moment to ask Him to settle a difficulty between him and his brother. “And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” (Luke 12:13-14). He had not come to be a judge. He had come as the revelation of God in perfect goodness. He is coming by-and-by, both as a Judge, and as a Divider. But it was not His character in that day. He, however, uses the occasion to unfold truth of the most weighty character to His disciples. “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Although the man who had the inheritance had no right to it, and was covetous in keeping it, yet the other was as covetous in wanting to get it. There is a great principle in this, and the Lord uses it for our sake. Elsewhere the Spirit of God bids us mortify “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” His life consists really in his enjoyment of God.

This interpretation gives occasion to the parable which follows: “And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (vss. 16-20). The man thought he would yet lay things up for himself. But God would not have it, and in the midst of his projects he is called hence. What became of his soul? That is a most serious question.

“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (vs. 2:1). Now there, you have the cure, I believe, for covetousness. That is, being “rich toward God.” The Apostle Paul amplifies this subject in writing to his son Timothy. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Tim. 6:11). These verses show our danger, while the cure is given in the same chapter. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (vss. 17-19). But you say, What is the harm of riches? Suppose it kept you out of heaven? Well, I did not think of that. Very probably, few men do, but there is great danger, or our Lord would not have said, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23). It is not the money that there is harm in, but it is the “love of money” that is “the root of all evil.”

The principle is here, and “Beware of covetousness,” God’s sure cure. I shall never forget a dear old servant of God speaking upon this chapter thirty-five years ago, and when he came to this verse he said “Which of us here would not rather have a ten-pound note than a five? That touches us all. And God says, ‘Thou fool.’” The man going on that line is reproved, because he is letting the things of this life really command, and govern him, instead of living in the sense of the Father’s love and care.

Now, beloved friends, it is beautiful to see the way in which the Lord cures the covetous disposition of our hearts. Here is the cure, being rich toward God. The soul is set down before God. What is it to be rich toward God? I do not think it is a question of much giving. I think the widow in the twenty-first chapter of Luke was rich toward God. She cast in two mites which make a farthing. One often hears the expression, “Here is my mite.” Is that exactly half you possess? She cast in both her mites, and I do not doubt that is why the Lord takes notice of it. The temptation was to give one, and keep one to herself. But she was rich toward God, and into His treasury, and for His work, cast in her all, and that of her penury, we are told. She was a widow, and she had nothing left.

I think if it had been us, we would have said, We will give the Lord one, and keep the other to ourselves. If I had come to my last two shillings, and I gave the Lord one, and kept the other one for myself, I fear that I should think I had done very well. Ah, beloved, look at this, she cast in both. She was indeed rich toward God. It is not the question of the amount, because the Lord never measures by what I have given, but by what I have left after I have given. I think she is an illustration of one rich toward God. On the other hand, you might have nothing to give, and yet be rich toward God. You cling to Him, you live for Him, and in relation to Him. That is really what it is. God rules and governs the soul absolutely. Anyway, this is the only cure for covetousness, of which our Lord and Master bids us beware.

Then the Lord passes on, and touches on a matter of much wider application than riches, namely, poverty. “The lire is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye ‘shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things” (Luke 12:23-30).

There you get a class, I believe very much larger than the company that the rich man was in. In this world there are a great many more oppressed by poverty, than riches. How am I going to make ends meet? is often in the heart if not expressed by the lip. Care, like a canker, eats out the very life of many a dear child of God. If such be your present condition, the Lord’s words, “Take no thought,” and “Your Father knoweth,” may well comfort your heart. The Lord really says here, Do not think of tomorrow.

In this connection there is a charming word in the end of the sixth chapter of Matthew. Did you ever notice it? “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34). How oftentimes, beloved friends, have we troubled and worried ourselves about what was going to be on the morrow, and, when it came, we found how beautifully the Lord stepped in. We found that His care, and His love, had anticipated all our need, and more than met it. “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” Oh, they are lovely words. To me, these three words, “Your Father knoweth,” are exquisite. Ah, beloved, to get them deeply engraved in the soul! To remember that your Father knows, is to put the heart at peace. Further, we might never have to face tomorrow, because, before tomorrow comes, the Lord may have come, and we may have gone home to our Father’s house on high.

I do not doubt that when Israel drew near to the Red Sea, and to the Jordan, they wondered how they were to get through, but, when they came to the spot, there was no water to go through. It was dry land. And in principle it is the same with our souls. We are so prone to leave God out. But the Lord here says, You leave everything out but your Father’s care, and then your heart will be free. And then He adds, “But rather seek ye His kingdom; and all these things shall be added unto you” (vs. 31). The Father’s care, the Father’s kingdom, and the Father’s good pleasure all go together. You set your heart on the things that are His, and upon the interests that concern Him,

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (vs. 32), is the next cheering statement, and, beloved, if He has good pleasure in giving you the kingdom, do you think He would grudge you a loaf of bread? Look at the kingdom, all that is connected with the glory of Christ, that scene where the Father’s love is known, and where everything will speak of Christ. Why, He says, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It is all that is connected with the heavenly place that Christ now has, and which He shares with His people. Well may Paul say, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

I think the Lord has a charming mode of winning our hearts. The way the Lord takes of removing snares and difficulties is wonderful. Here we find hypocrisy swept out, the fear of man swept out, covetousness swept out, and care swept out. If you can show me a heart with all unreality, all fear of man, and all covetousness turned out, the sense of being rich toward God controlling it, and all the care connected with the things of this life gone too, I will show you a heart that is now free to be occupied with the Lord without distraction.

This is what the Lord wishes, and that point gained, He can now say: “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33- 34). Everything in this scene is marked by waxing old, or becoming corrupted, or stolen. A treasure in the heavens is the only abiding one. I know men often say, Where my heart is, that is where my treasure is. Well, in a certain sense it is the truth, but, even then the treasure is really valueless, for it is only for time. Sometimes you find people who have let their hearts go after earthly treasures. What do you find presently? The treasure is gone, and the heart is left desolate. They have not had a treasure in the heavens. Do I hear you saying, I am trying to make Jesus my treasure? You will fail if you try. Do not try to make the Lord your treasure. Did you ever discover that the Lord Jesus has now a very peculiar and priceless treasure on the earth? And who is the treasure? Am I His treasure? Paul could say, “The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The Church, of course, which He has loved with a love deeper, and stronger, than death itself, is His treasure. But if I do not get hold of this wonderful fact individually, I shall not hold it collectively. “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” is a priceless treasure for the soul to apprehend. If you enjoy that, you will have the sense, I am His treasure down here, and the next thing will be that He will become your treasure where He is.

When that state of heart is effected, He says, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately” (Luke 12:35-36). Everything is to be ready now for His coming. He says, I am coming back, and I want you to be waiting for Me, in true simple affection. We are bid to gird our loins in the thirty-fifth verse. And in the thirty-seventh verse, He says, by-and-by He will gird His. I must not let my affections wander. My loins are to be girt about with truth. I must get my affections ruled, governed, and controlled by the truth of God, because a person who has his loins ungirded, is not fit for service. In the first chapter of Revelation, the garment of the Lord was down to His feet. That gives the idea of priestly discrimination. It was not tucked up in service. Here it is service.

We have to be waiting and watching, with our lights burning. And what is the light burning? It does not mean a great deal of preaching. The girded loins betoken the affections right with Christ, and then the lights burning show that you are watching for His return. You are sitting up all night. If you go to sleep, the lamp wick gets long, and if not trimmed, the light gets very dim. It is not a light for the world. But does the Lord see that you are watching? Oh, you say, I hold the Lord’s coming. So do I. But I have to ask my heart whether the Lord’s coming holds me. Because you see it is very easy for the light to get dim.

In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew it says, of the ten virgins, that “they all slumbered and slept.” And mark, five of them had oil in their vessels. I might go to sleep with the Holy Spirit in my heart. And that is why the apostle says: “Let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night” (1 Thess. 5:6). Night-watching is a little bit wearisome. It needs watchfulness, and carefulness, and our souls really being exercised before God. Those round about us should know that we are a people who, by unmistakable signs, are, practically speaking, done with the earth. We are to be “like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding: that, when he cometh, and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately” (vs. 36). It is a very simple figure. Let me ask you, Would you like Him to come now? Am I watching? Am I really on the tiptoe of expectation, looking for His coming? If not, I am not morally right. I would not like to deceive myself.

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:37-40). Now you come to responsibility. I believe waiting shows affection. But now you come to, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching.” And you find it three times in this scripture. In verse 37, and in verse 38, and again in verse 43. There is a blessing in waiting, there is a blessing connected with watching, and there is also a blessing connected with serving. Now what are we about? Are we really devoting ourselves to the blessed Lord in His service? Are we set to please Him. We cannot please everybody. It is a great mistake to try to do that. If you can only please the Lord, be satisfied. It is not a question of pleasing anybody else.

Now mark, the servants here are watching in connection with their service, and the Lord says,”Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” That is rest. We have been serving Him, and what He proposes is, I am going to give you rest. I shall make you sit down, and I shall serve you. What is that? I think it is this. He has served us already down here, but He has gone as a blessed Man into glory, and He will never cease to be Man. He is the Man who has served us even unto death, and then in glory He will make us to sit down as guests in His Father’s house. Thither He will bring us, and there His love will ever minister blessing to us. Love delights to serve, so He will make us to sit down to meat, and He will serve us. How precious indeed will it be to take blessings then, blessings made infinitely more precious, because ministered to us by His own hand, in the outflow of love that never varies, and never ends. Happy people! Happy to be His servants! Happy to know Him!

Then comes the injunction, “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (vs. 40). Peter then wants to know the extent of application of the parable, and gets his desire. “And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath” (Luke 12:42-44). Who is now the faithful and wise steward? is a question I have to ask myself. Am I a faithful servant? Am I a wise steward? It is not a question of success. The Lord never bids me be successful. No. The point is, am I wise, and am I faithful? To be really successful I must be faithful, and wise. Many servants have stopped short of the truth, because they feared that they might spoil their success. The Lord has said, also to us: “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:19-20). Carefully observe, it is “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not “successful servant.” I should like to find that man, the Lord says. Oh, do not look round about to see who the man is. The point for you and me, is — and the Lord exercise our hearts regarding it — Am I that man?

I should like to be found doing just the thing He would like me to be doing. Should I like to be found doing this thing or that, when the Lord comes? No! Then I am done with it. Our privilege is to be giving others “their portion of meat in due season,” and “blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.”

Well now, beloved, I am sure that our souls will be in a very happy state, if His Word gets its right place in our heart and conscience. God forbid we should get into the state next described: “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken” (vs. 45). That is a very sad thing. We must not delay His coming. If the servant gives up the thought of the Lord’s coming, as the Church universally has done, he begins to beat the men-servants and maidens — as Rome has done — and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, as mere Protestantism has done, that is, got into the world. To fall out with God’s people, is as bad as being drunken. The Lord keep us bright, and simply waiting for Himself, with our hearts fresh and happy in His love, and our lives devoted to His service while ever watching for His return. And then the next thing will be that we shall find ourselves at home with Him, in everlasting joy and rest.

To wait and watch for Him is what we are called to. The two words do not carry quite the same thought, and I cannot better explain the difference than by giving an illustration, which suggested itself to me, when speaking to a company of Firth of Forth fishermen, awhile ago.

The fleet has all gone to the fishing ground, when a furious and long-continued westerly hurricane bursts on them. Rapidly getting in their nets, they have to fly before it. Each day it lasts takes them farther and farther from home, where now great anxiety prevails as to their safety. At length the gale spends itself, and the wind veering to the south-east, the boats, having all weathered the storm, make for home.

On their way they manage to get a telegram flung ashore and transmitted: “All safe! Coming home,” and the good news spreads like wildfire through the village, bringing joy to many a troubled bosom.

Up the Firth of Forth they now come, at a spanking pace, having a fair wind and a flowing tide. The old skipper of the leading craft has a telescope, and as he comes within sight of the pier-head he uses it. After a good long look, he says to his crew, “The hale village is out on the pier, watchin’ for us, my hearties,” which gladdens every man aboard.

As the smack draws rapidly near, the telescope is again used, and this time the skipper is heard to say, half under his breath, “God bless her! the dear auld soul,” while a tear rolls down his weather-beaten cheek.

“Who do you see?” says Jim, the mate, who has charge of the tiller.

“I see my auld womun stan’in’ at the vera pier-end, wi’ naethin’ but her mutch on her heid, watchin’ for her auld man,” and another tear or two fall on the deck.

“Div ye see my missus te?”

“Nahum Jim, I canna see her; maybe she’s there, but she’s no visible.”

By this time the staunch lug-sail boat had neared the harbor, and loving salutations pass between the old couple, culminating in a warm embrace as the skipper steps ashore.

No special greeting has awaited poor Jim, who, rather dejected, trudges up to the back of the village, where lies his home. Peeping in at the window, he sees his wife sitting at the fire, deep in a book.

Jim opens the door. She hears the latch, and looking up, says, “O Jim, my dear, I’m real glad to see you back; I was waiting for you.”

“Very like, but the auld skipper’s missus was watchin’ for him at the pier-head.”

Is there no difference between waiting, and watching, for Jesus?

God give you and me to be true watchers for the return of His Son. Amen.

We wait for Thee — Thou wilt arise

Whilst hope her watch is keeping

Forgotten then in glad surprise

Shall be our years of weeping:

Our hearts beat high, the dawn is nigh

That ends our pilgrim story

In Thine eternal glory!

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.

Handfuls of Purpose