Memorials of the Ministry of G.V. Wigram 2 & 3: Volume 2 & 3

Table of Contents

1. Preface
2. Ecclesiastical: Part 1 Prefatory
3. Assembly Truth
4. The Word of God as to Individuals and the Assembly
5. Remarks as to the Assembly of God in Its Rule and Mode of Self-Regulation
6. Appendix
7. Account of Two Scenes
8. Two Prophecies Through a Wicked Man
9. Two Requests of the Lord to His Father
10. Inclusive and Exclusive
11. On Heresy
12. Critical: Part 2 Preface
13. Remarks on the English Psalter
14. Translation of Psalms 1-41
15. Examination of the Hebrew Bible as to the Structure and Idiom of the Language
16. Translation of Genesis 1:1-12-4:26
17. Letters 2
18. Letters 3
19. Letters 4
20. Letters 5
21. Letters 6
22. Letters 7
23. Letters 8
24. Letters 9
25. Letters 10
26. Letters 11
27. Letters 12
28. Letters 13
29. Letters 14
30. Letters 15
31. Letters 16
32. Letters 17
33. Letters 18
34. Letters 19
35. Letters 20
36. Letters 21
37. Letters 22
38. Letters 23
39. Letters 24
40. Letters 25
41. Letters 26
42. Letters 27
43. Letters 28
44. Letters 29
45. Letters 30
46. Letters 31
47. Letters 32
48. Letters 33
49. Letters 34
50. Letters 35
51. Letters 36
52. Letters 37
53. Letters 38
54. Letters 39
55. Letters 40
56. Letters 41
57. Letters 42
58. Letters 43
59. Letters 44
60. Letters 45
61. Letters 46
62. Letters 47
63. Letters 48
64. Letters 49
65. Letters 50
66. Letters 51
67. Letters 52
68. Letters 53
69. Letters 54
70. Letters 55
71. Letters 56
72. Letters 57
73. Letters 58
74. Letters 59
75. Letters 60
76. Letters 61
77. Letters 62
78. Letters 63
79. Letters 64
80. Letters 65
81. Letters 66
82. Letters 67
83. Letters 68
84. Letters 69
85. Letters 70
86. Letters 71
87. Letters 72
88. Letters 73
89. Letters 74
90. Letters 75
91. Letters 76
92. Letters 77
93. Letters 78
94. Letters 79
95. Letters 80
96. Letters 81
97. Letters 82
98. Letters 83
99. Letters 84
100. Letters 85
101. Letters 86
102. Letters 87
103. Letters 88
104. Letters 89
105. Letters 90
106. Letters 91
107. Letters 92
108. Letters 93
109. Letters 94
110. Letters 95
111. Letters 96
112. Letters 97
113. Letters 98
114. Letters 99
115. Letters 100
116. Letters 101
117. Letters 102
118. Letters 103
119. Letters 104
120. Letters 105
121. Letters 106
122. Letters 107
123. Letters 108
124. Letters 109
125. Letters 110
126. Letters 111
127. Letters 112
128. Letters 113
129. Letters 114
130. Letters 115
131. Letters 116
132. Letters 117
133. Letters 118
134. Letters 119
135. Letters 120
136. Letters 121
137. Letters 122
138. Letters 123
139. Letters 124
140. Letters 125
141. Letters 126
142. Letters 127
143. Letters 128
144. Letters 129
145. Letters 130
146. Appendix 1
147. Appendix 2
148. Appendix 3
149. Appendix 4
150. Appendix 5
151. Appendix 6
152. Appendix 7
153. Appendix 8
154. Appendix 9
155. Appendix 10
156. Appendix 11
157. Appendix 12
158. Appendix 13
159. Appendix 14
160. Appendix 15
161. Appendix 16
162. Appendix 17
163. Appendix 18
164. Appendix 19

Preface

This second volume, while differing widely from its predecessor, will scarcely be less acceptable. The first part contains some most valuable expositions of the doctrine and the discipline of the Church of God. The importance of these papers at the present moment, when so many souls are passing through deep exercise upon these subjects, cannot be over-estimated. Many a sorrow, and indeed many a breach of the unity of the Spirit, might have been avoided, if the scriptural principles here enforced had but more generally governed the Lord's people. They are most earnestly commended to the prayerful study of the saints at large. The second part is critical in its character, consisting of " Remarks upon the English Psalter," " An Examination of the Hebrew Bible as to the Structure and Idiom of the Language," &c. These papers will prove exceedingly interesting to every student of the Scriptures, and are so simplified, accompanied as they are with new translations, that all will derive both instruction and edification from their perusal. One remark may be quoted. G. V. W. says: " When I read from Gen. 1 to 2:3 in the English Bible, I am as one listening to a narration; when I read the same portion in Hebrew, I am as one in the presence of God, the living God in action." This difference-and every one will feel its importance-he has sought to remove in his own translation. He adds: " Our authorized version, with its many words which have since changed their meaning (some of them altogether) since it was written; with its many italic words, put in to make it like English; with its want of uniformity as to the use of the same word in English for the same word in the original... is still (all that notwithstanding) a precious gift from God to the English people. But if it led the way, faith would follow on, through grace, to something better. Ezek. 43:10, 11 may have a word for faith herein." It will thus be seen that the only desire of the writer was to convey more accurately, if possible, to the English reader the words of God. The papers were written for publication, and it should be again stated that C. E. S. has most kindly rendered his valuable aid in passing them through the press.
May the Lord in His infinite condescension deign to own the publication of these volumes in the blessing of His people. E. D.
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Ecclesiastical: Part 1 Prefatory

Having been lately appealed to by several belated friends, in difficulty from questions in their localities, as to what some call discipline in the Church, for the results of my fifty years' experience, I felt that they were not worth much. After looking to the Lord, however, I bethought me that I might, at least, show love, and pass afresh through the word as written by our God on the subject. I did so, and jotted down the remarks which are found in these papers. When a dear young brother had made a clean copy of it for me, I asked him, " What do you say to its contents?"
His answer was, " I found much food for thought in it, but can give no judgment formed upon it as yet."
I gave the copy to another who is in the work to correct for me, and made the same inquiry of him.
His answer was, " It contains much that has to be weighed; much in it, in the aspect in which you look at it, is new to me." I think he judged that it was in itself worth perusing, though his perusal of it was as my fellow-helper.
To him I said, " If it will help ours to examine the word of God afresh upon the subject, I would, after prayerful correction, publish it." For we have need, in these parts, having learned that God's assembly is " holy," of a little help now to the better understanding and appropriating of what is meant by the " One Assembly," which is holy; as men say, the " Holy Catholic Church." It is not for me, on the one hand, to dogmatize; or, on the other, to keep back from my brethren anything which I can honestly say I judge to be of God, and for their good. " Let the rest judge."
Sydney, N.S.W., 1877.
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Assembly Truth

Instances of God's own interference inside the assembly; Himself -or by the Apostles.
1. Ananias and Sapphira, as in Achan of old and Judas, Acts 5
2. The murmuring about neglect of the widows, Acts 6:1.
3. Except the Apostles: The scattered abroad preach the Gospel, Acts 8:1.
4. Simon, Acts 8:9.
5. Peter going to Gentiles, Acts 11:2, 3-18.
6. Jews in Antioch, Acts 15:1-35.
7. Paul and Silas part, Acts 15:36-41.
8. Paul will go to Jerusalem, Acts 21:1-4, 10-40, and xxiii. 11, &c.
No. 1. Rom. 16:17: "Mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrines which you have learned; and avoid them."
There are two words, in our authorized New Testament, which are translated by the word divisions; the word here dichostasia, is, properly speaking, dividing or divisions; the other, schisms or rents. There might be any number of rents or splits in a skin or coat, without the skin or coat being divided in twain. Division, in contrast with unity of the Spirit, is what is looked at here by the Apostle. What lay at the root of these divisions shows the outrageous wickedness of the whole thing. "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (v. 18.) Paul's command, as to such, is to " mark them... and avoid them," (in the New Translation " turn away from,") and English New Testament (Ram. iii., 12) renders the same word by " go out of the way of." The enormity of the sin is marked:-If any man, instead of " keeping the unity of the Spirit," (Eph. 4:3) and "the one body and one Spirit," (v. 4) sins against it, to set aside. It is sin (not merely against a man's own self, or a brother, but sin) against God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and the assembly, by breaking, what God had made to be one, into two. What Paul warned against is clear; any energy or action which had as its aim the setting aside of this unity. But no mention is made of whence the evil had, or might come; whether from outside or from inside. The wicked mischief-makers are not named here as being inside; nor as to arise from inside (as in Acts 20:29-33). Nor was it likely, in the few weak ones at Rome, (chiefly individual believers who happened to be at Rome, &c.,) and the instruction of the letter being, too, of the most elementary kind possible, that they were from inside; the probability is all on the other side, as Paul found it there himself in the last of Acts. It was also from outside that Paul had himself had to meet the evil. See his letter to the Galatians; (see again and read Acts 15:1-5, and 22-31). But he had (Acts 20:29-33) to warn his beloved Ephesians of that same evil, in another, form.; it would appear from, among themselves, "Also of your 'own selves shall man arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." (See again. 2 Tim. 2:16-18) " Hymenaeus and Philetus," &c.)
If (Rom. 16:17) it had occurred inside an assembly anywhere, I do not see any difficulty; put outside of the assembly in any place, they are put out as wicked persons, and no longer looked upon as " Dear Brethren." " To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, saints as called," gives to the letter, in many ways, a peculiar interest. One thing is clear from it; viz., that an individual saint has to walk with God and please Him in every respect; and so gets the power of the assembly-truth as it is in God's mind. Saints nowadays forget this, too much. Each saint must be made of God and walk with Him; each sheep must be p sheep ere it is one in the flock.
No. 2. Divisions, properly so called, (see 1), that is dichostasia, and schism properly so called (schisma) (as in 1 Cor. 1:10) are different things, as we shall see, if we attend to text and context.
" I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no (Greek) schisms among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment."
To divide into two that which was one, by means of the introduction of a new root or a new set of principles [as where the pure gospel of God’s grace in Christ had been received, to introduce " except ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved," which was done by a wicked enemy] is one thing; and, for various parties or sections to exist inside that which had been one, and still remained in its unity,-" the Church of God at Corinth " was quite another thing.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he looked at the assembly as the church which was for the Christ in heaven, His body and His bride; but when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he looked at the assembly as the model of the Church of God down here on earth. (1 Cor. 1:2-9.)
The Corinthians walked carelessly, and (it ought to be borne in mind, that) ere Paul wrote to them, God had been cutting off many of them for sin (1 Cor. 11:29-32) even before Paul was moved to write to them and point out the evil among them, and try to stop its continuance and the continuance of the judgments of God. The supper was for the company; but each at it had to judge himself. (vv. 28, 29.) If there was evil, each was to judge himself; if he did not, the assembly was to judge the evil in judging the evildoer. If it did not, God would vindicate His own holy presence and chasten His children, lest they should be condemned with the world. Well, a trustworthy report reaches Paul, and (oh, the grace of our God!) He used their failures in particular as an occasion in which to give to all His children more light and truth. All is real; whether their standing as of God, or their failure in conduct, their inconsistency with that standing, or His grace in so dealing with them-all is real.
The first thing that Paul writes against is sects or parties, formed by schisms among them. They appear to have thought of the Church more as their Church; and of their own places and privileges in it, than as God's Church and habitation upon earth. And so God's servants in the house, which house they themselves were, were theirs also (chap. 3:21-23) as they also were God's; but they squabbled about these servants, and would have made them heads of schools (chap. 1:11, 12); men who were God's servants, and theirs, for Christ's sake. They boasted in what they had gotten-a Church, and would be masters in it. Paul boasted in Him who had gotten him, and set him for the Church universal. His servant; slave, and bondsman Paul would be, and serve Him in any humble, lowly service down here. In them, too, it went so far as that there were contentions. (v. 11.)
They used their privilege of being of the house wrongly; to God's dishonor and their own; still their sin was inside the church; and general corruption within was not like splitting the church and making it into two, and doing so upon the principles of Satan, the world and the flesh. (Rom. 16:18-20.) They tried to rise out of their place and be free in nature (fallen nature), instead of being only living stones built together by God, and they fell. Paul knew his own servant's place, just like his Master, and went on with his service, in which he got breaking enough for himself, but so became, through grace, fitted of God to help them out of their fallen state. For he clave to, and loved the lowly foundation (chap. 3:10-15) which lay at the basis of all-a foundation so wondrous that everyone who built upon it in reality would be saved; if they built with works not according to God's mind, their works would all be burnt up, but the soul would be saved yet so as by fire; if the works that were built were good according to God, the soul would receive a reward. Their fleshliness, factions, blindness, self-complacency, &c., occupy him to end of chap. iv. Evidently Paul was occupied in love, not wishing to punish, but to get their souls into the
Light of the grace and blessing which belonged to them. The perception of which, in contrast with their own practical walk and conduct, would have broken them down and restored their souls.
Then comes their unholiness, as making a faction against holiness and Paul, and sheltering an incestuous person. But Paul's treatment of the case throws much light upon what our conduct, if in the Spirit, should be under the circumstances, and what the points are which we ought to guard.
A sin of the flesh, and that too in a most abhorrent form-such as the heathen would not even have named-was the occasion of their being puffed up. (chap. 5:1, 2.)
Observe it. There was a door of escape from the censure; if any had been free from fellowship with the rest in evil, any poor weak one that had stood for holiness might have mourned before the Lord, in order that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among them. Instead of which they were puffed up. There were no (not even a few) Annas, not even one to sigh and to cry for the abomination (as in Ezek. 9 and 11.). None save Paul (v. 5) were awake to the enormity of the dishonor put on God; none pitied the soul that had sinned; none thought of Christ and the Spirit and the assembly. But, through mercy, Paul stood firm for holiness (v. 3) and for the unity of the Assembly, and for God's way of staying the plague in the assembly, and for saving the soul of the chief offender in the day of the Lord Jesus. None at Corinth had, in their weakness, identified themselves with God against the evil. Paul's alternative was a sad and solemn one, if they persisted in the evil. There, where the name of the Lord Jesus was owned and submitted to, was God's Assembly: they that were such would gather together and act with his servant, Paul, endued with the power of the Lord. A solemn alternative, if the worse came to the worst; but an alternative which Paul had authority and power to carry out, and God and Christ would sanction him in doing; viz., to test the assembly, and to act out God's mind together with those, that owned it and leave all the rest for God to deal with. Paul and John and Peter, &c., had the power requisite for the equally awful act of judgment in the form referred to (v. 5), the delivering, to Satan. The assembly has it not, though, acting with God, it is able, as we shall see presently, to act is similar cases to the one before us, But that responsibility and ability to use it rests with the assembly as such. The assembly, having exercised its mind, and everyone in it his, as to how far it has been compromised by and to past evil, and what the Lord would have it as a whole do with the unrepenting sinner in its midst, can, after every effort has been made to restore his conscience; shut him out of it, as a wicked person who will not repent; for the Holy Spirit is in the assembly, and we have His word; and even (in chap. 5:6, 7, 8) the word of His grace, for such a case of leaven. If the assembly as such, and conscience in all, have been appealed to, and all has been done in order to reclaim the erring one; yet without avail, the honor of God, and of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit demands, at the hands of the assembly, the exclusion of such a person from it. The assembly as such must sanction what has to be stated about the person, whether it be to the saints only, as it might be in. some cases, or before the world also, as in such a case of incest sanctioned at Corinth; but the dishonor must be removed from the name of God and His assembly. If the person is restored in soul, and really repentant, the assembly, but it only, can receive back. The action was always of the assembly as a whole, and not of a pastor or pastors, elder or elders. Besides, in enforcing holiness, we must remember that it is the assembly only receives, or excludes, or receives back again. And every caution and means should be taken to maintain this, for thus only every individual in the assembly is made to see his or her act and deed in the assembly's actings. Of course, in an assembly of the aged and infirm, and of others-it may be true of many an Anna-there may be those who, themselves not able to enter into a case from personal sickness or other reason, trust it all, with prayer and lively faith, to God. To a godly soul there is no difficulty, if God wills that I leave a matter with Him, in my doing so. It is the prayer of the hidden ones which often keeps up and restores strength in the assemblies. A few more Annas and Simeons, what a gift from the Lord would it be to us in our day! Had there been one Anna at Corinth, evil would not have gone to the length it did.
But God is sufficient for us, and His way is best.
In chap. 5:9 we read, referring to some letter which God has not seen fit to give us, " I wrote to you in an epistle not to company with fornicators," (not of this world, for then must ye needs go out of the world; but) " not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a man, no, not to eat.... Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." From the surface, or at the first sight, of this passage, " company with," " keeping company with," look as if what was meant was that outside intercourse which a man has with a worldly man in business of any kind. But this is set aside by the apostle's adding, " not of this world, for then ye must needs go out of the world."
Moreover the meaning and use of the word is much stronger than would express such casual, outside intercourse. It is a compound word made up of three words, SUN, together with; And, thoroughly; and MIGNUMI, mingled. The last (mignumi) is used (Matt. 27:34) of the vinegar mingled with gall, given to our Lord on the cross; and again (Rev. 8:7; 15:2), fire mingled with blood, and a sea of glass mingled with fire; and again (Luke 13:1), blood mingled with sacrifices; and its noun is used (John 19:39), a mixture of myrrh and aloes. To me it seems that the compound word expresses that which we call " the intimacy of loving friends " more than aught else. But take it in its least forcible meaning. I deal with the man of the world, and have intercourse with him in business, without any question of how far his principles and morality are those of a Jew or of a heathen. L would like to confess Christ before him, and to be known in my principles and morality as not a man like those who have a name to live whilst they are dead, a mere man of Christendom, but a true living member of that body of which Christ is the glorified Head; but if any man is called a brother (a member of Christ Himself, and not only in the outside kingdom), and an immoral walk or ways are found to be his, confession and prayer and every effort to arouse his soul come in; and, if without success, I can at least break off all intimacy with him, and cease to take a meal with him The assembly, as such, will have to act for God, and itself, and for him, too; but, as an individual, if he be unholy, and I cannot reclaim him, I withdraw from him all voluntary companionship, and tell him I do so, and why. The assembly may be called to act, and may prevail to -restore him, and, if so, that would change my course as to him and me together. I must not act capriciously toward another, for my Lord's sake and my own as subject to Him But if a Christian in early days could not walk up to the standard of a Peter or a Paul, to his own satisfaction in the Spirit, a Christian in these latter times should still be aiming at that, trying to live to Christ, who wills that they that live should live unto Him. (2 Cor. 5:15.) And thus he cannot bring his walk down to what the walk of persons in the assembly may be, but has Christ Himself to seek, and what was according to the original standard. I have Often had to do this, but I told it not save to the one whom it affected. And I must say, painful as it was to do it, the Lord owned it remarkably.
I have been asked, does " Put out from among yourselves that wicked person " (the extreme act of the assembly) put him back into the world where he was before he professed to believe? I answer, " Yes " and " No." " Yes, and Satan is the god of the world." ":No, the man is not before God, my God, where he was before he professed to believe." If a Hebrew came to Christ, and gave up the bullock and the rams of the great day of atonement (types), and took to (the anti-type) Christ for atonement, and then turned his back on Christ, and went back to Judaism, " he had crucified for himself the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." (Heb. 6:4-8; 10:26, 27, 29.). Such an one had other things written about him by God in these passages, and the aspect was altogether different from " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.) Preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:14, &G.), and their aspect is to be to me what it is to God. Take again Paul's word. If he had delivered anyone to Satan " for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord," the man is, in mine eyes, in a new position to what he was ere converted. If the sin was unto death of the body, and pronounced so by an apostle, I could not pray for that sin to be forgiven in this life. (1 John 5:16.)
It is a very solemn thing to be put outside of the assembly of God, and ought to be thought of as such. Has God a habitation upon earth? and has anyone been excluded from it? I am sure distance and reserve towards him of the whole household which has put him outside as a wicked person, becomes each one who remains in it, who knows and honors that house and the God who dwells there; and such, too, is the path of love toward the man himself. My relationships are as much interfered with, the assembly having put him out, as if an apostle had; for an apostle was but a servant of the Church; and who could conceive such a thing as Paul finding Timothy or Titus walking as friends with a Hymenaeus or Alexander (1 Tim. 1:20), or with Philetus? (2 Tim. 2:17, &c.) The very notion is incompatible with any truth about God, His house, the fellowship of the house with God, and with the servant whom God had 'used in such judgments.
But Paul did not put out this wicked person for our sakes, because God would have us to see how the assembly itself could act; and truly the apostle was glad to have it so, and felt bound not only by the assembly's act of exclusion, but by its act of reception again. It will not do to say, " But, then, they had signs close at hand, and there are none such now." For is it the presence of signs of power which is to rule in our minds? or the presence of the living God in His house, and His written word as our guide? But of this more hereafter.
Observe, it is not hidden evil within a man, but overt action, which shows that we do not discern and judge ourselves, which calls for correction outwardly.
In one place Paul names some in an assembly to which he wrote; they were discovered by him, but their outside conduct being fair, perhaps, they were not detected by others. What is within a man is all known to God, and if I do not count myself dead to it as sin in the flesh, but allow myself to act upon it, it is known to me if I am living with God; but as to a witness for Him before others, overt action has a more important place. The Lord knew all along who and what Judas was; the apostles did not; when the spirit of the man began to come out before men, the case was changed. So perhaps in Phil. 3:18, 19.
No. 3. 1 Cor. 11:17; The disorder at the table. In verse 18, divisions should be read schisms (as in chap. 1:10); then, too, apparently instead of its being one supper common to all, each took his own supper with him, and one (the poor man) was hungry, and another (the rich) drank too much. (vv. 20-22.)
The supper was given by the Lord Himself to Paul for us, by the Lord then in heaven. (vv. 23-26.) And observe it once again. The Lord having been offended there, death and sickness had been sent on men, because their spirit and conduct were not consistent with the discerning the Lord's body, even ere Paul wrote this letter.
2 Cor. 2:5-11 are to be noted. Paul had not acted in his power over the assembly (1 Cor. 5 and 2 Corinthians -5-11), but left the assembly (roused by him) to act; and they had found grace to judge themselves and the sin they had sanctioned, and to put out as a wicked person him that had done this. God's honor cared for, and evil judged, God acted with them. Overwhelming sorrow came upon the man, and Satan, ever watchful, tried to turn it to his own purpose. Had the man destroyed himself, it would-have been no wonder, Satan being at work. But God's end would not have been gained. Paul writes to the assembly, now, again: " My grief is past; your chastening of the man has broken him down, he is overwhelmed; receive him, and restore him; I beseech you confirm your love to him." Give (v. 9) proof of your obedience. If (v. 10) you forgive him, so do I: for what I forgave, it was for your sakes, in the person of Christ, that I forgave it. (v. 11.) He had forgiven something, perhaps what the man had done against himself, and he beseeches them to think of the man himself, and restore him.
2 Cor. 7:4-16 should be studied. What sort of a spirit becomes those who are forced to press God's judgment on others; and what is repentance after a godly sort? These are important questions for us.
In chap. 10:6, we find a reason for his pouring out, and among disorderly persons, the light he had about evil. It might form some of them unto obedience ere he came with a rod to revenge all disobedience, when their obedience was fulfilled; for edification and not destruction was in God's mind, and in his too (v. 8), and he would keep within the line God had measured to him (vv. 13-15.)
What happened in the Galatian churches would have been a cause for withdrawing oneself from another gospel, which is not another, unless God had, in mercy, sent Paul upon the matter to them.
No, 4, 2 Thess. 3:6-15: "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition (doctrine handed down) which ye received of us." The doctrine here referred to was (v. 10), " If any, will not work, neither should he eat." And he adds on (v. 14), " If any obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." Yet "count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." (v. 15)
To be sure! A child in the nursery, or schoolroom, or in the family, must be trained to good habits (v. 10), and to submission to parental authority (v. 14); yet he does not lose his place of child, brother, &c., if, having been naughty, the rest of the children or school are told to withdraw or shrink from him, until he has confessed his fault. Suppose it were the rule:
No. 1. Meals to be eaten when lessons have been said; " and, if one child having snatched his meal before lessons were ended, a second child despised another order-No. 2. " Do not speak to a disobedient child," and would speak and play with it, and got a bad mark for so doing, and were put into a room by itself, no one would count either the one or the other to have lost its place in the family. Family, nursery, and schoolroom correction may have died out, since the world got into its dotage`; but in other days many a household of love and order witnessed such things, to the correction of evil in the little ones, but to the present prayerful grief of the nurse, governess, parents, &c.
Also, as it seems clear to me, that if Paul had sent Timothy to abide at Ephesus (chap. 1:3), Timothy, as a wan sent down to instruct, could not set about leaving the house or the table (as some that are unwise would have done). If there were any there who rejected his teaching, he might withdraw himself, refrain from such, but he was told to teach inside, and not to go or to put outside; so I have no such idea as that this is a case of excommunication, or putting outside of the house of God—no, but of correction inside the house of one who might have lost all but his place at the table. " To be sent to Coventry," that is, no one of your companions allowed to play with or speak to you- though you are not out off from the meal table-is a serious punishment to a child.
No. 5. Sundries: 1 Timothy is Paul's letter to Timothy about the maintenance of doctrine (chap. 1:3; 6:3-5); he is told as to those that are destitute of the truth-supposing that gain is godliness, &c. (v. 5)-" from such withdraw thyself." The words " from such withdraw thyself "are not in the better MSS. The word is aphistemi, " withdraw, depart from, refrain from." It would not alter the sense if inserted. And (v. 20) he is to avoid (turn aside from), ektrepomai, (the same word as in chap. 1:6, 15, is translated turned aside). Clearly a man sent down to instruct a family or a college would not set about either turning the children out or leaving the house himself. If there were any there who rejected his teaching he might withdraw himself from such." It was Paul who bade him bide there, even that he might charge some nut to teach other doctrines.
Again, 2 Tim. 2. 16: Timothy was to shun "vain babblings." Two had been led away through them to err (to miss the mark or go astray), saying that the resurrection was past, and overthrowing the faith of some. Then (v. 19) " depart from iniquity " is the word to everyone that names the name of Christ (or " the Lord " as the MSS.). This is addressed to us (each) also, as to Timothy.
So again, from those that had the form of piety, but denied the power of it (chap. 3:5); he was to turn himself aside. Compare with Rom. 1:29-31, and you will see that the evil to be turned aside from was as bad as that among the heathen; only it was intensified by being in the place, and under the pretense of light.
Titus was left at Crete to set in order things which remained, and to place elders in every city. " As I appointed thee " gives to him the authority of one carrying on Paul's work so far. (Chap. 3:10.) " A heretic," after having twice admonished, he was to reject (or have done with) knowing that such an one is perverted, being self-condemned.
Defectiveness of doctrine does not make it to be heresy, nor is all error heresy. What constitutes heresy is, it is the fruit of " human mind and will having been at work in connection with doctrine." The word heresy means " a choice " (from " to choose "). If the evil is present in an upright mind, get the thing once clearly before his mind and he will be set free. If a second time the mind turns back to it, there is reason to fear that there is want of ingenuousness, his having turned away from it before (after the admonitions) condemns him, if he turns back to it. For he had admitted that the root out of which his doctrine flowed was a bad one. His will had been at work. Its reappearing looks as if he had changed his doctrine without giving up the root of it. "Reject, or pass by such;" that is, do not sanction with your authority, which is from Paul, any such as teachers.
1 John 2:19. " They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us."
Observe, this is a final departure, upon the ground of never having had real connection with " us." But Paul, in the case of Hymenaeus, Philetus, &c., speaks as though they may have had real connection with Christ, and so might be saved in the end, yet so as by fire; but that they were withdrawn from the church militant, as having been untrue, traitorous to their Master in the war, and had not repented thereof.
2 John 7-11. A deceiver goes forth, not confessing Christ coming in flesh. He is a deceiver and antichrist, and is no more to be received by a Christian than a Mohammedan would be. He wants to pass himself off as a Christian teacher! Do not know him, or say, " How do you do," to him. How senselessly stupid, more so far than would be a religionist of any other name, is the Christian who accredits and lends his sanction, in any way, to one of whom John says, " He is a false teacher, a deceiver, an antichrist."
In Rev. 22:11, the righteous and the holy are called to separate themselves from the unjust and filthy; and afterward those that meet God's mind go into the city; and they that have not met His mind are shut out forever.
P.S. The living energy, the wisdom and love and care for God in His assembly, for it under Him, and for all in it-by God the Holy Spirit, as filling and acting in and through each apostle, must be seen in action in the Word itself. I have taken a few fragments out, to enable me the better to study the detail of directions either to the assembly or to the man of God, in it. But they must be seen in their connections with the life and heart, mind and soul, of an apostle, for all their beauty to appear.
Remark this: Through the mercy and grace of God the principle of every evil which has ever come out against Christ and His church, since Pentecost, was allowed of God. to germinate and bud while there were yet apostles on earth, in., order that we, led by God, might see the fuller development of the evil in aftertimes and various places in our own circumstances, and also the judgment of the Holy Spirit, through the apostles, upon that particular evil, now fully opened near us, though then, perhaps; showing itself only in germ.
Take dislocated fragments, and you unavoidably get away from the mind and, power of the Spirit of God, on the one hand; and, on the other hand; from all the human affections of the apostles as to what is good.
God's word gives to me, in the histories of men from the commencement; a mirror of what is in my own heart as to sin. It is Scripture which is the book of experience to the simple saint.
Those experiences I cannot exhaust in my tiny life, nor find around, me all the evil which is in contrast with God. The word. is so full that, as I judge; no evil caw appear which; is not found traced out in some history or other, for, my instruction May my soul, in the secret of God's presence, learn the seeds of evil so as to judge them and to avoid the development of them. If there be self. discernment in, God's presence, and self judgment by us, there need to be no broken bones or rebukes from the assembly, or chastening from the Lard. Judge all when you are inside the veil with God and Christ.
The whole scope and range of the new name of God (as revealed in " Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ") is the question in the assembly; and this as revealed in and through the Son of man, and wrought out from Him, by the Holy Spirit, in living apostles. God that Himself made and makes the assembly, is Himself the keeper of it; though allowing man, world, and flesh and Satan to discover themselves, the meanwhile, in and by outward connection with it; while they that walk humbly before Him are preserved and kept.
The above is an extract from a larger manuscript.
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The Word of God as to Individuals and the Assembly

Reader, I would ask of you a question.
What place has the word of God in our spiritual blessing?
Firstly, as to the individual soul. The Lord spake (in John 5) thus, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation " (the Greek has " judgment," and not condemnation); " but is passed from death unto life." (v. 24.) And the Holy Spirit wrote by Peter (1st epistle, 1st chapter), " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." (v. 23.) " The word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (v. 25.) And what is written in James (chap. 1.) confirms this: " The Father of lights (v. 17).... of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures (v. 18); wherefore... receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls (v 21); but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (v. 22.) And Peter adds as to spiritual growth (chap. 2.): " Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (vv. 1-3.) In the passages I have referred to, His word is spoken of as God's means of producing blessings.
Then, secondly-As to the assembly down here-scene of the sway of God, whether in government, or as a house, &c. How was it brought into being but by the coming of the promise of the Father, and the preaching through. Peter, James, and John, of Jesus as made Lord and Christ on high, with forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who judged themselves and confessed their sins, as many as. the Lord called? (Acts 2:32-40.) Then they that gladly received His word were baptized; and the same day three thousand souls were added. "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers " (vv. 41-47); thus the company was formed. As Peter said when, with the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19), he opened to the Gentiles (Acts 10:34) " Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. The word which He sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all:), that word ye know." " While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word." (chap. 10:34-44) God wrought this through His own word.
Paul, too, (Rom. 10:8-17), " The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.... So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." This as to individual blessing.
See also as to the assembly (Eph. 3) how that which was pre-eminently His gospel, the mystery (vv. 3-10), and (chap. 5:23-27) the setting up of the assembly, as the body and bride of Christ. " Christ is the Head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body." He "loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (compare chap. 1:8-23.) All this was by the word of God through Paul. Again, in the marvelous description which he gives of the Church, as the Church of God on earth (1 Cor. 12-14), how is everything of blessing, power, correcting, and setting right, &c., all made to depend upon the Holy Spirit revealing the mind of the Lord through the truth of God, and word of the apostle. The simple truth, however, of chapter 11 settles the whole question. How can two walk together unless they' be agreed? God, the true and living God, had rallied a people upon earth, in the name of the Lord Jesus; and had made it a habitation through the Spirit for Himself; those in the house must either be clean, and walk according to His mind, revealed by His apostles and prophets, or Himself was there to judge, and cause that "many among them should be weak and sickly, and many sleep." Paul, with his word, had to explain God's dealings with those at Corinth to them. The individuals in the house should discern the Lord's body, and should discern how far they are in their walk consistent with His death, which they set forth or announce; for all practical inconsistency where God dwells comes into judgment; if by the action of the assembly, then with the view of healing; but if not by the assembly, then of God, who will judge His own people here, in love, in order that we should not be condemned with the world. (vv. 23-34.)
God wills things, and needs not to speak. But generally you find in the context His apostle or a prophet is near, to explain that which occurs to man, as in the case of Ananias (Acts 5), and of Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11) It was by the word of the Lord that a Peter, John, or Paul, through the Holy Spirit, saw through and explained circumstances, guided saints and assemblies, and gave judgments or sentence upon wickedness, and these judgments stood firm. The word of the Lord changes not.
If any say that we are incompetent to do this, I refer them to chap. 10:1, and to verses 12 and 13 following it: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." A most remarkable verse after such evils had been shown! If any say, "But how?" The answer is ready in Heb. 4:12-16; and, again, in 2 Tim. 13-17. Or is not the Word the sword of the Spirit still? (Eph. 6:17; Rev. 1:16; 2:16; 19:15.) Paul's authority to set aside the thoughts of some may serve us, too, while following Christ; for it is not dead. (1 Cor. 14:36, 37.) Truly, as in the parable of the sower, there are four effects of the word. If it comes where Satan rules, it is swallowed up and disappears. If where the world and the flesh are not judged, the world and the flesh, and not it, triumph. But it alone is the seed fruit-bearing when it, through grace, falls into a poor sinner's heart.
Passages might be multiplied. But all spiritual blessing is of God, and so is His grace in man or in an assembly, and it has to be inwrought by His, word through the Spirit; all failure is man's fault, through the world, flesh, and Satan not having been judged, nor God sought to.
When I read such passages of Scripture as those above, and others like them, I know not how to measure, my own littleness, so infinitely blessed as I 'am in Christ; or how to fulfill this my new responsibility. I know not how to grasp the wonderful admirableness of my place in the body of which Christ is the Head; nor the solemn blessing and responsibility Godward, of our having been called to bear His name and to show out His character on earth, holding forth the word of life. But God will maintain His own position as God; and wherever He is, His own character will shine out too, whether He be acting Himself directly, or whether He be acting through the assembly, or through us individually (and here Phil. 2:12, 13 is indeed consolation to us). Yet what is produced upon one's mind by all this, is a something very different from what is awakened in most minds when "ecclesiastical discipline" is spoken of by men. God, and the assembly and myself in the one case; and man settling things for others, is, alas! too often all that is found in the other case. I do not mean that what is of God does this, but that in the now worn and hackneyed state of men's minds, the term, " ecclesiastical discipline" (most properly belonging to the lawyer), does too often evoke things and ideas which are not of the Spirit, but contrary to the word, in our poor minds.
As matter of fact, " ecclesiastical " (though not occurring in N. T.) is merely a dry term for " of the assembly," and the word " discipline " never once occurs in the New Testament.
The mind of man, and the mind of the present generation in particular, being considered, and the way that the page of all that is called ecclesiastical in history (and, alas! now, and like to be so to the end), is the record of the vilest and wickedest things, it seems to me a term calculated to ensnare the unguarded into, and to confirm the mind in, false ideas; and I doubt whether, as used commonly, it is not altogether too narrow a word in its meaning for the large and wide range which it ought to cover. (Away from books I can only count upon Bagster's smaller authorities for a check to my mind.)
I should define paideia, education, training up, nurture of children (Eph. 6:4); instruction (2 Tim. 3:16); chastening (Heb. 12:5, 7, 8, 10); and in like manner, paideuo (the verb), to educate, instruct children; to teach, admonish, instruct, improve; to instruct by chastening. The primary idea is " pais," a child, servant, slave, and all needful for the proper education of such.
A father or mother may know, and ought to know, that the rod may be necessary for a child, though many parent finds that with early training and prayers the rod has never made its appearance in their circle. But with the word " discipline," the rod assumes a place of preeminent forwardness to most minds; as some of old have said, "No school without a good rod; no nursery or private schoolroom without its rod." In point of fact I find it is by very many limited to excision. It is not the surgeon's service only, nor it, With the physician's action superadded; according to the extracts above, it includes very much, more, both as to the individual and the assembly. Now that is not the aspect of God towards His assembly or the individuals in it. As God, He solemnly calls upon us as individuals to discern our own selves, and to put away the evil, and every evil, everything not according to Christ. He calls upon the assembly, too, to discern its ways (and the ways of all in it) and of itself as a whole, and to avoid His having to express His mind to their, to our, shame and grief. Yet if forced by our crookedness to " use " the rod, whether 'His own or that entrusted to an apostle, it is that we may be delivered from evil; it is protective to His name, but curative of His children.
God ought surely to be vindicated. His being as God, His character, the mercy and grace, and mercies bestowed upon us, all demand it. More than this, He will have it so, and His Son, Lord of all, is looking down upon us to secure it; for He is not indifferent to the will, honor and glory, of His Father. And the Holy Spirit, too, is in us, and among us all, to make this good as our privilege and life; good against our own flesh, and the world, and Satan.
Solemn but strong grounds for us to live up to. His purpose for us is to live to Him who died for us and rose again, that they which live might live to Him. (2 Cor. 5)
The word of God, in nature, was first creative, all after God's own order. Held to, it would have been preservative (more mighty to preserve than the serpent to mar). Neglected, it turned to judgment, yet through grace was, ere judgment came forth, supplanted by the word about " the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head," germ and security of victory complete to all that hold it.
In the continuation of the fallen creation, the word of God, in providence, pledged itself in blessing, but this was in the rainbow after the deluge. Again it showed itself in government, with a people temporarily redeemed and saved from Egypt. In prophecy, it stretched onwards, in God's patient goodness, to a rebel race, to tell of Him, " the Word of God," that was to come, the King expected for the kingdom, and the Giver of eternal life-Himself eternal life-and the one grand subject of the written Word.
We have, through faith in the Word, Himself our Head on high, and down here His Spirit, token of present fellowship with Him, of safe conduct through this life and of eternal glory. But the Bible! What a gift it is to us, and how to be prized in a day of infidel myths like the present.
The education of the believer goes on from his new birth. He learns that God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith He loved us, has quickened us together with Christ, raised us up together, and made us to sit together in Him in heaven. On the other hand, self, and all that attached to self previously, he has escaped from entirely, as looked upon by God as having been crucified together with Christ; died together with Him, and been buried together with Him So far, in principle, ALL is sure to faith, and by the Holy Spirit. We reckon ourselves dead to sin, as well as alive to God though Jesus Christ. But we have, therefore, to be in practice consistent with both these blessings. As individuals we are set in mercy. The assembly stands in grace and peace. The babes have to learn; the young men to overcome; and the fathers to rest in Him that is from the beginning. Live by faith within the veil, and the wilderness, with all its sorrows, turns for a testimony to you. Rom. 5:1-11, shows us part of our schooling; so does Heb. 12:5-13, and 2 Peter 1:5-14. Truly we are still in the six thousand years " war," but greater is He that is for us than all that are against us. It is the assembly militant now, but soon, how soon will the victory and the triumph supplant the battle of life. May we quit ourselves like men, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Phil. 1 gives the visible walk of Paul according to his full communion of life with Christ; all full of Christ, and all for Christ, though down here, and himself (Paul) in weakness.
Then chap. 2 gives us the perfect walk of Paul's Lord, the Christ, in its mighty circle. From the throne where He was worshipped, down to earth, and death of the cross, and back again to His reward on high and on the throne.
And then chap. 3 shows the inward springs of Paul's course, the only perfection which he or we can now attain (though perfected for God in Christ); namely, forgetting things behind, and stretching out. to what lies before, toward the goal, and for the prize to which he was called -Paul's one thing, that he did.
As a conqueror now, he could say, "All things work together for good to me." The principles on which the Holy Spirit, acts are all found in the written word; and the light is so clear as to the connection between principle and practice, and as to the soul or assembly walking with God in the Spirit, and therefore blessed in its actions, or walking in the flesh and according to man, and therefore getting correction and chastening.
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Remarks as to the Assembly of God in Its Rule and Mode of Self-Regulation

In this paper I take it for granted that my reader has learned from Scripture the elementary truths about the (so-called Church or) assembly of God upon earth; that he knows that it was formed, first, at Pentecost, on the descent of the Holy Spirit as the promise of the Father; who thus made good the power and testimony promised by the Lord to the apostles, when it was shed abroad by Jesus as already made Lord and Christ in heaven; and that the glad tidings, which accompanied it, were but fruits of expiation accomplished, and righteousness established in heaven for each individual believer (2 Cor. 5:21); viz., to as many as believed and repented, present forgiveness of sins made known and the gift of the Holy Spirit. There were two new things to be received-God's dealings with the individual believers, and then the place of such in the assembly.
This new company (in all about three thousand souls, gathered out by the preaching of Peter and John at Jerusalem), became " God's assembly on earth," called out by the power of the Holy Spirit, to wait on the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, and to await Himself coming back. The characteristic marks of each individual in the assembly, and of itself as a whole (given at the close of Acts 2 iv.) are not those common to fallen humanity, but are divine and heavenly.
My desire is to call attention to some things connected with the internal characteristics of this assembly and its unity, things which did and were to characterize it in its activities and sufferings. I want to consider (not so much the external marks of it, but) what the unity of the Spirit in itself is, and what betokens this in its existence and actions. The term " Holy Catholic Assembly," if rightly understood, is simple and correct enough; holy, as set apart in itself to God, which the assembly as a whole, and the individuals also who form it, are; and catholic or universal (that is, in howsoever many places any parts of it may be found, they are all parts of one whole). This results from its unity being a unity which is inseparable-the unity of the Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in every part of it makes it one. But this definition does not suffice to guard against the wanderings of men's minds Perhaps, if we added, " gathered through faith, and by the Holy Spirit, from among Jews and Gentiles unto the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne in heaven, during the time of the Lord's being earth-rejected," it might be better. For many there are that look at the holiness and catholicity of that congregation, or convocation, which was called to be one on earth, and will be one when Israel as a whole shall be saved; and it will be under the Lord Jesus (not then absent, but) come again as the king that cometh in Jehovah's name. The one who is now espoused to Him will then have been owned as the Bride, the Lamb's wife, and be with Him in His court on high in heavenly resurrection glory, the new Jerusalem. But the land of Israel, married to Jehovah, will have upon earth its city " Jehovah Shammah " (the Lord is there); nor Jews (my people), nor Gentiles on earth, will then be in resurrection bodies. For Jews and Gentiles will not be blended then, as now, in one. Such is God's doctrine about His Church or assembly. Reader, do you know and own this assembly?
We are not "the subjects of a King as they will be, for the word that answers to "king" is " subject." But we speak of the members of a human body as being partakers of the same life and nature as the head. Ours, now, while suffering with Christ the glorified Head, it is to be one Spirit with the Lord." Have I the Spirit of God and Christ and of sonship? I am then one in the Spirit with the Lord. Am I a son of God? Christ on high has not been ashamed to call such " brethren," and, as individuals, all such are in relationship, the one with the other; for the same Holy Spirit dwells in each of us (1 Cor. 6:19) and the same relationship to the Lord and to God is common to all. But if God in His goodness puts any of these together in a place, they are, and ought to be, in that place a part of His one assembly. The son of child is now in a family.
The one assembly of God on earth has the Holy Spirit dwelling in it (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16), though with somewhat different results than the individual believer. It has the Spirit for its power in all its activity and responsibility as an assembly, as also has the individual believer for his own life and responsibility. This as to the assembly is spoken of as the unity of the Spirit, which all are exhorted to strive to keep, in the uniting bond of peace." The Agent (or He who in the Godhead is called the Holy Spirit) is He who first formed the believer, and then the assembly for Christ, and He alone is the only
power therein. For the assembly to suffer or to act as it should, He must be the spring and originator of its sub-mission or activity, as He was of its very being. Come down from on high, and being God, and having taken up His abode in the assembly-no wonder that He should take the lead in all actions and all subjection of the company, He is here as witnessing to Christ. His motives are divine; and He works from, and around, and to Jesus, who is Lord and Christ, and who is on the throne. It is Himself (the Holy Spirit) who wrote the Scriptures too. And that instinct, too, of divine life-which (though never contrary to what is written) is yet of higher birth than conscience-it is He who forms it in us.
I cannot doubt, first, that everything which springs up in the individual believer, or in the assembly in its collective character, which is not from Him (the Spirit of God) will tend to lead us down either to self-judgment or to shame; or, secondly, that whatsoever leads up to fellowship with God by the way, from the starting-point to the end, working in us the being willing and the acting energetically of His own good pleasure (which is our full blessing in the end), is ours through Him down here. He is our keeper all through. For there is no origin or source of good but God. And all that God gives us He gives in and by Christ, while the Holy Spirit is working in us.
On the one hand there is a uniting power to the individual believer; namely, fellowship with the Father and with the Son, by means of the Holy Spirit, who reveals. the things of God and His Son to and in each, and so produces also fellowship among them through the objects of the faith common to them all; on the other hand, it is of the assembly that its unity is called " the unity of the Spirit."
Having called attention to the individual believer, and also to the assembly in which he is placed by God as one part of a whole, I would now speak of the assembly as under the guidance down here of the Holy Spirit, who presents Christ on high as the object of faith, and the polar-star in our journeyings. And the assembly has to seek to know and to do the will of the Lord Jesus, and in order that it may be able to do so, it must watch against everything that would grieve the Spirit, and so leave itself in dimness of sight and in weakness. I repeat it, Christ is the object of faith always, as God presents Him to us. And the Spirit is the power in us while our hearts and minds are turned to the Lord Jesus, and we reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive unto God.
Let me ask here, ere I go on, do you, my reader, know that God looks upon you as an integral part of His assembly, where Himself dwells on earth? It is so written of each believer, and of the assembly too, and each should know it and act upon it.
Some may say, But how will God show his mind? To this I answer, Did God ever find any difficulty in revealing to any one, or in leaving on the mind of an Abraham, a Jacob, a Job, a Saul, &c., or on any assembly whatsoever, that it was unquestionably Himself who had been with them? In Old Testament times the mind of God was revealed to His servants often with a " Thus saith the Lord." From the time of the Lord, revelation of new truth has flowed through, but from within, man (the book of the Revelation excepted). Peter's, and John's, and Paul's epistles were largely the result of their watchings of things around them: the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and giving them God's view of everything, and the want of harmony between them and the truth revealed to them. And by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, God has given forth all His mind about things down here where we are, and up there where He is, and what is to come to pass too; so that we have His mind, in these writings of the Holy Spirit, given to us,-and we may " be taught of God." God and Enoch; God and Noah; God and Abraham; God and David'; God and Paul-the living and true God and the feeble vessel, knew one another; and the guardian Vicar (the Holy Spirit) down here, and the guardian, our Lord Jesus Christ on high, are thoroughly acquainted with each dependent and obedient one down here. Do you, indeed, live to Christ and live to God in heaven, and know nothing of what pleases and honors them, and of what displeases them, because contrary to the written Word? The Holy Spirit wrote the Acts and epistles, and knows where, therein, everything is to be found, and how to apply it to conscience and spiritual instinct. No; the difficulty is not there, but must exist, if anywhere, in our own selves.
If I can say, It is written," I, having found the written Word to be the seed of life eternal to me, bow to it. It judges me, and it traces for me the path of life, and, as when it was the instrumental means of quickening me into life, it judged my death and sins, so, now that I have eternal life, it shows me the pathway of blessing, and judges every departure therefrom; the Spirit of God using it upon a heart humbled in God's presence. As to everything else, I must judge it, ere I receive it. This, to every believer, makes the Bible to be a peculiar book, and no book like it. God gave blessing to Adam until he should eat of one tree. (Gen. 2:17.) God was with His word; Adam ate, and was judged. I, a man, cannot judge God, or His word; it judges me, and makes manifest to me the real character of everything. The same is true as to the declaration of Gen. 3:15. The Scriptures also (" it is written") tell us (Acts 1 and 2) of the coming down of the Holy Spirit from the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne; and of His setting up, by the preaching of new truths, an entirely new system of things among God's people upon earth, a new system in a new people-a, new system of government and worship. And these new things were to abide in Christ's name until He comes again. The Spirit was to abide, and is found so abiding. (Rev. 22:16, 17.) So I bow to God and His word, and acknowledge that the Spirit is abiding down here still. God is not now between the cherubim, but dwells in His holy assembly upon earth; and when Christ comes back, those that are alive and remain (1 Thess. 4:17) will be glorified without seeing death.
I may now refer to the differences of spiritual powers from the spirit of man, and how their workings make manifest themselves and their sources and their characters. When a demon or demons took possession of men (see, alas! many instances of this in the gospels), it or they seem to have made nothing of the, human beings they entered into. Them they used as but mediums by which they would express their own malicious, murderous, lying character, and their delight in displaying man and creation degraded in God's own land. The human vessel lost all its individuality, and power, and character; the demon displaying his. But in contrast with this, the apostles and prophets and faithful, taken possession of by, and filled with the Spirit of God, did not lose their individuality, or power, or character. They had to act under known responsibility and order, however much the glory displayed might surpass themselves, or the weakness of themselves be made manifest thereby. Through the agency of the Spirit they might be, and were, lifted up in ecstasy beyond themselves as unto the Lord; or brought down in sober judgment to care for God's people and things. Down, here, &c. The proofs of this are many. But observe it, not Peter, nor Paul, nor John ever failed to read aloud the mind of God and of Christ about persons or circumstances. Walking in the Spirit, their souls were up to the Lord Jesus, and in obedience to and dependence upon God, they could see and read His mind as to everything in the assembly, and did so. (See Acts, and the case of Simon chap. 8; and chap. 13:10, and 16:16-19; and 1 John 4:1-6, and 2:19; Acts 5 again.)
I am NOT an apostle or a prophet, you will say. No; but I have their writings in my hand written by the Holy Spirit; God has commended them to me and to us, and (in 2 Timothy shows the sufficiency of them. And our Lord (John 6:45) is our warrant for trusting God to be the teacher to us of His own word. And who is it, according to what is written, that acts in individual believers and on the assembly? 'Whose is the power that works in, and that works out to be willing, and to act energetically but God? and so also as to the edification, government, and service of the assembly. Scripture assigns all down here to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 14, as to the edification; and 1 Cor. 5; 6, as to government and service.) It was, at times indeed, through an apostle, or an evangelist, or a prophet as a medium, but always based upon the word of God, and applied by God to the individual. But the assembly and all in it have the responsibility of His being in it, the power of order and of edification, and they have the ability to act, He being ungrieved, and having God for their guide, and the interests of the Lord Jesus in view. The assembly of God was set up and ruled over by the Spirit of God, through inspired apostles; its doctrine given to it through New Testament prophets; its glad tidings heralded, at first, by evangelists, and then by any loyal-hearted ones led thereunto by love and circumstances. Those scattered abroad (Acts 8:1) went everywhere preaching the Word. God's dwelling-place in Israel, until that particular Pentecost, had been between the cherubim, first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. From that particular day of Pentecost, He, without at once breaking up the temple or the nation (so long-suffering is He), took up with and put forward another temple. The assembly formed at that very Pentecost-there would He dwell-and there He did dwell. Reader, do you really accredit this, and act upon it, that the living and true God, who made heaven and earth, has not left the earth, nor left it without a dwelling-place, a place of abode for Himself? And that is the assembly of God, the dwelling-place of His Spirit down here. So it is, so He does, and this makes the assembly of God a very blessed, and yet a very awful place to be in, and be connected with. As a living stone does God say that you are an integral part of God's house on earth? But the responsibilities and the privileges of this cannot be avoided-the one rests upon us, and the others, freely given to us, lie at the basis of the responsibilities. Oh that we knew more of this, the true God dwelling in His assembly, and that we might walk in the power of the faith of it. God has not left the earth; He dwells in the midst of His own holy assembly, and abides with it, the living and true God. What a blessed reality, if known to any!
But God being here, He must be the spring of all that should be done in any assembly, as a part of the one great assembly, and the power and end of it all too. So far I am clear.
I come now to the distinctive peculiarities of the assembly.
Its constitution is unique. Nothing on earth is or can afford a precedent as to it. First, as to the standing of an individual in it, and then of his knowing how to blend his standing as an individual with the standing of the assembly as a whole.
When Paul wrote to an individual believer (even about the work of the Lord in the assemblies for which he had engaged a Timothy or a Titus) his introduction wishes them " grace, mercy, and peace;" just as when he speaks of himself as an individual, remembering the law of sin and death in his members, he writes (1 Tim. 1-5): " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief (or first). Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy;" and in like manner, looking at himself individually, he could say (and did say), " I do so and so lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." As descendants of the first Adam, this is the aspect in which, we are set, in mercy; though able, through the faith, to say, thanks to the humiliation of our Lord, we have been crucified together with Him, died together with Him, and been buried together with Him. (Rom. 6) So that as He died, then as to sin once and now liveth unto God, so we also can now reckon ourselves to be indeed dead to sin but alive unto God. But still it is the same truth, though the one looks at the character of God—mercy; and the other shows out the way in which the Lord Jesus in His humiliation has met everything that was contrary to God and us, on God's behalf, so that guilt is all gone. Still it was God meeting upon Christ, in judgment, what we were or had of our own from Adam the first. What was old and of us was met. When, on the other hand, he addressed assemblies, his words are " grace and peace." For the assembly as such had no existence apart from a quickened, risen, and ascended Christ, and, as Paul writes (Eph. 1-6), God who is rich in mercy (v. 4), drawing out of the Ephesian pit, you sinners, and out of the Jewish pit, us children of wrath, quickened us together with the Christ, raised us up together, and made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Here, it is what is altogether new and in Christ. These are matters of faith to him who receives that which is written.
Now each in the assembly of God, at first, had to know and carry with him these two truths; the one, as to himself as an individual, " God has had mercy and compassion upon me, my sins are all forgiven me, and I have received the gift of the Spirit from the Lord Jesus, and am a temple of God; and the other, as to the place in which I find myself, it is the assembly of God, the habitation down here of God through the Spirit, who had come down to bear testimony to Christ." The holding and rightly using both these truths is safe, and the oversight of one or the other is a cause of weakness both to individuals and to the assembly. As we shall see.
It is a serious error to speak or pray about God's holy assembly as nothing but an assembly of poor weak sinners. Looked at as God's holy assembly, that is not the truth of Scripture; and, on the other hand, Paul, as in the assembly, never forgot the mercy which rested upon him as an individual. The mercy keeps the conscience clear amid all the movements of sin within and the soul is thus free to go forward, in the cower of the new life which it has in Christ Jesus, in all holiness. These can never, on this side of the glory, be safely separated.
The apostles had been formed for the testimony by the descent of the Holy Spirit; the assembly was brought into existence by the testimony to the Lord by the apostles.
Paul shows us the sort of people who were gathered.
Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things, and things despised, and things which are not, to bring to naught things which are. God's object was that no flesh should glory in His presence. For the gospel was the gospel of the cross of Christ, and these were fruits of faith in it. To preach it with wisdom of words would have been to make it of none effect; it was the power of God to salvation. God would destroy the wisdom of the wise and the understanding of the prudent, and, by salvation by the cross, He made foolish the world's wisdom, even as dap by the foolishness of preaching He, saved those that believed. But herein God's power and wisdom stood out in relief, and no flesh could glory in His presence; glorying could alone be in Him, and joy in what He had provided in the Savior that had been crucified. How do the power, and wisdom, and grandeur of that which was of God shine out! For the cross of Jesus-measure of man's wickedness, and end of Christ's humiliation-to contain the only salvation of His murderers! And if Christ, the wisdom of God, and the power of God, and the Holy Spirit were to be displayed in God's assembly, we see that those in it had no light or wisdom or power of their own to display or boast in.
A foolish, silly, stupid sheep, each and every one of them, and each one, too, had been lost as a runaway from the owner, and had had a wandersome nature of its own, besides the injuries it had sustained while wandering.
God has one flock and one Shepherd. There is but one assembly. It is made up of all the smaller ones, and comprises them all. He has a trustworthy Shepherd, now on high, the Lord Jesus the Christ, and has also down here One who acts as guardian for Him and them, the sheep of His pasture. While the sheep under Him down here are subject to Him, they ever look up to the Lord Jesus, their Shepherd, their Guardian, there on high; and, forasmuch as their Guardian down here, and their guardian Shepherd up there, are both of one, and have but one mind, the sheep, if subject and dependent, follow out His footsteps in the pathway which Himself trod when He was down here. For will and ability to do so they have that other guardian, the Holy Spirit, with them.
As to blessing, they whom Peter knew in the assembly all came in after repentance, made willing by the Lord, through forgiveness of sin, and the gift to them of the Holy Spirit, to become dependent and obedient.
Questions might and did arise about their practical consistency with these truths, and their fellowship with the assembly of God. If any did submit and walk as the apostles walked, it was a blessed fruit of the Spirit's keeping. If any swerved from the narrow path, and walked as men and the world around them, they, in so doing, were led away by him that mastered them-Satan. But the Spirit of God was in them (if, indeed, they had believed unto eternal life in Christ Jesus), and He was in the assembly too. The Holy Spirit being thus with them and in the assembly, the word of the Lord was not, could not be, bound.
Each has to be, so far as he can, the bearer of the Father's name which is upon himself and the rest; and so his brother's keeper; and in the assembly each has his part in the responsibility of God's honor and glory, being connected with the assembly. No one is deterred from using the Word, if he can do so as in the Spirit. Man's will and mind, and energy, have no place to be allowed to them in that scene. What is God's will and mind? Where are we, each of us who are in the assembly, if sin be allowed? How shall we, as those that have eternal life and live to Christ, meet His mind in the matter? What, Lord, wilt thou have me to do? And what are God's thoughts about the assembly as having evil in it? These would be godly thoughts; if any evil appeared in anyone in it, and they would be in harmony with the written Word, and, as I should say, have been brought by the Holy Spirit to mind If I discovered evil at work in myself, I ought to purge out the leaven. If another discovered it in me, I should lay the matter before the Lord, and in His light discern all about it, and act accordingly
So, if Paul had to withstand Peter to the face, it was to be done in the Spirit and not in the flesh; and Peter had then to act as with God. In some cases two or three might go with the one; and if well chosen, they are often a help; for both conscience and instinct are often roused and strengthened by the presence of the faithful. The matter is still in private. I am aiming to get one awake or into self-judgment. Have I or we as individuals succeeded? Blessed success! the matter stops. Have we failed? Is leaven among us? It will spread. Is it spreading itself to others? Is the assembly in danger of becoming a hiding-place for sin? I may mention it to the godly walkers. But if it is really sin and leaven it must, if not met otherwise, come before the assembly; that is, if the Spirit's mind, as given in the written Word, is to be followed. In all the steps referred to above, I may have acted in dependence upon Christ on high as Head of the assembly, and may have done so with judgment of myself, and in lowliness of mind. But if all has failed, then I must appeal to the assembly as that which through the presence of the Spirit has both responsibility and power. The heart and affections, the mind and the intelligence of the Lord Jesus, are there in His Holy Spirit.
Now, I beg you to observe that if in some sense the assembly seems to take the form of a court of trial, it is a court of a most peculiar kind, and its mode of action and objects are unlike those of any other court, " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Christ the Lord of all looks down on them from above, and His Spirit is there among them; and the first question is not about the individual who has failed, much less of what punishment he is to bear. No; but what does God and Christ think of the assembly in this matter; and what of any individuals who being in the assembly have had to do with the grief? It is a solemn question, for individuals and for the assembly too, whether or not the spirit and mind, bearing and aim, of the action of individuals and of the assembly are in harmony with those of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, note it well, the sin being plain and evident-so far as there is a trial of any one-the first questions are, not, Who did this sin, and How is it to be punished; but, Are we compromised to God's mind, according to His written word, in all this as an assembly? and are we, by silence, to compromise the honor and the name of God? And then each individual, instead of having (horrid thought) to vote against another man, has to humble himself, and see whether he himself may not have been heedless as to God and Christ and the Spirit, and as to God's assembly, so as to have given occasion to the adversary, and through negligence and want of spirituality {which might have prevented the evil) be blameworthy. The mind has to rise up above itself, through faith and the Spirit, to God, and His mind and word, which judges man, and, all his ways and thoughts. The honor, too, of being in such an assembly in its present dignity (habitation of God) and destiny, and having forgotten it, may have to be thought of. Not till then can any of the assembly, or itself, be justified in, and fit to speak of, the person who has sinned. And then, too, this is arrived at, not as though self were above the conduct of the failed one, but as forced. by God and His word—self-judged as an individual; and then the assembly, having cared for God's name and honor, which it carries and must vindicate, it has to deal with the channel by which the leaven was first introduced, but always with salvation in its heart and mind.
The assembly should have the mind and heart, thoughts and affections, of Christ Himself in it; for it has His Spirit, and is inseparable from Himself.
The Savior God rests in His love upon the Man at His right hand on high. That Man's eyes, in all His perfection, look down on us in love, but in holy all-revealing power. Dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, we in God's assembly have to bring all our ways and doings under those eyes of our Lord, shining out their rays of light; and whilst looking unto Him we know that all, as to ourselves and the assembly, have a bearing upon the honor of the name of the Savior God, one way or another.
If the differences peculiar to the assembly of God, which distinguish it from every other association upon earth are not seen, everyone must fail in the attempt to live in it properly, and to partake of the sufferings incidental to it, and to carry out its activities. Its essential distinctive peculiarity is, that God the Holy Spirit dwells in it to animate it in all its parts, and to direct and regulate it as something dear to Christ Jesus, who is on the throne in heaven. It is God's habitation on the earth. What other assembly but it, can be called by Him who is its all-pervading Spirit to walk worthy of these its characteristics.
Though I have rested most on the action of the assembly in the cases of failure, what I have said applies equally to every part of its life and responsibilities down here, active or passive. The mind of God alone has to be met.
It is clear that every company must have a government and principles of its own, if it is to continue in well-being and to thrive. The object of these, and mode of action, will tell out its character, and to whom it belongs; and all that flows forth from it will manifest relationship with the same. And so it is with God's assembly. Dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, in the world though not of it, on the earth, and passing from heaven's side of the cross on to the Lord returning upon the cloud of glory—it is of God; and its calling is, to show out, in its walk here below, the privileges grace has bestowed upon it, the same character and walk as did the Lord its head, and the hope of glory. It is in time, and has a course to run in time; but it is of eternity and for everlasting. It bears upon it as united to the Lord Jesus Christ, the name of the Lord Jesus-spite of world, and flesh, and Satan. Of what other company can these things be said? Are we awake to these things? Has the unity of the Spirit its right place in our souls? Do we see that each assembly is but a part of the one whole? that its walk depends upon the Spirit and our subjection to His written Word? That it is He, in His offices and working, who alone could have kept it up to its responsibilities; and would have done so, had it but honored the Lord Jesus, and so walked in the Spirit. And who now is sufficient under Christ to put us who escaped professedly at the Reformation into a path and walk which, amid all the ruin around, would have led, and may yet lead, us to be to the glory of God in the little while till Christ shall come. Yes, that would have been the gain, had the Scriptures, then afresh put into man's hand, been studied, and had we all been taught therein of God.
If I take other companies acting under kings and rulers, the army and navy, the law and the church (so-called), schools, the prison and reformatory, the hospital and lunatic asylum, &c. &c.; all these are quite different from God's assembly; are of quite another kind; have another mode of working; another order of things, and have another level of things too. They are of this world and for it; earthly and not heavenly; for time, and have no eternity. The very' best things of Caesar's they may be, into whose hand God (not Christ) has put the sword of government.
A colonel of a regiment, a commander of a ship, the chief officer of a prison, or a schoolmaster-none of them originated the company under him, or supposes for a moment that he can either inspire those under him with his own mind, or thus carry them with him. The position he is in gives him authority to guide outwardly. Let each of them act upon the laws and principles laid down for those in their official spheres. But if any use their own earthly position as a precedent in God's assembly, he is (though unconscious of it, and, perhaps, doing it through ignorance) guilty of dishonoring God and His assembly. He, is a prelate, self-appointed, and gets into the position of being Lord over God's heritage. Caesar's duty, and the magistrate's, is " not to bear the sword in vain." The chiefest and most useful man in God's assembly has to be the will—less servant and burden—bearer for all, under Christ. There will be also, where the assembly is in spirit carrying out its Lord's mind, a congruity or consistency traceable in what it does with that which is in God's mind and Word. Impatience and a restless seeking to be quick do not accord with, " He that believeth shall not make haste." Paul's mind was decided enough as to what had to be done (1 Cor. 5,) but he gave the assembly time to wake up out of its criminal slumber. If any seek for evidence, let them remember that God the Holy Spirit is Himself in the assembly. If the action has commenced with God Himself, what place has mere suspicion? Moral evidence and legal are very different. The former is to heart and conscience, the latter to mentality. A looking for unity of consent instead of a general conviction of conscience would soon show itself, and is of nature. God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. And this I must say, that it is a very solemn thing for one with a sinful nature still in him, though having found mercy and been saved by grace, to have to do with the putting away of one who has failed to walk worthily of the Lord, and to have to do it in His name and presence. If it does not humble us down into self-judgment, and judgment of all our own ways, it will harden heart and conscience fearfully. And we do well to consider our own selves, and to be softened before Him who alone has preserved us. But if the Holy Spirit be in the assembly, sin must be thrust out of it, and with it the sinner too, if he loves it better than God and His own place in God's house, and prefers to be put out of the house to the giving up of his sin. God and sin abide not under the same roof; and this is well rolled in upon our own souls in every act of excommunication. For Christ's honor and God's and the Holy Spirit's it must be done; and for our own too, and for the sake of the failed one, and of the world around. But still it is a very solemn, humbling, and heart-searching duty- imperative duty though it be-and, be it remarked, the sooner God's name is really cared for, the sooner does His saving power and presence show itself.
Coming up, as we all are, out of the depths of ignorance from the (so-called) reformation, when God in His good providence gave us back the Bible (alas! how little have any of us fully searched its contents)—I judge that God would have us very patient the one with the other as to our want of intelligence, and as to our want of power also to know what is written, and also how to communicate it the one to the other. How patient has He been towards us! As patient as powerful! Nor has He left us to our own complacency and self-sufficiency, but is bearing with us, and seeking still to lead us on. Look up to heaven, no change has taken place in God since Pentecost. No change in Christ. We are in the same way the assembly has been in since the beginning; onward, each and all, from the cross of Calvary until we meet the Lord coming for us. And down here the Spirit and the truth are just what they were at the beginning. May we learn and be guided, as Peter, John and Paul each was, to walk, in his own day and sphere, surely led by the Spirit, and under God and the very eyes of the Lord Jesus.
Paul was in grace given to us as a model man; one in whom we might see how far a man of like passions with ourselves could, down here, follow out the life of the perfect One. From his conduct in 1 Cor. 5 we may learn much. For as formed, and led, and sustained by the Holy Spirit, Paul lived to Him who had given Himself for him; and had died for him, in order that he Paul, constrained by Christ's love to him and His people, might live to Him. And thus he lived to God; God had the first place with Paul through Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit's power. The assembly was to him God's assembly, standing in His wondrous grace and favor; and God and Christ ministered to it grace and peace; for it as an assembly points onward to the glory of the New Jerusalem, residence and wife of the Lamb; and to each individual in it there is grace, mercy, and peace. Paul claimed what God's connection with the assembly, and its blessing, and the blessing of each one in it, required according to God's mind; viz., that that (to which, on earth, the Father's delight in His Son and His service, had led Him to commit His own name and honor) should be holy, for He is holy; should not be a scene in which Satan displayed man's lawless will and selfishness, through deeds that were so (of the defiled earth and wicked world) that even the heathen knew not the like. Righteously roused by the wrong done, and indignant at the insult thus put on his God, he entered upon the service. Yet it was mercy that sent him thither; for God (1 Cor. 11.) had been cutting off unrepentant children at Corinth before this. Paul knew mercy right well (how large a debtor to it was he himself); and how blessedly now do we find him the servant of God's mercy in the gospel, and how careful that they that obtained mercy should walk in the unmixed enjoyment of it. But love and mercy never cover sin; God's mercy (1 John 4) to us came out to light with the gift of eternal life to them that were dead, and by Christ made propitiation for sin. The tokens of the love and mercy (1 John 4:9, 10) bore the stamp of death and measure of sin which needed such an expiation, if eternal life was to be free in us; if grace was to reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ; but grace was not unmindful, after it took effect, of mercy in connection with the individual believers, and of Paul's standing as an individual in mercy; and that mercy was to all the, individuals who were in the assembly-the incestuous person as well as others; and to the poor dark world around. God's mercy does not ignore sin. He looks to the whole wilderness and to the glory, when He shows mercy; and in that mercy there is life eternal given to us who were dead, and the blood, the measure of sin, which must be known if the measure of acceptance is to be enjoyed'. Who but God could curse the sin and bless the sinner?
And mercy did make its voice to be heard, in the careless assembly at Corinth, and for the incestuous man, when once. God's claim had been thought of, and when, through the Spirit, it had been met so far as to arouse the assembly. It is no question with me, Whom will God make use of now in such or similar cases? Himself is in the assembly. He can act, and it is according to His way to act, and to act in such a way as will bring out into light the existence of the assembly. Its state now is militant, the life possessed is energetic, Christ's will and glory are its aim, and the Spirit works thereunto. At the present time it is of far more importance that the characteristics of the assembly itself should be made manifest, than that individuals, having more spiritual intelligence than others, should be brought forward. What is of God will not be hid, but in this very way the superiority of Paul showed itself. Instead of himself taking up the question with the rod of his power, he waited and elicited the action of the assembly itself, and so identified himself more with God in His mercy than in the use of the power delegated to him of God. We have not the authority or the power which were really delegated to Paul for ourselves. And for ourselves he so acted as to make it plain that the very feeblest can, if walking in humbleness and holiness, clear themselves of the responsibilities of God's honor and name being cared for in His own house. To assume authority which we have not got, and to deny a responsibility which does rest upon us, is to be doubly blind. And to act in power is impossible for the weak. But God's strength still will perfect itself in our weakness. Life and holiness are what we must act upon, God being for us. The question (with any who are alive to God through Christ, and so awake to any shortcoming in the assembly, or to any positive evil in it) may begin with the instincts of the eternal life within, or with conscience enlightened, &c. It must begin. with some individual or individuals in the assembly, God chooses by whom.
Much that would be weighty and unanswerable in a human court would be incongruous in God's assembly; for conscience before and under God's Word and spiritual instinct are not like the human mind reasoning and weighing evidence. A lawyer addresses himself to man's mind as competent to weigh and decide upon evidence, and aims at putting out of sight all that would make against his client's case. God and His mind and truth are to rule in the assembly. Moreover God, too, in His assembly can, and often does, make men speak out as being in the light of His presence. No judge pretends to that. The assembly is not a jury weighing evidence and judging it, but a priestly company met, with God present, to examine itself and those in it. Self-judgment is a humbling, softening work.
And in all the business of the assembly-the' mind and will of God and the Lord, alone has to be sought. It is this that makes influence (possessed by any individual over other minds) so wrong and evil and dangerous in the assembly. The influence of an individual, however amiable and devoted, or the will and control of a man, is not God's control in His own assembly. Many a godly man, on finding his influence and practical wisdom-tending to blind the saints in a place (as to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the duty of each saint in the assembly bearing his own individually conscientious responsibility)-has himself had to guard them against this influence; and some feeling inability to do so, have left the place, for the Lord's and saints' sake.
Do I see worldliness (fruit of self and flesh not having been judged and ceased from, through Satan's guile), in God's assembly? I do see it then. And am I not grieved? Surely that should be the case if these things (hateful contrasts as they are to the Lord) were found attaching to myself. They are as wrong in others as in me, and am I not one with all in the assembly, and one with Christ too, and dwelling in Him and in God? A feeling of pain and distress accompanies the discovery. The Spirit, too, is grieved. What is to be done? Consciousness of one's own littleness may lead to look round and see who there is, having avowedly more competency than I have, who is on the Lord's side. I cannot condemn this. But if to the question, Who is on the Lord's side in this matter? there be no answer-" Here am I, send me," for then, however incompetent, I must clear myself, and seek that the name of God be vindicated, such is the mind of Christ. I cannot excuse myself from the duty.
The Bible is God's letter to His saints. The assembly should be the mirror upon earth reflecting the " grace, mercy, and peace" revealed as in Christ Jesus, but thus presenting God to the whole world.
The idea of headship, or possession of the right to be accuser-we know where to look for him who acts thereon. The right to be the first to speak of sin, of failure! Monstrosity in a company made up, through grace, of those whom mercy picked up as utterly lost, at great cost to itself, though now, safe in Christ and all brethren together; a company under Him who being God became man, and obedient to death-the death of the cross for them all, and in and among whom the Spirit dwells. I have seen some (alas!) with Jehu's zeal, trying to outrun others, and show their zeal for the Lord, and their cleverness in accusing, and their readiness to be judge and jury. Executioner (thank God) they cannot be. They know not what spirit they are of. May I not ask, If a son or a daughter in a well-brought-up family had got into a line of conduct ruinous and disgraceful, and one of the children had to call the attention of the whole family to the shameful facts, dangerous to the well-being of the family, to the name of the father, and to the liberty of the delinquent, what would be the spirit and way and temper in which he, as the loving brother of the other, would enter upon and go through the painful duty? Imagine it to be forgery of government securities to an enormous amount, and the amount spent in riotous living, or forgery against his father. Firm he might be impelled to be for the sake of father, mother, brothers, sisters, and for the failed one's sake too. But brokenness of heart would mark him. We, in addition to all such similitudes, have to eat of the sin-offering ourselves ere we speak of the sin; have to do it, as for the Lord's sake, and for restoration's sake to the failed one.
May we know how to act as integral parts of that assembly which stands now in grace and favor with God, chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world; and to blend this mercy, which having found us at first, is still our daily, hourly, provision till the wilderness is past, with grace. God says, " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy;" it is only those who can respond to this heartily, and those alone on whom His mercy will abide forever. Israel knew not its own need of mercy, and so found no delight in mercy (Rom. 11:2)-36) as shown to them. Nothing but mercy would really have suited them. It was shown to them, and they turned from it as to themselves, and kicked at its extension to others, through unbelief, and so were locked up in unbelief. And we, that is Christendom, what has it done with the mercy which Christianity gave forth to us? It has forgotten it entirely, and will perish. As having no response to give to God's mercy it does not suit Him. Grace and peace it never knew. But, if he lock both Jew and Gentile up in unbelief, mercy will yet show itself forth in a more excellent way.
To blend that mercy which is in God, and in which my soul is set individually with the grace and peace in which God's holy assembly is set and stands, in a risen and ascended Christ, is the problem which we need to be taught of God how to solve. The Holy Spirit alone can show us, in this day, that path of eternal life in which we have to walk. No vulture's eye could ever trace it. I say now, for if I have eternal life, if Christ is our life, we have to live it out down here now, as much as fully to possess and enjoy it hereafter in its own more congenial scenes and clime above.
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Appendix

1. Human mentality may show itself in mental clearness- about, the word of God; but this is not enough without consideration of God's moral ways of dealing it to souls. I might be clearer in perception than anyone else; have intense decision in conduct, as being thus more clear-sighted as to texts; but if I drive others against both time and their measure of knowledge, I am not led by the Spirit, and what the good? The inquiry ends; a decision is come to; perhaps those most in blame are sheltered, but their consciences not plowed up, and humble souls (not otherwise affected then) are shocked at the whole procedure. They wanted time for prayer and humiliation, without which they could not act under responsibility and to the Lord.
2. Awful as it is, I have known persons looked up to, constitute themselves pleaders against others and judges in cases, and the judgment, ostensibly by the assembly, given against one that was innocent, and who was excommunicated for that which the pleader and judge had himself committed; and the same sort of thing is oftener still the case in domestic regulations of the assembly. Lord, what is man when left to himself? What are we when we play with thy, name, and at making, maintaining, and governing in (so-called) churches?
3. Actings in the assembly should be, from first to last, from motives, and in an energy and to an end, that can bear the scrutiny of God's eye as identified with Himself and Christ. And it is easy to be deceived herein. Frequently unity of judgment, or the consent of all or of the majority, is insisted on or sought after. But this oft misleads. 1st, it is based on the principle vox populi vox Dei (the voice of the people is as the voice of God). If this be counted as authority from God, it would be an error; for fleshly concurrence of human minds, in pride acting upon worldly principles, would produce it. 2nd, it leaves out the important question of whether the matter so decided upon really is God's very mind for us or not.
4. In rebuke or putting away, I do not get rest or feel I see the whole case until three things are clear. 1st, the root sin; 2nd, the occasion; 3rd, the overt display of sin. 1st, David knew how to climb, using God, from the sheepfold to the throne; but knew not aright God's relative position to himself; 2nd, at rest on the throne, not going out to war when the kings go out, he saw, in his idleness, Bathsheba; 3rd, though on God's throne he defiled himself and dishonored God by adultery, corruption, and murder. Thus he learned David's self, and afterward God. (Psa. 32) So in Solomon's case, in Job's, in Peter's. This is important, because, until the root sin is judged, there is no real healing; and the overt sin is very unlike the root sin; not it at all, generally.
5. The love of ruling has been the ruin of the nominal church, not only in the bishops of old, whom Constantine set aside and supplanted, but in the bishops after Constantine; in the governments at the time of the Reformation, in all the Protestantism and Nonconformity, from willful Diotrephes downwards. Had they but known what the assembly of God was and is, it could not have been so.
In some cases, and where the majority were willing to sanction it, some deficit or some sin has been known to one or another; but nothing has been done. And why not? On the plea, " I told it to So-and-so, and he did not see with me, or could do nothing." I answer, " Try what you can do, and then tell it to the assembly. Despise not your responsibility and God in it."
6. I have known cases in which one or two have unconsciously assumed to rule, by telling one that had sinned that " he had better not come to the table!' Where is the authority and power of the assembly? A private opinion of one or two individuals is not the action of the one holy assembly, led by God and the written Word. It falsifies everything, and is the assumption of power. It is evil, too, for it generally hides the sin which God's word would have either cured or set aside. And what means suspended communion? It is either a refusal to have faith and act upon it according to the Word, or else to bear the shame of incompetency, through sin, to find out God's mind about the matter in question, and ourselves and the assembly.
Again, what is the leaving of the table of one's own accord, or allowing others so to leave it? It is self-will, love of one's own way, and the expression of blindness as to the true character of the table.
P.S.-Whatever you do in any matters of the assembly of God, do it as having the heart and mind of Christ, as well as being one spirit with Him.
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Account of Two Scenes

First Scene.
"Then they that gladly received His word were baptized Vend the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." (Acts 2:41-47.)
Second Scene.
"And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." (Acts 4:31-35.)
It cannot be denied then that there has been a manifestation of the body (the Church), and of the unity of that body on the earth at the beginning. Apostles and prophets upon earth, though a spectacle to angels in heaven, did not exercise their ministry in heaven; and the faithful who composed that unity, that body (the Church), were all upon earth.
The unity which I speak of is the unity of the Church, as a body on earth during this dispensation, the unity of a society here below. It was first produced by the sending of the Holy Spirit here below after Christ had ascended and been glorified; it only took place and existed after the sending of the Holy Spirit, and as the result of His mission. It is evidently something different from the unity of all the elect in heaven; for a great portion of these elect were already saved and removed from earth ere the unity that is spoken of began. It is a unity which belongs to the present time, between Pentecost and the coming again of the Lord, of which the Holy Spirit, sent down from above, was to be the strength. It is a unity which should have acted on the world, and consequently have been seen by the world. As the Savior Himself said, " That they also may be one... that the world may believe," &c., and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit applied in effect to the welfare of the body here below. Further, that unity was visible at the beginning after Pentecost; all the manifested saints formed part of it. The joints of supply were all working in the unity of the body upon earth. Yes; there has been here below a manifestation of the unity of the body by the power of the Holy Spirit, carrying it out in all the joints of supply. These joints of supply did exist, and were active; and if any joint did not perform its functions aright, the Holy Spirit, by means of the apostles, applied the remedy, although Jesus was no more on earth. " What will ye," says Paul, " shall I come to you with a rod, or in love, or in a spirit of meekness?" Thus the glory of Christ was not in the dust here below. The Church, filled with the Holy Spirit, one and united, reflected in the midst of the darkness of the night of the world the glory of that hidden One, of Jesus its beloved Savior. This manifestation of the glory of Christ by the Church in unity no longer exists. Is that a matter of indifference?
To me it is a subject for tears and deep humiliation. The glory of Christ present, so to speak, in the Church on earth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, shed all its light on the cross, all its brightness on sin, and on the world. The cross, which began the Christian life, closed the life and hopes of the world; but it shone with all the brightness of the glory to which it led, and which was to be its crown. The cross and the crown were the two termini of the Christian life, the beginning and end of it. All the rest, all that lay between, was only passing away.
It was easy to be a stranger and a pilgrim, where the cross and the glory united together to place in its true light the world which had crucified the Lord of glory, where the world was for the heart-only the empty tomb of Christ; and for love-only the scene for a testimony borne to a glory and to a love which produced the ardent desire that He might come again quickly.
Is it so now? Are we united as at the beginning? Does that testimony of devotedness still exist? Are the glory of Christ and His coming things so present to the Church that every sacrifice is easy to it? that the cross is light for it? that the riches of this world are only for it an opportunity given of God to bear witness to His love, only unnrighteous riches of which one frees oneself, as of a burden, in order to cast them into the treasuries of Christ, that they may come out transformed and purified in the waters of His love?
Am I to be satisfied when people tell me that the unity of the Church, in the bosom of which all this did manifest itself, can no longer exist, because " the first Christians, who formed part of it, are dead "? Ought my heart and my conscience to content themselves with such an answer?
Reader, is your heart satisfied with it? If it be, I have done reasoning.
If the manifestation of the glory of Christ in us and by us here below on earth, in His body, which is the Church, does not touch you, I have nothing more to tell you. If the heart is indifferent to all this, there is no more reasoning for the Spirit of God. But if it be only knowledge that you lack, may God deign to bless my words to your heart!
The doctrine of the unity of the church, as a body, whether at the beginning or through the whole duration of the dispensation, is closely connected with the doctrine of the presence of the Holy Spirit here below. If He unites the members which are on earth to those who have departed [and will unite all together in glory hereafter,] is it not just as true, that, being on earth as regards the order of the dispensations, He necessarily unites into one body all the Christians who are on earth? It is perfectly certain that this it is which He did at the beginning.
If, then, the Holy Spirit does not now visibly unite the children of God into one body-if that is now impossible (for whatsoever reason it may be), it is evident that the state of things established by God on earth, as the means of manifesting His glory, and as the instrument of testimony, has ceased to exist. You may give it what name you like-failure, ruin, apostasy. It is one of the gravest facts, of the deepest import, in the kingdom and in the dispensations of God.
In order that the force of the unity produced by the presence of the Holy Spirit may be better understood, I call attention to a fact. At the time of His first coming, Jesus, as Son of Man, was corporeally here below, although, as God, He was present everywhere. All the ways of God, on earth, were connected with that great fact; so it is also with respect to the Holy Spirit. Jesus, when He was going away, promised " another Comforter." That promise was fulfilled not many days after, and the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples, although He was present everywhere, inasmuch as He is God. According to the dispensation of God, the Holy Spirit dwells now also personally in the Church of God here below on earth. All the ways of God are connected with this great fact-the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The Spirit bears a living testimony to the glory of the Son of God, as the Son Himself glorified the Father while He abode here below.
This doctrine of the coming down of the Holy Spirit, and of His abiding presence on earth, in the Church, is evidently of the deepest import in the question of the unity of the Church.
At the beginning, " the Lord added to the Church... such as should be saved."
The expression (1 Cor. 12:26) "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it " [and such like] is not applicable to the members of the body of Christ who are already in heaven. Either, then, this principle of love no longer finds any application, or the Church has yet a unity on earth, and must be viewed as a body which has " many members," but the members of which-of this body which is one, although they are " many " [members] -are but " one body." In its present state, that body has failed, is dilapidated, ruined, if you will.
The word apostasy has frightened some; it occurs in Scripture, however. As in Acts 21:21, to forsake Moses, lit. apostasy from; 2 Thess. 2:3, a falling away. And a word almost itself occurs for divorcement, Matt. 5:31; 19:7; and Mark 10:4. Apostasy supposes the falling away from an original position in which that which is spoken of stood.
The failure or fall of man in the present dispensation is according to the analogy of all that ever came to pass until now. Sad are the proofs of the folly and weakness of man, and of the power of Satan, of our enemy, in every scene in which man has been tried.
Adam soon lost his innocency, and Eden.
Noah got drunk in his tent soon after the flood.
The Israelites made a golden calf before Moses came down from the mount.
Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire, before the days of their consecration were ended; and Aaron did not eat of the sin-offering as commanded.
Solomon, set up as king, in peace, fell into idolatry.
And even though the glory of Christ will have been manifested in the last days, the moment Satan is loosed, the nations will submit to him, and make war against the beloved city and camp of the saints.
The fall of man in the present dispensation, and the ruin of the dispensation, by means of man's unfaithfulness in keeping the deposit which was entrusted to him, is only a repetition of that which has been found in him from his creation downwards; in all the situations, in all the circumstances, in all the dispensations, in which he has been placed (or, alas! ever will be placed) on trial-failure, and nothing but failure, the result. If this did not take place in this dispensation, that would be which is contrary to the analogy of all that is presented to us in the history which is given to us in the Bible, and contrary to all that is revealed to us about man in all the dispensations of God.
P.S.-The subdivision of Christ's Church (His body) meets one on every hand. It puts me in mind (as all doubtless may have some separate portion of the form of the Church) of those who parted the Savior's garments among themselves; while that one vest which could not be rended, which was inseparably one in its nature, was cast lots for whose it should be; but in the meanwhile, the name of Him, the presence of the power of whose life would unite them all in appropriate order, is left exposed and dishonored. I fear, indeed, that they have fallen too much into the hands of those who care not for Him, and that the Lord will never clothe Himself with them again, viewed in their present state. That could not be when He appears in His glory. I. say it not in presumption or dislike to any (for it is a reproach to me, a grievous burden; it is a humbling, most afflicting thought).
There was a second temple raised, by the mercy of God, after the long Babylonish captivity; but, alas! they learned to trust in it too much, and to say, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these;" haughty, because of the Lord's holy mountain, they looked at it as adorned with goodly stones and gifts, and ceased to look to the Lord of the temple; ceased almost to walk by faith, or to have communion in the hope of the return of the Messenger of the covenant to be the glory of the latter house. The unclean spirit of idolatry may have been purged out, but the great question still remained, Is there the effectual presence of the Spirit of the Lord? or is it merely empty, swept and garnished? Blessing there was, but did they not disregard Him from whom it came, by pride and self-complacency, and seeking to turn it to their own, instead of going on to His, glory? If so, and (alas!) so it was, 1 Cor. 10:1-14 may apply it to ourselves, for things happened to them as types (or ensamples).
In conclusion. Faith boasts not itself in the faithfulness of Him in whom it is. That could not be in a case in which the Lord has been put to shame in the " house of His friends," if one is of that house. Faith identifies itself rather; first, with the Lord (Ex. 32:11-32), as did Moses of old, in zeal.
And secondly, with the sins of God's people, which are ours too, in deep humiliation of self, bearing them in confession before the Lord. Ezra and Nehemiah and Daniel and Ezekiel (chap. ix. of each book) and Paul and Peter and John are witnesses of this, concurring therein with the ensample of their Lord Himself. (Luke 13:33-35.)
0 Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws which He set before us by His servants the prophets. (Dan. 9:8-10.)
And thirdly, in sympathy with the sorrows, misery, and even failure, of God's people, and in testimony too, as did Joshua and Caleb. Individual faithfulness does not prevent one feeling, in spite of oneself, the effect of the unfaithfulness of the company of which one forms a part; and though Joshua and Caleb reaped in the end the effect of their faithfulness, they experienced also, during the passage through the wilderness, the effect of the sins and unbelief of the assembly; nevertheless, not without receiving consolations and a strength in their hearts which the rest of the people did not enjoy. The members of the same body ought to wish and desire to suffer from the misery of the other members through love, through the Spirit of Christ and of charity. If they will not do so through love, they will have to do it through necessity and pressure from outside.
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Two Prophecies Through a Wicked Man

John 11:49-52
" Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of [or from] himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should [lit. was going to] die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that [lit. in order that] also he should [lit. might] gather together in [lit. into] one the children of God that were scattered abroad."
The first of these two predictions found a fulfillment (Acts 2); but still awaits its fullest. (Rom. 11:26-32.)
The second is, that Jesus was going to die in order that He might gather together into one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Surely in " gathered together into one " there is unity. And the children of the heavenly family-of His Father and our Father, His God and our God (John 20:17), were not known as such till He was risen; after that they knew Abba, and the Firstborn among many brethren, and the Spirit of adoption and the unity of the brotherhood in their own family. (1 John.) Again, Jesus, the good One, prophesied the same (John 12:24, 32.)
Reader, will your ignorance make void God's promise? or the truth of the realization of the unity which faith gives to me and to the rest of the children?
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Two Requests of the Lord to His Father

John 17:11, 12, 20, 21
Verses 11, 12: " I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through [lit. in or by] Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we. While [lit. when] I was with them in the world, I kept them  in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept [lit. guarded], and none of [lit. no one out of] them is lost [lit. has perished], but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled."
Verses 20, 21: " Neither pray [lit. ask] I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
BOTH of these requests are about unity.
The first request that as He the Son had preserved and guarded in His Father's name a people, through the days of His trial in humiliation [His Father had given them to Him] (v. 12); the Father should now keep them Himself according to what was involved in that name of the Father-My Father and your Father. When the Holy Spirit, promise of the Father, came down on Pentecost-gift of the Father through the Son (Acts 2:33, 36), then the power and the instrumental means were evident; viz., the Holy Spirit's use of the apostles in testimony to the Lord Jesus, and working with it too. In the Galatian epistle we find, " Ye are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus " (chap. 3:26); and (chap. 4:4, 6) " When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made [lit. become] of a woman, made [lit. become] under law, to redeem them that were under the law... that we might receive the adoption of sons [the adoption of sons; lit. son-place or sonship] And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." This flowed out of the place the Son was in; and was by the Holy Spirit Himself who was, and is, Spirit of God and of Christ. (Romans
The expressions, " Holy Father, keep in Thine own name," " Whom I kept in thy name," put the relationship of the names of Father and Son very forward before the mind. It is the leading idea in the truth here presented. But what a way of putting it that the reality of the relationship, right out from the heart and mind of the Father might be realized in us, "that they may be one, as we."
The second contains another unity, and is " not for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word," and here a visible result to be attained is stated, " That the world may believe that Thou didst send Me." The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth; for it sees Him not, nor knows [not having learned or been taught of] Him. (John 14:17.) Nor can it know [intuitively perceive] the things of God. (1 Cor. 2:10-16.) The unity here is not as " in the name of the Father" (name or manifestation supposed by the title " Father," as used by Jesus), and as true, fully so, to Him, but " as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." The mode of manifestation is here in question. There was and is essential union between the Father and the Son, besides that of ostensible relationship and full fellowship (true also of the Holy Spirit) in counsels, plans (as well as nature), in truth, affections, thoughts, in life, or being, and in principle, and hence indirectly in outward practice and walk; that " they may be one, as we."
How near the unity and fellowship (unqualified by any let or drawback) lay to the Lord's mind when making these two requests (referred to above) is proved by what follows. In those requests He had, as Son of Man and One in service representing the Father, and accomplishing His will-in full intelligence and fellowship with the Father, yet in thorough dependence and obedience-asked two things as having full liberty to do so. But then follows what shows a change. He does not request as One in service requesting of One on an equality with Himself (which would well become Him as the perfect Servant of God and the Father); but says, knowing right well that all His actings were in full accordance with the Father's mind •
Verses 22, 23. "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that [in order that] they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me."
Unity twice spoken of. By His having given to us the glory which the Father had given to Him, He showed His intention of all being shut in toward the end in His glory in perfect unity. When the millennial glory sets in, all that Christ is will shine into, and through us, as all that the Father is will shine unhinderedly into, and out through the Son; and this will make the Church, in that day, the vessel of the display through the Son of the Father's being and glory, perfected in one! And the world below will know that the Father sent the Son. The prince of this world, the god of this world, set aside as a usurper, and the Lord become the Father of an age (Isa. 9:6), such will be the world's knowledge and acknowledgment (see Isa. 4:4-6) as it looks up to the heavenly glory on high.
Wondrous addition made by the Lord to what He means to accomplish, " that the world may know that Thou hast... loved them as Thou hast loved Me." Yes, if we suffer with Him, we shall share His glory.
Secondly (which shows the fixedness of His mind about this unity) He adds
Verse 24, " Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world."
Not only are we to share the highest of the given redemption and salvation-glory-such his love and purpose-but His own heart's desire is that His nearest and dearest friends, partakers of His sorrow, should behold Himself there in " the more excellent glory;" in glory, eye-witnesses of His majesty, and hearing the voice uttered in heaven to Him in the excellent glory-" This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight." Our object of adoration and worship when we are peacefully beholding His place in the highest glory
Thirdly, He adds in verse 26, confirmatory of fellowship with Him and the Father, as verse 25 is of our complete severance from the world through His grace:
Verse 26. "And I have declared [lit. made known] unto them Thy name [i.e. that which is Thy manifestation under that title of Father], and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
As the two preceding blessings are, in their full import, for the time to come, yet hope now lays hold of both of them; and, in one sense, the second is open to us, in that the Son is already in the Father and in His glory, yet in the third we have a portion for the wilderness all through it. No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is [lit. He being] in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him [lit. told out in detail]. (John 1:18). And again verse 14: "The word was made [lit. became] flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld [contemplated] His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of [or with] the Father) full of grace and truth;" " and (v. 16) of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." John could write of what he had known; have we no songs to sing while glorying in our God through our Lord Jesus Christ? (Rom. 5:11.) And what will it open into when we are with Himself above the Mount!
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Inclusive and Exclusive

There is but one holy universal Church. It was formed by God at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit (the promise of the Father) was sent down by Jesus (Lord and Christ in heaven) to form it, and to dwell in it. He makes all its parts to be one body, from Pentecost to the Lord's return. He works everything that is of God in them and by them, and is Himself that which makes them to be fitted for the Head glorified on high.
Our marks, as members in particular of Christ, and also as a society or fellowship, are to be both "inclusive" and "exclusive." "Called out from evil and to be filled up with good," is every child of God, and it is such only who are in position in the body.
When first taken up we were all badness, and the good alone in God. But He shined into us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, sealing it with His Spirit, who formed in us an incorruptible seed, and made us partakers of the divine nature. The evil was covered and met to faith by Rom. 6; the good found and made ours in spirit by Eph. 2:4-10. The Church, however, is on earth, in a wicked world, and all and each individual in it has the law of sin and death in the vessels into which the treasure has been put. We have to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus therefore; and are always delivered unto death. For two reasons: 1st, we have sinful flesh, and Satan is near; 2nd, because God would have it hourly tested, and seen that the excellency of the power of keeping us is of God and not of us. His way is the way of resurrection from the dead, in life-long application. If evil breaks out, He judges it, for He is holy. God separates us from ourselves by forming and keeping Christ in us, who are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
The Church is, then, and each member of it must be, both inclusive and exclusive; and the excluding of evil by the including of the perfection of good, God in Christ, sealed home by the Spirit, as marking us to be Christ's through His quickening power.
God used the Christ in humiliation (Rom. 6) to meet and free us from all that was contrary to us in nature, and to give us power over sin. God used the Christ in Eph. 2:4-10 to separate us unto the very highest blessing in pure goodness. Included and excluded were in God's mind; let included and excluded be in your minds and in mine.
I was an atom, in perhaps the two hundred and fiftieth generation from Adam and Eve; six millenniums nearer the great white throne than was the hour of shutting out from Eden. I am now part of a company fitted for, espoused to, Christ; about to be the Bride, the wife expectant, of the Lamb.
Sin and its torrents of woe saved from! A loving Savior, my portion and my home! Sin and death judged; righteousness and life eternal gloried in!
In practice-the first duty down here, as to others, is to own and to confess and maintain the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and the Church as God set it up. According to that I am to include myself and all that are Jesus Christ's, and are walking as saints-as those that are to exclude both all sin, and those that will walk contrary to the blessed truth we have received. The God-made church did so while intelligently under the rule of the Spirit and the Word. Many a man-made church cannot do so. Its self-made laws prevent it; or man-ruled, it sees not why it should do so, or how it can, as having members of its own-self, receive those who are not such.
The Church, object of faith, in the Word, counts that every true child of God is, to God's mind, a member in particular of Christ, that his place therefore is at the table, and that, to God's mind, he is subject to all the discipline of the Church, and of the house of God on earth. We must do likewise; include all such as on the muster-roll of God's Church, and as those who are excluded from sin's and world's and Satan's way.
Unholiness in theory, morality, doctrine, or practice, puts anyone under discipline (various in measures), for the chaste virgin espoused may not walk heedlessly. And discipline comes in correctively.
We cannot give up the faith as to the unity of the Church, nor act as if we did by going there where it has been and is denied; and we are bound by God's rules as to holiness, and can recognize no child of God who is unholy, save as being under the Father's or the Lord's discipline.
It is asked,"Would you receive a godly member of an independent church to 'occasional communion?' or of one of the national establishments?"
Faith answers: " A child of God is a member of Christ, and is of the Church militant. All such we receive, because Christ has received them; they are permanently members of His body, though they know it not. If any such come, who are walking as the Word enjoins, receive them." If they come on that ground, all their own practical inconsistency rests with themselves. If I accepted them on the statement to " occasional communion," I make myself guilty as sanctioning that which the Word does not. It is one's duty, however, to them in love to explain to them, that all who are at the table are equally included under the doctrine and discipline of the written Word. This, I have found, has deterred many. But discipline is of the Lord and the Father, and many shirk owning themselves subject to it.
Again, in the fifty isms of the day there are some, the error and principles of which would forbid, by the fear of the Lord, any one who is of it being received. A Jesuit might be indeed a child of God, and wish to come. Faithfulness would say, " No; your avowed principles justify ' doing evil that good may come." So of Romanism. Socinianism denies Christianity.
A congregation (" Independent of the Independents," as its form is called in England) in Bristol acted, and persisted in acting, as if neither it nor its (so-called) members were responsible as believers to avoid indifferentism to the glory of Christ. Faith says, " Touch not the unclean thing, accredit not its letters commendatory, receive none such; they are not clean." Often there is leaven working and making itself manifest in the conduct, and that might exclude; and, alas I often does.
It is very kindly of denominational congregations to receive, or to be willing to receive, to the communion any who, not having their names in the book of " the members of it," might wish or be willing to be there; but they are not consistent in doing so, or if they have a clause in their rules to sanction it, that is a second departure from Scripture, as much as is their constitution.
But faith is consistent; it sees every child of God to be a member of Christ, and if not otherwise disqualified, it can receive him or them without difficulty.
This is what one writing against the special membership of dissenting and self-made churches, assigned as one argument against their position: " If I am a member of the whole body, I am a member of the parts of this body, which meet in divers places; it is not a question of becoming such—I am such already. This is the principle I have always maintained, ad on which I have insisted and acted. By the very fact that I am a Christian, I have all the claims of a member of the body wherever I may be found. It is not a right which I acquire by joining any particular body; it is a right which I possess as a member of the body of Christ "
Strong ground for the one who is acting as honoring the holy universal Church of God, and not man-made national, or dissenting churches. But this existent fellowship with the sons of God everywhere in God's Church universal, which forces [Peter saw that he must either accredit Cornelius and the work of God in his house, or give up his own standing, " Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gifts as unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I could withstand God?" (Acts 11:17)] me to own them, does not obliterate that other word, "Holy." It grows out of it, to say the truth. The holiness is the parent of the universality. Our holiness is our separation from evil by the power of good revealed in us.
Receive therefore, I should say, every child of God who is walking with God.
But do not let your own distinctive position or ground be lost sight of or covered over.; to quote a favorite text, "Let them return to thee, but go not thou to them." And insist too, I should add, upon discipline as being over all.
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On Heresy

Heresy is not departing from the figure of truth, but from the Spirit of truth, and it is the spirit of the heretic we are called upon to judge as a work of the flesh more than the fruit in the form of doctrine.
The Scriptures are given to us by God as " a complete depository and standard of truth.;" they contain all we need to know as Christians, and by them every error may be detected.
But who is the interpreter of Scripture? I answer, The Holy Ghost." As the Lord Jesus Christ is more or less directly the subject of all Scripture testimony, so is the Holy Ghost the only authorized and infallible interpreter of it. True, He gives to each babe in Christ the unction whereby to know all things, and gives, too, various measures of capacity in understanding; He may also give teachers to the Church, and gifts of wisdom and knowledge as blessed links of connection between Himself, the Interpreter, and the children whom He teaches; diligence and carefulness of study, and a pure conscience undefiled have also their place in the learner. But still the Holy Ghost Himself alone is the Interpreter; to Him, as God, the plans of God and the glory of Christ are fully known and precious, and it is His ability, and willingness, and faithfulness which constitute the security that each humble soul shall receive its own measure of truth. In honoring Him the saints find great power and enlargement and unity in the truth; and the reverse is true if they dishonor Him. May He guide us whilst considering " heresy."
The first thing I would observe is that heresy is said to be a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:20), " the works of the flesh are... seditions, heresies, envyings." Whether the flesh is here looked at more immediately as the root whence heresy in the principle of it arises, or as the energy of the sects and factions in which heresy displays itself, matters not; both are true. If anyone, instead of looking for the Holy Spirit's guidance, dabbles with his own mind in Scripture, he will see either something in the book which is not there, or the contents of the book out of their proper order and relative importance, &c., and here heresy begins. He has, unconsciously perhaps, dishonored the Holy Ghost, and honored himself. The leaven of heresy, it may be, is now at work in him; if so, and if he does not judge himself, the leaven will by-and-by show itself. He will either broach things which are not at all in the book, or he will broach a connection of things which is not true, or he may diminish the importance of foundation truth, or magnify unduly the importance of some item or point of superstructure truth. How the captiousness shows itself matters not. He will deal with the truth not as a Spirit-led man would. Moreover, when the enemy is working by heresy, he rarely takes as instruments those who are offensive to human nature, yea, many natural beauties and ornaments may cover the plot; but the puffing and breaking of the bubbles within will soon call on the saints for judgment. If they do not anticipate the evil, it will rise and fall over; he will draw away disciples after him; a sect will be formed round himself, and the man is a heretic (Titus 3:19); the progress of the work will, unless grace prevent it, be through the lowering of trust in Christ, and in the personal presence of the Holy Ghost, to destruction of the whole batch. (1 Peter 2:1.)
Observe, heresy is a moral evil, and is inside the Church; it begins in a man interposing self in the place of the Holy Ghost as to the interpretation or apprehension of truth... the captiousness of the human mind becomes evident, and the evil works on to the schism of the body into sects. Thus heresy, it is to be observed, becomes in practice a denial of Phil. 3:15-17.
Brethren, it is a solemn word: " There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." (1 Cor. 11:19.) The Holy Ghost assures us that it is God alone who can and who will preserve His own; but the saints should watch. The poor of the flock I beseech to notice, that heresy has a. great deal more to do with the spirit in which things are held and taken up, and propagated, than with the thing itself which is held or propagated, Every Christian, however simple, can watch the spirit in which friends hold and set out their views. Is it Christ-like? Is it like the apostles? Does it keep truth in its place and proportion? Is conscience, and not only intellect, drawn into action? are questions the simplest can apply.
Observe, the words heresy and sect are in the Greek both αἴρεσις. The word is correctly rendered (Acts 5:17). the sect of the Sadducees, and (chap. 15:3) of the Pharisees, and (chap. 26:5) the straitest sect of our religion. These were parties or sects formed by Jews whose minds had played with the Jewish religion. That the, common thought of Christ's religion was formed by a comparison of it with these sects is plain (see Acts 24:5), where Tertullus accuses Paul before Felix of being " a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes," and (v. 14) Paul admits " that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I," and (chap. 28:22) " as concerning this sect we know that it is everywhere spoken against," said the Jews at Rome to Paul.
As heresy begins with the natural mind playing with truth, so its mode and means of success are the getting the saints upon hard points and questions, and a. thinking instead of praying. Paul communicated his gospel privately to them of reputation (Gal. 2:2); the heretic does it privately also, but to the weak, and especially to women (2 Tim. 3:6); and so in a twenty years' experience have I always found it, and this is obvious, because the simple, on the one hand, are often puzzled about conceits, for pressing which heretics have been excommunicated, and yet these are not heretics; they mourn over their own perplexities in secret, and trouble no one with them. On the other hand, they would oft, through ignorance, deny what the heretic would deny through wickedness. I press this because such is the only safe and sure test, and every Christian may use it; no other test, indeed, can apply, because while few have so large a knowledge of history as to know in what forms of error as to doctrine heresy has been displayed, none can know the forms which it may hereafter take; and, besides, " error does not constitute heresy;" and again (as we shall see) the worst heresies grow out of truths misapplied.
As every man in sound mind intuitively feels it to be his duty to take care of human life, so every Christian is responsible to guard against heresy. Of course, in doing this great watchfulness must be kept over our own spirit. A man may be very positive in holding, and heady in pressing, fancies; such, for instance, as that " the world " in John 3 means " the elect world," or that all men are pardoned, though believers only are saved; or that the temple in Rev. 11 means the literal temple; or the overweening bias, the crotchet, might be devotedness; the great tribulation, the sudden rapture, &c. His manner of holding and pressing his views might be as bad as his doctrine was defective, and yet grace might see that there was no sanction of evil-bitter herbs are not leaven-and the things after all may be kept in a subordinate place.
Some heresies have been formed upon the denial of foundation doctrines, as Arianism, and some upon points of superstructure, as Anabaptism. But of all kinds of heresy, I conceive the worst is that which is so formed upon truth as to make truth appear to be on one side, and the Holy Ghost opposed to it on the other. If God saw me (for example) separating myself in spirit, affection, thought, or action, from the members of Christ now on the earth, to a section of it which was characterized either by knowledge of truth, or by supposed freedom from error, or if He saw me trying to form such a party, He would, I judge, see marks of incipient heresy. In both cases I should be opposing truth to the Holy Ghost; in the former case I set the Holy Ghost in life in the members, below knowledge or freedom from error; in the latter case, I, in practice, oppose knowledge, &c., to the Holy Ghost in His mode of working; for His aim is not to form schools well taught, or free from defect and error, but to build up the living members of God's household in separatedness to God and in brotherly love. If such a thing worked out into a sect it would be pre-eminently evil.
And it is to be observed, that not only is a sect which takes a truth for its basis, and opposes it to the Holy Ghost, the worst form of heresy; but also that the intensity of the evil increases directly as the purity of the truth; for example, a sect built upon a correct view of an ordinance would be bad; but a sect built upon a correct view of resurrection and glory, or any points about them, would be worse; yea, worst of all would be a sect built upon such a truth as the power of the Holy Ghost, through the blood of Christ, to give present peace with God, and this might easily be the case; it might result thus, because I hold assurance to be of the essence of faith, I might refuse to accredit as Christians those who had not assurance, and might form a sect on that most blessed and precious truth, rending an inflamed limb from the sickly and enfeebled body, because I mistook the feverish state for the warmth and glow every member of the body when in health should possess, whereas the Holy Ghost has united in one all who know the blood of Jesus as salvation.
Heresy is in principle the playing of the flesh with truth, and is the sending into parties those who should be one. May the Lord keep His saints watching and praying.
The sum of what I say is this, God has given us a standard of truth, and a Guide for the understanding and use of it. Heresy is not, as some take it to mean, some undefined error in doctrine, but consists in the flesh setting aside the Guide, and itself attempting to use the standard, the end of which will be sects as one of old, Augustine, said.
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Critical: Part 2 Preface

Piety in the reading of Scripture is precious, and I thank God that there are many (whose mother tongue is English) who study the English Psalter.
Still to piety must be added divine intelligence, or we shall come short of blessing; for that which men call the Old Testament presents us with the providential and governmental ways of the Creator toward man upon earth. Man was on trial. After he had fallen, could he save himself? And it was not until the gospel of Jesus Christ the Savior came, and was given forth in the New Testament, that life and immortality were brought to light. Man a ruined creature tried-is always man lost. Israel, indeed, will have passed through more than three thousand years of trial and failure as a nation ere it gives up its self-righteousness. A man as fallen deserves nothing at God's hand but rejection; but Christ, " the man that is Jehovah's fellow," " God manifest in flesh," overcame and won, for Himself a place, in which, on God's behalf, He is now Savior of the lost, Savior to all who find grace to receive Him. He alone is a ruined sinner's refuge, Himself, who died on the cross, and rose again, deserves everything at God's hand; this is through faith the believer's rest, and here should be the center and end of our new, our eternal life.
If still standing upon his own ground as a mere creature, a man may find in the Psalms how others have been upon the path he is treading, and been, too, in deeper sorrow and difficulties than himself; but while still holding fast to self, he will not see how Christ suffered for our sins, and now lives for us who believe in Him, so that we may live to Him, and wait for Him till He comes to fetch us. Self and worldliness, and acting for time, will as naturally result from the one course as unselfishness, heavenly-mindedness, and living to God and Christ result from the other; viz., that of seeing Christ as the one great Person and subject of the Psalms. The testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, as in His teaching, is always to Jesus and His works, &c.
No one can understand the Psalms aright who does not see Christ in them. Read any book without seeing the writer's mind in it, and you will misunderstand it.
Language supposes the power of intercommunion between those that use it. But it supposes more; viz., correspondence of mind, to some extent, in them, and not only the knowledge of the forms of speech of the particular language in question. These, however perfect they may be, are not equal to the mind that can use them, and which judges of their force, or else uses them amiss.
Wonderful and adorable is He who, being God, has Himself spoken as God manifest in flesh to man; and who has referred, too, to the pre-eminent authority of the written Word. (John 5:46, 47.) Man is thus left without excuse. And, note it, men could understand Him; for through grace many did so, unto eternal life. He who made man Himself knows the mind and faculties of man; and He could, and did, use words with life-giving power, so as to bow the will of man, and move hearts and minds and consciences in those that received Him.
But more than this, God the Holy Spirit (owning the Anointed of God as the center and end of all God's actings) has given to us not only the truth as presented in Jesus when down here, and who then went on high and sent down the Holy Spirit to form us down here for Himself, but He has also given us God's counsel, plans, choice, ways, and the outline of the future from the cross of the Christ (as the One in whom a heavenly and an earthly people were destined from before the foundation of the world to be secured) until His new heavens and new earth, yet to come, be set up.
Now observe this. He, Jesus, has been born of the Virgin Mary, by the Holy Spirit; has lived on this earth; has made good His testimony, and done His work. He suffered on Calvary, but now (risen from among the dead) He sits at God's right hand. Grace had from the beginning delighted in the Son; and it cast much in the histories of men of God down here (as Adam, Noah, Moses, David, &c.) into types of Him that was to come. And further, when He came as Messiah, and was rejected, He opened up His glory as the last Adam, life-giving Spirit, and Heir of all things. But Himself has come, has made atonement in death under judgment, and is now pardon and life-giver to the believer. Note this, because the first book of the Psalms (i. to xli.) gives us Himself and His position at His first coming; the experiences He then made, and what He did thereon. He had access to Jerusalem, and was found there; and there were in Jerusalem and in the land Israelites who were waiting for the consolation promised. But He is now on high, earth rejected, though heaven honored.
Now if I study the first three gospels, I get light divine upon this first book of the Psalms. They give me the pictures of Himself, and as going through His course of humiliation-the moral side of Himself and His life on earth, from Bethlehem till His receiving up into glory.
In the Acts and the Epistles, I get a God-inspired yet detailed commentary upon this humiliation and its results, whether immediate or on to the final state. Such being the case, I do not think it too much to say, that if I or you, reader, are acquainted as we (made partakers of the benefit) ought to be with the Gospels and Acts and Epistles, then the first forty-one Psalms will be read in the light of God, and not merely (blessed as that is) with reverence and piety. Of one thing we are sure; God, when He wrote these Psalms, used words correctly according to the truth of what was before His own mind and of that which came to pass. Read these Psalms according to God's mind in them, then according to that which was true as to the being, position, experiences, &c., of the Anointed man. They are given to us by God in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles. And you will find both humbling enough, while so occupied, and intelligence to gladden your heart and brighten your mind through the operation of the Spirit given to those that believe. Nothing has struck my own mind, after the perusal of the Psalms and the Gospels, more than the moral impossibility of any created mind having originated the idea, firstly, of such a wondrous person as the Lord Jesus was, individually and morally too; and, secondly, of the necessity for such an One to be found and to come in if the whole outline of truth as presented in the Psalter was to be made good.
So Saul of Tarsus, when locked up in nature's darkness, but glorying (after the flesh) in Abram and David, what a contrast from Paul when he saw that Jesus had taken Moses' place and David's! Read the epistle to the Hebrews, And contrast Paul with Saul, and the contrast is less, really, than when you see the contrasts between Christ with His Melchizedek priesthood, sin done away, and Aaron with his priesthood ever recalling sin to mind the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched in heaven, and the perishable tabernacle in the wilderness. What a contrast!
Any translation which really contains one jot or one, tittle at variance with the truth of Jesus Christ and any part of His work must, so far forth, be in error, and the error should be corrected. But while learning the truth through the text and by the Spirit, I must know God's truth, His subject in eternity, and heaven as my subject, ere I can correct my defects in doctrine, or read the Psalms aright.
Context is said by some to be the key to the Hebrew language. I have no objection to make to this statement. I wish it had been more followed out and acted upon. I remark, however, that the observation is necessarily true of every language. For instance, in Greek, let any one write a disquisition on the term " beginning " as connected with our Lord. If he does not mark and observe the contexts of Gen. 1:1, and Mark 1:1, and John 1:1, and its force generally in John, he will be without a right clue, even if he fall not into error. A teachable mind has to weigh forms and terms of a language ere using them; and much more important still in divine grace is the mind of the Spirit of God as given to the believer. (John 6:52, 63 Corinthians
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Remarks on the English Psalter

I was struck some years ago with the fact of there existing in English two authorized translations of the Psalms of David, that of the Prayer Book, and that of the Bible. This fact, and another connected with it; viz., that so far from being identical, these two authorized versions differ widely the one from the other, both impressed me.
I had no leisure then in which to follow up the subject.
My lot had been cast providentially where the English language had sway, and I had received the authorized version as a gift from God in His grace and providence. But to that same providence I owed the knowledge of Hebrew and Greek and Latin, and felt called upon, whenever I could, to examine God's book as He wrote it, and to see how far man had, in any measure, mingled anything with the unsullied transparency of the Word. God's truth is so divine and unique, that it will shine forth even out of a defective translation. But this would not justify anyone in preferring, for any reason whatsoever, a bad to a good version of the same.
The painful impression (referred to above) was deepened when I had leisure to examine the books referred to on the' previous page. It was also confirmed by the new translation into German in the recent Elberfeld Bible, &c.
I began to look at the question seriously, and this little book is one result thereof.
1. I have, in my prefatory remarks, set forth the test and touchstone, to which every statement as from Scripture must be submitted.
2. The correctness of this is confirmed by the Authorized Version. Its weak points and failures grew up out of comparative ignorance in the learned translators of the subject of Old Testament prophecy; viz., man, the human being, after the fall, in which the race was ruined, under the providence and government of God. He was tried as to whether he could restore himself. If they had seen that as the subject, they never would again and again have put the New Testament assembly forward in the Old Testament as that in which the promises to Israel were to be fulfilled. For the Old Testament presented man' failed and failing while trusting to himself; the New Testament presents God's great salvation in Christ. Nor would they, if they had understood God's subject in the New Testament (viz., the Man that was Jehovah's fellow, winning, as the only obedient One, all things for Himself), ever have made His Church, as set up at Pentecost, to be the means of introducing the millennium instead of its ending in Babylon. Then will He come forth, His heavenly saints already with Him in heaven, and set up the kingdom on earth in Israel. God has used and honored their translation. I bless His name for it. Yet through it would I go on toward something better.
Much, of course, turns upon the right understanding of what has been called by the Rabbis moods and tenses. Can I present the difficulties in this part of the subject to the mere English reader? I judge it might be done, and done in a way that the thoughtful would see, first, the difficulty on the Hebrew side of the question; and secondly, by carefully comparing it with a supposed representative in English of the Hebrew Psalter, get valuable help, or at least food for thought.
In trying to do this, I would (with as little alteration as possible) use the English Bible translation; drawing out from it words, and marking in English what will correspond with the Hebrew as to its moods and tenses; this representation of the Psalms carrying in it the signs and marks of the table adjoined.
Hebrew grammarians tell us that there are but four moods (or modes) in Hebrew-the Indicative, the Infinitive, the Imperative, and the Participal forms.
And that it is only the Indicative which has tenses which mark times. The older writers call the first of these two the Perfect; and the second, the Future (now called by many the Present).
Table Of Signs And Marks.
Indicative Mood ... .. {p}—to mark the English word which represents the Hebrew word, which the Rabbis say is a perfect, and which carries the pronominal affix (or sign of the person) at its end.
{f}—to mark the English word which represents the Hebrew word, which the Rabbis say is a future, and which carries the pronominal prefix (or sign of the person) before it. The persons in both are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, sing. and plural.
Infinitive Mood ...  ... {b}—to stand before every infinitive.
Imperative Mood ... ..{c}—before every imperative.
Participial Forms ... ..{d}— before every participle.
" And" The Conjunction...{v}—to precede every "and," however translated, "and" being called in Hebrew vav.
Thus, Bible version:
Psa. 1:1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
v. 3. And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psa. 2:8. Ask, &c.
Psa. 3 Title a Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, &c. Psa. 1:1. " Walk," "stand,” "sit," are in Hebrew perfects.
v. 3. "Do," "prosper," are futures.
Psa. 2:8. "Ask" is an imperative.
Psa. 3 Title "fled" is an infinitive.
Which might be represented thus:
Psa. 1:1. Blessed is the man that {p} has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, {v} and in the way of sinners {p} has not stood, {v} and in the seat of {d} the scornful {p} has not sat.
v. 3. {v} And all that {f} he does {f} shall prosper.
Psa. 2:8. "{c} Ask."
Psa. 3 Title {b} his fleeing from, &c.
This may suffice for an illustration.
[What can be observed in any of the languages in which God has been pleased to write, I would state. Let others correct and add more.
1. Neither of the so-called tenses (both of which are in the Indicative Mood) has absolutely what we call a time of its own.
{p} The preterite, or perfect, naturally and properly refers man (but then it may do so in one way or another) to a past time; e.g. " In the beginning God {p} created the heaven and the earth. And the earth p was without form, and void." (Gen. 1:1, 2.) By "created" and "was" God marked a time past; and we have creation and its original state ere it was afterward formed to its state as fitted for Adam.
But then GOD says that He has a way of His own: "He calleth things which are not as though they were." (Rom. 4:17.) He does so sometimes. And to the mind of man, if humble and attentive, there is no mistake likely to arise. God is in eternity, and if He speaks His purpose and intention, and speaks of it thus: "{p} I have made thee a father of many nations," there is no mistake. To Him all time is. People around Abraham might jeer him for his credulity. But Abraham (as we see Rom. 4) knew the ground he was upon, and took God at His word. The fiat of God's word is a sure ground for faith to rest upon; and Abraham looked away from himself and his circumstances to God and His power and truthfulness. To this I may return again. But what the Rabbis called Pret. or Perf. is contingent, or dependent, as to its time, as noticed above. And the use of the term " tense," either as to it or the other form, is calculated to lead the mind in a wrong direction.
{f} has still more of this contingent, dependent character about it. In {p} there is its own distinctive characteristic as past; and my impression is that none of the apparent exceptions are exceptions at all. The law stands good; only the law has a wider range than man's range; for man is man, and on earth and in time; but this mode and style of speaking is found to have been adopted by men, holy and unholy, in Scripture. God speaks in the past, of that which is in counsel and purpose, and therefore as sure as if it were done already Man will be found in Scripture to have so spoken where his own mind was fixed and settled that so it should be-changing will, his own mortality, the power of circumstances being overlooked, and surcharging with uncertainties his " I have done it." God is God, and eternity and heaven are His; and His counsels, plans, fiats, stand within His circle, and cover over to faith (now that they are revealed to us) all difficulties. But {f}, as I said, is more absolutely contingent. " Whatsoever he {f} doeth shall {f} prosper." (Psa. 1:3.) Here we have apparently a present time and a future time. It could be said of Christ, "All that He does shall prosper." He, the corn of wheat, had to die, that it might bring forth much fruit. His cross here and the throne there above are inseparable. In many a Scripture the Spirit has put forward for the faithful the attributes and character of Jehovah-His actings, too, as prayer-hearing, or as having appointed certain things to be hereafter, as glory or judgment. Faith would naturally say, " Thou art my Father and my God," and as naturally adds, " Therefore I wait for Thy Son to come and take us home to Thy house. As to what faith has given, I am pardoned, God is my Father; as to what hope waits for, it is to see the Lord Himself." {f} would be a contingent; and unless I get away from Hebrew, or want to subject Hebrew idiom to the idiom of another language, I had better give up the term tense.
But I may have to return to this. I give now a summary of Psa. 1 and 2, a divine introduction to the Psalter:
Psa. 1 Here the demonstrative article is twice used; in v. 1 once, and in v. 4 once.
v. 1 describes the blessedness of " The or That individual," who alone never had a blot from association with any of man's wicked confederacies.
v. 2. He knows no delight but in Jehovah's law, and is wholly occupied with it, and
v. 3. the one ever prosperous one. There is but one whom this suits.
But (mark the contrast) v. 4: "The ungodly" as a class. Alas! save one, there is none righteous, no not one (Rom. 3:10); none have any stability here; none of them will have any standing in the judgment, any place among the righteous.
v. 6. Jehovah Himself is judge between the last Adam, together with those to whom He is a root, and the ungodly who turn their backs on Him.
Psa. 2. The one man dissociated from all evil down here (Psa. 1), has been rejected by man; but is here seen to be Jehovah's anointed.
vv. 1, 2. Vain and imbecile all men's efforts against Him whose cause is Jehovah's. (vv. 3-5). For He has said, Yet have I set Him king in Zion (v. 6). Himself; the earth-rejected one, reads out as Son from on high the decree and the promises to Him (7-9); and then in grace and mercy gives warning.
Study these two Psalms in themselves, and then study them in the Gospels and Acts and Epistles, according as the Holy Spirit there casts light on them through the Lord and His apostles and prophets. If you find enough to humble you, you will find enough, too, of light given to you about Himself who is the subject of them to make you worship and adore].
The portion above between brackets ( [ ]) is no formal grammatical dictum, but a statement of impressions made upon my own mind while working through the whole Psalter, so as to observe the force and power of the Rabbis' moods and so-called tenses, and tested by their current use therein, and the doctrines they lead to, and how far they agree with God's subject as before referred to. I have marked all the occurrences in Hebrew of vav (which is equivalent to our " and "), so that everything may be tested by that which is given in English. In working out this, my mind has perhaps formulated a theory which might admit of a clear statement. But if there is a theory coming to the birth, I would try and prove it ere I state it. But up to this moment I am still only learning.
As to the statement of " the law of vav conversive " (for so it was taught me)-that the introduction of a fresh "and" connected with a verb could turn a future into a past or a past into a future-I have long given it up. It could not be so. Nor if (misled by the Will-o'-the-Wisp light of "tenses") you admit it, will you find that it solves the difficulties. Ina moss or bog you look out for an " and " to put you right, and find none; or, forgetful of your "and" occurrent, you go on sound in doctrine, because you have overlooked it, but know not what to do with it now that you have found it.
A law to be a law must be universal and undeviating. Such is not the case with the statement I have referred to, and it is no law. This Professor Lee and others have shown. To pull down is easier than to build up. Other statements have been made as containing the law of the so-called tenses, but not kept to by their own makers.
My present attempt is neither a new translation of the Psalms nor "a word for word" translation. But if I, sitting down to my Hebrew Psalter with the Bible (English) in my hand, can so far remould it (the English) "clause for clause," according to the Hebrew-the English bearing remembrancers of all the "ands" occurrent, and of all the moods and other various verbal forms in Hebrew-it will, in the measure in which it at once retains, and recalls to mind the old treasure in English, and yet presents the Hebrew idioms, be of interest, and may be of value. Such a book as a young converted Hebrew, knowing Hebrew well, but English only colloquially, could understand, is just that at which I aim.
My intentional departures from the English Psalter were such as these:
1. To change Old English words whose meaning was formerly different from what it now is. The old word now misleads. For instance, "leasing" (Psa. 4:2; 5:6) is not gleaning, but "lying;" "discomfit" (Psa. 18:14) for "discomfort." So "prevent" (Psa. 21:3; 59:10; 79:8; 88:13; 119:147, 148) is equivalent to our modern word "anticipate." So Psa. 29:9, "discover" for "uncover, lay bare." So "quick" (Psa. 55:15; 124:3) is "alive" (and not quickly), &c.
2. To mark the demonstrative article or pronoun by writing "the" with a large T-thus, "The" or "That" and this even if it does not stand the first word in a sentence.
3. To put in italics all the words supplementary to the sense; but this is what the Authorized Bible Version has done.
4. To omit the " O's " (" 0 Jehovah," &c.). They are contrary to Hebrew custom and mind. A hundred " O's in a modern prayer would tell of feeling in him who prays, and of weakness; not of faith. Look at the New Testament.
5. To translate into English the titles at the heads of some of the Psalms, and any Hebrew word left in them, as Selah, Higgaion.
6. To render the word "Go-i" in Hebrew always Nation; and its plural, "Go-im," as Nations. "Gnam," People; and "Gnammim," as Peoples. "L'ummim " (a plural), as, side-nations, "Ohm," singular; and "Urnmim," plural (which do not occur in book 1.)
I incline, at present, to look at them as perhaps Gog and Magog, whether of the Old Testament or the New Testament (as Rev. 20:8).
G. V. W. 5.1.77, Motuiki.
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Translation of Psalms 1-41

N. B. {p} goes before a perfect tense, and {f} before a future or present, of an indicative mood; {b} before an infinitive; {c} before an imperative; {d} before participles; {v} before Vav, &c., however else translated.
Psa. 1
1 Blessed is The man that Phas not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, vand in the way of sinners Phas not stood, vand in the seat of d the scornful Phas not sat.
2 But in the law of Jehovah his delight; vand in his law 'he meditates day rand night.
3 vAnd Phe was to be like a tree dplanted by the rivers of waters, that 'brings forth his fruit in his season; vand his leaf 'does not wither; rand all that 'he does 'shall prosper.
4 Not so The ungodly; but like the chaff that the wind 'drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly 'shall not stand 1- in the judgment, vor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For Jehovah is dknowing the way of the righteous; vbut the way of the ungodly 'shall perish.
Psa. 2
1 Why Phave raged the Nations, vand why do the side-nations  'imagine a vain thing?
2 Kings of the earth 'do set themselves, vand drulers P have taken counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his Anointed, saying,
3 'We will break asunder their bands, vand "cast away their cords from us.
4 d He sitting in the heavens 'shall laugh; Adonay 'shall have them in derision.
5 Then 'shall he speak to them in his wrath, vand in his sore displeasure 'vex them;
6 vYet I P have set my King upon Zion, hill of my holiness.
7 will declare the decree: Jehovah Phas said to me,
my Son art thou; 'This day Phave I begotten thee.
8 cAsk of me, vand fI will give thee the Nations for thine inheritance, vand for thy possession the ends of earth.
9 'Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; like a vessel of da moulder 'thou shalt dash them in pieces:
10 vAnd now ye kings cbe wise; ebe instructed ye djudges of earth.
11 cServe Jehovah with fear, vand crejoice with trembling.
12 cKiss the Son, lest 'he shall be angry, vand 'ye perish from the way; for 'does his wrath burn even as a little. Blessed are all dtrusting in him.
• Leummim,' side-nations.
112 TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-XLI. Dom(
Psa. 3
1 A psalm of David. bIn his fleeing from the face of Absalom his son.
2 Jehovah, how P have increased my troublers! many dthose rising up against me;
3 Many "those saying of my soul, No help for him in Elohim Pause.
4 But thou, Jehovah, art a shield round about me; my glory, °and "the one lifting up my head.
5 With my voice to Jehovah cry; °and 'he hears
me from the hill of his holiness. Pause.
6 I Plaid me down rand sleep; PI awoke; for Jehovah 'sustains me.
Not 'will I fear ten thousands of the People, that around Phave set themselves against me.
8 °Arise, Jehovah; °save me, my Elohim; for P thou hast smitten all dmy enemies on the cheekbone; the teeth of the ungodly Phast thou broken.
9 Of [or to] Jehovah is The salvation; on thy People is thy blessing. Pause.
Psa. 4
1 For dthe chief musician on stringed instruments. A 'Psalm. of David.
2 bIn my calling, °hear me, Elohim of my righteousness; P thou hast made enlargement for me in the distress;
ehave mercy on me, rand °hear my prayer.
3 Ye sons of men, how long is my glory for a shame? ''ye love vanity, 'ye seek after lying. Pause.
4 °But °know that Jehovah Phas set apart the godly for.himself; Jehovah 'hears bin my calling on him.
TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-XLL 113
5 °Stand in awe, °and f ye shall not sin; ccommune with your own heart on your bed, °and c be still. Pause.
6 cSacrifice the sacrifices of righteousness, °and etrust in Jehovah.
7 Many dare saying, Who swill show us good? elift thou up the light of thy countenance on us, Jehovah.
8 P Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time their corn and their. wine P increased.
9 In peace twill I both lay me down °and 'sleep; for thou, Jehovah, alone, fmakest me to dwell in safety.
Psa. 5
1 For dthe chief Musician on The flutes. A psalm of David.
2 My words egive ear to, Jehovah, consider my meditation;
3 cHearken to the voice of my cry, my King °and my Elohim; for to thee f I pray.
4 Jehovah, in the morning 'thou wilt hear my voice; in the morning!will I direct my prayer to thee, °and 'will look up:
5 For thou art not an El desirous of wickedness; not 'shall dwell with thee evil;
6 Not 'shall stand dth,e foolish before thine eyes; 'thou hast hated all d workers of iniquity.
7 'Thou wilt destroy d those speaking lies; Jehovah 'abhors the man of blood °and deceit.
8 °But I,-in the multitude of thy mercy, 'I will come to thy house; 'I will worship toward the temple of thy holiness in thy fear.
9 Jehovah, °lead me in thy righteousness because of dmy enemies; cmake straight before my face thy way.
10 For there is nothing in their mouth d upright; their inward part is wickedness; a sepulcher open their throat; with their tongue 'they flatter.
11 °Destroy thou them, Elohim; fthey shall fall by their own counsels; in the multitude of their transgressions °cast them out; for Pthey have rebelled against thee.
12 "But (shall rejoice all dthose trusting in thee; forever (shall they shout for joy; "and (thou defendest them; "and (shall be joyful in thee dthe lovers of thy name.
13 For thou (wilt bless, Jehovah, the righteous; as a shield 'wilt thou with favor compass him.
Psa. 6
1 For dthe chief Musician on stringed instruments. On The 8th. A Psalm of David.
2 Jehovah, not in thine anger 'wilt thou rebuke me; 'and not in thy hot-displeasure twill, thou chasten me.
3 °Have mercy on me, Jehovah, for dweak am I; °heal me, Jehovah, for my bones Phave been vexed.
4 "And my soul Phas been sore vexed; "but thou, Jehovah, how long!
5 °Return, Jehovah, °deliver my soul; °save me for the sake of thy mercy.
6 For remembrance of thee, in death, there is none; in the grave who twill give thee thanks?
7 PI have been wearied with my groaning; I make to swim my bed through all the night; with my tears my couch f I water.
8 Mine eye Phas been consumed by grief; Pit has waxed old because of all dmy enemies.
9 °Depart from me, all dye working iniquity; for Jehovah Phas heard the voice of my weeping.
10 Jehovah Phas heard my supplication; Jehovah 'receives my prayer.
11 All dmy enemies 'shall be ashamed "and 'shall be sore vexed; they shall return; 'they shall be suddenly ashamed.
Psa. 7
1 A wandering-ode. Of David. Which Phe sang to Jehovah, on the words of Cush the Benjamite.
2 Jehovah my Elohim, in thee P have I trusted; °save me from all dpersecuting me, "and °deliver me;
3 Lest he shall tear like a lion my soul, drending in pieces, °and none ddelivering.
4 Jehovah my Elohim, if PI have done this; if the existence of iniquity is in my hands;
5 If PI have rewarded evil to dth,e one peaceful to me; "yea, deliver shim being mine enemy causelessly:
6 d The enemy 'shall persecute my soul, "and 'take it; "yea, 'tread down my life to the earth, °and 'cause my honor to dwell in the dust. Pause.
7 °Arise, Jehovah, in thine anger, °lift up thyself because of the rage dof my enemies; "and °awake for me the judgment P thou hast commanded.
8 "So the congregation of side-nations 'shall compass thee about; °and for its sake °return thou on high.
9 Jehovah 'shall judge the Peoples; °judge me, Jehovah, according to my righteousness, "and according to my integrity upon me.
10 Assuredly, now, the wickedness of the wicked 'shall come to an end; "but 'thou wilt establish the righteous; "and d trier of hearts "and reins is righteous Elohim.
11 My shield is of Elohim, d saving the upright of heart.
12 Elohim is djudge of [or for] the righteous, °and El is dangry every day.
13 If tone turns not, his sword twill he whet; his bow Phe has bent, °and 'makes it ready;
14 °And for him Phe has prepared instruments of death; he 'works his arrows against "the persecutors.
15 Behold, the travails with iniquity, °and Phas conceived mischief, °and Phas brought forth falsehood.
16 A pit Phe made; °and the digs it, °and 'falls into the ditch the makes.
17 His mischief 'shall return on his own head, °and on his own pate his violence 'shall come down.
18 will praise Jehovah according to his righteousness; °and will sing the name of Jehovah Most High, as praise.
Psa. 8
1 For dthe chief-Musician on The wine Vat. A Psalm of David.
2 Jehovah our Lord [Adonim], how excellent thy name in all The earth I as to which eset thou thy glory above The heavens.
3 Out of the mouth of babes °and dsucklings Phast thou ordained strength, because of dthy enemies bto still the d enemy °and davenger.
4 When 'I consider thy heavens, work of thy fingers, moon °and stars which Pthou hast ordained;
5 What is man, that 'thou art mindful of him? °and the son of man, that 'thou visitest him?
6 °For 'thou makest him a little lower than the angels [elohim], °and with glory °and honor 'thou crownest him.
7 'Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; all Pthou hast put under his feet;
8 Sheep °and oxen all of them, "yea, also, beasts of the field;
9 Fowl of heavens °and fishes of The sea——dpassing the paths of the seas.
10. Jehovah, our Lord [Adonim], how excellent thy name in all The earth!
Psa. 9
1 For dthe chief-Musician, concerning death for the son,. A Psalm of David.
2 will praise Jehovah, with all my heart; will
show forth all thy marvelous works.
3 will be glad °and 'rejoice in thee; will sing
praise to thy name, Most High.
4 In tithe turning back of dmy enemies, 'they shall fall °and 'perish from thy presence.
5 For Pthou hast maintained my right °and my cause; Pthou satest in the throne djudging [or judge of] righteousness.
6 P Thou hast rebuked the Nations, Pthou hast destroyed the wicked; their name Pthou hast put out forever "and ever.
7 0 denemy, destructions Phave ended for perpetuity; °and cities P thou hast destroyed; their memorial Phas perished with them.
8 "But Jehovah 'endures forever: Phe has prepared for judgment his throne.
9 °And he 'will judge the world in righteousness, 'he will minister judgment to the side-nations in uprightness.
10 "And Jehovah 'will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge for timc.3 in trouble.
11 vAnd swill trust in thee dthose knowing thy name; for not Phast thou forsaken dthose seeking thee, Jehovah.
12 e sing praises to Jehovah, d the dweller in Zion: declare among The Peoples his doings.
13 For dmaking inquisition for blood, them Phe remembered; Pnot has he forgotten the cry of the humble.
14 'Have mercy on me, Jehovah! e consider [TIN..1 my trouble d from my haters, d thou that art lifting me up from the gates of death:
15 That sI may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion; 'I will rejoice in thy salvation.
16 The Nations Phave sunk down in the pit Pthey made; in the net which Pthey hid, their own foot Phas been taken.
11 Jehovah Phas been known by the judgment Phe has executed; in the work of his hands the wicked dis snared. Meditation. Pause.
18 The wicked shall be turned into hell; all the Nations forgetting Elohim.
19 For not alway-'shall be forgotten the needy;-[nor] the expectation of the poor 'perish forever.
20 eArise, Jehovah; 'man shall not prevail; the Nations 'shall be judged in thy presence.
21 CPut, Jehovah, fear on them; the Nations 'shall know that they are men. Pause.
Psa. 10
1 Why, Jehovah, sstandest thou in the distance? 'thou hidest for the times in trouble!
2 In the pride of the wicked she persecutes the poor; they will be taken in the devices which Pthey have imagined.
3 For the wicked Phas boasted of his soul's desire, vand Phas blessed d the covetous;-Jehovah Phas abhorred him.
4 The wicked according to the pride of his countenance, twill not seek; Elohim, there is none, is all his thoughts.
5 His ways f are grievous at every time; thy judgments are
a height far above him; all dhis enemies, f he puffs at them.
6 Pile has said in his heart, fI shall not be moved, who am not forever and ever in adversity.
7 Cursing Pleas filled his mouth land deceit vand fraud; under his tongue mischief vand evil.
8 'He sits in the lurking-places of the villages; in the secret places f he murders the innocent; his eyes fare privily set against the poor;
9 file lies in wait in the secret place, as a lion in his den; 'the lies in wait hto catch the poor: Elie catches the poor
b by drawing him into his net;
10 f He crouches, he (humbles himself, vand the poor P have fallen by his strong ones.
11 PHe said in his heart, El Phas forgotten; Phe has hid his.face; Phe has not seen-forever;
12 CArise, Jehovah, El clift up thy hand; (thou wilt not forget the humble:
13 Wherefore Phas the wicked contemned Elohim; Phe has said in his heart, (thou wilt not require it.
14 PThou hast seen it, for thou fbeholdest mischief vand spite, bto requite it with thy hand; the poor f commits himself to thee; of the fatherless thou Phast been d the helper.
15 eBreak thou the arm of the wicked vand evil; (thou wilt seek out his wickedness till f thou shalt not find any.
16 Jehovah is King forever vand ever; the Nations P have perished out of his land.
17 The desire of the humble Pthou hast heard, Jehovah; 'thou preparest their heart, 'thou causest thine ear to hear;
18 bTo judge the fatherless "rand oppressed, till not any more the man from The earth 'shall repeat bto oppress.
Psa. 11
1 For dthe chief-musician. David's. In Jehovah Phave I trusted; how 'say ye to my soul, cFlee, bird, to your mountain:
2 For, lo, The wicked 'bend the bow, Pthey have made ready their arrow on the string, to bshoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
3 If The foundations 'are destroyed, the righteous what Phas he done?
4 Jehovah is in the temple of his holiness; Jehovah, in the heavens is his throne; his eyes 'behold, his eyelids 'try the children of men:
5 Jehovah 'tries the righteous; 'but the wicked •and dthe lover of violence his soul Phas hated.
6 He 'shall rain on the wicked snares, fire yand brimstone, vand a wind of burnings; portion of their cup.
7 For righteous Jehovah righteousness Phas loved; his countenance 'beholds the upright.
Psa. 12
1 For dthe chief-Musician on The 8th. A Psalm of David.
2 °Help, Jehovah; for the godly man Phas ceased; for the faithful P have failed from among the children of men.
3 Vanity 'they speak, each with his neighbor; with lip of flatteries and with a double heart [/it. a heart and a heart] 'do they speak.
4 Jehovah (shall cut off all lips of flatteries, the tongue d speaking proud things,
5 Which Phave said, with our tongue twill we prevail; our, lips are our own; who is lord [adon] over us?
6 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now 'will I arise, f saith Jehovah; will set him in safety as to him that (puffs at him
7 The words of Jehovah are pure words; silver dtried in furnace of earth, dpurified seven times.
8 Thou' shalt keep them, Jehovah; 'thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
9 The wicked 'walk around, according to bthe exalting of the vilest of the children of men.
Psa. 13
1 For d the chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 Till when, Jehovah,' wilt thou forget me? Forever? Till when fhidest thou thy face from me.
3 Till when 'shall I take counsel in my soul, sorrow is in my heart daily; till when 'shall dmine enemy be exalted over me?
4 °Consider, °hear me, Jehovah my Elohim; °lighten mine eyes, lest fI sleep The sleep of death;
5 Lest dmy enemy' shall say, PI have prevailed against him; my troublers 'rejoice when am moved.
6 "But I in thy mercy Phave trusted; my heart 'shall rejoice in thy salvation; fI will sing to Jehovah, for Phe has dealt bountifully with me.
Psa. 14
1 For tithe chief-Musician. Of David. The fool Phas said in his heart, No, Elohim. PThey have been corrupt, Phave done abominable works; ewe is none ddoing good.
5—Ministry of GM Vol.
2 Jehovah Plooked down from heaven on the children of men, bto see whether there was the existence of dan understanding, one, "seeking Elohim.
3 PHave these all gone aside, together? PHave they become filthy? Is there none ddoing good, none, not even one!
4 Whether Phave all "the workers of iniquity no knowledge? seating up my People Pthey have eaten bread; on Jehovah Phave they not called.
5 There Pthey feared a great fear; for Elohim is in the generation of the righteous.
6 The counsel of the poor you put to shame, because Jehovah is his refuge.
7 Who 'will give the salvation of Israel out of Zion! bin Jehovah's leading captive the captivity of his People, Jacob 'shall rejoice, Israel 'shall be glad.
Psa. 15
1 A Psalm of David. Jehovah, who "shall abide in thy tabernacle? who 'shall dwell in the hill of tny holiness?
2 dile walking uprightly, °and "working righteousness, °and dspeaking the truth in his heart.
3 PHe has not backbitten with his tongue; Phe has not done to his neighbor evil, rand a. reproach against his neighbor Phe has not taken up.
4 dA vile person in his eyes Phas been contemned; °and "the fearers of Jehovah 'he honors; Phe has sworn to bhis own hurt, °and 'he changes not.
5 His silver Phe has not put out at usury; °and a bribe against the innocent Phe has not taken; ddoing these things 'he shall never be moved.
Psalm 16
1 A golden Psalm of David. cPreserve me, El; for P I have trusted in thee.
2 My soul, Pthou hast said to Jehovah, Adonay art thou; my goodness not to thee,
3 But to the saints that are on earth sand the excellent; in them is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows 'shall be multiplied; Pthey have hastened after another; not 'will I offer their drink-offerings of blood, °and not 'will I take up their names on my lips.
5 Jehovah is the portion of my inheritance °and of my cup; thou idost maintain my lot.
6 The lines P have fallen to me in pleasant things; yea, a heritage of beauty is mine.
7 tI will bless Jehovah, who Phas given me counsel; my reins also Phave instructed me in the night-seasons.
8 PI have set. Jehovah before me always; because he is at my right hand, shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart Phas been glad, °and my, glory 'rejoices; my flesh also 'shall rest in hope.
10 For 'thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; 'thou wilt not suffer thy holy one bto see corruption:
11 'Thou wilt make me to know the path of life; fullness of joys is in thy presence; pleasures at thy right hand for evermore.
Psa. 17
1 A prayer of David. glee.; Jehovah, righteousness; °attend to my cry; °give ear to my prayer which is not from lips of deceit.
2 From thy presence my sentence 'shall come forth; thine eyes 'behold upright things.
3 PThou hast proved my heart; Pthou hast visited me at night; Pthou hast tried me, 'thou wilt not find anything; PI have purposed it; my mouth 'shall not transgress.
4 As to the works of men, by the word of thy lips I Phave kept from the paths of the destroyer.
5 bHolding up my goings in thy pathways, my footsteps Phave not slipped.
6 I Phave called on thee, for 'thou hearest me, El; °incline thine ear to me, °hear my speech.
7 °Show thy lovingkindness, dcausing to save by thy right hand dthose trusting in thee d from those rising up
against them.
8 eKeep me as the apple of the eye; under the shadow of thy wings 'thou wilt hide me.
9 From the face of the wicked who Phave oppressed me, d my enemies against the soul, 'they compass me about.
10 Their fat P has enclosed them; as to their mouth Pthey
have spoken with pride.
11 As to our steps, P they have now compassed us in; their eyes 'they set bto bow down on the earth,
12 Like as a lion 'is greedy bto tear in pieces, "and as a young lion-dlurking in secret places.
13 'Arise, Jehovah, eanticipate his face, °cast him down: °deliver my soul from the wicked who is thy sword:
14 From mortals which are thy hand, Jehovah, from mortals of the world; their portion is in this life, °and with thy hidden things 'thou fillest their belly; 'they are full of children, yand Phave left their residue to their babes.
15 I,-in righteousness 'will I behold thy face; shall be satisfied bin waking up in thy likeness.
Psa. 18
1 For dthe chief Musician. For the servant of Jehovah, David: who Pspake to Jehovah the words of The [or This] very song in the day Jehovah P delivered him from the hand of all dhis enemies, °and from the hand of Saul.
2 And 'he says: Jehovah, my strength, love thee.
3 Jehovah my rock, °and my fortress °and dmy deliverer; my El, my strength, 'I trust in him; my buckler, "and horn of my salvation, my high-tower.
4 call on Jehovah, dwho is praise-worthy: °and
shall be saved from dmy enemies.
5 Cords of death Pcompassed me, °and floods of belial jungodliness] 'make me afraid.
6 The cords of hell P surrounded me: the snares of death Panticipated me.
7 In distress on me, tI call on Jehovah, °and 'cry to my Elohim; 'he hears my voice from his temple, °and my.cry before his face 'comes into his ears.
8 °And The earth "Shakes and 'trembles; °and the foundations of the hills 'move °and 'are shaken, for Pthere is wrath to him.
9 A smoke Pwent up out of his nostrils, °and fire from his mouth 'devours: coals P were kindled by it.
10 °And 'he bows the heavens, °and 'comes down; °and darkness is under his feet.
11 °And 'he rides on a cherub, and 'flies; "yea, 'he flies on the wings of the wind.
12 11Ie makes darkness his secret-place; round about
him, his pavilion is darkness of waters, thick-clouds of the skies.
13 From the brightness before him his thick-clouds Ppassed, hail °and coals of fire;
14 °And Jehovah 'thunders in the heavens, °and the Most- High 'gives forth his voice; hail °and coals of fire;
15 °And 'he sends out his arrows, °and 'scatters them; °and Phe shot out lightnings, °and 'discomforts them;
16 °And the channels of waters rare seen, rand the foundations of the world 'are discovered at thy rebuke, Jehovah; at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils:
17 'He sends from above, 'he takes me, 'he draws me out of many waters,
18 'He delivers me from my strong denemy °and from dthose hating me; for Pthey were strong above me.
19 'They anticipate me in the day of my calamity; °but Jehovah 'is for a stay to me;
20 °And, 'he brings me forth into a large place; 'he delivers me, because Phe delighted in me.
21 Jehovah 'rewards me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands 'does he recompense me.
22 For PI have kept the ways of Jehovah, °and Phave not wickedly departed from my Elohim.
23 For all his judgments are before me, °and put not away his statutes from me.
24 °And /I am upright with him, °and 'keep myself from my iniquity.
25 °And Jehovah 'recompenses me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
9A With the merciful 'thou wilt show thyself merciful:
with an upright mighty one 'thou wilt show thyself upright;
27 With dthe pure 'thou wilt show thyself pure; °and with the froward 'thou wilt show thyself froward.
28 For thou 'wilt save an afflicted People; °but 'wilt bring clown eyes of exaltation.
29 For thou 'wilt light my candle; Jehovah, my Elohim, 'will enlighten my darkness.
30 For by thee run through a troop, °and by my Elohim leap a wall;
31 The El, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is dtried; a buckler he to all Those dtrusting in him
32 For who is Eloah besides Jehovah? °and who a rock save our Elohim;
33 The El, The one dgirding me with strength, °and the makes my way perfect;
34 dMaking my feet like the hinds, °and 'he sets me on my high places;
35 dTeaching my hands for the war, °and a bow of steel Phas been broken by my arms.
36 "And 'thou givest to me the shield of thy salvation; °and thy right hand 'holds me up, °and thy gentleness 'makes me great.
37 'Thou enlargest my steps under me, °and my feet P have not slipped.
38 will pursue dmine enemies, °and 'overtake them, °and snot turn again till btheir consuming.
39 wound them, °and they are not able bto rise;
they are fallen under my feet.
40 °And 'thou girdest me with strength for the battle; 'thou subduest under me dthose rising up against me,
41 PThou hast given me °also the necks of d my enemies; °and will destroy those dhating me:
42 'They cry, °but none dsaving them; on Jehovah, "but Phe answered them not.
43 °Then 'do I beat them small as dust before the face of the wind; as the dirt of the streets do cast them out.
44 'Thou deliverest me from the strivings of the People; 'thou makest me for head of the Nations; a People PI have not known 'shall serve me.
45 "At the hearing of the ear, 'they will hear me; children of the stranger 'will submit themselves to me.
46 The children of the stranger 'fade away, °and rare afraid out of their close places.
47 Jehovah is living, °and dblessed be my rock; °and the Elohim of my salvation 'shall be exalted;
48 The El is The one d giving requitals for me, °and 'he will subjugate the Peoples under me;
49 dDelivering me d from my enemies; yea, 'thou liftest me up from among dthose rising up against me; from the man of violence 'thou deliverest me.
50 Therefore give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among
the Nations, °and to thy name sing praise.
51 dMagnifying salvation to his King; °and dshowing lovingkindness to his Anointed, to David, °and to his seed for evermore.
PSALM 19
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 The heavens dare declaring the glory of El; °and The firmament dshowing the work of his hands:
3 Day to day 'utters speech, °and night to night 'shows knowledge;
4 No speech °and no language, but their voice Phas been heard;
5 Their line Phas gone out through all The earth, and their words to the end of the world; in them Phas he set a tabernacle for the sun,
6 °And he as a bridegroom "going out of his chamber, the rejoices as a strong one b to run a race;
7 His going forth is from the end of The heavens, rand his circuit to the ends of them; °and nothing "has been hid from the heat thereof.
8 The law of. Jehovah is perfect, "converting the soul; the testimony of Jehovah d is sure, "making-wise the simple.
9 The statutes of Jehovah are right, "rejoicing the heart; the commandment of Jehovah is pure, d enlighteninsg the eyes.
10 The fear of Jehovah is clean, "enduring forever; the judgments a Jehovah are truth, P they have been righteous altogether.
11 Thessalonians are "to be desired more than gold, rand than much fine gold; °and sweeter than honey °and the honeycomb.
12 Also by them is thy servant "warned; bin keeping of them is great reward.
13 Who 'understands his errors? ccleanse thou me from "secret things.
14 'Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous things; they shall not have dominion over me; then shall be upright; °and PI have been innocent from the great transgression.
15 The words of my mouth, °and the meditation of my heart, 'will be acceptable in thy sight, Jehovah, my strength °and "my redeemer.
Psa. 20
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 Jehovah 'hears thee in the day of trouble; the name of the Elohim of Jacob 'defends thee;
3 'Sends thee help from the sanctuary, °and 'strengthens thee out of Zion
4 'Remembers all thy offerings °and 'accepts thy burnt sacrifice. Pause.
5 'Grants thee according to thine heart, °and 'fulfills all thy counsel.
6 'We will rejoice in thy salvation, °and in the name of our Elohim 'we will set up banners; Jehovah 'fulfills all thy petitions.
7 Now PI have known that Jehovah Phas saved his Anointed; 'he will hear him from the heavens of his holiness, with the strength of the salvation of his right hand.
8 These of the chariot, °and these of horses; °but we 'will make mention of the name of Jehovah our Elohim.
9 These Phave been brought down and Phave fallen; "but we Phave risen °and 'stand upright.
10 Jehovah °save The king; 'he hears us in the day of boor calling.
Psa. 21
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 Jehovah, in thy strength the king, 'shall joy; °and in thy salvation how greatly 'shall he rejoice.
3 Desire of his heart Pthou hast given to him, °and request of his lips P thou hast not' withholden. Pause.
4 For 'thou dost anticipate him with blessings of goodness; 'thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.
5 Life Phe asked from thee, Pthou gavest to him length of days forever and ever.
6 Great is his glory in thy salvation; honor °and majesty 'thou layest on him.
7 For 'thou dost make him blessings forever; fthon dost make him glad with the joy of thy countenance.
8 For The king ti is trusting in Jehovah, °and in the loving-kindness of the Most High, not 'shall he be moved.
9 Thine hand 'shall find out all dthine enemies; thy right hand 'shall find out dthose hating thee.
10 'Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire in the time of thine anger; Jehovah in his wrath 'will swallow them up, °and fire 'shall devour them.
11 Their fruit 'wilt thou destroy from the earth. °and their seed from among the children of men.
12 For P they intended evil against thee; P they imagined a mischievous device, which 'they are not able to do.
13 For 'thou wilt make them turn the back; 'thou wilt make ready on thy bow strings against the face of them.
14.eBe exalted, Jehovah, in thy strength; iwe will sing °and 'praise thy power.
Psa. 22
1 For tithe chief-Musician, on The hind of The dawn. A Psalm of David.
2 My El, my El, why Phast thou forsaken me! far from helping me, the words of my roaring.
3 My Elohim, cry in the daytime, °but "thou hearest not, °and in the night season, °and there is no silence to me.
4 °But thou art holy, dthe one inhabiting the praises of Israel.
5 In thee our fathers P trusted; Pthey trusted, vand 'thou rescuest them;
6 To thee Pthey cried "and P were delivered; in thee Pthey trusted, vand P were not confounded.
7 vBut I a worm vand no man; a reproach of men vand ddespised of the People.
8 All dseeing me 'scornfully laugh at me; 'they shoot out the lip, 'they shake the head,
9 bRolling on Jehovah, 'he rescues him; 'he will draw him forth, for Phe delighted in him.
10 For thou art d the taker of me out of the womb; dmaking me hope on the breasts of my mother.
11 Upon thee P was I cast from the womb; from the belly of my mother, my El art thou.
12 'Thou wilt not be far from me; for trouble is near; for none dhelping.
13 Many bulls P have compassed me; strong ones of Basilan P have beset me round.
14 PThey gaped on me their mouths, as a lion dravening and d roaring;
15 PI have been poured out like water, vand all my bones P have been out of joint; my heart Phas been like wax, pit has been melted in the midst of my bowels.
16 My strength Phas been dried up like a potsherd; "and my tongue d cleaved to my jaws; vand 'thou bringest me to the dust of death.
17 For dogs Phave compassed me; the assembly of d the wicked Phave enclosed me; Pthey pierced my hands "and my feet.
18 tell all my bones; these 'look, 'they stare on
me.
19 'They part my garments among them, rand 'cast the lot on my vesture.
20 °But thou, Jehovah, 'art not far off. My strength, for my help chaste thou;
21 eDeliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the hand of the dog.
22 °Save me from the mouth of the lion; °even from the horns of the unicorns, P thou hast heard me.
23 will declare thy name to my brethren; in the
midst of the congregation 'will I praise thee.
24 Fearers of Jehovah, cpraise him; all ye the seed of Jacob eglorify him; °and efear before him, all ye the seed of Israel.
25 For Phe has not despised °and Phe has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted one; °and Phe has not hidden his face from him; °and bin his crying to him Phe heard.
26 Of thee my praise shall be in the great congregation; my vows 'will I pay before his fearers.
27 The meek 'shall eat °and ibe satisfied; dthose seeking him 'shall praise Jehovah; your heart 'shall live forever.
28 All the ends of the earth 'shall remember °and 'turn to Jehovah; °and all the kindreds of the Nations 'shall worship before thee.
29 For to Jehovah is The kingdom; °and dhe ruling among the Nations.
30 All the fat of the earth Phave eaten °and 'worship; all dgoing down to the dust 'shall bow before him; °and his own soul Phe has not kept alive.
31 A seed 'serves him; 'it shalt be accounted to Adonay for a generation.
32 'They come °and 'declare his righteousness to a People dabout to be born; for Phe has done it.
Psa. 23
1 A Psalm of David. Jehovah dis shepherding me: tI do not want.
2 In pastures of greenness the makes me to lie down; by waters of rest the leads me;
3 My soul the restores; the leads me in paths of righteousness, for the sake of his name.
4 Yea, though tI walk in the valley of the shadow of death, 'I will not fear evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, these tcomfort me.
5 Thou preparest before me a table in the presence of dray enemies; Pthou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness °and lovingkindness twill follow me all the days of my- life; "and PI have dwelt in the house of Jehovah for ever.
Psa. 24
1 For David. A psalm. The earth is for Jehovah vand its fullness; the world °and dthose dwelling in it:
2 For he. Phas founded it on the seas. °and!establishes it on the floods.
3 Who tascends into the mount of Jehovah; yand who 'shall stand in the place of his holiness?
4 Clean of hands "and the pure of heart; who Phas not lifted up his soul to vanity vand Phas not sworn deceitfully:
5 'He shall receive blessing from Jehovah, rand righteousness from the Elohim of his salvation.
6 This the generation of dthose following him, dseeking thy face, Jacob. Pause.
TRANSLATION OF PSALMS I.-XLI. 135
7 °Lift up ye gates your heads; wand be you; lifted up, you doors of everlasting; °and the king of The glory 'shall come in.
8 Who is this king of The glory? Jehovah strong °and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle.
9 °Lift up ye gates your heads; °and °lift up ye doors of everlasting: rand the king of The glory 'shall come in.
10 Who, He, this king of The glory? Jehovah of hosts, He is King of The glory. Pause.
Psa. 25
1. For David. To thee, Jehovah, lift up my soul:
2 My Elohim, in thee Phave I trusted, shall not be ashamed; dmy enemies 'shall not triumph over me;
3 Yea, not any dof those waiting on thee 'shall be ashamed: The d transgressors without cause 'shall be ashamed.
4 °Show me thy ways, Jehovah; °teach me thy paths.
5 °Lead me in thy truth, °and °teach me; for thou art Elohim of my salvation; on thee Phave I waited all The day.
6 °Remember, Jehovah, thy tender-mercies rand thy lovingkindnesses; for these are ever of old.
7 The sins of my youth °and my transgressions 'thou wilt not remember: thou, according to thy lovingkindness °remember thou me, for the sake of thy goodness, Jehovah.
8 Good °and upright is Jehovah; therefore 'will he teach sinners in the way.
9 'He will guide the meek in judgment; °and the meek 'will he teach his way.
10 All the paths of Jehovah are lovingkindness °and truth dto those keeping his covenant °and his testimonies.
136 TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-Xt.L
11 For the sake of thy name, Jehovah, Pthou hast pardoned °also my iniquity, for it is great.
12 Who this The man fearing Jehovah? the will teach him in, the way the will choose.
13 His soul f shall dwell in good; °and his seed f shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of Jehovah is for those fearing him °and his covenant, "to make them know it.
15 My eyes are ever toward Jehovah; for he twill pluck my feet out of the net.
16 "Turn thou to me, °and "have mercy on me, for solitary °and afflicted am I.
17. The troubles of my heart Phave been enlarged; out of my distresses "bring me.
18 "Look on my affliction rand my pain, °and "forgive all my sins.
19 "Look on dmy enemies, for Pthey have increased, °and Pthey have hated me with hatred of violence.
20 "Keep my soul, 'and "deliver me; CI shall not be ashamed, for PI have trusted in thee.
21 Integrity °and uprightness twill preserve me; for PI have waited on thee.
22 "Redeem, Israel, Elohim out of all his troubles.
Psa. 26
1 For David. "Judge me, Jehovah, for I Phave walked in my integrity, °and in Jehovah PI have trusted; f I shall not slide.
2 "Examine me, Jehovah, °and "prove me; "try my reins °and my heart;
3 For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes; °and PI have walked in thy truth;
4 PI have not sat with vain mortals, °and with ddissembiers sI go not;
5 PI have hated the congregation of devil-doers, ° and with the wicked s I will not sit.
6 sI will wash in innocency my hands, vand I will compass thy altar, Jehovah:
7 bTo make known with the voice of thanksgiving; °and bto tell of all thy dwondrous-works.
8 Jehovah, P I have loved the habitation of thy house, °and the place of the dwelling of thy glory.
9 (Thou wilt not gather with sinners my soul, °and with men of blood my life;
9 As to whom in their hands is mischief, °and their right hand Phas been full of bribes:
10 °But I, in my integrity swill walk; eredeem me, °and ebe merciful to me.
11 My foot Phas stood in an even place; in the congregations swill I bless Jehovah.
Psa. 27
1 For David. Jehovah, my light °and my salvetion. Of whom (shall I be in fear? Jehovah the strength of my life, of whom sshall I be afraid?
2 bIn drawing near to me d the wicked, bto eat up my flesh, my foes °and d my enemies against me these Pstumbled °and P fell.
3 If a camp sencamps against me, my heart sshall not fear; if war irises against me, in this am I dconfideut.
4 One thing Phave I desired from Jehovah, that swill I seek after; bmy dwelling in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, bto behold the beauty of Jehovah, °and bto inquire in his temple.
138 TRANSLATION OF PSALMS -XLI.
5 For the will conceal me in his pavilion in the day of trouble, he will, hide me in the secret of his tabernacle; on a rock 'will he set me up.
6 °And now my head 'shall be lifted up above dmy enemies round about me, °and will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; will sing, °even will sing praises to Jehovah.
7 °Hear, Jehovah, with my voice cry; °and thave
mercy' on me, °and °answer me.
8 To thee Psaid my heart, °Seek ye my face; thy face, Jehovah, tI will seek
9 'Thou hidest not thy face from me, 'thou puttest not in anger thy servant away; my help Phast thou been: 'thou wilt not leave me, °and "thou wilt not forsake me, God of my salvation.
10 When my father °and my mother Pforsook me, °even Jehovah 'takes me up.
11 eTeach me thy way, Jehovah, °and elead me in a plain path, because of dmy enemies.
12 'Thou wilt not give me over to the desire of my enemies, for witnesses of lies Phave risen up against me, °and those breathing out cruelty: they'l triumph,
13 Unless PI have believed bto look on the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living.
14 eWait thou on Jehovah; the strong, °and 'he will strengthen thy heart, °even ewait on Jehovah.
Psa. 28
1 For David. To thee, Jehovah, cry, my rock;
'thou wilt not be silent as to me, lest, if 'thou art silent
as to me, PI °even have become like dthose going down to
the pit.
2 eHear the voice of my supplications, bin my crying to thee, bin the lifting up of my hands to the oracle of thy holiness.
3 'Thou wilt.not draw me away with the wicked, vand with dthe workers of iniquity, dspeaking peace with their neighbors, vand mischief in their hearts.
4 °Give to them according to their work, vand according to the wickedness of their endeavors: according to the work of their hands °give to them; °return to them their desert.
5 Because 'they regard not the works of Jehovah vand the operation of his hands; he will destroy them, vand 'not build them up.
6 dBlessed be Jehovah, because Phe hag heard the voice of my supplications.
7 Jehovah is my strength vand my shield; in him my heart Ptrusted, vand PI have been helped; "and my heart 'greatly rejoiceth: "and with my song 'I will praise him
8 Jehovah is strength to them, vand the strength of the salvations of his anointed is he.
9 °Save thy People, "and °bless thy inheritance; "and efeed them, "and °lift them up for The ever [eternity].
Psa. 29
1 A Psalm of David. e Give to Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty, egive to Jehovah, glory °and strength.
2 eGive to Jehovah, the glory of his name; eworship toward Jehovah in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of Jehovah is on The waters; El of The glory Phas thundered; Jehovah is on many waters.
4 The voice of Jehovah is in power; The voice of Jehovah in majesty.
140 TRANSLATION OF PSALMS I.-NU
5 The voice of Jehovah dbreaking cedars; °and Jehovah, the breaks the cedars of The Lebanon.
6 °And the makes them skip as a calf,-Lebanon `'and Sirion as the young of unicorns.
7 The voice of Jehovah d dividing the flames of fire;
8 The voice of Jehovah, 'shakes the wilderness; Jehovah 'shakes the wilderness of Kadesh;
9 The voice of Jehovah 'makes the hinds to calve, °and 'lays bare the forests, °and in his temple each of his dspeaking of glory.
10 Jehovah on the flood Phas sat; °yea, Jehovah 'sits King forever.
11 Jehovah, strength to his People 'gives; Jehovah 'blesses his People with peace.
Psa. 30
1 A Psalm; Song of dedication of The house of David
2 will extol thee, Jehovah; for P thou hast lifted me
up, vand not Pmade dmy foes to rejoice over me.
3 Jehovah my Elohim PI cried to thee, °and 'thou healest me.
4 Jehovah, Pthou hast brought up my soul from the grave; P thou hast kept me alive bfrom my going down to the pit.
5 eSing to Jehovah, ye his saints, "and cgive thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
6 For a moment is in his anger; life is in his favor; weeping 'will endure for a night, °and in the morning joy.
7 "And I Psaid in my prosperity, 'I shall not be removed forever;
8 Jehovah, by thy favor Pthou hast made to stand my
mountAin in strength: Pthou didst hide thy face, PI became d troubled.
9 To thee, Jehovah, 'I cry, rand to Jehovah make my supplication.
10 What profit in my blood, bin my going down to the pit. Whether 'shall the dust give thanks to thee? Whether 'will it declare thy truth?
11 el:Tear, Jehovah, rand have mercy on me; Jehovah, °be thou dhelping me,
12 P Thou hest turned my mourning to dancing for me; Pthou hest put of my sackcloth, vand 'thou girdest me with gladness.
13 To the end that glory 'shall sing praise to thee, vand 'it shall not be silent. Jehovah my Elohim, forever 'will I give thee thanks.
Psa. 31
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 In thee, Jehovah, Phave I trusted, shall not be
ashamed for. ever; in thy righteousness e.deliver me.
3 dBow down to me thine ear; speedily d deliver me; cbe to me for a strong rock, for a house of defense bto save me;
4 For my rock rand my fortress art thou; °and for the sake of thy name 'thou wilt lead me, rand 'guide me;
5 'Thou wilt pull me out of the net which P they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength.
6 Into thy hand commit my spirit; Pthou hast redeemed me, Jehovah, El of truth.
7 PI have hated dthose regarding vanities of lying, rand I in Jehovah Pliave trusted.
8 'I will be glad vand 'will rejoice in thy loving-kind-
ness; in that Pthou hast seen my trouble; Pthou hast known in adversities my soul.
9 rAnd Pthou hast not shut me up in the hand of the denemy; Pthou hast made my feet stand in a large room.
10 Have mercy on me, Jehovah, for trouble is on me; mine eye Phas been consumed with grief, my soul rand my belly.
11 For my life Phas consumed with grief, rand my years with sighing; my strength Phas failed from my iniquity, rand my bones Phave consumed.
12 PI became a reproach among all my denemies, 'and greatly to my neighbors; rand a fear to my dacquaintance; dthose seeing me without P they fled from me.
13 P I have been forgotten as a dead man out of mind, P I have been as a vessel dperishing.
14 For PI have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side; bin their taking counsel together against me, P they devised b th,e taking of my life.
15 v But I P trusted on thee, Jehovah; P I said, my Elohim art thou.
16 In thy hand are my times, edeliver me. from the hand of dmy enemies rand from dthose persecuting me.
17 elVIake thy face to shine upon thy servant; °save me in thy loving-kindness.
18 Jehovah, shall not be ashamed, for PI have called on thee; the wicked 'shall be ashamed, they shall be silent in the grave.
19 Lips of lies 'shall be put to silence; dThose speaking against the righteous grievous things, in pride rand contempt.
20 How great thy goodness, which Pthou hast laid up for those fearing thee; Pthou hast wrought for dthose trusting in thee before the sons of men:
21 'Thou wilt hide them in the hiding-place of thy presence from the pride of man; 'thou wilt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
22 d Blessed be Jehovah, for Phe has showed me his marvelous loving-kindness in a strong city.
23 vAnd PI said in my haste, PI have been cut off from before thine eyes, surely Pthou heardest the voice of my supplications bin my crying to thee.
24 eLove Jehovah, all ye his saints; Jehovah d preserver of the faithful, "and drequiting plentifully the proud ddoer.
25 cBe strong, v and the will strengthen your hearts, all °Those hoping in Jehovah.
Psa. 32
1 David's. Instruction. Blessed is dhe who is forgiven as to transgression, °and dcovered as to sin.
2 Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah 'imputes not iniquity; °and in his spirit there is no guile.
3 When PI kept silence, my bones Pwaxed old through my roaring all The day.
4 For day °and night thy hand 'is heavy on me; my moisture Phas been turned into the drought of summer. Pause.
5 My sin acknowledge, °and my iniquity PI have not hid; PI said, confess concerning my transgressions to Jehovah; °and thou P thou didst forgive the iniquity of my sin. Pause.
6 For this every one that is godly 'shall pray to thee in a time of bfinding; surely in the flood of great waters 'they will not come nigh to him.
7 Thou art a hiding-place for me; from trouble 'thou wilt preserve me; with songs of deliverance 'thou wilt compass me about Pause.
144 'TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-XLI.
8 will instruct thee °and 'teach thee in what way
'thou shalt go; will guide over thee mine eye.
9 'You shall not be as horse, as mule, without bunderstanding; with bit "and bridle their mouth bto restrain, that there be not bthe drawing near to thee.
10 Many sorrows are to the wicked; "but The dtruster in Jehovah, loving-kindness 'shall compass him about.
11 °Be glad in Jehovah, °and °rejoice, ye righteous; °and °shout for joy, all ye upright in heart.
Psa. 33
1 eRejoice, ye righteous, in Jehovah; for the upright praise is comely.
2 ° Praise Jehovah with harp, with psaltery of ten strings, c sing to him.
3 °Sing ye to him a new song, edo well in bplaying with a loud noise.
4 For right is the word of Jehovah, °and all his works are in truth:
5 dLoving righteousness °and judgment, he; with the loving kindness of Jehovah The earth Pis full;
6 By the word of Jehovah the heavens P were made, °and by the breath of his mouth all their host;
7 d Gathering together as an heap the waters of The sea, slaying up in stores the depths;
8 All The earth 'shall fear Jehovah, all dthe inhabitants of the world 'shall be in awe of him.
9 For he Pspoke, °and 'it exists; Phe commanded, °and 'it stands fast.
10 Jehovah Pbrought to naught the counsel of the Nations, Pile made the devices of the Peoples of none effect.
11 The counsel of Jehovah 'stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
TRANSLATION OF PSALMS I.-XLI. 145
12 Blessed is The Nation whose Elohim is Jehovah, The People Phe has chosen for an inheritance to himself.
13 From the heavens Plooked down Jehovah, Phe beheld all the sons of The man.
14 From the place of bhis dwelling Phe looked to all d those inhabiting The earth.
15 d The one forming their hearts alike, dThe one considering all their works.
16 No one who is The king is "saved by the multitude of a host, a mighty one 'is not delivered by much strength.
17 Vain The horse for safety, °and not by his great strength is he saved.
18 Behold, the eye of Jehovah is on those fearing him, on dthose hoping in his kindness,
19 bTo deliver from death their soul, °and bto keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul Phas waited on Jehovah, our help °and our shield is he.
21 For in him 'rejoices our heart, for P we trusted in the name of his holiness.
22 Thy kindness, Jehovah, 'is on us, as P we hoped in thee.
Psa. 34
1 David's. bIn his changing his conduct before Abimelech; °and 'he drives him away, °and 'he departs.
2 bless Jehovah at all times, continually his praise
is in my mouth.
3 In Jehovah my soul 'shall make her boast; the humble 'shall hear °and the glad.
4 eMagnify Jehovah with me, °and 'we will exalt his name together.
5 PI sought Jehovah, °and Phe heard me, and from all my fears P delivered me.
6 PThey looked to him, °and P were enlightened, °and their faces rare not ashamed.
7 This poor man Pcried, °and Jehovah Pheard, rand out of all his troubles Psaved him
8 dEnc,amping is the angel of Jehovah round about to those fearing him, °and 'he will deliver them.
9 eTaste °and °see that Jehovah is good; blessed is The mighty man that trusts in him.
10 eFear Jehovah, ye his saints, for no want is there to those fearing him.
11 Young lions Phave lacked, °and Phungered, °but dthose seeking Jehovah 'shall not want any good.
12 °Come, children, °hearken to me, will teach you the fear of Jehovah.
13 Who is The man The one desiring life, dloving days to "see good in?
14 °Keep thy tongue from evil, °and thy lips from bspeaking
15 °Depart from evil, °and edo good; °seek peace, °and °pursue it.
16 The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, °and his ears toward their cry.
17 The face of Jehovah is against dthose doing wrong, bto cut off from the earth the remembrance of them.
181 'Men have cried, °and Jehovah Phas heard, °and P delivered them out of all their troubles.
19 Nigh is Jehovah to dthe broken of heart, °and the contrite of spirit 'he saves.
20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, "but out of them all Jehovah "delivers him;
21 Keeping all his bones, one of them Phas not been broken.
22 Evil 'shall slay the wicked, °and dthose hating the righteous 'shall be desolate.
23 Jehovah dis redeeming the soul of his servants, °and not any of dThose trusting in him 'shall be desolate.
Psa. 35
1 For David. eContend, Jehovah, with dthose contending with me; e fight against dthose fighting against me.
2 el'ake hold of shield °and buckler, 'and estand up for my help;
3 °And edraw out the spear, °and estop bthe meeting with me dof those persecuting me; esay to my soul, thy salvation am I.
4 'They shall be confounded °and 'shall be put to shame dthose seeking after my soul; 'they shall be turned back 'and 'brought to confusion ddevising my hurt;
5 'They shall be as chaff before the wind, 'and the angel of Jehovah dachasing;
6 Their way 'shall be darkness 'and slippery; 'and the angel of Jehovah dperseeuting them;
7 For without cause Phave they hid for me their net in a pit, without cause Pthey digged it for my soul;
8 Destruction 'shall come on him, not 'shall he know of it, °and his net.which Phe hid 'shall catch himself; into destruction 'he shall fall in it.
9 'And my soul 'shall be joyful in Jehovah; 'it shall rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones 'shall say, Jehovah, who is like to thee, ddelivering the poor from the stronger than he; 'yea, the poor °and needy from him depoiling him.
11 'There rise up witnesses of violence, who 'lay to my change things PI knew not.
12 'They reward me evil for good, a spoiling of my
soul.
148. TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-XLI.
13 °And I, bin their being sick, my clothing was sackcloth, PI humbled my soul with fasting, "and my prayer 'returns to my bosom.
14 As a friend, as a brother to me, PI behaved myself; as one mourning a mother PI bowed down, dbeing heavy.
15 "But in my adversity Pthey rejoiced, "and Pwere gathered together, the abjects Pwere gathered together against me, "and PI knew it not; Pthey did tear me, "and P ceased not.
16 With hypocritical mockers at feasts, bgnashing on me with their teeth.
17 Adonay, how long 'wilt thou look on? °rescue my soul from their destructions, from the lions my darling.
18 will give thee thanks in the great congregation;
among a strong People will praise thee.
19 dMy enemies wrongfully 'shall not rejoice over me; dthose hating me without a cause 'shall not wink the eye.
20 For not peace 'speak they, "and against the quiet in the land. 'they devise deceitful things.
21 "Yea, 'they open wide their mouth against the; Pthey said Aha, aha, our eye Phas seen it.
22 PThou hast seen, Jehovah, 'thou wilt not keep silence; Adonay, 'thou wilt not be far from me.
23 °Stir up thyself, °and °awake to my judgment, my Elohim "and Adonay to my cause.
24 eJudge me according to thy righteousness, Jehovah my Elohim; "and 'they will not rejoice over me.
25 'They will not say in their hearts, Aha, our soul, [our desire this]; 'they will not say, PWe have swallowed him up.
26 'They will be ashamed,'"and 'brought to confusion
together, dthose rejoicing at my hurt; 'they will be clothed
with shame "and dishonor, d Those magnifying against me.
27 'They shall shout for joy, "and 'be glad that favor my righteousness, vand 'they shall say continually: Jehovah 'shall be magnified, The one taking pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
28 vAnd my tongue 'shall speak of thy righteousness; all The day of thy praise.
Psa. 36
1 For dthe chief Musician. Of David, servant of Jehovah.
2 The transgression of the wicked d is saying in the inside of my heart,-there is no fear of Elohim before his eyes,
3 For Phe has flattered himself in his eyes, to bthe finding of his iniquity bto be hateful;
4 The words of his mouth are iniquity "and deceit:, Phe has left off bto be wise bto do good;
5 Mischief 'he devises on his bed, %e sets himself on a way not good, evil 'he abhors not.
6 Jehovah in The heavens is thy loving-kindness; thy faithfulness unto the clouds;
.7 Thy righteousness is as the mountains of El.; thy judgments are a great deep; Man "and beast 'thou preservest Jehovah.
8 How excellent is thy loving-kindness, Elohim; "therefore the children of men 'trust under the shadow of thy wings.
9 'They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, "and of the river of thy pleasures 'thou wilt make them drink.
10 For with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light f we see light.
11 °Continue thy loving-kindness dto those knowing thee, °and thy righteousness to the upright of heart.
12 The foot of pride 'shall not come against me, °and the hand of the wicked 'shall not remove me.
13 There Phave fallen dthose working iniquity, Pthey have been cast down, °and Phave not been able to rise.
Psa. 37
1 Of David, 'Thou shalt not fret thyself because of d evil-doers; 'thou shalt not be envious against dthe workers of iniquity.
2 For like grass 'they shall quickly be cut down, °and as the green herb 'wither.
3 °Trust in Jehovah, °and °do good; °dwell in the land, °and °feed in truth.
4 °And °delight thyself in Jehovah; °and 'he will give to thee the desires of thy heart;
5 °Commit to Jehovah thy. way, °trust °also in him, °and 'he will bring it to pass;
6 °And "he has caused to come forth as the light thy righteousness, °and thy judgment as the noonday.
7 °Rest in Jehovah, 'and °wait patiently for him; 'thou shalt not fret thyself at shim who prospers in his way, at the man dbringing wicked devices to pass.
8 °Cease from anger, °and °forsake wrath; 'thou shalt not fret thyself in any wise bto do evil,
9 For devil-doers 'shall be cut off; °and dthose waiting on Jehovah, these 'shall inherit the earth.
10 °For yet a little while, °and none wicked; °yea, P thou halt diligently considered his place, 'and there is none of it.
11 °But the meek 'shall inherit the earth; °and Pthey have delighted themselves in the abundance of peace.
12 The wicked is "plotting against the just, °and dgnashing on him his teeth.
13 Adonay 'will laugh at him, for Phe has seen that his day 'comes.
14 Sword, the wicked Phave drawn out; "and Phave bent their bow, bto cast down the poor °and needy, bto slay, the upright in the way.
15 Their sword 'shall enter into their own heart, °and their bows 'shall be broken.
16 A little to the righteous man is good more than the riches of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked 'shall be broken, °but dupholding the righteous is Jehovah.
18 Jehovah "is knowing the days of the upright, °and their inheritance 'shall be forever;
19 They shall not be ashamed in the time of evil, °and in days of famine 'they shall be satisfied:
20 For the winked 'shall perish, °and dthe enemies of Jehovah be as the fat of lambs; Pthey have consumed away, in smoke Pthey have consumed away.
21 A wicked man is "borrowing, °and he will not repay, "but a righteous man dis showing mercy °and "giving:
22 For dthe blessed of him 'shall inherit the earth, °and "the cursed of him they shall be cut off.
23 Of Jehovah, the steps of a great man Phave been ordered, °and in his way %e delights.
24 Though the falls, 'he shall not be utterly cast down, for Jehovah "is upholding his hand.
25 Young PI have been, also PI have become aged; °yet P have I not seen the righteous " forsaken, °or his seed d begging bread;
26 All The day dhe is showing mercy, ciand dlending; 'rand his seed is for a blessing.
27 °Depart from evil, vand cdo good, °and edwell for evermore.
28 For Jehovah diS loving judgment, 'rand the forsakes not his saints, forever Pthey have been preserved; vand the seed of the wicked Phas been cut off.
29 The righteous 'shall inherit the land, "and 'dwell on it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous 'speaks wisdom 'rand hi3 tongue 'talks of judgment;
31 The law of his Elohim is in his heart, not 'shall slide his steps:
32 dWatching is the wicked against the righteous, 'wand dseeking to bslay him;
33 Jehovah 'will not leave him in his hand, vand 'will not condemn him bin his being judged.
34 cWait on Jehovah °and "keep his way, vand the will exalt thee bto inherit the land, bin the cutting off of the wicked 'thou shalt see it.
35 PI have seen the wicked in great power, 'rand dspreading himself like a green bay tree.
36 °Yet the passes, and lo, there is none of him, °and seek him, 'but Phe was not found.
37 °Mark the perfect, °and cbehold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.
38 °But dthose transgressing Phave been destroyed together; the end of the wicked Phas been cut off.
39 'But the salvation of the righteous is from JehovAb; he is their strength in time of trouble.
40 °And Jehovah 'helps them, vand 'delivers them; the delivers them from the Wicked, °and 'saves them, for Pthey have trusted in him,
Psa. 38
1 A Psalm of David, bto bring to remembrance.
2 Jehovah, 'thou wilt not in thy wrath rebuke Me, 'or in thy hot displeasure 'chasten me.
3 For thine arrows Phave stuck fast in me, "and thy hand 'presses sore on me;
4 No soundness in my flesh in the presence of thine anger; no rest in my bones in the presence of my sin.
5 For my iniquities Phave gone over my head, as a burden which is heavy; they are too heavy for me.
6 PThey have stunk, Pthey have been corrupt my wounds, in presence of my foolishness.
7 PI have -been troubled, Pbowed down, very much! all The day PI have gone dmourning;
8 For my loins Phave been full of da loathsome thing, "and no soundness is in my flesh.
9 PI have been feeble "and Pbroken, very much; PI have roared from the disquietness of my heart.
10 Adonay, before thee is all my desire; "and my groaninc, from thee Phas not been hidden.
11 My heart Phas panted; Pfailed me has my strength; "and light of my eyes, these also are not with me.
12 dMy lovers "and my friends from my sore 'stand aloof, "and my kinsmen afar off Phave stood.
13 "And they lay snares d those seeking my soul; "and d those following after my hurt Phave spoken mischievous things, "and deceits all The day 'they imagine
14 °But 1,-as deaf fI hear not, "and am as one dumb, 'he opens not his mouth.
15 "Thus fI am as a man that is not shearing; vand in his mouth are no reproofs
6—Ministry of GVW, Vol. 11/III
154 TRANSLATION OF PSALMS L-XLI.
16. For in thee, Jehovah, Phave I hoped; thou 'wilt hear, Adonay. my Elohim.
17 For PI said lest 'they rejoice over me; bin the slipping of my feet Pthey have magnified against me.
18 For I for halting dam ready, °and my wound is continually before me.
19 For my iniquity, will declare it; 'I will be sorry for my sin.
20 °But d my enemies are lively; P they have been strong; 'and dthose hating me wrongfully Phave multiplied.
21 °Also d those rendering evil for good 'hate me for bmy following of good.
22 'Thou wilt not forsake me, Jehovah; my Elohim, 'thou wilt not be far from me.
23 cHaste to my help, Adonay, my salvation.
Psa. 39
1 For dthe chief-Musician, to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
2 PI said, will keep my ways, bfrom sinning- with my tongue; will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
3 PI was dumb with silence, PI held my peace from good; °and my sorrow Pwas stirred;
4 PHot was my heart within me; in my musing, the fire 'burns; P I spake with my tongue.
5 eMake me to knoW, Jehovah, my end, °and the measure of my days, what it is; shall know how frail I am.
6 Behold, hand breadths Phast thou made my days; °and mine age is as nothing before thee, surely all vanity is every man. d standing. Pause.
7 Surely in a vain show man 'walks; surely 'they are disquieted with, vanity; 'he heaps up and 'knows not who dthe one gathering of them shall be.
8 vAnd now, Adonay, what Phave I waited for? my hope in thee it is.
9 From all my transgressions edeliver me; reproach of the fool 'thou wilt not make me;
10 PI was dumb,'I open not my mouth; for thou Pdidst
it.
11 eRemove from me thy stroke; by the blow of thy hand I Phave been consumed;.
12 With rebukes for sin Pthou has corrected man, vend Pthou makest to consume away, like a moth, his beauty: Surely every man is vanity. Pause.
13 eHear my prayer, Jehovah, vend to my ery egive ear; at my tears 'thou wilt not hold thy peace, for a stranger am I with thee, a sojourner as all my fathers.
14 eSpare me, vand fI shall recover strength, before go "and am no more.
Psa. 40
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 bWaiting PI waited for Jehovah; "and 'he inclines to me, vand 'hears my cry.
3 vAnd 'he will bring me out of a horrible pit, out of clay of The mire, vand 'will set on the rock my feet, Phe has established my goings;
4 vAnd 'he will put in my mouth a new song, praise to our Elohim; many 'shall see "and 'fear vend 'trust in Jehovah.
5 Blessed The mighty one who Phas made Jehovah his trust, "and has not turned to the proud "and dthose turning aside to falsehood.
6 Many things thou Phast done Jehovah, my Elohim; thy wonderful works vand thy thoughts to us-ward; there is no breckoning up unto thee. 'Will I declare vand 'tell them Pthey have been more than ba reckoning.
7 Sacrifice vand offering Pthou hast not desired; ears Phast thou opened for me; burnt-offering vand sin-offering Phast thou not required.
8 Then P said I, Lo, PI have come: in the roll of the book dit is written of me;
9 To bdo thy will, my Elohim, PI have delighted; "and thy law is within my heart.
10 PI have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo, my lips withhold not, Jehovah, thou Phast known it.
11 Thy righteousness PI hid not within my heart; thy faithfulness and thy salvation PI have declared, PI have not concealed thy loving-kindness vand thy truth from the great congregation.
12 Thou,Jehovah, 'wilt not withhold thy tender mercies from me; thy loving-kindness vand thy truth continually 'will preserve me.
13 For evils till there was no number P encompassed me about; my iniquities Phave taken hold on me, vand PI have not been able to blook up; Pthey have been more than the hairs of my head, ''and my heart P failed me.
14 "Be pleased, Jehovah, to bdeliver me; Jehovah, to my help "haste.
15 'They shall be ashamed vand 'confounded together dthose seeking after my soul to bdestroy it; 'they shall be driven back °and 'put to shame wishing me evil.
16 'They shall be desolate for reward of their shame dThose saying to me, Aha, aha.
17 'They shall rejoice °and be glad in thee all dseeking thee; 'they shall say continually, Jehovah 'shall be magnified dthose loving thy salvation.
18 °And I, poor °and needy; Adonay 'thinks of me: my help °and duly deliverer thou. My Elohim 'thou wilt make no tarrying.
Psa. 41
1 For dthe chief-Musician. A Psalm of David.
2 Blessed is dhe considering of the poor; in the day of trouble, Jehovah 'will deliver him.
3 Jehovah 'will preserve him, °and 'keep him alive; °and Phe has been blessed on the earth; °and 'thou wilt not deliver him up to the will of dhis enemies.
4 Jehovah 'will strengthen him on the bed of languishing; Pthou past made all his lying-down in his sickness.
5 I Psaid, Jehovah, the merciful to me; cheal my soul; for PI•have sinned against thee.
6 dMy enemies 'speak evil of me, When will 'he die, °and his name Phave perished.
7 °And if Phe has come to bsee, 'he speaks vanity; his heart 'gathers iniquity to it; 'he will go forth, 'he speaks it abroad.
8 Together against me 'whisper all dhating me; against me 'they devise evil against me.
9 An evil disease d cleaving fast to him; °and now that Phe has laid down, the will not repeat bto rise up.
10 Also the individual of my peace, in whom PI trusted, dhe eating my bread,' Phas lifted up the heel against me.
11 °But thou, Jehovah, °be merciful to me, °and °raise me up, °and will requite them.
12 By this Phave I known that Pthou hast delighted in me; for d my enemy f does not triumph over me.
13_ vAnd I, in my integrity P thou hast upheld me; °and fsettest me before thy face forever.
14 dBlessed• be Jehovah Elohim of Israel from The everlasting!and to The everlasting. Amen, "and Amen.
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Examination of the Hebrew Bible as to the Structure and Idiom of the Language

The Tenses: Their Force, And How To Be Rendered.
The tenses in Hebrew need fresh examination. Nothing but a careful study of them as they occur in the Bible can give a satisfactory solution to the difficulties and uncertainties which exist in many minds as to them.
In Hebrew verbs there are three moods-the Indicative, the Infinitive, and the Imperative—and, besides these, two participles. The indicative has two tenses, which I will call {x} and {z} for the present. The questions are, as to these ({x} and {z}), firstly, Do they carry in themselves a time of their own? or is the time which they express dependent upon the connection in which they stand?
Let us look at them, first, in Genesis; from chap. 1:1 to chap. 2:3.
Chap. 1:1, 2: " In the beginning God {x} created the heavens and the earth. And the earth {x} was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
The form, marked {x} is called Preterite by the Hebraists.
Note this: " In the beginning," here, does not mean 'of creation;’ for (Job 38:4-7) angels existed when the foundations of the earth were laid. Again, though it does refer to the commencement of the globe on which we are, it was not the commencement of ‘the earth as prepared for man.' That begins in verse 3; and between the paragraphs (vv. 1, 2) and that beginning at verse 3, there is a gap, which is blank and void. Some geologists, in self-sufficient ignorance, who wish to find fault with Scripture, do not see either this, or that if the theories which they advocate are right, they must have been in the said gap; for the verses 1 and 2 describe a state not suited to much for which they demand a place. And the same is true of the paragraph which begins with verse 3; but there is the gap between the two, and Scripture, in saying nothing of it or its contents, leaves it a blank.
Paragraph 1 contains a narration, in which the origin of this globe (heaven and earth) is ascribed to God; the formless and void condition of it is named, and darkness being over the deep; but the Spirit of God also was moving on the face of the waters.
Thus, what first came into being, God {x} created; and darkness {x} was, &c.; both these verbs are in the perfectly past time. The mind is thrown back to "the beginning," and to what was originated there, and the state of it. God created,’ and 'what He created was, &c. Here the object seems to be to mark that the originator was God as Creator.
In paragraph 2 (beginning with verse 3), on the contrary, we get a series of actings connected in one, each acting a step towards a whole. Six days, and their characteristic marks put upon them by God; and then a seventh, a day of rest.
Between these two paragraphs, when they are compared together, there is contrast. They cannot be made into one and the same series. But there may have been a gap between them, undefined as to extent and what was in it. Nothing could more mark, to my mind, the perfectly past time expressed, as above, by {x} "created" and {x} "was," and their isolatedness as in paragraph 1. They are the first occurrences of the preterite form, and so are the more calculated to impress the mind; and the perfectly past time is stamped upon them by the context, and not only by the name given to them by the grammarians; so that I shall use p henceforth- instead of {x}.
Paragraph 2. Verses 3-5: "And God {z} said, {z} Let there be light: and there {z} was light. And God {z} saw the light, that it was good: and God {z} divided the light from the darkness. And God {z} called the light Day, and the darkness {p} He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Hebrews "And the evening {z} was and the morning {z} was, a first day.")
Here we have six instances of {z} (called by the old grammarians future, and by the moderns present), then one {p}, and then in Hebrew two more occurrences of {z}—all translated alike, by a past (but which here, however, would sometimes be more like an imperfect than a proper perfect tense).
It might be translated differently, thus: ‘And God {z} saith, Light {z} is, and there {z} is light. And God {x} sees the light, that it is good: and God {z} divides the light from the darkness. And God {z} calls the light Day, and the darkness {p} He called Night. And evening {z} is and morning {z} is, a first day.'
I see, as I judge, what led Hebrew rabbis astray sometimes, and what also misled Gentile translators into doing violence, in the translation of the tenses, and moods too, here and elsewhere. The rabbis, on the one hand, made their 'observations on the text; and Gentile translators too soon turned to man-made grammars, and too little kept their minds in lively examination of the sacred text. On the other hand, while I admit that the, idioms of the languages into which translators (whether Greek, or Latin, or English) sought to render that which was in the Hebrew did not readily admit the very forms of the Hebrew, this is all that I can as yet grant. And this, of course, raises a question as to the competency of the translators for their work, and is a proof of the need and the value of every such tentative paper as this. But if the mind of the respective translators rules in the LXX, in the Vulgate, in Jerome's, and in the English versions, ere I dare to submerge the Hebrew idiom, &c., altogether, and go to sea without a compass as to moods and tenses, I would say, Let us look carefully to the Hebrew, and, see what the facts of the case are.
I observe then, firstly, that the English gives the paragraph 2 as a historical record: "God said,... Let there be light,... light was," &c. Now, this is just as if there had been no break after verse 2, and that the account given in verses 1 and 2 (paragraph 1), which was correctly so given, was being continued through paragraph 2.
On the contrary, the Hebrew, more like the gospels by far, seems to give a vividness to what begins in verse 3, because it brings us into the scene itself where God is presented as a living Person in present action, and this living Person's actions and words characterize the whole paragraph onward.
I know, by their omission of Peh at the commencement of verse 3, that the rabbis did not see that a new paragraph began with verse 3; but any one that weighs the matter will see that it is the commencement of an entirely new paragraph. It has a vacuum before it occurs, sufficiently large for all the geologists, but it has no background; the vacuum is of most undefined space and occupation; on the other side of which is the origin of the globe and its chaos state, yet under the Spirit of God. If the various displays of creation of which the geologists, speak occupied that gap, they all had ceased and passed, when the living God is seen as personally present, and introducing an entirely new and orderly system of things. He is in living display, and He says, speaks, sees, divides, calls, creates, makes, &c., and the very variety of His ways and actings is a proof of the same.
I have spoken of {x}, the first tense, a preterite, which will, I anticipate, be found by us to be always, in one way and sense or in another, a tense carrying its own time, and that a perfect. Apparent exceptions are not always real ones, and the uses too to which a tense may be put may have to be considered.
As to {z}, the second tense, called a future by the old, and a present by many grammarians, I have thought that in some cases, following a past, it might be to mark and consequently thereon,' or ‘after that past, now so and so.' But here I may raise a question or two for examination and testing; viz., whether the great mistake has not flowed from this, that grammars and rules have been formed too hastily by man, after partial examination of the text, and too readily accredited? Again, does the second tense ({z}) possess, and carry with it any time of its own? or is it not rather dependent, or contingent, on its immediate context for the time it marks?
I am not at present aware of any occurrence in which it could be rendered correctly by a past time. Dependent upon the context, it may carry the present time or a future time, and does so, as I believe, constantly in Scripture.
To call {x} a preterite, and, in an initiatory sentence, to translate it by a present (as in Psa. 1:1), falsifies the text, and changes (in that case) the doctrine, connecting three verbs with men, and not with the Anointed. The translators, perhaps, thought that they were protected (in Gen. 1:3, in rendering what they called future tenses by past tenses) by what seemed to them the historic character of the narration, or for some reason which I do not know; but I cannot receive their doing so without proof of its correctness.
In Gen. 1:3 the living God is present, and He will say,' &c. (in the future), could not be said; He speaks as in present action, and the present tense alone can be used. I observe, as I pass, that the translators turn the indicative mood, future (as they would say), into an imperative mood, " Let there be light." Thus likewise there are imperatives out of all number in the Psalms in English, where in Hebrew they are in the so-called future. The imperatives thus used in the Psalms turn the energy of hope into the sense of need-which, with a lesser faith, a believer would do-imploring God for help, instead of expressing the assurance of hope. There are eight imperatives in Gen. 1, and the reason of their being used, and the effect on the sense, we shall see when we come to them.
Judging that {z}, instead of being a tense with a time of its own, is nothing of the kind, but dependent or contingent, as to the time which it marks, upon its connection and place in the clause, I have no hesitation in rendering it here, God saith, Light is: and there is light; and He sees, and divides,' &c. That is, the living God, in present action, is that which marks the time: this, and not, as some one has said, because it is always a present; for that it certainly is not. In the fourth day we see this. In verse 14 God speaks, first of what shall be, then of it as according with what was in purpose; and in verse 16 He, in action, creates what He had spoken of in verse 14 as about to be.
Thus verse 14, "And [{z} first a present] ' God saith,' next there shall be' lights [a future] in the firmament of the heavens," &c.; and this was to be so because of something past. These lights ({p}) have been (or were) for signs, &c.; and again, ({p}) they have been (or were) for lights, and so ({z}) it shall be;' but not till verse 16 does His action appear: 'And God {z} makes them, &c., and {z} sets them, &c., and {z} sees that it is good, &c.' (See also the same thing in verses 6-8.) In us, faith leads through difficulties to trust in God, stay on Him, and to hope. So life shows itself. And often the same voice that calls for help under trial will add, a little later, " He will help." That is, when the soul is with God.
Beautiful English is not so good, if it gives us only an approximation to the original (and that not a close one), as a rougher and less polished English, which gives the original as nearly as possible as it stands. Moreover, the change in the mode of presenting the matter to be communicated is a serious change, and without warrant.
When I read from Gen. 1 to 2:3 in the English Bible, I am as one listening to a narration; when I read the same portion in Hebrew, I am as one in the presence of God, the living God in action. Psa. 33:6 is blessed; but Job 38:4-7 is more stirring and impressive. What, so to speak, would Job have given for the answer to it in our present portion! What the grace which has given it to us? Our authorized version, with its many words which have changed their meaning (some of them altogether) since it was written; with its many italic words, put in to make it like English; with its want of uniformity as to the use of the same word in English for the same word in the original (this last because of the king's order, and with the view of showing the largeness of the English vocabulary, &c. &c.), is still (all that notwithstanding) a precious gift from God to the English people. But if it led the way, faith would follow on, through grace, to something better. Ezek. 43:10, 11 may have a word for faith herein.
In verse 5 there is a remarkable change. "And God {x} ‘calls' the light Day, and the darkness {p} 'He called' Night." Why the change here from ‘calls’ to ‘called’- from a present to a past? It is the more marked because found in dealing with the two halves of one whole day.
Again, though less marked, yet in verse 10 a similar thing occurs: " {z} 'calls' the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters {p} He called.' "
And see also verse 27: " {z} 'creates' the man in His own image, in the image of God {p} ‘created’ He him; male and female {p} ‘created’ He them."
In each of these cases the Spirit of God, writing through Moses, changes (if I may so say) His own position for the moment. Writing at first as one personally present, and a present witness of a scene occurring, He uses language befitting that position; but changes it, as to that of one looking back to a scene that is past. Man does the same thing frequently. As to the ‘why' of this here, and as to the rationale of it, I have, at present, nothing to say. The effect of the change I feel to be this, that it draws my mind to the fact of the series which makes up the whole. 'And {z} He calls the light Day, and the darkness {p} He called Night. And evening {z} is and morning {z} is, a first day.' But I could not say that this effect on the mind of the change from ‘calls' to ‘called' was the intention of the writer, so as to be worthy to be called one of the intentional uses of this or similar changes. That it is a mode of speech common to many languages is true. And these remarks apply in a great measure to the two other instances adduced.
On the second day, verses 6-8, I have nothing more to say, having referred above to the proof they afford that {z} has at times a future sense, and why (i.e. the proof of it here), as well as, at other times, a present tense. Being without a time of its own, it is dependent for the time it presents on the connection in which it stands.
On the third day, verses 9-13, I have noticed the change of tense in one place, and have nothing more to add.
On the fourth day, verses 14-19, the ‘shall be' and the ‘is' of {z}, and why (i.e. the proof of it here), has been pointed out above (vv. 14, 15).
On the fifth day, verses 20-23. Here, after saying the things tare, &c., God {z} 'creates' certain ones, and "which the waters {p} brought forth," are the expressions used. Then we first get the "imperative mood" used. They being in existence, through creatorial power, He commands them, by procreation, to "be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the seas," and declares that "the fowl {z} shall multiply"- another future, with {z}, and not a present.
On the sixth, day, verses 24-31, "God saith, The earth brings forth" (v. 24), and (v. 25) "God makes;" verse 26, " He saith, We will make Adam," and " they shall have dominion "-futures, and not presents (see above for the why); verse 27, "created" (as above), and then "be fruitful, multiply, and replenish, and subdue it, and have dominion "-all imperatives, as marking God's order for enlargement of the various species He had formed, &c.; and that it was not from the mud having a creatorial power in itself, or decomposition either, as some of old taught; or any other folly such as materialists, men learned as to things subjected to sense, have taught. But the power and the wisdom of the originator is that which settles the lines of extension, and, I may add, of maintenance and of protection. But Himself, acting still, though unseen, who at first originated, will in the end close Nature's course.
For maintenance, so far as food is concerned, tne appointment was from Him. (vv. 29, 30.)
Verse 29. {p} "I have given to you " calls the attention, at least, to the change from creation to maintenance. In verse 31 God's scrutiny of the quality of that of which, He was the originator occurs: "And, behold, it is very good;" and to this too, in point of fact, attention is roused by another change of tense from z to p, " God {z} sees everything that {p} He made."
Chap. 2:1-3. Verse 2, "God {z} finishes His work which {p} He made," another such change of tense; and "{z} He rests from all His work which {p} He made" is again another specimen of the same; and a third follows, "{z} sanctifies it: because that in it {p} He rested from all His work which God {p} created to make."
In The Following Illustration,
{p} and {z} above, but just before a verb, mark the two several tenses in Hebrew.
{^} marks where an eth stands in the Hebrew.
The article is marked in Hebrew, where it occurs, by a capital T in the word The. The demonstrative article may be noticed, where it occurs, in notes. " The serpent," chap. 3:1, might better be "a certain serpent;" and Isa. 7:14, " a certain virgin," &c. These are demonstrative pronouns.
{ye} denotes the article supplied in English to make sense.
Words in italics are supplementary, to help the English.
{a} above, but just before a word, marks a participle; {b} an infinitive; {c} an imperative.
ה is at times the article, and at times a demonstrative pronoun, and at times an interrogation, equal to "?" as in chap. 3:11 and 4:7, 9.
Remarks.
1. Gen. 1:3. "And Elohim," &c. If the force of {z} is dependent as to time upon context, it would pretty nearly amount to a ‘then' or a ‘now.' "And then Elohim " (in Hebrew text), &c., would be "And consequently thereon Elohim," &c. This ‘consequently thereon' would be very indefinite as to the date or thing of which it was a consequence. The interval between that referred to and the sequence to it might be a night or ten thousand years; so that the gap referred to above is not affected by it. On the other hand, if Elohim speaks of what He knows to be existent, the verb {z} would be rendered by a present; or if, secondly, of what He means to exist afterward, then it would be rendered in English by a future.
This ‘consequently thereon' would thus make {z}, as tied to a past of old date, in some sense a past historically; and yet the series might be consecutive as to the action of each, as of the above verbs. {z}'s (consequent upon a defined past) go on to the middle of verse 5, when another past ({p}) is introduced. Whether or not the {p} is introduced here to mark the close of Elohim's actings in a first period may be considered. In such case the rest of the verse would be a break between the periods merely. On the other hand, it might be said, If so, would it not have been before morning-the close of the first day?
2. And then, verse 6, another series of such {z}'s (consequent upon a defined past) follows. What is that defined Past? Query, verses 1 and 2, or {p} 'called' in verse 5? If it be said, "No; but of first day" that is a definite period indeed; but {p} ‘called,' verse 5, is twelve hours before the light which closed the first day. Yet a series does begin, verse 6, of such {z}'s, which runs on to called ‘seas,' verse 10. ‘Seas' in contrast here with rain clouds;' but it is in the third day, and not in the second.
3. A third series of such {z}'s begins in verse 10, and rims on to verse 14. The same and similar queries may be raised as before.
Again, a series of {z}'s runs on to verse 21: " He {z} creates whales, &c., which the waters {p} brought forth abundantly.” It may be that ‘creates' and ‘brought forth abundantly' are in contrast. But here the p neither marks a close of any series, or the commencement of another. Used at haphazard it could not be by God. Can it be that the use of {p} here is explained in its more immediate and private context? As in the contrast between night' and day,' between ‘seas' and ‘rain clouds,' so here (verse 21) between ‘whales, &c., created,' and 'the waters multiplying,' &c. This is in the fifth day.
4. In the next series of {z}'s, which is in the sixth day, queries as before might be raised. And, query, from middle of 21 to 27, Is the narration according to the lapse of time in order in the occurrences? And notice the correspondence between 20, 21, and 24, 25.
Verse 27. " {p} He created him in the image of God, male and female {p} created He them." Then three {z}'s and five imperatives (which are future yet as to the time in which spoken), which give, therefore, a defined past, as date of departure, to what is consequent to the command. And then, verse 29, " Behold, {p} I have given."
2 {p}'s, 'created,' 'created;' a defined time. 5 imperatives; a defined time. A {p}, ' have given;' a defined time.
Verse 29, {z} ‘it is' or 'shall be;' verse 30, {z} ‘it is so;' verse 31, {z} ‘sees.'
Verse 31, {p} ‘made,' a defined past; evening {z} is,’ ‘morning {z} is.’
N.B.-Also the participles-their times of qualifying, inherent in that which they qualify; though the time of their being given dependent on God's acting in giving.
Chapter 2. Verse 1, consequent on the six days' creation, {z} ‘are finished;' verse 2, {z} 'ends,' {p} ‘made,' {z} 'rests;’ {p} 'he made;' verse 3, {z} 'blesses,' {z} ‘sanctifies it;' {p} 'rested,' {p} ‘created.'
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Translation of Genesis 1:1-12-4:26

SECTION 1. In ye beginning Elohim PcreatedA The heavens ands The earth: 2 and The earth P was without form, and void; and darkness on ye face of ye deep. And y° Spirit of Elohim 'moving on ye face of The waters.
3 And Elohim zsaith, light zis, and z there is light. 4 And Elohim zsees The light, that it is good; and Elohim Z divides between The light and The darkness. 5 And Elohim Zcalls The light day, and The darkness Phe called night. And evening zis and morning zis, a first day.
6 And Elohim zsaith, z there shall be a firmament in ye midst of The waters, and L it shall be adividing between waters and waters. 7 And Elohim zmakes The
firmament, and zhe divides between The waters which are under The firmament, and The waters which are above The firmament; and Zit is so. 8 And Elohim z calls The firmament heavens. And evening zis and morning zis, a second day.
9 And Elohim zsaith, The waters under The heavens zshall be gathered together to one place, and The dry land Zshall be seen, and so zit is; and Elohim zcalls The dry land earth, and ye gathering together of The waters Phe called seas, and Elohim zsees that it is good. " And Elohim zsaith, The earth z brings forth grass, herb a seeding seed, and tree of fruit aproducing fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, on The earth; and so zit is. 'a And The earth zbrings forth
grass, herb aseeding seed after its kind, and tree aproducing fruit, whose seed is in it, after its kind; and Elohim zsees that it is good. 13 And evening zis and morning zis, a third day.
14 And Elohim zsaith, zthere shall be lights in ye firmament of The heavens, to "divide between The day and The night; and P they have been (or were) for signs and for seasons, and for days and years: 15 and P they have been (or were) for lights in ye firmament of The heavens to give light on The earth, and so zit shall be.
i6 And Elohim zmakes,,Those two The lights The great ones; That light that great one for ye rule of The day, and That light, That lesser (lit. little one) for ye rule of The night;,,The stars also. 17 And Elohim z sets Athem in ye firmament of The heavens to bgive light on The earth, and " b to rule over The day and over The night, and to bdivide between The light and The darkness, and Elohim 2sees that it is good. '9 And evening zis and morning zis, a fourth day.
2° And Elohim zsaith, The waters zbring forth (or shall.bring forth) abundantly ye creeping things of living being, and fowl allies (or shall fly) over The earth in ye face of ye firmament of The heavens; 21 and Elohim z creates great whales [The whales The great] and,every living being aThat is creeping, which The waters P brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and,every winged fowl after its kind, and Elohim zsees that it is good. 22 And Elohim zblesses Athem, "saying, ebe fruitful and emultiply and efill,The waters in The seas, and The fowl zshall multiply on The earth. 23 And evening zis and morning zis, a fifth day.
24 And Elohim zsaith, The earth z brings forth ye living being after its kind, cattle and reptile and its living creature of ye earth after its kind, and so zit is. 25 And
Elohim zmakes Aye living creature of The earth after its kind and,,The cattle after its kind and A every reptile of The earth after its kind, and Elohim zsees that it is good.
26 And Elohim zsaith, z we will make man (Adam) in, our image, after our likeness, and zthey shall have dominion over ye fish of The sea, and over ye fowl of The heavens, and over The cattle, and over all The earth, and over.every reptile aThat is creeping on The earth.
27 So Elohim zcreates The man (Adam) in his own image, in ye image of Elohim Pcreated he,him; male and female Pcreated he,,them. 28 And Elohim zblesses Ahem, and Elohim zsaith to them, e Be fruitful, and emultiply, and ereplenish „The earth, and e subdue it; and ehave dominion over ye fish of The sea, and over ye fowl of The heavens and over every living thing a That is creeping on The earth.
29 And Elohim zsaith, behold PI have given to you,every herb aseeding seed, which is on ye face of all The earth, and every tree, in which is ye fruit of a tree ayielding seed, to you zit is for food; 3° and to every living creature of The earth and to every fowl of The heavens and to everything acreeping on The earth, wherein is living being, „every green herb for food, and so zit is. 31 And Elohim zsees everything that Phe made, and, behold, it is very good. And evening zis and morning zis, The sixth day.
Chap. ii. And The heavens and The earth zbecome finished, and all their host. 2 And, on The 7th day Elohim zfinishes his work which Phe made, and zhe rests on The seventh day from all his work which Phe made.
3 And Elohim zblesses The seventh day, and zsancti:-. fies it; because that in it Phe rested from all his work which Elohim Pcreated b to make.
SECTION 2. 4 These are ye generations of The heavens and The earth in btheir being created, in ye day of,bye making by (of) Jehovah Elohim of earth and heavens: 5 and of every plant of The field before zit is on earth; and of every herb of The field before zit grows; for Jehovah Elohim P caused it not to rain on The earth, and man (Adam) there was none to btill.,The ground, 6 and a mist zgoes up from The earth and P watered ye face of The ground.
7 And Jehovah Elohim z forms.The man (or, Adam) of dust from The ground, and.° breathes in his nostrils ye breath of life; and The man (or, Adam) zbecomes a living soul. 8 And Jehovah Elohim plants a garden in Eden, eastward, and zputs there,,The man (Adam) whom Phe formed. 9 And Jehovah Elohim °causes to grow out of The ground every tree apleasant to sight, and good for food; and tree of The life in ye midst of The garden, and tree of The knowledge of good and evil.
je And a river a is going out of Eden bto water,,The garden; and thence zit is parted, and Pbecanie four heads. 12 ye name of The first Pishon; that is aThe one compassing,all ye land of The Havilah, where there is The gold; 22 and gold of. The land The that (or, of that very land) is-good; there is The bdellium and a stone The onyx. '3 And ye name of The river The second is Gihon; that aThe one compassing,.all ye land of Cush. 14 And ye name of The river The third Hiddekel, that is aThe one going eastward of Assyria (or, Ashur), and The river The fourth that is Euphrates.
of z; which the Rabbis call a future, and many moderns a present tense. Read and consider the matter for yourself. That the writer or speaker in Hebrew, if he started with a P, was free to bring in another, and start again, is indisputable. The circumstances under which he would do so and the effect or ejects of so doing we have to weigh up and get light upon.
176 TRANSLATION OF GENESIS IL 15-111. 1.
is And Jehovah Elohim 'takes,The man (or, Adam) and °puts him in ye garden of Eden, to btill it and to bkeep it. i6 And Jehovah Elohim 'commands The man (or, Adam), bsaying, Of every tree of The garden beating zthou shalt eat: '7 but of ye tree of The knowledge of good and evil, zthou shalt not eat of it; for in the day of bthy eating of it, tidying zthou wilt die. i8,And Jehovah Elohim zsaith, It is not good bye being of The man (Adam) alone, zI will make for him a helpmeet for him. '9 And Jehovah Elohim forms out of The ground every living creature of The field, and every fowl of The heavens, and zbrings to The man (Adam) to bsee what zhe calls it: and all that which The man zcalls ye living being, that is its name. '° And The man zcalls names to The every cattle, and to ye fowl of The heavens, and to every living thing of The field; but for man (Adam) P there was not found a help meet for him 2' And Jehovah Elohim 'causes a deep sleep to fall on The man (Adam), and zhe sleeps; and zhe takes one of his ribs, and zhe closes up ye flesh instead of it: " and Jehovah Elohim /builds AThe rib which Phe took out of The man (Adam) for a wife (isha), and zhe causes her to come to The man (Adam). n And The man (Adam) zsays, This (this time, now) is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: for this 'she shall be called woman- (isha), for out of man (ish) this P was taken. '4 Therefore 'shall a man (ish) leave „his father and „his mother, and Phas cleaved to his wife (isha); and Pthey were one flesh. 25 And zthey two were naked, The man (Adam) and his wife (isha), and zare not ashamed.
SECTION 3. And a certain serpent P was subtle above every living creature of The field which Jehovah Elohim Pmade, and 'he says to The woman (isha), It is good sure
that Elohim Psaid; Of every tree of The garden Aye shall not eat. 2 And The woman (isha) zsays to The serpent, Of_ y° fruit of ye tree of The garden zwe eat. 3 And of y° fruit of The tree that is in ye midst of The garden Elohim P said zye shall not eat of it, and zye shall not touch it, lest zye die. 4 And zsays The serpent to The woman, Not bdying zyou shall die. 5 For Elohim ais knowing that in ye day of byour eating of it your eyes P were even opened, and Pyou became as Elohim aknowing good and evil. 6 And The woman zsees that The tree is good for food, and that it is pleasant to The eyes, and The tree ato be desired to bina,ke wise, and zshe takes of its fruit and zeats, and zgives also to her husband with her, and zhe eats.- 7 And zare opened ye eyes of them both, and zthey know that they are naked, and zthey sew leaf of fig and zthey make aprons for themselves. And zthey hear Aye voice of Jehovah Elohim awalking in The garden in ye wind-rise of The day; and The man (Adam) and his wife (ishah) xhide themselves from y9 faee of Jehovah Elohim in ye midst of ye trees of The garden. 9 And Jehovah Elohim °calls to The man (Adam) and zsays to him, Where art thou? '° And zhe says,,Thy voice PI heard in the garden, and 21 fear, for naked am I, and ZI hide myself. " And zhe says, Who Ptold thee that naked art thou? Whether of The tree which PI commanded thee not bto eat of it Phast thou 'eaten? 12 And The man (Adam) zsays, The woman (ishah) that Pthou gavest to be with me, she Pgave to me of The tree, and 31 eat. " And Jehovah Elohim zsays to The woman (ishah), What this Pthou hast done? and zsays The woman (ishah), The serpent Pbeguiled me, and 21 eat. '4 And Jehovah Elohim zsaith•to The serpent, Because Pthou hast done this, a cursed art thou above all The cattle and above all living creature of The field; on thy belly
178 TRANSLATION OF Gen. 3:15-W. 1.
zshalt thou go, and dust zshalt thou eat all ye days of thy life. '5 And zI put enmity between thee and The woman (ishah), and between thy seed and her seed; he zshall bruise thee as to ye head, and thou zshalt bruise him as 6) ye heel. " To The woman (ishah) Pile said, bMultiplying zI will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow z thou shalt bring forth children, and to thy husband (ish) shall be thy desire, and he zshall rule over thee. 17 And to man (Adam) Phe said, Because Pthou hast hearkened to ye voice of thy wife (ishah), and neatest of The tree which PI commanded thee, bsaying, zThou shalt not eat of it, acursed is The ground by reason of thee, in sorrow 'shalt thou eat of it all ye days of thy life. " And thorns and thistles zshalt it cause to bud for thee, and Pthou hast eaten ',the herb of The field. le In sweat of thy face 'shalt thou eat bread till "thy returning to The ground, for out of it P was t thou taken; for dust thou art and to dust 'thou returnest. " And The man (Adam)
zcalls ye name of his wife (ishah) Living; for she P was
mother of all living. 21 And Jehovah Elohim zmakes for Adam and for his wife (ishah) coats of skin and zclothes them. 22 And Jehovah Elohim zsaith, Behold, The man,(Adam) Phas become as one of us to bknow good and evil; and now, lest zhe puts forth his hand, and Phas taken also of ye tree of The life, and Phas eaten and Phas lived forever; '3 and Jehovah, Elohim zsends him forth from ye garden of Eden to btill The ground whence Phe was taken. 24 And zhe drives The man out; and zhe makes to dwell,eastward to ye garden of Eden,,The cherubim and eye flame of The sword a That turns every way, to bkeep the way of ye tree of The life.
SECTION 4. 1 And The man (Adam) Pknew 4Chavah his
TRANSLATION Of GENESIS IV. 2-44. 179
wife, and zshe conceives and Mears,,Cain, and zsays, PI, have gotten a man (ish) from Jehovah. 2 And zshe repeats (adds) b to bear his brother,,Hehvel (Abel); and Abel zis a feeding (a feeder of) sheep, and Cain r was atilling (a tiller of) ground. 3 And zit comes to pass at ye end of some days, and Cain zbrings of ye fruit of The ground an offering to Jehovah. 4 And Abel he also Pbrought of ye firstlings of his sheep and of their fat,, and Jehovah has respect to Abel and to his offering. 5 And to Cain and to his offering 1?he had not respect, and Cain zis very wrath, and his countenance (features) z fall (are lowering). 6 And zsaith Jehovah to Cain, Why is there wrath (Phas wrath kindled in) to thee, and why Phas thy countenance fallen? ' Whether is there not, if zthou doest well acceptance (a rising up, rgik,), and if zthou doest not well at The door a sin (offering) a iS lying and to thee his desire, and thou zrulest (zor shalt rule) over him. a And Cain ztalks with (or to) Abel his brother; and zit comes to pass in btheir being in The field and zCain rises up against Abel his brother, and z slays him. 9 And Jehovah zsaith to Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And z he says, r I have not known.. a The keeper.of my brother am I? '° And zhe says, What Phast thou done? Voice of thy brother's blood a ig crying to me from The ground. "And now acursed art thou from The ground which Phas opened AitS mouth to breceive.ye blood of thy brother from tliy hand.
12 Whei zthou Wiest NThe ground, not zshall it repeat to give its strength to thee; a fugitive and a wanderer zshalt thou be on The earth. 13 And Cain zsays to Jehovah, My iniquity is greater than bto be forgiven. 14 Behold, Pthou hast driven Mme out This day from off ye face of The ground, and from thy face 21 shall be hid, and PI have become a fugitive •and a wanderer on The earth, and Pit
has come to pass that any one a finding me -zwill slay me. is And Jehovah zsaith to him, therefore any one aslaying Cain zhe shall be avenged sevenfold; and Jehovah zsets a sign on Cain, that any one afinding him bmight not kill
'6 And Cain zgoes out from ye presence of Jehovah, and z dwells in ye land of Nod, eastward of Eden.
17 And Cain zknows this wife; and zshe conceives, and zbears.Enoch: and zhe becomes abuilder of a city, and zhe calls ye name of The city according to ye name of his son Chanoch (Enoch). " And z there was born to Enoch
',Ind, and Irad Pbegat,,Mehujael, and Mehujael Pbegat
Methusael, and Methusael P begat ALamech. 19 And
Lamech ztakes to him two wives; y° name of The one Adah, and y° name of The second Zillah. 2° And Adah 2 bears,Jabal; he Pwas father of akin dwelling in tent and cattle. 2' And ye name of his brother was Jubal; he Pwas father of all ahandling harp and organ. "And Zillah, she also P bare,,Tubal-vain a an instructer (improver)
of every aworker in brass and iron; and ye sister of
Tubal-cain was Naamah. And Lamech zsays to his wives, Adah and Zillah, °Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, °hearken to my speech; for PI have slain an individual (ish) to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt 24 for Cain zshall be avenged sevenfold and Lamech seventy and seven-fold.
25 And Adam zknows Allis wife again; and zshe bears a son, and z calls ',his name Sheth: for Elohim Phas set to me another seed instead of Abel, for Cain P slew him. 26 And to Sheth, to him also a son P was born; and zhe calls this name Enosh. Then Pbegan some (or, it was begun) to bcall 2 in the name of Jehovah.
Letters 1.
Switzerland, November 18th, 1853.
Your letter, dear brother in the Lord, was very acceptable to me. It followed me from London, and found me in one of the more remote parts of this land, among the poor brethren in the mountains. I think I have delayed to answer it, as also many others, from a pressure of work, which tied me up to imperative duties, and left your letter, and several others, which were the expression of brotherly communion, unanswered. Now I am laid aside from active work by influenza and pains in the limbs, with partial loss of the voice, and I take up my pen to clear off some of my said arrears.
Your letter did not touch my hand save as a gratuity from the Lord, a token of free grace recognition of me of which I am little worthy; for I count not myself worthy to be thought of by the saints in their exercises and services, as one to whom they can unburden their souls in any way; and when any such communication comes, it is not a liberty they take, but a grace the Lord confers on me.
Every one of us that has been called of God finds more or less that he is isolate unto Him that called him. Those that are in service find it in circumstance as much as all do in spirit. Christ was apart to God. All that Paul got for his own blessing came from God direct; and as to those to whom he, Paul, communicated, if they did not see the Lord, only and apart in what they heard of Paul, it profited not much. There were that heard it as Paul's word, and had high thoughts; of Paul, but the word entered not into their souls, and had not its divine height; and when the whim was passed in them, or when Paul's conduct pleased them not, they turned against, not him only, but His Master's work in him. It is clear if God send me a word by A. B., I must see and hold it as God's word if I am to profit or even love A. B. aright; much more if I am to love A. B. when he does not glitter as the messenger of peace to my soul, but as a rebuker in the Lord's name; or if so it be, as was the case with Paul sometimes, as a man whose will and way are not always divinely perfect.
View the saints as God's heritage, as Balaam viewed the rebellious house of Israel in his visions in the wilderness, and you will find in God what covers a multitude of sins and gives you strength to minister to them. Yet never forget that what makes them precious is that they have received the gospel of peace, Christ Jesus. This keeps our souls in the right place, a luster to theirs in our eyes, an renews in ourselves the value of the grace divine which has expressed itself in so amazing a way by means of the humiliation unto death of Christ Jesus, and of the privileges which flow to us through the Spirit, from Him exalted in glory. The presence of the Spirit and subjection to Him is, I know, the power and measure of our communion down here. We love many as believers in Christ, and wish them well, from whom we are obliged to keep separated. To be a child of God and to hold the place down here proper for a child of God are two things; as they say here, "The Church," and "the testimony," but Christ and the Spirit, are in divine grace united in reality together. But our carnal hearts receive not the testimony of God as to Christ in simplicity, but oft only parts of it, and such parts as we can hold with as little inconvenience to self as possible. So was it not with Paul in the epistle to the Philippians; so shall we wish it not to have been when we see the Lord Himself
G. V. W.
1853.
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Letters 2

My Dear Brother in Christ,—Great pleasure would it give to many to receive details of your exercises and blessings, and of how the Lord, in spite of all the ups and downs, seas running sometimes mountains high, perhaps, gives you to say, " It is well; our Jesus hath done all things well."
Dear brother, I find more and more that His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. But all our blessing consists in our bending ourselves to Him, our ways to His, and our thoughts counting them cheap in comparison of His. May God teach us more and more how to do this; for difficult as the lesson may seem, it is a learnable one, and one in which is all our peace and comfort, while in the wilderness, to have it firmly in principle at least. When we come home (sweet word), His home and ours, then will every way of ours be conformed to His perfect mind; for we shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is. G. V. W.
April 26th, 1856.
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Letters 3

My Dear Brother,—L. F., in Mauritius, writes as being under trial. The smallpox has visited the colony severely, and the iniquity of the place is very great. This to a father of young children, several of whom are girls, must be a real trial. Well, wilderness sorrows have wilderness manna, and the Rock gushing water; and the blessed Lord as manna and living water is not a despicable portion, but a blessed one. Yet how eat manna save in the wilderness? In the land it is the old corn of the land; and how to drink of that Rock in a land where springs abound? No; these are aspects of Christ for the wilderness as well as others for the glory. And better still, the thought that in pouring us from vessel to vessel He is getting rid of our will, and teaching us the blessedness of His own. "Not My will, but Thine be done." "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?"
Dear brother, may you and your dear wife bethink you of the privilege the Lord hath given to you in sending you out where you are. Surely in our Father's house, not those who have gone on well in this world, as you might have done had you stayed, but those who have been on service, will have most joy in their retrospect.
Mr. D- is in France, near Switzerland, and the work progresses encouragingly. A good many conversions here in London upon the whole, but weakness' enough to make one know nothing but the Lord's arm can suffice; nothing but His faithfulness brings us through. G. V. W.
November 8th, 1857.
" I Am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6.)
The context puts a limitation upon the sense in which the terms, " the way, the truth, and the life," are used here by the blessed Lord about Himself. He is " the way " in other senses too-God's way of revealing Himself in creating, upholding, redeeming; man's way, too, to God" the way " to walk in. He is " the truth," the One in and by whom the real truth as to God, Satan, the world, men, alone is known; and He is the life, eternal life, life incorruptible, blessed be God, our life is He. But, strictly speaking here, verses 4, 5, and 7 limit the bearing of the subject matter to the Father. " I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." Yet, as in all the senses in which He, who the great divine Medium, is the way, the truth, and the life, He Himself still is a person to be known and studied, besides being what He is. So here also. If He is the way, the truth, and the life relatively to our coming to the Father-if that is what is presented to us here-still He Himself who is all this, He Himself is; and greatly do we deceive ourselves if we learn not Himself while we study the doings and offices and glories which He presents to us, that we may learn Himself in them. Yet so senseless is man's mind, that it will get so absorbed in offices and benefits to us through them as to forget to learn Him who fills the offices, who gives the benefits. Moreover, while He is the way, and He is the truth, and He is the life, and thus the way, the truth, and the life centralize in Him, they are different excellencies, and separable in thought, at least, the one from the other. A man may have life in Christ, and be a child of God, and yet know little about the way or the truth. One may know Him as the way, and not know the Father in Him. He as the life leads us by the knowledge of the truth in the way; but still, after all, there is Himself who is all this, who does all this for us. And when we speak of coming to the Father, we speak of that which differs from coming to a place, as even to the Father's house. When we come to know Him, we find how straitened we are in our own selves, how little able to take in; and there is no way of learning our littleness like it. See this for instance in 1 John 1:2: " For the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." John is writing to believers, and he is presenting that which concerning the word of life had not shined out, and shined into John, until the Lord had taken the last Adam position. Now the life was manifest, and it had communicated of itself in its own present character of display, so that they that know it, have fellowship together -a fellowship which is characterized by their perception of the Father's thoughts about the Son, and of the Son's thoughts about the Father's. Hence they have complete fellowship. This, too, may be seen, in another connection perhaps, but still seen in Eph. 3:14-21: ' The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... according to the riches of His glory, strengthening with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that, rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church through all ages, world without end.' The great lesson is Himself; and who and what, I pray you, is He in whom such infinite and eternal glory is found, by whom we are brought into such fellowship and such communion through the Spirit? He that is God, and the Father’s center, and end, and object in heaven and eternity, thus made to become our center, end, and object in time and on earth. The three one-nesses in John 17 give another illustration.
Now in sorrowful contrast with this I see some learning about Him as a way for themselves to God. Blessed if they find in that way the end of self, or a bit of the way that will lead them from self to God; but how short of blessing is it if they selfishly say, " Safe, because in the way; " learn not Him, but go on with the things of self. Just as men speak of Him as " the truth." And so He is; but the truth as to what and whom? Surely we know little of Him as the truth, if that truth has not taught us about our own selfishness, and the contrast between His witlessness and our wilfulness; our selfishness and His unselfishness; about the true character of the world in which he was murdered, and in which religion of flesh would allow us to settle down. He, too, is the One who can give incorruptible, eternal life; and it is a blessed thing for one who has not received it to know that He is the only giver of it. But He is our life; our life is hid with Him in God. If I know these things as having learned them in Him, am I finding, more than that in Him? Himself is more than any one of His gifts, though they all tell of Him. But, as I said, the context here gives a limitation. " I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." But if through the life I have known the truth, and walked in Him, and come to the Father, is that all? or does He Himself (who has been my power and light and way) still remain in all the eternal, divine excellency of what He is, God manifest in the flesh, the only-begotten Son of the Father? " The eternal lover of my soul."
November 8th, 1857.
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Letters 4

My Dear—-,—I have written you a little as above on the word; for the refreshment you and others have found in this sort of broken musing encourages me to go on. Do you say, Stop, when you have had enough. I spoke a few words at Reading, I am told, January 1st, at a quarterly meeting for Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and North Hants, and Bucks, and a brother wrote me last night to send to him what I had said, or enough to be a clue to what he had then heard. It was asked for the little periodical which has appeared since the Girdle ceased. Gladly should I have sent it to him if I could have recalled what I said, and if this day had not been marked off for " W. I. letters." But now I may kill two birds with one stone, and having jotted down a few lines for you, I will send this over to him, that he may have it copied if he thinks it worth while. Thus, too, he will be able to get a skeleton and clothe it himself.
In reading over my bit of an attempt at teaching, as above I find I have left out the two practical illustrations which I remember referring to as connected with the subject in a lower sense. 1. The gospel was being preached with a considerable degree of power, at Weston-super-Mare, by His gospel was the gospel of Jesus Christ, the way to God, and the solemn responsibility of man being indifferent to the way that God had thus opened up for Himself to man, and for man to Himself, and choosing to abide still in the broad way that leads to destruction. How far he saw Christ as the truth I know not. All converted persons in the place took notice of the preaching, and all identified themselves with it except those to whom the person of Christ was dear. They thanked God for the preaching, as Paul in Phil. 1 did; but they saw that the gospel of Christ as the way of God to man, of man to God, was not Christ Himself, and they could not, for the love which they bore to Christ Himself, coalesce with those who separated the way from Himself as a person, and what was due to Him from those who were members of His body, one spirit with Him. All in the place, so to speak, who knew the way coalesced, then accepted prayer-meetings, co-operative meetings, the table, &c. And those who coalesced were found to have committed themselves to the avowal of non-responsibility to care for holiness and sound doctrine; they were in association without knowing it with Bethesda and other errors.
2. S——was preaching the gospel in Ireland, where it had been preached so far as the way went. He observed that all the converts, so to speak, were in Bethesda, and that some had settled peace. So he tried the gospel of eternal life. It told; for one came up the first time and said, " Where am I? If what you have said is true, I have got everlasting life, and I am not to think about keeping up the feeling of forgiveness merely, but walking as a man that has got eternal life." I knew of two other cases thus delivered.
Affectionate love to the wife and family G. V. W.
December, 1857.
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Letters 5

Many thanks, dear brother in the Lord Jesus, for your valued note of 26th October, 1857. Our hearts had been, as yours, in exercise about -'s health, and are so still. Mine is at least. But I know there is the Lord's bosom for the reception of every care and every anxiety. I think that a Christian feels sorrow an immeasurable degree more than does a worldly man; indeed, it must be so on every account-(1) his heart is open to it; (2) the Spirit is there to make him taste it; (3) faith shows him much more than sight can perceive, as we see in our blessed Lord at Lazarus' grave. He alone of all there saw what death really was, and how near to Himself too; and faith throws all open to us, and bring us also to taste God's taste of the sorrow and sin of our circumstances. Now the man of the world sees as little as he can; shuns and counts not sorrows; and can only see the surface and things present. But we have strong consolation in that all things are of Him, who hath reconciled us unto Himself All things in one way or another, all things, are of Him. And all things work together for good too. G. V. W.
January 25th,, 1858.
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Letters 6

My Dear Miss——,—I have been carrying your note about with me in my movings, and only now write you a line to say I am still prevented coming to see you by fresh movings.... I may be back before very long, and may be then more free to come and see you. The Lord order all things as to your niece. He does all well, and needs not our help, though in grace He stoops to use us; aye, and loves to associate an Ananias with Himself when working to bring even a Paul into the liberty of the gospel. May the Lord bless you abundantly.
In Him affectionally, if not faithfully,
G. V. WIGRAM.
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Letters 7

Lausanne, August 20th, 1858.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,-We have been here about five weeks, visiting among the saints in the Canton Vaud, in Switzerland.
One thought specially has pressed upon me, and that is the blessedness of the position which God has accorded us to see and to lay hold of, not only of having been saved for eternity, but of walking with God for time also. No praise is due to us on this behalf, but the privilege of it is great, and the shelter and blessedness of having to do with the living God is not unmistakeable here at least. All, so to speak, that is ecclesiastical to man's eye, and according to man's boast-the Church-all in ruin, and, as to principle, in dissolution. In one place (Geneva) the congregation which is spoken of as having had most discipline and holiness, is trying to maintain its position as of old three Sundays in the month, and on the fourth Sunday it drops into a collection of congregations, in which, separately or unitedly, there is no discipline. Here a congregation, which one Sunday in the month meets for the supper without discipline, has three Sundays a private meeting with discipline for believers. All is it dissolution.
The brethren are weak enough, to their shame, in practice, but as to principle, and that which they seek to maintain and profess to seek, there is consistency, because they avow that the living God is present always and everywhere, and so they cannot admit any secondary principle.
The Evangelical Alliance for the nations progresses, and truth is elicited at its conferences. The last was at Berlin. The king welcomed one thousand Christians from all the countries of Europe at Potsdam. In America, too, the movement of revival this last spring was much of the same kind as that of the Evangelical Alliance; viz., multitudinous. Now, on the other hand, conscience is individual. If I act as a Christian, I act in God's presence alone; I act there as an individual. If I act in a multitude, or under a multitudinous influence, I never fairly own God's supremacy or my own individual responsibility; and my action in time is different from what the inward thoughts, motives, means, and end are, which are known to my own soul in God's presence. " He that hath an ear to hear " is a safe principle; it is Christ's when all is in ruin among the churches.
Most affectionate love to all. Yours,
G. V. W.
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Letters 8

November 25th, 1861.
My Dear——,—It is pleasant to write to you while you are in the wilderness, and I too; but home is home, and I count upon seeing you there, in courts above, where conflict shall have ended in victory, and the crown be ours in the presence of the Crowner with His many crowns.
There will be rest there; now there is none around; and though there be peace, rest is hardly the word for it within. It is, I think, Leighton who remarks, that no sooner is Christ formed in the heart than there is as much stir within against Him as there was in Jewry when the Babe was born there. The powers that had been in possession in the land knew Him not, and Herod sought the young child's life. I remember well the conflict in my own self when first I believed, and I should not be surprised if you too should pass through some of the same trials. The ground we are upon (see Gen. 3) is a ground where a fearful conflict is going on between God and Satan. And the seed of the woman, and they that are His, are the abomination of Satan, and conflict is all that we can look for as far as he is concerned.
What troubled me most was the discovery of my own awful badness and vileness in myself; and if Satan hid himself amid the household stuff within, and oft spake words that I thought came from myself, he could not have been there i the house had at one time not been let to him. I conceive that the discovery of the extent to which he has had power over us is a very humbling thing; but then it does tend to teach us that grace is grace indeed, and that there are divine springs of mercy which, because divine, are perfect, while, on the other hand, they are sufficient for one that has to say, " Nothing but mercy'll do for me."
I remember the hymn in the Olney collection, " I asked the Lord that I might grow," &c., was a great stay to me. If you get into conflict, may it be so to you, my dear——.
I am uncertain how I may be ordered, N., S., E. or W., but my heart is to come and see you all; and so soon as I can see my way, I shall write and offer myself.
I was called to Ryde last week. Sir C. B. is low in body, though very happy in soul. His voice is gone. Mrs. W. is in fever of some kind or other; the Lord can raise her up.
God bless you, dear——, and bless the circle around you. Our love to all.
G. V. W.
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Letters 9

July 1st, 1862.
My Dear Brother——-,—Perhaps the Lord showed you the need of exhortation here in London, that you might exhort. The power of doing so is a very distinct gift from God, and is much rarer than that of either evangelist or expositor, because in these two the mind is confined and limited-in the first to the good old gospel, and in the second to the passage of Scripture and what is in it. In the exhortation you have, I suppose, to apply truth of Scripture to the soul, and to know how to slide it in between flesh and spirit, so that it may condemn the flesh and give liberty to the spirit.
Everything that tells of fellowship in suffering and pilgrimage with the Lord will not only leave its deep trace now on hearts that love Him, who is worthy to have our every sacrifice, but will be found, when we come to the glory, to have left a deep trace on His heart; and to hear Him say then, " I remember how you suffered once the loss of all things for my sake," will be sweet indeed, let alone the rich recompence of the reward. Oh, it is blessed to have given up anything for His dear sake, to have suffered the loss of anything for Him
I posted yesterday a tract to you, the reprint of an old one of mine My thoughts in reprinting it were two-(1) to show to revivalists something more of the breadth of God's gospel, and (2) to show to the poor and simple that the Apocalypse was not all about " prophetics and the great beasts," but that a simple soul like mine could find marrow 'and fatness, and what the poor call " fine reading for the soul," in it. Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 10

January 20th, 1863.
HALLELUIA! my dear brother in the Lord. Halleluia! Her spirit is with Him that loved her, and gave Himself for her. Oh, how " satisfied," quite satisfied, she now is, though she have still to wait WITH Him until He takes His power and returns!
When and where will the interment be? I purpose coming down to it, if the Lord will. I suppose it will be in the cemetery at Reading; but this, and the time, you will let me know.
I sympathize with her sisters, with you all, in your loss, but my sympathy with her Lord and with her is more sensibly felt. But sorrow and joy in one cup is no new experience. G. V. W.
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Letters 11

May 10th, 1863.
Dear Miss——, My friend wrote me yesterday to say,
" My friend declines giving me the note of introduction, because he wants to keep all his influence with his friend, the judge, to have a private end of his own."
Well, this has led me to say, " Lord, do Thou give the right introductions.'.' If in answer He, my Master, sends any through me, good; but if not, " He will do it Himself; " for I know I can count upon Him thoroughly. I know He will do this for me. Remember me to——.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
Remember what I have written-that I have applied to my Master for the proper introduction-and do you see what comes of it? I think you will find a full answer.
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Letters 12

November 8th, 1863.
The greatest sin of all is that of unbelief; and I think that lies at your door. Oh, thou of little faith! an unbelieving believer. I am very glad you were helped to see " Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God," is the only principle of Christian life, and that, according to Matt. 11 (end of chapter), it gives rest to the soul. But then comes the discovery, " But I am not that." Well then, weary and heavy laden, come to Him, and He will, little by little, make you learn how to walk under the yolk with Him. Here below you must be satisfied never to be perfectly at rest in your soul (in the foundation of Christ you may be at once), just because of being still a learner, and therefore perfect rest, in this sense, you will not have.
G. V. W.
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Letters 13

December 31st, 1863.
My Dear——-, You and——are laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come in devoting yourselves to the Lord and His work, and labor, and patience, and in waiting to know His will. I cannot doubt that you both desire above all things to know what His will is, that you may do or suffer it. The waiting to know it, is a trial to such bad natures as we have, but the Lord is faithful, and He will make all plain in His own time; and even before we know what we have to do, the position of dependence is one of blessedness and praise before Him. With all your mistakes of feebleness and errors, you have both tried to make His work the main object and aim of your lives; and He will not forget it. Did He ever forget anything done or shown to Him? And who and what are we, worms of yesterday, that we should devote ourselves to the pleasure and service of the Lord of all grace and glory, our precious and blessed Lord Jesus Christ?
What a wonderful one He is! His ways and thoughts, how unlike to ours! From the glory divine He looked out for the place of glory in a sinful earth, and He found it in the cross-the only place in which He could fully serve God (even His Father) and sinners. He had the right to leave the glory; for He was not bound like a creature is by the sphere assigned to it. Where might not the Creator go, if He willed it? But oh, the moral glory that came out, when He thus showed that He did not prize a place of circumstantial glory and blessedness for Himself, as He prized the making manifest the moral glory of God's character and ways in redeeming sinners from under the thraldom of Satan. And surely He never stood more manifestly, more unmistakeably, confessed as God over all than when He was upon the cross. There He met all the mind of God and expressed it, measured out and expressed all the wickedness, folly, lying, and murderous character of Satan-all the ruin of man-while He was doing the work by which alone God could be just while the Justifier of him that believeth. That cross of His is a marvel, not in the fruits of it merely, but in the light itself shed as to the character and personal glory of Him that was there.
Most affectionately yours in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 14

February 2nd, 1864.
My Dear Brother, It seems strange to nature to have no home on earth; but they that refuse to have one because one is already provided for them in heaven, God is not ashamed to be called their God. As a matter of fact there is no place in which we can rest here below. Try it ever so much, and you will find it is impossible to get rest here below, or even to say, " I am satisfied," while the eye is upon things here below, or upon things for ourselves. The moment that it rests upon heaven, and that we are thinking, Christ longs to have me with Him there, and in His time thither I go, one can say, " Satisfied," and more than satisfied too. What poor slow things we are to learn to walk as thus dead to all our own and to all around, and filled full with the things which are at God's right hand. Surely no heart ever could conceive or contain all the portion which is revealed in Him for us. I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine.
Wars and rumors of wars are abroad. Denmark and Austria and Prussia at war, and England and France not unlikely to be drawn in. Well, Satan is a murderer, and war is part of the Lord's four judgments.
Affectionately yours and hers, G. V. W.
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Letters 15

March 24th, 1864.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,——The saints generally everywhere seem anxious to study the Word, and to get communion over it-a good sign surely in the last days. " I commend you to God, and the word of His grace " was Paul's parting word to the elders at Ephesus; and they that honor that word now do find what David says to be true-Thou halt magnified Thy word above all Thy name. " In the beginning was the Word." John 1:1 gives us who the Word is. We know nothing of Him save what is written. It is a word indeed of grace, and the living God makes it precious.
In reading and lecturing lately on Phil. 1 have been much struck with chapter 3. The contrast between, on the one hand, flesh as sought to be boasted in-its position, energy (blind), and righteousness, and, on the other, Christ-His position, the energy of light found in Him, and the righteousness of God in Him. If it is human righteousness I sought, there could be nothing beyond, because the hour of its judgment is not come, but if I have Christ in His position (vv. 7, 8), there is not only righteousness existent in Him (v. 9), and divine energy ours in Him (v. 10, and Eph. 1:19, 20), but Himself remains over and above to be loved, walked with, lived to. Christ Himself was Paul's life down here. Some might draw their thoughts from inside themselves (v. 19), and mind things of earth. Paul was occupied with Christ Himself. Chap. iv. seems to me to be the illustration of how a man who knew nothing but Christ up there in heaven found a side (so to speak) in everything which pertained to Christ (v. 2)—-difference of mind through weakness (v. 3), the feeble laborers (vv. 5-7), the circumstances which have the tendency to lead to care (vv. 8, 9), the things approved of God and shown out in Paul's life (vv. 10-19), his own needs and the desire of Philippians to sympathize with God in caring for them-all give the picture of a man who lives with, and to Christ, knowing how to turn all things down here to glory. If the top of the stone looks dry and hot, beneath it is cool and moist. I do think we want more of the practical skill to live out Christ in our circumstances thus below. I pray first for all, but specially for myself. G. V. W.
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Letters 16

May 14th, 1864.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-I was grieved to hear of your suffering state; for we may grieve with those that are in bonds, and such a sick and suffering body is like unto. Nevertheless, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." If Hezekiah, before life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel, could say such things (Isa. 38), how much more can we who are in the light of the eternal life incorruptible, which is ours in the risen and ascended Son of man. Seeing that all is to redound to the glory of God, therefore " we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which, is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. 4:15-18.) The Lord be with you.... The issues of life are in His hand, as well as the issues of that death from which He has saved us...
Most affectionately,
Your old friend and fellow-pilgrim,
G. V. WIGRAM.
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Letters 17

September 29th, 1864.
Our hearts at this moment are under exercise. J. B. lies very ill, and to all appearance, according to the doctors of medicine, his recovery would be a direct act of God over and above, as I understand them, that which usually takes place. He is, much set upon departing to be with Christ, conscious of the exceeding blessedness of being present with the Lord.
It is beautiful and blessed to see a soul so occupied with the pleasure of the presence of Christ Himself; for glory and reward have no place in his thoughts. He seems so absorbed in the Lord's presence as his all, as to desire to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. I have not seen him, but from what others say, and from what he has written to me, I fear he is too much occupied with his own rich enjoyment of Christ, and too little thoughtful of us and of the Lord's saints; for surely the removal of one who can be the servant of the Scriptures, to deal forth so richly of their contents in such a day as this, would be a very great loss to the saints beloved of God. I bow to His will, whatever it may be; but I do look up, if haply, feeble prayer from me may prevail, to retain a valued servant at the work. Peter was delivered from prison in answer to prayer the very night before he was to have been put to death, and served, I judge, a goodly service afterward. Well, I know He does all things well; and there are but three that I know of that have turned to prayer... for others seem to think it a settled thing that he is to go, and that shortly.
I write from H——, where I have been a month come Wednesday next. The Lord is good, and the work seems fresh at——, more I think than here just now. But places vary, like people, from day to day. Dear 's love to you both. I was to say so from her the first time I wrote. She is well (though aged), and bright in the Lord, and in patience too, which is a grace of very great value before God. We ought to be patient, for He is the doer of everything; and when we are not patient we really find fault with Him and His doing.
Most affectionately in the Lord, with love from mine to you and yours. G. V. W.
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Letters 18

January 1st, 1865.
IT is a happy and a right thing for each of a young couple, if Christians, to know a little of human nature, of self and of the other too, before they agree to be united together. And an additional experience ere they come together as man and wife (additional to the knowledge they had before the one proposed and the other accepted), too, is a good thing. I suppose I know what is, and she knows what I am, after nearly thirty years being man and wife, and growing in the knowledge of the Lord and His grace, as well as of the world, the flesh, and Satan, better than we did in 1835. It is in the knowledge of one another's infirmities and shortcomings that we find here below (not leaven, which has to be put away, but bitter herbs, which have to be eaten) the occasions of pouring forth our faith and grace one toward another, and as to one another.
Marriage is a reality, and generally a very stern one to both, specially to the wife, on whom all the wear and tear of house and family fall; but you must learn how to let His grace be sufficient for you, His strength made perfect in weakness." Death and resurrection lie in that path as much as in any other for the Christian.
I think as to its being God's will you may rest thus far. What would have been His will may be one thing, what is His will under present circumstances may be quite another. It would not do for me to say to——, " I made a mistake in marrying you." It would not do for the affianced to say, " We never ought to have been affianced." Such a step would be to the Lord's dishonor. Not that I suppose you have any thought of such a thing. Circumstanced as you are in this respect, I should feel that the
Lord's mind sustains the engagement, and that if you discover ten thousand times more defects and weaknesses in yourself than you have, all you have to do is to pour it all out before the Lord, and to seek that His grace may prove itself sufficient for you, His strength perfect itself in weakness.... G. V. W.
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Letters 19

March 10th, 1865.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,- What should we do if we could not say, amid all circumstances, " Unto Him that loved us, and that washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us unto God and His Father kings and priests, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever "?
Your brother in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 20

Sunday Night, August 20th, 1865.
IT is all well, all that befalls us under the good hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. I make no exceptions of any kind for myself, or for those I love in Him. Surely some ray from His eye gilds every passing sorrow, every trial, thorn, sharp flint, every anguish of mind or body. Nothing reaches us save as having passed through the jealous flame of His love, and that makes all shine to us that believe.
Well, dear Miss——, He, the only one worth thinking of, worth speaking of, He is to have His Father's will made good about you and all your belongings, and about me and all mine.
I should have liked much to have come down to see you just at this time, but He has seemed to say to us, " South! go thither; north-west, another time. You shall meet in heaven; but now go, work. Rest then." Would I say Him nay? I think not.
I have been speaking on Rev. 4 and v. How the symbols of creation, providence, and government have to be looked for in heaven now! Man finds them not on earth, nor can find in the character of Creator, God of providence, or Ruler, any answer to sin in his own soul. But how in redeeming love, as set forth in the Lamb slain, alive again, there is a new revelation of God, and just the one that enables the sinner to meet God. The person of the Lamb slain, alive again for evermore, is the propitiatory which shows how God can be just while the Justifier of the sinner.
It would have done at——-quite simple enough. I felt power with it, and look for blessing in my little way.
I must not say more, save my kindest regards to all the poor folk. The Lord be with you all.
Affectionately in Him, the risen and ascended. One,
G. V. WIGRAM.
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Letters 21

3, Howley Place, Harrow Road, London, W.
February 13th, 1866.
To My Dear Brother And Fellow-Laborer. -I received, dear brother, your extracted bits of the newspaper, and, after reading them, passed them on to our brother——-.
My own desire would be that you should not answer again, but by a holy and blameless life put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. One thing is clear: the power of the truth with you has been felt by many; and, unable to answer it, the writer of those letters has tried to raise prejudice against you. Your best answer is " perfect silence." Do your own little service to the Lord, and (as your praise is of God and not of man) heed not the hard speeches of any around you, but walk so as you have Him for an ensample.
The national establishment found that it could not punish, much less silence, the writers of the Essays, all infidel as they were. They cannot stop Colenso either; such is the lack of power of the clerical system against infidelity. On the other hand, its liberty towards churchism appears now in the efforts making to coalesce the Pope (with his religion), the Patriarch of Greece (with his system), and the establishment of this country. The establishment is alone in the attempt, but all Protestantism, it is hoped, will come in afterward. Whether the bishops and Canterbury will succeed with the Pope remains to be seen; but they are doing what seems to them their best, and have made an attempt lately with the Greek Church. [Jerusalem and the Pope, then, in the Church of the Nativity, guardian of the Holy Sepulcher, as center of the system, we may yet see.]
That which is wanted, and wanted as much by the so-called clergy for themselves as much as by any, is the simple truth of redemption and salvation according to the truth. That we have, and have it apart from the clogs of human systems, in the Lord Jesus. May it lead us to walk in the Spirit, even as it has placed us in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. These things ours, and the hope of the coming too, we must not be surprised if men who are not clear from the current of things here below are offended with the truth. But it will vindicate itself, and God will vindicate it, in our lives down here first of all, and after that in the glory on high.
Here below our path must be a solitary one for each of us; for we are at the closing days of the sojourn of God's assembly down here, and the days around us are evil. But if we are alone with God, well contented may we be to leave all to Him, and ourselves to tarry His leisure as to deliverance from the conflict. Surely we ought to weep when the children of God and followers of Christ are found opposing the truth, but, " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," was His prayer for those that opposed Him, and may he ours too in this our day for those who are so under the power of religious worldliness as to oppose the service of laborers of the Lord because they walk not with us.
Our united love to all. G. V. W.
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Letters 22

April 4th, 1866.
My Dear Brother And Sister In The Lord,- The Lord sits on high and ruleth all things well. How well may we rejoice that this is not our rest; it is polluted. Christ Himself, and Himself alone, is our rest, our safe guide, and our hope. All, all is in Him. An all which none but God and His Father can measure the fullness of; but all that He sees His Son to be or to have, all that-and no less-is mine What an eternal, divine fullness is the portion of him who, though down here in the pit without water, looks up to Christ on high, and can say, " I am the Beloved's " (God's Beloved), " and the Beloved is mine " I would that we knew better the solidity of the substance, and the unquestionableness of this our blessing. Possessed by Him, and owned by Him as part of His priceless pearl, all things are ours. Life, death, things present, things to come, past, present, and future, heaven, earth, and hell, all yield their tributes of blessing and profit to him who has nothing but Christ.
" In whom also we have an inheritance." (Eph. 1:11.) Also marks something added on the (v. 10) knowledge that everything will be headed up in heaven and in earth in Him. We shall see Him in that glory and rejoice in it; but the inheritance we have is additional to it and above it; it is in Himself we have it.
Affectionately yours in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 23

August 15th. 1865.
You must not, dear——, expect a long letter from me this time, as the night of the 15th has set in, and I am heaped up with work of various kinds. But I may as well write a line, and perhaps add a dirty fragment from what the printer has sent me back from new number of Present Testimony, which will show you whereabouts my mind has been-I trust I may say for myself, and for the children of God all around me.
The days are evil, and God's watchmen sleep; but Ile that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. There is now the tenth edition of Ecce Homo, a book which appeared in the spring, and was puffed by the Dissenters and Church people of London, which I have had to wade through. " All the world " reads it. It professes to be the results of an inquirer's researches into the New Testament for himself. That which he has gleaned might thus be stated, I think. " Christ is the father of Babylon the great," and " we being competent to take up all we see presented in Him should have the like passion for man down here as He had."
Not a word of atonement of course, but all the all-gloriousness of man in himself.
How any Socinian even could have written such a book, much more how clergy and ministers can tolerate such wickedness, save upon the assumption of judicial blindness fallen upon them, I cannot think.
.... Dear Mrs. W——sleeps in the Lord.
G. V. W.
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Letters 24

August 9th, 1866.
You have not got to the end of yourself yet. As to goodness? Yes. As to mendableness? No. As to power? Paul said, " 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me; " i.e. he found he could not deliver himself, and why? He was in a swamp-a true bog, a " body of sin and death." It was a very uncomfortable sort of place to be in (a barrel with spikes of I, driven through it), and he felt they lacerated and tore him. But all his forty mes could not get him out. It was death rolled in upon him -death inside himself, moral death in heart and mind too.
But there was One outside it all-God, and in His presence Jesus Christ. And the doctrine of baptism supposed that there had been substitution-one put into the place of another-and that he (Paul) knew it, and could be satisfied to say-not as to any getting out of the evil in himself, but as to God's grace in the substituting Christ for the sinner-" I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." I think you are finding out that death works in you, and nothing but death; but you have not yet come to be willing to say, What a comfort that doctrine of substitution! I morally dead, He penally dead. I turned my back on God, and God turned His back on Christ on account of my sin. Nothing but that can give rest; nothing but that give peace; nothing but that is grace; and after that comes " my grace is sufficient, my strength made perfect in weakness."
It seems to me that anyone, even as poor a thing as myself, might find blessing to souls up and down the country if one could but walk with the Lord-keeping away from all party feelings, avoiding all assumption and haste of temper too-and letting redemption, a walk with God consequent thereon, and hope of the coming, to be the three staples of one's ministry.
Here there are about thirty in communion. To me it seems that foundation truth wants pressing here, not that those at the table do not hold it, but that the gathering and the principles of gathering may have held too large a place. Atonement finished; holiness of walk with the Lord and entire separation from the world, and the hope of the coming, form souls individually for the Lord and His presence; and they, these doctrines, are for the remnant what is wanting. Indeed, the mass as such cannot be reached save through the individual members who form the mass.
But, on the other hand, I see the positive good the Lord has done. Never did the poor weak ones see so clearly as now that they are " a people " on the earth, though a people disowned by the men of the world; and never, I think, did the Lord show this compassion and long-suffering more graciously than lately to them. I said, " The king's word is, Answer them not a word; " and I think I was right. Conscience there was none. What is man, what are you, what am I, when Satan is allowed to pass us through the furnace? Alas! Job's furnace was blessing, so was Peter's; Lot's and Solomon's were different-very sad.
Ever yours in Christ, G. V. W.
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Letters 25

September 18th, 1866.
My Dear——,-The hearts of your mother and sister must be tried, I am sure, but Scripture tells us this is not our rest; it is polluted, and in this way all these sorrows turn to be a testimony to us under them of the truth of the word. And it tells not only of suffering, but that if so be we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together with Him. As surely as the word describes my life here below in time, so surely does it describe all that lies beyond. Sheltered as I have been in some respects, yet I have found all its sketches of my time and tale true -pilgrimage and strangership, cross and death, and dying daily-all true; and will not the other pictures be proved to be true too? And they are eternal and heavenly, with Christ in glorified body in His Father's house. How bright and how glorious, dear E-, will you look then! and how will all the weary hours, which now you have to endure, then be bright in retrospect as parts of the discipline through which a Savior's love will then have brought you to glory. And He is with us now in our valley as we pass through. You do not know the lines on these truths-
Should sorrows come, and pain and care,
Oh, keep my souls my mind, my life,
That I may still Thine image wear
'Mid trials hard and earthly strife
But let them come; they'll only move
With fonder love my heart to Thee;
I had not known but half Thy love
Had trial keen been kept from me.
I bless Thee then, that I can say,
I share with Thee affliction's lot;
'Tis joy to think, in trial's day,
The cross of Christ is not forgot.
Well, my dear young friend and sister, I know whose heart bears you, your father, E, and all upon it; and knowing that He prays for you, I find it a privilege to say, may my heart be in prayer for you all, in measure, as His, in all its eternal fullness, is perfectly before God for you. What a truth is that of the intercession of the living Christ before God for us!
Affectionately yours in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 26

September 25th, 1866.
My Dear Fellow-Laborer And Fellow-Sufferer In The Patience Of Christ Jesus,- It has seemed right to the Lord to allow trial to spring up here, according to that word, there must also be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest. A solemn word and description of a soul-humbling sorrow. May we mistrust self, and judge all the secondary motives of our hearts, and have faith and hope in God alone.
The attack on myself is for printing -. " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me " (Psa. 22), refers to the blessed Lord's bearing the wrath due to me; that He was forsaken then and there in my stead. As the paper is in the Present Testimony, every one can judge for themselves. All I can say is, that I believe I ought to be willing to go to the stake for the precious truth there described. I dare say there may be slips of the pen, and perhaps mistakes which I cannot see, but as to the main statement I could not recall it. Man turned his back on God and broke away from Him in Eden; God forsook Christ and hid His face from Him on Calvary. If no one else will say it was for my sake, G. V. W. does; and in that act, which faith says was because of my sin, I have peace. All my blunders, whatever they may be, notwithstanding, the honor of being identified with—in these attacks upon him seems to me too high an honor altogether. The attack upon him is chiefly as to dispensational statements; as to me it is as to what forms the groundwork of my soul's rest. I believe He, Jesus Christ, was a substitute for me under wrath; and it does seem to me that the great question of sin is, and can be, nowhere else wound up and settled. Either the Son of God, who was and is Son of man, bore the whole wrath for the saved people when God forsook Him, and then I have peace through faith in Him, or the question of sin never can be settled or finished for me; for if I disbelieve in what He bore, and have to bear the judgment of sin myself as a creature, the judgment is never ending, but runs throughout eternity; is measureless upon the creature as it is measureless when looked at, as having been borne by the infinite Son of God as Son of man. Of course I do not want any one to take my view of the question if their faith extends not so far as mine, but I am persuaded that faith cannot find contradiction between my view of atonement and any lesser view of it. The paper was not a new one, but the substance of a lecture given at Woolwich three years ago.
The brethren at Woolwich found immense help in the lecture. I judge it to be a carefully written paper, with plentiful latitude in it; but I meant-and have done it-to put down what that is which is the basis of my own mind's peace; namely, that as I in the first Adam was one broken away from God, my back to Him, so my Lord, in the perfectness of His obedience to God and love for me, was forsaken in my stead when He called out, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? " These five underlined words were no exaggeration on the lips of the Son of man. All God's billows and waves rolled over His soul because He was my substitute. Do not take my view of this paper or the controversy. May God show you the right.
G. V. W.
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Letters 27

September 26th, 1866.
My Dear Miss——-, Remember the Lord knows His own pathway better than we do, quite as much so as He knows His own ways, and His own thoughts, better than the best-taught saint does. "All these things are against me" was not the language of faith; for without all those very things the Lord's way of blessing would not have been made good.
I write in haste, pressed with many letters; but how good He is to give me so much to do, and I am sure my handwriting will not be otherwise than a welcome sight to you.
Affectionate love to all in Christ,
G. V. WIGRAM.
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Letters 28

September 28th, 1866.
Upward and onward, for this is not my rest, is pretty well all I have to say. No; I got a good word yesterday. " The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." This is a good banner motto for the wilderness. It is written of the Spirit and the Bride while in the wilderness; the cry " Come " showing that the Lord (who answers their invitation with " Surely I come quickly ") had not come yet. Now, 'tis good to be able to say then, in God's mind, neither the Spirit nor the Bride have ceased to be; and more than that, these two names (Spirit and Bride) shut out all the individual littlenesses of a——-and a G. V. W. as persons still in the body, and show that God looks upon a company, an assembly, and that too as being in Christ, His Church or Assembly. Rebecca's whole worth-fortune and honor-were not found with her in the wilderness as brought by her from Laban, but was in Isaac, and God's promises and counsels about him (Isaac). Isaac was to have a wife, so Christ is to have a Bride. Adam had the inheritance, standing, and blessing ere Eve came. So Isaac, so Christ. And there is enough in Him -if
"I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all "-
enough, I say, for me to boast and glory in; and if enough even for me, enough for you too.
G. V. W.
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Letters 29

October 16th, 1866.
" My grace is sufficient; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." That was my answer to your letter..... At wits' end you will find God beyond it-the God of resurrection. G. V. W.
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Letters 30

November 3rd, 1866.
Beloved Sister In The Lord,-Though I know solitude in the Lord's presence is the first place which your soul will seek in your present deep affliction-and I would not come in to hinder that, or to distract your mind from Him-yet I write a line to say how entirely my heart is with Him, our blessed Lord, in His dealings with you at the present time, and that I look up to Him " that Christ may be magnified " in your body, whether it be by life or by death.
Your brother in the afflictions and hopes of the Anointed One,
Affectionately,
G. V. W.
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Letters 31

November 11th, 1866.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,-I have been speaking this evening upon a bit of a verse in Eph. 2, and "God, who is rich in mercy; " and the savor of it is sweet. To get the contrast you must read the three sections. Firstly, His grace in Christ, chap. 1:16-23. The Man Christ Jesus displayed as the servant of God the Father of glory, seated in heaven, the treasury of God for our blessing as to the hope of the calling; as to the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and as to headship, over everything to the Church. What a scene of glory it is! That heaven in which He now sits on the throne, with glory beyond all glory in this or coming ages, Himself there forming down here a body for Himself. Secondly, chap. 2:1-3 gives the pit whence He takes the clay, the quarry where He finds whom He will take; and oh, the contrast to what there is in heaven in Christ! The dead in trespasses and sins, the course of a world which is inwrought and driven along by another spirit who works in the children of disobedience. If in heaven where God is, all glory is found in Christ. In this world, whether in Sauls of Tarsus or in the filthy worshippers of Diana of Ephesus, all found in that in which Satan can delight, nothing in the state of which God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, can possibly take pleasure. What point between the two? What connecting link between these contrasts? There is but One who could even look at the two scenes fairly, know how to use the two together for His own glory; and that One is the One of whom it is said, thirdly, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved through faith;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together is heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If grace and free gift set forth the scene in chap. 1, if patience bore with the scene in chap. 2, 'tis mercy in God alone which can use chaps. 1 and 2 together so as to magnify itself. (v. 7.) " That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." What mercy to enable Saul to know of himself and of the Ephesian believers quarried in such a pit, that both shared Christ's love in heaven, were established there in resurrection power!
If we turn to Ex. 32 we see what mercy is. Israel bad made And danced before a calf, their substitute for the living God. But He says, " I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion." (Compare Rom. 9:15, 16 with Ex. 33:19.) I will! His sovereignty is absolute. Who can say unto Him, " What doest Thou? " They had ignored Him, the living God; they had degraded themselves in worshipping a calf made of the trinkets of the women. Would Israel so succeed in frustrating the grace of God's mercy? No. " He hath included them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." No ground of action save His own mercy is one adequate for God to display Himself fully by, in dealing with men. " I will."
It is a great thing to recognize the individuality of God as One that acts, none being His counselor. Whom did He consult when He created heaven and earth? When He gave the promise, the woman's seed shall crush the head of Satan? Who was His counselor as to the rainbow? or to Israel coming out of Egypt? As to His Son coming into the world? as to His death? His resurrection, the Father's house, the new heavens and the new earth? But if He does as He likes, He has a character of His own that regulates His actions. Ex. 33:19. The first half of the verse says He will make His glory to pass before Moses; the latter part, " And I will be gracious," &c., tells of the flowing stream of mercy. But when He comes in chap. 34 to the revelation of His name-that display which is the true revelation of Him-mercy and graciousness are His traits, and characterize all that flows forth from Him. And is not mercy necessarily of God, and of God alone? Who but He could look on me and say, " Thou art the very opposite of Him that I like and delight in, and yet thou shalt have the same portion as He has?" 'Tweer confounding heaven and hell, 'tweer mixing night and morning, for any other than the exhaustless God of all resources to propose such a thing. But He knew His resources to be in the Son of His love, and that by His work He could be just while justifying the sinner. Yes; and more too, He could use the ruin and rebellion of the creature as the occasion in which to show forth the virtues and the glories of the Son of His love, and make Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Beloved, all this is plain; but oh, for the individual testing of ourselves, how far in our ruin, and amid ruin all around, we look straight up to God Himself in heaven, and own that all our springs are in His mercy by Christ Jesus. Such a course makes us draw near to Him, while it makes us abhor ourselves in dust before Him.
Grace, mercy, and peace now and ever fill your hearts, and minds, and lives, beloved in the Lord. So prays yours unworthily, G. V. W.
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Letters 32

November 15th, 1866.
My Dear Brother In The Lord, But just time for a line, and your kind note and hearty " Come over and help us," is to hand. I had thought I might have got away this autumn from Europe, but caught in it by the storm of obloquy and reproach from the enemy, I think the Lord says, " Tarry," and so I do. The spite and hatred are good to bear, and all that Shimei and Geshem or others may say make good bitter herbs to eat with the Lamb. I am persuaded we are not of this world; and if we practically live outside of it, as did the Pentecostal Christians, the world's abuse would neither frighten nor vex us as it now oft does, some of us at least. Such hurricanes are fine tests of the barometer of self-love and self-complacency and self-competency, and I desire to use them so, and to put self down if it gets up. Of course where respectability and the good opinion of man has not been judged by any, they will find the burning flame in these arids. Of course, too, the young Christians are not to be expected to stand fire as the old ones should do; for those that are leading the attack, their evil is awful and sorrowful in the extreme, and one should have one's heart soft as to themselves, though unwavering as to the Lord's truth and against the evil. And, oh, what an honor is it to be rejected with the rejected One! to be despised and maligned with the despised and with the maligned One. Dear D- goes on well, walks humbly, and is dear to us all in the Lord. I hope the hospital studies will not be too much for him, body or soul.
In haste, but in affection unfeigned,
G. V. W.
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Letters 33

3, Howley Place, December 10th, 1866.
My Dear Brother,-My mind has been running much upon the epistle to the Thessalonians. As has oft been remarked, the first epistle gives the use of the coming, and the second guards against the abuse of it. In the first it is remarkable how permanent a place persons in their individuality get assigned to them. 1st, to wait for His Son from heaven, gives us the group of Thessalonian believers-each one bound to Christ, and drawn to Him in the hope of His coming, and so all drawn together by the same hope, even as, if we look more closely to the context, we shall see they were by their faith in what He had done for them, and by the works which flowed out of them through the spiritual communion which they had with Him as a living person now in heaven. In chap. 2 we see them all toiling in rowing against the tide of this world, and at the close the same company of individuals on the other shore gathered round Paul as his joy, and crown, and glory (v. 10); for what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming; and the same people (chap. iii. 13) were to have their hearts established unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
Paul's mind particularizes these very Thessalonians standing round him in the midst of all the saints that the Lord would bring; standing round him, people he had labored among, toiled and prayed for, and with-they, individually, as people he knew, the scene shifted from Thessalonica to the cloud, or the Father's house, and time lost in eternity -they should stand around him there; and feelings of one kind to-day should give way to feelings of another kind then, in himself and in them. And he would meet them there when they would be without blame, without the possibility of blame-nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, should then remain. Still, it is he, Paul, an individual person, knowing what that individual person, God's Son, from heaven meant to do, and would do for His own people everywhere, these Thessalonian individual persons among the rest. Just so in chap. iv., the sorrow he refers to, be it that it circled round all the Thessalonians, had commenced in some few, From one house a brother, a sister, had been taken, leaving the couch and the chamber without its usual tenant, and the word which follows verses 15-17 was drawn forth by those particular afflictions, perhaps in but ten or twelve individual cases, though the sorrow that disturbed their hearts through ignorance disturbed the hearts of all the Thessalonians around too. The answer to their grief was the presenting of the coming display of the One whom God delights to honor. He Himself would appear, and use the deep necessity of the state of His saints as the occasion in which to show forth the glories of His own person as the resurrection 'and the life. But here, too, not only will the folly of the Thessalonians' fear be proven. They thought, though He had begun with them in spite of their state and circumstances, that the final realization of the blessing hung upon the circumstance of being alive when He came, as though the quickening of the soul and the quickening of the body were not both alike displays of Himself. When He does come (as John 5 tells us) He will act with discrimination, leaving those whom He had not known, and who had not known Him when alive in the body, still in the grave, and only bringing forth those who, when alive in the body, had heard His voice and lived to God. He, and Himself alone, the worker in that day, and working according to His Father's mind; but He will work upon, only those who had known Himself, and each and all of them alike, whether the body had been in the dust ever since Stephen's, or whether they were alive, and awaiting His return. The individuality and the personality are marked most strongly. Each one and all who had heard his voice, and known and been known of Him, will be there, and none else; though whether their needs in that day will want the virtues of His resurrection power, or of His power to fill up with life, so excluding death, is but a circumstance. Circumstances, as chaps. 2 and 3 show us, are not all forgotten there. -Those, at least, which down here have been the channels of His grace, as Paul preaching to and caring for His Thessalonians, will have their answer there.- I should think none others; for in God's eternal presence it must be something about His own only-begotten Son which can live and be spoken of, and shine there. Chap. 5:23 gives us the same sort of thing: " And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Doctrine surely which may mold and test our ways, and cheer us in every way unto the end of time is here; but it was the individual prayer of the person called Paul, and for the particular persons to whom he wrote.
I have been laid aside for a day, and so cut off from going last night to Colchester, where there is a table. I can say, " It is well; ".yet I find the thanking God for hindrances is harder work than it is even for sickness and pain of body. But it is well to be under infirmities; and we may glory in them (2 Cor. 12) so far as we are concerned; but an impediment in work, and saints disappointed, are matters of the other world perhaps: the racking pain and the burning fever are of God in this world. Yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 34

3, Howley Place.
My Dear Brother And Sister, -I received two loving letters from you, and from——-the printed abuse. I wish you joy of it with all my heart. It is well to be spoken evil against, and a good mark when they can find nothing against us save in the matter of our God and His truth.
———sent me also a tract he had printed and sent out to you. It had some clear statements in it, and well put; but I am one of the old school, and the slower movements quite within the range of conscience suit me best. The tortoise won the race, not the hare, according to the fable.
It is a great thing to 'let those around us see and feel that conscience is in full play in us, and that we feel we must obey God rather than man. It is this spirit of obedience which has always so struck me in. He has a mind and intelligence, too, equal to any in his day, but they are never allowed their play by him save where conscience and the spirit of obedience have gone first.
This gives such power to his papers on the Roman Catholic and Puseyite questions, and also to those on the infidel questions of the day. One of the learned men of England read his paper in the Present Testimony, in answer to Colenso, while he was dying, and sent me word that he had read everything which had appeared upon the subject, but that those eight pages were the clearest and best of anything he had seen. In the paper, too, on the inspiration of the Scriptures, of an early date in the history of the Present Testimony, conscience and obedience were like the glasses of his spectacles; but the line of thought has been owned by the educated in Europe as being unanswerable. Well, we have young men, and we want such, and old ones too; and I do not mean you to suppose that the old brother that writes to you does not love his younger ones. I find I have to say of many now a days, " He must increase, but I must decrease." I think I say it cheerfully too. J. G. B-, J. C-, and now W. T-, gone home! and some of them that were in the ranks when you and your wife enlisted are aged and feeble.
We need faith to see and own the hand of our God in all and everything that befalls us. Nothing escapes His eye, all is under His hand; everything, from the least to the greatest, we may accept as sons of God at our Father's hands, and so the bitter becomes sweet, and the medicine becomes food.
The Lord's grace too is greatly to be noticed in carrying on work. J. G. B. seemed the standard-bearer in Dublin, and many a cawing word was heard after his removal. " What will you do now you have lost your sweet singing bird, that piped so nicely? " But the Lord has turned it all rather to the furtherance of His work, and I suppose the work in Dublin bears as healthful an appearance as it ever did, and with more marks of vigor about it than it had.
God is God, and remains God, all changes notwithstanding.
My love to the dear sister and all saints.
Affectionately yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 35

April 15th, 1867.
My Dear——-,- Here I am, stuck fast still with duty this and duty that. I suppose the Lord has to humble me for want of Nazariteship practically in my early Christian course. I did not then cleave solely to His will, go here, go there; but the needs of His work and the needs of His people had too much hold of my mind. I will not say that in meeting them I had not pleasure, that even the desire to escape from useless idleness had not a power over me; but in fact there grew up a web which cripples me now in many ways and thoughts, a web of responsibility in services.
Well, He knows my desire, and the best part of my mind is to say to Him, " I have deserved nothing as a disciple, as a servant. If Thou turnedst Thy back on me, Thou wouldst be righteous; but I want to see what honor Thy free love will choose to put upon me undeservedly."
I confess a voyage to the West Indian islands would be a free grace honor, and somehow I hope for it too; for though I do not deserve it, and would not rob you and your wife of the honor He has put upon you, I would like the privilege if He gave it heartily.
All here is pretty quiet. Poor Mr. D- has published a second book, an appeal. It has done much good, opened the eyes of many. One said, " Well, I must be as you say." G. V. W.
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Letters 36

Canada West, August 7th, 1867.
Nothing happens without the Lord, not even the fall to earth of one sparrow. This gives to God His proper place in all things occurrent and happening; not only is He, in being, before all, but in all that occurs His hand is the most important feature in the case. Satan could not act against Job or Paul without divine permission; and whatever Satan might mean in the one case or the other, God meant blessing, pure blessing, for His servants, and that eternal blessing. I hear you are depressed-it matters little what men call it-to me, as having one infinitesimal of, faith, it is "of God" and for the blessing of yourself and husband. That it is, though coming through the body and mind, yet "of God" I doubt not; for that is one way in which He works, in breaking our plans of earthly joy, to make us seek our all in Him. (You know the Olney hymn, " I asked the Lord that I might grow.") The extent to which we are dependent upon circumstances, around and within ourselves, we little know till we get stripped of them, and among them perhaps of the feeling of joy which we mistook for faith. Faith is taking God at His word, saying, " Let God be true, and every man a liar." The effect of this is triumph, often with joy, but when of the purer and deeper kind, without joy, and we have then sometimes to give the lie to our own inward feelings, as much as to -the thoughts of others all around us. 1 Peter gives us a case of it, so does 2 Cor. 12.
Happy feelings are all very well; but happiness down here is not the happiness which we are promised, and weeds oft grow with joy, which weeds, and the selfish root out of which they spring, get killed by nipping frost, and the trial of our faith, which is much more precious than the trial of gold that perisheth. Heaven is open upon us, even the very true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; and there He sits who is our anchor and forerunner fixed within the veil. Nail in a sure place, and worthy to be trusted to and stayed upon by us down here, be it storm, or cloud, or what not, that may roll over us. It is a duty (in the new nature) for us to accredit Christ and His great salvation. (See " Peace, and how to get it." Present Testimony, new series, part i.) If you saw the inward state of other Christians you would see how they are, as without spring or sentient power, as you are yourself; but God is faithful, and Christ is enough for us all-all our nothingness notwithstanding. I pray for you; for I would have you consciously and intelligently wholly the Lord's, and the Lord's by faith and the Spirit.... All is vanity down here, and will be till He comes, from before the face of whom all sorrow, sin, and sickness shall flee away forever.
G. V. W.
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Letters 37

September 4th, 1867.
Grace, mercy, and peace, beloved brother and sister, be to you and to all the children of God who are scattered abroad in this dark world. They are outshining from God's blessed presence in the face of Jesus, Lord of all; they are down-shining through the Holy Ghost according to all the divine and eternal fullness in which they are natural to God, the God of all grace, who is rich in mercy, and is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. May you drink them in according to their essential fullness, and ever drink into them deeper and deeper; for. in our day we want stirring up, that we may apprehend and possess now our present portion, which is not one of human sympathies and limited pitifulnesses, but of joy, and peace, and devotedness.
My wife and daughter joined me last week at Quebec, and from that we came on hither. They both would greet you lovingly; the former has been ill in London, and it was supposed that a sea voyage and entire change of air might restore her. She is in the Lord's hands. He gave her to me, and He can keep her my companion down here. I look up to Him, to Him alone; He is able and He is willing to show His power and His grace I am sure.
Ever affectionately, with love to all saints,
G. V. W.
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Letters 38

Montreal, via 3, Howley Place, Harrow Road, London, W,
September 5th, 1867.
My Dear Miss——,- My wife, daughter, and maid left Liverpool on the 15th August, and arrived at Quebec on the 27th. Mercy marked their passage through the great deep. My wife had been ill, and wished to come; and the friends whom she consulted, as Dr. Mackern and Dr. Wilkie, thought that the entire change and colder air might very likely be a benefit. I only advised them to consult the Lord, and do nothing for which they were not quite competent; and they came. I met them at Quebec, to which town their passages were taken, and obtained leave for them to come on in the same boat to Montreal, where we arrived on this day week, the 29th. Her weakness is great, and the exhaustion great; but she is in the Lord's hands, and I, and she, we are both sure He will do all things well. To restore from beyond the grave is to Him easy; to turn back the downward course is to Him a pleasure, who is the resurrection and the life. Her enjoyment of the pure air, and her comfort in having come forth under the Lord's banner, are both of them great. This, and the way that she finds the value of her daughter in her illness, are mercies. I might be jealous to see how little consequence I seem to be of! " No one can do anything like Theodora " is her feeling. But for this I bless God unfeignedly; for I do not think a better nurse could well be found, or a more attentive one by day and by night than her own child. Our maid is a good girl too, and she is fond of her and her quiet way, so that is a mercy. And our friends the B—-s have housed us in airy and very quiet rooms outside of the town. I am sure you will feel glad to hear these particulars. My wife had your note of the 16th August, but is too feeble to read or to reply to it, so she has commissioned me to do so in her stead. The work is steady in these parts-Canada. It is more opening than opened in the United States, though there is a beginning in New York and in Boston, and up and down the country-here too, there three; in that point one, in this four-but inquiry is going on, and in the week I spent in Boston I found many anxious to hear, and still more feeling they could not go on with the old things which have not Christ and His Spirit in them. I am going on with Present Testimony now, and have just sent off a batch. You saw vol. 1 of new series doubtless.
My wife's kindest love to you.
Most affectionately in the Lord.
G. V. W.
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Letters 39

September 14th, 1867.
My Dear Sisters In Christ,-The Lord has asked for and taken (and would I say Him, Nay?) my sister and companion.
She gently departed at 10.10 p.m. on Thursday, 12th September, 1867, in perfect peace-the peace of God Himself
I cannot write more just now, save that " it is well," all of it, so well that none but He could say how well. Yours and ours around you,
Most truly in Christ, G. V. W.
Dear—-and——will pray that Christ may be magnified in me, in this I am sure, and so will ours at—-.
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Letters 40

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
My Dear Brother And Sister In The Lord,-I and my daughter, and a sister in the Lord who travels with us, came on here from New York on the 12th of December I had paid a seven weeks' visit there, and after our brother J. N. D. came, and had stayed three weeks with us in our lodging, I thought it well to come on hither so as to make the most of what little we may have to use in His service.
The dear M—-'s were well; for him, well; she as usual. I speak of the body. The Lord seems to be " lessoning " him (as the poor people in, England say), and I think if he could but make up his mind to leave himself as a dead man in the hands of the Lord, and to look up more simply and entirely to the Lord in heaven, he would be more steadily in peace and joy, and perhaps his body be less in his way. I know how the doctor thinks bad things about said body, but doctors know very little about how far the Lord may out of weakness make strong, or how He may make His strength perfect in weakness.
Your sympathy and your wife's to me, beloved brother, was gracious and of the Lord. But I have felt from the first, as to my companion leaving me at Montreal (to me so unlooked-for a close of fellowship in labor and toil), " Thou didst it," and I have added from the first, " Therefore I am dumb " Probably I have been put through deeper exercises in some things than others, and can walk quietly therefore when I have learned my lesson, as others who have not learned it could not. And what really is there to make lengthened residence here on earth desirable to a child of God? Cross, conflict, watching, fighting, are the present experiences of each one who is a soldier of Christ down here; armor never off in war time, and in an enemy's land. And patient as she was, she felt the incessancy of the pilgrim journey, and the weariness of her own weak self too; but rest and presence with the Lord were near. Had they been offered to her she would have hesitated to take them for my sake. Had I been consulted, I could not have answered more wisely than, " Thou, Lord, shalt answer for me." He did not consult me, but took her and left me, and in so doing made an appeal to me-Would I bow to Him? would I rejoice in her gain? The lonely path I am in He looks down upon me in, and reminds me of the glory to come, and of being forever with the Lord. Surely " our Jesus hath done all things well," and all the weaknesses which this trial exposes me to feel and to realize have their answer in Himself, a very present answer. And if humiliation and
conscious weakness be mine, and a needs-be to repress the expression of affections to others, which her presence enabled me safely to do, the life He has given me He can guide skillfully with His own hand, and keep me to His praise and glory. The being poured from vessel to vessel, if not pleasant, is good for our souls, and hinders formality and sleepiness.
I have been brought into contact of war with annihilationists, &c., of this land, and am trying my hand at a poor man's view of the case. The path is plain to a way-faring man, but the wickedness of the heretic and his dishonesty makes the difficulty. Still, if the Lord will condescend to give me a wayfaring man's view of the great white throne. I think it may kelp some of His own children. To pull to pieces the tracts which uphold the heresy were easy enough, I think; for they are all the expression of the busy diligence of man's mind, trying to make God to be what will suit better an unrepentant sinner than will the God of Scripture.
Universalism is another form of evil here; so is spiritualism, which (dropping the Bible) makes man's thoughts to be all from God, vile and filthy as the results are of this system in every vile license to the flesh.
How blessed it is to remember the changelessness of Him who is the eternal Lover of our souls! And oh, what a love He has shown and does show to each of us! We need not wait for the glory to come if we really have been walking in the light, as He is in the light, to set to our seal that God is love, as Christ our portion, and we His, are thought of by us.
Our kindest salutation to one and all of ours. God's best blessing be upon and with you.
G. V. W.
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Letters 41

Toronto, Ontario, October 1st, 1867.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,-I fear I shall not see the dear M——s this autumn, unless the Lord has some way for me to walk in that I know not. But in truth I felt that the Lord meant you to be there just now, and not me. I came hither last week, looking towards Milwaukie and the West. I have been arrested in passage by an attack of sickness, and I have to pause; but He layeth down and He lifteth up, and He can renew strength and send forward if He will.
I find Him very good, and that nothing but the perception of His love as a present portion suffices, in this dry and dreary land, to give freshness to my heart and mind and life. Oh that men would cleave closer to Him-more in the secret of His love!
My kindest salutation in Christ to all that are His around you, and most especially to our brother and sister
Ever yours, dear brother, and waiting for Him for whom you wait,
G. V. W.
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Letters 42

November 27th, 1867.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-Everything is under His hand who is the Savior God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and not only so, but everything is in truth so with regard to us His children, above, below, before, behind, around, within us, His work all for our good, our real good, not for our pleasure now, but for our eternal good. We may (and we are called to it) know and find rest in this; yea, by faith in His word about it, may sing our songs amid all the breakage and the wrecking that shatters the earthly tabernacle and rolls the waves of death all around us. But, 2 Cor. 1, God is the God of resurrection for us in the wilderness, as in 2 Cor. 12. He had taught Paul in connection with his catching up into the third heavens, how it is " a hard saying " this to nature, but to the spiritual man it is blessed to see, writhe nature as it may, that all is under His hand and guidance.
Yours of the 7th is to hand. It awakens in me stronger hopes as to -. If God blesses-the sentence of death must roll in first, and the deeper the wave the higher the blessing afterward. God is not debtor to us to do, to give anything; but when we have prayed, and attributed our prayers to His gift, faith looks up freely and hopes. Assure our beloved sister of my sympathy and thought about her. It is a little thing when Christ and His sympathy and thought are pledged to us; but the littleness of a fellow-member sometimes helps another fellow-member to apprehend the greatness of what is true in the Head. I may not write more, as calls press and post goes. Your writing was no intrusion upon privacy, any more than the Titcher let down into the well would be. If Christ has opened a well in any of us, and if He has given rivers of living water to flow forth, these things are not private. They are, first of all, Christ's for His joy; secondly, the individual's; but thirdly, the portion common to all who can use them. What poor things we are, trickle the water as it may through the stony rock, to be fellow-helpers of one another's strength, and joy, and peace in the Lord.
Ever in the Lord yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 43

March 12th, 1868.
My Dear Miss——,-Welcome but not unexpected was the good news of——-'s being better in the body. I trust the Lord will use her illness to her own soul, and to that of each to whom she is dear, in making us all feel that the body we are now in, each of us, must be changed ere we can have the joy of the taste abidingly of the Lord's presence and love.
It is not only the world around which says, " This is not your rest; " but the bodies we are in say the same thing. A rough muddy road is one thing to make you wish to be by your fireside in a wintry day's walk, but a peg or a nail up through the boot sole will be a strong confirmation of the same.
Love to her, and to each, and to all, G. V. W.
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Letters 44

November 11th, 1868.
An old uncle bids you God-speed, and commends you both to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Night is nearly over, so mind you walk worthily of the day. If I and return ere daybreak I shall hope to come and see you.
G. V. W.
P.S.-You may tell——from me that she has not yet got to the bottom, but when she does she will find the Lord there. G. V. W.
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Letters 45

November 25th, 1868.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,-.... He knows and does all after His mind whose love, wisdom, and grace we could not better if we would. Thank God, I would not try to do so. Though the old nature in me would think of self, God has put it away in Christ, according to Rom. 6, and looks upon it as crucified, dead and buried together with Christ; and I would do so too-though I find that power for the new nature is needed if I am to do so constantly and steadily, not by fits and starts only, but so as to be able to say, " To me to live is Christ," as well as " to die is gain." Motives flowing from Christ, energy of Christ, Christ is the only object; and all three involved in, " To me to live is Christ."
We left Southampton November 17th, 1868; the four months in England gave time now to see the advance of His own work there, in the testimony; and Scotland is now open so that none can shut. We had five Guelph meetings, one at Dublin, and (after that) in York, Stratford-on-Avon, Taunton, Edinburgh, and London, which also gave occasion for seeing the brotherhood.
What a contrast now everywhere to what it was in 1827, when I began to work and had to pray and wait, take a step, and be content to stand and let Satan try to undermine it, and let men break themselves against it! But God is God in every day, and there is no work worth much but what is in Him and under His Spirit. Paul's work in starting the ball, Luther's, &c., in bringing out the sacred Scriptures again, and this in the closing days, each has its own place, but all under God's hand. And oh! for more Nazariteship, practically and individually, is what we groan for; for unless the vessel be gladly set apart or clean for the Lord the power of the Spirit, what would it be? I have seen many a foul gun burst because it was foul, and so far as I can see for no other cause whatsoever. The testimony too, as a place, tries ourselves, if it also tries others that hear it; too much sail will upset the ballastless boat. Well, God is able to deliver us, not only from the world and Satan practically, but from our own selves also, otherwise what and where would be His great salvation?
My mind oft thinks of you, and of sorrows which must have passed through your soul in connection with the failure to walk in the Spirit, and so getting into the flesh, of some in England dear to you. But it was mercy which would not let David, or Jonah, or Peter, walk in a vain show; but when they were loosely girded let them show themselves as they were. God would rather have His own name openly dishonored among men by a servant's walk than cover over a false appearance in the servant. He is the God of reality. A pretty specimen of a note for you, like a blind reader, at the post-office, to try and decipher. Well, it will tell that the Lord makes me think of you. Love to all the Lord's.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 46

February 2nd, 1869.
IN my wanderings you have had a place in my heart and mind before the Lord. Rest in Christ, as of sinners the chief (and I cannot put you lower down than that), is what I have craved for you-that you should cease from yourself and find your all in Christ as Savior of lost ones. I know how the duties of a new life and new relationships press upon the soul, and how they increase sensibly the felt need of rest in Christ, and in the weakness which is ours seem to render us unable to do anything to help ourselves. But after all we must get down to what is said in Rom. 5:6, 8, 10, as to ourselves and God, too, -" When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.... But God commendeth
His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.... If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
We are pretty well, and nearing three months' duration of absence from London. We expect to go Barbados-wards in about ten days, and thence on to Jamaica, if the Lord will, en route to Great Britain.
The range of thermometer here has been from 85° down to 72°, but more generally from 85° to 75°. The rainy season ne se fait pas cet hiver, and drought is imminent. We little know in England the value of fresh water, or how costly a gift a cup of cold water oft is here. A friend at whose house I am has given some touching pictures of this; but water is not as yet failed, though government has to fetch it down from up the river, and then send it up the rail, where it fetches now about a penny a gallon of our money. My kind love to all of ours around you.
G. V. W.
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Letters 47

Friday, May 23rd, 1869.
My Dear——,-I postpone writing about the state of things here until I may have had the fullest opportunity which so short a visit can give of seeing. But the Lord's great grace to us-ward should be named, and along with the mention of that our own pitiful weakness. If one could but be nothing, He might use us more. The carpenter can use his saw, or file, or hammer, without fear of its boasting of the work being its own. If God used His children without a good deal of discipline to them accompanying, they would be spoiled, and boast in what was wrought as being theirs and not His. He loves us too much for that. Whom He loves He chastens, and well does He know what in each of us are the tender parts which being touched we feel most.
But it is all that we may be partakers of His holiness, and become fitted to walk with Him while we are still down here in the wilderness; and a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. You and your wife are both in His hand, and while to you the seeing her suffering is a -strong and a searching medicine, it is one as full of love to you, and of grace toward His children around you, as it is of love and favor to herself. I look, up for her thus: first, that she may glorify God while in the furnace, and that Christ may be magnified, made to lookers-on to appear bigger than they thought Him, in her body, whether it be by life or by death. But then I look up for myself and us: that she may be restored to us, and that we may not have sorrow upon sorrow. He is pitiful to His children, and I am sure He knows how deeply sorrow would be ours if she were taken now to enter into her joyful rest. His will be done, come what may; and nothing is without Him. As the First and the Last, He is Master of the ground long before we were in being: yet I do hope in Him for her restoration, and for our consolation as well as yours therein.
Most affectionately yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 48

May, 1869.
My Dear Brother And Sister In The Lord,-I am in debt to you a letter. Look at the passages in Song of
Solomon, at which I was looking this morning (a) chap. 2:16: " My Beloved in mine,, and I am His." It is like the burst of feeling of a young believer, rejoicing in his newly-acquired relationship to Christ. I love Him, and we understand one another; since I have chosen Him, He is mine, and I am His. (b) Chap. 6:3: " I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine "-a more sobered expression, for she had learned a good bit more of what a poor thing she was, how fickle her will, how unworthy her grasp to be thought much of; but, just what she was, He had not turned away from her. She was His, and she loved Him. He was her Beloved, and if she was His, then He was hers too. It is a much more sober statement, with much less of feeling and experience, but more depth of faith, and more perception of the real rights of things. But there is yet a more sober statement of the same import a little further on (c), chap. 7:10, 11: " I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me; " and this is much nearer the rights of the case, " I pertain to Him whom I love, and His desire is toward me." The why and the wherefore of His desire being towards her, she states not.
The Song of Solomon is about persons of glory on earth, not in heaven, and so, not Christ the Head of the body, the Bridegroom of a heavenly bride, but the Lord, as root and offspring of David, and the land Beulah married to Jehovah, is in question in the Song. The Church is the bride, the Lamb's wife. But the why and the wherefore we know; the promises had been made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to these the servants of the Lord, the Messiah, would be faithful. I do not remember any passage about Old Testament blessing in which " counsel " is named as at the root; but there are many in which " covenant " and " promise " unconditionally are named. The naming of the counsels from before the foundation of the world, in God's own eternity, came out as one of the secret things reserved for the manifestation of what belongs to an earth-rejected Messiah when returned to heaven. I could wish we saw more now of the spiritual sense of personal relationship to the Lord which is found in His beloved in the Song. " Are my sins forgiven me? " is the language of piety now, and how few rise above that into the enjoyed relationship, into the known association with the Lord.
The work proceeds here, but it is very slowly moving. This does not trouble me, if what is wrought stands firm. Naturally one looks for it to be shown in a land like this, where the wildest notions upon every subject of religion are abroad. Yet God is God, and He has not forgotten His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, nor will He forget to gather a people out to wait for Him, and to say, " Come, Lord Jesus." I am reduced down to that as the basis of all my hope; or, if you please, have had to ascend right up to that, as the basis of faith, of hope, and of love and charity too.
God the destroyer of the works of Satan (see John's epistle) was my main stay this last winter, amid much weakness and feebleness and infirmity, and it is a blade we can use, sharp as it is; for He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is in relationship known and owned by Him in grace to us-ward His children.
I felt deeply your disappointment this winter in no visitor, after expectation had been awakened. And I longed to come, but no steam-boat running, and my shattered state of body, and a hindrance, too, in the Lord's providence, made me feel that, how giver unwillingly I must give up the thought. But He is a great giver, and if He hides His hand from giving to-day, to-morrow He oft gives twofold. My daughter unites in Christian love to your wife and all saints.
Grace, mercy, and peace abound toward you, according to the fullness of God, the Father's love in Christ Jesus.
G. V. W.
P.S.-Yours to hand. I look up for Mrs.——Kindest love to her, and I may say to all.
I knew——would be scourged for not leaving all with the Lord. To stop one's own energy is most difficult of all. " If I could but find something to do " is oft our feeling. To leave all with God is another thing altogether.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 49

June 1st, 1869.
I find the secret of all peaceful rest in God in Rom. 3 to 8:10, which contains God's judgment upon me as a creature before its Creator, and the provision which, for His own name's sake, He has made to enable a ruined creature, lost and undone in itself, to find and to be able to boast in its having rest in Him.
True, there is a painful lesson to be learned and appropriated too; viz., that " I am a poor sinner and nothing at all," and that to want to be something in myself, or somebody, is all vanity. Jesus Christ, of God's providing for the sinner, alone can give rest to a sinner, or be his rest of heart and mind and soul; and true too it is that until we get to the end of self, and give it up as irremediably bad (so bad that even God Himself can bring no goodness out of it, but has to produce a new creature), we shall still be looking for goodness in self.
G. V. W.
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Letters 50

June 8th, 1869.
My Dear Miss——,..., Your note of 3rd June tells of your own, and the saints at——experiences of the Lord's goodness. Heartily do I praise Him, and if He has put me into the hearts of His saints, because I am in His own heart, I suppose, well, I bow to Him for that too. He is always Himself. It seems strange to be in London and England again, but He does as He wills, and I suppose He will give me, when the first pressure is a little over, some time for seeing friends.
Kindest salutations to each and all,
From yours and theirs, G. V. W.
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Letters 51

August 3rd, 1869.
My Dear——-,-I quite counted that some of those who came during the winter season would drop off when the waters of testimony got again into their wonted channels. This is always the case; but not with all who come, for some do remain and get blessing after the torrents have subsided. Besides this, there is the putting the testimony off a private on to a public one, and that abides. And so does the confirmation of old truth which new visitors give to the old company. But I am quite satisfied to leave all in the Lord's hands. And the confirmation, as I suppose, which our visits gave to your labors which had preceded them, I look to as a happy mark of the Lord's exceeding grace and love.
As to myself, about whom you so kindly and frequently ask, weariness of body was mine on arriving in England, and I judge that the Lord's hand was in it, too, for my good. But a quiet month's rest and prayer-only going out on Sundays and occasionally on week days-was blessed to the putting of me into my usual quota of strength-never very great. Mr. D looked ten years younger than when he went out, and has been taking full trial of it, in rounds of work fitter for a man of fifty than one who is nearing seventy. But, though looking tired and worn, he seemed not much the worse for his work. He is now preparing to start for the Continent.
I think ours from Barbados, in Demerara, should be content to wait on the Lord until He, in answer to their prayers, pours in more power on the assembly. Of course in returning to England I find some things altered, and can see some things perhaps, after eight months' absence, which I could not before. I do not hide either declension from what was good, or falls into what is evil, from me; but how to meet and help up and onward the feeble knees, &c., as Heb. 12:12, 13, is the difficulty; so I find it, and that not only here, but, as you can imagine, in Barbados and in Demerara. The eye that is most anointed will not be the first to see failure in others, and the soul that knows most of walking under the yoke with the Master (Matt. 11) will not be the first to undertake the putting right, according to its own mind, of what halts and limps in others.
As to the work at——, I am thankful——-is there. The temptations are less than they were near London; and perhaps more of the grating of the earth against the plowshare, so far good. But the way that he ignores the fact that he is at work on other men's foundations, and the very low line of truth which he is upon, gives me, on the other side, certain feelings of anxieties. Still the Lord is over all, and above all, and our extremity is oft God's opportunity. I fear for the souls of some who are in work, that they are risking lasting damage to themselves, while the work they are doing may all have its place as work. Indeed, to say the truth, I often think that we sin against souls when we lend encouragement for them to go on working obviously beyond the measure of the Spirit's power with them....
I am sure we have not too many laborers nowadays; but this, while it should lead to encouragement of every laborer, however lame a one, ought also to lead to fears as to those who may be spoiled if allowed to run too quickly.
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 52

York, November 6th, 1869.
My Dear Brother——,-My heart has kept saying, amid the clamorous calls of many engagements to do this and that, to go here and there, "B.——" and "Mrs.——" and " Brethren in Barbados." Well, perhaps if it came through my heart and its affections, the voice came from higher up, even from One whose eye sees as well one side of the earth as the other, and both at the same moment. I write from York on my way from Edinburgh (where they have had their yearly meeting) to Manchester, where a quarterly meeting is to be, God willing, next week.
At the former, as for Scotland, and the North of Ireland, we had a fair opportunity of seeing how the door is opening, if gradually, yet gradually opening. Four years ago, save at the four places where was breaking of bread, none knew, and few cared about, the knowledge of forgiveness of sins. Last year at Edinburgh there may have been saints from fourteen, as this year from twenty-four places, where there is now breaking of bread, and if eighty last year, attendants from all parts, one hundred and sixty this; and a growing sense outside of us of the need of this doctrine of the knowledge of forgiveness of sins as lying very near the basis of all blessing, if not even inseparable from it, and in a sense preceding it. Until sin be forgiven the soul cannot look up to God, nor till the blood is owned can the Spirit, who gives life and power, dwell in us.——was not able to be there, for the hospital duties had re-commenced, as I suppose, and he had had his outing, and had been preaching in London, Broadstairs, Kent, &c. I fear the excitement in Aberdeen is rather too much, and that he may be working beyond his strength of body and power in the Spirit. But that is the right side, perhaps, to err upon in these days of self-preservation and avoidance of trusting in God. Perhaps there will come a time of calm teaching in Scotland. Patience of hope was called for while the door was shut, labor of love when the door opened; consolidation and exercise of faith may go together perhaps. At any rate, His mercy that has opened the door is to be owned. All South Scotland and the border land seems coming under the testimony, from Shields and Newcastle right back west....
There has been a pushing out of the Lord from the central points of several, and a taking home of some too; also an adding of witnesses. His name be praised! All is in His hand, and He can supply laborers if He will, or work without them too if He will; for He does not depend upon our readiness to serve Him, in order for there to be blessing. He can save by many or by few.
Ritualism is becoming more and more material and fleshly here, and is largely affecting Dissenters, though not so much so as it does the Establishment of the country. The Master is the only one to be looked to, and His Spirit will not fail those who seek to bear testimony to the worth of the person and work of the Lord, and the counsels, plans, and prospects of the Lord of all glory.
My body has been better and stronger since July. For one month after our arrival in England I had to keep still, and recline a good deal. Well, to have His will done, and to enter into His mind, that we may intelligently and as from ourselves and of our hearty accord do it, that is the blessing.
Most affectionately yours in the blessed Lord,
G. V. W.
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Letters 53

February 2nd, 1870.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-" Behold he prayeth " told to Ananias a deal about God's heart and Saul. The forty-sixth Psalm is, as Luther used to say, a cure for little faith if taken pure and as it is. It is the Lord's mercy to put us back upon resurrection from among the dead always.
Affectionately yours, G. V. W.
We have some good cases of answers to prayer here of late.
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Letters 54

July 16th, 1870.
My Dear Brother And Sister In The Lord,-I and daughter have been here (at Whitwell, Isle of Wight) a month yesterday. We left London two days after the party sailed, with J. N. D., for Quebec and Guelph meeting. I had been laid up with fever (of typhoid form) for three weeks in London, and was, thankful to get away from all the noise and bustle for a little. I am sure the Lord meant it in love and for blessing from first to last, and I am satisfied that He has done wisely in it, and have had no thought but that His hand has ruled throughout the whole.... The Lord rules things otherwise than we think; and it is well to remember that, and to be passive waiters on His omnipotent and all-wise hand.
Often do I look across in thought to you in B——, and pray and trust for the blessing of the Lord on the work there and elsewhere. Prayer is sure work, and the harbinger of blessing. So I have found in forty-six years' pilgrimage; and laid aside this spring, these two months, it has been a comfort to me to think so, though I have been reminded, too, when drowsy and heavy, of a still more precious truth; viz., that if prayer be a channel of blessing, the spring is in God and the fountain of blessing Christ Jesus. And the blessings flow down freely, and often what sets us a praying for more is a first dropping of His rich love and grace. I have been preaching this evening (July 3rd) from 1 John 4, to a very simple, poor people, as showing what the gospel which John wanted us to hold fast in the last days was. I found it good as testing what passes for religion nowadays, and testing too one's own heart, and mind, and life. Antichrist, any in the place of Christ, and therefore opposed to Him, does not confess Him, will not do, brings in the world, is of the flesh.
We begin with God's love-love, that is for sinners, sent His Son to make propitiation for sin, to give life, to be the Savior of the world. Thus God puts home upon us that we are sinners-loved as such in all our sins, but atoned for, life provided for, a Savior found for us.
Then the Spirit given we dwell in God, and God in us, and find that as Christ is so are we, though in this world, love to the brethren, freedom from fear, we love Him because He first loved us, new birth known and victory over the world.
One-fourth of the village is Ritualistic High Churchism, half Bryanites, the rest, save some brethren, nothing at all. One hardly knows what form wickedness is preparing to take just now; but, blessed be His name, the full, perfect model of the good is clearly, plainly before us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He with transforming power molds us into the same image from glory to glory. I have thought of late that we live too far off from Him, and that our being so often fretted because of evil and evildoers is a proof of it. Letters yesterday from——; pretty well there, though he says they want power in the Spirit, and more practical Nazariteship.
Our kindest salutations to all of His household, and of your own too.
Affectionately in Christ, G. V. W.
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Letters 55

3, H. P. H. Road, London, VV.
Oct. 17th, 1870.
My Dear———,-I have a letter to send to Barbados from a brother, so I shall make that, an excuse for writing a few lines to you. The Lord's grace in heaven is as bright in heaven to us-ward on this side of the sea as ever, for Christ shines always and ever the same. To you likewise He is unchangeably the same. 'Tis good to get up to Himself, where all is eternally bright and divine; for truly all else is either vile, or only good in measure (like the angels), or mixed of good and evil, like 'saints unfaithful to their Lord...
We remember with affection, in and before the Lord, all the friends in Barbados, and earnestly desire that their light may shine out more and more, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, and presence with them of the power of the Spirit. A strong taste of Christ upon the heart, a savor of heaven and its blessedness, while it is the portion of the individual Christian, is a blessed testimony for Him for us in a world of feeling of which is, " Who will show us any good thing? " Satisfied with God, rejoicing in Christ, full of the Holy Ghost, the weakest believer may be well one wondered at, by men of the earth, whose bellies are filled with husks that the swine do eat, and who feel an incessant craving for something they know not what.
May the Lord, beloved brother, sustain and cheer you more and more.
Ever yours affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 56

January 3rd, 1871.
My Dear——,-... I think that the power of sympathy in——and the want of girdle accounts for his overstepping himself I must add, that if we had possessed more power of the Spirit and in the truth, we might have come in and rescued him perhaps. It is blessed in my eyes that there was self-sacrifice and no self-accumulation. I can leave him peacefully with Him who had loved and washed him from his sins, and made him, too, part of the royal priesthood unto His God.
I have been giving some lectures, on Lord's-day evening, on Eternal Redemption; the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; on the glories of the Lord as Mediator, and His humiliation as High Priest; on the principle on which He took us up, the word of God being the only principle for our walk. He brought us out of the world and from under Satan by it, and making us hear it. Well, from Red Sea to Jordan, we must hear Him and find Him faithful to God for us, and in the entering into, glory the same word will be His warrant and our power. I have hardly got into my subject as yet fully-the contrasts between redemption in time and eternal redemption; but as I go along it seems to me that there is much precious ore to be gathered here, if so He will.
To-night I had proposed the blood of the ransom as my subject; but cold lays me up, and another is the mouth-piece, and I am writing to you and——a few lines each.
When I commenced lectures as above I thought to write out afterward the outline of what was given to me, and I tried to do so, but I found what with pressure of work, and what with the many questions which sprang up to interest me, I got searching for more gold dust, instead of giving what I had had given to me. Naturally an extempore word is not deep, as it is addressed to the mass, and also when questions and points crowd in upon the mind while we are speaking, we must needs drop them for the time being to go on. I try to drop the hook where the fish are to be caught, or to feed the mouths that are hungering. But when one sits down to write upon the same subject, new matter and new truth are before one's mind, and lead one off in another line. There is, too, a freshness of the Spirit often when one is speaking as to souls which makes the word tasted in a way it is not even if in a reading-meeting the same subject is gone over more fully. I felt this last week. In my week lecture I had come down to the armor, &c., in Eph. 6, and went through it as trying to break up the loaf among the children. Next day, at a large reading-meeting at——, dear——there, I asked, "What shall we read? " No one seemed to have anything, and I suggested "the armor," in Eph. 6, which he read, and broke it up afresh. My object was that, feeling the immense importance of the doctrine to saints in London just now, I thought in the testimony of a second, the word might be confirmed; it was so, and more brought out a good deal, and very nice truth too. Yet those who had heard Thursday's lecture seemed to taste what they heard more than Friday's reading, though they admitted it was fuller and confirmatory of what was heard on Thursday. I observe this too with -. He said lately, " I am going to preach to souls, and not merely to say what is in the Word for the enlargement of the mind in truth. The people's souls must be thought of."
The work goes on here. All that we have to do is to walk with the Lord, and keep the door open yet in holiness. Our position is still so despised that there is nothing much to attract to it save the truth; and if we could be full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, that would secure blessings within.
Most affectionately yours in the blessed Lord, with love: to your household and to all saints,
G. V. W.
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Letters 57

My Dear Mr.—-, It seems to me (I think too it is the Lord's mind) that if souls in Brisbane realized that Scripture declares that the assembly is indeed part of the habitation of God, that this alone-would be sufficient, not only to show out the wrongness of the expressing therein of mere human feelings, but to produce humility for anything of the kind that has been.
If I go to the table of the Lord with the two truths in my soul-1st, that my own body is a temple of God (for the Spirit is in me); and, 2nd, that this is my qualification to be in the assembly; then, in that presence of God, any sin I may have been guilty of will keep me lowly and slow to speak on the one hand; and, on the other, make any one who may be there, and be, and may have been, troubled by me, watchful not to show even their feelings while there, whatever they may-if it has been godly trouble in them as to me-be led to do afterward through my brethren there.
Supposing I had deceived any one, or told a lie, ere I went to the table I ought to confess it, lest I become hardened; and having done that to God and my brethren -certainly if I knew that I had been guilty of what God could not do (He " cannot lie ")-it ought to make me soft and practically full of self-judgment. On the other hand, if you, or any one against whom the lie was, showed your human feelings, on my most unadvisedly taking a part, as leading in the morning worship, you wrong the Lord and yourself in so doing, and make too much of me altogether; and, more than that, your misconduct puts my misconduct into the second place, your expression of feeling being an overt action of the flesh-positive in character, while mine was more negative-want of grace.
The whole doctrine of what the Church of God is lost and denied if my stupid hardness and dullness as to what becomes God's presence is allowed, or if the table of the Lord is the place at which my will and feelings may be allowed.
You are master in your own house-and if a party of friends met there, you are responsible that no one guest is allowed to grieve another guest; and if you invite me, and I come to your house, I am bound to behave worthily of you. At the table-God being there, and the eyes of the Lord upon His twos and threes-each one there has to act worthily of God's presence, and each one is responsible for the conduct of all there that it is worthy of the Lord's table. All that are at the table, be it ten or a hundred, are at the Lord's table, and each has the Spirit of God; and if anything disorderly occurs thereat, each bears the blame, unless and until he has called attention at a proper time to it, and the assembly has cleared itself of the sanction of the evil which its silence gives.
It seems to me, the doctrines of what is the assembly (or church), and what is the responsibility of each person in it, are greatly needed in teaching in this hemisphere; and I hope, amid all these soul-grieving disturbances, and amid all our culpable ignorance and great weakness, that the Lord is yet working so as to bring us into more light, and more practical consistency with His mind about the assembly, and the conduct that becomes us, as sons of God, when at the table of our gracious Lord and Savior. For three years or more, after I began to break bread, there were but three of us together-I only name this as showing that I know the difficulties of the twos and threes; then we were nine, and a pause; then about sixteen. The difficulties are greater in a small number, very often, than in a large number, always so if human thoughts and feelings are more at work than faith and the Holy Spirit.
Your brother in Him,
G. V. W.
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Letters 58

March 4th, 1871.
G. V. W. answers for himself He is up and about; much sickness everywhere around, but all bright and clear in heaven above. The socks are to hand, and shall be tried. The Lord preserve——in her going out and coming in. My daughter got a chill on Tuesday, and seems to have a bilious influenza attack, with quinsy, so that I write for her as she did for me last year.
My kindest love to one and all of ours around you.
Most affectionately in Him our ascended Lord,
G. V. W.
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Letters 59

March 12th, 1871.
My Dear Miss——,-Evil news they say flies apace; but, thank God, through Christ, what man calls evil news has a side where God is found; and what is there which brought into the light of a risen and ascended Lord but may shine in His light?
It has pleased Him, verily, to permit me to be called upon to pay back a loan of His love to me. And the way in which He has wrought has been most merciful and pitiful, saying, as it were, to herself, If you know love, in that He laid down His life for you, do thou also lay down thy life for the brethren. This hindered its being an accident, as many call it. " My steps, thy steps " involves, and grows up out of, the privilege of having been made, through grace, one with Himself.
The reality that she is gone before remains, however, and through grace, by the Spirit, I justify Him in every step of the way, and cannot call it hard that He should have permitted her to go on high through nursing the sick.
I did not write to you sooner through pressure of duties. Mr.——died in the Lord on Saturday, at twelve, a very bright specimen of mercy. She is feeble, but happy in the Lord too. It is good to taste and feel the wilderness.
Love to all in the Lord, G. V. W.
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Letters 60

April 9th, 1871.,
My Dear——-,—I have been watching for an opportunity in which to write to you and Mrs. But though at Malvern, I have found the calls, and visits, and letters, and reading-meetings, &c., absorb all my time. To-day M. and B. E. are down here, and so I can get a free evening, which I think to claim, so as to write to you.
You may both have heard that it has pleased the Lord to call my child to Himself, and to have appointed the nursing of the sick poor, as her chariot of fire. The last Monday in April she went, hoping to save M. C-, a nursemaid, from being overtaxed in nursing a case of malignant scarlet fever; on Tuesday night she saw she was ill; Wednesday was ailing, but about; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, ill, and departed at 7.30 that evening. When He told me, Saturday, 5.30 a.m., " Pray not, for I take her," I said, " Not my will, but thine be done. Only enable thou me to glorify Christ therein, so shall I neither repine nor wish her back." He has been faithful as ever, and His grace perfects itself in weakness. Sorrow is selfish, and makes us turn in on self. I know that, and know too who has touched me herein. But not one single thing is displaced in heaven, by the Lord's loan to me, through 39 years, being moved up there. Till she was gone I had no idea of what she was to saints, and to many of the laboring ones too. She had got quietly into work, and had grown in grace and truth perceptibly to all around her. To me the way of her departure was a great grace, not disease accidentally contracted, but in service, and in one of danger, known danger; but her mind was made up that 1 John 3:16 meant what it did. And, grievously too, the danger on that one occasion seemed nothing compared with the other cases she had met. But the Lord's mercy is perfect. I have not the will, if I had the power, to alter one item. Thank God, I feel what He has done! but surely the Lord Jesus is welcome to the best of what He has given me, to take it back at any moment; and for herself, how much has she gained! I know many of you will sympathize with me....
G. V. W.
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Letters 61

April 14th, 1871.
My Dear Sisters in the Lord,-I doubt not you have both and all prayed for me. So you should know how abundant in grace and mercy the Lord has been. Not in an uncommon way, as though He had found either a vessel or wants which gave Him an opportunity to show how He could go beyond everything in ordinary cases. No; that would risk puffing any one up; but by every-day truth. Surely the Christ who satisfied, to such overflowing, the heart and mind of a Paul, a Stephen, of all the tried members of the household of faith, can fill to fullness my heart. (Eph. 3:14-21.) The work must now suffice me for the little while.
Most affectionate love to both, and to all saints.
G. V. W.
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Letters 62

July 5th, 1871.
My Dear Miss——,... He has no regrets that He has taken her [the daughter] to be with Himself; and when He looks upon the many graves where His own have had their bodies placed, no depression, no pang is His, nor any sense of bereavement. These things challenge our hearts as to whether we really are dwellers in heaven or not, and as to whether faith or sight have most sway with us-spirit or flesh. And He giveth more grace....
I am again in London on business for a little. What next I still wait to see; but I have not forgotten my invitation to
Most truly yours in Christ Jesus, G. V. W.
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Letters 63

September 1st, 1871.
My Dear Sister in the Lord,-I am just starting for Paris, Dijon, and Vevey, if it may please God to refresh some through my visit. On my return I hope to see you, ere I go, if He permit, farther to work. I know I may count on the beloved brethren at. They will not forget me in their prayers, that Christ may be magnified in me, little as I am, more than He ever has been in me. What have any of us down here to live for save Himself and the blessing of His people?
With love to all. Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 64

September 27th, 1871.
My Dear Miss——-,-Will you please direct this note for me to our sister? I thought I had her address, but I find it not. I enjoyed and got rested too in my little visit to -. How kind she is to me, and always so. Well, the Lord will repay it all, I doubt not. Ar round of work this morning, so I write this in haste ere going forth to it.
Ever yours in Christ, G. V. W.
I was reading at breakfast an account of a new sect, " The Positivists." The theory is, " Humanity is God," and besides that there is no God. What a fool man is when left to himself. But for the incarnation of the Son of God I should be ashamed to be a man.
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Letters 65

October 1st, 1871.
My Dear Friends,-I know you will like to read a letter just come from our colored brother. He is working apart from all system, and is one who has gleaned much from the Lord. Let me have it back at 3, H. P. Our brother,——, preached last Tuesday at C—-Room, and said in the evening, " I feel twenty years younger." On Tuesday night, a few minutes after being in bed, he said something about " the end, the will of the Lord be done," and fell asleep. His wife asked for my presence at the funeral, and I hope, if the Lord will, to give it.
I ask the prayers of the assembly at—for myself. I thought to ask them last Monday myself, but feared to do it. I am looking to Demerara, and then the West Indies, if the Lord will, by an early boat (2nd November), not that I count myself worthy to go, but the Lord is very gracious, and can use whom He will. It was the thought of this made me anxious to secure a sight of—saints at once, seeing how short my stay might be in England. If He wills to bring me back in spring He can.
Ever affectionately yours in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 66

November 21st, 1871.
My Dear Miss——-,-On Sunday night, at twelve, I reached Barbados, when—came on board to greet me, and—to go on with me to Demerara.... We are now about fifty miles off Demerara, at half-past seven Tuesday evening, but as there is a mud bar to be crossed, and it is only high tide at one, I suppose we shall not be inside the bar, where Georgetown is, until two Wednesday morning.
I have found the Lord with me in the voyage, and I have no doubt but that He settled I was to come alone as to man, though dear A. P., who met me at the station, wanted much to come on with me; and indeed I would rather have had him than any one else, but I felt his family had a stronger claim than I had, and I said, No...
Most affectionate love to all saints, G. V. W.
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Letters 67

Kingston, Jamaica, February 23rd, 1872.
My Dear——, Among changes many-of circumstance and of place-you nave oft been before me, and that not only as one dear to me individually, but also, and the rather, as a vessel fitted for and called by grace to carry the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to present it and Him to men around you.
The Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the living and the only true God, is He whose perfect image has been presented to us in Jesus Christ; and not only so, but in grace most abundant it has all been written down for us in human language, so that amid all the failure of man as a bearer and reporter of truth, we have in the written word the exposition and presentation to each one of us of God's view of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I have been on South American shores, Demerara, and after that in Barbados (visiting brethren, laboring among saints and sinners), and am just arrived here with the like object. My heart has had to own the grace of God wheresoever I have been, but oh, the awful state of the mass professing to be Christians! and, alas! the little knowledge among true believers of the full and finished work of atonement; of how God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in Him. That truth becomes more and more precious in my eyes, and the knowledge of it through faith more and more distinctive of the blessing and blessedness wherewith God has made me to differ from what I was when I was in nature, and from my fellows all around me.
"Christ died, then I'm clean!
Not a spot within,"
is often my morning song. Oft as I rise I sing that 22nd hymn.
" How bright, there above, is the mercy of God!"
and follow it with the 327th-
"Lord Jesus! are we one with Thee!"
I find amid the wear and tear of life piety to be like oil on an overworked machine. " Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord," prepares the soul to give thanks always for all things. That is a fine test to the state of one's soul, and though the result of the application to my own soul oft humbles me, yet rather would I be humbled thus than cease to think that among other privileges this is one which Abba's love has prepared for us, even so to walk with Him that we can say, " All things work together for good to them that love God; " and if so, " In all things more than conquerors," and that enables one to give thanks always for all things....
Heaven is opened on us, that we may look up and see Himself, Jesus, who sits there, our Anchor and Forerunner, fixed within the veil; may see Him who is the object of our faith, the giver of the Holy Ghost, and watch Him till He rises up to come forth and fetch us HOME; then all together, forever with the Lord!
Yet a little while, and He that shall come will have come; then Himself will have the joy of being surrounded by us, as fruits of the travail of His soul, and we shall then know how great a deliverance and how full a portion we owe to Him.
Shall we meet again here below, my dear -, ere we have seen Abba's house and-better than it or the golden city around it-His own beloved self? I am getting the old man, just sixty-seven; not far off three score and ten, which is the life of man. May Christ be magnified in my body and yours, whether it be by life or death; and it shall (D.v.) be so.
In faith yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 68

April 22nd.
My Dear——,-Elihu did not come in too late to Job, nor before things in his soul were ready to receive the blessing. The Lord knew what the end of the Lord with Job would be, and when Job was ready for it it came. (Alas! he had not waited for it.) As in infirmity, David's words have oft been strength to me-" This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High "-so, when in the furnace like Job, have I found help in the thought of One who sits as a refiner above the furnace. (The figure says, He looks into the boiling metal until it has thrown up enough of its dross for Him to see His own face reflected in the seething metal below; then the operation is done.) So immensely are our lives below the mark as nominal Christians, that we have next to no idea of the distance at which we have walked from God; and when the soul is turned to seek His face, and Him only as our end and object, we discover with amazement how many false props we have had, and how often we have been leaning on the love and approbation of others, and not upon a Father's love alone. The prop may have been removed in one way or the other, but its removal oft discovers to us that while we had it, we enjoyed (not God's grace in lending it to us, but) its own self, as suited to us and our enjoyment. Of course if its removal be connected with failure, there is more of bitterness and self-reproach, but when we have weighed all things quietly in the presence of the Lord we find that, whatever else there may have been, He has the largest place in it, and that we can justify Him in the jealousy of His love, who, take away what He may from us, never takes away His own love. And God knows how His love of Christ, all alone, was enough for His heart all through His course down here.
It was not that Christ did not feel the absence of love in Peter, or in friends in Israel, &c., but when all else was gone, when all forsook Him and fled, He still had God left to Him; and when, anticipating the anguish of His forsaking Him, divinely perfect as He was, His purpose never wavered, His singleness of eye never varied. That was, in the fullness of it, His alone to bear. God forsook Him that He might never have to forsake us.
But, besides the fact that then and there He was forsaken in our stead (and so our guilt is gone, gone forever from us in God's presence), what a revelation is that sorrow to us both of His competency to enter into our sorrows when alone and left of all; but, too, of what alas! is terrible to flesh and blood, His purpose to perfect, and His pathway of perfecting, our hearts in practical Nazariteship. Paul in his letter, 2nd to Timothy, shows what he tasted in this way, and the last chapter shows how fully he had found the blessedness of the way, all humbling as it was.
I am told that a paper of mine, Present Testimony, towards the end of it, helps some to see what it is to say, " To me to live is Christ: " if you have-it, look at it. I am sure, if I were alone, and all hell and all earth against me, God's love in Christ, taught me by the Spirit, might well suffice to give me songs to God in the night season. I see how far Paul attained in this, in some measure. (See Acts.) But the distance at which we have got from Himself as a living person, the large development of I in each of us, the way that faith is not used if known, and that other powers than those of the Spirit rule with us, make us, when caught in the storm, ready to sink. God sees it all in us, and He sees how we want purging, and His love is faithful enough to give us trial: that purging the vessel will put us in a state to walk with Him, and be satisfied with Him alone. If God be for us (with us, in us, I might add), who against us? and if really we so walk, how He does work!
I must close. God is God, sits on high, rules all here controls all below.
Affectionately yours in the Lord, G. V. W.
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Letters 69

July 20th, 1873.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-" Wit's end " is where I found myself this morning when I rose. But faith said, " If (Psa. 107) wit's end lies in the path, God is He who brings us there, and He is beyond and above it." 2 Cor. 12 and 2 Cor. 1 give us His principles for us in the way. His strength made perfect in weakness in us; and the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead.
Difficulties invincible to us surge around; weakness incredible within God finds, and makes us to taste of it. But God is known as God alone, and all the more by all these things. A heart which turns to God, and God alone, under ALL circumstances, makes a man to be like David-a man after God's own heart. To me nothing was more characteristic of him than this; cannot write much, but think to send you this line from Plymouth.
Your affectionate brother, G. V. W.
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Letters 70

My Dear—-,-To take into one's own soul the sorrows,
and the roots of them in sin of others, was what the blessed Lord did perfectly, and could do it perfectly because there was no sin in Him; to do so is ours most surely, however imperfectly we may succeed in doing it, and the whole of Scripture shows me that it is one part of the servant of God's calling. See chap. 9, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. I see the same in John 11, when I judge the Lord's sorrow was from His taking death in what it meant, into His soul, and not from the weakness of human sympathy with Martha and Mary.
What a comfort it is to have the Lord's bosom opened to us, and drawing nigh to it to find the character of view that He might never have to forsake us.
But, besides the fact that then and there He was forsaken in our stead (and so our guilt is gone, gone forever from us in God's presence), what a revelation is that sorrow to us both of His competency to enter into our sorrows when alone and left of all; but, too, of what alas! is terrible to flesh and blood, His purpose to perfect, and His pathway of perfecting, our hearts in practical Nazariteship. Paul in his letter, 2nd to Timothy, shows and the two sets of beings who lived in them, how differently! Then again, to His mind, there is the case of the soul that fails and sins. Peter's ignorant self-confidence in John 13 must be judged; and if he and David before him could not read self in the light of God, self must be left to work out its characteristics in outside things, which angels, and wicked men, and good men could all read plainly now; and so both Peter and David are brought with Job, and all others, to abhor and loathe themselves before God,' and (the evil thus judged by self) room be made for the development of the new principles, and that which is acceptable to God in us worked out in us by Him. Remind you of 1 John 2 and 3 first verses, of the reality that the living Christ of God is ever ready; and the close of Heb. 4 shows us this to put forth His help. I commend you to God and the word of His grace.
I am, yours ever, G. V. W.
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Letters 71

December 19th, 1874.
My Dear——, The Lord sees to-morrow as yesterday, and if we look after walking under His eye to-morrow, we may count upon His keeping His eye on us to-morrow. I rejoice in B.'s service-life, honorable as it rolls on, sweet in retrospect. I hope, as my time is driven close, to send you a few of my gospel tracts, with a weak body, and a very tired mind, and the cry of " lo, here, and lo, there " all around one here. Correspondence, save on duty, is nearly out of the question. Good and comfortable letters this month from Melbourne, and those parts. Post from Adelaide: all here creeps on. That the Lord has wrought, and in many places is working, I do not doubt; but when one is on one's mule (see Neh. 2:10-20) one needs faith after getting into Jerusalem to see where God works, and to expect. Miriam looking down to watch what will become of Moses in the bulrush-ark is my model to follow. What will come of all, and after all, Lord, from thee is my expectation. Certainly He will give treble to all our hopes. I may find time to write more quietly to-night, though with five or six packets to go out, I fear to hope so; but I have posted the gospel tracts to you. One has to write them, print them, and then send them out, is the order of colonial life. My love to C., and a kiss in the Lord's name to G., if still with you. Money is very dear just now here, and some crash is supposed at the door-the poor world! Well the Lord Jesus is One that owns us.
Yours affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 72

April 13th, 1872.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,- The Lord has been abundant in mercy to me, and given me to feel that I may sign afresh my experience to the truth of 2 Cor. 1; viz., His being the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. My kindest love to all the dear saints. My visit to Jamaica seems now nearly accomplished; after that I thought of turning England-wards.
Most affectionately in Him, G. V. W.
I have been and am pretty well in health.
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Letters 73

April 27th, 1872.
My Dear Brother in the Lord,-The rights of Christ are to be recognized by the assembly of God at all times. In that we are happily agreed. But those rights may be looked at, in a case like the present, in either of two ways; namely, as we consider Him as the living Head of a body, whose members are on earth, while Himself is in heaven; or as the Head over God's house, which down here is the habitation of God, through the presence of the Spirit among us.
He knows how to act to perfection in both the two aspects; and when waited upon humbly by us, leads us, as He did Paul at Corinth, in the path which showed that the development of the new nature and the crippling of the old nature's actings could be blended with the vindication before man of God's truth and grace and holiness in the flock, bearing before man upon earth the holy name of the God of grace in truth.
Satan knows how to use the world and its principles, through the flesh of any of us, so as to confuse our minds, and to make it appear impossible to act in truth, grace, and holiness in every act, and to blend salvation for eternity before God, in heaven, with ruling and guiding in time before man upon earth, individuals, and companies.
It is evident too, I think, that, as the eternal Lover of my soul, Christ's discernment of me goes from the incorruptible seed of which I am born, right outward to everything in and about me-body, soul spirit, and world, flesh and Satan, all are discerned by Him in their relative actings on me, as one brought in Him to the Father through the Spirit. And this necessarily goes far beyond what is manifested in His dealings in time, and upon me, as what comes out before man when He is dealing with a company, as was true with any of the seven churches for instance.
The case at Corinth was a very peculiar one in this respect, that the company down there refused to purge itself from the sanction of a sin, of which the heathen around would have been ashamed. This, I think, must not be forgotten.
No doctor in medicine likes to give advice upon a case of a critical nature without seeing the patient and the case for himself, and the judges of this world have to hear the whole case ere they will commit themselves as to any opinion. Just so, I find it impossible to form an opinion of this case, without knowing all the circumstances, and without also seeing the individual.
The case of a man deceived unconsciously into drunkenness, and who knew he had been under the strong effect of liquor, though no one else did, and who came and told me of it himself, would be quite a different one from another who had gone and sat down among drinking men, and been the worse for liquor, and seen by others, and who had not come and made it known himself In the same way a man may come and tell me of a sin he has committed unknown to any one, the mere fact of his having committed such a sin would not justify my publicly announcing the sin. I only name these things as showing how impossible, without seeing a person, it is to form a sound judgment about the individual, or the conduct of the company toward him, or what the mind of Christ is as to the conduct, and its times to be pursued, both for the health's sake of the soul, and for the name and honor of God, and His assembly before the world.
The great thing, because it is what Christ Jesus Himself seeks, is to get the soul that has failed to take up Christ's interests against those of mere selfishness in human nature. If any one fails, and you can get him to take up God's and Christ's part against his failure, the day is nearly won. This all of us seek for in this case, that the soul should say, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I done this evil," &c. That gained, the weak ones in the company will not be in danger, and the settlement of the extent to which the conduct of the company must go in disciplinary judgment would soon be plain.
On the other hand, where sin has been with a high hand, blended too, perhaps, with great forwardness in the assembly, a high hand and very prompt, bold action may be necessary. Moses's haste and zeal for God was salvation.
God and Christ, and the Spirit and the truth, grace and holiness, must have the first place; that is clear to us all. On the other hand, we must not forget the soul that has failed, nor ourselves, as still in the body, as to our mode of carrying out our purpose, or the time of its public judgment, if that is needful. And in the present day in England, where energy is oft stronger than faith and patience, I should press this, without giving up one iota of the purpose of heart.
Our brother—has oft helped souls in such cases as this, and he probably knows the young man well, and is known to our beloved brother at -. I know no one better fitted to look into the matter; but God knows best.
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
P.S.-I will add a word or two, which, though self-evident when weighed, I find oft is not thought of as to self-judgment about sin.
Some sins are so shocking that if a man falls into them, he is shocked that he has fallen into such disgraceful sins; bu. t this is not self-judgment, either before God or man,
about those sins themselves, but disgust and surprise that they have overtaken him.
Another remark is this, that sin and the root of it are often different. And more than this, until you can reach the root, the fruit will not be judged aright. David and Solomon, and Job too, are instances of this.
I return the two letters as requested. Of course you cannot get to 2 Cor. 2 save as having passed through 1 Cor. 5, but that is, in one sense, owing to the peculiarity of the case. The spirit of the two chapters is, however, connected. But if both these references are left aside, the question in hand remains the same. The question of the soul that has failed, and of the extent to which a company has to clear itself, and of what is due to Christ before the world, remains the same.
Paul calls the person " that wicked person " (1 Cor. 5:13, &c.); the Oxford letter calls him " our brother," " our poor, dear, fallen brother," " our brother is inside," " our poor brother," " our brother." Paul's discipline was to put the evil out; the person would not give up his evil, nor the assembly stand against it, and hence his extreme discipline. I suppose in some cases public rebuke before all would take the place of exclusion; that is, if the evil were judged and ceased from, and in some cases, not before all, but before those who knew of the sin, if it were not known generally; but how far this would apply to this case I know not. The state of the soul, and the facts attendant on the committal of sin, must be thought of.
Satan was a liar from the beginning. God cannot lie. All liars shall have their part in the lake of fire; yet Paul would not put out the Cretians, though they were always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies, but would have them rebuked sharply. (Titus 1:12.)
Of course there must be full fellowship kept up, and one mind, in all parts of the church of God, and prayer, faith, and patience, are needed for this.
Those whom the Lord loves and rules over at——and——will find He has one mind for them both in this matter, and none but Satan can make them have two minds in it.
I pray for you, and for our loving Lord's interest in this matter. G. V. W.
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Letters 74

May 15th, 1872.
My Dear Brother In The Lord,—On my return I found letters and papers and cases of conscience rather out of all number awaited me, and I have had to stick close to desk-work, only taking Sunday and one or two evenings in the week for preaching or teaching. Everything that makes one realize that God is God, and sits as God upon the throne, yet stooping down to direct the infinitesimal little affairs of each of us who is in Christ, is blessed. Yes; if behind the difficult letter, or the long voyage, God be seen through faith, the Savior-God, one or other of them is alike acceptable to the saved soul. My task, however, has kept me rather in London, but I am to go down Saturday to Ipswich, and I hope thence on to Stowmarket.
" Not by power nor by might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord," is a great text for the last days-a very Philadelphian text. It seems to me to lie behind a good many of our little difficulties here in England. If faith go first, then energy as of faith can follow after; for God is in the scene, and resurrection from the dead is recognized as a principle. But if energy gets forward before or beyond faith, it is drawn from within us, and brings with it nature and the world and flesh. Flesh cannot rebuke and put down flesh, as some think; and if it be tried, flesh is drawn out in opposition to flesh. Better to have hard cases in God's hand than easy ones in our own.
I am struck on my return at finding the progress of decay in Established Church walls and in walls of church system, on the one hand, and, on the other, of the growth in knowledge, and the diffusion of it everywhere, as to fellowship of saints as heavenly saints, children of God everywhere.
On the other hand, Satan's anger against the very notion of such a company as " God's company gathered to Christ and in the Spirit " is made manifest by such pitiful tracts as——and others have been printing and circulating; and the same thing is going on on the Continent. In France there are three leading ecclesiastics broken out of the papal system by the late (Ecumenical Council's decree of the infallibility of the Pope, yet they have set busily, to work to rebuild what has been destroyed.
This is a wilderness, and we want something of the kind to drive us in upon Him who has said (Jer. 2:31), " Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? " To me He has not been so, and is not in Himself.
Most affectionately yours, beloved brother and sister in the Lord, G. V. W.
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Letters 75

3, Howley Place, London, W., July 17th, 1872.
My Dear——,-I judge that, before the Lord, you are right to make no appeal to the chaplain; and they likewise are right not to appeal to the governor. Paul would have done neither, but walked forward in humble faithfulness, prepared to do well and, if needs be, to suffer for it. I am surprised often how slow we are to recognize the simplicity of the Spirit of God's ways, as set forth in the life of the apostle, just because we have been brought up and cradled in an unsimple system of form of godliness without any power in it. I do not want any one in a fleshly spirit to try and smash these forms around us, but I do feel persuaded that, in the measure in which our hearts are full of Christ, and our walk down here is the result of the eye fixed upon Himself, a living Person in heaven, we shall walk, not as seeing what is visible and temporal, but what is invisible and eternal, and then the path will be one of peace and joy.
I said to one to-day, "If I could but be a consistent member of the Bride, the Lamb's wife, of the chaste virgin espoused to the Lord, how simple and bright all would be! if I could be simple as a little child of God placed near Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, how bright all would be! " The answer was, "'But what devotedness that supposes! " I replied, " Not what men call or mean by devotedness; they mean by devotedness having a great deal to give up. I am part of that virgin-a child in the family of God-but I look up for the heart and mind of the Bridegroom, and all His love and grace to be mine; I look up for Abba's love to free His child's heart. Will Christ's love, filling my heart and mind; will Abba's love, filling me to overflowing, be my giving up or His pouring in? "
The work of the gospel progresses in Great Britain quietly, but in some cases markedly. On the other hand, Ritualism and Churchism, and the setting aside of Scripture as God's word, is running in one class through England. The tone of brethren wants raising, I think, everywhere in these parts, and the power of their Nazariteship as separated by the 6 of Romans doctrine from world, and flesh, and devil. What poor things we were and are in ourselves to be the battle-field of such principles, and of God's glory and honor, as in Rom. 6 and Eph. 2. I want to see more order in saints; I mean not outward order, but inward; loins girt, and minds bright, and hearts warm, and each knowing how in patience to possess his own bodily self and soul and spirit, and how quietly to walk with God in his little service, serving the living and true God, while waiting for His Son from heaven: this would give self-possession and girdedness of robes and loins too.
I see in some that their devotedness leads them to try to run faster than their legs can carry them. The result has been bodies and health broken down in two dear evangelists here, and in two others two fearful experiences -one a fall, and the other a habit of evil not judged until God judged it, and put him into an asylum. It is resurrection strength alone in which we can serve and walk, and that flows down from Christ standing in heaven for us in our prostrate, low condition.
With love to all,
Yours affectionately in Christ, G. V. W.
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Letters 76

July 27th, 1872.
My Dear Sister in the Lord, Thanks for the letter... The Lord help on our brother and sister, and fan the spark up into a flame of life. I rejoice in His mercy to Mrs.——. It is very gracious of Him to let her know Christ as the author of eternal salvation... I am in bodily health divinely perfect as to the measure given to me; been knocked about in deep exercise in a case or two of the Lord's people, but grace reigned triumphant; and if I was cast down, yet not destroyed. The Master has given me a bit of retirement in work for a week, but if He will, I look to get out again.
My love to——, who I fancy was at our own room today. Love to all saints.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 77

August 26th, 1872.
My Dear——, I write you from Aberdeen, having come from London some time, via Leicester, York, Edinburgh. Not a little refreshing is the sight of what the Lord has wrought in Scotland, through conversions and gathering to His table; and thus far the door is still open, and no one shall shut it, while He wills to bless. There is large revival-work going on through others and brethren, but those converted, very many of them, seek the table as the place of light and truth; and as where looseness and laxity are not tolerated. False doctrine, annihilation, and universalism are rife in the country; and, alas! for it is a real grief, have got entrance into many pulpits and congregations where the word of truth did rule. Still the Lord is surely working onward toward that time when the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." This is a blessed solace amid all the temptations, weaknesses, difficulties, opposition. He that shall come will come, for He will not tarry.
The spirit of communion is manifest by the invitation from Guelph to come over for the 18th September to a study of the Word; and here by a like call for 17th and 18th September to Stratford-on-Avon; and another from Otley, Yorkshire, for the 11th; and another to Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
The Lord direct, and He will direct. What could we do if He were not at the helm? And since He is so, there is no lack of guidance to those that seek it, or of overruling and settling for His Father's honor. Poor things that we are! always frightened and mistrustful, and fearing our very shadows, this at one time; and at another, self-confidence leading us to rashness. Jeremiah and Peter were opposites-the path of the former, if extreme must be, the better of the two. Timothy was always weeping. Paul, lion-hearted, yet keeping his own flesh in check, and walking withal humbly, and so showing that no extreme, save in goodness, is needful. Yet the perfection of the blessed Lord was unique, His own alone. No trait or portion of His character out of proportion, but all perfectly and nicely balanced in the love of His Father and God and devotedness to Him
Yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 78

George Town, Demerara, December, 1872.
My Dear Miss——,—I hope——and you heard of our safe arrival here. 'Tis a place for any one who can be satisfied to be a pipe for water to flow through down from heaven. God there is ready enow to give-even to those who look not up, He gives, how largely! One can go in safety to see what and how much it is His good pleasure to give through one; for He honors faith in any, in every one-for self or for others, if one is but simple-for He loves to spread out the excellences and virtues of Christ.
My kindest love to those at the prayer-meeting, and to all of the assembly, please. They live in my heart, and I know I have a place in theirs for Christ's sake; and poor thing that I am, I am not wishful to be loved save for His sake, and by those that love those whom He loves. Any note to me sent to No. 3 will be forwarded in my packet, fortnightly sent to me. Thermometer here is higher than usual at this time of the year, 82-86 in twenty-four hours. I would not write to you ere I left London, thinking you would prefer a Christmas letter hence, to a November one from No. 3.
My very kindest love to——. Mr. M—-takes the greatest care of me, and has all the tenderness of a Timothy-this she will be glad to hear.
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 79

January 21st, 1873.
My Dear——, I have put by your note from——, received ere I left London, mid-November, in some safe-hold, I know; but as I cannot put hand on it, I shall begin a line to you.
C.—-and myself arrived here December 6th, and propose progressing to Barbados about the 26th, or whenever that mail may go.
The need of laborers is here, as elsewhere, a trial; but faith expects trial: 'tis given that it may be tried, and when tried, may be increased, and augmented, and great honor put upon it; for God wills to have down here some who avow and act upon, trust and hope in Him, who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, and gave Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. 'Tis a singular contrast: to trust and hope in God for more laborers in the work, on the one side; and on the other, to use there being next to none, as a girdle to brace up one's loins to walk over the course alone.
The Lord has manifestly been gracious to us, and through us, since here, and things are now in a state which would justify one's going a-head, out fishing for souls that know nothing. A few lectures on the kingdom and coming of the Lord in this town of Georgetown have awakened a stir outside among nominal professors. The Lord knows what He has wrought, and what He will work; but whether men will hear or forbear to hear-He gave a good and fresh testimony from Revelation and Daniel, and a simple one too, so that those who are of ours could feed. I had thought after Barbados and Jamaica of perhaps getting on to New Zealand; but——has taken up that work, and it is old ground to him, so that as I suppose there is no need of my being sent on by the wearisome way of California and the Sandwich Isles. But the Lord knows His own grace, and what to do with His aged, and with His young laborers too. There is a movement here in some minds to send out gospel tracts through the run of the West India Islands. If of the Lord, may it be blessed. Hindoos, Malays, Chinese, Africans, are in numbers in the colony, and the Creole population many.
My kind love to all my friends and brethren in the Lord-to your wife in particular... • Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the Lord. G. V. W.
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Letters 80

July 21st, 1873.
They say that " good-bye " is equivalent to " God be with you." It may be so, but from habits of thought the former drags down the mind to circumstances; the latter tends towards a lift upwards. If I do not see you en passant, my heart's and my soul's desire is that " God be with you," as well as with me, until we meet again. I am prisoner to-day, waiting for—to come here. Tomorrow's dawn may give light for my steps to-morrow. I have at present none. My heart entreats God's blessing on you. G. V. W.
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Letters 81

October 21st, 1873.
My Dear Miss——-,-I received your note by the post just in, and all the welcome details of circumstances. Well, if He makes us to feel our weakness and infirmities, it is but to make us find out, how He loves to be near Himself to us and be our solace amid bereavement, our exceeding great reward amid losses, our peace amid troubles, &c. &c. And if the whole round of life must be passed through in order that He may show us the mercy suited to the variety of sorrows, surely it is well to pass through all and learn of the riches of His grace towards us. There are some very interesting conversions here lately, and we have refreshing prayer-meetings
Affections in Christ to the assembly. G. V. W.
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Letters 82

Extracts from Letters from G. V. W.
All turns- and hangs for us now on what He will work for the honor of His Son by the Holy Spirit down here, the scene, alas! of man's marrings and spoilings, misunderstandings and willfulness; yet it may be still of God's turning to His own praise and glory of the ruin of those, His children, who trust and hope in Him, their ruin notwithstanding.
I entirely agree with you as to the yearning over every one that has life. Christ died to gather together in one the children of God scattered abroad; Paul labored day and night thereunto; but the measure in which this truth really holds my soul is (alas!) the measure in which I am instant before God for them in prayer. This is a reality, and I have to measure and judge myself for it, and not to give credit to myself for thoughts and feelings which work no prayer before God. Another thing is to be thought of too (even if one be prayerful for all saints and careful for them), and that is, I think, what the Spirit is most about now. His love is perfect. He is occupied in New Zealand in clearing the foundation for avowed communion, and is diligently occupied with the altar, little known, being better known. " The altar " and " the walls " were in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the forms which love to Israel occupied itself with in an Ezra and Nehemiah and the remnant to Jehovah in that day.  ...
... Not that one's own little doings matter much; for truly it is never what I will do for the Lord and His people which is worth thinking of, but what will He do with me as to the name of the Son that is dear to Him. 'Tis a great system one gets into when thus Christ is all to us, and then, and then only, G. V. W. and J. G. D. drop into their own absolute littleness, made great by relationship to and in Him....
Conflict goes on around us and within us; this we prove daily. But the springs of it are higher up and lower down than we, so that we have to look upward to Him that is above them all, yea, above all spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, and around whom all the surging tides from beneath do but sweep to accomplish the good pleasure of His will....
I thank God that one's littleness in no wise turns God aside from us; but contrariwise, if we simply do what He gives us to do, He perfects His strength in our weakness....
I am consciously a poor thing in myself, physically as well as spiritually. But it is best of all to have all one's springs in Christ Jesus alone. The grace of God was from everlasting in His counsel about the Lord Jesus, and how big the field will be when the exceeding riches of His grace is ours. Now, ad interim, between the two, as God finds Christ enough for Him at all times and in all places, so we must learn to know and to be satisfied with having Himself as our portion and exceeding great reward. The contrast between Him and me, how great! He, never upbraiding, never looking at me or my circumstances apart from His own Father and His choice of me, and liking to do so, so unselfish; and I, so selfish that I have but little heart or mind to lose myself in Him, the plenitude of all that is blessed.
What a little globe this is for all the principles of eternal redemption and salvation to have been shown out upon! God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Satan, man, the world, a six thousand years' war, one thousand years of blessing yet to come, and all told out on this little globe! But oft the littleness of one thing enhances the greatness of another: "who for the sake of one bad apple damned all mankind." What a little root for so great fruit, in "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom;" or in "What art thou, Lord?" "What wilt thou have me to do?" I find more and more that all business has to be begun and ended with the Lord. With Him, what is too little? What too great? I am persuaded we have to wait on the Lord about His coming, and the state of His people as being in that day; if they will welcome it, practically ready for it. I have no theory that I know of beyond this, that I hold it will be to His dishonor who has loved us and given Himself for us (that we might live alone to Him), if He were to come and find none actually and practically waiting for Him To our dishonor surely, but more than that, to His; and I use this oft in prayer to the Father.
God loves to bless. Why? Well, He is God, and God has a right to do as He likes; and He does like to bless through Jesus Christ His Son.
Never till we get down to see that the measure of sin, which alone is full and true, is the blood once shed on Calvary, can we be quietly patient in God's presence, learning of Him the beauty of Christ, who is our sin offering, anchor fixed within the veil, and hope; and how unlike to Him we are as yet, though all our judgment was borne by Him, and all His beauty is on us.
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Letters 83

Melbourne, March 13th, 1874.
Beloved Brother, -I hear you have been sick, and very sick. My comfort is, "Thou, Lord, art above and behind it; " and so I can give thanks for it as one of the all things. With a heart broken, and a will subdued, I have given thanks for sorrows in which the iron entered into my own soul. I say not with levity, but as before God, " Thou knowest I could not have lived through this and that, if thou hadst not given me grace to receive it at Thy hand, and to find that out of the eater came forth meat."
I hope it may be the Lord saying to you, " Give thyself wholly to the work which I have to be done, and My grace will be sufficient for thee; for My strength perfects itself in weakness." Surely His voice may be heard now-a-days: " Who will go for us? " is a solemn thing to reply, " Here am I, send me; " for there is nothing at our back but the Lord, and if it is not in faith that I get over the boatside of the providence boat, I shall find myself sinking. But in the near taste of Abba and His Son's love (in John 14) many have ventured; and who has ventured truly upon God and been disappointed? Full commons here, and a hearty welcome hereafter, is not so good as scanty and spare supplies here-a hearty welcome hereafter, and the word. " And thou too didst leave thy little all to follow me."
Dear S——, I have not the pen of a ready writer; but I would that you should know that I sympathize with and enter into your languishing.
Affectionately yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 84

March 25th, 1874.
My Dear Miss——,-I write a few lines amid multiplying calls upon me... The work here is interesting, but needs faith and patient humility; yet I do indeed judge that the Lord's time to bless in New Zealand is come. He has wrought great deliverance for——; and at Auckland, and at Motuika, and Nelson, and' Wellington, and Christchurch, and Timara, and Geraldine, with its valley there, is breaking of bread such as one can join; also at Thames, near Auckland. Mr.——has been with me up here, and I too down with him. He is a very useful servant, and took much care of me. My return may be a little delayed, for places I did not think of visiting ask now for visits; but the Lord will direct Kindest salutations to each and all at the table, and to any and all that care for my love.
Affectionately yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 85

Christchurch, Sunday, May 17th, 1874.
Most welcome, beloved brother, your note. It was the occasion of my tasting, through the Lord's love on high, how fellowship in work under Him knits hearts and minds together. I never should have loved you as a brother and fellow-laborer in Christ Jesus, if you had stayed in Dublin and I in London; the names and persons unmistakeably known the one to the other, and the fellowship in one life owned. But the sympathies of life in common action give to us a full table while down here, most surely, only when we get to the scene in which He will 'stand in the midst, from whom all our common life and joy will then flow out in eternal and everlasting fullness through each of us, there will be the same sort of taste, only then made divinely perfect and full.
The Lord be praised as to -. It is so; for He has set forth His Almighty power and grace in what He has there wrought in him. You know perhaps that also has escaped his own doctrine. I saw a recantation in a public paper, and it seemed satisfactory and clear. Singular, is it not? that the reviewer of it ascribes the error to P. B.'s, when J. N. D. was the first to resist it; and I hear, though that may not be confirmed, that he was delivered from it through J. N. D. also. G. and wife are here; their love to you. Thank you for your interest in my grave-clothes of a body, which I am told I must wear until the new covering arrives; the bird within is bright and songful, and has cause to be so. And the old clothes have not broken anywhere-clean entirely, though threadbare and weak. But His name be praised! they never stop me, save I think when my soul needs restoring.
I have thought about you a good deal at times. My heart says for you, the highest kind of work would be on new and unbroken ground, as in Queensland perhaps, or an introducer anywhere of the Word of Life-that of course; next to that as a help under a J. N. D., or to gatherings sufficient to be fish-ponds for fish caught. But I am not worth much when I take the place of saying with Peter, " And what shall this man do? "
Here all goes on quietly; hearts more in tune to heaven's melody, and the grace that is in Jesus' heart, I think, and a good deal more of self-judgment. It seems to me that Monday's lecture on Acts, and Friday's on Revelation, have told on many minds and hearts. But 'tis a day of small, tiny things, only this seems the fashion just now for every one here to go to the Lord in secret, and say, " And I, am I to be left with no message to carry from Thee to any poor sinner to-day? Wilt Thou not send me? " This is what I have been praying for-next to the recognition of God Himself, and Him in the assembly.
This (Sunday's) prayer in the morning was good, and the table was more like worship than is in our common experience. One truth, and that a high one, running through the séance and good pauses between whiles... Mr. H. here, and some at Hotitika, are trying to get up a revival. Mr. H. sent to ask me to come and join the ministers in the effort. Dunedin, Invercargill, Hotitika, and Greymouth are upon my soul in prayer, and there I wait.
I wrote by last mail to your mother. I see no reason why——should not be fully restored, and have more physical power than ever. But I have not said so, because I judge the Lord is dealing with his soul through weakness of body, and to wish to get away from that would be wrong.
Most affectionately beloved, G. V. W.
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Letters 86

June 3rd, 1874.
My Dear S—-, -I do not know the whereabouts of the resources of the young couple whom you name, or with any certainty what calls they may have upon them for aid to parents or kindred, of whom I know there are some who are poor.
It seems to me to be a duty under such circumstances, in dependence upon the Lord, to be simple. This I have done myself, stating my fears of being a burden, and trying to get a plain and simple understanding. Often I have staid at a brother's, and taken a part of the weekly expenses on myself, and I have found it happy to be simple. I think it meets the Lord's mind too. He would have us brotherly with one another under His paternal love. Sometimes I have found it was a mistake on my part, and that means were abundant, more to mine host than, to me; but even then the thoughtfulness of love is made apparent. And oft, too, I have found that they had quite ability to receive a guest or to care for cases of need known to them, but not for both, and then again the simplicity had given help.
The Lord is quite able to prolong your time of service down here for His saints' sake, and truly the time is short and there is need of laborers.——-is better at Motuika but still much crippled, yet hopeful that it may be given to him to rise above his heart complaint, and to shepherd the sheep and lambs of his Master. There has been blessing up there, and at Nelson, before and while——-was there, and since, also at Nelson; and——writes for me to come up, if the Lord so will. I am ready to go, but question whether I ought not to stay on here at the present for a little longer. But He will go out before us, if we wait on Him, and be our reward too. And really our doings go for very little indeed; it is He, and He alone, that giveth the increase to Paul's plantings and Apollos's waterings. Still fellowship is all right with an aged servant, who had wandered and has been restored. There are promises of openings at three or four places, which, on the other hand, look more important as to positive work.
And, here, still needs if He will meet them. The effect of my letter to——as published has been good, as making some see, who had refused to do so before, that the question of Independent churches versus the Holy Spirit, and the body the Church, was all up. And I have had a storm of abuse for it; but I feel drawn to several who have been most violent against me and us (at two places there have been prayers in public that may be turned away and not allowed to come to New Zealand, nor I allowed to cross the bar of—and). On the other hand, there is one at Greymouth who is clear of evil, and several that wish me to come. And one, more south, had one MS. letter read to him on John 17, and could not sleep at night for thinking of Christ's longing for unity.
My kindest salutations to the dear——. God bless them and their little ones.
——-is tied up at Auckland a month; the Hero in dock. He preaching, I am glad of it.
Most affectionately beloved, S——-, G. V. W.
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Letters 87

Christchurch, New Zealand, July 9th, 1874.
Beloved Brother,-The Lord is gracious in permitting you to get out in a little work for Him. My heart was cheered by your note, and the news of Ballarat, to the which I found my own mind once and again stirred up when in Victoria, and which I hope I may yet get to if He please. They will be glad to see you at Warnambool. There are several outposts there also to be looked after....
It needs a good deal of girdedness of loin, as well as fixity of principle and largeness of heart and spirit, to labor in this hemisphere. I thought so at Adelaide and Sydney, and find it so here; but the fact is the Holy Spirit is the sole administrator, and to Him all is easy. But then I want a good deal of treading down to keep me simply the leaden pipe through which water flows down from the cistern, or the vein in the body through which the blood flows.
I find that to wait on the Lord is all that one can do. Necessity shuts one up to it here. Such a variety of
minds, and plans, and thoughts, and propositions in the little company; and open adversaries and professing friends, thinking to pass as such, while their own letters (not meant for one's own eyes) tell really what they are after; and the sort of demi-publication, and the recalling the same for consideration, or for love's sake to burn it, while avowedly holding the same as much as ever, and that which is held, awful spiritual wickedness,, reminds me more of poor——and Plymouth than aught else.
My letter to——has raised a deal of anger in some, and opposition in others; but I believe it was of the Lord, and that it has been a shield for——, and that it has thrown the question really at issue into the forefront. He is better in body, and writes cheerfully, and the Lord is working by him.
I send you a token from the Master; I trust that His eye is upon your needs. My own movements are not clear to me, save the calls in New Zealand are strong; but He will guide. The winter is still on here till end of July. The damp at times is trying and chilly, and the houses are of wood, and cold.
I had thought of going south in early August, but I have questioned whether the mercy of the Lord would not be more marked, by my putting off bringing matters in Dunedin and Invercargill to a point before one has done all that one can do to help them.
Let me have a line, announcing the safe arrival of this, and how the work fares, and how your body is. Laborers are at a premium in the market in this hemisphere, so that you must take care of the fragment of a one which the Lord has made you nurse to.
I hear——made a stir in Tasmania when last out; but I cannot hear where, or whether the ostensible converts were many. He is a wild evangelist; but often leaves a field worth gleaning after him is in Brisbane, preferring to try work on a clear, clean bottom, to work as at Invercargill, amid dissenting causes.——wrote to warn him, as a father to a son, to take warning, and not to slip off the ground himself as——had done, by running the gospel apart from Christ in His assembly. I see the same danger in one here-gospel wild, but a true man: he does not keep up his individual place with the Holy Spirit in His presence in the church. The line is narrow; for some spoil evangelizing by putting it into the church and under authority. " Ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water," is what man is when not kept by the Spirit.
Love to all in the Lord, especially the dear——,
G. V. W.
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Letters 88

Colombo Street, Christchurch, New Zealand,
August 4th, 1874.
My Dear——,—Yours of the 16th July reached me only on the 3rd August, eighteen days, so that I hope mine of the 10th July has by this time reached you, with an order for £20.
We thank the Lord for keeping you about, beloved brother. You and—-are among the feeble-bodied ones, so is G. V. W.; but the cripples may get up to the gutter. (2 Sam. 5:8.)
I read the MS., but, not having the book itself, felt I could not possibly form a judgment upon its value as pro bono publics.
The Lord be praised for help in the——case, and for the help (T—-says) which came through you. How like the Lord in answer to my prayers when at Geelong, and through you at G—-afterward, to have reached Mrs. D—-. He loves to link His people together, and to use now one, now another, as in Ananias and Saul.
Warnambool, if it opens, will be a praise to my soul. There are two or three nice young men thereat, and my hope is that there are souls to be gathered near it.
You will find——and wife very kind. He reminds one much of his much-loved mother. The brotherhood there want cementing, and some a little softening.
All goes on here under the Lord; a good deal of discipline in it in some cases, but that is as it should be. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up as on eagles' wings, run and not weary, walk and not faint. The cold, damp winter here seems breaking a little. The Lord has let it reach me, and produce threatening symptoms, but I accept it all from Him. I can say this, that if He should take me home out here, my having come out was rightest of the right; for He has been renewing my soul amid the conflict and trial, and opening Scripture in a most blessed way to me. What is writhing pain, if one can say, " Even so, Father; for so seems it good in Thy sight.? " and He has laid upon me " this light affliction, which is but for a moment," &c. (2 Cor. 4:17, 18.)
With kind love in particular to all of the G—-'s and all of the Lord's, yours, beloved brother, always wishing to bear of you, G. V. W.
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Letters 89

Motuika, Nelson, New Zealand,
August 8th, 1874.
My Dear Miss——,-We are getting out here slowly into spring. The mountains still snow-capped, and the winds from them cold; the sun, however, hot from eight a.m.
The work of the Lord is one of patient waiting out here for His servants; but this part of it ought to be to an aged servant more easy to bear than to a young and therefore inexperienced one. I count there will be blessing to come shortly, please God, of a marked character; but a fresh action of the Holy Spirit is wanted in order for what I look for to be made good; but nevertheless I do count upon His giving such an energy in His own good time, which is better than ours. The call on my pen here has made me unable to write much to any in the old country; but that is all part of the Master's good pleasure and way. My kindest love to all of them round about you, please....
Ever in the Lord yours most truly, G. V. W.
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Letters 90

Nelson, New Zealand,
Sept. 18th, 1874.
Beloved Brother in the Lord,-Your three notes reached me in due course, and were most welcome. We are but leaden pipes to let the water down from the cistern above-dry till it flows in above, and dry if it ceases to flow in. It is good to remember this at all times, and to walk humbly in the truth of it. Truly the Holy Spirit is the sole administrator in the assembly; we that seek to be used by God, and those ministered to, should know this. I found it useful (the remembrance of it) in praying before speaking. Oft not a word seemed with me to give, and the spreading out before the Lord His estimate of the worthiness of His Son to be spoken about, and His will that He should be announced, has been followed by a full, fresh flow of water of the word of life.
I am still here (Nelson), but think to cross, perhaps, Monday, the 2nd Feb., to Motuika. Here things are the expression of mercy from the Lord in our little meeting (of about twenty-two) at the Harmonic Hall. The Lord will do as seemeth Him good. I pray more for reality of soul-work in individuals than for union. God sees the heart.——has written two tracts, the first of which I have answered; it gave a fair opportunity of pouring out, in public, some precious truth about his text motto (Eph. 4:1-16), which he did not attempt to open up.
Motuika is only from two to three hours across the water, eight and a half round. I may return on Tuesday, or stay there a little. My body seemed to need this rest here, though I came not here to seek it. My mind was very tired, but that seems past to a very great extent.
I may not write more, though I fain would. The Lord watch over you. has been blessed at Brisbane, but seems to be leaving it for the north.
J. N. D. is in U.S., and it seems quite understood that he hopes to come over hither, if the way be open; i.e. if a boat runs. I have no news of Dr. Mackern.
Most affectionately,
With salutations in love to one and all,
G. V.W.
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Letters 91

Nelson, New Zealand,
October 8th, 1874.
My Dear——, The great danger, as to access to communion, may be on either side, so far as we are concerned with those who really are the Lord's, but who have not knowledge and intelligence of mind, yet have spiritual love. To the known world the door is shut. If we press what would protect us, as man's mind thinks, we find out communion, to our surprise, has knowledge only as its turning-point-" if you know, you may come into communion with us." This shuts out the Annas and Elizabeths, the Simeons and such like, and is a falsification of the Lord's table and of truth. It is a sect, and nothing else. If, on the other side, we are too free in our accessibility, we may either really dishonor the Lord by letting the world in, or cheat saints exercised in the Spirit about themselves. I would receive all thereto who have faith in the Lord, and are walking up to their light, and yet bring before them the responsibility of it in them, and the judgment which will light on them from the Lord, if they come to Him unjudged where He is, and unpurged. Every step in life is difficult, save to a living man in health. This I desire to be.
Of course I would desire to watch that no ecclesiastical difference which I can be glad to see the holder, if he have life, jump over, be a cover for moral evil. The moral evil rises above the ecclesiastical question altogether.
Poor——'s clerical weeds at the bottom of the ship make sailing slow. I suppose Mr. D to be in U.S., and with quiet purpose of soul to get over to these parts shortly.
A volcanic eruption at Nelson burst forth from against me and us. I have been sorry not to be there so as to shelter the weak ones. But a lying spirit is in the congregation as formed anew, and there seems to be nothing they will not say. " Ours " are, I trust, taking it all quietly; but I leave all to the Lord. I judge that the people are true to the Lord, each in his or her measure, according as they are under His perfect love and faithfulness to them.
Farewell, dear brother. I send you a memento of remembrance from the Lord I trust.
Affectionately yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 92

December 4th, 1874.
My Dear——-,-Your last note, from Warnambool, rather made me afraid, as I was doubling weakness (that the excellency might be doubly of Him that raiseth the dead-the old apostolic, Pauline way) and you were going to put on a strong body, and come out without a halt or an infirmity, able to do a full day's work against any one-only I said: Ah! but—remembering who was above and around.
——-names your being in Melbourne, so I send you there a little token of fellowship which has come to my hand. I know not the Master's thoughts about me, but desire to wait on Him for guidance.
When Britain and three governments announced " no more mails to or from San Francisco till proper arrangements had been made," the question was, Would there be boats if not mails? Post-office could not say. Now Wellington says, " One on the 16th; " and the Sydney agent here says, " Sydney will continue one monthly, mail or no mail." I wait on Him, not knowing what I am to do, and so shall still, which an attack of influenza had previously settled too in another way. Omaru, Dunedin, Invercargill, the Bluff, Melbourne did seem to lie before my mind. Now I question whether I may not postpone for a time; for if the boats are uncertain, the effort to get to San Francisco and Knoxville, Jamaica, Barbados, must perhaps be abandoned. One is infinitesimally little! How good of God to say, Abide in Him " Live in Christ, who is in Me, and I will put you in the right place at the right time."
My love to all. I often think about the elder brother——and the children. The Lord pour His mercy out upon them.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 93

Christchurch, New Zealand.
My Dear——-, Yours of 20th ult. reached me here to-day, the 6th April, so I write at once, not to lose a mail.
Having come out with New Zealand on my heart and mind, I must do what I feel I can, under God, do here, ere I pass on.
The expression you refer to, " The Lord's body was broken," I will (D.V.) write you upon again. As a matter of fact, His hands, His feet were pierced, and His side also, so that the statement is according to fact. The terms, however, do not occur in 1 Cor. 11; and while critical books have pointed this out, hyper-critics are for showing their knowledge, by watching to see whether any quoting Scripture, as learned educationally, are guilty of misquoting, according to the latest MSS. and translation in 1 Cor. 11 One elderly man used to make it a touchstone; and a good many, tickled with their own little bit of knowledge, have worried others with it. Of course, if after due examination I had accepted a newly-translated passage anywhere, I have accepted it. But then, not I, nor any grave brother, like——, or——, would like me to read out a new translation of my own in the assembly, so I read the authorized version (——says there is only one passage which——will not read as in the A.V., and that is 1 John 3:4).
I must not write more, so for the moment farewell. Salute your brethren for me, and all whom I know in the Lord. I hope to write soon again, on above, &c., and so soon as I see my path. Do you, too, write to me, if a path opens to yourself.
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 94

Invercargill, January 18th, 1875.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,- The Bluff is twenty miles hence, and I expect to embark there (D.v.) for Melbourne the day after to-morrow. As I landed in New Zealand, 14th January, 1874, I have paid at the sundry places fair visits, speaking as a man.
That heaven will be a wonderful place, and as blessedly blissful as wonderful, is the sum of all my thoughts in contrast with what meets one here below and around. I am, through mercy, in my usual health I think, though not so young as in the Rawstorne Street days, and had to pay for it this spring. May the Lord, to whom Mr. W. belongs, who bought him with His own life blood, cheer and sustain him all through the narrow way. The dear old man is dear to me in the Lord. Is he not a brand plucked from the burning?
Affectionate salutations in the Lord to all at the table from yours and theirs, G. V. W.
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Letters 95

March 9th, 1875.
My Dear——, I have been laid aside here, the result, I suppose, of the Lord's approving the faith principle of "resurrection from the dead," and disapproving human energy. His name be praised for all His dealings, under all circumstances; but one may still long to be a more apt scholar in His school, even while reduced to the service of praying for. His name and saints on the earth. There is great need of prayer for this hemisphere, and it is not labor in vain.
I cannot go on till one or two matters in hand are ended, I think. If you are staying up at Ballarat, it is possible I might come up thither for a quiet week and prayer; but He knows all. I seem to want quietness and retirement. He has been very gracious, and my last letters from England made me see somewhat of the riches of His patient love, anticipating His children in their way.
How are you as to money? We near the end of the quarter, and if I do go, I would like to know ere I go what you have in your purse.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 96

3, Howley Place, Harrow Road, W.,
June 28th, 1875.
My Dear——,-I know not whether or not I posted a letter to you since my arrival, May 17th, at Southampton. I know I began one after your unmarried sister called on me; for it pleased the Lord to let me be fairly knocked up-or down; and after landing I had one of my attacks on reaching London, which from the appearances threatened, if not declared, typhoid fever symptoms; but this had not a full development, through mercy, and though laid much aside for six weeks, I am getting about again. The S-s awaited me on the quay, and I got two hours with them ere they embarked, which appears, from his letter, to have been greatly comforting to them both.
Last Lord's-day a married sister of yours spoke to me in the evening at North Row. The Lord is good and doeth good. What has He not done for His own great name's sake? And what is He not doing and prepared to do? Only we have to remember that whatsoever turns up is, one way or another, for the furtherance of blessing and the expression of His own good pleasure. It may be something which nature in us would not have chosen, but deprecated. Many a sharp point the rasp may carry, but its reaching me is never without its being according to God's permission, if not appointment and good pleasure. And who am I to suppose that I can improve upon what He appoints to me? " Giving thanks always for all things " is a fair specimen of Paul's character. I would have it of mine too, though I may need a longer time to catch my breath and the note of thanksgiving than he did.
The sensational movement in England has been great. M—-and his friends, the—-friends, and now Mr. and Mrs.——and theirs. The stirs have been wide, very wide. I connect them all with God's purpose, that everybody, so to speak, everywhere should hear the name of Christ. That that is a present action of His hand I do not doubt, any more than I doubt the mixture of energies, deficiency as to purity in what has been taught, and a large percentage of positive error in the teaching of some of them. But the Lord is coming, and when we look at things in that light we see the real character of them, and why that which has tried to break the power of the world over us, and to make us see how completely we are not of it, but of Him who is gone on high, cannot put people down here into Nazarite position of waiting for Him from heaven.
Though I have been here now seven weeks, I have no formed judgment upon the real state of ours. I see many questions are at work, and many feel that " where " they are standing, there is, within their " whereabouts," a conflict of principles going on, on various questions. In several of the cases it has seemed to me that tenacity upon each man's own point gave that semblance, where, if the principle of God's mind was seized upon, and the points left alone, there was the fullest room for unity and fellowship.
We got on well to Point de Galle, where the Ceylon went off to Bombay, and after two or three days ashore we embarked on the Surat for Southampton. The boat was full when she came in, and we fared accordingly, and according to the passengers from China, Calcutta, &c. A good many of God's people on board, some very decidedly so, I hope; but one is a Nazarite ecclesiastically. The nursery was large on board, about seventy-five children first-class, from thirteen years down to two months. We lost three by death on board-a colonel, who confessed Christ, the cook, and a bed-steward. One had gone ere they reached Galle, and another left at Suez for the hospital, too ill to go on. I never had been on board a Peninsular and Oriental boat, and had supposed that the early prestige was maintained; but this is not the case. The Somersetshire was quieter, better served, et ceteris paribus to be preferred. But all is well to the soul that passes through all in His presence and with Him; and to me, I imagine, the sea voyage was naturally good, though I lost my sleep, and did not grow fat. I think the Lord really taught me a good deal on board, and I felt so at the time, and could, and did, take it all from Him, though the will and the weakness of my own self were most evident to me. " I, yet not I," as Paul wrote. I got a few good lines out of it all, and in the midst of it, on perfection. Mine is not poetry, but the Lord gives me what helps me sometimes. Pearsall Smith's biography of his son Frank seems to me a fair exponent of his own, status in doctrine; Mrs.—-is very much darker still.
I have written nothing upon it as yet, though I think the Lord has given me something. H—-B—-has published against it, but not freely from his own shortening views of truth.
P—-'s conversion and breaking bread ere he died has made an eddying among some. Dear man! he ought twelve years ago to have taken his place upon the moral ground of God's truth; but he was drawn aside, though he did it at last, ere his sudden and unexpected death, upon grounds which were very much lower. His eldest son's conversion led to it, and I fear to a false testimony at the funeral. But he seems a very devoted young man, and a preacher of the gospel; but mentality and human will, will not do in days like the present. Nor Christ nor Philadelphia had either of them these as their distinctive marks, but dependent obedience in full development.
I have a letter to—-in hand, but my pen does not run freely, and my head soon gets weary and tired; but, blessed be God, it is all right. And His love in cutting me out of some things on my arrival, and of some things by its being later than was expected, has been very marked indeed. I like to see the marks of His hands in providential deliverances from spiritual difficulties, as in the spiritual care of-what He has made His own charge-our souls for the glory.
Yours, dear S——, affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 97

July 26th, 1875.
My Dear Brother in the Lord,-Your note of the 9th was most welcome, though it came to me at a time I could answer no letters from pressure of duties.
I am sure your wife may count God to be " a very present help in time of trouble." It is in His heart to be so to her individually, and to all that trust in Him through Christ, whom He raised from the dead and glorified, that our faith and hope might be in Himself And, as to power, He that made all things, and upholds all things, is equal to, and a match for, any and every contingency that can befall any between Calvary and the cloud of glory.
I look up to the Lord for you-my mind not assured that the work abroad, in parts beyond those in which the Lord's word has been received, is not the place or sphere of your work rather than England. He alone can guide; and He alone in reality it is who decides all such questions. With Him I leave it.
I trust you will not go beyond your measure, but will work with the Lord as to preachings, &c. Your throat may require a tropical climate for the winter.
With most affectionate lose to all the Lord's people with you and around-God's best blessings on the babe and its mother,
Yours, G. V. W.
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Letters 98

November 5th, 1875.
My Dear—-, Your word yesterday brought me to my prayers, and to the word of God. I do not think before the Lord that I am such an one as would be justified, before Him or my brethren, in taking with me any ὑπηρέτης. (Acts 13:5.) Moreover, You have a specialty in work (judging by your labor in Quebec, Montreal, Richmond) which lays an embargo upon you before the Lord; you are not your own to go out of your own special line wherein the Lord has blessed you.
The only person I ever asked to go with me on my own little line (and I did it in the full liberty, as I judged, of 2 Cor. 5:15, 16) was one who was then in nowise committed to any kind of work. Dear—, I took him just as if he had been in nature my own son, and nothing more, and he knew not whether there was any work from the Lord for him of any special kind; and, moreover, then had no wife or child.
You see where my soul is in this matter. The ought of duty, and not the " I like " on the one hand, or " I dislike " on the other, has to rule.
My prayer for your wife and children as well as for yourself will be heard for His sake.
Most affectionately yours in Him that is coming for us,
G. V. W.
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Letters 99

September 29th, 1875.
He never changes. That is our safety, and the rest of our souls as to present peace, even the character and changelessness of God as revealed in and by Christ Jesus. And more than this, the contrast between our circumstances and His He uses to His glory, and for our blessing.
This enables me to rest as to you and your circumstances; and I would that you should rest there also. Do you know the lines the Master gave me, ere I went out to the West Indies last time? I would the truth of them might abide with your soul-
" How bright there above is Thy mercy, 0 God,'
How fully set forth in the Savior's blood," &c.
G. V. W.
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Letters 100

My Dear Brother in the Lord,-I thank you for both your letters, though the pressure has been so heavy on me that I have not been able to reply either to these onto a heap of other letters, or even to write to some in affliction and trial, to whom my heart longed to write. It is well to see how even the least of our little concerns is in the hand of the Lord, and no wish of ours, no purpose, no strength, can suffice to bring fruit to perfection. 'Tis Himself, His eye, His hand alone which can accomplish His own good pleasure in us. " Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Poor things (however blessed in Him) that we are (in ourselves), oft mistaking His guidance, oft mistrusting the light of His eye, oft translating our thoughts as though they were His mind; yet still blessed, and to be blessed, is the flock and all the poor silly sheep who have Christ for Shepherd. Is it not so?
From my own prayers and thoughts about——through several years, I suppose there are many souls there to be gathered to Christ, and many there, too, to turn aside from simplicity any that try to follow the Shepherd's voice. The power of the world too is strong, and Satan crafty to keep the place if he can, and to lull men to sleep there, if any get roused up. But who and what is he to prevent God and His Spirit gathering unto the Person of a risen and ascended Lord? Only if we-you or I-are to be used there, the vessel must be kept clean, and we must live unto God and Christ, and lean on Him and the word of His grace only, and be satisfied to be nothing in ourselves. Satan will then be able to do nothing against the Lord through us.
I have thought over and carried——more than I can tell you; and oft, when in work abroad, I was occupied in spirit with it. So that the Lord's working there is of peculiar interest to me.
There is a trial of faith now in many places; but the one word, " Enoch walked with God," is the password to those that live in it in the measure of their faith.
I have been greatly cheered by letters from New Zealand relating how the Lord has been working, and several of them of deep interest, as showing the soul-work and new life from the walk of the soul with God and Christ right out; not merely by a new position taken outwardly, but a new life, the eternal life, working out from within, out into all details of life around.
One came to offer to go to Demarara if (I think I may say) I would co-operate with him. But co-operation or arrangement before the work begins can aright be only from the Lord. A good many are changing their places of work-all quite right, if of the Lord alone.
A letter is always welcome, and stirs up prayer for you and the work, even if an immediate answer comes not to your letter or the prayer.
Affectionately yours in the Lord,
G. V. W.
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Letters 101

November 11th, 1875.
My Dear Miss———,-It was kind of you to tell me about the visit and S. I look for him to be gathered back to the Lord in full simplicity.
I have been packing all the morning. I doubt Timothy took so much time as I do. The 2nd December the Moselle is to sail. The Lord seems to be quite sufficient as caretaker and for fellowship. Several have volunteered to go with me, but the Master's mind did not seem with any of the offers.
Some say I ought to think of the feelings of the saints here in England, and therefore take some one. But my answer is, " If His feelings are met that is all one need care for; " and in some journeys none but a tried companion is other than a hindrance. I think to write to you on arriving (D.V.) at Demerara, but I will not promise not to drop a card ere I leave on Thursday.
Ever yours in Him, G. V. W.
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Letters 102

November 15th, 1875.
The sight of your handwriting, dear brother, was welcome to me; for I wanted to hear from and all about you.
The difference between the counsel or purpose of the Lord and His working it out into action is obvious enough. The seed of the woman was announced in Gen. 3 as to bruise the serpent's head, as well as the serpent to bruise His heel.
But though such was declared in Gen. 2:15, seven thousand years were to roll 'their course ere the seed of the woman finally did so as in Rev. 20:10, and four thousand ere the woman's seed was born. God's purpose and intention about Moses, and his willing attempt to work-it out himself, are given to us in Ex. 1 and 2. See also Acts 7:23-29. After forty years the Lord's time was come (30-42, &c.), and He wrought with an unwilling Moses. God has a counsel and a plan, and has revealed many such in the written Word; but who can work them out? Who keeps us in the position of dependence? Who proves himself the God of resurrection to us in the carrying out of His work but Himself? The New Testament is studded with instances of the -same kind. Peter would go through death for his Master's sake ere Christ died and rose; the same Peter who had to go through death for his Master's sake after his Master was risen.
If you will consider this you will, I think, see and get helped as to many puzzling things. A young man converted gets hold of " Enoch walked with God " as his purpose in life. Surely it is God's purpose for all His children; for it was what the Son of His love did perfectly. But many a one has set out to walk, and given himself to the work (as did John Mark), who, before they could be spoken of by God as having that true of them, had to learn some lesson or other about themselves, or their circumstances, or God. Lookers-on say, " A mistake from first to last," without taking what is precious from what is vile. The soul that humbly waits on God learns of God all about the various parts of the conflict, and comforts itself in God, and waits to see what end the Lord will bring forth. " Be still, and know that I am God," is the word for you, perhaps; but look up and do not be puzzled. God often says, " It was well it was in thine heart," even where His time for working out is not fully come, and when we have been showing out self, and what's of the world, and gives power to Satan too.
I bear you on my heart. May our God, the Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ, sustain, and mold, and guide, and lead you.
Very truly yours in the Lord, G. V. W.
Self-judgment from first to last; for they that bear the vessels of the Lord must be clean; but Job, and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Peter, and Paul, and John, all have to pass that way.
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Letters 103

November 20th, 1875.
Your note of 29th October answered the good purpose to get me into prayer, and looking up to the Lord for one in the furnace. I had to put it on my file, and have had no five minutes in which to write. The pressure on me was so great that I had to postpone my departure a fortnight, and it is still very heavily on me. It were vain to write unless one could go into and through the whole case; but this only makes prayer the more valuable. Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true as to me, I do not think one need to be unhappy about it; for no honest mind would be thankful that the accusation was correct. But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations.... I pray still and look up, and have faith and hope in God as to every part of it. The end of the Lord is very pitiful. G. V. W.
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Letters 104

Southampton, December 2nd, 1875.
My Dear Miss—-, I am to leave at 11.30 the docks (or quay) in the tug, and to run down to the Moselle, which lies 22 miles down the river. Dear A. P —-came down with me to see me off, and W. P—-is said to be here too.
The Lord was with me, to my conscience, in the night season, which I take as a promise that He will bless myself, at least (who wants it most of all), in this my outing. My kind love to—-, and to each and all of ours (because we are His, and His are ours), and I pray that we may know better how to walk according to that truth. I write before breakfast, so bad writing must be pardoned. Yours in Him, defected and feeble, as also little, yet His own by redemption, as by His Father's gift to Him, and the indwelling of the Spirit of truth, trust, and hope.
G. V. W.
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Letters 105

The Moselle (not dated).
My Dear Miss——, I take advantage of the leisure of the ship to write a few lines, while the pounding of the steam screw goes its round of fifty to the minute.
God has His own work for these last days. The Son of His love is ever before Him, and (as I suppose) He will have a report to go out, far and wide, of that Son's glory and beauty, and of the finished salvation in Him-a report of Him in His three displays: in humiliation unto death, the death of the cross; in patience, as now sitting at God's right hand; and in the approaching display of His coming glory. I am praying for this feebly enough, but praying for it. And it is well to have it in one's heart to do so, as I surely believe. My kind love to—-, and to all the, dear saints. In my conflicts and hours of solitude my heart gets comfort when the thought of saints in England praying for me occurs to me. And this not for my sake only, but for their own. sakes also; for I would those I love should have their share in the work wrought abroad, and prayer goes further in that than anything else.
Ever yours, all of you, in Him, G. V. W.
Remember me to the dear aged brother as he lies in bed. I think of him and of many of those that suffer.
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Letters 106

Probably, February or March, 1876.
My Dear Sister In The Lord, I received; with thankfulness, yours while I was in Demerara. The Lord is good and doeth good. My salutations to all. I am well, and able to work about as usual, through mercy. The doors are opening out here, and I had to go to Essequibo, and also to Berbice (New Amsterdam). Lectures on Prophecy too are asked for, and have to be given. Tobago, Montserrat, and St. Thomas's each present doors ajar now; but workmen are wanted. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest; &c. I do so in my feeble way, and then look up....
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 107

April 7th, 1876.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-Your letter was a very welcome one to me, telling, as it seems to me to do, of the presence and action of the living God at Beloved W—-'s departure, too, was characteristic of the mercy that had found him-mercy which, like water, accommodates itself to every shaped vial that is opened for it.
I reached this—-yesterday from Barbados, sailing hither in the same ship with your note to me. The S—-s well. The Lord was very gracious to me in my visit there, as He always is. I am, through mercy, well in body; but seventy-one past, one is not as strong as one was. The compliments, however, paid to me on my clear, bright skin, springy walk, and walks (which for W. I. are thought to be not for a white man) would satisfy any grandma or nurse, or should do so, I am sure.
I have no light as to my next anchoring-ground, but I have stopped any more letters from leaving London until I do know. Love in the Lord to all in the Lord.
Affectionately in the Lord, G. V. W.
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Letters 108

Paddington, September 8th, 1876.
My Dear——, I have written little from this side to that (of the earth) where you are, partly from pressure of duties around me; and while was in that hemisphere I thought affection had an object large and worthy enough to be satisfied with in him. Latterly pressure of calls, and inability to say anything about my probable movements, have stopped me, and do still; for while my heart may turn to New Zealand and Melbourne, &c., I have not been able to say I have any thought that is His mind. His will be done, is my wish any and every way; and it shall be done, please God, whether I wait on here, or, having light, rise to follow it out as to Him Defective as our perception and judgment may be, we yet have to live to Christ, and if called on to die to Him. This supposes reality in us, and sets aside plans which grow out of self having in us too large a place, and so open the way for the adversary, and for worldliness. But if, " Speak, Lord, and let thy servant hear," be the real language of our hearts, then we can do as unto the Lord, or tarry till we see what we can do as to Him. I find more and more the value of that word, " Enoch walked with God." I daresay in doing it he had his difficulties; but he did it. And to us 2 Cor. 5:15 puts the truth in a way to aid us to live to Him, not to ourselves, but to Him-the Anointed Man, alive from the dead, the object of our faith, lives, and hope.
Mr. D writes from Canada that the work has opened so fast there and in U.S. that he does not know when he can come back; if before winter, then (D.V.) to return there in spring. Numbers appear to have got free from the—-, and to be now at the table-this in Canada. In the States several of them open to the work, and to laborers in them lately enlightened, and that makes the field wide. Since above,——sends me yours to him to read. A letter of mine to you appears from him not to have reached you, and I fear two. The first is my recognition of your first envoy of Matthew to me, with which I wrote you fully; second, I think I must have written to you, and——about——. But of this I am not clear. I find I have to abandon the thought of using that MS.-the Bagsters, who I thought might take it up, are not free to do so. And as to myself I desire to cease from all work, save that of waiting on the Lord, and His serving saints, and the saints, and the gospel. But though I say " I desire " (which is true), He seems to will it; so that my desire is the result of subjection of will to Himself writes depressedly as to the closed door in Ireland. But to my mind he forgets; first, that spring is only one of four seasons; secondly, perhaps (and I think so) that the other hemisphere is for the time his sphere of action. He is very dear to me, and may mature into a very valuable laborer. England is overstocked with runners and preaching. They asked me at one place to preach; I could not give the day named; I named another, and found they had been eight weeks ahead arranged for! The young men who go out are many too many. But what " I find to do here" is rather the frame of their minds than " Here am I, send me," in answer to the Lord's, " Who will go for us? " (Isa. 6)
I send you a little token of the Lord's remembrance of you. To my mind you are in your right hemisphere, and I hope I shall find you walking in it in all simplicity, if the Lord permits me as now " the aged " to come and see what He has wrought, in what He has used you. Oh for more of the Spirit of Christ-of Paul, who sought the parts beyond, and loved to labor where others would not! Several times I have seen this in J. N. D. I have said perhaps, " Whither do you go now? " And he has answered, " I wait, and let others decide where they will go, and take what they leave." This seems to me as it should be.
Should you be surprised if the Lord let me walk in where you are?
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 109

September 25th, 1876.
My Dear Sister in the Lord,-Time or quietness to write in I find not; yet amid the turmoil of the way He has granted me to write a few words to some in affliction and trial, of whom the number at the present time is large. We talk of the wilderness, and of having renounced all to follow Him; but how little do we know how this one thing to do-to forget that which is behind, and to look to that which lieth before, and to press on to the mark of the prize of the high calling of God. The battle of life becomes hotter and hotter, the road more steep and slippery, but all this only to wean us more and more from ourselves.
I hear the 29th and 30th November are the days for the Manchester meetings. May the Lord prepare hearts for a blessing, and pour a large one out. One's path as walking with God has to be learned, and the Savior is patient enough in teaching it; but how one learns the contrast between what His mind and heart presented to God's eye, and what one's own heart and mind present to Christ's. Safe and saved in Him forever, but what has He saved? And how does the completeness of the salvation in Him make us see how little we have attained to saying, " Lord, I come to do Thy will, and Thine only." " Thy will my will. Nothing owned by me as my desire or will till it is known to be Thy desire and will first." A conqueror in all things, practically victorious, I asked Him to make me. Not free from Satan only, and from all judgment to come, but, therefore, free from the world and from self. How little do we know what it is, having conquered, to stand fast.
The doctors send out patients wholesale hence to Sydney, New Zealand, &c., and very rashly in many cases lately it has been ordered; but let any one propose to go out thither to look out, and look up, a few poor sheep of the Master's, and the same doctors are terrified at the mad folly. But if we walk humbly before the Lord, and humbly with Him, He will be with us. And sure I am He loves to say, " It is well it was in thine heart." I do count on the prayers of the poor of the flock. Monday, the boat starts at three. Four or five saints on board to break bread together, if the Lord will.
Love to all at the table. Most affectionately,
G. V. W.
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Letters 110

On board the Moselle, October 8th, 1876.
Beloved of the Lord, to you and to those at the Lord's table, with all the widows and afflicted (prisoners of the Lord, of necessity to us), not able, though longing, to get to His table, greeting. Grace, mercy, and peace be with each one of you.
I am but passing now by St. Thomas, to leave there dear—-and his brother, who may call at Barbados on their way to Demerara. I look to God to help you one and all above your individual feebleness, in which we are each one so prone to wish for that which we have not, and be discontented and overlook what good things God has shared to us, a little bit of the cross, and of privation perhaps, for His name's sake; and may God especially deliver you as a little company from the marks of conformity to the world around.
If the outer man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day, (but only) while we look to that which is unseen; and while we look to that which is unseen, the hand is open to let slip that which is seen. I want, and my prayer is for, more heavenly-mindedness, and therewith less of minding of things present. Suffer, beloved, the word of exhortation from an aged one, who has been 52 years a would-be pilgrim and stranger, as you are down here.
You have among you some, given of the Lord, who have addicted themselves (as Paul wrote) to the ministry of the saints. May God bless them in spite of any feebleness in them, which leads them too soon to be cast down, and of any other impediments in Providence to their service among you. You have, too, one or two remarkable for their power of presenting Christ to the sinner. Our brother, Mr. D—-, noticed this when he was with y u. It is a power from God. Be not jealous of it, but be jealous to give it full scope. Infirmities often attach to such, perhaps to keep them humble; help them onward, and let them go forward in faith. When in London this summer I found many such, and I took -care to do all I could to help them on. I took a very low service in outside places, preaching the gospel on Sunday evenings as the portion of aged Christians as having a word to such. The room soon filled, though I saw it was from the distant parts that most came. Each has. his place of service; if he wait on God, God will give it him You have, too, a father's heart in one or two that I could name, whose love has oft refreshed my own heart, and I have seen it refresh others too. Our brother D—-wrote, asking about you all; he is still in the United States, and will, I hope, write to you.... Saints up and down in England greatly enjoyed our brother—-'s visit with his wife to England. He is much known and loved in London by many of the older brothers.... I often go in mind over the names of you all. I am (D.V.) to go on with—and, dropping them at Jamaica, pass on to Colon, Panama, San Francisco, and New Zealand. An old man I am for such an undertaking, but if the Lord be with me, all is well; every place is as near to heaven down here as another. Abba's house, and not England, is my home. The movement of the steam-packet makes writing difficult.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you. So prays
G. V. W.
Speed me with your prayers for that other hemisphere.
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Letters 111

January 12th, 1877.
My Dear Miss——, I have reached my landfall, Auckland, New Zealand, and I look up to the Lord to make my coming a consolation to His saints in these parts. Their path is roughish, and the dust of the roadway hinders many of them singing the Lord's songs in the wilderness. If I might see them gladdened a little, according to the Spirit, it would gladden me.
I trust the Lord's work is holding its way onward. Abba's love in courts above makes the person of the Lord attractive. How far better off is Paul, and Timothy, and Phoebe than what we are! It ought to make us long to depart and be with Christ, at home with Him, though from home in our bodies. People talk of God 'sparing them a little longer down here; but what they mean is, that they prefer being down here to going home and being up there with the Lord, forever with the Lord. My kindest salutations to each and all the saints. A note is always acceptable through No. 3, H. P., delayed here and there on the way out. I am now pressed as to my letters.
Ever yours, dear Miss—-, in the Lord, your old friend affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 112

Christchurch, New Zealand,
April 30th, 1877.
As the Lord sent me an answer to prayer through you, in the note you forwarded, I must write you a line. The care taken of me here by the poor, God has used and blessed to give me again my usual measure of strength, but the cough is within, strengthened too. I am overdone with letters for the post to England, and so must say, God be with you.
Love to——and all that care for such a word from me, I pray for them all. G. V. W.
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Letters 113

June 23rd, 1877.
THE goodness of God abideth still; for the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. (Psa. 103) A golden chain from eternity across time to eternity, beloved brother.
All goes on quietly and happily here, and I think the Lord did well as to you at Orange. I have been laid Iowa safe place-by one of my bilious attacks, which turns me inside out. It is all well.
I may have to run up to Christchurch for a little by the first boat, but I am waiting on the Lord to know His will, Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 114

March 22nd, 1877.
My Dear Miss——, Yours of January 11th is just to hand, and a pouring rain keeps me in the house tonight. I will begin a few lines to you. I have spent one month at Auckland since landing in New Zealand, and one in Nelson, and Motuiki three days of it; four days in the chief town of the country; New Zealand, namely, Wellington, and landed here last Lord's-day afternoon. Each place has its phase peculiar to itself of difficulties; but the answer to them all is in God, who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God. This place and sensible weakness go together. No teaching brother resident here, and no habit of meeting round the Word, as at Nelson, on Sunday evenings when they have no teacher. I look up to the Lord for some blessing; whatsoever He may see would be for the glory of His Son. Mr. D-'s visit was greatly helpful to many Christians who were outside, and who, when helped, came in to the table.... I have Timaru, and perhaps Osmaru, and it may possibly be Dunedin, before me for visits. G. J. S. wants me to come to Sydney, others to Melbourne, and others to Adelaide; but for an old man a step at a time is enough, and I really have New Zealand on my heart.
My love to each and all the saints whom you name. May the Lord be with you all. I write this scrap as a something to be ready, whether I can add more or not; for the distances are long, and I am slower than I used to be.
Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 115

29th March, 1877.
My Dear Miss——,-... I seem this last week better in health; more able to eat, drink, and walk too, than I was. I leave myself in His hand, or would do so completely. Better for me if He fixes the hour of my departure than if I had a voice in its regulation....
My kind love to——, and affectionate salutation to those that walk as saints. G. V. W.
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Letters 116

3, Richmond Terrace, Domain, Sydney, N.S.W.,
May 18th, 1877.
My Dear Sister in the Lord,-When I received yours of the 6th March, 1877, at Christchurch, New Zealand, I was naughtily inclined to write-“To ask an old man, upwards of seventy-two, who never had any health from infancy, and can recall few days without pain-‘How is your health?’ seemed a strange question." But some hours afterward it floated through my mind, " You thought for some days, end of February or beginning of March, that you were rapidly sinking, and must give up animal food, when suddenly, as the poor saints out here began to show out their love, and one sent Devonshire cream and butter, and fresh eggs, and another strong beef-tea and loaves of home-made bread, and preserves and cake, you suddenly rallied! I had to say, ' It was of the Lord.' " But if brethren beloved have prayed for me, then the Lord, the prayers, the love as above, and the sudden change, form links in the chain.
I try to keep a set time for prayer for you all, and the rest of the saints. But when in another hemisphere, with its rush of work upon me, I cannot write as if I were free. So you must put this in as the reason of few letters....
Most affectionate love to one and all, G. V. W.
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Letters 117

October 14th, 1877.
Thou art supreme. Father of an only-begotten Son, Thy highest glory, most attractive beauty known to me. Throne of the Majesty of the Highest, His seat now as Son of man at Thy right hand, anomalous; a Man upon the throne of God. Is it possible? Yes, but only for that One; for no other man is who and what He is, God manifest in flesh, the mighty One, who is Jehovah's fellow. In nature, self-existent, His place was and is God with His Father (the Son) and the Holy Spirit. Here is what is altogether new, and large spheres does it throw open to him that is taught of God the Father from what is written.
These, dear——, were the beginning of a musing of mine this morning when first down, 14th October, 1877, Christchurch, New Zealand. My heart has craved news of you, but I am in your debt a letter, and have had no heart these last months to write to any one. A good deal of work has pressed upon me, and at last heavy sickness brought me right down to where I could do nothing. But the Lord proved Himself unchangeably the same. He changed not, but cheered me by scenes above and scenes ahead. I cannot write much; but I write a line to you and Mrs. thus the expression of my love. " The night is far spent, the day is at hand," are certain truths. Let patience have its perfect work. May the Lord take His own selfsame chosen paths for each of us; 'twill so be best of all. My love to all my old esteemed friends, Mrs. C. H. W., and each and all the rest.
From most affectionately yours and theirs,
G. V. W.
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Letters 118

Wellington, New Zealand,
December 30th, 1877.
I have been laid very low, in body I mean, and if I have thought my little tale of life among the dead was told out, as did Paul the great in 2 Cor. 1:8-10, I have been happy, both in the unclouded face and love, and in the fact that my going on high would leave no vast hiatus as would his.
I have seen my seventy years and two; but I still look up for the work in this little while, and have an empty hand to see what God will put into it, as to things connected with the Son of His love, or the assembly, His Body. I never felt so ill in my life as I have done to-day, perhaps it may be premonitory one way or another. I desire to be will-less, yet willing to stay if He wills it.
We old men look drops upon the window-pane running from the top to the bottom, as if we all hasted to be first at the end of the course; but I trust we, each and all, are willing to abide till He call us, yet are we in the fresh power of our position in and round Him. An aged saint happy in the Lord is a beautiful subject, Christ seen reflected in him.
I am better since my collapse of power in the road three weeks since; but our strength is to sit still.
G. V W.
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Letters 119

Wellington, January 6th, 1878.
Beloved——,-They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Your letter refreshed and gladdened me in my low estate; for, since here, I have had a worse attack than any other a little more than a fortnight ago, and this morn has been my first appearance again at the table. I am not up to writing much. I fear, from your handwriting, that you too have been in suffering; yet why do I say "I fear," when love divine directs it all for Me, for you? all too for the glory of Christ, though God moves in a mysterious way.
My thought had been to go on to-day to Melbourne, and thence to Adelaide; but He said, " Stay where you are till I speak."
2 Tim. 4:6 analusis is evidently to his being offered up; departure on high, αναλυω, verb. Luke 12:36, when he will return from the wedding; Phil. 1:23, to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, are the- only occurrences. The context in Philippians seems to me to mark in various ways that Phil. 1:23 is as 2 Tim. 4:6.
Farewell for the moment; I say nothing about Christchurch, the Lord having sent me on hither. What rest to one's soul that we see Him who is invisible! Cheering letters from San Francisco just in.
Your fellow-servant, G. V. W.
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Letters 120

Melbourne. (Undated.)
My Dear Brother in the Lord, Your letter, as you will see, was probably delayed. I thank God, beloved, that the Lord gave you refreshment in reading these three lectures of Demerara. There can be sweet savor anywhere, but the Lord alone can make the savor to fill the whole house. For Mary He marked the hour when the box (perhaps it had often rebuked her for past worldliness) would have a proper use. Whatever led her to put it by, He was above her, and showed what use He meant it for. How unsearchable His ways and love!
That opening of John 12 is very blessed:
Verses 1-11, Jesus the object of worship;
12-19, as Son of David;
20-36, as Son of man.
(The light of His glories flitting over the scene ere He went to the cross.)
The Spirit adds three more things: 1, Isaiah's testimony to Him as the self-humbled One, 38; and 2, the very same One, Jehovah in glory, 39, 40, and N.B., v. 41; 3, why men could not receive Him, 42, 43, to the end.
I wrote by the post, after your kind letter reached me, to——a few lines, unable then to write more. I have been laid down by the Lord-taken aside in grace a little-for a little private intercourse with Him, in whose eyes my Lord Jesus, eternal Lover of my soul, is exceedingly precious.
Our brother is in Tasmania; his heart was much cheered at Launceston, where he was two days at most, now I suppose for the like time at Hobart Town, then back (D.V.) here.
I am like a wrecked ship at sea as to my body; but it is very grand to be able, as one power in nature cracks or gives way, after another, to say, "I thank Thee, Lord, for that which I receive at Thine hand, in whose hand all power is vested, and not at the hand of any other."
It is grand, through grace, to be able to triumph, even in 2 Peter 3:7-13.
But the old ship will not break up by storm or wave till He says, " I want you up here."
Grace, mercy, and peace to you and all, that seek to walk with Him
So prays, G. V. W.
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Letters 121

Uttoxeter, July 22nd, 1878.
My Dear——,-My heart has been wanting to hear from you, and trying to stir me up; but this only made your letter the more obviously welcome to me, and it was a voluntary one too. I leave myself, or think to do, in the Lord's hand:; but am at times feeble, and last Sunday lost my voice at the morning meeting. But He is in all these things, great enough to take them all in, and to gather them all up. I count myself both blessed and happy; and His grace is sufficient for me, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. No mere doctrine or saying, but power in weakness, as you know.
I am here, in a quiet house and airy, and willing and able to meet what has seemed to me the Lord's mind; but I see nothing beyond: I wait.
Morning by morning let thine ear be open to Him, for the settling of everything, and doing of His own good pleasure, whether to do this in dependent obedience, or to suffer that in lowly patience. If I were not so little as I am, I should have attained to more skill in this life of Christ.
But Phil. 3 is the Spirit's picture of a model man, though of one who had the law of sin and death in his body; that is, large, so as to take in the little ones, and truly full of warning, and of encouragement too.
Whether going into the country, or for other needs, you may lack a little of what Christ had so little, as to have asked on one occasion, " Show me a penny."
Most affectionately, dear brother, G. V. W.
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Letters 122

Uttoxeter, August 2nd, 1878.
My Dear—-,-My judgment, as formed, under the Spirit I would hope, but certainly upon " what is written," is that God wants no help from us.
I have had to take my body-a poor and feeble one it has been-under the hand of the Lord, and try to rub along as best I could. As such, S. S. says " a little wine for thy stomach's sake and often infirmity," though I latterly have been afraid of that little, from the effects of it upon the chest. I find it confessedly difficult to be sure as to His mind about simple medicinal remedies; but I am sure that those that cast all upon the Lord, and never touch any such supposed and real aids, are the happiest; their conduct most in the Spirit. The surgical operations are different, though I admit both the length of the scale from the top to bottom of the practice.
Still, if God gave me either by birth, or as to Israel, or by accident in childhood, one leg shorter than the other, so far as I can see, I should take it so at His hand, and not try to put the matter otherwise by any operation. What I had got the Lord had given me, or permitted me to have, and my soul would be more at rest as reminding Him and Him alone who can make that which is crooked straight, my Counselor. I judge true and righteous judgment in saying my heart and mind will say you have taken the more excellent way, if in simple faith in God working in providence as in creation you say, Thou, Lord, seest, and I will be still before Thee as I am. I will look (D.V.) to the Lord for you in this matter. I dread more than I did, getting under the power of things down here, in body or in mind.
A full and comforting letter from Christchurch. God has been working there. The adversary is displeased and pushed, but God seems to have met his move. My comfort still is, if——and others still are strong in the Lord in prayer, blessing will go on and grow, and the evil be fully set aside.
Most affectionately. Always glad to hear. G. V. W.
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Letters 123

Saturday, August 3rd.
MY DEAR—-, I feel my letter yesterday was too much of myself. After it was gone I judged, " God at the helm" ought to have been more boldly spoken out for; and yourself, who know His saving power, and how Satan is watching everything whereby to dishonor Him, and make us look like mere men, a little more cautioned by me. But I could leave you in the Lord's hands, to care for, guide, and direct.
Still it is well for me to send this.
Ever affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 124

(Undated.)
My Dear Miss——,-I write this line to have somewhat ready to post on my arrival at Melbourne, if the Lord so will; for there seems to be nothing that better announces to friends in the distance a safe arrival like a sight of an absentee's handwriting. The goodness of the Lord is great, and widely spread abroad the proofs of it. One needs only to have the eye open to scan them wherever one is; and if we see them not it must be because we are either blind, or have the mind occupied with others, which must be less worthy objects than are the hand and heart of the Lord, who compasses us about with goodness, and eternal, divine, and heavenly mercies.
Tell brethren, please, that the little assembly in this ship-six in all-counts upon their prayers, and those of others in England, for a blessing from the Lord.
Ever affectionately in the Lord.
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Letters 125

Copy of a Post Card.
AN old pilgrim writes this on nearing the shore of your island to let you know of his return. Mercies have been many since he left, and all even of the trials had to come out of the bosom of Him who overrules all in mercy, and so all has been well
Copied from the fly-leaf of one of his Bibles.
BE it that, you have little qualification, less gift, and no office whatsoever; yet, as an individual member of Christ, child of God, and inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, you must, as partaker of the blessing, and dwelt in by the Spirit, desire the honor of God and the glory of Christ. While waiting for his Son, the Savior from heaven, serve the living and true God then.
The Spirit is at work to get Christ's members out of the world, and from under the power of the flesh and the devil. Labor thereunto in God, and be the servant down here in every way, of the interest, honor, and glory of Christ in His members. οῦ γὰρ ὑμεῖς ἐστε οἱ λαλοῦωτες, ἀλλὰ τὸ πρεῦμα τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν, τό λαλοπυω ἐν ὑμῖν. (It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.)
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Letters 126

(Undated.)
My Dear Brother,-Weigh for me a clause, a phrase; weigh it against everything in contrast around; probe it, try it, apply it to everyone around you, and give me your thoughts when we meet.
" There is but one Man that is perfect the anointed Man, Christ Jesus." I will only say I applied this much sooner to Him as the sin-offering than I did as my righteousness of God; and after I saw Him as the standard of walk, the comparison (through my love of self, and the place self had in me instead of God) led to depression and oft overwhelming within me.
Now I live more on the positive side than on the negative, and find it oft bursting from my heart, and mind, and tongue-" Yes; Thou art the only perfect One." "Ruined as in Adam was I; ruined in and by myself, in my early life; a ruin as a disciple, not worthy to be called Thy servant; but Thou art of a truth the only perfect One, as a man. Perfect as God; for He came not short of the glory of God. Even Paul had to learn this; learned it and found rest in it. And so may we.
But we will talk of this when next we meet (D.V.).
G. V. W.
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Letters 127

September 20th, 1878.
My Dear Sister In The Lord,-... I have been gaining again in strength of body, and brought away with me the rested brain which I had gained at I am still looking to the Lord (in Anna's way) for His saints. Not so fervent as she was, nor so true; but, as it seems to me, " the breaking of bread " marks a privilege wheresoever any find grace for it; and thereupon I want the saints thereat to be full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
I may not write more just now. I pray for all the little company, and all of ours. Love to the brothers and sick sisters. Affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 128

October 2nd, 1878.
" OUR Jesus hath done all things well! " has long been our song. And so it must be, whatever we may feel; for if the Father of an only-begotten Son settles everything for us which is for the glory of that Son, surely all is well.
My love to all of ours. May they remember whose they are, and whom they have to serve.
Most affectionately, G. V. W.
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Letters 129

October 23rd, 1878.
As to new remedies, God alone is the giver and renewer of life and health. He is the God of resurrection, that raiseth the dead. (2 Cor. 1) But thesentence of 'death in ourselves goes first.... I am decidedly better. The Lord can remove every mark of what has been, and put me into, full work. Let Him show the saints His Mind; I am His servant to go or theirs to stay. I am surprised at the saints' love.
My love to ours. G. V. W.
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Letters 130

October 25th, 1878.
I AM not sure but that the Lord is about to heal me, and restore me to the work. If it be, so, I would that it should be of such a sort < that all should say, " See what God has wrought! " I am stronger, and my voice is returned. I will write and tell you when——might come.
G. V. W.
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Appendix 1

Letter written thirty years ago.
My Dear Sister, -I have borne you on my heart and mind with much anxiety through all your tide of trial, and now feel anxious that the fruit of it should appear.
That which I desire for you is fellowship with Jesus in that which distinguished Him so pre-eminently above His fellows-repose of character. Quietness of spirit from a mind and heart shut up and engaged in divine love and glory is my ambition. How blessed and how unearthly the calm, quiet, unruffled composure of the Lord's course!
No haste, no hurry, because, though on earth, yet still in heaven. His mind, His heart, deep buried in His Father's love. And may we not thus abide in Christ, and Christ in us? In real fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ; walking in the same Spirit, abiding in the Spirit, led by the Spirit?
May the unction which you have received abide in you. Indeed, I count myself your brother in Jesus, and therefore as well free as bound to be anxious for you. More than this, there is a stake risked on every saint by Jesus, which makes the walk of every brother and sister as our own. For the glory of Jesus has been given us-not fellowship in the outward glory only, when our co-heirship shall be seen, but (much above this) a present investing with the glory of Jesus -" The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." May Enoch be your pattern, so far as you have any earthly pattern, who walked with God, and was not.
I have learned lately much of the value of a life of communion with God. Close communion, and nothing else, should content us, though the flesh has no glory in it, and therefore would fain, as Satan also, pour contempt upon it, and lead us to any or every other object. Yet why should hurry or perturbation be our badge, if indeed we have Christ as our anchor within the veil?
Again I would say, May the unction which you have received abide in you. I feel a great jealousy about you, that you should have much communion, much interchange of thought, with God. It is easy to run here and run there, to speak to this one and that one; but how much may be will-worship of our own inventing, not growing up out of, not appointed us by, the Spirit.
May the Holy Ghost be your life You know much of truth as to the Person and work, past, present, and future, of Jesus, embodying the moral character of Him with whom we have to 'do. I would desire to see your mind brought by the Holy Ghost into nearer and closer contact with that character thus exhibited, inhaling the sweet fragrance of the garden of the Lord.
As a brother I write freely. Satan has tempted you, will tempt you, to be unwilling to be subject to vanity. Remember this, that one of the Lord's great objects is, to show that He keeps us; therefore we are subject to vanity. To pride it is humbling to have to give so much time to sleep, to rest, to food, even to prayer, to say nothing to the littleness of life. Yet these are our glory, because His will.
Be much found in needlework for the poor, or some such littleness of female domestic life; for our glory is to do His will. The saint who is used by Him through sickness of body to draw forth the love of others, is as much honored as a Paul or a Peter. But we have wretchedly ceased to have His will within us, and consequently how wrongly do we judge by man's thoughts, instead of God's. G. V. W.
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Appendix 2

Extracts from Letters written in 1864.
MY heart has its cravings as not for your sake, not for his sake either, but for the Lord's glory, and the manifestation of His grace as super-abounding over all difficulties, and getting to Himself a great name among His people, and before principalities and powers in heavenly places.
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Appendix 3

WHAT a place we are in, to be called to live to God and to Christ down here on the earth. All our own wants and affairs so entirely taken care of by God in heaven, that we are free to live to Him.
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Appendix 4

IT was so, my dear Mrs.—, as to your thoughts of the answer we were to have to your prayers about my dear comrade in the wilderness. He knows best, and He took her from weakness and trial here below, and we must bow. At first I did bow, and through grace at once too, but that was all I could do. Of late my mind has been tracing, and I trust learning of Him, more of His thoughts and ways; and if the privation to me be not diminished, I can trace more of the goodness and tender love of His ways, and how strong His arm to have its own way. I do desire to say henceforth, " This one thing I do."
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Appendix 5

February 3rd, 1866.
Dear Sister In The Lord,-I find it difficult to advise, in the sense of saying to any one, Do this or do that at any given time, or in any given set of circumstances. But a remark or two as to what would be my own guidance under the circumstances may even, though apparently vague and general, yet tend to help you.
For myself I find that I have always to " obey God," to subject myself, that is, to His known will. If in any case that springs up, I am convinced that so or so is His will, I would desire, in dependence upon Him, to take up my cross and do it. But as it must be His will that I do (for the virtue is not in my doing something or anything, but in my being subject to His will as known to me), if I am not clear in my own conscience when alone with Him, that I know what His will is, I would rather wait on until I do know, and can say this or that is His will. If my faith is lively, and I am really abiding near Him, I shall see His will early perhaps. If my faith is weak, or my own heart is clouded, or circumstances of the assembly of God, or circumstances of any kind, obscure my sight, I prefer humbling myself under His mighty hand, and tarrying His leisure, to walking forward without the ability of saying, " In this that I do, I think that I have the Lord's mind." I, of course, can enter into the difficulties to which you refer in your note, but I do not see your path; I do see that I can pray for you, and look to Him for light and guidance for you. How good is the Lord! He not only saves us from Satan and the world, but so exercises our hearts and minds (as we pass along the Red Sea to Jordan), that we get formed, even in habit, to the ways and thoughts of His love, and in the very difficulties we find in the way, are made to love the more the home to which He guides us, where His will alone is -done, and where, too, we know that there will be no distracting circumstances to perplex us or make us have to wait.
I do commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
Ever truly and prayerfully
Yours in Him,
G. V. W.
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Appendix 6

September, 1867.
My Dear Brother in the Lord,-Perfection must be looked for in God; He alone is perfect, and in Him is Jesus, in whom alone man can trace what is divine. That blessed One, when down, here, was wont to see everything on God's side of it. " The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" Cup of wrath against man's sin held in Satan's hand before Him and He saw nothing but His Father's gift I Death, judgment, wrath! He would not see anything apart from His Father's gift, and to Himself. And if my God put it into my heart to come out here in June, and into my wife's heart to urge me to go, and show her love to the Lord's saints, would it become me, even had He taken her away in England, to judge by the sight of the eye or the hearing of the ear, and to repine, not seeing the Father's hand and His love, and love to me in any, in every sorrow? No; now is the time to give up self; Christ's presence will be the place to have giving up of self owned in.
Forty years have I known her; thirty-seven years have I seen the motto of her life to have been, " It is right for me to devote myself to God, and to His saints, while here on earth." Thirty-two years of that time it has been mine to seek to shelter her as my companion. He said, " If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father." Did I love His gift to me? and shall I repine if she was put into fuller, greater blessing, made to feel how right her self-denying devotedness is counted in heaven? Selfishness and materialism would stir the storm of passion, and feebleness of human feeling might quiver, and the divine taste of death, as the Lord took it into His own soul in John 11, would lead to deepness of sorrow too, unselfish sorrow; but above it all, if " Christ is to be magnified in my body " by life, the Spirit being in me, I should still say, " I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth," and " The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?"
We are poor things, poor vessels, to have such treasure as we carry in us; but " My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
She fell asleep at 10.10 p.m., September 12th, 1867.
Heaven is not changed, nor has her admission into the presence of my God cast a spot nor any dimness or shade there. He who chose to reveal Himself to her, who forced her to own His death, and Himself, alive in heaven, coming again to fetch us, had a right to take her there; and He comforts my heart with the truth of her being there, let into His presence. Our prayer was, that " Christ might be magnified " in her body and in mine, " whether by life or by death." She was selected for the one; may I find grace for the other; saints keeping me by prayer. The last two Lord's-days, wishing neither "to despise the rod, nor to faint under it," I abstained from preaching, dear B being here; but now I would be like David, and spoke last night at the room on " God, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort."
The interment takes place (D.V.), Monday (the undertaker having this morning changed the time). Dear J. N. D. had settled to come for it on Tuesday, the day first appointed, but now he cannot be here (as we have exchanged telegrams) All this is well-his proposing to come, and the preventing cause too. It will prevent his exhausting himself by a three days' journey too.
My salutation,
G. V. W.
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Appendix 7

Montreal, October 1st, 1867.
My Dear——, A line will, I am sure, be welcome to you; and so far as that line treats of tender mercy and loving-kindness shown from God, through Jesus Christ and by His Spirit, to one whom I loved, to write it is praise to God, a rendering to Him the acknowledgment of the mercy and grace which He has shown.
She rests, absent from the body and present with the Lord; and His manner of loosing the cords that bind, in this life, body and soul together, and of His gathering up to His own presence, was a master-work of gentleness and tenderness.
Seeing how, as our pilgrim course lengthened out, her sense of weakness and littleness grew upon her, and strengthened her timidity and retiredness, I had each summer of late proposed to her to accompany me alone in my work-Southampton one year, Aberdeen another, &c.; and 'when dear Mr. Darby's illness was heard of this year (Guelph), at first she hesitated to accompany me, next day accepted the thought, and then declined, her own feebleness and the need of preparation to accompany me this September to Barbados (D.V.) her plea; but most heartily did she urge my coming. Soon after my arrival, I found that Mr. D—-intended going to Barbados in December. This, after prayer, led me to postpone my going thither, and to my proposing to stay and work in America till December, and then to my writing to say that, as Lady Robinson was returning hither in August, she might, as saints hereso much wished it, come out. I said I would not come to fetch her, only because I feared that my doing so might induce her to come while her inclination might be against so doing.
When my letter reached her, she was very ill from liver and Some mucous membrane attack; but the worst symptoms yielded to rest, diet, and exercise, or seemed to do so, though her judgment seemed formed that her days were now markedly numbered.
She decided to come, per Belgian, 15th August, and reached Quebec on the 27th. She had but one thought about the coming, and that was that it was the counsel of God for her and His most tender mercy to herself. Pitiful was He in the ship, and in a thousand unheard of ways. The little sea-sickness proved, I think, how out of order the system was. I met her, daughter, and maid at Quebec, and we came on in the same boat hither. The kind B—-'s had prepared airy rooms in the college for us, and we were cared for in love. Two weeks and four hours after her being carried up into her room from the ship she passed away, as if falling asleep, after twenty-four hours of watchfulness.
To me she was communicative in this fortnight as to what God had wrought for her in Christ, and in her. in enabling her to bow to God as the reconciler. (2 Cor. 5:20, 21 as to Psa. 32, Rev. 1:5, 6 as to 1 Thess. 4:15, 17.) " That is mine; God has given it to me," she said when I spoke of it-as to the unchangeableness of God and Christ, as to her own self having been forced out of the world and self-righteousness, &c., as to how much He had blessed and taught her between June 15th and August 27th; shown her too that He had, in love, to judge her ways, the discovery too of the daughter being a far better prop to her than her husband in things of this world, and turning from him to her in all cases, her self-judgment, occupation with all whom she loved, and urging her husband to write for her to this and to that one, and her care about her poor, were remarkable. Not long after her arrival there was, during a day and a half, an attack of inflammation, and from that she rallied not, save in measure; it was not acute pain, but distress. My being here, and not in routine work, left me free to be much with her; and my feeling that the Lord's rod was stretched out upon me, made me decline preaching on both Sunday nights, as another was ready. These evenings I spent in her room.
On the 12th, she had had no sleep during the night, but was moved at morn to another bed; no suffering, but exhaustion and weakness, and a frequent asking for beef-tea, and brandy and water in a teaspoon, as she sat up. At 7.30 p.m. I took my papers to her room, and prayed by her several times that Christ might be magnified in her body and mine, whether by life or death. Faintness came on as once before, but yielded to ordinary reliefs, and she fell asleep, dozing at first, then into deeper sleep; and about 10, while I and Mrs. B—were beside her, she breathed heavily. I fetched the daughter, who had gone to rest, so as to relieve me at 1; and she ceased to breathe at 10.10.
From the peculiarity of her mind, and my knowledge of it, I went through an agony, lest Satan should be permitted to make an inroad; but, thank God, the agony and the wrestling, the fear and the watching, and the strong crying in prayer, fell to me as my portion, and not in the least to her.
She is one who will be better known in heaven than on earth-a woman of a meek and lowly spirit.
Forty years I knew her; about thirty-two been the one that tried to shelter her, as she tried to help me by prayer. I expect no one to be able to estimate her grace, Christ's grace in her; but she is with Him who loved her, gave Himself for her and to her, fought with her till she bowed to His being all in all, and He now makes her happy. He will bring her again, for we are to be together there where " we are ever with the Lord " can be said. It is right for me to be wholly and altogether devoted to God and to His people on earth. If that was the characteristic of any one, you could understand how, after thirty-seven years' life, when the thought of leaving domestic quietness, and going with a husband to West Indies, and then going out to Canada to join a husband there, got upon the mind, she passed through all sorts of exercises as to domestic retirement not having been devotedness to God; and how, as the mind got formed for new work, it got a new energy. This was of God, a ripening up at the close.
The great love of saints in England; the visits of a
Mary L—-, Mrs. C—-, &c.; the many kind letters; the prayers for the work of J. N. D, for her husband, for the going forth of a wife and daughter and maid; the interest in the voyage which J. N. D—and saints far and wide in the Canadas and United States took in it; the godly reception at Quebec and Montreal—everything done as unto the Lord-all put the soul into a state in which were tasted afresh the sweets of the pilgrim missionary work in earlier days of her youth in Ireland, &c.
The mind, too, expanded, and many a private habit of thought dropped. " I used to think that in myself; but God in His circle where I am thinks this."
Her age, 55 all but a few days. G. V. W.
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Appendix 8

Cambridge, Mass., U.S., January 7th, 1868.
Here, necessarily, progress is a matter of grace entirely; for errors of the worst kind and worldliness have found liberty and equality in the flesh a fine soil to grow in. It has pleased God to let the nature of that soil be shown out, and how very productive of poisonous weeds and of corruption the mixture of "liberte, egalite, fraternite" is as a soil; not so bad here as in France at the Revolution, in measure, perhaps, because there Romanism and Jesuitism were the religious orders of the day. Here the Bible is open, and there is a seed which fears God, and would walk with Him; yet really the Lord's heritage, such as He can own it-His Simeons, and Annas, and Marys-are in a low state, while a popular preacher would be run after by ten thousands. Still, He has His reserved ones-it may be seven thousand, as of old-and He is calling out one here, and a second there, and a third in another place. This does not discourage me at all, perhaps because I am a slow-minded one myself, but also in measure because I am sure He knows what He is about, and has more heart to bless than have I or have any of us; and He knows, too, the real state of hearts and minds, and the end from the beginning.
To a newcomer, things in detail are very strange here. At a meeting ten days ago there were "Adventists," "Millennium men," "Holders of the second coming." This sounded hopeful; but my first text, 1 Thess. 4, the "forever with the Lord" was negatived. "I know no promise," said one of them, "but for the earth and in the land;" and with a great knowledge of broken bits of Scripture which they had, I had to ask them whether Christ were God or mere man, and to take my stand upon atonement. Last Monday, again, another was at another place, trying to make a gospel a rest and a hope of the Sabbath-day in Eden. Of course, the question of separation from evil inside the house is looked upon as bigotry of the worst kind. Universalists, who make all to be saved; Annihilationists, who put the wicked hereafter into non-existence; and Spiritualists, who consider inspiration to be the flow of thought in themselves, which, though it come from Satan, they accredit with God's name and sanction-of course cannot see holiness without which no man shall see God. On the other hand, in tie herds of these there are many there through ignorance, whom God brings out -His name be praised-one and one at a time. The church's rule here is to turn off the pastor when he ceases to be young and lively enough to be engaging to the young. The rising generation have a ruling band in everything, and their likings rule to an extent which would be folly if it were not sin. G. V. W.
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Appendix 9

Extracts from Letters.
We are hardly up to the mark as to walking with God down here; walking as the Lord walked.
I see this abundantly in myself as to, and under, the privileged departure of my daughter. The iron may enter into the soul- and it does in my case, and that of us all in this departure-but there should be no surprise. For two or three years she has been in work as a nurse, and been exposed in worse forms to that which the Lord was pleased to remove her by. I think she had counted the risks, and this was not the one she deprecated.
Perhaps it is my want of girdedness which makes me feel that others are not girded up, ready to depart at any moment. She and I had a talk, after I had spoken at north Row, on 1 John 3:16, and I found her mind thoroughly made up, at least so far as the theoretic and practical parts of the question.
" Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
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Appendix 10

On Sunday, February 26th, 1871, I spoke at the table on Rom. 5:7, 8, and 1 John 3:15. I was struck much at what I said, and so were others; it was cutting, like a two-edged sword. She had taken up nursing, and was quite prepared to lay down her life for the brethren; and it would not have been like her to have retreated, had one known the issue beforehand, but of course that one could not have known. She-said lately, " I hope I shall not be taken away in small-pox." On my saying, "It is as good a chariot of fire as any other," she said, Oh, but for me to know you were sitting at the foot of my bed unable not to loathe the sight of me, would be painful indeed!" To me it seems as if the Lord were pleased to permit her to go on high through laying down her life in nursing those dear to Himself. Why am I to allow my loss and privation to be of more importance than His pleasure?
At six o'clock on Saturday, a.m., I judged that He meant to take her, and all that I could say was, " If so, give me grace to glorify Christ about it, and I will not repine, nor ask her back." He did not ask me to do what He asked Abraham as to Isaac, yet which He afterward told him not to do, because He alone would give up His only Son for us; but all He asks is, " Will you bow to My hand? Will you accept the correction of the chastening at My hand? Will you let Me bless your child in My own way?"
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Appendix 11

I do want help from the Lord that I may glorify Christ in the matter practically, as He would have me. I have said to His Father, " I justify Thee in every step of the way. I accept it at Thy hand, and I thank Thee for it." But there is, besides subjection, the present energy of the Spirit to come out with vital energy. I hope you will sympathize, therefore, more with the Lord and His honor, than with me and my feelings. Let G. V. W. be reckoned crucified, dead, and buried, but let there be more of Christ displayed in me as " quickened together, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places."
You have heard that it has pleased the Lord to permit my daughter to go on high, through nursing the sick. It has pleased Him, and verily I would not, if I could, have said Him nay; nor when the Lord came in and claimed her, would I count that I ought to have been consulted or thought of. I bless God I can say to Him, " Only enable Thou me to glorify Christ in the matter, and I will not wish her back, nor say Thee nay." I am old, the Lord is the Ancient of days, and He can help me on.
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Appendix 12

Ps. 40:8: " The volume of the book," said by the Jews to be par excellence the law, or book of the law-literally, " the roll of the writing." The same two words occur together, Jer. 36:2, " A roll of a book," and verse 4, (read the chapter), and Ezek. 2:9.
My Dear Mrs. H—-, As found in Psa. 40:8; I should explain " The volume of the book," by the principle of 2 Peter 1:20, " No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation;" i.e. God, in writing His word, has ever had His Son, and Him the end and center of everything, before Him As the winding of string supposes a roller to wind it upon, so Christ ever was the central thought and end of every revelation. A greater than Adam the first, or than Abel, or Noah, or Abraham, Isaac, Jacob-than Israel as the vine out of Egypt, than Moses or Aaron, than David or Solomon, was before God when He wrote about them severally.
The same passage occurs in Heb. 10:7 as in Psa. 40:7, and, as in the mouth of the rightful owner, brings to one's soul such enlargement of thought and truth, as Eph. 1:4, " Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world;" Titus 1:2, " In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;" and 2 Tim. 1:9, "Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," &c.
As to Psa. 40, no one could have said, without qualification, verse 1, or verse 4, or verse 8, or verse 10, but a perfectly righteous one.
These are the few thoughts I have to offer.
Affectionate regards to Mr. H—-and all your circle. I am be-colded just now, and using my Sunday night for communion by letter, while a brother is preaching in my stead.
I have had two most blessed instances of the Lord's answers to prayer these last six months. One of a notorious infidel in the great world in London, for whom I have prayed for forty years on and off, and done battle with him as to his infidel scoffings. Now he is a wonder to himself; brought round by the Lord alone. The other the husband of a friend. He got into Walkerite doctrine, and lost every trace of godliness and piety; but his soul has been visited by the Lord. He, too, has been the subject of much prayer.
I feel it important and right to make such cases known, for relations' and friends', children's and parents' sake-that all of ours may remember the smitten Rock's waters are gushing freely. It is a hard case if we can find no empty vessels to set before Him.
Most truly and affectionately yours,
G. V. W.
January 8th, 1871.
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Appendix 13

June 28th, 1871.
My Dear——, I have endeavored to care for the Lord's glory, and prayed that Christ may be made more apparent to everyone in both you and your dear mother, in the sufferings you have had to pass, with the Lord, under of late.
I did not write with pen to any of you, but I tried to speak to Him that loved you both, and came off the throne to die for you; and what I asked was, that He Himself should be glorified in you. A nice letter from C——reached me on Saturday. He had heard of my passage under sorrow, and looked at it quite as I wished all my young friends to look at it, that whatsoever the trial, none befalls us but what is common to man, and that the Lord can make His love to super-abound above anything trying.
Yes, if heaven is open, upon us all shines in the light of His love; and if one asks of any trial, " And what does it appear in Christ's eye?" more still than that it shines will appear.
I snatch a moment to write to you in, but I oft find you and your father and mother upon my heart of late.
Most affectionately,
G. V. W.
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Appendix 14

Demerara, British Guiana, South America, November 24th, 1871.
My Dear Brother in the Lord,-My heart has been stirred within me, deeply stirred both as a child and servant of God, by scenes through which I have just passed. God our Father would, according to the word of His grace, have the testimony about His Son preached everywhere here on earth.
I have just passed among the various West India Isles belonging to various nationalities, some to the Dutch, some to the French, some to the Spaniards, Portuguese, English, with no small addition to the number of their inhabitants of Germans, Swiss, &c.
But where has the preaching of the gospel of Christ in simplicity been in any of these isles? Has the gospel in its simplicity been preached anywhere in those islands in this generation in English, French, or Dutch? In no case, as far as I can hear, though in some of them there are estimable men of the Moravians, and strong partisans of Wesley, &c. The Roman Catholics are wide awake, and the Ritualists of the Establishment in England are playing into their hands (as said the 'Pope), like the bells in the tower calling people in, but not coming themselves. What can be done? If too old and feeble myself for much of the work and service, yet my heart stirs me with faith in God and His grace, to pray Him to send forth laborers for the work. And when I look back to His answers to prayers made in bygone times for France, Switzerland, Prussia, Scotland, Ireland, England, America, my heart says boldly, " Prayer now for these islands will not be in vain."
I desire too to stir up all those who are spiritually interested in the gospel as a testimony flowing from God, whether they be young or old, men or women, English or French or German, &c., to join in prayer for the sounding out of the Word throughout the world. If the Lord will graciously pour out a spirit of prayer and supplication (surely, I would say to all who love him, the desire that He may do so is yours and mine, and the promise is to the prayer of two or three), expectation of blessing will spring up, and bear fruit too. The isles I have named, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the East Indies, are on my heart. Nor you, nor I, could send anyone, even if any were ready to go, but we know the Lord of the harvest, and gladly shall we welcome His answers to prayer, and seek to comfort ourselves, and any whom He may incline to go. When Isaiah had had his iniquity taken away and his sin purged (chap. 6:7), he heard the voice of the Lord saying, " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (v. 8.) His ready answer was, " Here am I, send me." Oh, that that voice, which speaks in every pardoned soul who loves the gospel, " Who will go for us?" were more simply heard and obeyed as by Isaiah of old! The night is now far spent, the dawn draws nigh. The testimony as to Christ should go forth everywhere, and from every one of His. Testimony to Him in His past, in His present, in His coming service to God, and as to man. How few addict themselves now-a-days to the ministry of the saints. (1 Cor. 16:15.) How few having believed therefore speak. (2 Cor. 4:13.) Compare Acts 8:4: " They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." If, as I trust it is, God who puts these thoughts and desires upon my soul, I may stay my soul upon Him, and hope as to blessing to come. The Son is to be preached everywhere; the Spirit works toward this, and will work (see Rev. 22:17); and is there no chaste virgin espoused to Christ? It is written, " And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Pray. None who can pray, can say, "As for me, I can do nothing in this matter." That the service in this testimony requires men in Christ, and not babes, is true.
But there are evangelists who have been tried, and approved themselves in their work. Let them bethink themselves of their work.
For myself, if the Lord permit me (who came out in my old age with none save Himself with me) to return to London, gladly shall I communicate all I can, in information, and to any that may inquire. The step needs faith to be ready to walk with God, if needs be alone. " But I am with you," saith the Lord, " to all such."
Ever yours, &c.,
G. V. W.
P.S.-It is but in Jamaica, Barbados, Demerara, that we know of any who would welcome to their homes and the table, any evangelist.
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Appendix 15

3, Howley Place, Harrow Road, London, W.,
April 5, 1872.
My Dear Sister in The Lord,-Amid a whole forest of difficulties and impediments to writing, my heart has carried its purpose and desire to write to you. I had just got in measure free to do so, when B—-'s note, containing a copy of J——'s, reached me, and, shortly before it, the news of——'s death by cholera.
The battle-field of life! But, thanks be to God, no uncertainty upon it, to those that believe God's word, either as to themselves or as to those who, through Jesus, sleep in Him.
It is only by the Spirit of God's presence with us that we have received power to say, " I am Christ's," and " Christ is mine " It is His presence, personally, with the new nature given to us, that is our power of feeding upon such truth as, "Go tell My brethren, Behold, I ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God, and your God." I find it important to keep very distinctly before the mind, that fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, is only for us in the New Creation. In that, nothing breaks down; in that, there is no unshipping of anything in the storms or hurricanes of providential or governmental kingdoms. Yea, the very effect of the slaughter of the sheep, killed all the day long, is but to realize more and more, that the threads of life are in that which cannot be cut, the root and source of life, Christ Himself, in glory at God's right hand. "I, yet not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2:20), is one of Paul's own peculiar expressions. " I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The "I" that was crucified together with Christ, and died together with Him, is what I was-a creature made for its Creator's glory and praise, but in its lapsed condition living from itself, and by its own power, and to itself-this I reckon dead; the I, yet not I, is myself as part of the New Creation. My selfishness is bowed before the love of Rim, who gave up glory in heaven, on the throne, to become a man to die for us-who lives, and in love thinks of us,-a living Man in heaven, and whose love will find its own expression, when He presents us to Himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. In God's love in giving Christ, and in Christ's love in enduring all for us, selfishness in us finds its deathblow, as well as sentence. But Rom. 6 goes further, because it not only makes an appeal to our hearts' affections, but shows God's thoughts and counsels, anti His view of Christ's death; that He, occupied with Christ's death, counts me dead who believe in Him; and that I am bound to count or reckon myself so too. Now this meets the difficulties of the greatest and of the least of us. We that believe have been brought out of that system in which self is looked at as everything, into another, in which Christ is looked at by God, and us too, in Him, the alone One. He only is the fountain, stream, end of all God's good pleasure, but we get our place both in Him before God, and with God in His thoughts about Him; for the Spirit is in us.
However little I am among men, or among the saints of God, or you, the question with God is, Is Christ magnified in us, and in our bodies, whether it be by life or by death? A slave might do this in the midst of slavery-live as rejoicing in Christ, as using His resurrection power (2 Cor. 10:11), in all the details of the life of a slave, and do it all to Christ. An apostle might not succeed so well as the poor slave in this. For what is characteristic distinctively of an apostle, was, to have seen the Lord, and be one sent by Him as a messenger for the Lord's own self. Paul had not life-eternal life in Christ, more than had Phoebe or Onesimus.
Now it is just in possessing, and walking in this life, that you can magnify Christ in your body, whether it be by life or by death. The dewdrops on the trees and flowers can reflect the light of the rising sun; you in your retirement and suffering, bereavement and hidden life, can live unto God through Christ. This is just what I referred to, when I spoke to you of glorifying God and Christ in the furnace. However little you are, the thread, the pulse of eternal life, the knowledge of Christ who was crucified, and who arose, and lives up there in heaven, is possessed by you; and now He is coming again shortly, and if these things become the power of your life down here, if you walk down here as seeing, and waiting upon Him who is up there, He will be magnified in your body by your walk.
All the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, is unveiled to us, and the tiniest of us can reflect Him; can shine as Himself.
My dear child, I pray for you, that Christ may be lived to by you. Excuse haste, for interruption upon interruption has been mine. Tell your mother I hope to write to her.
Your brother and fellow-servant,
G. V. W.
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Appendix 16

Uttoxeter, July 20th, 1875.
Beloved In The Lord,-I received your letter and the welcome news of J. T—, when out in New Zealand, but, though I put it to be a memorial of a letter from me to you, poor memory was not helped amid the pressure out of measure at the time upon me.
Since I have been back I have had another letter on the same subject from Mrs. W. T—-, to the same effect as the other, but written at a later date. Of one thing we may be sure, that prayer works its own answer, obedient dependence to God, and that displayed even only in a groan or a sigh, never is forgotten by Him who is on high; it goes up, and in, with the savor of Christ upon it, and the remainder from us of what grace has already done for us in Him, and by the Spirit, and we may, and must, trust and hope on still.
I heard of your wife's weakness in body soon after my arrival. I am here feeble enough, but happy in the Lord; though able to do but little, able both to suffer and to give Him thanks for every bit of His dealings.
I think to be up farther north in my cruise, but when I know not; yet I trust in His " now." And if so, I may challenge you as to your being "at home" to me at that time. I have no plan or chart which I knowingly have drawn up or accepted, but wish to hang on upon Him still.
The last letter which I heard of from J. N. D. came last week from Springfield, en, route (D.V.) for England, via San Francisco, New Zealand, and the United States. In a parenthesis, " I see nothing as to Australia," or words to that effect. (McA—-named it to me.)
The days are solemn, but with much to encourage the hearts that trust in God, wrought in them as saints. But the testimony should go forth as to the character of grace, as to the coming of our Lord, as to the saints' life and walk-so I judge-in away now which none but God can cause it to do so.
My kind love to dear Mrs. H-. Your daughter, whom I met in London, invited me to come and see you.
Affectionately,
G. V. W.
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Appendix 17

July 21st, 1876.
Dear Brother In The Lord, -The Master keeps me so much as a personal attendant on Himself, and the full work He gives me just now to do, that as a servant I have no liberty to put in or leave out any word.
This does not change your loving invitation or my sense of it, though it puts it out of my power to profit from it. I send you a copy of what S- sent to me from Sydney lately. It is not poetry, but was my answer to his (G. S. S—-‘s) request for an answer to Pearsall Smith's tracts.
Ever affectionately,
Your fellow-servant in the Christ,
G. V. W.
Perfection.
O Man! God's Man; Thou peerless Man!
Jesus, my Lord! God's Son:
Perfection's perfect in its height,
But found in Thee alone.
Of Abba's love-of God's great claims-
Thou com'st not short at all;
Perfect in everything art Thou
Alone, since Adam's fall.
O matchless, peerless Man! shall we
Begrudge to Thee this praise?
Perfect alone, Thou com'st in love,
To glory us to raise.
Peerlessly spotless Man! 'twas Thou
The wrath did'st bear for me,
Peerlessly righteous Man!
I'm made God's righteousness in Thee.
Peerlessly glorious Man! how soon
Shall I be like to Thee?
Thy very glory then reflect,
Thy perfect beauty see.
G. V. W.
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Appendix 18

Sydney, June 14th, 1877.
Your letter comforted me. Any one standing by, and not in the eddying whirl that another may be in, can often see that which the weak one in the eddy cannot see-some grace and mercy of the Lord's, the very naming of which is responded to by the other. I am such a poor, weak thing, that often nothing but the dire necessity of the case forces me on, to make me stand firm. Oft I am firm because I have to say, " To whom shall I go, Lord, but to Thee?" and often, when inclined to be still, the truths that the mass is perishing for the lack of the clear gospel, or the saints are asleep as to the return of the Lord Jesus, force me to make an effort.
Certainly we are on the flat that runs down to the end, and certainly we ought to seek to get every child of God into the light of His coming. Jesus Christ is coming back! What tremendous changes must take place on earth, in the heavenlies, in heaven and in hell below! And all we here, who know all this, and know the bearing upon Christendom and men it, surely we may well look up to be enabled to speak a word to those around. And it is in the light of that great action of God that the Christian sees light. If He is coming back, how did He leave His Church? If He is coming back, how did He leave His people? and are they where He left them? The Holy Ghost was the Guardian or Paraclete on earth: where is He? He has not gone away; but those put under Him have slipped away from hallowed ground, down into the world and flesh and Satan, and Satan has blinded their eyes as to the insults and griefs put upon the Spirit.
On the other hand, how blessed a thing that we have not to preach man's failure, but how, notwithstanding all that man has done, God remains God still-His Son as bright as ever, His humiliation, obedience, death, resurrection, and ascension remain as important as ever. Expiation is accomplished for the believer in Him on the throne-Himself alive from the dead, in heaven until He rises up to come and fetch His people thither, and the Holy Spirit here to vindicate and make good the claims of the Lord Jesus over sinners and saints.
The Lord is good, and doeth good. The conviction grows deeper and deeper in my soul, that the Lord is coming quickly, and that the Father and God is separating a people down here to meet Him at His coming. Happy they who, alive and seeing Him, are able to say, "This is our God; we have waited for Him." And if I love any down here, no wish can be so good for them as that they may be ready in heart, and in their circumstances, to welcome Him-have nothing about them practically inconsistent with the hope, and be unworldly, so that they can amalgamate with the scene then opened to them.
The body will be changed, and all its death lost; but beside this, we may be in such a state as to find nothing lost but that which we had curbed and struggled against. Selfishness, for instance, cannot cross the border, nor self-confidence, nor self-complacency. But these, however, may have got the mastery of us here, and if so they are our plague and vexation now (for the root is in us, ever ready to crop up); but when He comes, no law of sin in our members to be watched and kept under!
If we are not victors now, here, over these and everything unlike and contrary to the Lord, humbling will be the first thought-or if not first, for the power of the presence of Christ must be that; but the second thought-humbling is the folly which had kept us going on still with the old self, and allowing it liberty. But besides this blessedness being surely the blessing of those for whom He comes, there is another truth; and that is, He ought to have a people waiting for Him-and the Father must think He is worthy of this. The close of the book of Revelation (xxii. 16-20) always leaves the impression on my soul that there are to be such. Some would build on this the needs-be for a lapse of time between to-day and the time when such a people (not now found on earth) could be found; but this is a fallacy.
If the Lord were coming to-day at one o'clock, His Spirit could awaken thousands that are His, in one place even, to the truth, " He is coming back," and that, too, from among those who never thought about it.
They would not be at home in the subject, perhaps, nor practically their lives made ready for it; but as those to be alive and waiting for Him, they might have a child's joy in expecting Him
Ever in Christ (for He letteth me not out of the ark),
Yours, G. V. W.
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Appendix 19

Sydney, June 29th, 1877.
My Dear Brother and Sister in the Lord,-Grace, mercy, and peace to you; I have heard that the Lord has visited you with sickness to one of your daughters, and I am sure you will not count a note to be an intrusion from one to whom you showed so much kindness in my visit to Christchurch.
What a blessed thing to us in these afflictions it is, that we have a God who loves us enough to chasten us.
To me it has been very precious that I have for my God and Father One who is set on making me practically a partaker of His holiness, even as I am so already in Christ.
Heb. 12 is a goodly portion, and I hear your beloved child has owned to the faith in the Lord Jesus. How well and how blessed for her! and, how well and how blessed for you too I My heart looks out for a large blessing for you. Your eldest, and your second son, are yet to be blessed, and why should one single one of your little flock not be yet in Abba's house? There is room enough there yet, and the Lord Jesus is large-hearted and ready-handed to bless. I pray for you, and for your sick one.
Affectionately, with love to each and all,
G. V. W.
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