Resources in Low State of the Assembly; Moral and Official Authority Contrasted with Infallibility; the Clergy; Conscience and Private Judgment; Greek Testaments; True Ministry; Popery; Protestantism; Rationalism; Rosh of Ezekiel; Our Place As Christ's Servants
* * * The principle of Heb. 13:1717Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17), to which I would add 1 Thess. 5:12, 1312And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:12‑13), and 1 Cor. 16:15, 1615I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) 16That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboreth. (1 Corinthians 16:15‑16), is more important in our day than ever, because regular authority, established by the apostle and firmed with his sanction, no longer exists. There is only one thing which modifies the application of it, that is that the care contemplated in these verses is so extended generally in practice, that it has not the same hold upon the conscience. Then, on the other hand, God permits the jealousy of the clergy, that plague par excellence of the church, the great barrier to the progress of souls. It opposes itself to the progress which is necessary for their deliverance from the influences of this present age, and from the principles which are carrying on the external church in the way of destruction which will be accomplished in the last days. However this may be, if you examine the effect of a clerical position, you will find souls stunted, scarcely any spiritual development or intelligence in the ways of God.
As regards the moral condition of individuals, I believe that it consists, in many cases, in despising the influence that God grants to services rendered to His church by the power of the Spirit. But, as soon as this influence is placed between the action of the conscience and God, the clerical principle is established, and moral declension begins.
The relation of individual conscience with God is the great and true principle of Protestantism, no doubt greatly lost now, in that which has come in. It is not the right to judge for oneself, as is said, but the direct connection of the conscience with God. "We ought to obey God rather than men." Man has not the right to judge, but neither has he the right to interpose himself between God and man, so as to intercept the direct action of God on the conscience. The ordinary interpretation of this principle of Protestantism is the root of Rationalism; the denial of this same principle, taken in its true sense, is Popery. Real intercourse between God and the soul preserves the Christian from each of these errors. As long as there is only man, there is but place for one or the other of these two things, because it is only man that is in question. If God enters upon the scene, there can be neither one nor the other, because God is there. But, in order that it may be so practically, we must be kept in His presence.
When the conscience is before God, we are individually humble, and, for this very reason, recognize God in others: when will acts, we reject God in His own Person as well as in others, and that is what is evil; it is also what the apostle had in view in the above exhortations. When the influence of true ministry is in exercise (and it is of great price), it is gentle as the relations of a nurse with her child, as Paul said; the more so that spiritual power, acting in personal devotedness, is but little manifested now as in the cases indicated by the apostle. It also supposes a workman made "manifest to God," and consequently to the consciences of those in the midst of whom he acts. I have never seen, when such a person acts, and his action flows from much communion with God, that this influence, this moral authority, has not been recognized. Moreover, such a workman is not, in this case, carried beyond what he has received from God, so that his ministry finds its sanction in hearts without any pressure. There are, however, cases where things go on badly, and the workman is put to the test. In such a case he must keep before God, and act solely for Him; he must be at the service of Christ, and commit the result to Him alone. The Lord will always keep the upper hand; and in the end, if patience has her perfect work, the wisdom and justness of the judgment of the person who has acted will be made plain. Without having sought it, his authority will even be much increased by it, though perhaps he may, in appearance, have entirely lost it. But for this, one must know how to act with God. I speak of what happens, and of the principles which are connected with this question.
I find that in these times the principle of these passages render them of great price, because it is a question of a kind of authority that no condition of the church can weaken. All other authority might be lost, this will but shine the more. It is exercised by the direct action of the Spirit of God in service. Besides, he who seeks this authority will not have it, while he who, in heart and by the love of Christ acting in him, makes himself servant of all, as Christ has done, will obtain it. To be servant of all is what Christ is essentially in grace—it is what love is at all times.
There is another kind of authority. Christ exalted on high may institute apostles to represent Him officially; these may institute other servants to exercise a delegated and subordinate authority, each in his sphere. That has taken place. In the passages with which we are occupied, the apostle speaks of another kind of authority. He does not speak of that which represents Christ seated on the throne, regulating the official order of His house, but of that which represents Christ, a servant in love. May this be my portion!
Now, in the present state of ruin and scattering of the church, this latter authority, which is acquired by service in love, is of great price; but it is evident that it is exercised in conditions of devoted service, of humility and of a nearness to Christ, such as excludes all other influences, and makes us act solely from Him. As to the measure of the confidence granted, it is a question, as in every other case, of spirituality. Through indolence, the flesh places confidence in the flesh. The soul is not then before God. Walking after the Spirit, I am before God, and I have the consciousness that there is more spirituality, more that is of God in another, and I recognize these things. This never stifles spirituality in me, and cannot stifle it, for it is the same Spirit who produces spirituality in the laborer and in me; only it enlarges my spiritual capacity, as to the fact which is realized, and raises it to the height of him who has more of it. A lower degree of spiritual intelligence and affection in one Christian can discern that which is more excellent in another, and, accept it, when will does not work; although he would not have been able himself to make the discovery of such or such a course of action, proposed by greater spirituality and greater love than his. As I said at the time at Geneva: the wagoners know if a road is good and well laid down, and they know how to use it; but only the engineers knew how to plan it and lay it down. Now the presence of God in the church comes to our aid, and regulates everything, when the difficulty appears otherwise insurmountable. God is there for this, and He suffices for it.
If the assembly has too little spirituality, if will acts with such force that one cannot follow out what one knows by divine intelligence to be the will of God, one has only to commit the thing to God, and wait for Him to manifest His will, or to manifest Himself, to put others in the right way.
I do not speak of that which demands absolute separation. When an assembly positively accepts an evil which the Spirit of God could not suffer, God will make good His rights in favor of what He has given. We must commit ourselves to Him for this. I believe that the confidence of a simple soul, and its submission for conscience, not to man as man, but to the manifestation of God in man, is one of the sweetest and most profitable things possible.
The difference between the influence of true ministry, and that of the clergy, who have borrowed the name, is as clear and simple as possible Ministry presents God to the soul, and places it in His presence. It desires to do this, seeks to do it, hiding itself in order to succeed. The clergy places itself between God and the soul, and seeks to keep its position before souls. Every spiritual soul will clearly discern its place. It finds God in the one case; in the other, it sees Him despised and set at a distance, in order that the usurped influence of man may be exercised.
London,
May 27th, 1854.