We go on through the toils of service, where as good in Christ it has to make its way, and make itself effectual by divine strength in the midst of evil and alienation from God, and, as to testimony, adapt itself to it. That was what was so beautiful in Christ. In heaven all is good. God is there, and only goodness and holiness, and nothing inconsistent with it. We cannot but be simple, or want simplicity there, for God fills everything, and we and all are what He would have us. It is an infinite " I am" of good. But Christ was something else. He was divine good, and infinite, but good adapting itself, showing itself infinite in being always itself, And yet adapting itself to all the wants, sorrows, miseries, sins, that were in this poor world. We get to God, get to the Father, by it, because He has got to us. What a wonderful thought it is, to see Godhead emptying itself, thereby to prove itself love, as no angel could have known it—coming down as man even unto death, and to be made sin, that I might learn what God is in death, where sin had brought me; and absolute obedience in man, in what disobedience had brought us into; death, the way of life; the extreme of man in weakness—where (as to this world) it ended, the place where God is revealed and triumphant, and the power of Satan destroyed. But the Christian redeemed by this, and according to this, has to be this good, to express, walking in holiness, divine love in this world, by manifesting the life of Christ, and seeking the deliverance of souls.
What a calling! and what a privilege! But, oh, how we do shrink into self-judgment if we compare ourselves with Him! We have to do it sometimes. God passes us through it when needed. We know there is no good thing in us, but to know the working of evil, which we always need at the beginning, and sometimes by the way, is another thing-overwhelming sometimes, I do not mean as to doubting His love, but as occupying us with self-vileness, instead of with His blessed love and Himself. But it is really put away in Christ, and hence when we have, in a certain sense (that is, as to the need of real uprightness of heart) adequately judged ourselves, all the flood of His grace flows in again, and we can think of Him, and not of ourselves. There are no shallows then, but they are there, and there is still the danger (until long and deeply exercised) of having to go through it again.
And it is a terrible thing to think of turning the eye off Christ, and on to what is vile, for self is vile. It is this that marks the " fathers" in Christ. John has much additional to say to the " children" and " young men" when he repeats his warnings, but to the " fathers" he only says they " have known him that is from the beginning."
That was their characteristic existence.
How blessed it is! Oh, that we could walk so as to keep ourselves in the love of God!
It is not knowing the Father (that was the " children's" place—the place of all) but Him that was " from the beginning:" Christ as manifested here.
I find the constant tendency (even of work for the Lord, and an active mind) ever is to take us out of the presence of God, and nature is instantly up: I do not mean evil in the common sense, but what is not God, and the condition of the soul when God is there.
There is a will and a right the heart claims (not willfullya), instead of adoring recipiency and lowliness, with confidence and trust of heart. For God present puts us in our place, and Himself in His place in our hearts; and what confidence that gives, and how self is gone in joy! Our great affair is to keep in His presence; and the diligent soul shall be made fat. He that seeks, finds. May the Lord give us to labor on undistractedly. It is not, through grace, in vain in the Lord as 1 Cor. 15:5858Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58) so sweetly assures us. Where He does not give present encouragement it may be our fault, certainly His wisdom—but let us be content to be anything in His hand, and thankful to be anything. A servant is to serve where he is set, and should be thankful to be allowed to be anything, even a " hewer of wood" and " drawer of water" to the saints—but if our hearts are not close to Christ, we are apt to get weary in the way. All is a vain show around us; but that which is inside abides, and is true, being the life of Christ. All else goes! When the heart gets hold of this fact, it becomes (as to things around) like one taken into a house to work for the day, who performs the duties well, but passes through, instead of living in, the circumstances. To Israel the cloud came down, and they stayed; it lifted up, and on they went. It was all the same to them. Why? Because had they stayed when the cloud went on, they would not have had the Lord. One may be daily at the desk for fifty years, yet with Christ the desk is only the circumstance; it is doing God's will, making manifest the savor of Christ, which is the simple and great thing. Whether I go or you go, I stay or you stay, may that one word be realized in each one of us—" steadfast, immovable!" In whatever sphere, as matter of providence, we may be found, let the divine life be manifested—Christ manifested. This abides, all else changes, but the life remains and abides forever, ay, forever.
Not a single thing in which we have served Christ shall be forgotten. Lazy, alas! we all are in service, but all shall come out that is real, and what is real is Christ in us, and this only. The appearance now may be very little—not much even in a religious view, but what is real will abide. Our hearts clinging closely to Christ, we shall sustain one another in the body of Christ. The love of Christ shall hold the whole together, Christ being everything and we content to be nothing, helping one another, praying one for the other. I ask not for the prayers of the saints: I reckon on them. The Lord keep us going on in simplicity, fulfilling as the hireling our day, till Christ shall come; and then " shall every man have praise of God "—praise of God! Be that our object, and may God knit all our hearts together thoroughly and eternally.
"If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor."