CO 2:12{Two principles are commonly found working on human lines of action: first, that a man may be known by what he values; and second, that what he values he acquires. The same principles hold good among saints. In proportion as I appreciate divine things am I controlled by them, and the higher my estimation of them the more am I bent on their acquisition; in result, " the soul of the diligent shall be made fat " (
Prov. 13:44The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. (Proverbs 13:4).).
Every spiritual taste is a divinely given thing, and belongs in its very essence to the new creation. It has its own legitimate field of exercise and enjoyment, and the more I cultivate it, the more I give evidence that I belong to that new order of things of which it forms part. And, as in human things, when a man's taste changes he loses the appreciation of pursuits he once valued, so, in those things which are divine, unless we preserve and cultivate the tastes which through mercy we have acquired; we lose the sense of value which eternal realities before had to our hearts, and we sink into spiritual pauperism, a condition which is, alas! not more painful than frequent.
Surely no one walking with God can fail to be sadly impressed, when visiting saints, by these often-recurring instances of a lack-luster state of soul which indicates religious beggary; a ready enough assent being given to anything said about Christ, and the believer's portion in Him, but yet so given as to create the most discouraging conviction as to practical condition. These souls are the most difficult and unsatisfactory to deal with, and their influence is seriously damaging to the testimony we make. For as a well-made mirror gives a true definition of its object, while a poor one only presents us with EC hideous distortion; and as a good portrait, though but a portrait, is valued because it reproduces and commends its original; so do we, although human copies of a divine person, either truly portray and commend Him, or otherwise produce a mere travesty, dishonoring to. His name and character- by the poverty and feebleness of its conception.
Now God in His precious grace has not simply opened to us infinite resources for faith to draw upon, but, by the Holy Ghost, He seeks to conduct our souls into an ever-deepening appreciation of their intrinsic and extrinsic value, that we may be molded by them as men in Christ, to whom He " is all" (literally, " everything"), as well as " in, all" (Col. 3:22Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2).).
And there is this difference, that, while every earthly acquisition is generally less valued when possessed than before, the Holy Ghost when ungrieved and unhindered, leads our souls to discover in divine things such fresh and varied charms, that they are increasingly appreciated, growingly enjoyed, and more and more tenaciously grasped. But if, on the contrary, my spiritual tastes get perverted by the world and its attractions, or by the cares and anxieties of this life clogging their exercise, that, which the Holy Ghost had once endeared to my soul as of priceless value, continues to receive an unqualified mental assent, yet as heartless and superficial as it was once cordial and profound.
Persons in this state of soul sink in many cases into mere formalism, being generally found at the breaking of bread (mistakenly regarding its observance as a command to be obeyed), and but seldom, if ever, seen at week-meetings. How little have they understood that it is a real joy to the heart of Christ to gather His saints together around Himself, as a shepherd Both his sheep! How little have they entered into the delight of the Father in blessing His children! How little know they of " the things that are freely given to us of God!".
Such souls gradually surrender the power of faith, or cease to exert it, in conquering hindrances to practical fellowship, speaking of their difficulties in a way bordering on fatalism, and as though they were martyred to the insurmountable! They lose sight of the fact, that faith and love are fertile in inventions for accomplishing fervently-desired ends, and they lapse into submission to circumstances (another thing altogether to subjection to God), taking shelter in the subterfuge that the Lord gives them His presence just the same, and the Holy Ghost unfolds the word to them just as much at home as at the meetings.
It ought not to be necessary to say, that no fallacy can be greater than that God puts a premium upon negligence, or that Christ can sanction our under-valuing the assembling of ourselves together. That in the exigencies of His saints the Lord comes in to succor, and gives a comforting sense of His presence out of consideration to their need, in an incidental way; as well, also, as in the general sense He never leaves nor forsakes them, is unquestionable; and it is equally true, that those, who from personal love to Him keep His word, have precious individual experiences of His presence to their souls (John 14:2323Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23).). But nothing of this is at all comparable with the joint or corporate realization of His promised presence in the assembly of God, as made known to those who have responded to the action of His Spirit in gathering together His saints around Himself. Nor can even the best instructed of His servants, or the most devoted, or the most gifted, count upon the activity of the Holy Ghost in opening up the word to the understanding or the heart in private, as He is pleased to do when the saints are found together for edification. Our common and mutual blessing in fellowship, one with another, is what the Lord has ordained-for us, and every departure from this principle, however we may deceive ourselves about it,, involves (1)no less loss to our own souls than (2) dishonor to the Lord, and (3) discouragement to His true-hearted and earnest saints-three weighty considerations for the lukewarm and half-hearted.
As in the natural creation, by the goodness of God, the most essential and most valuable things, such as the light of the sun, pure air, and good water, are precisely those which are most widely diffused and most abundantly supplied; so does the same principle hold good in the new creation, where the most invaluable blessings, those in which the precious grace of God shines with the greatest luster, are exactly those in which He has abounded towards us " freely." Being as invaluable as they are indispensable, they are, in the divine goodness, freely and abundantly bestowed for faith to use and to enjoy. But it is only as we are impressed with the immeasurable magnitude and grandeur of the things given to us of God, that we discern the force and value of the connected word " freely."
The apostle says elsewhere, that when a child, he spoke, he felt, he reasoned as a child, and when he became a man, he put away childish things. There it was the natural advance, but here it is the spiritual; the contrast not being between childish things and those suited to a man but between man's things and those which are of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Then he adds, " Now we have received not the Spirit of the world," suited to man's things, "lout the Spirit which is of God, that we might know 'the things that are freely given to us of God." The spirit of Man, the spirit of the-world, and man's things, belong to the same category, in a word, the old creation; the things of God, freely given to us of God, and made known to us by the Spirit of God, belong to the new creation. ".He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." Here the point is, that it is only consistent after so great a gift, that every minor thing in character with it should, follow in its wake. The title and the estate must needs go together; we are both ennobled and enriched in " the creation of God."
" Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours," he says in another place; " things present or, things to come; all are yours". Of " things present," good, bad, or indifferent, as men speak, he can say, " all thing's work together for good to them that, love God." And of " things to come," he can say, " the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, he hath revealed unto us by his Spirit."
It is noteworthy how, in each of these Scriptures, the saints are characterized as them that love God. Connecting this with what we get in 1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19), " we love him because he first loved us," it is clear that our love to Him is but the fitting response to His own first and precious love to us, and both the one and the other denote a peculiarly blessed and, unique relation to God. This incomparable blessedness which we enjoy, deserves a fuller recognition than has generally been accorded to it. Let the reader reflect upon this, that the angelic creation, so far as we learn from Scripture, knows nothing of what it is to love or be loved of God, and neither was it experienced by man in innocence. But His typically-redeemed family were privileged to learn in the wilderness that He had love in His blessed heart to man, and sought and valued man's love in return (Ex. 20:66And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:6); Deut. 7:7,87The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7‑8).).
The apostle John bases our love to God upon two grounds. We love Him because we know Him (1 John 4:7,87Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:7‑8)), for it is impossible to have such a revelation of Himself to our hearts as we have, without loving Him; there being everything in Himself, as revealed by Christ the eternal Word, to inspire divine affection. Further, we love Him because by His primary love to us -He has endeared Himself to our hearts, and started within us a spring of affection for eternity which finds its suited exercise, not only in responsive love to Himself, but in embracing within its range all those who are begotten of Him (1. John 4:19; 5:119The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. (John 4:19)
1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1).).
How sweet to know that for us the "beloved of God," whose love to Himself He delights both to cause and to encourage, He mingles the " all things " of the wilderness way so dexterously together, that only good can come out of them; as David says: " So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and ' guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." Psa. 78:7272So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. (Psalm 78:72). And further, that He has so prepared our future portion as to be transcendently beyond the natural eye's or ear's perception or human heart's conception; yet has both revealed it to us by His Spirit, and has given us in the same Spirit the earnest thereof, enabling us to " rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
The heart that has learned the grace of God in the person and work of Christ, loves to say " Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! " For eternal life, too, in the knowledge of the Father and the Son! For the word, also; the imperishable food of that imperishable life! For the Holy Ghost, the power for intelligent apprehension of the word, and the earnest of the future inheritance! For divine relationships formed in resurrection, and for union with Christ eternally established, Himself the daystar risen in our hearts, and the tree and water of life, for food and for refreshment! And, may we not add as sweetest dower of all, that ever-flowing and incomparable love of the Father's heart of which He said: " Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me!"
Surely, these are among the things of which even, now we can say, they are "freely "given to us of God." They are the rich and substantial pledges of that wondrous and precious order and sphere of blessing, of which it is written, " All things have become new, and all things are of God."
Nor must we omit to note that the Spirit of, God has through divine favor been received by us in order that we should know these things which have been so freely given to us of God. Nor this only, but that they should be expressed in words, not of human wisdom, but such as are. Spirit-taught, these spiritual things being recognized as communicated only by spiritual means (see new trans.). And thus, without reflecting upon those who are " otherwise minded," knowing that " God shall reveal even this unto!' them, it is worthy of serious consideration by the servants of God, whether having recourse to" mere human ways of furthering the Lord's work, such as public notices, programs of subjects, placards, posters,- models, pictures, and the like, does not savor of the old creation rather than of the new. Whether they are among those things which have been " freely given to us of God," or among those spiritual means by which spiritual things are to be communicated. Whether they evince spiritual taste and divine acumen, and are worthy of our high commission as representing and serving Christ during His absence.
May He enable' us to occupy for Him here (in deep humility, but with worshipping hearts) the wondrous elevation on which He has set us as having "the mind of Christ," not only as to present blessing and future glory, but as to the nature of service peculiarly gratifying to Himself.
W. R.
D.