UK 11:19-36{THE first thing we notice in this Scripture is, that the Lord accepts, or foresees, His rejection by the Jews, and speaks of those among the Gentiles, who should rise up and condemn the nation. The Queen of the south should rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; so the men of Nineveh; because the one came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and the other repented at the preaching of Jonas; but a greater than either was here-the Lord Jesus Christ. Here were two marks of the light now shining in the darkness suffering and glory; suffering from man for the glory of God. Jonas was the one who suffered; Solomon represents the glory. I am not going to dwell upon it, but simply state the facts.
The Lord is now in the place of rejection. I suppose no one would be bold enough to say the Lord was not rejected. Still, whether you do or not, you must admit the simple fact that He is not here on the earth. He is gone to heaven, and we look for Him to come again.
The Scripture is very definite about His being rejected. The Roman soldiers put Him to death, after the Jews had handed Him over to them, saying, "By our law he ought to die." These brought the law, which God had given them, to bear upon Him, and the Roman soldiers the sword, which they also had received from God. The Jews and the Gentile Romans combined to put Him to death. True, Pilate, the viceroy under the emperor, washed his hands to clear himself from the crime, but He was nevertheless clearly rejected, both by Jews and Gentiles. I cannot understand a person who refuses to believe in His rejection; I have heard it done. But what saith the Scripture? "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For, of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus whom thou past anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy child Jesus." True, it was what had already been determined; nevertheless, it was they who said, "This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." I want no other proof of it; and, to a mind subject to Scripture, nothing can be clearer than the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been rejected from this earth.
Man at first refused God in the garden of Eden, and doubted His goodness; thus sin came in; and secondly, he refused the One God sent to take that sin away; that was the double sin. Every believer admits the first sin, the sin in the garden of Eden, but there is another sin. Man has rejected the One who came to take the sin away, who came to bless; nor will the world tolerate Him now.
Nothing struck me more when a young man, than when I once ventured to speak to a young acquaintance who was sitting near me about Christ. The man seemed perfectly amazed at the mention of the Name, and said, if I remember rightly, that it was not a fit subject for company. It completely shocked me. But so it is, there is no real acceptance of Christ by the world. They might not be so bad as to put Him to death, but people do not want to be interrupted by words about Him. But, be that as it may, I insist upon it, and I must take it as a settled thing in Scripture, that this is the second sin of man. The first was the questioning of the goodness of God in the midst of everything to tell of that goodness in the garden of Eden, and man became a sinner. This, every person with a conscience admits. The second is, man refused and rejected the Son of God; wherefore I take the ground now that He has been rejected; and that will lead to my subject this evening. What is to be done in the place where he has been rejected? It is a solemn question! Do you say, Christ died for me, and by Christ's death I am saved and can go to heaven? I quite admit it; I go further, I say the moment you believe you are fit for heaven. But I have another question to put to you: Are you fit, according to God, for earth?
There is not a believer on the whole globe to night but is fit for heaven. As a believer he is made " meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." The prodigal son was made meet immediately he returned to his father. We see three things in his case: he is kissed, he is clothed, he is feasted. But that is the heavenly side of it; the question I have to ask is Are you fit for earth? You are fit for heaven the moment you are converted. The thief was the moment he believed. But the question is, Are you walking here according to God in everything? Are you walking wholly for Christ here where Christ is rejected? It is a solemn question: What is to be here on earth where Christ is rejected? Merely a people to be saved and go to heaven, and not a vestige of Christ to be seen on the earth? Is that your thought? Is that the way you look at the grace of Christ? Not a vestige of Christ left on earth? That is what Satan wanted, no doubt. But what Christ says here is, on the contrary, that when He, who is the light should go away, His own people should be lights upon the earth during His absence a conjunction of lights- which light He was Himself when here. Of course, they would not be the origin of the light; He is the origin of it; but they would be the light here instead of Himself. Hence, He says in this passage: " No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." He is the light Himself.
This, then, is the time of His rejection. He is gone away, and what will follow 2 Will the candle upon earth be extinguished? " The light (or candle) of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body is light." Not full of light, but light. But where is the light? That is the question. Let us see what Scripture says.
First, let me say, there are three things you must always do in reading Scripture. First, accept the truth; next admire it-get the taste of it, say, That is beautiful! Lastly, adopt it. If you do not do the second, you will not do the third. First, I say, I accept it; I say, That is the word of God. Then, the next thing, I like it; I say, It is beautiful! Then, there is hope for you if you say that. I believe in a person who admires the word of God; he is safe; he has not adopted it, perhaps, but lie is safe. There is accepting, admiring, adopting. Now, what have we to learn in this passage before us?
If I wanted an illustration of it, I should say we have it in the children of the captivity, who would not eat of the king's meat, nor drink of the king's wine; that was separation; and yet their faces were fairer and fatter than those of all the children who did. Their appearance was better. Then they were enabled to bear the fire. They first refused the wine, and then they endured the fire. That is the order. The light that is in you shines out.
But now another thing. It is the body itself that is light. It is what is called sanctification, but not sanctification simply as belonging to God. There are two sanctifications. One is the sanctification by the Spirit; the other is progressive sanctification, which is simply this: you are more separate unto God. Practically, you get it in these children of the captivity. The principle is the same; it is the body of light. It is not the body full of light, as that tumbler is full of water. There is only one word used to express it in the original. It is like a glowworm. We get the same idea in Scripture in another place. " Who gave himself for us," firstly, " that he might redeem us from all iniquity," and secondly, " that he might purify us unto himself a peculiar people." The word " peculiar " means something out of the common. The saint ought to be in this world as something novel. People may not admire, but they must observe him. As we read of Herod concerning John. It is said he observed him, and I think this is quite possible. I believe the rich man observed Lazarus, though he does not seem to have given him anything; yet when in hell, he says, " Send Lazarus." He knew something of him. Why did he not take notice of him? Because the one was for the world, and the other was not; but now he was obliged to confess his virtue. It is an illustration of that passage, " That they may see your good works, and glorify God in the day of visitation." Many a person might pass you by now, and take no notice of you, nor how you walk like Christ. But, by-and-by, they will say, I used to see that person on earth, and I remember how he walked like Christ. " That they may see your good works, and glorify God," not now, but " In the day of visitation." In the day when He comes.
Look at that lamp; see the halo round the flame. It is a circle properly. You see it in the distance like a circle of light. I might compare it to a Christian: in the midst of the darkness, he would be like an apparition. I cannot get an illustration to give the right idea. It is not that people would really like it; not that they might be attracted by it; they might be astonished at it; might dislike it; but there is something peculiar there; it is a body of light, and they cannot but see it.
Having settled this point, I hope with clearness-Christ being rejected-I ask this question, Can anything more strikingly set forth the wisdom of God, than that, when Satan had succeeded in tempting men to drive God's Son bodily out of the earth, and afterward to refuse Him in glory, He should now conic out with this wonderful secret, that there should be thousands of bodies upon earth all bearing the light of that very Christ whom they had refused! Would we could see it more! But this is what the Lord sets forth to the disciples when He says, " If thine eye be single "-if you are entirely set upon this-then " your body shall be full of " The candle of the body is the eye." What is your eye upon? Upon getting property? That will not give you a body full of light. Is it amusement? That will not do. The eye must be right, to get the body full of light. Is it upon the One who is not here? Then the eye is single, and the whole body is light.
The apostle speaking on this subject in Phil. 3 has three things before him. First, Christ is his study; he counts all things loss for Christ. Secondly, where He is, is his mark. Thirdly, what He is; he covets a glorious body like His. He says, I am going to Him. He is my study, my mark, my hope. There is a man who has got a single eye. He is my study. Like a painter taking a sketch: he looks at a landscape until the picture is so impressed upon his eye, that he can transfer it to canvas. I have a study, an object, and that object is Christ; " that I may win Christ." I say, Where are you going? To that Christ in glory. What is your hope I am hoping He will come, and I shall have a glorious body like His own. That is a single eye. A body full of light. Paul therefore, can say, though in prison, " So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body"-what an expression that is! "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Paul would so walk here that he would be the expression of the light in the scene where his Lord was not. We should be so separate, so apart from everything here, so bearing out what He was, that we should be setters forth of the very light He was when here, but now absent.
The moon is a beautiful illustration of this. She has no light of her own, but borrows it from the absent sun. And we are to be here, setting forth the light of the absent Christ, until He returns. That is where this subject closes: " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning: and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." Like the moon going through this dark night, shedding forth the light of Christ, looking for nothing at all from the earth, but bearing about the light of the absent One, in the very scene where He has been rejected; bearing light from Him who is absent, in the place where He is not. This is the wonderful position we occupy!
Now for the question, How is this to be attained? How is it to be brought about? You say, I bow to the truth-I accept the truth. I trust many of you say, I admire it; it is really beautiful to be in such a position; I see the picture; tell me how it maybe brought about; let me see in Scripture the course one should pursue in order that this may be effected.
Take the case of Stephen. Looking at his face they saw it " as the face of an angel." That is figurative of what I mean. A person so distinctly separate, such a peculiar course, something so marvelous, something so morally beautiful! You find this in John 17, where the thought is even a higher thing than ser vice. Not that I make little of service, but to represent Christ on the earth is better than any service. He says in the 10th verse, " I am glorified in them." Like a briar grafted with a beautiful rose, so Christ is glorified in a man. What is he by nature? A briar. But I look at him there, and, I see a thing that is really fragrant to God, and fragrant to man; he is a beautiful rose, and there is Christ glorified. It is not, I will take them to glory, but " I am glorified in them." Therefore, He says, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
How is this to be brought about? The first thing is-and it is the great lesson for souls-and it divides my subject: first, how this is produced; and secondly, what the effects are. First. It is not simply that Christ is in you; He is in every believer; but the question is, has Christ got-I will not say dominion over you-but has He got the throne of your heart? I do not ask, has He got some rule? like a king who may own a conquered country, with a few soldiers here and there to keep it for him; that is not the throne; but as the little hymn expresses it:
" Oh! for a heart submissive, meek,
My dear Redeemer's throne,
Where Christ is only heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone."
That is the way it is brought about. Christ having the throne of the heart.
It was just the difference between Himself and the Pharisee, as we see a little lower down. The Pharisee came, and invited Him to dine with him, and he marveled that the Lord had not washed before dinner; and the Lord takes the opportunity to teach him a solemn lesson. The Pharisee worked on the outside, but Christ on the inside. The Pharisee doubtless thought the Lord and he were agreed, but he soon found out his mistake. No, the Lord says, you work on the outside, but I work from within. When the light works it is from within, and shines outwards.
Every believer has a love for Christ in the bottom of his heart. It must be so. It is the first commandment, and it must be in the heart; but it is not every believer who can say, He has the complete control of me. Can you say so 2 I say He has the right. There is a time when the heart of the believer does acknowledge His right to rule. " My son, give me thy heart," is the command in Proverbs. Now, it is not that the Lord takes the heart; the Lord really looks to you to give Him up the reins. Did you ever give up the reins of your heart to Him? He says, There are the reins; give them up to me; " Son, give me thy heart." The Lord will receive anything we give Him; He does not take anything.
Like Hannah, Samuel's mother, she says, " I will give him to the Lord," and she brought him up to the temple, and put him in the house of the Lord. He was not a priest, he was not converted, but she says, " I will give him to the Lord," and the Lord says, I will take him. This is where we parents fail too often. We say we give our children to the Lord, but there is a little reserve for the world. The Lord will take anything we give Him. That is the great principle.
Now, let me show you how it comes about. Turn to a passage, Gal. 4, where we get, first, the doctrine of this. In the end of this chapter we read: " But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." The doctrine there is that, that which the law could act upon was to be cast out. That was not to have rule there. The force of the passage is, that Christ is to have no rival in the heart. There was not to be a bit of flesh there. The practical way of it we get from the Old Testament, Gen. 21, where Isaac, the child of promise, was weaned.
Every believer has Christ in him, but the question is, Has Christ really got the reins? Has Christ got the throne of the heart? Is He the acknowledged sovereign 2 Has it come to this point-this blessed point in your soul? Do you say there is no rival to exist here? Christ is to reign. If I go into my business, Christ is to reign there. In my home, Christ is to reign there. Am I a worse husband, a worse father, a worse business man because Christ reigns in my heart? Not at all.
Isaac was in the house before he was weaned, and Ishmael was there fourteen years before he was turned out. It is well for us if we can say, We have turned out Ishmael. There is a moment known to the soul when it says, I do not tolerate the flesh. No toleration to the flesh. Why not? Because you have got something better: Christ.
When Isaac was weaned Abraham made a great feast in his house, and the consequence of this festival was that every person in the house acknowledged the right of this little child. Weaning means that he was put on his own account. Every one in the house is doing him honor.
Is that the acknowledged feeling of your heart with respect to the rights of Christ? It is a blessed moment! It is the heart keeping festival in the acknowledgment of the right of Christ to occupy the throne; it is the coronation day.
It was a wonderful day in the house of Abraham when Isaac was weaned 1' When the three hundred and eighteen servants of Abraham all acknowledged the right and title of that child to his place. Was there anyone who did not acknowledge it? There was one Ishmael. " He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit." And now, Sarah says, let him be cast out. The thing was very grievous to Abraham, but God commanded him to hearken to her voice, and do it. A moment comes when Christ must be supreme in your heart; when you acknowledge that He has the right to dictate to you in every circumstance and relation in life. He has the right to my heart, to every heart; He has the right to be sovereign.
Have you reached that moment? I hear people say, This is quite true, but I find the flesh comes back again. I find Ishmael still haunts the corners of the house. Yes, that is true; nevertheless, I have reached a point where I do not tolerate it. Practically you have reached the point described in the language of a poet, when
" He who knows thee well,
Will quit thee with disgust;
Degraded mass of animated dust."
I do not tolerate it now. Why? Because I have got something better. I have Christ, the One who has the right.
That established, what is the effect now that He is sovereign? What will He do?
I come to Eph. 5, and I see what He does. There we read, " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify it, having purged it, with the washing of water by the word." There are two things in the latter part of this verse. The first, is the effect of what we get in verse 2, " He loved us, and gave himself for us." I need not dwell upon that. But I ask this question, What is He occupied with now? I ask you, and I ask myself, and the Lord grant us all a deeper feeling of it, What has He been occupied with in regard to you this very day? He has been occupied in sanctifying you. Do you ask me what the Sovereign of the throne of my heart is engaged in? I answer " that he might sanctify us, having purged us, by 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."
That is the measure of what I am coming to. Let me first get what this Sovereign is occupied with. " That He might sanctify us by the washing of water by the word."
This brings out two things: one, sanctification, and the other, washing. One is positive, and the other negative.
Turn to John 13, where we get the Lord washing the disciples' feet. There is the negative, and there is the positive. Everything in Christianity must go on this ground. There must be negation, because the thing is bad. There must be a positive, to acquire the thing that is good.
Now, mark one thing in connection with these Scriptures. Paul always puts John's statements in inverse order. The cause is this: John is setting forth the Son of God on earth, and Paul is connecting the saints with Christ in heaven. The washing of chap. 13., is to get rid of the bad; it is for the restoration of communion. You have lost communion with the Lord; you looked into some shop window, perhaps, and your heart has got away from Christ; then He comes with His word, and turns you away from it, and thus communion is restored.
In John 17, you get the sanctification.
There are two characteristics of those who represent Christ on earth. Alas! beloved friends, we have lost the first, almost never to be recovered. That is, that we all should be one, with the same mind, the same judgment. There is an erroneous notion abroad that one form suits one, and a different one another; that is, that one man is an oak, another an ash, another an alder, another a birch; that we are all to be trees in the forest, and therefore we should agree to differ; it is untrue, we should be one; we ought to be all oaks; little, big, or middle-sized oaks. That is the meaning of John 17; as the Father and the Son are one. There is no such thing in Scripture as that you and I should have different opinions about any one thing. There may be little and great lights, but they all agree. There might be a thousand lights in this room, but they would all blend. There might be five thousand, Or five million candles in this room, but not one starts for himself. They all blend. There is union: " perfectly joined together in one mind." That is the first characteristic. The other is, you should be separate from the world. In point of fact, if I had none of the world in me, I should have nothing but the heavenly mind in me. When I differ from you, and you differ from me, there is some of the world in one or both of us. We could not but agree if it were not so.
As to sanctification, the Lord says: " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." We are here to represent Christ, and to be separate from the world. Then He adds, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." It is a wonderful thing to say, I am not of the world. " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The truth here is the truth of the Father. That is, I have lost the world, but I have the Father.
Suppose a person offends me in the streets, I will not give him in charge of a policeman. Why? Because I have a Father in heaven who will take note of it. He tells me, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." I have lost the world; I have overcome through Christ; in place of the world, I have the Father. " If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." " Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." That is, Depend now upon me. I have a greater sense of what Christ is in Himself, and this is its effect; I am more separate from the world. Thus I become a light. I take a new course, a novel one, because I have got something instead of the world: a Father in heaven. I have a Father in heaven in lieu of the world. That makes me a distinct person, and I have not only a new nature in Christ, but I am kept here in such childlike dependence on my Father in heaven, that I am separate from the world. This is sanctification.
A person may say, Are you better than you were, with all this separation from the world? Not a bit. But I will tell you what is the difference by an illustration.
In my garden I plant a laurustinus. I plant nothing else; but the laurustinus grows till it covers the whole space. You say, I see no weeds there, nothing but laurustinus. That is just it. That is sanctification: so pre-occupied by Christ, that you see nothing but Christ. No weeds, only Christ to be seen. As the apostle says, " That Christ may be magnified in my body," not in my heart. Christ so monopolizing me that there is no room for anything else. It is not that I am better, but that Christ only is there.
Now let me say a word as to the measure of sanctification. Every believer admits that he must be separate from something. He used to go to certain places of amusement, but he does not go to them now. He admits that Christianity demands separation: and there is a certain measure of separation in his walk. Another says, That is not enough; I must do this, and do the other; I must keep a more separate path than he does. Now what is the measure of sanctification? " For their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." Beloved friends, we must bow to it. I can not go behind Scripture. A man may tell me he is sanctified, but I say, Are you as far out of the world as Christ on the throne of God? That is the measure of your sanctification. " For their sakes, I sanctify myself;" for their sakes, I go out of it. If I stay in it, they might have something to connect their hearts with here; but if I go out, there will be nothing for them in it. I go outside the world that they may be sanctified through the truth -that they may he colored with the truth, just as the worm gets colored by the leaf it feeds on. That is the measure of sanctification.
You say, I never shall be that. I am not saying whether you will be or not; but l say, Do not assert that you are sanctified until then. I only repeat what a person said lately: " Whatever God asks us to do must be impossible to a man-must be entirely beyond him." The measure of sanctification is, Christ in heaven.
If you have only given up going to places of amusement, natural pleasures, and the like, I say that is only a little bit of the road. We are to learn practically what the Lord meant when He said, " Sanctify them through thy truth." The only thing I have got instead of the world is the Father, Himself. Blessed for the heart to know it!
If I want to get the measure it is clearly settled. I must separate from the habits and customs of the world, from worldly ways and principles and practices, from things here, I must be as separate in principle and spirit as that blessed One on high.
But there is another way of sanctification. One is by the word, already dwelt on; another is by chastening. The Father lays a man sick on his bed, and you go in and visit him, and you find him rejoicing in the Lord. He says, perhaps, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now"-what is the rest of that verse?-" I have kept thy word;" he is sanctified. So that the very chastening brings about his sanctification. He is brought under the ministry of the great Sanctifier, Christ Himself. There is one mode of sanctification by the word, and another by circumstances.
Let us turn to a passage to bring this out Heb. 12:1010For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10): " For they verily for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure: but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." This brings out the measure, again. How separate are you? As separate as God is? You know you are not; then do not talk of holiness until you are. "That we might be partakers of his holiness." God is using things here with this object in view. I find it so; I do not want anyone to tell me my besetting sin, for I know it from the word of Christ, and from the chastening of the Father. The word shows what is wrong in you, and a blow comes to correct you in the very thing in which you are failing. God shakes you out of it. You are going on with the Lord, but there is something in the way, and He says, I will remove this, for you would get on better without it. The Lord will take the heart out of the earth, and to do this, He may give you a fit of illness. He says, I see your heart is drawn to the earth; and in the fit of illness, you lose your joy in everything here. You were full of these earthly things, but now you say, I do not care about any of them. Sometimes it is the case with a rich man; he gets ill, and he says, I am so languid, so pulled down with this disease, I really do not care about anything, I cannot enjoy anything. It was thus with Job; he first loses all he could enjoy, and then he gets sick, and loses the power to enjoy.
Christ first presents us in the perfection of Himself before the Father; and now, He says, I will present you as myself before the world. That is our true place.
I think you cannot find it difficult now to see that Christ is really to be the Sovereign of your heart; that what He is bringing about is this separation from the world unto God-separating you for this distinct and peculiar thing: your eye upon Christ, yourself a body of light going through this world.
If you want to know what Christ's ministry really is, go and read a chapter, and you will find, if you want to know what is the matter with you, that the part of the chapter that speaks to you is the very thing you need. There was a vacancy for that brick, and the Builder says, Bring it up for this vacancy here. The Lord knows all about it. When a preacher says, I will apply the word, he is out of his place. How does he know what is in the heart? All the preacher can do is to bring out the word; he cannot apply it. The Lord applies it.
Now let us connect this part of the subject with Luke 2 The great principle is, that we are here upon the earth a body of light; a luminous body, like the glowworm, like the moon, like the rose, in the beauty of Christ.
One word more as to what sanctification is, People say, We have bodily power, and mental talents, and such like; and Christ sanctifies them for His use. A standard rose shall be my illustration. Go and examine one. Look at the joint between the rose and briar. From the moment you join the rose with the briar, the rose refuses to take any color or mark whatever of the skin, or any likeness whatever of the briar. It says: I will appropriate every bit of strength in you-I will appropriate every bit of you as to power, but I will not bear your name, nor be like you. Thus Christ takes all the believer's strength, mental and bodily, not for credit to himself, but He appropriates it all as in the rose. And what is the briar? Nothing but a poor briar still, though it has grown a most beautiful rose. It is in itself as poor a briar as when it grew in the hedge. But the fact of allowing it to partake of the nature of the rose is very wonderful. It is absorbed by the rose.
The subject closes with these words: "With your loins girded about, and your lights (or candles) burning, and ye yourselves like unto men who wait for their Lord"-doing it all for Him. I am the moon going through this dark night, waiting for the promise, the coming of Christ.
What must be the character of the Christian thus set in the most glorious position that ever a saint can occupy in this world! I can contribute to the earth, but I need not look for a single thing from it! We are not as the Jews, receivers from the earth. " He that believeth on me," said the Lord Jesus, " out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," to this poor world. We are to be contributors to the earth, not receivers from it. That is the wonderful position we occupy! Now, see, that your body is light.
There are two characteristics of this practical light in this chapter. One is that I do not fear them that kill the body; I am as bold as a lion. Stephen is an example of this. He could say, I am not afraid of them that kill the body. The other is, " I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on." There is no fear without, and no care within. What would people say of such an one? There is a body, a light-there is a peculiar man coming down the street! He has no fear, and no care! He is here in this scene, looking for nothing from it, and he is afraid of nothing in it! A man that has no care can occupy himself-with the things of God. " Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." We have not a thing to think of-only the kingdom of God.
The Lord lead our hearts to see what a solemn and yet happy thing it is-the greatest inducement we can have to stay upon this earth. The Lord knew all that would happen to us here, and yet He says, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." I am to be a representation of Christ on the earth. The Lord lead us to see what a blessed thing it is to be in the scene where He is not, thus shining as lights in the world.
The great occupation of the One sitting on the throne of God is to sanctify me. I look at the Father's dealings with me, chastening me, and one thing and another as I require. Jacob may go down into Syria for twenty years, but God says, I will bring you up again.
Talk of " exclusivism! " I believe we do not know what it is divinely. Do you know the holiness of God? What sort of exclusiveness should we have if we knew the holiness of God? We do not understand what the holiness of God is. We do not understand what the holiness is that becomes His house. " Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel!
(J. B. S.)