Address—W. Blennerhassett
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I'd like to read first of all a verse in First Peter, First Peter.
The first chapter.
And the eighth verse.
Whom having not seen.
Ye love.
In whom though ye see him not?
Yet believing ye rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The new translation puts this verse a little differently.
Ye exalt exalt.
With joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh well, may each child of God in this room.
Exult.
In all our portion in Christ.
Yet believing.
Ye rejoice.
Ye exalt with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
All how blessed it is.
Day by day in our Christian pathway to have this.
Exaltation.
This joy in this one who never changes.
Who never fails? Whoever lives on our behalf.
All is this my portion? Is it yours?
What a difference in our little meetings.
It makes when we see those.
That are daily finding this.
Their portion in Christ.
Yet believing ye exult with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, I was thinking as we went through that chapter, that blessed chapter to which the Lord directed our hearts in Romans 8.
Of the ******* from which we have been delivered, the liberty into which we have been brought.
What portion is ours?
What rejoicing?
Adoring hearts we should have.
But all this is only possible.
As through grace.
We keep our eye on that one.
Who is the source?
Of all our joy, our strength, and our health in time of need.
Well, we have heard how he is able to sustain.
How he is able to keep?
But all sad to say with the speaker and I'm sure with each one of us.
We find that joy in believing, that joy that filled our hearts to overflowing when Christ made Himself known to us.
As our Savior and Lord.
How that has at times absent fated?
And he has come in in restoring grace.
Oh, I wonder if there are any in this room who have in their souls lost a sense.
Of all that grace has wrought.
I was struck by the remarks of our brother, Paul Wilson as to.
Satan and his power.
And today, in the world around us, around us, as our brother pointed out, it's the effort of the enemy to give us to be off our guard.
Not to be found.
Watching.
Watching.
Watch and pray, watching and praying.
And so he comes in with this subtle Wiles and his great power.
To seek to.
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Ruin our lives.
All one feels that with the young people in particular, there is a great effort of the enemy.
To lead astray, to lead aside from the precious truths.
Over which we've been pondering and rejoicing. And to lead in the paths of the destroyer. I was thinking of a verse in the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy. In this connection. Let us look at it just for a moment. Deuteronomy 4.
And verse 9.
And here we have a solemn warning.
Only.
Take heed to thyself.
And keep thy soul diligently.
Lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen.
And lest they depart from thee.
Depart from thy heart.
All the days of thy life.
Our gathering in Montreal is a fair sized gathering.
And as one looks back over the years.
We can recall a number that started out with such happy promise.
And there seemed to be this joy in believing, this exulting in that Blessed One.
Then the enemy came in with his Wiles, and removed the eye of Christ.
And you seldom saw these dear ones at the prayer meeting.
And the reading meeting.
And then they started to neglect the remembrance of the Lord.
And always we have met some of these dear ones.
On occasion.
They are like Peter, but what we find in Peter.
Some they've even forgotten that they were purged from their old sins.
Their families are in the world.
Oh, how great is their loss.
Oh dear child of God, let us keep this before us.
Walking by faith, it was faith here, whom, having not seen, ye loved.
All is a special blessing connected with them.
As we have in John 20 and 29.
Whom having not seen.
Yet believing ye, you rejoice, ye exult with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, how much there has been for our hearts.
In the meetings.
As we have been privileged to attend.
Oh, may we.
Seal.
And realize our responsibility.
To walk in the truth.
And one was thinking.
As.
We read this verse.
Perhaps there are some in this room?
Whether they be young or old.
Who have never had this?
Joy of believing.
Joy in believing.
There are still in their sins.
Still on their way to a lost eternity.
They have heard the faithful solemn warnings in the Gospel meetings.
And perhaps there is still someone here.
Yet in their sins.
On their road to a lost eternity.
Under God's judgment.
Oh, you would solemnly warn you.
Not to delay.
And counsel you that you would too would have.
This joy in believing.
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Down at the Gospel tent, sometimes in the summer when you have a large number of children, as many as 200 in our little gospel addresses to them, we like to use illustrations because in the summer weather it's not easy to keep a large number of children gain their attention and keep it unless you make it simple and interesting.
And this summer, they were told the story of this Indian.
This Indian lived in the Wilds.
And near where he where he lived, there was a Big Lake, a beautiful lake, very shallow.
And it was filled with these grasses and rices rice that the ducks love to eat.
And this morning?
The Indian came down to the edge of this lake.
And he looked over it.
And on this lake were hundreds of ducks, a great number of ducks.
The winter was approaching and as he looked over those ducks.
He thought, my I'd like to get all of them. I'd like to get all of them. And he looked at his rifle in his hand and he thought, now if I fire this gun, I may get 123 perhaps, but the rest will be gone.
And he stood there silently overlooking that lake.
Trying to figure some way to get most of those ducks.
Well, the next morning he came back.
Quite early in the morning.
And he had in his hands a large pumpkin.
And justice, like they do at Halloween. He had the eyes and the nose hollowed out.
And he took that pumpkin.
To the edge of the lake.
And he just put it in the water and gave him support.
Out into the lake.
Well, the ducks, they looked at it, and they stayed as far away from it as they could.
Far away from it as they could.
The next morning.
Early again, there he was, another pumpkin, hollowed out.
Again.
He went to the water's edge and again he pushed it out in the water.
The 3rd morning, the 4th morning, the 5th morning, the 6th morning, he did the same thing.
And here were these pumpkins floating on this lake. And by this time?
The ducks were swimming in and around them, not paying any attention to them.
Oh, Sinner, that speaks to your heart and mind, doesn't it? Of how used we become to sin?
How little we understand what sin is in God's sight and what our sins are in His sight.
Well, the next morning he came down.
And he had an even larger pumpkin.
But this one was a little different. In the bottom of it, it had a hole.
And he started out towards the water.
And as he waded out into that lake.
He trailed behind him. An enormous sack. A tremendous sized sack.
And when he got out into the water, up to his shoulders.
He took that pumpkin and put it over his head.
There he stood silently.
With the sack in one hand and Justice waiting. Just waiting.
It wasn't long before the ducks started to swim by.
Went the hand down into the sack.
Before there was even a chance of an outcry.
And the part of that poor duck?
Another few moments or minutes went by. Another duck went by. Hook went the hand down into the water. It gained into the sand.
And in that way, that clever Indian was able to.
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Get nearly all the ducks in that lake.
And Oh dear friend, dear unsafe friend.
Do you realize your danger?
Do you realize the cleverness, the strength, the power of your enemy whose eye follows you?
Oh, don't delay.
Don't wait a minute longer, but we trust that you too with us will be able to say this afternoon whom having not seen ye love.
Though now you see him not yet believing, he rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
But all between the cross where that blessed Savior died.
And that glory seen above for the child of God.
Are the desert sands.
And the only way that you and I can tread these sands, the difficulties, the trials.
The subtlety and power of the enemy is by walking in the joy that we find here.
Or as we think of that one and as we keep our eye through, seek to keep our eye on him.
Will be sustained, but always, like poor Peter, if we take the eye off Christ immediately we're in danger.
One has in these meetings before quoted that verse in Job 15.
I'm going to quote it again. It won't take time to turn to a job 15 and 11.
Are the consolations of God.
With the.
Is there any secret thing with thee?
Oh, how we should ask ourselves.
These two questions.
Are the consolations? Are the joys the four hours when we were first saved? Have those things become insignificant to us now? Are they small to us?
Or is that precious savior and that joy?
Growing daily in Him that joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, if those things have become dim in your eyes.
Ask yourself that second question.
Is there any secret thing with thee?
What is the hindrance? What is it that hasn't been judged? What is it that is keeping you or hindering me from walking in the fullness and the completeness?
Of this joy, wonderful joy.
Well, stronger is He that is for us than he that is against us and He is able to deliver.
Oh, David could say at the end of his pathway.
Hold thou me up.
And I will be safe, and I will attend unto thy precepts.
David slew the line and the bear and met that great giant.
He did so in the power and strength of the Lord. But oh, later.
As he went on his pathway.
Subtlety of the enemy came in and turned his heart aside and brought great sorrow into his life. Oh dear child of God, may we be on our guard. May we remember we're in a holy warfare and seek.
To maintain.
All the truth that has been delivered to us.
Through his grief.
Let us look now in John the 15th chapter.
John the 15th chapter and the 10 verse.
If ye keep my commandments.
Ye shall abide in my love.
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Even as I have kept my father's commandments.
And abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you.
And that your joy.
Maybe.
O here we have another example of Christian joy, joy in abiding in Him. But is it our joy? No.
That my joy might remain in you.
And that your joy might be full.
Well, this joy is only possible as we abide in Him.
Oh, sometimes we meet Christians and they tell us, and we've experienced it ourselves.
The lack of that joy.
Lack of that fullness of joy.
And we know full well that there has been a departure.
From that blessed one.
I was given the definition. I wrote it down in my Bible.
Some time ago.
Of what? Abiding in Him? This is a definition of what abiding in Him means. I'll read it to you. Abiding in Him.
Continuity of heart and mind in communion.
In the pathway of obedience and dependence.
Well, I enjoyed that. I'll read it again. Continuity.
Of heart.
And mind.
In communion, in the pathway of obedience.
And dependence.
Oh, this?
Is what we need to learn the pathway of obedience?
And dependence abiding in him.
Some years ago, several years ago, our brother Dan Anderson was in Montreal.
And he told us a story.
About the natives in the Congo, I think it was.
And these natives used to catch the wild monkeys there for their Stew pot.
But catching monkeys? Any of us who've been in a zoo see the way they jump around. You'd often wonder how they catch them.
Well, the natives there had a very clever way.
Sometimes there would be a novel.
In a tree big enough to put your hand in.
And in this knot hole.
They would fill the bottom of it with peanuts.
Well, it wasn't long before the monkeys discovered those peanuts were there. And innate reach for those peanuts.
The natives would be hiding nearby.
Out would spring the natives to capture the monkey, and they usually got them.
It might say why.
How could those natives surprise those monkeys? All that monkey had his hand in there and it was full of peanuts and he wouldn't let those peanuts go. He was determined he was going to have those peanuts. If he had his hand like this, he could have easily have pulled it out of that hole in the tree.
But with it full of peanuts, he couldn't get loose and the natives caught him.
Well, isn't that the way the enemy catches we who belong to the Lord?
We know He cannot take away from us that eternal salvation.
But he can ruin our testimony down here.
And all with myself, and I'm sure others have had the same experience, it's been an unwillingness. An unwillingness to let go of something we know as Henry.
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Are walked in our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is that so with you? Is there something a definite hindrance in your pathway? You know what the Word of God teaches, and yet you won't let it go.
Oh, Satan.
Will take the captive.
You will ruin your testimony here.
Fill your life with sorrow and unhappiness.
Oh, don't be like those foolish monkeys.
That hung on. They weren't going to give up those peanuts.
And they were captured.
Oh, if there's anything hindering you and your Christian pathway, judge it.
Give it up.
Get down in your knees and tell the Lord about it and have done with it.
And then you will be given the grace to.
Go on for His praise and His glory.
That your joy might be full. Oh, it's His joy that fills our hearts.
His love and his joy can only be known.
By abiding in Him.
Oh, sometimes we feel impoverished. We meet a soul. We don't seem to have the right word.
Why is it?
There doesn't seem to be the power to meet the situation. There hasn't been that abiding in him.
Well.
He is faithful.
May we seek grace to be found.
With His love and His joy filling our hearts.
By occupation with him, and as taught by his precious Word, by the Spirit of God.
And will be found abiding in him. Oh, what a precious thing it is to abide in him. What a place of safety, of happiness.
Of joy.
That your joy might be full.
Let us look now at the next chapter, the 16th chapter.
And the 23rd verse.
In that day he shall ask me nothing.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name.
He will give it to you.
Hitherto ye have asked.
Nothing in my name.
Ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may be full.
All to these dear ones, this was something new.
Asking the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And your prayers and mine.
If walking in obedience. If walking in communion.
The whole Godhead is exercised praying in the Spirit.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the Father all to think that in our prayers.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are interested and are exercised on our behalf.
And when we realize the relationship into which we've been brought as children and sons.
This is what gives our joy. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name. Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full. Oh, when you and I get down on our knees and pray.
To God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is there that joy and confidence in addressing him?
In coming before him, in laying everything before him, there should be.
There should be, and you and I have that privilege.
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Joy in asking. Joy in asking and all how this honors.
That precious one who died for us.
Well, how are we failing this today?
How we fail to be a praying people.
It saddens my heart.
When I go to an assembly.
And sometimes on a Sunday morning, I have to look for a seat.
Nearly all the seats are filled in many assemblies on Sunday morning.
Prayer meeting night. You don't have to look for a seat, I'm sad to say.
Prayer meeting night.
Where am I? Where are you? Are you there?
Oh, we're gathered around that precious one, and he is there for one purpose.
To meet our need, to hear our petitions, to give help and time of need.
Oh, if there was the sense in our souls of the one to whom we're going to address our petitions by the Spirit and through Him to God the Father, that prayer meeting would be full. That prayer meeting would be full. Little things, that hindrance would be set aside. Oh, how often I've noticed.
In our meeting and other meetings that when there is something of a social character.
Something to which many are invited, if not all. How we seem to be able to set aside things that ordinarily might hinder.
And there's a big turn out.
And oh, it shows our feeble comprehension when at the assembly meetings gathered around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are so few all but he giveth more grace and he is able to.
Help us.
To go on.
To forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For now, I would like to look at the 13th chapter of John.
13th chapter of John.
There is so much in connection with these verses that one would like to speak of.
Better, but we'll just have to take the verses in part. Our time is limited. 17 verse.
If ye know these things.
Happy.
Are ye if you do them?
Mr. Hale used to used to say how often we've heard it and say it, that every exhortation in Scripture is founded on something that we possess.
Every exhortation in the Word of God is founded on something that we possess. Oh, how thankful we should be that we have not been left to our own resources.
And as has been mentioned in the Reading meeting, the very worst thing that could happen to us would be if God just left us alone. And so we have here.
The path of happiness.
The path of joy, the path of blessing, the path where we receive the needed guidance for these dark days.
If you know these things.
Happy are ye if you do.
All but this calls for purpose of heart.
And daily self judgment abiding in him.
Walking into dependence and communion.
And each one of us as we leave these meetings.
What are we going to do?
Through it, with his help. Are we going to go back?
And if there have been things that have been a hindrance, are we going to say, well, it was nice being at the Detroit meetings and then just go on to suit ourselves?
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With many dear Christians.
It's not, perhaps evil in their lives.
Living to suit ourselves.
Just going on day by day to suit ourselves.
Oh.
How different is the pathway of an exercised heart, a redeemed heart that realizes that he is he or she is not their own? They've been bark with a price.
And here we have the remedy.
If he know these things.
Knowledge never will keep us.
But dependence and communion.
An occupation with Christ.
In prayer and being taught by the Word.
Through the Spirit of God.
Happy are ye?
If you do them, oh how blessed it would be if the result of these meetings would be.
That you and I in our meetings.
In the little gathering with which were associated, gathered to the name of a rejected Christ.
We are a real health, a real blessing and.
These things are the answer to our assembly problems.
My state of soul, your state of soul has a deep and lasting effect upon the assembly in which we're part of it. Am IA health or am I hindrance?
Well, if he know these things, happy are ye if you do them now. Acts the 5th chapter.
And verse 41.
And they departed from the presence of the Council rejoicing.
What was the cause of their rejoicing?
That they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his namesake.
Oh, how blessed this is.
These dear ones departed from the council rejoicing, rejoicing.
Because they were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake.
Well, dear child of God, if there is no suffering in my life and yours.
Can I say that I am walking to please the Lord?
I was struck by that verse in the chapter we are reading. Let us look at it. Romans 8.
Romans 8 chapter and.
The 17th verse.
The middle part of the verse.
If so, be that we suffer with Him.
If so, be that we suffer with him. Oh, what a challenge there is in these words.
All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus will.
Suffer persecution. Are you and I suffering with Him?
Well, if we are walking to please the Lord, we will.
If we're seeking to day by day, in our home, in the office, in school, wherever it may be, if we're confessing his name and suffering with him.
Will have that joy that these dear ones have.
But are we, if ye suffer with him?
Oh, each one of us can answer that question for ourselves.
What measure of faithfulness is there in your walking ways, in my walking ways to this one who has called us by his name?
If ye suffer with him.
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Oh, if there is no suffering in your life.
I'm not speaking now necessarily of physical suffering. Many dear Christians are.
Passing through that, when our brother Jimmy Smith was in Montreal, he told us that during the visit of Mr. John Harrison, senior and himself to Bolivia, that there was a dear brother with whom they stayed in his home.
And they have received news, I think it was early this year, that that brother has been murdered, murdered because he was a child of God.
Oh, that one knew what suffering was for his name. What about you and me? We may not be called upon.
To go through that kind of suffering. But we can suffer for His name in being identified with a rejected Christ, in being faithful in our walk and abiding in Him. If ye suffer with Him. Oh, what a privilege. It brought joy to their hearts.
And you and I will experience that joy.
If we seek to walk.
Faithful faithfully in the path that he has pointed out.
I'd like to read now the closing verse in Acts, the 20th chapter.
Acts, the 20th chapter.
And the middle of the verse.
So that I might finish my course with joy.
So that I might finish my course with joy. All we have had joy brought before us in all of these verses. And here we have the child of God finishing his course with joy, with joy.
Oh.
I was much touched by a brother's Mahawah who was down to help us in the tent work.
And he told us of being with our brother Hale.
In Ottawa just before he was taken.
And with tears in his eyes, he said, Walter, he said that dear brother finished his course with joy, with joy. How are you and I going to finish our course?
When I was the age of some of these boys in the front seat, my father was in charge of the.
Steamships.
CPR steamships in the city Of Montreal. But in the winter when the port was closed there by ice, why we used to move down to Saint John.
And during that winter, those winters, there were a lot of vessels then that were under sale.
This hotel where we stayed, why you could see them coming in that stormy Bay of Fundy with its tides of 30 to 40 feet, tides and it's treacherous winds and waves and all some of those vessels would come sailing into the harbor there with full sail.
A beautiful sight. Oh, it just thrilled you to see it. Others came in just limping into harbor with their pumps going, their sails and tatters.
Just barely making the pork. Oh, doesn't this?
Speak to our hearts. Are we just going to get home?
Or is it going to be finishing our course with joy? Finishing our course with joy?
Oh, to finish. To have the privilege of finishing our course with joy.
To walking to His praise and glory, and at the end of the journey to receive the reward of faithfulness and that commendation. Well done now, good and faithful servant.
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Oh, may we, dear child of God, may we realize that our sufficiency isn't him, that without that blessed One, we can do nothing. And may we.
Depart from these meetings with a deep sense that we have hearts, hearts that can't be trusted, and it is only as we're found abiding in Him, walking in Him.
Walking in obedience and communion that will be kept.
And we'll finish our course with joy.