SA 7:1-17{TI 3:1-17{TI 4:1-8{THE first mark of an enlightened soul is, that he sees how contrary to God are the things with which he is mixed up; and we may trace the same thing working in the church, that is working in the world. The scoffer says, " Where is the promise of his coming?" The professor says, " My Lord delayeth his coming."
The first action of light is that which doth make manifest. It is a principle with God that He does not give truth to a person unless he seeks it: " He that seeketh, findeth." People can be on the very same ground, and go on outwardly with saints, who are not there in faith; therefore, when a time of pressure comes, instead of helping, they are in the way; they contribute weakness instead of help; they have no vital power. Lot was on the right ground, but not in faith; he was entirely guided by his sense; and in the end he suffered from it; while Abraham had faith and got the blessing. There is a path: the Lord says, " I am the way." A mariner cannot do anything without the sun; he must know his bearings. In Timothy things had got very difficult, but Paul still says, " The Lord stood with me."
We find these two things in Scripture: that we get deliverance where we get comfort. These two go together: " He delivered me because he delighted in me." Thus I overcome all my enemies. I have not only the comfort of the Lord's presence, but He is at my right hand. Whenever you arc fed you are guided; the manna and the cloud always go together. The Lord said to the disciples, " Have ye any meat?" that is, He challenges them. The soul that is not walking with the Lord is not receiving from Him. He delights to impart. The soul that is walking with Him is always in the sense of receiving from Him.
The church has fallen from its original position, but the testimony remains the same. A perfectly novel thing is introduced, unique and marvelously grand, exceeding anything seen or expected among men. Christ is in heaven but His body is on earth, and that body is the wonderful divine illustration of His beauty now on earth that He is not here. Our hearts weep over the ruin and disaster of the church of God; but are we going to hang down our hands? No. The Epistle to Timothy was written to him who was at Ephesus. What did the true ones of the Lord do, when awakened to a sense of the declension and ruin? One thing always characterized the remnant: they never gave up the cardinal truth; and God grant that it may characterize us. Though reduced, it may be to one person, there is no surrender by the true remnant of the truth which is to characterize the period. The colors of the regiment are the last things that are parted with. Never surrender them.
We read in Isa. 6 of "a tenth" that was to be left; a remnant that was to be preserved, " as a teil-tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them. When they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." There is nothing outward, nothing conspicuous; it is the outward thing which is the great trammel in the present day. What people want is usefulness, something to show, without devotedness. It is like the Pharisaic element, which was the great hindrance to our blessed Lord when He was on earth.
The support of the remnant is, " I know thy works." It is substance, but no leaves. There is nothing conspicuous; no eye sees it; but the substance is there. The first time the Lord came into the temple, He was met by an old man and an old woman, Simeon and Anna; one a sample of energy, the other of condition; both of them cleaving to the things that belonged to God. " She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." She set forth the condition of the remnant of that day; and it is very useful and interesting for us to see what her base was. It was clinging with pertinacity to the last remnant of what belonged to God on earth. Is that the thing which you desire should characterize you, clinging to what belongs to Christ on earth?
The last thing the Lord met with when He was leaving the temple, was a poor widow, casting into the treasury her two mites, giving all her substance to what was dear to God on earth. That was real devotedness, for she gave her all. What is the good of anything if it does not produce effect? There is no value in intelligence if it does not produce action; what is of value is the orderly acts of a vigorous constitution, not the convulsive efforts of an excited mind.
See what was the character of the remnant of that day! Are we going to surpass it? What is really our course of action? Christ's body is here maintained by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, but there is nothing to see. In 1 Timothy there was something to see. The church was to be seen then; " The pillar and ground of the truth." Now there is nothing to point at. My father in Christ could not point me to the church; it is all in ruin. What is to be done? Am I going to give up the truth that Christ's body is here? In this state of things what can I do? Now Samuel is in keeping with the present state of things. There I find opposition, confusion, and no power whatever; but there is the invisible power and dependence on that; there is dependence on God. Samuel brought in this. He was the last deliverer of the people. Between Joshua and Samuel there had been the Judges. The people had got mixed up with their enemies, and were in bondage to them, and God had come in with deliverers in the Judges. These Judges used means which were not at all creditable: the knife, the hammer, the ox-goad; every kind of expedient, instead of the simple ram's horn (Josh. 6), was used. Now a new order comes in with Samuel; he returns to the first order; he returns to trust in God. The invisible power of God marked the beginning of the period in Joshua's time, and Samuel returns to this invisible power; not through any human expedient, but through prayer and fasting.
The church is Christ's body on earth, sustained by an invisible power; for though the Lord is not here, the Holy Ghost is here. Therefore, amidst all the ruin, I return to the first thing, to simple dependence on Him; and, if it is real, I get the effect of it: I get a token from Him. The Holy Ghost is here to maintain Christ's body in everything according to the mind of Christ. In Eph. 4 the first thing is " Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." If I fail in this, I fail in everything else. The Philistine in the land is what hinders the testimony now; people are baffled and overcome, although on the right ground: they are weakened there by the thing that hinders the testimony, ecclesiastical laxity. It is not immorality; that would carry no weight; but ecclesiastical laxity.
There is plenty of usefulness, but it has usurped the place of devotedness. Men can commend the former; but the heart of Christ values the latter above everything. I am not speaking against usefulness, but what is in vogue is more a convulsive activity which gains reputation among men, than the real service which is the result of a vigorous constitution. People have so little really to do with God, that they live on reputation; so much so that many would be found who would doubt their own conversion if you were to say to them, " You are not converted!" There is a Pharisaism in this day, which, while adhering to the service and usefulness which commends in the sight of men, disregards the weightier matters of unworldliness and devotedness.
There have always been two companies on the same line; both of them are on the right ground, but one is on it in faith, the other only in sense. Thus was it with Abram and Lot. Both were in the land, on God's ground, but one was the man of faith, the other the man of sense. Thus too with Moses and Aaron. They were brothers, and had the same truth, and were together in the service of God; but when one, the man of faith, was up in the mount with God, the other, the man of sense, was making a molten calf. Thus was it again with-the twelve spies: all of them went together to see the land, and all testify to its goodness; but ten of them say that, though there never was a finer country, it is better not to touch it. Whatever comes in with determination to crush the true thing for Christ on earth, that is the Philistine. The great hindrance to the testimony in the present day is ecclesiastical laxity. It crops up everywhere; we arc hindered and embarrassed by it.
We learn clearly in the word of God what we ought to do-what is the counsel of God. The first thing, as we see in Samuel, is separation from false gods; but it is not all. One of the things we suffer from at the present moment is a belief that separation from systems is the testimony. It is the first step to it, but it is not everything; it is only a means to an end. The testimony is, that the blessed One has gone from the scene, and has left us here to maintain His interests on the earth. We are called, not only to separate from systems, but to introduce in marked lines and colors the life and ways of that blessed One, rejected from this scene; we are called to the maintenance through the Holy Ghost of the beauty, ways and works of Christ here on earth, in spite of every adverse influence.
" The children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth;" but they are not in the testimony yet. Then there are prayer and fasting. There is never real prayer without fasting; and by this I mean not fasting from food, but from your own will. That is a much greater thing than fasting from food. There are but few people who confess their will: many confess their faults, but few confess their will. I am not under God's hand until I confess my will; then instead of giving the flesh an opportunity to act, I refuse it.
We read, of the ten virgins, that five "went forth" with oil in their lamps. There was moral advance. God has called us out and given us light not merely for ourselves, but that we may hold the light for others. We should be found at the very front of God's people clearing the road. When we are in the testimony we are holding the ground by the power of God; we are met together in the Lord's name in dependence on the Holy Ghost.
The children of Israel say to Samuel, " Cease not to cry unto the Lord for us." They are not in the testimony yet; they were not holding the land by the power of God. Samuel then took " a sucking lamb and offered it up for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord." That was the sense of acceptance. If I am not in the sense of acceptance, I am not without fear. They had first poured out water and fasted. That was the line of separation; there was now no support from the flesh. The next thing is, I am accepted with God. Paul could never have stood his ground if he had not been in the sense of acceptance. He can say: " The Lord stood with me;" the Lord delivered me. There is nothing more encouraging than this. The Lord says, " I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Samuel was as true to this invisible power in the day of ruin as Joshua was in the halcyon days.
We have to abide confidently in the fact that the Holy Ghost is here to maintain for Christ according to His mind; that He is here to bind together in the bond He Himself has made. The remnant reverts to the beginning, what we have to do is simply to hold fast in the midst of the ruin in dependence on the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is here, and Christ's body is here. Are you true to Him outside everything here? Are you depending only on Him? Have you no ostensible means of any kind? What has brought us to the pass we are in, is looking for every kind of support from man. We are to be outside the human thing, we are to be cast on God; we are to be dependent on a power which is invisible to natural sense, but well known to faith. We are embarrassed by numbers who walk by sense, who are looking for something that commends itself to man's judgment, who are not counting on God. Samuel counted on God, and he set up a stone, an Ebenezer, an enduring monument of His succor.
In 2 Timothy we see the terrible character of the thing, and we see also how a person ought to act in such circumstances. In chapter iii. Paul sets forth his inward experience; his " manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience." Then his outward experience: " persecutions, afflictions," which came upon him. And then, for Timothy's perfection, he adds the Scriptures. He goes on in chapter iv. to say "I charge thee" before God and Jesus Christ; at His appearing He will take into account the way you have been acting for Him during His absence.
" They went forth to meet the Bridegroom." What characterizes the Spirit and the bride is that they are ready for His coming; they say to Him, " Come." You cannot call Him to come with an honest heart if you are not right with Him. If you are embarrassed or hindered, if the dust of the wilderness is on you, rub it off; prepare for His coming. We ask Him to come back to a world that rejected Him, but we ask Him to come back to hearts ready to receive Him. It is not that two or three say, Come, but let all say, Come; and then let him that is athirst, he who is not really delivered, not really happy, let him come. We ask the Lord to come, and now we turn round and ask you to come; and to the utmost bounds of the earth, " Whosoever will, let him come."
A wonderful path is before us. The Lord grant we may be faithful to Him in it, for His name's sake. Amen.
(J. B. S.)
THE Lord give us to have these poor wretched hearts of ours broken, swept out, and all that is in them replaced by what is in Himself.
I am but a broken vessel, no creature glory whatever; but, if I am this poor thing, all the sweeter are God and Christ up there for me.
(G. V. W.)
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