1.
“I think there is a difference between sin being on the conscience, and the soul being out of communion with the Lord. Not that in the former case the soul has not lost communion and the needs to be restored; but there is a difference; of course when we sin, that remains as a blot on our conscience until it is confessed, and until the faithful and just One not only forgives us, but cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Still, the conscience may not have felt the stain of sin. Sin may not have left its mark there, and yet the soul will feel that it is not enjoying the bright shining of the Lord’s face in communion and joy. I think there may be many reasons for this, much more and many more than I can touch upon.
Now, if I walk in nature, much and constantly, it lowers the soul down to its level, and although it is not sin, still it is not the energy of the Spirit of God, and it does not keep the soul in communion with the father and the Son. It is surprising how much we do walk in nature, and yet the conscience is not disturbed nor soiled. The love of one’s children and family, and the toil of every day may find the heart walking blamelessly, and yet not in the energy of the Holy Ghost. It is not that we cannot exercise these things, and walk in the Spirit besides; but it is not easy nor common to find it so.
The very fact of walking in nature, and blamelessly exercising the toil of our hands, may necessitate that the mind and powers be much and constantly on the strain, and in the day in which we live this is almost a necessary thing. When, therefore, the moment of relaxation comes, and the strain is taken off the mind, and the heart turns to Christ, or seeks to occupy itself in divine things and serve the Lord, it finds that the soul has not been maintained in its true communion with the Lord, and communion is not there—the soul needs to be restored or revived.
Even service to the Lord may carry it away from Himself, and when the energy in which the service was performed is gone, the heart feels that the flow of communion is gone. Like the Sensitive Plant, —the least touch makes it droop, and need the quiet moment, and the wear and tear of life to cease, ere its leaves assume their wonted shape—ready for the beams of the sun to play upon each part of them again, in their normal condition.
There are shades in these things hardly to be defined, and the slightest breath will hinder that blessed condition of the soul in which communion with the Father and the Son flows in unhindered power.
As to the forgiveness and cleansing when we sin, it is two-fold in its action I think. Suppose a child soils some part of its dress, which a careful mother has taken pride to put on. The child may go and hide its face in its mother’s bosom and feels the forgiveness it seeks flowing freely from the mother’s heart, even if unspoken by her. But still, though forgiven, the soil remains on the dress, and keeps up the remembrance and the pain of it in its heart. But, then, if the mother not only forgives but cleanses the spot away, and leaves the dress as before—all trace removed, how the child’s heart will rise up in the liberty of the forgiveness and grace it has tasted, knowing now not only the forgiveness but the cleansing away of that which occasioned the heart’s distress: communion is now restored fully.
2.
“Conflict in high places, or as we have it for we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places”—(Ephesians 6:12)—is but little known in the armies of the Lord, I think. No doubt it is the true, normal condition of His soldiers as to their warfare, but it assumes great things about them. Not only does it suppose them in all the consciousness of the place, in the heavenlies in ‘Christ Jesus,’ as fully realized in the soul (Ephesians 2); and that the ‘Christ’ who fills all things dwells in their heart by faith, thus enabling them to survey those fields of glory of which He is center and Lord; and to be filled into all the fullness of God (chapter 3). ‘To walk in the power of the new man,’ with an ungrieved Spirit, who has sealed them till the day of redemption (chap. 4). To walk in love as Christ loved and gave Himself for them, but to God, and as ‘sons of light,’ as imitators of God, as beloved children (chap. 5). In short, to enjoy the power and full realization of the completeness of the standing and acceptance they have in the Beloved; and to walk in the full response, by the Spirit, to this on earth:— Christ living in them. Them indeed the Lord’s people will know something of conflict in high places. Then will the wiles of the devil be spread to make such fall, when they are engaged in unmasking him, and meeting him with the whole armor of God, who would hinder the progress of the people of God in their taking possession of the heavenly land. Chapters in the little book called ‘The Lord’s Host,’ describes, in measure, in detail, this solemn yet blessed warfare of the soldier of the army of the Lord.
3.
“I would hope that — may still be improving. We like not these interruptions, beloved, sure I am we do not, and nonetheless than my poor weak self; but they are good. The Lord never has to excuse Himself. At the end of Job’s many trials all had to repent, or retrace, or recall; but the Lord was justified in His doings, and clear in His visitations. The end was His glory, though the path may have been His strange work. The end was His interpreter, though the path may have been His riddle.
4.
“He who orders the event orders its circumstances, and you must be silent knowing my poor ways and services I am often in a spirit of bondage; disposed to compare myself with others, and thus be cast down. But this is all wrong. We ought to say, Let Him be glorified by whom He may be glorified. When Peter saw John next his Lord, and even leaning on His bosom, you may be sure Peter did not grudge the place to John. So let it be with our spirits; let us rejoice that others, in one sense, are more to Him than we are. O the liberty that suits the redeemed spirit, dear brother!”