WHILST there is a very broad line, which all seem to recognize, between the holiness which becometh the house of the Lord, and the careless laxity of worldly morality; there is, nevertheless, much difficulty in following on “the narrow path which leadeth unto life.” The farther we advance the narrower apparently it becomes. “See that ye walk circumspectly—not as fools, but as wise —redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Such precept as this shows that there is difficulty, even in the very bosom of the Church, to walk before God unto all well-pleasing.
When one is brought to the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, there is an easy and natural severance from old associations, quite enough to make the world mark the change, and to “think it strange that they run not with them to the same excess of riot.” But this cannot satisfy the renewed soul; it has its cravings, and finds these cravings in measure answered by the new association into which it is brought the Church of the living God calls forth its sympathies and interests. But even here there is danger, lest we only change one association for another, and do not recognize that, blessed as the fellowship of Christians is, it becomes degraded and spoilt if it be not taken as secondary to secret “fellowship with the Father sad His Son Jesus Christ.” There is a very strong social element in the Church of God, but in order happily to maintain it, there must be the “holding the Head” individually. It is by this means that “all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col. 2:1919And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. (Colossians 2:19)). If there be not this individual “holding the Head,” the danger is lest we bring the natural social element into the Church of the living God, and degrade the Church into a mere human association. But there is another difficulty, and that is the maintenance of the domestic relationships of the private household, whilst we cultivate the maintenance of the relationships of the household of faith. Truth is necessarily divisive; “three of a house may be divided against two, and two against three, and a man’s foes be those of his own household.” And how very delicate is the line between that which truth strongly necessitates, and that which will may choose. “God has called us unto peace,” and there must be in the Christian a long training in the school of meekness ere he can be well assured that he is really taking the yoke of Christ, instead of casting off a yoke which may press severely, but which nevertheless “it is good for a man to bear in his youth.” It is the perfect One who said, “Whit ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” and then immediately went down to Nazareth, and was “subject” to Mary and Joseph.
But there are private households where the heads are believers, and whose responsibility is to make their households answer to the perfect pattern of the household of God, as it is presented to us in the Scripture, every one in direct responsibility to the Head, and yet at the same time mutually dependent on one another, and mutually helpful the one to the other. “Piety at home” is far more difficult than piety in the Church or is the world. There are restraints both in the world And in the Church, which are not felt in the private household. There is room in the private household for the heads to act “after their own pleasure.” Hence it is we have need to get even from the privacy of the household to the retirement of the closet. When the Perfect Teacher is leading His disciples to the closet, He is strongly contrasting what one may do to satisfy the expectations of men, with that which is real before God, and comes out without effort before men.
“When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Fluency in utterance is not prayer; it may commend us to men, but not to God. Well says the wise man, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by the multitude of words” (Eccles. 5:2, 32Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. (Ecclesiastes 5:2‑3)). As men generally distrust a great talker, so “in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin” (Prov. 10:1919In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. (Proverbs 10:19)).
The closet is the place of secrecy and confidence. There are dealings of God with the soul there, and instruction imparted there as it is nowhere else. “That which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 2:33And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. (Luke 2:3)). The Lord Jesus sought to His closet; “In the morning, thing up a great while before day, He went out, egad departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:3535And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. (Mark 1:35)). Saul the Pharisee, shut up in the house of Judas, with his eyes deprived of sight, was in his closet— “for, behold he prayeth” (Acts 9:1111And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, (Acts 9:11))—when Ananias. was sent to him, and he received sight in his eyes, and liberty in his soul. Peter was in his closet on the housetop, at Joppa, when he had the wondrous vision, which made him understand that God was about to justify through faith in Jesus “sinners of the Gentiles.” (Acts 10). If there be the desire in the heart, there will be no difficulty in finding a place for our closet.
But let us come to particulars. The closet is the place where we find ourselves more immediately in His presence, “with whom we have to do,” before whom “all things are naked and open.” We are not hypocrites in the closet—we dare not (even if the very place did not of itself hinder it) act a pert. “Thou, God, seest me,” is the truthful expression of the soul in the closet. The thought of comparison with others is shut out in the thought, “Thou, God, seest me.” There may indeed be the transient feeling, as in the heart of Jacob in his solitariness, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” But the reverential sense of God’s presence made Bethel the place of hallowed remembrance, and dread was turned into confidence. “God Almighty appeared unto me at Luis, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me” (Gen. 48:33And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, (Genesis 48:3)). The sanctuary was Israel’s privileged place of meeting with God, yet not without a certain sense of distance in approaching unto Him. There were many things which appeared to obscure the moral government of God in the world, which could only be solved by going into the sanctuary. (See Ps. 73). But the closet was not fully made known until the time came for the publication of the name of “the Father,” which One. only could reveal, even “the Son.” We carry all the reverence of the sanctuary into the closet, but it is the Father with whom we have to do there. We are there in the secret place of the Most High, yet in all the confidence of children, These are exercises of soul which need the pity of the Father, and there they find their expression and relief. There are little and homely things which perplex, which need secrecy to mention, for which “the closet” is peculiarly suited. There are difficulties in the path of every Christian, for which he shrinks from asking the sympathy of others, which press heavily notwithstanding; but the “Father seeth in secret.” It may be when the time of revelation comes, and we shall know even as we are known, that we shall discover that there have been more powerful secret, than prominent actors, in any great manifested blessing. For the Father who seeth in secret, rewardeth openly. David, in all his glory, was for three months without the highest blessing which his soul craved—for “the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom, and all his household” (2 Sam. 6:1111And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and the Lord blessed Obed-edom, and all his household. (2 Samuel 6:11)). The private house of Obed-Edom was more blessed than the royal house of David. David knew that, and sought for the private household blessing, as that from which all other blessings should flow.
Justly may we mourn over the common declension of Christians. There is a great deal publicly said and publicly done, yet the line between real and nominal Christians is very indistinct. The light has Become darkness; “the salt has lost its savor;” so that there is very general tolerance of all opinions, but no power of truth forcing itself on the consciences of men: This may doubtlessly, in a large measure, be traced to the lack of such boldness in testimony to the truth, which: makes the gospel and those who preach it to be “a savor of life unto life,” and “of death unto death.” But, assuredly, the lack of a practical bearing on the consciences of men by real Christians is, in a larger measure, to be traced to their neglect of the closet. The world, in its charity, readily gives credit for sin entity to the rear Christian, expecting the like charity in return, as if there was no such thing as truth: Christians help on each other in self-complacency by reason of party spirit— “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves,” instead of “considering one another to provoke unto love and good works.” We want the reality, the singleness of purpose, thy readiness of turning every thing to account, which mark the sagacious “children of this generation.” It is in the closet that we are real, stripped, nuked, and know for ourselves individually that Christ aunt be our covering, our beauty, our only confidence, and only plea. It is there, in the presence of the Father, that we learn His preciousness to the Father, and can in our measure have fellowship with the Father in His delight in the Son. It is there that we justify God in His counselled wisdom in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. It is there that we learn our constant need, and constant dependence on His grace, and that He who is “our God is the God of salvation.” God is continually a Saviour-God; and, happy for us, “Jesus Christ is the mine yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” He is a God who “hath delivered, doth deliver, and will deliver.” It is in the closet that we find the needs-be of living by faith. Vague generalities will not suit the closet; there we are as individuals, and learn to say with the apostle, “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” We cannot forget in the closet, that we are sinners saved by grace alone through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. We could not say there, “God, I thank thee I am not as other men are;” for, in the sacred enclosure of the closet, there is none to compare ourselves with save Hun in whose presence we are. But especially in the closet with the Father who seeth in secret, the exercised soul learns the blessedness of the hope set before it—for the hope is personal. It is not the vague thought of being exempt from trial, nor the equally vague thought of being in glory; but the thought of being with Jesus, seeing Him as He is, delighting in Him as well as adoring Him, without any hindrance or interruption. It is “looking for the blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.”
To come forth from the closet into the private household, would, without effort, exercise a wholesome influence there. Surely, the principle laid down by the apostle, that the believing husband sanctifies the unbelieving wife, may be extended more widely. And the private household would afford a sphere for manifesting that “to live is Christ;” that every act of a believer is, in popular language, a religious act. “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” “Piety at home” will ensure the behaviour which becomes the “house of God, the Church of the living God.” It is the same principle in the one and the other, subjection and mutual dependence. And according to this order, the end proposed by the apostle might be reached. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:14-1614Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Philippians 2:14‑16)).
If our aim reach no farther than to meet the expectations of men of the world, or even of real Christians, we may “have our reward,” but we are not approved to the Father who seeth in secret. He requires truth in the inward parts; and if the essence of Pharisaism is to appear before men, what we are not before God, the essence of a Christian is that he is of the truth, a doer of truth, one in whose spirit there is no guile, who learns in the closet the two most opposite things, the depth of his degradation and hopelessness of his condition as a sinner before God, and yet the height of his exaltation as well as the security of salvation in Christ. He will’ there learn that he is nothing, and there alone learn to be content that others should esteem him to be nothing, because God has made him all that he can desire to be in Christ. The Christian who is most familiar with the security, life, and honor which he has in Christ, will find humility to be his most fitting garb. He will be “clothed with humility.”
One special privilege of the closet is, that it is open to all, so that all stand on equally privileged ground when there; the weakest believer is there on an equal footing with the moat honored apostle. The apostles felt their need of the closet when they made provision for others “to serve tables,” that they might give themselves “to the word of God and to prayer.” And it is well for those who publicly minister to see that “the study” does not lead them to neglect “the closet.” But the closet is the place of effectual service to others, for those who are not called into publicity in the Church. Surely, if those who esteem themselves the meanest and weakest Christians were more in their closets, praying to the Father who seeth in secret, there would be many an open answer to their prayers in manifested blessing. The apostle Paul knew the value of the closet, when he spoke to the Ephesian Christians, not only of their defensive armor, but of their offensive weapons, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.”
It is indeed truly comforting to our souls to know that we have the sympathy of others in their prayers for us. And if the Apostle could tell the Philippians, that they were constantly remembered by him in his prayers, was there no recompense, no return of prayer for him on their part, that he might be assured of their sympathy?
The corruption of the great professing body is marked in this very respect. They have sanctioned an official class to pray for them, and then gone another step downward to look to this class to pray instead of them. What is the remedy? Let each member of the body of Christ know that he is of use to his fellow-members of the same body; and know that the most honored sphere of service is that in which be realizes his highest relationship. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou halt shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”