Various Pamphlets
George Vicesimus Wigram
Table of Contents
Christ, Not "Brethren."
Dear Brother,
I have felt constrained to write to you on the solemn subject so deeply connected with the honor of our Lord and Head, to which— alludes.
“Most blessed forever” as He is, we might well wonder how He could be affected in any way by our acts down here; but since He has on the one hand, eternally linked us with Himself—yea, while it is said of each of us “he that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit,” even the intimate union between husband and wife only shadowing as it were, that “great mystery;” and the blessed Lord’s appeal from heaven to Paul— “why persecutest thou me,” astounding the latter with the announcement of this, to us, most precious truth, that “Christ and we are one:” on the other hand, the grave responsibilities which such a wondrous and mysterious union with the Christ of God lays upon us, might well make us exclaim— “who is sufficient for these things?” and keep us more and more in daily watchfulness and dependence. Ceasing from our own wisdom, and confessing that we are: “not sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves,” in the sense of this utter weakness, we realize by faith that “our sufficiency is of God.” Now, beloved brother if you give the wondrous subject of our union with the blessed Head, and union with one another, serious and prayerful consideration, you can scarcely fail to see how the acts of one member affect the whole body, remembering that precious statement in 1 Cor. 12:27— “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular;” and that touching expression of the same truth in the “one loaf” — “we being many, are one loaf” (see translation— “one bread” in the text 1 Corinthians 10:17), even as we are “partakers of that one loaf.” [How wonderfully this truth gives point to that other statement, “Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” —1 Cor. 5:6, alluding to immoral conduct, and the same words in Galatians referring to wrong doctrine.
Now beloved, all these solemn and precious truths show us, that association holds a deeply important place in God’s sight, and no matter how unconscious we may be of such or how pure we, may take it upon ourselves to consider one another or even how remote we may deem the association—God is the judge and He says that even “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” It will be no excuse for any of us before Him, bringing in the plea of “love to our brother.” “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” This divine love, beloved brother, and we must love one another in God’s way, NOT in our own. We must beware of the spurious imitations which Satan delights to see God’s own dear children boasting of, while the precious name of Him “that is holy, He that is true” —by the widespread indifference to association and the practical denial of the “one body,” which prevails in the present day—is so dishonored. “Those Brethren,” so called, have as a body refused to “purge out the old leaven,” and nothing remains for each faithful member, faithful to the blessed Head who has been so dishonored but “to purge himself from these.” What very solemn words are those of Christ— “I would thou wert cold or hot.” Oh, may we be hot, beloved brother, for His glory and honour.
If you want to judge this question fairly, beloved, in the sanctuary, you must take your eye OFF “Brethren” and fix it singly and simply on Christ.
Yours in our blessed and glorified Lord and Head...
The Church: Its Present State and Prospects
THERE is, in the very nature of things there can be, but one First Cause of everything. There is such an One—the living and true God. He is self-existent, never had beginning, eternal—never ending, everlasting; the alone infinite in power, and therefore; irresponsible, and knowing no check or impediment to His will or action,—save that of His own character and essential goodness and truth. “The right” is always His—Himself is the Standard of what is right—He is the One First Cause, originating source of everything that ever was brought into creature-existence—Sustainer in being, and Controller here or elsewhere, of everything—the End for whom it was formed, to be to His glory and praise.
He has been pleased to act, and to speak in and by—creating, providing, and ruling all things; and man down here on earth.
He has chosen, too, to write a Book, by His Holy Spirit, about His counsels and plans concerning the Son of His love—and the glory which He will win—of a new heavens and new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness, after—Himself having become the way, and revealing the way into that glory for man.
What creature is there that is not morally bound—and responsible at its own peril—to own in every way the One who created it, upholds it, and overrules it, and everything else, and who has said that He will turn everything to His own glory—one way or another, in. weal or in woe.
But man in fallen nature ignores this as to himself, and questions it as to others. And why? Simple but solemn reason (which accounts, too, for the scoffing of the infidel scoffer): Adam and Eve apostatized from God—left their creature position—their first estate of innocency and dependent obedience to God, and were turned out of Eden. And “Adam begat in his own likeness and after his own image,” and such are we all, as born in that family, apostate in the Adamic nature from God: in creature-apostasy. Let the predicted great white throne of judgment-to-come—convince you that God is God; and means to make known His rights everywhere, ere the last grains of sand in time’s stinted measure run out.
The LORD God has stood in connection with man—in creation, providence, and government, and given tokens, out of all number, of His eternal power and Godhead, of His patient goodness in caring for man in all his wants, and of His power to keep evil in check for Himself. But alas! man has renewed, times out of mind, proofs that he is,—and, if left to himself, ever will be—nothing but apostate,—standing off from Him as far as he can, his back to God, and his face to the pleasures of self. And what is to be the end of all this? Scripture says—Wrath.
Notice well two things—revealed in Scripture, and confirmed by facts. Israel was the center of God’s governmental plans for the earth. And to this day that nation and its land are the touchstone of everything in the politics of the whole earth. So—
When the Messiah had been crucified and Was gone to heaven, God as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, formed the Church down here on earth. One church was, by the power of the Holy Spirit (come down from heaven with the view of raising and maintaining a testimony to God and Christ in heaven) dwelling in the church, to be the proof to man that the Father sent the Son. And that church has become, in one way or another, the touchstone of everything in the profession among men of being in connection with the God of heaven and with true worship.
It is so now; it is so here; it is so everywhere throughout the whole habitable earth. I am bold to say that “the Church” is now to man religious just what the people and land of Israel have been and are to man-under-civil-government.
The key of every question in government and in religion is found in the Son of Man who sits in heaven—He is, on the one hand, the root and offspring of David; and, on the other, the bright and morning star—(Rev. 22; 16) i.e. The King that Israel looks for, as yet to come in the name of Jehovah, is the same as the Lord Jesus the Savior, who is coming to fetch home His Father’s heavenly children.
Israel, under Moses and under Solomon, knew that if the LORD God their King was honored, then they were at the head of everything;—dishonored, and the four Gentile Beasts were at the head, and they became as the tail; though the Beasts, some of them, might not understand God’s why-and-because of such changes. So—
The Holy Catholic Church at Pentecost (while the Holy Spirit was owned, as in Peter’s and Paul’s days,) knew this—That the Holy Spirit given of God to the Lord Jesus to shed abroad as the Father’s token of His delight in Christ (who had made His throne to be the mercy-seat, and Himself on it to be the life too of his people) made the Church a habitation of God through the Spirit. Thus Jesus, the crucified on earth, made by God in heaven to be Lord and Christ, Sender down of the Spirit—while He was honored, His Company, or Society, reflected the perfect unity of His oneness with the Father—dishonored, and Ichabod (where is the Glory) became stamped upon the Company professing to be His Church; though that on which and that by which Ichabod was so stamped might not understand the why-and-because of the change.
If there was an absolute, irresponsible Theocracy in the nation, Israel, as to civil government, there was an absolute, irresponsible Theocracy set up in those that formed the Church, as to worship. In the one, the only true and living God, as dwelling between the Cherubim, was known in rule—in the other, the Lord Jesus Christ as sitting at the Father’s right hand on the throne of God in the majesty of the highest in Heaven, was made known (by His Spirit) in worship, and moral and spiritual rule. The setting up was of God—the continuance down here of what was set up, depended upon man’s being subject to the blessing, and so enabled to answer God’s purpose in it. God alone has unquestionable rights. God alone and His written Word are to be listened to. He will teach those who wait on Him. The question, now, is not—Why did He speak by a Balaam? Why through the mouth of his dumb ass? Why set Saul among the prophets? and Jonah? or Why Judas among the apostles? but, (alas! that one should have to quote Pilate) “What is truth?” That is the sole question.
Let not any of the religious, or any of the irreligious who may read this—be offended at the simplicity and plain speaking of one who desires their good. Though desirous to offend none—yet would he, in love to all men as men, risk the giving offense, if so be that he might gain their consideration of the weighty truth which presses upon his own soul as being truth, in the mind of God about them; and judged by him to be so, because so It is written. Bitter shame is it to name it, yet it is truth; for so It is written. The knowledge of it is bitter to the soul of the true Christian, yet all must know it in order to escape worse sorrow still.
Christianity, the Christian religion, as set up in and among men on the day of Pentecost by Christ, has, as a system, utterly failed—been betrayed by the professed holders of it, self-betrayed. Betrayed from within, it has become full of deadly evil. It is become Christendom already, and soon it will pass away, as did Jewdom, and be set aside. That is, if Christ’s predictions in the written Word; if Peter and John and Paul’s writings (i.e. the Holy Spirit’s) cannot be broken, John 10:35.
Reader! Are you aware of this? Are you prepared for it? Upon such a subject, after such a statement, it is not for man to sport his thoughts. Of what worth are man’s thinkings? Let Christ Himself be heard, and then the Holy Spirit, in what He has written through Peter and Paul and John. Surely God knows man and his language well enough to express what He means to convey, so plainly as that he that runs may read. He is not the only one who cannot express, and lay home on our minds too, what He wants us to know—as some men think. God’s written Word, it was, to which the Lord Himself deferred and bowed, as Servant of God, when He said, “If you (Jews) believe not his (Moses’s) writings, how shall you believe my words?” (John 5:47).
Let us now look at the testimony of our Lord, that as Israel would be set aside, so that which would take, their place would likewise fail and be set aside. In Matt. 12:46-50, on account of the Jews’ wickedness, the Lord declared that to Him ties-in-nature were and should henceforth be nothing; but ties in the Spirit, to hold and do the truth, alone constitute relationship to Him. Then follows:
Chapter 13 “Behold, a sower went forth to sow.” (v. 3)—He had brought the seed with Him, and here He came forth, to present it, even as He, just before, had come forth from the house. It was seed to be sown—not fruit to be gathered as under law—Israel had! none to render, and He came forth, here, to sow what might bring forth fruit. [NOTE: As another has suggested: it is not the Jew under law, but man under the word of the kingdom]. Doubtless the seed was of the best quality.
“As He sowed.” (as it was Himself who sowed—the sowing was perfect, according to His aim at the time). But the counterworking elements and the circumstances of the ground are noted. And why did He do it so? He was wise, and knew the mind of Him whose servant He was.
The seed, we shall find, was not, here, merely the word of God, which is in itself the expression of His authority—and to man always a gift, and yet a test; but it was the word of the kingdom of heaven, about to be opened by the Son of Man to as many as received it. Grace alone could propose connection with God and Christ (in a kingdom of heaven) to poor sinners that received and acted upon the word.
1St. (v. 1) Way side sown, and the fowls came and devoured the seed;
2nd. (v. 5) Stony places, and not much earth;
3rd. (v. 7) Thorny places, and the thorns (at least) sprang up;
4th. (v. 8) Good ground—which alone brought forth fruit, some an hundred, and some sixty, and some thirty fold.
Christ teaches, here, that He knew beforehand, and would have us to know beforehand, that the word of the kingdom (v. 19) which He brought and spread abroad—first of all makes manifest the enemy, of it, and of Him, and of us—that marks one danger; and, then, the character of that in which we live is made manifest; whether flesh in its Own nature, or the world—and, after that, we learn that but one out of four such appropriators of it, in the end gets the blessing of the seed sown. Solemn is it as warning as to what man is, and where, and what, his circumstances. The sower was not sowing a field of wheat now—that came afterward (v. 21); but, here, He used His word, not limiting its scattering to the prepared field;—and it had a fourfold experience. The word of God is always a detective test, and makes manifest what it comes in contact with: out of four cases, it is only creative (so to speak) and fruit-bearing in one, through grace. As the word of the kingdom (of heaven) it brought the Sower’s rich grace to light. But how solemn the warning to those to be taken as occupying Israel’s lost place. And yet, if such warnings are received into the soul, it is (not only “forewarned, forearmed” as men say, but) graciously broken down out of all self-confidence and self-complacency, and so weaned from self, and it casts its all upon Him who never fails, and never will fail, those that trust to Him alone. The word was a word of grace, and sent in mercy; but man knew neither what it meant, nor himself and his circumstances as opposed to it. In itself it was fruit-bearing if it took its own natural course.
In 1. The word of the kingdom was heard, but not understood. Deep the responsibility to man from God’s thus sending a sower, and such a sower. This and it not known—the wicked one comes and snatches away that which was sown in the heart, [mark this, as showing the responsibility of men hearing the word] Satan, and then men under him (though unconscious of being under him and robbed by him, and ignorant of their responsibility,) are detected by their want of understanding of the word (v. 19).
In 2. It was received—heard, and anon [immediately] with joy received, yet had no root in the man himself—lasts but for awhile—but when persecution or tribulation arises on account of the word, by and by [the same word as “anon”] he is offended. Feeling is not conscience it will act forthwith, [immediately] to receive; but if tested by trial from within or without (of what the relationships, there, are toward the word), the receiver is, as it were, caught in “a trap” by opposition of feelings.
In 3. The thorns—care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches [the first acting on the heart of the poor man, the second on that of the rich] they sprung up [Did the wheat shoot at all, or was it merely received? It is not said which, in v, 7 or 22] and choked the word, and it was fruitless.
In 4. The word is received when heard, and it is understood. But, note it well, nothing came out but what was inside of it (23). The good ground was ground fit for its development—as legality and self-righteousness in man are fit for Moses’ law, and the heart of a Saul, made to know himself as “of sinners, the chief” (an utter wreck too), was fit for mercy and grace.
What I glean from the parable, is this. Christ knew beforehand, and would have us to know, that the gracious word of the kingdom (when, Jews having failed under law, He addressed the word to man as man) is detective of everything in and around the one to whom it comes. A deep responsibility, to have it sent to us; high privilege too, if we know ourselves to be ruined sinners—germ of blessing too, but only to those who know that which is in their circumstances, and themselves, but that in the scene too there is Another, and He brings the word as his remedy to us in utter ruin. Then it is fruit-bearing, and surely a blessing if we are really subject altogether to it. God’s word accomplishes itself, where it has its sway—and is (through the last Adam) creative anew to us and, so, fruit-bearing. The Lord closes with the solemn words— “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
2ndly. But, that there may be certainty to us about this failure of man in man’s present responsibility, Christ gave a second parable (v. 24-30). That of the sower was a sort of introduction. The field of wheat follows—likewise to prove a failure in man’s hand. Both parables teach the same lesson, methinks.
v. 24-30. Another parable put he forth to them, saying,
v. 24 The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man [v. 37, the Son of Man] who sowed good seed
[v. 38, the children of the kingdom] in his field
[v. 38, the world; not the church ];
v. 25 But, while men, slept, his enemy [v. 39, the devil] came and sowed tares [v. 38, the children of the wicked one] among the wheat, and went his way;
v. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
v. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said to him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? Whence then has it tares?
v. 28. He said to them, an enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
v. 29 But he said, Nay; lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
v. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest [v. 39, the end, (lit. common ending of the world, lit. age) ] [v. 41, the Son of Man] will say to the reapers, [v. 39, the angels] Gather together [v. 41, g.t. out of the kingdom all things that offend (lit. snares laid for an enemy)], and those who de iniquity (or lawlessness) and bind them in bundles to burn them [v. 42, and cast them into a furnace, of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth]: but gather the wheat into my garner; [v.. 43, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father]. Query, is there a contrast here to the kingdom of the Son of Man, v. 41?
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Note it—the parable was spoken in public, but the explanation given only in private, to the disciples, and only (v. 36-43) after He had sent the multitude away (v. 36) and the disciples had asked Him its meaning.
What is the instruction given to the verses 24-30, by the inspired explanation in 33-36? but just this; the Son of Man sowed [originated] a company and companionship of the children of the kingdom in the world.
While His servants who should have watched, slept—the devil came and planted among the wheat, children of the wicked one. This became apparent after a time, and those that had been asleep, asked, should they go and root up those the devil had sown while they slept? No: lest you root up the wheat with the tares. A party that had been sleeping, instead of watching, is not the one to correct the results of the devil’s hatred against the field-owner. Angels shall be sent, at the period of the common ending of the age, to gather out the tares for burning, at the time of harvest. Satan’s children shall go to his place. The Lord will take the righteous into the kingdom of the Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Here was a second proof of how man, under the present trial, would fail; we may say, alas! has failed, though the Son of Man will keep his own through all the evil; Satan’s craft, man’s flesh (asleep at one time, too ready to cut off with the sword at another time,) and this world of mixtures, good and had together in it—notwithstanding.
3rdly. Then follow two more predictions in parables, to the same effect.
1. v. 31, 32 show how Christ foresaw it all and warned about it. The kingdom of heaven entrusted to man’s responsibility, instead of being a kingdom of heaven and of heavenly people and principles, would (through Satan’s agency,) become (monstrous!), not a lowly plant that proclaims its own lowly origin, but a big tree on earth, for devils [v. 32, the fowls of the air, which in v. 4, 19 is the wicked one] to lodge in the branches thereof; [a great tree, Nebuchadnezzar, (Dan. 4; 10, and v. 12, 20-23,) was a great tree. Ezek. 17]
2. v. 33, We have another parable proving the same thing. Note it, leaven is never once used in Scripture for truth, the gospel, or anything good. Leaven and honey were prohibited to be offered to God (Ex. 34; 25 Lev. 2; 11 Amos 4; 5). And Paul writes, “Keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of Sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5; 6-8), which, to the Scripture student, is decisive.
Can anyone read this chapter thus far in God’s presence, and not see that the Lord foresaw, and forewarned in it, of the entire failure in man’s hand of the trust made to him of the kingdom of the Son of Man Not so—if taught of God.
4thly. In the rest of the chapter, He shows that though (as above) in man’s hand all will fail, in His own hand as Son of Man there will be no failure. He loves His own divinely, and will secure what He loves, and seeks, to the end. See the three parables of the “treasure hid in a field” (v. 44); “the one pearl of great price” (v. 45, 46), and “the net cast into the sea” (v. 47-50).
Oh, that my reader might ponder and understand these things! What is man? And what has man ever wrought? And what is the latest of man’s failures?
Again, God the Holy Spirit, who wrote down Christ’s testimony, has confirmed it all, by writing down that which Himself moved Peter, and John, and Paul, and Jude, &c., to teach and to understand. They all were witnesses of the same truth as Christ had taught.
What else did the Holy Spirit mean when He moved Peter to write the 2nd and 3rd chapters of his Second Epistle?
What, when he guided John to name the antichrists [substitutes for Christ] Who was John’s antichrist (1 John 2:18)? Who, they whereby we know that it is the last time [hour] and v. 22 and 23, and again iv. 1-5?
What did Jude mean in his heart-stirring Warnings? What, Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians? What the meaning of the testimonies of Paul and of John concerning the two mysteries, when laid, the one alongside of the other?
The apostle Paul (1 Cor. 4:1) writes, “Let a man account of us (apostles) as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Reader! join with me in so reckoning them, and let us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest what they write.
There are two mysteries in Scripture which are in strong contrast: viz.
1. The Mystery of Christ.
The good one is thus honorably spoken of, as—the wisdom of God in a mystery, 1 Cor. 2:7; and (the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) the mystery of His will, Eph. 1:9: and the mystery of Christ, 3:3, 4, and Colossians 4:3; and the great mystery, Eph. 5:32; the mystery of God, Col. 2:2, and Rev. 10:7; the mystery of godliness [or piety] 1 Tim. 3:16.
2. The mystery of iniquity or lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7).
The evil one is branded and is full of evil—evil of man’s pride and self-will, through misapplication of Scripture, to his own exaltation, as though himself and not Christ (a savior of lost ones), was and is the center as well as motive and end of God’s treatment of everything: (see above in Matt. 13:11; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10). It is thus stigmatized as infamous in Rev. 17:5, 6: “Babylon” the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,” &c. “drunken with the blood of the saint, and with the martyrs of Jesus.”
And, lastly, what did Paul mean, Rom. 11:13-25, when he wrote, that, as the Jews had for their unfaithfulness been set aside, and another witness brought into their place—so he certainly foresaw that that witness which superseded them, would likewise fail and be set aside to make room for another?
When the Jews were owned of God as the keepers of His Scriptures (iii., 2), where were the Gentiles? They were their oppressors in the world, as parts of the great statue of Dan. 2; but below them in the knowledge of everything that was of the true God; whether they lived under the four Beasts (Dan. 7), or in the outer parts and corners of the earth that lay outside of the Beasts. But they were shut out of Israel, and knew that it was so. Now (according to Eph. 2:11-22), the believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, form one habitation of God through the Holy Spirit: that is a visible thing tangible to sense. Believers were “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Well, as this new witness, (Paul writes to them), they needed to be warned (Rom. 11:18) not to boast against Israel (v. 20, 21), and not to be high minded, but fear—and (v. 22) “behold the goodness and severity of [lit. severing, cutting off] God: on them which fell severing, but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” I might be thought beside myself, if I ventured to express what this means. So in prudence I forbear. But what would you, reader, or men think, in a case such as I will put before you.
After twelve years of refusal to pay his rent a tenant, who had been spoiling the property, assumed that it was his own, and that he might break every clause in the lease, and yet maintain that he was a good tenant, and could not be turned out for violating all the provisos of the lease. The case is before the judge. What would human jury, and what would human judge say? Change now the case, and what are we to think of the so-called Reformation, and of the 1,200 years failure of the so-called Church which preceded. it? And what of the Church which had set aside the Word of God—symbol of His authority—expression on the earth of His right to be heard by every one? The Word not known, and the Holy Spirit not owned, how could its doctrines of grace and precepts of heavenly life be known or acted upon? How could even the salvation of an individual, upon the sure ground of the Word of God that cannot lie, be known? And what are we to think of protestants in 1874 differing from us in this judgment? While they are protestants, they assert, by their position, that the Church had failed entirely. If so, God says, it will be cut off. If that (its failure) be not true; then let them doff the name of protestant, and don that of “the Church.”
But further, read Rom. 11:25, where Paul’s authoritative word comes forth— “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part, is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” There is development in the evil;—progress. 1. While men slept; 2. Evil crept in, but put out; 3. The mystery of iniquity; 4. Evil superficial [as in 2 Tim. 3]; and lastly, open manifest rebellion. It was so in Israel, as Stephen said. (Acts 7).
And note here, that, while the union of believing Jew and Gentile together in Christ (made through the Spirit to be one body) had never been predicted in Jewish Scripture—the rejoicing of the Gentiles with and under Israel, had been fully revealed (Romans 15:7-12). Israel, as a nation, separated from the rest of the nations, is to be, and will be, the center of blessing to the whole earth, when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Beloved reader! I have been in prayer and confession for God’s true people, and for the wicked too, in and round this town—and now I entreat you to weigh that which Scripture says.
I could, as a watcher, tell you of much which meets the believer’s eye, to the grief of the heart, in eternal. things around us. But, no, I will not.
I close with this word: There were heavens and earth before these; and they perished in the deluge. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, are kept in store, reserved unto fire. These have been witnesses of strange things: such as—the Jews and the Gentile nations—Israel on the one hand, and the Roman kingdom on the other—combining to murder the Christ of God, Israel’s Messiah, and to reject Him, Sender down of the Holy Spirit afterward; and of the consequent dispersion from the land, of the Jews. And they will be witnesses.
2ndly, of two similar judgments of God upon the apostate. First, when the Lord, having saved all His own of the present period, will set aside wicked Christendom as having set aside His Spirit and the truth, and, after that, restore Israel as a whole; and, after the final apostasy described in Rev. 20:7, 8, (in taking part openly with Satan, against God’s Christ, when reigning), and the judgment consequent thereon (v. 9, 10), then, but not till then, these heavens and earth, also, will yield their places to new heavens and a new earth, wherein. shall dwell righteousness.
The Coming of the Comforter
We read, in the first chapter of the Acts, that the Lord Jesus, when risen from the dead, commanded, through the Holy Spirit, the apostles whom he had chosen not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father (which ye have heard of Me); for ye shall receive “power after that the Holy Spirit is come” [or, “of the Holy Spirit coming”] upon you.
He then was seen to ascend, and a cloud received him out of their sight (Acts 1:2-10). The coming down of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is traced by Peter (Acts 2:33) up to its source. He was to come down with power to the apostle as witnesses of the Lord’s life down here (Acts 1:2-8), and of His resurrection (1:16-26). He came to the company. Afterward Paul knew the same power for witnessing to an ascended Lord as center and end of a new system. But the Spirit has not left the people of God down here. He abides still with them (John 14:16; Revelation 22:17). His taking up His abode in and among the company which the Lord Jesus had gathered was altogether a new thing; never known before. It made them and, those of their company to become the habitation of GOD (through the Holy Spirit there, Eph. 2:22), and was power for witnessing unto the Lord Jesus, from whom it came—unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Observe, it was the Holy Spirit Himself—a person in the Godhead—who came down (John 14:16) to earth from the Father and the Son in heaven, and took up His abode on earth (not in a tent, however ornamented, made of skin and curtains—nor in a temple built of stone with hands of men—but) in and among living men on earth, whom the Lord Jesus loved and who loved Him; and He came to be the Paraclete (or Guardian, translated 5:16 and 26 “Comforter”) down here when Christ became the Paraclete in heaven with the Father, 1 John 3:1 (here translated “Advocate”).
This company is looked upon in after parts of Scripture in different aspects. 1St, as the habitation of God; Secondly, as the family adopted of the Father and committed by Him to the Son to bring to glory; and thirdly, as the spiritual body of Christ—one Spirit, and so one with Himself—the Bride. But in each of these blessed aspects the Holy Spirit has His own full and distinctively peculiar place. Quite true is it that men have been entrusted with a new revelation [in that called the New Testament], and a new place of obedient dependence upon the Holy Spirit in a new position, and men have failed in the responsibility again, as ever—forgotten both Holy Spirit and the truth which He came as witness of. But He has no more failed than God can fail; no more failed than the father on high has failed in His counsels and plans about the Son of His love, and therefore there is to faith a habitation of God down here still, and there is to hope the New Jerusalem to come. There are those that say I am a “son (hu-ois) of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26), and into whose hearts God has sent the Spirit of His Son, crying Abba, Father”(4:6), and if Abba’s heart be our present blessing, Abba’s house is our hope (John 14:2, 3), where Abba’s self and Abba’s Son will be together for our joy in the Spirit. So there are those now that hold the Head and know themselves members in particular, cared for by Him, to whom eternity is as time, and who nourishes and cherishes His body (Eph. 5:28-30; see also 1:22 to 2:10), and means to present it to Himself a glorious bride without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
Remark, in chapter 1, how the Lord himself, through the Spirit, gave commands (v. 2): we, too, now ought to—and in the glory to come we shall—know what “by the Spirit all-pervading” means; He was promised by the Father, as the Son Himself had told them (comp. Heb. 2); He was come in an all-covering baptism (v. 5); as power for testimony to Jesus [for us] unto the uttermost part of the earth (v. 8).
As the taking possession of the tabernacle and of the temple was in either case attended with most signal marks, so in chapter 2 The Holy Spirit’s taking possession of the new sort of habitation (the old sort of temple itself was left standing with its rent veil) had its indications too; suddenly came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind—the house where they were sitting filled with it; cloven tongues as of fire upon each of them; all of them filled with the Holy Spirit; each spake in tongues as the spirit gave them utterance (v. 4). When this got noised abroad the multitude were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language (read v. 5-11). Eighteen localities are named whence they came. The confounding of the tongues at Babel’s tower to stop wickedness found its contrast here when the wonderful works of God in Christ had to be proclaimed.
Then, again, this was not the result of drunkenness—but of a promised pouring of my Spirit upon all flesh (v. 17, 18); connected with what went beyond Israel and set it aside in its then state. Whosoever shall call, &c., went beyond Israel, as whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord did not describe Israel’s then state. Peter’s testimony is contained in one sermon of twenty-six verses (14-40). One sermon gained 3000 souls. Verses 42-47 describe the favored company. Its marks were peculiar, but very beautiful before God and man.
And the Holy Spirit, who had come down, took into His own hands the reins of government and administration; the arrangement, settling, and carrying out of every part of what He meant to be done. The will was and is in God, not in man, though voluntarily did those that knew the Blesser go along with Him, taking the lead, and Himself working out what He would. In chap. 4:8, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, and has a bold and wise testimony to give (10-12 and 19, 20). They return to their own company—prayer ascends—the place is shaken, and all, filled with the Holy Spirit, spake the word of God with boldness (23-31); and then follows another beautiful account of the company.
If anyone would take the trouble to read through the Acts, and mark in the margin with an S all verses in which the Spirit is named, such an one will be astonished to see how the presence of God the Holy Spirit, and His using men and working by men, is marked upon every part of it.
It seems to me that the redemption of Israel out of Egypt was so arranged by Jehovah that every part of it threw out His presence into light. If there was an Exodus, it proved that He was there; if there was no being locked up at Pihahiroth, it was because He was there whose word the Red Sea heard and obeyed. The pillar of fire and cloud marked the presence of Him who had water and manna to give. He present, the way into Canaan was patent, and made good by Israel. If He was dishonored, forgotten, disobeyed, there was no possible tenure of blessings given. And afterward His temple could not stand without Himself. God is all and in all to faith—and man is nothing. If in subjection, dependent and obedient, then blessed. If unbelievingly out of subjection, independent and disobedient—where and what is he? What could the twelve apostles have done, or what do, without a living Lord to look after them. If subject—dependent and obedient—they were as John—in the bosom; if true but self-complacent and not self-judged, then they were as Peter; if not real, but self-honoring, as Judas. But as to the good, the Lord was alone—and the all in all was in Him. And what can I do if I forget the Holy Spirit came down from the Father and the Son in heaven, that I may have power to look up and be taught of God to see Jesus Lord of all at the right hand of God, and the Father in heaven Himself, firstborn, among many brethren; Himself head over all things to His company down here; Himself, who made and upholds all things—making the throne on high to be the mercy-seat, and all His springs of life to be known as His people’s, and the light of the blessing resting upon all them that believe (Rom. 3:22). Let Paul plant, let Apollos water; ‘tis God alone that gives the increase to his own seed.
Has the Father given us another Paraclete “that He may abide with us forever;” even the Spirit of truth—whom we know, and who is in us (John 14:16, 17). Is this a blessing now enjoyed by us (15:26, 27): “But when the Paraclete is come whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me?” Most surely it is a blessing now existent. Does the Spirit of God dwell in us—even the Spirit of Christ; then let us, the body being dead because of sin, mortify its deeds. Led by the Spirit of God—we are sons of God, have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We have the testimony of the Spirit with our spirit that we are the children of God; and then follows the blessed verse 17, and that other, 21, Rom. 8. And note it in 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17; believers collectively are the temple in which the (comp. 2 Corinthians 6:16) Spirit of God abides. And in 6:19 the individual is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit wrought in creation, providence, government, also in eternal redemption (Luke 3:35; Acts 10:38 Heb. 9:14, &c.), and in eternal salvation as applied to us. All our knowledge of God and of the things of God is through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-14. The Bible, too, He wrote it (2 Peter 1:21). He is the Spirit of truth and testifies of Christ (John 15:26). We received Him by the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2, 5). Our access to the Father is by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). Our union with the Lord is by Him (1 Cor. 6:17; 12:13, 14). We may be filled with the Spirit; Paul speaks (Philippians 1:12) of a supply of the Spirit, of standing fast in one Spirit (27), of common fellowship of the Spirit (2:1), of worship in the Spirit (3:3). See also Ephesians 1:17. He is wisdom and revelation, and as strength in the inner man to those who seek Him (3:16). He warns us, too, not to quench Him (1 Thess. 5:19), nor grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), and speaks of some having done despite to Him (Heb. 10:29).
It is a great thing (without being wise above what is written) to be wise according to what is written, and to have a solemn sense of the dignity of Him who ministers Christ to us and can enable us through faith to do all things.
If the dignity of Him, the promise of the Father, who has come down to earth and ministers as the Spirit of truth, Christ to us individually and collectively, and is the one charged with the administration of God’s house down here, were more thought of—there would be more reverend awe, perhaps, in our assemblies, more sense of our nothingness in ourselves, and more courageous confidence of Christ’s strength going, made perfect in our weakness.
One habitation—one heavenly family of God—one body (called also the Espoused, 2 Cor. 11:2, and the Bride, Rev. 22:17, and the Wife, Rev. 19:7, of the Lamb) until the Lord comes: One, and but one, till all is finished and perfected.
Who could know the counsel, and the plan, and the way, and the energy needful to form a company which would meet all this? None but God and those to whom He reveals it Who could undertake and be entrusted with the work of atonement (making the throne, of God to be the mercy seat), and of being in that throne the giver and sustainer of eternal life? None (says Scripture) but the Son, Jesus the Lord and Christ. And who (in spite of the world, and the flesh, and Satan) is in administration down here for God, even the Father, and for the Christ, Son of His love? God Himself, even the Holy Spirit. He who came down at Pentecost and will be in sole administration until the Lord Jesus takes to Himself that which is His and the Father’s.
Would to God that we might all see this—and, owning Him, might be true and real, dependent and obedient in all things and times.
Taught of God in His book, you will find that the Spirit does not occupy us with Himself, but with the Lord Jesus, to witness to whom He came. Himself is the divine power of our intelligence as to all the realities of that world into which He has brought us. The Holy Spirit Himself, and the pure word of His testimony (both are from the Father and through the Son), are that which we have, now, to count upon.
The love of God is a love that gathers us into the presence of God Himself: a love that communicates the life of His Son to those dead in trespasses and sins; and they possess a life that is locked up in the Son, never to be touched. Is it true that you can turn to God and say that is the manner of life you possess? Life hid with Christ in God! If Christ Himself, up there, is my life, it links me up with Him in whom is the whole bundle of life. If the Head could not say to the feeblest member passing through the difficulties and sorrows of the wilderness down here, “I have no need of thee,” why is it? Because of being bound up in one bundle of life, that life being communicated by the Father, and being so in us that Chris cannot say He has no need of us. Did you ever look up in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the consciousness of having one life with Him? If so, you cannot entertain a single question about the place you are in before God. If you have the eternal life that is in the only begotten Son, you cannot look up: without seeing that you are in a new place altogether before God.
Looking round Eden, man might have said, what a large giver God is! But what can we say, as those to whom this life has been given? Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son!
If I begin with self, there is nothing but ruin. Is there anything to be got out of the ruin? any want felt there of God? Impossible that there could be! I begin with God, not with self. If God uses my sin to show out the virtues of the blood of His Son, am I to be occupied with Him, or to be saying, “My leanness, my leanness!” Your leanness! how came you to be calculating on anything in yourself? If you bring an empty vessel, you can keep it full to overflowing if you put it into a cistern of water, even if there be a crack or flaw in the vessel.
The proper expression of a redeemed soul is thanksgiving that such a manifestation of the divine will should have come out—the deepest, highest, brightest, fullest, most blessed counsels of God, having their expression in Him who said, “Lo, I come to do thy will.”
Who was that babe laid there in manger? What could it mean, those angels saying, “Glory to God on high”? God could look down on that babe, and see there the perfect expression of His glory. All God’s glory came out connection with the person of Him who said, “No one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father.”
After all the self-denial of Christ for me, is there to be none from me for Him? When He says, “I bought ye with my own blood, I charged myself with all your guilt,” am I never to say “Anything that is not for the glory a Christ I will renounce?”
G. V. W.
A Cry From Bochim
Introduction
CONFESSION and humiliation suit, and in a peculiar way, become the children of God in the present day. Neither the glory of God, nor the honor of Christ, nor the presence of the Holy Ghost, has been faithfully cared for by us; and, the church—where is and what is its condition upon earth?
But it is not the wide range of Christendom, or the narrower compass of England, to which I look. Is not confession and humiliation called for from many a one in the narrow circle into which these lines may come?
Humiliation and confession for what? Let each think—let each speak—for God and for Christ: and truthfully. (according to his own best and eternal interests in the Spirit) for himself, too, in giving the answer. I will do so here for myself; let others see how far they are wide of my mark.
Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world. The friendship of the world is enmity against God, and the minding of earthly things is enmity to the cross of Christ.
Now, speaking for God and for Christ, what shall I say as to myself—as to my brethren in this respect? Are we—have we been—practically, in heart, and thought, and action, that which we are in Spirit— “not of this world, even as Christ is not of this world”?
I speak not now of worldliness, as the men of the world, or even as men (Christian men) upon this earth speak; but I speak of worldliness according to the sanctuary.
Peter’s self-complacency and self-confidence, and the mighty energy of personal love to his master, which (working with mixed motives, and from an unhumbled heart in him,) led him to use the sword and to cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, was fleshliness and worldliness when weighed in the. sanctuary. There has been this, I judge, to be confessed by many of the best in our day—zeal without knowledge; right as to its object; wrong as to many a thing in oneself as vindicator; and wrong as to many a means and course pursued: and much of this through self-complacency and self-confidence in our own line of things.
My conviction is, that worldliness and earthly-mindedness have blinded the eyes, and hardened the hearts, to an extent very few of us have any idea of; and that, as a consequence, no case touching upon the morality of the church’s walk can be fairly judged by the mass of believers. In cases innumerable which have occurred, the affections to Christ Himself have not been lively enough to make persons indignant at open insults put upon Christ, and determined to stand apart from that which, in its association, was minded to sanction dishonor done to Him.
God forbid that we should use worldliness and earthly-mindedness, or the pretense of confessing them, as a cloak to cover up indifference of the heart’s affections to Christ, or to gloss over want of zeal, to separate from every association with those that avow and act upon a liberty to be indifferent to His honor.
Yet, while I would clear myself of the conduct which looks like indifference to Christ, and from all association with those who plead and act upon their liberty to think their own thoughts in this respect, the question will rise—And what is it, after all, that hinders so many dear to you, and dear to Christ, from seeing that His honor has been, assailed? The true answer, I fear, is worldliness and earthly-mindedness—the fruit of our own doings. Now I avow this; for I do believe a more Nazarite walk, on my part, and on that of some others, might have given power to act upon consciences; and somehow or the other, to get them separate from a course in which I dare not walk—than walk in which I would rather walk alone the rest of my earthly days. Christ’s honor has been assailed; the morality of the church has been assailed—directly by some, and indirectly by others, who do not care so much for their Lord and master as to be willing to separate from association with those who have openly blasphemed Him.
I own that the low, earthly-minded; worldly state of saints, which cannot meet this is a consequence of the Holy Spirit having been grieved and quenched.
I desire to go down as low as possible, bearing any and all blame; but, come what may, never to sanction that which corrupts the morality of the church—never to be tolerant to that which insults Christ; and never to be identified by association with that which cares neither for the glory of Christ; nor for the morality of His church, nor for its unity.
Plymouth, January 23rd. 1857.
A Few Practical Thoughts on Confidence
This little paper was originally written for one who, at the time, was in sore need of help and encouragement. It has been thought that it might be used to meet the wants of others in similar circumstances, and perhaps also to establish and strengthen, in some small degree, those young in the truth who have not yet become familiar with the glorious foundations on which our faith rests. May the Lord bless it, and He shall have all the praise!
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“Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.” Hebrews 10:35.
Nothing is more distressing than to see a believer—one who is a child of God—in a condition of uncertainty with regard to his place in Christ. To one who has been enabled by grace to grasp with assurance the truth “as it is in Jesus,” to accept God’s testimony concerning the completeness and perfection of the work of Him who is now at the right hand of God in glory, it is a subject of continual marvel, as well as sorrow, that any fellow-believer should be in uncertainty as to that which to him is so bright, so real, so certain. But still, there is the fact that there are some, yea, many, dear souls—dear to God, dear to Christ—who never, for any considerable time together, can feel the certainty, “the full assurance,” which, properly and according to God’s expressed desire, they should possess. At one moment in their history, they are all happiness, all joy, all satisfaction; at another, they are all clouds, all darkness, realizing nothing but their distance, knowing no power in communion, no strength in walk, none of the brightness of the “hope set before us.” Such is the fact, strange and incongruous as it may seem. I say “incongruous,” because there is not the shadow of ground or authority in the Word for such a condition of things. There all is certainty, all clearness and brightness—for the simple reason that all is Divine. In God’s order, no place can be found for that which has any doubt or misgiving about it; and therefore we are justified in saying that where there is doubt or misgiving, it must be man’s work: it cannot be God’s.
Now it is my earnest desire to be used, in some small way, in helping to deliver souls from the condition I have described, not only for their own benefit, but that the name of the Lord Jesus might be exalted and magnified. For how can His glory be understood or appreciated when souls keep back from that which He died to give them, from that which His resurrection has secured for them, if they will but have faith to accept it?
In opening out this subject, therefore, I would look at three points:
First, What God says in His Word about our place in Christ.
Second, How man has received it, and appreciated it.
Third, How we are to get freedom and deliverance from that which is, on the one hand, so dishonoring to Christ, and on the other, so hindering to ourselves.
We feel what a serious task we have before us; but we know we can rely upon that blessed Spirit of God to guide us and direct us.
1. No Uncertainty in the Word of God
First, then, let us look at a few Scriptures, which show us the place we are entitled to by virtue of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, the well-known passage (1 Peter 3:18)— “Christ hath once suffered for sins; the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” That is to say, the work of Christ on the cross had, as one of its objects, to bring us, lost and guilty sinners, into the presence of God. But for that, we must have remained at the distance in which our condition by nature and practice had put us. We were “dead in trespasses and sins,” and as such we could not come near a holy God—One who cannot even look upon sin, One into whose presence sin never can enter. But the work of Christ does away with all that, and in virtue of it, He brings us to God; that is, He introduces us, gives us a right to enter, into a place from which we in our natural state were excluded. Every one, therefore, who appropriates the value of Christ’s sacrifice, or, in Levitical language, lays his hand on the head of the offering (Leviticus 1:4, and 4:4), is entitled to know that he is brought into the presence of God Himself, as one delivered entirely from that which formerly kept him away; as it says in John 1:12, “As many as received him, to them gave he power [or, as it is more correctly put in the margin, the right, or privilege] to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name.”
Then look at that beautiful passage in the 10th of Hebrews— “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Here we get the same place referred to, but with fuller details; and it is put in a form which is, perhaps, more comprehensible to us, as it refers to a beautiful type, familiar, not only to the Hebrews, to whom this epistle was written, but to all of us. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter” —where?— “into the holiest!” What was that? Why the very innermost sanctuary, where God Himself dwelt. (See Exodus and Leviticus) There was the “court,” or “holy place,” for the people, the “holy,” for the priests, and the “most holy,” where God was, into which none but the high priest could enter, and he only once a year, having made an atonement for himself first. But we—wonderful fact!—have “boldness to enter into the holiest,” to go right through the “holy place,” and the “holy,” and to penetrate into the very presence-chamber of the great God Himself! What a privilege! What a title! After this, how utterly insignificant do earthly titles appear! How the privilege of having an audience, an interview, with some great one on earth, sinks into nothingness as compared with the title we possess, yea, and the “boldness” too, to have communion with the blessed Father Himself, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”!
But do not let us forget the ground for all this— “By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” The place is thus ever connected, you see, with the work of Christ on the cross. Nothing without that; but with that, everything. What did the “blood of Jesus” do? It is familiar to us all. After the Lord Jesus had done His work on the cross, after He had cried “It is finished” — “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom;” that which had for ages kept man away from the presence of God was removed, and the way into the holiest was opened; and it has never been shut since, blessed be His name.
Could anything be more divinely clear than this? Could anything more completely set forth the perfection of the work which Christ accomplished on the cross? And how beautiful are the verses following— “And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith; having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water;” or in other words, having the privilege, let us exercise it; having the right, let us use it! Do not let us be found possessing an inestimable privilege, and yet be afraid to avail ourselves of it; but in all confidence, in the knowledge that the evil conscience we once had is sprinkled, cleansed, purged, and that everything that was impure in us, has been, in God’s sight, washed away, let us come into His presence, to commune with Him, to worship Him, and to tell forth the praises of Him who hath called us “out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Such, then, is the place into which, by the grace of God, we have been called. These passages are only two out of a multitude which might be referred to if we had time enough now to look through them. Either of these two is amply sufficient to establish the truth eve have before us; but we will just enumerate a few other passages to show that Scripture omits no aspect of the truth which might help to establish the believer, and to give him perfect confidence and assurance.
First, as to what we are now:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1)
“This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:11-13.)
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Eph. 1:6.)
“As he [Christ] is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17.)
“Ye are complete in him” [Christ]. (Col. 2:10.)
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” (Rom. 8:16, 17)
Second, as to the future, both in this world and in that to come—
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6.)
“I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38, 39.)
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they dial never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29.)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment, same Greek word as in the 22nd verse] but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24.)
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” (1 John 4:17.)
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 8, 4.)
We have quoted these passages without comment, for surely they speak for themselves; but before passing on to our next head, we will just mention two thoughts which occur to us with regard to them.
First, the intimate connection which exists in many of them between the present and the future; showing that God sees our salvation, as it were, at one glance, as a complete thing, from its beginning on the cross, to its end in glory. The thought of our being Christ’s down here, and then not Christ’s up there, is an utter impossibility (we say it with all reverence) to the infinite mind of God. He sees us as believers in, belonging to, accepted in, Christ, and therefore there is no distinction in His mind, as to our standing, whether we are down here or up there, inasmuch as Christ is ever “in His bosom.” How blessed, how truly wondrous!
Then secondly, every one of these passages, and all others of a like kind, are absolute statements; no “ifs,” no conditions, no qualifications; all is sure and certain, for the simple reason that all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” As to our walk and responsibility as being in this place, we find them amply provided for in other passages, but these are not what we are just at present dealing with.
2. Man’s Difficulties.
Why have we so much difficulty in receiving and appreciating such blessed truth as this we have been looking at There are several reasons. One is, because we look at Divine things from human point of view. We reason and argue about God’s ways to us according to the same rule as we reason about our nays one to another. In human maters, our relations one to another (leaving out the family relationship, which we shall look at presently) hang upon slender a thread, and are so easily set wide by causes which in themselves are often frivolous, that few of us (oh, how few!) can realize that God deals not with us after the same manner, that His affection for us is infinitely beyond and above the influence of things which, from a human point of view, would be sufficient to sever the relationship. What is the consequence of all this? Why, simply this, that whenever, through unwatchfulness, we have allowed evil to come in; whenever we feel that we have not been walking up to the standard we have fixed for ourselves; how ready we are, many of us, to think that our place in Christ is lost to us, instead of coming to our Father, as His children, and confessing the evil, knowing that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How easily do we let “that wicked one” persuade us that we shall have to begin all over again! O happiness for the time is gone; our communion is hindered; we realize none of the freshness and freedom we once knew How sad all this is! How the blessed Savior must mourn and grieve those of His people who can thus be turned away from Him! He, on His, part, holding out peace, rest, everything to satisfy us; we, on ours, ready to be; drifted away from it, ready to lose sight of it, ready almost to surrender all we hold most dear!
Another reason is that we have never laid hold sufficiently of a personal Christ; i.e., we have never had Him sufficiently, before us as a real man—a real person. Our conception of Christ has been too indistinct, too hazy. The moral beauties of Christ, as a living and glorified man at God’s right hand, have never been before our souls with sufficient power. The consequence is that we have never realized, to the full extent, our association with Him. We may have, by faith, been enabled to enter into His work on the cross, by which our sins were in some way, we hardly know how, dealt with; but we have never known Him as the one raised from the dead, seated at God’s right hand, His work all done (Heb. 10:12), and we seated there in Him (Eph. 2:6). Even now, one often meets with Christians who really hardly know that Christ is a man still (a glorified man, of course). Their knowledge of Him extends not beyond His work; they know nothing of Him personally.
All this we believe to be the source of vast injury and loss to souls. The want of knowledge of the personal tie which exists between Christ and us—which, blessed be God, exists whether we realize it or not—throws us back more upon ourselves and our own doings, making us feel happy or otherwise, according as we think our doings are acceptable or not in the sight of God whereas, blessed be His name, the link which unites us to a personal Christ is totally independent of our own doings of experiences. This we saw in the first section. “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” says the apostle. Could anything be more intimate and personal? How many of us realize this, or even believe it? To one who has been enabled to grasp this blessed truth, uncertainty cannot come in, because lie knows himself associated, personally and individually, with One who never can be set aside. Christ and the believer are so closely knit together in the presence of God that they must stand or fall together. Is Christ forever accepted before God? So is the believer. In the fragrance of the person of Christ ever ascending in the presence of God (compare Ex. 30:8) we see there we are— “accepted in Him.”
Just look at this for a moment in another aspect. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that all I have said about our acceptance in Christ is wrong, and that our salvation does depend upon our own doings, which of us would be saved? Not one! Not one of us could stand up before God, even when we are most satisfied with ourselves, and say we deserve to be saved. No; it is a mercy to think that God does not accept us for and in ourselves. What does the Scripture say? “There is none righteous, no, not one.” How completely, then, are we shut out from our own doings, and cast upon the perfect work of another, even that One at God’s right hand— “the man Christ Jesus.”
We must not, however, go on with this point longer, though we would fain do so; but we must just look at one other cause of the uncertainty of some before going on to the third point; had set before us at the beginning and this is, the sad mistake which; many make, of confounding our responsibility, as believers, with our standing, our position, in Christ. The two things are in Scripture carefully separated, as is quite evident to anyone who; like Timothy, knows how to “rightly divide the word of truth.” In no case do they ever clash one with the other. All the numerous exhortations to watchfulness against evil, of whatever kind they may be, are addressed to those who are already believers. Let me make this distinct and clear. The very fact of our being believers makes these exhortations necessary. It would be quite useless to address exhortations as to walk and ways to an unbeliever, one who has not even been brought to Christ. How can he understand them? To illustrate this—it would have been the value of the Jewish ceremonies to the unbelieving nations around? They would not have understood or entered into them. All that we find in Exodus and Leviticus was for the Jews, as being God’s chosen people. So is it now. The Holy Spirit arts with the fact that we are believers, and then proceeds to give us admonitions as to our walk and ways before God. Solemn indeed they are. Let no one suppose I am attempting to weaken them. A holy God must have holiness. “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” were the words that Moses heard at the burning bush. “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.”
But this is where the mistake is—man looks upon holiness as a means to an end; or, in other words, as that upon which his salvation depends; while God looks upon it as the outcome, the fruit, of one who has already been brought to Him through believing in Jesus. Do I make this clear? If so, does it not open out to your mind, dear fellow-believers, a different order of things altogether frail what you have been accustomed to? Instead of your striving to do what is “right,” in order to make yourself as acceptable before God, does it not open on to you the multitude of opportunities you will have of doing His will, because you are a child of His? In gratitude and love to Him, and in the spirit of consecration to Christ, will you not henceforth live for Him, and speak for Him, as one who has been picked up out of the dust; who has been “translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom God’s dear Son?” Oh, it is a wonderful position to be in, and one which calls upon us all to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.” (Col. 1:10.)
3. How Freedom May Be Obtained.
I believe the first thing is to get into God’s presence, and, in absolute self-nothingness, to look to Him to open our eyes to the exceeding glory and beauty of Christ. He is the one that solves every difficulty. In the sight of Him every cloud vanishes; and (would it be too much to say?) having once seen Him as He is in glory, the soul will be delivered, once for all, from that which may hitherto have kept it in doubt and uncertainty. Did Paul ever forget “the glory of that light” which he saw on the way to Damascus? Was it not the remembrance of that which made him say in his later years— “Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” What were the “things which are before,” — “the prize of the high calling”? Why, the same glory which he had seen for one brief moment many a long year before, but which was still so vividly present to him that he longed to be where he would see not else; where the things “which are behind” would be, indeed, forever forgotten. Oh, it is a wonderful power, this knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus! We do not see the glory of it literally, as Paul did, but it is as real a thing to us as it was to him. May the Lord enable many a one who has never seen Jesus to see Him now! The apostle says in the Hebrews— “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” May you, reader, thus see Him!
Then our freedom and deliverance are materially helped by our accepting in simple faith, and entering into, God’s declaration that we are His children. The apostle says (Gal. 3:26)— “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” and to this the “Spirit bears witness with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16). This family relationship which God has set up between Himself and us, when duly appreciated, is most helpful to us, and God intended that it should be so. Let us look at this relationship for a moment as it exists between ourselves here on earth, and the first thing that strikes us is, that it is something which cannot be done away with. Whatever may be the circumstances, whether the child be an obedient one or not, whether he be an honor to his parents or the reverse, though it may be he is doing nothing but seeking his own pleasure, despite the grief and distress of the loving ones at home, still the relationship exists. It cannot be set aside. Take a simple illustration. In a family of, say, half-a-dozen, you may find every shade of obedience, from the child who seeks in everything to study the wishes of its parents, and to live for them in loving return for all the care they have manifested, down to the one who goes its own way, thinks its own thoughts, and only remembers its parents in the moment of need. But yet they are all children; nothing has interfered with their relationship; and though, sad to say, some are absolutely useless as regards service; or in producing any fruit that may bring credit to those who have nurtured them and watched over them in their helpless moments, yet they have still the inalienable right and title to be called children. Well now; the great God has deigned to take up this relationship and to bring us into it. He calls Himself our Father (John 20:17) and us His children (Gal. 3:26). We have not invented this, but He, out of the fullness of His grace, has set it up, and given it to us to enjoy. Shall we be found refusing to take what God has given? Shall we be presumptuous enough to try to set aside that which God has distinctly and clearly established? Nay, dear fellow-believers, let us rather thankfully accept God’s appointment; and further, let us live in constant self-judgment, and subjection to the written Word, that we, as children, may be found among those who live nearest to God, “as obedient children,” (1 Peter 1:14), being followers of God “as dear children.” (Eph. 5:1).
I might just add (though it is surely not necessary) that the fact of our being set in such close and enduring relationship with God is not intended to give us the liberty to act in disobedience, or to walk according to our own ways, presuming on our relationship. God will surely chasten us for unjudged evil. The whole history of the Jewish people is an illustration of this. But it is meant to establish the feeble, hesitating soul, and to deliver such an one from the fear of Satan coming in to rob us of our place in Christ. Thank God, he never can do it!
One more point and I have done. If believers would keep before them constantly the expectation of the Lord’s return for His people—to take them out of this scene of darkness and rejection (John 14), would they not find in them such a power as would keep them always bright, always joyous, always free? By taking away their thoughts from themselves, and transferring them to such a delightful object as the return of the Lord Jesus, will not the mind and heart be preoccupied as to afford no room for the seasons of gloomy disquietude? None but those who are watching for the Lord can tell the wonderfully elevating effect it has. Read this verse in Luke 12: “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” After this, can any believer in Christ fail to watch for Him? “Watching” for Him, they will find a continual source of delight, and a superiority over self, such as, we venture to say, will set them, and keep them, right outside the region of doubt and misgiving.
I must not go on any further, but I would leave these thoughts with you, looking to the Lord, above all things, to open your eyes to the exceeding beauty of the blessed Jesus—that, having your attention taken off from yourselves and centered upon Him, you may know what it is to have perfect rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Is It Thus With You?
WE read in the first chapter of the Acts, that the Lord Jesus, when risen from the dead, commanded through the Holy Spirit the apostles whom He had chosen—not to depart from Jerusalem, but to “wait for the promise of the Father (which ye have heard of me)”; for “ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come” [or, “of the Holy Spirit coming”] upon you.
He then was seen to ascend, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Acts 1:2-10.
The coming down of the Spirits on the day of Pentecost is traced by Peter (Acts 2:33) up to its source. his taking up of His abode in and among the company which the Lord Jesus had gathered was altogether a new thing, never known before. It made them and those of their company to become the habitation of GOD (through the Holy Spirit there, Eph. 2:22) and was power for witnessing unto the Lord Jesus, from whom it came—unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Observe, it was the Holy Spirit Himself—a person in the Godhead, who came down (John 14:16) to earth from the Father and the Son in heaven, and took up His abode on earth (not in a tent, however ornamented, made of skins and curtains—nor in a temple built of Stone with hands of men—but) in and among living men on earth, whom the Lord Jesus loved and who loved Him; and He came to be the Paraclete (or Guardian, translated v. 16 and 26 “Comforter”) down here when Christ became the Paraclete in heaven with the Father, 1 John 3:1 (here translated “Advocate.”)
This company is looked upon, in after parts of Scripture, in different aspects. 1St, as the habitation of God; 2ndly, as the family adopted of the Father and committed by Him to the Son to bring to glory; and 3rdly, as the spiritual body of Christ—one Spirit, and so one with Himself—the Bride. But in each of these blessed aspects, the Holy Spirit has His own full and distinctively peculiar place. Quite true is it that men have been entrusted with a new revelation [in that called the New Testament] and a new place of obedient dependence upon the Holy Spirit in a new position, and men have failed in the responsibility again, as ever-forgotten both Holy Spirit and the truth which He came as witness of. But He has no more failed than God can fail; no more failed than the Father on high has failed in His counsels and plans about the Son of His love; and thus there is to faith a habitation of God down here still, and there is for hope the New Jerusalem to come. There are those that say I am a “son (hui-os) of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26), and into whose hearts “God has sent the Spirit of His Son, crying Abba, Father,” (4:6); and if Abba’s heart be our present blessing, Abba’s house is our hope (John 14:2, 3), where Abba’s self and Abba’s Son will be, together, for our joy in the Spirit. So there are those now that hold the Head and know themselves, members in particular, cared for by Him, to whom eternity is as time, and who nourishes and cherishes His body ( Eph. 5:28-30; see also 1:22 to 2:10), and means to present it to Himself a glorious bride without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
Remark in chapter 1 how the Lord himself, through the Spirit, gave commands (v. 2); we, too, now, ought to—and in the glory to come we shall know what “by the Spirit all-pervading” means; He was promised by the Father, as the Son Himself had told them (comp. Heb. 2); He was come in an all-covering baptism (v. 5); as power for testimony to Jesus [for us] unto the uttermost part of the earth (v. 8).
As the taking possession of the tabernacle and of the temple was in either case attended with most signal marks, so in chapter 2 The Holy Spirit’s taking possession of the new sort of habitation (the old sort of temple itself was left standing with its rent veil) had its indications too: suddenly came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind—the house where they were sitting filled with it; cloven tongues as of fire upon each of them; all of them filled with the Holy Spirit; each spake in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (v. 4). When this got noised abroad, the multitude were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language (read v. 5-11). Eighteen localities are named whence they came. The confounding of the tongues at Babel’s tower to stop wickedness, found its contrast here when the wonderful works of God in Christ had to be proclaimed.
Then, again, this was not the result of drunkenness—but of a promised pouring of “my Spirit upon all flesh” (v. 17, 18); connected with what went beyond Israel and set it aside in its then state. “Whosoever shall call” &c. went beyond Israel, as “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord” did not describe Israel’s then state. Peter’s testimony is contained in one sermon of twenty-six verses (14-40). One sermon gained three thousand souls. Verses 42-47 describe the favored company. Its marks were peculiar, but very beautiful before God and man.
And the Holy Spirit, who had come down, took into His own hands the reins of government and administration; the arrangement, settling, and carrying out of every part of what He meant to be done. The will was and is in God, not in man, though voluntarily did those that knew the Blesser go along with Him taking the lead, and. Himself working out what He would. In chap. 4:8, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, and has a bold and wise testimony to give (10-12 and 19, 20). They return to their own company—prayer ascends—the place is shaken, and all; filled with the Holy Spirit, spake the word of God with boldness (23-31); and then follows another beautiful account of the company.
If anyone will take the trouble to read through the Acts, and mark in the margin with an S all the verses in which the Spirit is named, such an one will be astonished to see how the presence of God the Holy Spirit, and His using men and working by men, is marked upon every part of it.
It seems to me that the redemption of Israel out of Egypt was so arranged by Jehovah, that every part of it threw out His presence into light. If there was an Exodus, it proved that He was there; if there was no being locked up at Pihahiroth, it was because He was there whose word the Red Sea heard and obeyed. The pillar of fire and cloud marked the presence of Him who had water and manna to give. He present, the way into Canaan was patent, and made good by Israel. If He was dishonored, forgotten, disobeyed, there was no possible tenure of blessings given. And afterward His temple could. not stand. without Himself. God is all and in all to faith—and man is nothing. If in true subjection, dependent and obedient, then blessed. If unbelievingly out of subjection, independent and disobedient—where and what is he? What could the twelve apostles. have done, or do, without a living Lord to look after them. If subject—dependent and obedient —they were as John—in the bosom; if true but self-complacent and not self-judged, then they were as Peter; if not real, but self-honoring, as Judas. But as to the good, the Lord. was alone, and the all in all was in Him. And what can I do. if I forget the Holy Spirit come down from the Father and the Son in heaven, that I may have power to look up and, taught of God, see Jesus Lord. of all at the right hand of God and the Father in heaven; Himself firstborn among many brethren, Himself Head over all things to His company down here; Himself, who made and upholds all things, making the throne on high to be the mercy-seat, and all His springs of life to be known as His people’s, and the light of the blessing resting upon all them that believe (Rom. 3:22)., Let Paul plant, let Apollos water; ‘tis God alone that gives the increase to His own seed.
Has the Father given us another Paraclete “that He may abide with us forever:” even the Spirit of truth, whom we know, and who is in us? (John 14:16, 17). Is this a blessing now enjoyed by us (15:26, 27): “But when the Paraclete is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”? Most surely it is a blessing now existent. Does the Spirit of God dwell in us—even the Spirit of Christ; then let us, the body being dead because of sin, mortify its deeds. Led by the Spirit of God—we are sons of God, have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, We have the testimony of the Spirit. with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and then follows the blessed verse 17, and that other, 21, Rom. 8. And note it in 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; believers collectively are the temple in which the (comp. 2 Cor. 6:16) Spirit of God abides. And in 6:19, the individual is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit wrought in creation, providence, government, also in eternal redemption (Luke 3: 35; Acts 10:38; Heb. 9:14, &c.), and in eternal salvation as applied to us. All our knowledge of God and of the things of God, is through the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9-14). The Bible, too, He wrote it (2 Peter 1:21). He is the Spirit of truth, and testifies of Christ (John 15:26). We received Him by the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2, 5). Our access to the Father is by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). Our union with the Lord is by Him (1 Cor. 6:17; 12:13, 14). We may be filled with the Spirit; Paul speaks (Phil. 1:12) of a supply of the Spirit, of standing fast in one Spirit (27); of common fellowship of the Spirit (2:1), of worship in the Spirit (3:3). See also Eph. 1:17, He is wisdom and revelation, and as strength in the inner man to those who seek Him (3:16). He warns us, too, not to quench Him (1 Thess. 5:19), nor grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), and speaks of some having done despite to Him (Heb. 10:29).
It is a great thing (without being wise above what is written) to be wise according to what is written, and to have a solemn sense of the dignity of Him who ministers Christ to us, and can enable us through faith to do all things.
If the dignity of Him, the promise of the Father, who has come down to earth and ministers (as the Spirit of truth,) Christ to us individually and collectively, and is the One charged with the administration of God’s house down here, were more thought of—there would be more reverent awe, perhaps, in our assemblies, more sense of our own nothingness in ourselves, and more courageous confidence of Christ’s strength being made perfect in our weakness.
One habitation—one heavenly family of God—one body (called also the Espoused, 2 Cor. 11:2, and the Bride, Rev. 22:17, and the Wife, Rev. 19:7, of the Lamb) until the Lord comes. One, and but one, till all is finished and perfected.
Who could know the counsel, and the plan, and the way, and the energy, needful to form a company which would. meet all this? None but God, and those to whom He reveals it. Who could undertake and be entrusted with the work of atonement (making the throne of God to be the mercy seat) and of being, in that throne, the giver and sustainer of eternal? None (says Scripture) but the Son, Jesus the Lord and Christ. And who (in spite of the world, and the flesh, and Satan) is in administration down here for God, even the Father, and for the Christ, Son of His love? God Himself, even the Holy Spirit. He who came down at Pentecost. and will be in sole administration until the Lord Jesus takes to Himself that which is His and the Father’s.
Would to God that we might all see this—and, owning Him, might be true and real, dependent and obedient in all things and times.
G. V. W.
~~~Taught of God in His Book, you will find that the Spirit does not occupy us with Himself, but with the Lord Jesus, to witness to whom He came. Himself is the divine power of our intelligence as to all the realities of that world into which He has brought us.
The Holy Spirit Himself, and the pure word of His testimony, (both are from the Father and through the Son), are that which we have, now, to count upon.
Ministry of the Word
THE greet question in connection with a man’s ministering in the congregation of the saints is this— “Does he correctly communicate the present thoughts of the Divine, mind as to themselves to those to whom he speaks?” With whatever lisping or stammering a man may speak in the assembly of the saints, I shall, I trust, never be displeased with the matter, while I can say, “That man has evidently laid home upon the consciences of these people the very truth GOD saw they needed,” nor stand in doubt of the speaker while I see that, in the deep sense of weakness, he has spoken not to please himself, but only for the sakes of the Lord and the brethren.
The Ministry of the Word is a very broad subject; and at present, I only attempt a few remarks upon it for present practical benefit.
As to the speaker there are just two points to which he his peculiarly to look, viz. First, “The mind of GOD as in present exercise about those present,” and Secondly, “The communicating to the hearers the truth GOD would place before them.”
On the first of these points (GOD’s present mind about the persons present), it must be remembered that GOD is dealing with us as a physician to heal us, and his way is not to communicate to us his thoughts about our present state, so much as, perfectly apprehending that state, to minister such truth and such discipline to us as will remedy the disease. I see great mistake among many in this; they think that if they could but know all GOD’S thoughts about their own present state, they would easily remedy all the evil, and that if they could but see GOD’s estimate of others, they would tell it them, and so remedy the evil. But the knowledge of an evil and the cure for it are two distinct things; and often the sense of ignorance as to the exact disease is, in the things of GOD, part of the cure, by leading to more dependence upon Him. If it needs a case to confirm this, clearly GOD’S communication to Adam and Eve of His knowledge of their fall was not his provision to meet the evil, nor the power of remedy for it.
That a speaker, as a fellow laborer with God, should know GOD’S estimate of a congregation, or of the individual soul he is ministering to, may be expected; nevertheless this will be little more than for guidance to him, and often if led much in speaking by the Spirit, he will arrive at the truth for others without knowing their state previously—yea, learn their state from the truth given him, more than what truth to give them from their state; for the Holy Ghost is altogether beyond the renewed mind: the recognition of this I believe to be important. Still, where ministering with intelligence (Divine intelligence I mean), the thing he has to seek after is what is in GOD’s mind for the state of things among those present. This, of course, supposes much intercourse with the brethren—a sort of day and night labor as Paul’s (Acts 20:31).
On the second point, (viz. the communicating, to others, that which GOD gives for them), I believe that as to the medium of communication, we may say, according to our measure of faith and the Spirit (1 Cor. 1:13), “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” We shall not be guarded absolutely and entirely (as were the Apostles and Prophets while communicating Scripture, both as to apprehension of what GOD would communicate by them, and as to the words by which He would communicate it), or it could not be said; “let the other judge” (1 Cor. 14:29); yet, though in no wise infallibly preserved (as were they in giving us the Scripture), yet, in measure guided and guarded, we may, if humble and relying on the Holy Ghost, surely expect to be.
Fluency of speech and eloquence of diction, the power of producing sensation upon the minds or feelings, the possession of a fund of scriptural matter of deep interest to ourselves, or which may have been largely blessed elsewhere, will be no excuse for speaking. If what is spoken is not the thought now resting upon the mind of Jesus, who is up there, at the Father’s right hand, and the portion which the Holy Ghost, who is down here, has for the assembly, it should never be spoken. Disregard of the former of the two points referred to (namely, GOD’s, present thoughts), will leave the ministry without power, howsoever much influence the speaker may possess, or howsoever much he may affect to be practical; while neglect of regard to the consciences of the hearers leave it dry, and without unction.
It seems to me, that no one that ministers should be ashamed to speak to his hearers of what he said, and their estimate of it. If I believe that GOD has communicated a portion for present benefit through me, should I not be ready to own I believe it to be of Him, not myself? and surely, if I am not so far assured that He is my leader in service, “silence” not ministry would become me.
I cannot quit this subject without alluding to a point much upon my heart, which is immediately connected with it—the state of the assembly. If the spirit of worship is not in the whole assembly, poor work will teachers or hearers find it. In the present day, particularly, I find that however gifted any may be, the spirit, and power of worship is what is most needed.
This, as it is surely the spirit of meekness and lowliness of heart before GOD and man, is the great need in all assemblies; and it is this which is the great preparative and safeguard of labor of every kind in those that have ability to minister, as well as of profiting in those ministered to. And is there not in this respect a great, if not the greatest short coming? Do our assemblies—say on Lord’s day mornings and at our worship meetings—present to the eye of GOD groups of saints, from the grateful heart of each of whom a reeking fume of thankfulness and gratitude is seen ascending up as incense to the name of the assembly, or to suggest to it a hymn as the vehicle for the expression of its real state to GOD, requires great discernment, or else a most immediate guidance from God.
E. But if there were five gifted persons present at a meeting, how could they, without pre-arrangement, avoid clashing in their ministration?
W. By waiting upon the Holy Ghost, each would get his own guidance whether to speak or to be silent, and
how and what to speak. And if while one was speaking another had a matter given to him, the first would gladly sit down (1 Corinthians xiv. 30).
By the habit of pre-arrangements; religious persons, at the freest meetings which they know, are now prevented one lesson of dependence upon GOD, and one opportunity of learning from Him; which those who act otherwise know to be very precious. By liberty of ministry, you will observe I do not mean that all the brethren present have liberty to speak; but that the Holy Ghost has liberty to use any gift Himself may have bestowed.
On Ministry in the Word
E. I have heard that you assert that “every brother is competent to teach in the assembly of the saints!”
W. If I did so, I should deny the Holy Ghost. No one is competent to do this who has not received gift from God for this very purpose.
E. Well, but you believe that every brother in the assembly of the saints has a right to speak if he is able?
W. Indeed I do not. I deny the right to any one save GOD the Holy Ghost; a man may in nature be very able to speak, and to speak well, but if he cannot “please his neighbor for food to edification,” the Holy Ghost has not fitted him to speak; and he is dishonoring GOD his Father, grieving the Spirit, and undervaluing Christ’s church if he does speak, and is showing, moreover, his own self-will.
E. Well, what is the peculiarity which you do hold?
W. You may think it peculiar to me, perhaps, to believe that as the Church belongs to Christ, He has—in order that its attention may not be wrongly directed, and its time misspent in listening to that which is not profitable (pretty as it may be)—given gifts to it by which alone it is to be edified and ruled.
E. No, I admit that, and only wish that there were a little more coveting of such gifts from GOD, and more caution to put a stop to the use of every other means, however accredited by human power or eloquence.
W. I hold also that the Holy Ghost gives gifts to whom He pleases, and also what gifts He pleases. And that the saints ought so to be united together as that the gift of one brother should never make the exercise of the real gift of another irregular, and that there should be an open door for the little as well as the great gifts.
E. That is a matter of course.
W. Not so; for neither in the Church of England nor in Dissent do I find 1 Cor. 14, acted upon. Moreover, I assert that no gift from GOD has to, wait for a sanction from the Church ere it is used. If it is of GOD, He will accredit it, and the saints recognize its value.
E. Do you admit “a regular, ministry?”
W. If by a regular ministry you mean a stated ministry (that is, that in every assembly those who are gifted of GOD to speak to edification will be both limited in number and known to the rest), I do admit it; but if by a regular ministry you mean an exclusive ministry, I dissent. By an exclusive ministry I mean the recognizing certain persons as so exclusively holding the place of teachers, as that the use of a real gift by any one else would be irregular. As for instance, in the Church of England and in most dissenting chapels, a sermon would be felt to be irregular which had been made up by two or three persons really gifted by the Holy Ghost.
E. On what do you build this distinction?
W. From Acts 13:1; I see that at Antioch there were but five, whom the Holy Ghost recognized as teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, Saul. Doubtless, at all the meetings it was only these five, one or more of them, as it pleased the Holy Ghost, who were expected by the saints to speak. This was a stated ministry. But it was not an exclusive ministry; for when Judas and Silas came (xv. 32), they were pleased to take their places among the others, and then the recognized teachers were more numerous.
E. And what connection would this have with the giving out of a Psalm, &c. or with praying or reading a portion of Scripture?
W. These would fall like the rest entirely under the Holy Ghost’s direction. Alas for the man whose self-will chose to give out a hymn, or to pray, or read a scripture, without the guidance of the Spirit! In doing these things in the assembly of the saints, he is professing to be moved and guided by the Holy Ghost; and to profess this where it is not true is very presumptuous. If the saints know what communion is, they will know how very difficult it is to lead the congregation in prayer and singing. Exhortation is comparatively easy, because the basis of it is fixed in the precepts of Scripture, though the just application of those precepts to the minds and circumstances of persons present always supposes a great power of the Spirit. To address GOD in
CONTENT WE HAVE ENDS HERE
Our Extremity Is God's Opportunity.
In 2 Cor. 4.6 we have life coming into death, the almighty power of God speaking light, where there was darkness; bringing in life, where there was death. In Ephesians 2 we have the state and circumstances of those to whom He gave life. We find there the entire absence of anything good in the creature. We see in verses 1-3 the pit from whence they were digged and who is the master of it; and then is brought out (v. 4) the motive of the divine mind— “rich mercy:” It is an old thought that if we look at the origin and close of anything we shall form a correct judgment of it. Look at this pit, and then the finish of this perfect work, when the Lord appears on the cloud, what does it show? All weakness in the creature, all power in Him.
Paul had been looked into by the Lord Jesus Christ in glory, he had given up all his plans, he had got a new master, he was a new man. But some time or other he had to go through the process of learning what the entire impotency of the earthen vessel is, when any claims are put upon it. We learn grace, but we have to learn too what the earthen vessel is—that “in me dwelleth no good thing.” The soul gets a sense of its total incompetency. We must and can only get at what is right through death and resurrection. Faith must be in exercise; but often when we ask for faith, instead of the rest and quiet we expect, waves and billows arise. The wave of death rolls in, which bring us to our wits’ end. Christ works all our works in us. We feel we ought to be this or that, but where is the power? He that plants the seed in us breaks up little bits of the rock that the water may make it bud, and that the seed may grow up. Are we struggling against lusts, etc., and forgetting that it is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit?” We do not realize enough that everything is secured for us up there. Some who know how to sing the song of redemption, in the wilderness, have yet to learn their connection with the perfect power of Him who is risen from the dead, and have, as to themselves, to go on in the sense of cripplement and perfect weakness. I could not ask the Lord to take the law of sin and death out of me. The light shined into Saul’s heart, it did not take anything out of him; but it enabled him to be master of all his lusts and passions. He had to learn that he was but an earthen vessel.
God is the God of resurrection. God’s way of dealing with His people is the display of His strength in their weakness. You need not be afraid of being brought to death if He is the God of resurrection. Have you the sentence of death in yourself? It is a thing of everyday wear; a Christian man should never take a step but on the principle of having the sentence of death in himself. God often brings us up to the last point, to see if we have the sentence of death in ourselves. If He lets us down into a pit where there is no water, there is light above: “Who hath delivered and doth deliver,” etc. (2 Cor. 1-10). Past, present, and future, all is connected with Him, as the God of resurrection. If we want to know Him as the “Father of mercies and the God of all comfort,” we must be prepared to be put into circumstances to experience our need of mercy. Mercies are the forms in which the mercy which dwells in the heart of God expresses itself. The Corinthians did not think they needed much comfort, but Paul, who had to run the world round, and who carried the churches in his bosom, found out his need of mercy and comfort. Paul was kept from glorying in gifts, for God rolled in upon him the sentence of death every day; so while the Corinthians were boasting their gifts, God was letting Paul down into all sorts of extremities, that the rain of His mercies might flow in. In 2 Cor. 1 we get the word “comfort” ten times. We shall get lots to bring us into the want of this comfort. It must be so, if we have much to do with Himself. Every step of the wilderness must have the principle of death and resurrection. The servant of the Lord who has known Him longest, I would ask him, Which are the times which look brightest now? Is it not when you have been brought to your wits’ end, and perhaps had little faith, and were almost in despair, when you did not know how the truth or yourselves were to be brought out of it? Then, your extremity has been God’s opportunity to show Himself the God of resurrection. John never gets his cup so turned upside down as to his service as when he found himself in Patmos. He was brought there that a book might be written, without which the Church could not well get to the end: there was the power of God blending itself with weakness. When Israel went out of Egypt God could have led them any other way; but He had prepared the wilderness for them, to teach them that He was the God of resurrection. He knows how to turn the wilderness into a standing water. People say, “Oh, my weakness! my leanness!” But we never should talk of weakness if it were a realized thing, a recognized thing. Sometimes we come and expect rest, and we find disquiet, because He wants to make His strength perfect, in our weakness. Do you give thanks, for the discovery of weakness? Directly we give thanks for a thing that is trying to us, Satan is worsted; he says, That will not serve me. If in a burning fever and you cannot sleep, and you give thanks, he will send you to sleep directly rather than be the cause of your giving thanks. There is sweetness in the very thing, because God is letting in His strength.
Where are the saints who, with outstretched necks, are saying, “Come, Lord Jesus”? Where are those from whom the testimony is going out? Who are tapping at every door and heart and saying, There is mercy in God’s heart for you? You are wanted to display His mercy. God prepares the place beforehand for us. His purpose is that the principle of death and resurrection should be spread over our whole course, from the Red Sea till we enter the Rest.
G. V. W.
Remarks on "Thoughts on the Ruin of the Church. Two Letters by Andrew Jukes."
THERE are questions which are in their very nature absurd, as involving in themselves self-contradiction. They suppose a thing and its essential properties to be and not to be at one and the self-same moment, which is, of course, obviously impossible. In themselves, to a sound mind, they can never therefore be of interest. In the connection in which they are used, they are, however, often deeply interesting, whether as connected with the presenter or with the serious entertainer of them and their circumstances, or with the truth which they may involve. They often, I believe, mark an undetected, and therefore unjudged, presence of the power of Satan, where intellectuality is boasted in; though sometimes they are found in connection with extreme imbecility of mind; for extremes meet. In the presence of God, no sound healthful mind could entertain them.
I give as instances of what I mean, such questions as “Do I exist?” — “Oh, my Father, am I thy child?”—as on the mind or lip of an individual; or as a question entertained by the church, “Is the body separated unto Christ by the Holy Ghost competent for acts of discipline?” The question, in each of the several cases, contains the expressed uncertainty of the existence of that which it also affirms positively to exist. “Do I exist?” is, in my saying it, a proof I do exist; in the form in which I speak it, it is the professed uncertainty of whether or no I do exist. So, “Oh, my Father, am I thy child?” supposes I know I am a child, and yet do not know I am a child of Him whom I call my Father. And for the church to say, Are we competent for discipline? is really the question, Are we the church? for it is the being of the body separated by the presence of the Spirit of Christ unto God which constitutes the church; and where the Holy Ghost is, clearly He is able for all things, and if holy will not brook the sanction of any iniquity.
Such are the thoughts which the perusal of the two letters has awakened.
The writer informs us on the back of the title-page, that, “They are given to the church (i.e. a question whether she exists), not as containing conclusions, but as suggesting some thoughts... which may be for blessing.”
The writer must excuse me if I put it to his conscience, how far he would be justified in saying, “I have come to no conclusion.” The conclusion, that the ruin of the church hinders the saints down here acting in discipline, and that all they can do now is to leave cases of evil to “Jerusalem which is above” the mother of us all, and to God that is there—would be rejected at once by nine out of ten simple Christians, because it obviously involves the question of the surrender of association with God and of individual holiness. In the suggestions of the Letters, this does not lie obviously on the surface, but is most surely involved, though covered over. Hence the simple may be induced to examine the suggestions which the writer made upwards of a year ago, who would reject at once the conclusion. And what is the blessing which the writer hopes may be gained? Is it the arriving upon one or other of the two desirable points between which, as in a dilemma, his own mind was fixed when he wrote the Letters. Hear his own modest statement in the last sentence. To these things, “I have found no satisfactory answer, unless it be answer to say that the consequence of such views must be extremities for which we are not prepared: on the one hand, a submission to Popery; on the other, an entire giving up of anything like a visible body of any sort.”
Now I do not think it will be to the praise before God of him who, having so written to a friend upwards of a year ago, puts forth at such a time as this, in the penny form, his such suggestions: “Let the church of Christ listen to my suggestions, which (have been for a year on my mind and) may convince her that the alternative before her is ‘Rome’ (that is unity in unholiness), or ‘dismemberment.’” Either He is not the Holy Ghost or He is not with us. Let the reader mark what a day of trouble it is; let him weigh the blessed terminus of the author’s thinkings with the two-fold provision for rest; and then let him say whether such a tract was worth sending out or worth reading.
The fallacy of the reasoning used I shall endeavor to show elsewhere.
G. V. W.
April 14, 1849.