1.- HIGHER SERVICE: WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR IT?
I REMARK that some Christians, when they decline from any measure, of light which they have received, become in proportion more formal and legal. Carnal activity is adopted to compensate for the spiritual consistency. Those who went to the battle gave one out of five hundred to the priests; and those who did not go (those may I not say, who have not been spiritually exercised) gave one out of fifty to the Levites.. They gave more and received less. Spiritual exercise fits us for using the spoils won in conflict priest-wise unto God, and the same portion of spoil possessed by the one who has tarried at home (the unexercised soul) will never lead him beyond Levite service.
The highest order of service is comprised in those 0 words, " Lovest thou me?-Feed my sheep." When we love a person, it is wonderful how quickly and accurately we find out what will please him, and how grateful it is to please him; but we only attain this by studying his mind and taste. We do not impose our own likings on the one whom we wish to gratify, or if we did, we should plainly declare that we were more occupied with our own tastes than with his; and we are found seeking (perhaps unintentionally, yet in very deed, for one's acts reveal one's heart) to make an impression, that is, to be acknowledged as doing and conferring favors rather than as really desiring to yield ourselves so as to render service, and afford gratification to the object who so interests us. Thus, if I do not know what is the Lord's desire, in fact, what is His mind, I can never meet His mind so as to gratify Him; but the more. I know Him, the more I shall study him, in order to do what love dictates.
If one is much in intercourse with the religions of this day, one will be conscious of the difficulty of simply referring service to this test: " Does it proceed from love to him, and does my love express itself in accordance with the tone of His mind at the present moment?" This test obliges me to take quite a different course and view from all the great popular laborers of the day. I shall find myself at one side and they at the other; but my comfort will be, that I am exercising my heart in its love to my Lord and Master.
Man's good and blessing is the avowed aim in the present day, and not that the Chief Shepherd of the sheep may have the testimony of love and obedience from the hearts of his servants. No doubt man's real blessing can never be brought about independently of Christ; and I might argue, if I seek this, I must prove my love to the Lord. In a sense this is true; but where I am at fault is in making a result my aim, instead of (the parent of every part of the result even) the heart of Christ.
Nothing can form the saint but Christ, and faith in Him as He is. Any one who does not make this primary must become latitudinarian, and will be found to be seeking mere men, and not Christ. One man faithful to, and valiant for, Christ, will do more real good than a million of latitudinarians-even devoted ones. It is one grand test for all questions, viz., " Does this accord with the mind of the one I love?" Any one else's mind I do not consult. If I can respond to that, I am happy, and I am useful.
Amos 1 ever troubled at my little usefulness? To be sure I am. But, I ask, what is my path? Amos 1 to seek to satisfy my own feelings in working; or to do exactly what He may define for me? Do I execute the little He places within my range efficiently, and as He would wish? If I must, with shame, answer "No," how can I expect Him to introduce me into a sphere where I might see myself more useful, but where He would not be the end I sought. I believe that, according to the measure in which Christ is in us, we shall serve acceptably. I cannot tell where or how; but the widow who cast in two mites exceeded all the rest. It is the motive, not the act, that determines the condition. The Lord has, in one sense, no higher occupation for us here than serving Him. How great that honor I But in one sense He never wants a servant; that is, He can easily provide Himself with servants for general things; but He has very few confidential ones: these he seeks, and before they are such, they must be educated in His mind. This, I believe,, is very often the higher occupation which our natures are prone to undervalue, as possibly Moses did in Midian, or Joshua in retirement, or Paul in Arabia. Work and service are great snares in the present day. The alabaster box is too often given to the people instead of to Christ.
What is a " Father?" (John 2:1313And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, (John 2:13).) One who knows " Him that is from the beginning "-Christ. That is the highest, the grandest attainment. Let our aim be to learn Him, in order that He may use us as He pleases. Our service will then be of the true priestly character, and that most grateful and honoring to Him. (Continued from page 225.)
2.-TAKING A STAND, OR BEING ESTABLISHED.
The inquiry as to how a soul is established is an interesting one. I believe there is what I should call a general establishing and also a particular one. Rom. 1:1111For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; (Romans 1:11), plainly intimates that the Apostle expected by his ministry to have so helped the saints that they would be established. This I should call general; but I doubt not that there is a particular establishing with respect to almost every distinct truth received.
We may observe that many young believers pass through a period of vacillation, be it long or short, and that this indecision is not so much from unbelief of the -truth, as from uncertainty as to how we should act when trial occurs; for it is temptations in the large sense which test the faith and the power of truth in our souls. If we withstand the assault as Samson withstood the young lion, we are so far established, and we take a stand; our inability to do so is, I am sure, the secret reason why so few are really able to take a stand. Peter is directed to establish (translated strengthen) his brethren when he himself was converted. To take a stand would be what I should designate being established in a general way, and this is the meaning of 1 Peter, v., for there the subject is suffering for persecution, and out of it the soul was to emerge, not only established against the suffering, but also in a general and larger sense: "After you have suffered awhile, make you perfect (put you properly together), stablish you" (make a stand), and so on.
But it seems to me that the word " establish" is used more frequently with reference to some particular truth, practice, or trial, against which you must make a stand, and which when you are clear about in the power of the Spirit's intelligence, lends you a strength which enables you to stand. The question respecting it may have discomposed you; but now, being convinced, and, consequently, established, you derive strength from the truth or trial which, when an undetermined question, made you restless and uncertain. And not only so, but this establishing on a particular occasion necessarily imparts steadiness and fixedness to the character. Its effect is by no means confined to the truth or correctness of any question, or intention of any trial, which gave rise to it; but this confirmation respecting any particular point imparts to the whole character a decision which the word " establishing" peculiarly conveys.
You will see even old saints confused and uncertain because they are troubled by some question of doctrine or practice which has arisen, or by some trial; and until this is cleared up, their hearts are not " established."
There is, as 1 have said, an establishing in the truth as first received,. which the Apostle speaks of in Rom. 16:2525Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, (Romans 16:25): " Now unto Him who is able to establish you according to my Gospel;" but in all the other passages, though the effect would be to produce the general establishing, yet the necessity for it arose from some particular cause. Peter was to establish his brethren evidently on the particular point in which he had failed himself. In 1 Peter 5:1010But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:10), it was the suffering and pressure pressure of persecution which required establishing, and produced it. With the Thessalonian saints it was also in reference to distractions from persecution, and questions which had arisen about the day of the Lord.
The more blessed way of learning, is first to be established, if I may so say, in one's title, for till then no" stand can be taken; and after that, always to encounter every question or disturbance with the determination to be established, with respect to it; for there can neither be strength, comfort, nor testimony until you are able to take a stand on the point of difficulty which occupies you for the time.
3-OCCUPATION WITH THE WORD, OR WITH
EXPERIENCES.
We may observe that some souls are more occupied with the Word of God, and others with their experiences Of Him and His presence.
Without in the least depreciating the latter, should say that the former is safer and surer; because when the soul loses the sense of His presence, as it often does, it falls into darkness and depression; whereas when it is kept before the Lord by His Word, it is always conscious of the support of it.
" He has set His word above all his name." The word, if truly engaging my soul, would always introduce me into the path of Christ's sympathies; and thus, Himself would be revealed to me. It conducts me to His side, and then I ascend from the wilderness, leaning on my beloved: I may have very true feelings, but feelings are not the material for conflict or growth, though they are the consequences of progress and victory. They are unreliable for a moment beyond the present, and a change in circumstances would soon affect my feelings.
Faith, even, is not a sword) though it is a shield, and—therefore we shall find that faith without the word to sustain it will not be sufficient to support the soul on trial. My feelings may be quite genuine and honoring to the 'Lord, but they belong more to the banqueting-house than to the soldier, or to the one who needs to have his feet like hind's feet, that he may walk on high 'places: We sometimes seek the cheer of the banqueting-house, without seeing that we are provided not only with entire title to enter, which the wedding garment expresses, but that we are invested with the panoply of God, so as neither to be prevented nor dislodged. I must see that I am suited to the host; I must wear costume which He has provided, viz., the enjoyable apprehension of how He accepts, " accepted in the beloved"; but if 1 am in an enemy's country (as we are while left below), I must also see that the host's enemy will be powerless in his attacks on me. Though in a hostile country, the army of occupation may be feasting with the general; that is no reason that the guard should not be mounted. On the contrary, the guard should be all the more careful and watchful at such a time, lest there should be any surprizal. In other words, though I may be prepared to enjoy my Lord in the condition worthy of Himself, I must also be provided and armed against all the attacks of Satan, who would try to disturb my happiness; and this can only be by the Word which, dwelling in us richly,' will in the end make melody in our hearts.
The study of Scripture, which is really invigorating, is that which does not dwell with abstractions, but with a person. The enunciation of a precept or an idea by a person, Himself the witness of it, not only enforces conviction, but communicates power to retain it.
The soul feels the gradual adoption of the truth in power, not so much from the conclusiveness, or the authority with which it has been propounded, as from the imprinting on it by the personal application. You cannot abide (mentally and morally abide) with a greater without adopting his likeness.
A glass which has covered an engraving for a certain time, will often show the outlines of the picture for a day or two, after which it will fade away, the similitude only depending on the association with the original, which must ever be kept up. This is a faint illustration of what association with the Person in the study of the Word would produce on us.
"Our failures are worked into the texture of the eternal plans which cannot fail, and never falter."