CHRISTIANITY

Many in the present day seem to think that Christianity is a development of Judaism, but there could be no greater mistake. Christianity is the introduction of what is wholly new and altogether divine in the Person of the Son of God. We are slow to get hold of this. We do not readily perceive that "the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6), and human sentiment (verses 22, 23) are things of which to beware. But if we savour the things that be of men we are far from the savour of "things that are of God". The leaven of the Pharisees is human religiousness, and the leaven of the Sadducees is human intellect working in connection with divine things. Both are to be dreaded and shunned as elements ever opposed to what is of God, and human sentiment is no better in result, however well it may appear on the surface.

The full revelation of God has come out in Christ the Son. This gives Christ an altogether unrivalled place in the estimation of everyone who has been taught of the Father. Godhead glory shines out in Him before our adoring hearts. I do not refer to this merely as christian doctrine, but as something which has become a very great reality to us. It is our deep joy to know the blessed God revealed in His beloved Son. God has spoken to us in the Son, and He would have us to look at the wonderful record contained in the gospels, in the intelligence of the Holy Spirit, to see the revelation of Himself in it all.

Then whatever came out in the life of Jesus here was uttered in a far deeper way at the cross. What a telling forth of God's heart was there! The death of the Son of God is the mighty voice of divine love to man. The ruin, need, guilt, and

condemnation of man, the sinner, only serve as the dark background to show in stronger light the love that would reach him and bless him in spite of it all. When all were in utter darkness and ignorance of God, He spoke in that amazing hour of Calvary so that He might be known, and loved, and worshipped by all who have ears to hear.

The revelation of God necessarily carries with it salvation for men. God has spoken to us in the Person of the Son (Hebrews 1), and the "great salvation" began to be spoken by the Lord (Hebrews 2). Salvation is man's inheritance according to the grace of God. The portion of men in God's mind is to be "heirs of salvation", and those who despise their birthright are profane persons like Esau, entirely alienated from God. Salvation for men is bound up with the revelation of God because that revelation has come out in the way of redemption. The heart of God was toward man, but certain terrible questions stood in the way. Sins, death and the curse seemed to bar the blessing of men, but the Son has removed them all out of the way. He "having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high" (Hebrews 1:3), and men can now find salvation in the knowledge of God.

Then there is another thing -- the rights of God are all taken up in His beloved Son. There are two things in this connection: the inheritance and the throne. God has established the Son "heir of all things"; He will take up his inheritance in the Person of the Son. Then the throne -- the rule of God -- will also be taken up in the Son, so that God's inheritance may be filled with order and blessing under His rule. The glorious Person who is great enough for all this, and the knowledge of Him by the Father's work in souls, is the Rock on which the assembly is built.

All saints are living stones for Christ's assembly by divine calling. That is what we are in the thought and intention of God. But we have to become living stones characteristically, and the Father's work is essential to this. Peter was a kind of

pattern man; he confessed the Christ, the Son of the living God, by the Father's revelation; but no doubt he had afterwards to reach what was involved in his confession in the history of his soul. We often get things first as divine light, and then we have to be brought into the spiritual reality of them by the work of God in our souls. These two things must ever be kept in view: what we are by God's calling and what we are by God's work. The first is all that is in God's mind for us; the second is the measure of our experimental entrance upon it. The first is altogether divine and perfect; as to the second the Spirit may be grieved by us and the work of God hindered.

The assembly, as built by Christ, is composed of those who are in the life of Christ by the Spirit and who own no other, and therefore the gates of hades cannot prevail against it. Satan can overthrow everything that is of man, but he cannot prevail against what is of Christ.

The Lord said to Peter, "Thou art Peter, (a stone: note h, Matthew 16:18) and on this rock I will build my assembly". There is something in common between a stone and a rock; a stone is a small piece of the same material as a rock. Peter was a bit of the Rock, and that is what saints are. As taught by the Father to appreciate Christ, and to turn from what is not Christ, we, that is true believers, are of kindred nature with Christ. "For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11).

If we look around in the world we see that people generally have little or no concern about Christ; His things are of no interest and are meaningless to them. But there are hearts that thrill with joy in the sense of His blessedness and love. What makes the difference? Just this, that it has been well-pleasing to the Father to reveal something of that blessed One to babes (Matthew 11:25). It is infinitely better to be the smallest, feeblest babe and to perceive the greatness and glory and love of Christ than to be the most honoured person

in the world without any appreciation of Him. It is good when Christ can say to one, "Thou art Peter" -'You are of kindred nature to Myself'! Of course it is necessarily so, if He is our life, and in the Spirit we own no other. The Father has taken us up to bring this about in us. If Christ has thrown self and the world and man in the flesh into the shade in the estimation of our hearts, it is clear proof that we have been the subjects of a divine work. It is as such that we are material for Christ's assembly -- divinely formed material for a divine structure. The Christ, the Son of the living God, is now before us, and the consciousness of belonging to Him and being of Him puts us in spirit outside things here and in moral separation from man in the flesh and his world.

THE WORDS OF OUR LORD

Luke 2:29; Matthew 3:14, 15; Matthew 4:4, 7, 10

I wanted to read a few of the words of our Lord. These scriptures are in my mind as standing in connection with what we have been reminded of lately -- the importance of love to our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think in these five utterances, which, as we know, are the first recorded utterances of our Lord, we get what might be regarded as a full and complete presentation of what He is in Himself -- what He is inwardly. We know that painters have tried to put upon canvas their ideas of the Lord's outward appearance, but none of us trust their ideas. None of us would like to have a picture of the Lord Jesus on the walls of our houses, for we could not be at all sure it was really the Lord at all. And if we were sure it was exactly like what He was outwardly, it would not supply any ground of love to Him. There is no genuine love to the Lord Jesus except as we apprehend what He is inwardly.

Now in the first scripture we find the Lord was assured that Mary and Joseph ought to have known that He would be occupied in His Father's business, or as the note reads, "That I ought to be in the things of my Father". Now we do not know the Lord at all until we understand that. He was a boy of twelve, but He was in the consciousness of sonship, He could speak of "my Father", and of being in the things of His Father. That is what makes Him so different from every other man, what marked Him off from everything in the world. He was wholly absorbed and occupied in the things of His Father. He brought those things here in His heart, so that men might know them, and He lived in them; and if we do not love Him in that character, we can hardly be said to love Him at all. That is, to love the Lord as He is, we need to see Him in relation to His Father. But perhaps a poor sinner

says, 'He died for my sins'. I do not depreciate that; it is true, it is what that Person conferred upon me. But what kind of Person is He in Himself? I shall never love Him until I know that. Gratitude in the heart of a believer for what He has done for him often does not go far; it very often stops short of love to Himself, to His own Person, and has very little separating effect from the world. But if we love Him in relation to the Father we cannot avoid being separated from the world which knows nothing of the Father, who is altogether in separation from the world. Indeed, John says, "If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world ... is not of the Father" (1 John 2:15, 16): All that is really blessed for men lies now in the knowledge of the Father. Jesus as a Boy of twelve was absorbed in His Father's things, and in that character He becomes an object of love to His own; He is carrying in His heart the secret of all the grace of God for men. If we love Him in that character, it shows we have apprehended the Father's things. For there is a whole system of things characterised as the Father's things, which are contrary to everything in the world. So if you have the Father's things brought to you by Jesus you cannot have the world. It is a very practical thing. So everything is possessed in Jesus; they are things which were designed by the Father to be the portion of Jesus. He is the only One that can give us any impression of them. Those who do love Him in that character have done with the wretched, worthless things of the world.

Again, the Lord said in His second recorded utterance, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness". That gives me a true thought of Himself -- His Person. He had before Him to fulfil all righteousness -- all that was right. Although with Him there was no personal cause, He would go with the men who took a right line in repentance. We have to love Him in that character as the righteous One, and so we must take on the same character. I cannot love something in Him and go on with just the opposite. So it separates us from the

whole course of sin in ourselves and in the world. We have been attracted after the One who fulfilled all righteousness. Many believers are hung up for many years because they are not in the path of righteousness; they think they love the Lord but they do not. Often a very little bit of unrighteousness will hinder us. So that love for the Lord Jesus is a very practical thing, it adjusts us at every turn.

Then the Lord in speaking to the devil brings out some of the great and precious things that belong to His own Person. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God's mouth". If we have finished with the world, what are we going on with? We cannot go on with a vacuum. We are too negative in the matter; there is too much negative christianity. The Lord as a Man here lived by every word that went out through God's mouth. There is no other wav to live. If we did not live on the word of God, we should starve. Christians not drawn into His manner of life do starve. He lived by every word of God. It is too great for me, and I do not question that. It is the character and quality of all life toward God, that we live by the communications of the blessed God. And we love Him if we apprehend Him in that character. Then we must take on that character -- love will surely go His way -- and it will make its practical impression on us.

He says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God". That is, the Lord Jesus becomes an object of affection as One with absolute confidence in God. He was put on the pinnacle of the temple. Sometimes God puts His saints in a position of danger. The Lord was then, and he was as quiet and confiding and restful as at any moment in His life. Now this is the Person we love. It is really the test of our affection for the Lord. Sometimes we are trembling and fearful. Oh, if we only loved Him we should be drawn into the same blessed confidence He has in His God and Father.

"Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve". The Lord presents Himself here

as worshipping and serving God; that is, He is the true worshipper. No one could love the Lord Jesus Christ and not be a worshipper, for He is the true Worshipper. David, the great psalmist, praised Jehovah. Every expression of holy worship issued from Jesus. So that genuine love for the Lord Jesus Christ would transform us and fashion us in moral correspondence with Him. Worship and priestly service are the very highest things, but we speak of them to the young convert. The Lord spoke of worshippers for the Father to the woman of Samaria, who was only a convert of perhaps five minutes. No one can be happy until he is set in worshipful relationship with God. Christ came into manhood to be the model of how the worship and service of God is rendered in the highest.

These words are the setting forth of all that He is inwardly, and as we see and appreciate Him in this way, we take on the character of the One we love. If we admire the features of Christ they must come out in us. Of course it is a continual development with us, with small accessions from time to time, until we become like the Son of God, and get clearance from the world and all that is contrary to God. God give us to move in affectionate appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE ASSEMBLY EXPRESSING THE GRACE OF HEAVEN

Matthew 18:1 - 35

Ques. Would you say that the kingdom of the heavens stands connected with the One exalted, and the kingdom of God more in relation to the Spirit?

C.A.C. I thought so. The Lord in Matthew's gospel was on His way to the heavens to be the source there of an entirely new kind of influence, and it is a question for us as to how far we have entered into the kingdom of the heavens.

Rem. It is remarkable that the heavens rule, and that what corresponds with that is the spirit of a little child.

C.A.C. Yes, I suppose one must be conscious of dignity with God in order to become as a little child amongst men or with the brethren. The previous chapter ends with the light of sonship, "Then are the sons free". The Lord identifies Peter with Himself in that place of dignity with God; that gives wonderful support in view of taking up the exercises of this chapter.

Rem. That was seen perfectly in the Lord Himself; being who He was, there was great moral dignity in going down.

C.A.C. Yes; one in conscious dignity as a son can afford to dispense with any greatness that might attach to him in the world or amongst men, or even amongst the brethren. The importance of a little child lies in the fact that it is a subject of affection. It is a great thing to move about in the consciousness of being a subject of affection, loved by God and the Lord Jesus. I think that is how a little child according to God thinks of himself.

Ques. What would that mean here?

C.A.C. The Lord's words indicate that naturally we are otherwise; there is the necessity for everything being reversed. We have to be taken to pieces and put together on

a new principle: "Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child". We reach the condition of being a little child through the spiritual exercise of humbling oneself. It is an entirely new thought of greatness. Naturally we do not care for the kind of importance which being the subjects of love would give us; naturally we want some other kind of dignity or importance.

We read elsewhere of the Lord taking a little child in His arms, and He speaks of receiving one such little child. How good to be received as one who is in the arms of Jesus! People sing sometimes, 'Safe in the arms of Jesus'; but it is a most blessed thing to be received by the brethren as one who is in the arms of Jesus; that is the kind of importance that is covetable, and, after all, that is our true importance. "One such little child" becomes a true representation of Christ, so that those who receive such a little child receive Christ.

What spiritual importance that confers on us! If we lose natural importance we get spiritual importance. I suppose the most important person in any meeting is the brother or sister who is the best exponent of Christ; not the brother who has the greatest gift or the most attractive personality, but the one who is the best representative of Christ. Persons like that are of the most immense importance with the Father; that "little child" spirit is so important to the Father that He always has it represented before Him: "Their angels in the heavens continually behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens". It suggests the delight of the Father in having that condition represented before Him continually.

Rem. This chapter gives us what God values, and consequently what we are to value.

C.A.C. I think so. And it is a true conversion to get one's mind and affections free from the things that have place with men, and which are really an abomination to God, and to get, in place of all that, what has value with God and what is descriptive of Christ. There is in one who is truly "a little child" the absence of self-consideration because he is assured of the affection of which he is the object.

Rem. There could not be true administration according to God till we get this spirit.

C.A.C. That is the basis of the whole thing. When we think of administration we think of something big and official.

Rem. The Corinthians reigned as kings.

C.A.C. Yes, but there was no divine administration at Corinth; they were endowed with everything, but unable to use it rightly. We often have gifts and spiritual abilities without the power to use them rightly.

Rem. This is a wonderful conception of the kingdom of the heavens: the spirit of a little child.

C.A.C. Yes, the influence of the heavens has come in to produce it; the spirit of a little child will not come about any other way than by the personal influence of the One who is in the heavens. There is a tabernacle set in the heavens for the Sun, and that Sun in the heavens is exerting His influence: "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof" (Psalm 19:6). A certain sphere of influence stands in relation to Christ as the Sun in the heavens, and everything in that sphere is affected: "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof".

The thought of this raises a very important exercise as to things which would hinder that influence; we must do nothing to hinder the production or manifestation of that kind of spirit; so the Lord speaks of offending one of these little ones who believe in Him. He says of the one who does it that "it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea". We see thus the terrible character of any influence that would operate contrary to this "little child" spirit. If I bring in the influence of self-importance, and not only manifest it myself but influence others by it, it is a terrible thing in the sight of God.

Rem. What follows would show how this is to be dealt with.

C.A.C. Yes, we find it a very serious matter. Certain things which are as close to us as our own members may be

active to hinder this spirit, they may become an offence and a cause of stumbling. There is an exercise first about becoming an occasion of stumbling to another; then I find there are occasions of stumbling in myself. It may be a hand, or a foot, or an eye.

Rem. That shows what true self-judgment is; you not only cut off the offending member, but cast it from you, as having measured what it is in relation to God.

Ques. What is the thought of entering into life?

C.A.C. I suppose it is just the contrast to being cast into eternal fire. Life is that condition which is according to the thought of God for man in contrast to that which He rejects and casts into the hell of fire. There is such a thing as life according to God; that is, movements and active sensibilities that correspond with the pleasure of God. We find in ourselves certain things which are inconsistent with life. It is not simply we see they are wrong, that is negative, but the soul has apprehended something of the preciousness of life in a divine sense, and has set life before it as a prize to be won and entered into. What is unsuitable for entering into life, what would hinder one entering into life, must be dealt with with uncompromising severity.

Rem. It is only in the power of life that we can do that.

C.A.C. That is a most wholesome thing to remember. We can never get the victory over the flesh except in the power of life. A great many people are trying to be dead to the flesh, but we can only overcome what is of the flesh by being in the power of life.

Rem. That is always the way God works; we turn to God first and then we leave idols.

C.A.C. Yes, there must be a sense in the soul of the blessedness of life. Peter says, "For he that will love life and see good days, let him cause his tongue to cease from evil and his lips that they speak no guile" (1 Peter 3:10). If I allow something which is contrary to the thought of life, my influence will tend to promote it in others, and I shall be a snare

to them. The Lord's words suggest that we are to be quite prepared to be deprived of one eye, or to be maimed; we want to enter into life whatever the cost. I have often thought that if one had gone to the man in Romans 7 and said, 'If you will consent to have your right arm or leg taken off you will be perfectly free', he would have answered, 'All right, off with them!' We get the right eye and the right hand in Matthew 5, which emphasises the importance of it naturally. There may be that which is extremely important to you, and which you would not at all wish to lose as a natural person, yet coming into view of life, and having some appreciation of the kind of spirit suitable to God, you are prepared to deal summarily with it.

The Lord puts things in an extreme way; and he raises questions with every one of us as to the issue of what we are going on with. Is it the hell of fire? Is it something which must be absolutely refused by God and dealt with in consuming judgment? Or is it something which has the character of life, which is a matter of approbation with God? We do not always like to have things put so strongly, but the Lord puts them in the most serious light. The Lord raises questions, and He puts things in a serious light. Things that are a snare are not to be trifled with; whether it is an eye, or a foot, or a hand, it must go. It may be a thing you would greatly value naturally, but in view of life it must go. All this shows the character of persons who make up the assembly.

Rem. A soul who has gone through this exercise, and is characterised by the spirit of a little child, is an asset in the assembly.

C.A.C. Yes, he is severe on himself, but it is the severity of a little child. We have to put together these apparently incongruous figures; they all really fit together beautifully.

Rem. Severity with oneself in the administration of grace should mark us.

C.A.C. Yes, and it grows out of the "little child" spirit; it is in the sense of having come under divine affections, and

having learned touching lessons, that the Lord would teach, of the greatest importance in relation to the influence of heaven.

Then the more severe you are with yourself, the more tender you are in relation to others. Going after the straying sheep brings this out beautifully. The Son of man has come to save that which was lost. The man with a hundred sheep seeks one gone astray. I think it stands here in relation to the spirit in which you would regard a brother who had sinned against you; you would look on him as a sheep gone astray, and you would want to gain him.

Ques. Why does he rejoice more over the one recovered than the ninety-nine that went not astray?

C.A.C. I suppose because the recovered one has given occasion for peculiar activities of love. If you had a sheep go astray among the flock at S. you would expend a great deal of labour and exercise of love on that soul; and when it was recovered you would have more joy in that one than in the others, because of the peculiar intensity of exercise which you have had about that one, and not about the others. You would have peculiar exercises about that one, and you would have your compensation. What a beautiful spirit in the assembly!

The assembly is to take character from Christ, the little child is a representative of Christ; so if you receive a little child you receive Christ. Then those terrible influences which are so powerful in nature, and which often come in to turn one aside from that path, have to be judged uncompromisingly so that Christ may be in evidence. Then there is the beautiful spirit of gracious care going out to the straying sheep, the attention of the Owner more especially given to the one gone astray than to the ninety-nine! I have thought sometimes that brethren paid too much attention to those going on badly, but I see it is a beautiful feature of Christ.

"If thy brother sin against thee". We are all more or less a test of each other's state of soul; that is one reason why we

are put together. J.N.D. said that often when we think we are judging other people, the Lord is really by their means judging our own state of soul. That is an exercising thing to remember. I may see much that is wrong in another person, and I may think I am right in being severe in my judgment of it, but the Lord may be really using it to disclose the condition of my own spirit. If a brother sins against me I have to think of it first of all as a test of my spirit.

We often begin by assuming that it is a manifestation of his bad state, but we ought to begin by considering that it is a test of our own spirit. It is very nice to sit down in a reading and admire the conception of the "little child" spirit, but it is another thing when we are tested as to whether we are of that spirit! We may find that instead of being little children we are very self-important personages.

The true character of the testimony now is that it is the manifestation of influences which emanate from Christ in the heavens. There is not a single feature in common between the present world system of things and the kingdom of the heavens. In the early part of this gospel the kingdom of the heavens is announced as drawn nigh; it was then within three and a half years of taking form in Christ in heaven; from heaven He was going to exert all those influences to which He gave expression in His ministry here; and He is doing so now. He does not support anything else; so that any administration that is contrary to it must be human, not divine. The brother who sins is to be reproved with the object of gaining him. If my brother sins against me he is a sheep gone astray; he would not have sinned otherwise. Now my concern should be to gain him.

Very often we go to get what we suppose to be our rights, very much like the man who took his fellow-bondman by the throat and said, "Pay me if thou owest anything". We are not to go in that spirit. We should wish to gain our brother -- to have him again in brotherly relations. We have, for the moment, lost him, but we want to gain him. No pains are too

great to take to gain him. It is not exactly that I want what is due to me; that would be like trying to make him pay up; I want to gain my brother.

Ques. Is that why the question of repenting is not brought in here? You do not even demand that?

C.A.C. Yes. On the governmental side it may be necessary that there should be repentance and even restitution, but that is not dwelt upon here. Your concern here is to gain your brother. Hence if you find that your brother will not listen to you, you are grieved to find that you have not grace enough to make any impression on him. So you say, 'I must bring more grace to bear on him, to gain him', and you take with you one or two besides. The thing becomes more serious now because every matter now stands upon the word of two witnesses or of three.

Your exercise is of such a character that it commands the support of one or two others. That safeguards the assembly from being troubled by frivolous or vexatious complaints. If the brother, or the other one or two whom he took with him, had known what it was to cut off a hand or a foot, they would have power with the one who had sinned. The chapter supposes they are that kind of person -- persons who have the spirit of a little child, and who know how to be very severe with themselves but very careful and gracious about others.

If one goes to see a brother who has sinned with that spirit, or takes one or two more with that spirit, he is very likely to gain his brother. But if the brother will not listen there is a further course open; it can be told to the assembly. The assembly can hear such a matter, and can speak with divine authority.

Ques. The assembly would bring more grace to bear, would it not?

C.A.C. Yes, the assembly would speak according to the grace of heaven. There is nothing on earth that can speak with the grace and authority of heaven like the assembly; it is the last and greatest voice, so that if a person will not hear

the assembly you are exempt from any further regard for him as a brother. The Lord absolves you from any further obligations to regard him as a brother. You are not called upon to determine whether he is a brother or not, but "let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer".

Rem. The question here is not raised as to what may be eventually done.

C.A.C. No, the assembly is left to speak or to act with its own spiritual intelligence; no instructions are given as to how the assembly is to act or what it is to say. But whether it binds or looses the Lord commits Himself to it, the thing is bound or loosed in heaven, it is ratified in heaven. Where things are done in assembly conditions the Lord commits Himself absolutely to what it has done.

Rem. If the spirit of a little child predominates in the assembly, and if there is the spirit of grace in all that is done, and each one is self-judged, cutting off hand or foot, one can understand how a company like that would act according to what is pleasing to God, so that what they did would be ratified in heaven.

C.A.C. Yes indeed, and all that accentuates the terrible condition of anyone who will not hear the assembly. But all this raises great exercise as to assembly action. What may be regarded as assembly action is not the product of fleshly indignation and strong feelings.

Ques. Do you not think perhaps that there may have been with us a danger of being too much on the judicial line?

C.A.C. I think so. But one has hardly known a single instance of this scripture being carried out; I have never known a case in my experience of anything of this kind being told to the assembly. With what a voice the assembly could speak! This supposes the assembly has a voice, but I doubt whether we know much about the assembly speaking. This suggests the assembly speaking to the brother who has sinned with divine authority in a restorative way. It is not telling him that he is excommunicated or that the brethren cannot walk

with him; there is a previous speaking to that. Have we left sufficient room for the assembly speaking as the supreme voice of grace and heavenly authority -- speaking, not in a judicial way, but in a restorative way?

I have thought for some time that this has been largely overlooked, and that the Lord has provided a resource that we have not availed ourselves of as we might. I quite own the difficulty of the present state of things, but the principle abides. May it not be that many local grievances and roots of bitterness, which seem to go on interminably, do so because we have not used the supreme influence which the Lord has made available?

Rem. You tell it to the assembly in order that the brother may be recovered.

C.A.C. Yes. You want the assembly to speak to him in the same way that you have been speaking to him, and also in the same way that the one or two you took with you spoke to him, but to speak with the additional weight which belongs to that august company which is here on earth as the representative of the heavenly Christ. If the assembly speaks, it must surely speak with the same kind of voice as the heavenly Christ.

Ques. How does the assembly express its voice?

C.A.C. The Lord clearly intimates that the assembly is capable, not only of hearing but of speaking. I think that we should consider this. In what follows, the Lord speaks of "two of you". J.B.S. said, "two of you", not any two, but two of you. Two of the assembly, and of true assembly spirit.

People say that there is no assembly now as a known company to which things can be told, and that therefore we can not hear the voice of the assembly. That in a sense is true; and to take things of this kind up today we need a plentiful supply of the "little child" spirit. But we could hardly think that this wonderful provision would cease to be available -- at any rate in the principle of it -- as long as the assembly is on earth. In this day of the church's presence on earth it is the power of a heavenly influence that is felt.

The power is inimitable and irresistible, so that if a man will not hear that voice -- the power of it, the tenderness and expressiveness of it are so great -- if a man will not hear it, he is absolutely an outlaw; he puts himself in the place of a heathen and a publican. If even two persons spoke in the power of that voice, it would have the same character, whatever the ruin may be. One feels much exercised by the thought of it as feeling how little one is spiritually able to act in such grace and power. But the Lord distinctly calls us to consider this as a spiritual reality which in His mind characterises the present system.

The case of the wicked person in Corinthians is on a different line; public, disciplinary action of the assembly became necessary in that case. There are certain things that are altogether unsuitable to God's assembly, and cannot have their place there, but even so, action is with a view to recovery and restoration. The Corinthians did not understand this, they were first careless and lax, not even exercised about the terrible sin among them, but when they did act they acted with great zeal and were perhaps inclined to overlook that their action had restoration in view. Then the apostle had to write them another letter to tell them to confirm their love of him. But in Matthew 18 the assembly speaking is on the line of gaining the brother. If he will not hear, other action may become necessary, but that is not quite the speaking of verse 17.

Rem. The year of release would show that debts may be discharged by being wiped off altogether.

C.A.C. Yes, the year of release brings out the wealth of the people. A privilege is extended to every creditor of making a release, and making it to Jehovah. If you transfer the account to Jehovah it is not a bad debt. What a compensation to one's spirit to be able to smile on all one's debtors as having made a release!

The coming to light of our true measure is the real starting point of increase. The very fact that we are made to feel how small we are is the way to begin to get a bit bigger; we

acquire growth that way.

Two or three gathered together to Christ's name are commanded by the name of the One who is in the heavens. He is in the heavens, but His name has exerted its power and brought two or three together in the interest and bond of that name; such will have the support of the glorious One in the heavens. Not only may Christ be seen in a single babe, so that if you receive one such you receive Christ, but there is a collective setting forth of Christ, and all in virtue of His support. He supports "two or three" in their prayers so that they pray with the support of Christ. I should like to know more of it as a spiritual experience.

The "seventy times seven" indicates an illimitable capacity for forgiveness.

ASSEMBLY DISCIPLINE

Matthew 18:15 - 18

The assembly is entrusted by the Lord with administrative authority to pronounce judgment on moral questions which may be brought before it as the supreme court of appeal on earth. The sin of one brother against another is the particular matter in question in Matthew 18. The assembly may bind or loose: it may hold the brother to be guilty of the sin which he is alleged to have committed, or it may loose him from the charge. If the assembly binds the things upon him, it is bound upon him in heaven: the assembly holds him guilty and heaven holds him guilty. It is a sin which breaks in on the holy relationship of two brothers. If the offender does not bow to the judgment of the assembly he is no longer entitled to be acknowledged as a brother. The Lord does not say how the assembly is to regard him, but the assembly could not fail to act in accordance with its own judgment and the judgment of heaven. The particular thing is bound upon him on earth and in heaven: he can only get clear of it by repentance, upon which the assembly would loose him from what it has bound upon him. It is to be noted that it is "whatsoever"; that is, it refers to the conduct which is bound or loosed, not exactly to the person but the particular thing which he is charged with. In John 20 it is "whose soever"; it is persons whose sins are remitted or retained, and, I believe, more in a gospel sense.

Now it certainly appears to me that a public disregard of the Lord's authority, and of the rights and claims of His love, is not less serious than a sin against a brother. The Lord's supper is a matter of His authority. The assembly could never allow that it is optional whether saints of the assembly break bread or not. Paul says, "We all partake of that one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:17). How the Lord regards neglect of this institution of love we may gather from the serious

consequences which followed upon the neglect of the passover (Numbers 9). One who habitually remains away from the Lord's supper gives up practically his place in the body publicly; he goes voluntarily away from the assembly.

Now, surely, the assembly is to exercise all the grace of heaven in seeking to restore such a one to the sense of what is due to the Lord. The assembly would seek by all available means to bring the Lord into His right place in the heart of such a one. But the assembly cannot allow that fellowship go on just the same when the central act of fellowship is ignored or, at any rate, not partaken of. The assembly may forbear taking any action, and leave such a case to individual, pastoral care, but to leave it there indefinitely would tend to looseness as to our associations. The instructions as to associations in 2 Timothy 2 are very precise. We are to withdraw from what is unrighteous, and to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. We cannot say that it is following righteousness to keep away from the brethren, and if the assembly has to pronounce a judgment it cannot "loose" such a thing as that. It cannot possibly say that such conduct is to go without blame. This would be a dreadfully loose judgment and it would not be ratified in heaven. We must bear in mind that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" (1 Corinthians 5:6).

If one whose ways are contrary to the truth of the fellowship does not repent when admonished, and finally declines to be visited by the brethren, it necessarily brings pastoral care to an end, as far as the brethren in care are concerned, whatever opportunity individuals may still have to approach the person. To refuse to be visited is such a disregard of the Lord's care, and of what He has set up in the assembly to watch for souls, that it can only be regarded in a most serious light. The assembly would not be prepared to "loose" that principle of conduct or to say that it must be held free of blame. It seems to me that it would have to say that such a person must lie under the imputation of sin until such time as

God might in mercy grant repentance. Its fellowship could not be extended to one who was insubject to its judgment. So that it seems to me that, when such a definite point of insubjection is reached, the fellowship of the saints would have to be withdrawn from the person who acted thus. The assembly, if it speaks at all, must speak in support of the Lord's authority, and of the truth of the fellowship, and of that principle of care which the Lord has set up in the assembly. He makes known His mind as the need arises and it can never be said that the assembly is helpless in the presence of a difficulty. It may have to wait upon the Lord, and go through much humbling exercise and searching of heart, but it can never be held up by any form of evil so that that evil remains unjudged.

THE LORD GIVING SIGHT TO THE BLIND (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)

It has come before me that there is much instruction for us in the seven instances recorded of the Lord giving sight to the blind. It was held, I believe, by the rabbis that this was a miracle reserved to the Messiah, and though it was spoken of prophetically in the Old Testament there is no instance there of a blind man receiving sight. Nor is it recorded in the New Testament that anyone save the Lord ever performed this miracle. Paul being sent to "open their eyes" referred to his public service amongst the Gentiles in setting the truth of the position before them; it was not exactly doing a divine work in them, but bringing the truth to them so as to leave them responsible to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

But the giving of sight to the blind as it was done by the Lord seems to speak clearly of a divine operation by which men become capable of apprehending what has been introduced into the world in the Person of Christ. The presence of light is not sufficient. There is a great deal of light in Christendom, for the Scriptures are there and much spiritual ministry of the truth, but the capacity to apprehend it in a spiritual way is lacking. When the Lord was here the whole light of God was here, but men did not apprehend it; they were blind and the precious realities which were present were hidden from them. And it is an exercising thing to consider that we may be in the presence of much spiritual light without having any spiritual apprehension of it. But there is great encouragement in the sevenfold witness of the record in the gospels that Christ, and Christ only, is the One who can give us sight, and who delights to do so.

When John the baptist sent to ask Him, "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?" the first proof

that He gave was that John's disciples were to report to him that "blind men see". Every ray of divine light is in Christ, but we may be assured of this and yet feel how very little of it we have apprehended so as to have the continued joy of it in our hearts. We need His precious and divine service to enable us to see, and there is a direct and personal character about this so that we know that it is His own action and touch that has done it. He has not delegated this power or service to any other; it is in every case a personal transaction of Christ with the individual soul.

The first two persons are spoken of in Matthew 9:27 - 31. This is in an interesting connection, for the whole of this chapter save the last four verses records what took place in "his own city". This was, no doubt, Capernaum, to which city He had removed from Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:12). It was a place of great light, so that the Lord could speak of it as having been raised up to heaven. It would represent a place specially favoured by God, and where special testimony was rendered to what was there in Christ. Emmanuel was there, having chosen to go to a people sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to make that "his own city". So that there was a remarkably full presentation in Capernaum of what was there in Him. Forgiveness and power for helpless men, a call of infinite grace to sinners, the Bridegroom was there for the joy of those who were "sons of the bridechamber"; perfect healing for the woman with the issue of blood -- a figure of the state of Israel in uncleanness -- and the ruler's daughter raised up from death. "And the fame of it went out into all that land".

Now all this seems to be presented as having exercised attraction upon two blind men, and as having produced faith in their souls that Jesus could open their eyes. What marks these two men is that they come in faith. Jesus did not propose to do for them anything beyond what was according to their faith; He loves to be counted on, and to do all that He is counted on for. Now this raises the question as to how far we have been personally affected by what we know of God as

having come near to men in Jesus -- Emmanuel. Has it led us to desire the power of spiritual apprehension? Has it given us faith to count upon Him to give us ability to see all that is there to be seen? Do we read the gospels historically as so many wonderful incidents, or do we definitely seek from the Lord ability to see the greatness and glory of what was there in the Person of Jesus?

"He touched their eyes". It is noticeable that in every instance of the Lord giving sight, save that in Matthew 12:22, 23, He touched the eyes of the blind. I think the exception was because there the man was possessed by a demon, and there is no instance that I know of in which the Lord touched one who had a demon. He cast out the spirits with a word, we are told (Matthew 8:16). In dealing with demons there was not the element of sympathy which is conveyed by a touch; they were dispossessed by the word of authority. So that when blindness was directly traceable to the presence of a demon we can understand why there was no touch. But in every other instance there was a touch of personal contact.

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

THE SYNAGOGUE

Mark 1:23, 39; Mark 3:1; Mark 6:2, 3; Mark 13:9

The synagogue is mentioned in connection with the Lord and/or His disciples five times in this gospel. They are in chapter l: 23 where there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit, in chapter 1: 39 where the Lord was preaching, in chapter 3: 12 where there was a man with his hand dried up, in chapter 6: 2, 3 where the Lord began to teach and many were offended, and in chapter 13: 9 where the Lord speaks of the disciples being delivered up.

In each instance in the synagogue the Lord acts sovereignly. There is no request for deliverance or healing. It is an unsympathetic atmosphere, for they watched "that they might accuse him". But the Lord will work therein compassionate tenderness of heart. Profession without faith is a very hardening thing: it dries up the power of appropriation and it resists the thought of that power being realised or conferred. But the Lord of the sabbath could not forget the original character of the sabbath. The fact that divine working was finished, and that "God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good" (Genesis 1:31), was what made the sabbath possible. If they had thought of this they might well have asked, Are things "very good"? Is it all rest and blessing? Are things in such a state that God could pronounce them "very good"? Is it "very good" that a man should have his hand dried up (chapter 3: 1) so that he cannot take hold of blessing from God? The Son of man comes in as Lord of the sabbath to show that the sabbath was blessing and rest and liberty, and that it was for man's benefit, not for

bondage or to leave him without blessing from God. He would put everything right on man's side that man might have the sabbath that it pleased God he should have. The new garment, the new wine, the cornfields (chapter 2: 21 - 28) all spoke of the "very good" things which would confer a true sabbath on man. But then man lacks the power to appropriate these things. The more he professes to know God without really knowing Him the less ability he has to appropriate.

The Lord brings to light the state of their hearts. They would have preferred things to remain as they were, the form of the sabbath without any of the reality. They did not care that the man's hand was dried; they rather wished that it might remain so.

But the Son of man was there to serve God in serving man, and He goes on with His blessed service undeterred by the hardening of their heart, though angry and distressed thereby. He would in sovereign power give the ability to lay hold upon the blessing that was near, but not without calling for exercise on the part of the man. He calls him first to "Rise up and come into the midst". He must move at the word of Jesus into a position which singled him out and brought his infirmity before all. The Lord does not do things in a corner. If a man has had a faithless profession, and the Lord is going to give him power to lay hold of the blessing that is available, it means that he comes into view as the subject of divine working. It is a great thing when a person is willing to be known as a subject of mercy.

Then the man is called on to "Stretch out thy hand". He has to own in a very distinct way the truth of his condition, but he does it as one to whom Jesus has become "the Lord of the sabbath". The stretching out of his hand expressed his deep conviction that the power of God was there in Jesus to command true sabbath conditions, to bring in all on his side that should be "very good". A dried hand went out towards Jesus, but he took it back to him with a vigorous grip. The

virtue lay in the One who was Lord to command the blessing and to command the man for the blessing. The secret of all lay in the fact that Jesus had become Lord of the sabbath to him. He was not that to them, but He was to the man who had power now to lay hold of all the rich and full provision that was available.

Now one would seek to gain some conception of how the Spirit of God would apply the teaching of this incident to ourselves. I suppose we all believe that there is very much available. Perfect righteousness, fulness of joy in the knowledge of the love of God, and all the harvest of the land of divine purpose in a heavenly Christ. But we feel how feeble we are in power to lay hold of it. The remedy would be, I gather from this incident, that we should give the Lord His place as Lord of the sabbath. He can command sabbath conditions; He can displace everything on our side which hinders us from laying hold of all that is in Himself. We have to stretch out our hand towards Him as owning that He alone can supply the ability to honour God by appropriating what His grace and love have provided. The apostle Paul puts it very beautiful when he says, "The grace of our Lord surpassingly over-abounded with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 1:14). The faith and the love have come from Him, and they are in Christ Jesus. Paul found everything in "Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me power" (1 Timothy 1:12). He stretched out his hand to Him. We are welcomed to all that is in Him. The more effectually we learn how "dried" everything is on our side, the more ready we are to stretch it out to Him so that we may get a new ability which has its source and its strength in Him. So that in all things we "boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh" (Philippians 3:3). "Faith and love which are in Christ Jesus" is also in 2 Timothy 1:13.

"His hand was restored". There is then ability to serve as we have seen in 1 Timothy 1. This is the end in view, that one should be able to serve in liberty. All that we take hold of as

provided for us is to give us strength for service. True Sabbath conditions are needed, rest and ability to lay hold of what is provided; then there is strength for service.

There is not only no sympathy in the synagogue but positive antagonism, and Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. There is a vast field for service. We may have to withdraw from much that is in the place of profession, but that leads to enlargement as to the sphere of service. Things are restricted in the synagogue but at the "sea" there is a very extended sphere. The greater the sphere of service the more important that we should not be influenced by those we serve. That seems to be the thought in the "little ship". It is that the crowd might not press upon Him. "Do I seek to please men? If I were yet pleasing men, I were not Christ's bondman" (Galatians 1:10); "Not as pleasing men, but God, who proves our hearts" (1 Thessalonians 2:4). Barnabas and Paul would not be influenced by the men in Lystra (Acts 14). The Lord would not have the testimony of unclean spirits even though it were a true one.

The little ship, the rebuking of the unclean spirits, and the going up into the mountain all seem to show how separate the servant is to be. It is being taken apart to an elevation far above the level of the world in company with Jesus that we learn how to serve. Power lies in that.

There is sovereignty in the appointment of the twelve and in the special place of the three.

I think it may be helpful to see that the end in view in this section is that there are those sitting around Christ whom He can regard as His mother and His brethren. They were doing the will of God. Outside is religious hatred, the great outstanding feature of which is a speaking injuriously against the Holy Spirit, and, seen in His relatives, natural inability to understand Him.

A deeply interesting series of incidents follows in the cornfields, the synagogue, the sea, the mountain and the house.

These two Sabbath incidents are very instructive (chapters 2: 23 - 28; 3: 1 - 6). The harvest had come to maturity. It really set forth the complete provision of God for man in Christ. But man under the legal system was not at liberty to appropriate that provision: his hand was dried; such was the case with the Pharisees. In the cornfields we see liberty given on the divine side by the Lord of the Sabbath, but then power is needed on our side, and the Lord of the Sabbath undertakes to bring this in also. God come in to bless must meet everything. It is by the virtue that is in Christ that all is met on our side. What James said is still true, that "Moses, from generations of old, has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath" (Acts 15:21).

SONS OF THE BRIDECHAMBER

Mark 2:1 - 28

The Lord would identify His own with Himself in the blessed service (see Mark 1:17; Mark 2:15; Mark 3:9). Then they are formally commissioned in chapter 3: 13 - 19 and are sitting around Him at the end of that chapter.

The disciples were not fasting. They were divinely taught not to fast. They were "sons of the bridechamber" -- a remarkable title. It implies an understanding of who was present: the Bridegroom was there. The One who was entitled to Israel's affections had come to win them by His service of love. "Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep" (Hosea 12:12). The Lord exalts His disciples into a very blessed communion with His own thoughts by calling them "sons of the bridechamber". The presence of the Bridegroom was a peculiar moment, and fasting was not in keeping with it. If Israel missed her opportunity it would be a time of fasting indeed. But the Lord plainly declares that what He was bringing in was new and it could not be connected with the old garment. You cannot connect Christ with the righteousness of man after the flesh. There must be a new garment to suit the Bridegroom -- to suit the One who serves in love and who wins the bride that way; she must be clothed with His worth, for nothing would suit His eye or His heart but that. To bring in a little of Christ only makes matters worse (verses 21, 22).

So the new wine must have a new vessel. It is a question of what God is for man as set forth in the Bridegroom. But then there must be a suitability in the vessel -- a God-given capacity. The new vessels are then divinely taught and formed. The capacity is in affection.

A TIME OF FEASTING

Mark 2:18 - 22

Mark 2:18 - 22 helps to the understanding of chapter 14: 25. The disciples were "the sons of the bridechamber", and they had the Bridegroom with them. There was a festive character about the association in which they were together. It is striking that the Lord is never called the Bridegroom in the epistles, although repeatedly so in the gospels. The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting: they were not festive. Their reasons for fasting might have been very different -- John's disciples fasting in genuine repentance, and the Pharisees' disciples fasting in self-righteousness, but neither were happy. They did not realise what a wonderful moment it was -- that the Bridegroom was there! He came to call sinners, not in this chapter to repentance, but to the joy of what was in Himself. It was the time of Israel's opportunity. Everything was brought to them in the favour of God, healing of bodies, healing of souls, deliverance from every oppression of the devil, from every burden of conscience; God was made known amongst them in the plenitude of His goodness; every promise was available for them in His anointed One. Every joy that God could bring in for His people was there: "Thou shalt be called, My delight is in her, and thy land, Married; ... with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, shall thy God rejoice over thee" (Isaiah 62:4, 5). The prophet had spoken of "a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined" (Isaiah 25:6). It was all there, as to the substance of it, in the Bridegroom. He was God's salvation, Jehovah's servant, the righteousness, the adornment of His people. The Lord was consciously all that in the midst of Israel: life for them, joy for them, peace for them. And in His account the disciples were "sons of the bridechamber".

They were in the midst of Israel understanding what was there in Him: how could they fast? The Lord had joy in being with them in that blessed character. It was what He was on God's part in fulness of blessing, whatever men might be. He drank of the divine joy of it, and His disciples shared with Him as sons of the bridechamber. They would have desired Israel to receive Him, but, alas, the bride was not ready. I think the Lord would have us to understand what a joy He had in being with His own, and in the midst of Israel, as the full blessing of God. It was a time that terminated, but it had its own sweetness and delight for Him and for them. He drank, in that sense, of the fruit of the vine until it became manifest that that character of things must end. But it is a blessed association in which He and they were found those three and a half years. We lose a good deal if we do not take account of it. How blessed that He should be here, able to say, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19). When John sent to know whether He was really the Bridegroom, as we might say, He said, "Go, bring back word to John of what ye have seen and heard: that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, poor are evangelised" (Luke 7:22). The twelve were sent out with power and authority over all demons and to heal diseases. They took part in the ministry as in feeding the multitude. Then the seventy go "two and two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to come" (Luke 10:1). They healed the sick, the demons were subject. The disciples were eye-witnesses of and attendants on the Word. They formed His retinue throughout that blessed triumphal progress, for such it really was, and we must not allow His rejection to obscure the glorious character of what was seen in Him. The eyes were blessed which saw the things they saw. Many prophets and kings had

desired to see them but did not see them. What was more than Solomon was there.

The disciples are seen here as the sons of the bridechamber. That is, they are in communion with the Bridegroom as to all His thoughts in relation to the bride. The bride does not appear in the gospels, though John the baptist says the Bridegroom has her. She is hidden from view. John is the friend of the Bridegroom; the disciples are sons of the bridechamber. The kingdom of the heavens is made like to ten virgins who go forth to meet the Bridegroom. Jehovah was there as the Bridegroom, ready, as it were, to enter into marital relations with Israel. His Anointed was there to woo and win her, but she does not come into view. The Bridegroom has been manifested, but Israel as the bride has not yet appeared. I think that is why the bride is, as it were, hidden in the gospels; we never see her, but we do see those, like John, who are in sympathy with the Bridegroom and who share His thoughts and service with regard to her as sons of the bridechamber. And there are those who in virgin character go forth to meet Him to go in with Him to the marriage. But we do not see the bride.

In the epistles we get the saints espoused to one Man, to be presented a chaste virgin to Christ. They have become dead to the law to be to Another. The assembly is in the place of the wife to Christ (Ephesians 5). John alone of all the inspired writers brings the assembly into view as the bride, the Lamb's wife. This is the holy city in the millennial age, and in the eternal state she is seen "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:2). She has a voice now as saying with the Spirit, "Come". But the Bridegroom is not mentioned under that designation: it is the Lamb. He takes the bride as the One who has suffered and died. The bride is not seen as such until after the marriage, so that she is then also the wife, save in the one passage "the Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17). John having seen the bride as the Lamb's wife in glory, brings back the bride character into the

present time, and the assembly as the bride in concert with the Spirit says, "Come".

I think the Bridegroom, as spoken of in the gospels, would set forth what was there in Him for Israel. He was there to take up affectionate relations with them if they had been ready. But that could not be without His becoming the Passover for them, and this involved the taking away of the Bridegroom. The joy of the bridechamber (the fruit of the vine that He referred to in chapter 14: 25) could not be His according to the flesh. He went out of that condition through death, making known His own love and the love of God in a still deeper way than could have been known while the Bridegroom was here, but He will resume His relations with Israel in a new way in the kingdom of God. He does not continue with His own as the Bridegroom. His association with them in that character after the flesh ceased, to be taken up in a new way in the kingdom of God.

He was bringing in a new order of things which could not be joined on to the old, new wine which could not be put in the old skins. Something quite new was there, and something which could not be used to patch up man's old garment. He must have a new robe altogether, no patchwork. "Only in Jehovah, shall one say, have I righteousness and strength" (Isaiah 45:24). To bring in a bit of that kind of righteousness and tack it on to man's old rags would only make matters worse. No one puts new wine in old skins. This striking figure shows the inward energy and power of what came in by the Bridegroom which required new conditions on man's side to hold it. Forms and ordinances suited to man in the flesh could not be the vessel of the new wine. It must have new conditions; the new skins I take to be that the condition of faith is brought in on man's side, taking the place of ordinances. All that is of God as set forth in the Bridegroom can only be held in faith. There must be something on man's side which is not there by nature, something which is the product of divine working and which is capable of holding the

new wine. That is faith, divinely wrought in the soul. The disciples of Jesus had faith in Him. They understand that He was the Bridegroom, and that what was present could not be limited to the forms of judaism. It was all the activity of God Himself come near to His people to serve them by His Son. How could this be put into legal forms, or limited by what man was?

Then the cornfields were another figure of God's grace to His people, and the disciples were in liberty to avail themselves of it. But the Pharisees would have limited them by legal restrictions. God had made the Sabbath on account of man. His thought from the beginning was to bless man in relation to Himself. Man thinking of his own pettiness could not take in the greatness of God's thought, and he puts himself in bondage. But the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath. He could give it its true character as speaking of rest and refreshment for men. And how it all spoke to Him! The whole golden crop had sprung up out of death in resurrection power as food for man. The wave-sheaf had been offered six days before as the acceptance of the people so that they might in holy freedom enjoy the fruit of the land. How He must have thought of it all in its spiritual significance! In the acceptance of Christ how could there be legal restrictions? All was really now according to His acceptance and His lordship. David had need and hungered, and he ate the shewbread; he was in liberty as knowing God. What were petty restrictions if Jehovah's Servant was there, the Lord of the Sabbath? To bring such in was only to prove that they did not know Him or the One who sent Him.

THE ENJOYMENT OF LIBERTY

Mark 3:1 - 25

Rem. You were reminding us on a previous occasion that the atmosphere of the synagogue was not good, and that it did not tend to liberty.

C.A.C. Well, the man's hand was withered there. I think religious profession without faith is a very hardening and withering thing. The Lord comes in there to get something out of it for God. It was not a sympathetic atmosphere at all. "They watched him if he would heal him on the Sabbath, that they might accuse him" (verse 2). The Lord was undeterred by the chilling atmosphere and He went on with His service. He could not be hindered by it but He felt it. Liberty for service is not so much found in the synagogue as by the sea. There are restrictions and limitations in the synagogue, but expansion by the sea. The Lord is still seen as Lord of the Sabbath. He seems to take that title with reference to liberty for the appropriation of what divine grace has made available for us.

For us the cornfields would set forth all that has come to maturity in Christ, the full provision of God for man; the Lord gives liberty on the divine side there, but here, in the synagogue, conditions on man's side have to be met. The cornfields are thrown open, but conditions on our side have to be met. The same Lord of the Sabbath who brought in liberty on the divine side brings in conditions on our side, that we may appropriate and enjoy it. I think it is a serious consideration. The provision is illimitable, the new garment, the new wine, the Sabbath, and the cornfields! But on man's side there is no power to avail himself of it. The sufficiency of Jesus has to be proved in connection with that. I have no power to avail myself of the good that God has provided except by the personal power and grace of the Son of man. It involves a personal action on His part.

My impression is that when the Lord came in as the Lord of the Sabbath He came in with all the original thoughts of the Sabbath in His mind, to make available to man all that God had provided. He would go back to the original thought. God finished all His work "and behold it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). That is the original idea of the Sabbath, an order of things set up concerning which the blessed God could say, "It was very good". His thought was, firstly, to enjoy it in His rest, and secondly, to have man to enjoy it with Him. There was, firstly, what God found in it, and secondly, His great thought that man should enter into His rest. If these people in the synagogue had taken in that original thought, they would have asked, 'Is it very good that there should be this wonderful provision and man unable to avail himself of it?' No! But the Lord Jesus came in to bring about conditions that are "very good", and to enable man to enjoy them. What a proposal for us today! What you find is that man was content that the man should remain with his hand withered. He rather wished that he should go on as he was. We have here a divine work that could only be accomplished by Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath. We all need Him in this character; amazing wealth and blessedness has come in! We all believe that the good that has come in from God in Christ is immeasurable. Perfect righteousness, full joy in the love of God, a wonderful harvest of God's thoughts in connection with a heavenly Christ, but how far are we in the good of it? It entails personal acquaintance with Christ in a very individual way. The disciples were in liberty and able to enjoy what there was in the cornfields. The synagogue represents the sphere of profession where man professed to know God, but did not know Him. There is nothing so hardening. It is the most terrible thing possible to profess to know God and not to know Him. In the synagogue the Lord always acts in sovereignty, in the sovereign compassion of His own tender heart. He takes account of our state and comes in to meet it according to God, and to give us power to appropriate. If we

all stretched out our dried hands to Him, and got them restored, He would be delighted.

Ques. Would it be "the obedience of faith"?

C.A.C. It is very much like it. Exercises are called into being on the part of the man. It is very important to see that the first thing He says to the man is, "Rise up and come into the midst". He calls upon him to move. He has to move at the word of Jesus.

Rem. There is no question of inability when He speaks.

C.A.C. The man who moves at the word of Jesus and comes into the midst becomes an object of attention. The Lord works that way. He does not work in a corner. It is a principle with the Lord. There has to be such a movement that attention is called to the one who moves. As soon as Jesus becomes Lord to us, Lord of the Sabbath, we are prepared to move at His word. It is the first step to the enjoyment of spiritual blessing.

Rem. And you can move!

C.A.C. You can, and confession of the mouth follows. You have moved, and somebody says, 'Why have you moved?' Confession is always the answer to a challenge in Scripture. Confession is not when a boy or girl goes home to their rejoicing Christian parents and tells them that he or she has been found by the Saviour, but rather when a boy goes to school, for instance, and his school-friends invite him to do so and so, and he refuses. They say, 'What is the matter with you, Johnny?' 'Jesus has become Lord to me'. That is confession. It is "before Pontius Pilate the good confession" (1 Timothy 6:13). This man was a public confessor when he moved into the midst. If Jesus is really Lord to me and I begin to move at His word I will soon begin to get the virtue that is in Him. It is what you get for yourself. It is a wonderful moment when a man is willing to let all know that he is an object of mercy, an evidence of God's election. That is what this man did. We want more publicity. We should pay great attention to the details of the gospels. Am I possessed of the

Christ of God in this particular character? The Lord exposes the adversaries; He applies a test, as it were, to see if there was any kind of divine sensibility there (verse 4).

One step taken at the word of Jesus is a wonderful start, one practical step. It puts you in the midst and marks you off at once in the world. There is only one sympathetic heart in the synagogue, "But they were silent". The man stands forth confessing that Jesus had become to him Lord of the Sabbath. If we thought of Him thus and gave Him His place it would preserve us from any fear of breakdown. We see He has come in to put things right on our side. "Stretch out thy hand": every one of us knows to what extent we have done that. He stretched it out to the Lord, a withered hand, but draws it back restored, according to the virtue of Him to whom he stretched it out. The personal grace of the Lord is needed for appropriation. It is great grace on His part to be here, that in all our conscious inability to appropriate all that love has provided, we can stretch out our hand to be restored as we sit here. Do we believe it? We see the principle of it in 1 Timothy 1:12 - 14. It is exactly what this man got. There was every kind of disability in Saul of Tarsus, he was in every way an unsuitable man. His hand was thoroughly dried, but he did really stretch it out to a Person who, as he says, "has given me power ... with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 1:12, 14). It is all on Paul's side. His hand was restored.

Ques. When did he first stretch forth his hand?

C.A.C. I think he stretched forth his hand at the end of Romans 7 first, but there is a continual need for getting the virtue that is in Him, appropriating it that we may have strength to serve, as 1 Timothy 1:13, "Appointed to ministry", that we may be able to appropriate all the wealth of divine good for strength for service and to be here for the will of God. Paul had to learn that all was dried on his side.

Rem. "Let the stealer steal no more" (Ephesians 4:28).

Rem. Seeing it will not do, we must do it.

C.A.C. "But the grace of our Lord surpassingly overabounded with faith and love". If we cannot say that, it is a pity. There is every defect on our side, but virtue in Christ has brought in faith and love on our side.

Ques. Is this man a sign (Isaiah 8:18)?

C.A.C. Yes, no doubt he took his place along with others in "the house" (verse 20). In this chapter following upon the synagogue, we have the sea, the mountain, and then the house, people sitting in a circle around Christ, all doing the will of God. The Lord wants to detach us from the synagogue and bring us to the house that we may sit in an orderly way around the Son of God, doing the will of God. We never do the will of God except as in our place in relation to the Son of God. The Lord goes into the synagogue, but He withdraws with His disciples to the sea (verse 7). In the synagogue there is, firstly, no sympathy and, secondly, antagonism. He leaves conditions like that. It was lawful to the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy a man on the Sabbath, but not to heal one. Now we have to be prepared to withdraw from the synagogue where those are who profess to know God, but in works deny Him. Hardening (verse 5) and opposition (verse 6) develop into speaking injuriously against the Holy Spirit (verse 29). That is final. The withdrawal becomes the occasion of a wider service -- the sea: "a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem ... and they of around Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, having heard what things he did, came to him" (verses 7, 8). It goes right out to the gentile world. We are not in a restricted sphere of service. In the synagogue the service is very much official, with appointed servants. Outside there is great liberty for service. "The sea" indicates a wide sphere of service, outside dried-up profession, and the Lord takes His disciples there. God is going to have Him honoured. There is very wide scope of service, but when you get out there you have to be careful that you do not come under the influence of those you serve; hence the "little ship". That is very important in connection with service. You have to influence

those you serve without in the slightest degree being influenced by those you serve. If you come under their influence it means being moulded in your service by the thoughts of man. Paul speaks of being Christ's bondman (Galatians 1:10), "not as pleasing men, but God" (1 Thessalonians 2:4). He always keeps in his "little ship".

Rem. One would be more effectual on that line, but not popular.

C.A.C. You must maintain separation from the influence of those you serve; otherwise you come under their influence. It is not monastic because it has in view the serving of a multitude. Servants get out of the "little ship" sometimes, but Peter and John in Acts 3:11, 12, and Paul and Barnabas at Lystra in Acts 14:11 - 18 would not allow themselves to fall under such influence. The Lord spoke to the disciples about the "little ship" (verse 9), so it is instruction for them and us. "And he goes up into the mountain, and calls whom he himself would". The "little ship" shows the separation, and "the mountain" the elevation in which the Lord would be served.

Ques. What is the thought of surnames?

C.A.C. It is the principle of sovereignty. He calls whom He Himself would and three of them are singled out and called to the peerage -- surnamed! They were distinctive personages amongst the apostles. We have to accept that it is no use quarrelling with it; the Lord calls to Him whom He Himself would to be with Him, in an elevation far above men. No one goes forth in spiritual dignity to serve but from there.

Rem. In John 1 the two disciples ask Him, "Where abidest thou? ... and they abode with him". It is from that spot that Andrew goes out to find his own brother Simon, to evangelise.

C.A.C. It is all very beautiful. There is also the refusal of testimony from the unclean spirits; although their testimony was true. The Lord would not have it (verses 11, 12).

FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES

Mark 6:1 - 46

Capernaum is where the Lord dwelt after leaving Nazareth when He heard that John was delivered up (Matthew, 4:13). It is "his own city" (Matthew 9:1). "His own country" in Mark 6:1 is probably Nazareth. It is very solemn and instructive that not one disciple, so far as we know, came from Nazareth in the days of the Lord's flesh. Not even His brethren believed on Him until resurrection. The Lord wondered because of their unbelief. Think of those thirty years! And now the teaching! It was such as to amaze (Luke 4). And such works of power, referring perhaps to the chapter before: "Whatsoever we have heard" (Luke 4:23). The lowly grace of the incarnation is wonderful. They thought they knew all about Him, and His birth and kindred. Possibly Joseph was by this time dead, hence they say "the son of Mary". They cannot deny the wisdom or the power but they do not know the Person. The world cannot deny that there is something wonderful about Jesus, but they do not trace His origin to God.

Hence they can discuss Him and come to the conclusion that He is just one of themselves. They have not learned what Nicodemus knew -- that He was from God and God was with Him.

The great principle comes out as described by Jesus, that "A prophet is not despised save in his own country". What is the real import of this? The Lord accepts it as being the experience of all prophets -- a needed discipline for them but a solemn thing for those who are tested by having a prophet specially identified with them. It was not, with the Lord, that those who knew Him best had least reason to honour Him.

I often think we have to beware of this. The mind of God is familiar to us, we hear the truth more than others; the Lord is, as it were, continually moving in and out amongst us. So that we are in danger of losing the sense of God being in it.

What we see and hear every day as an ordinary thing is apt to lose its value. Such is man, even as highly favoured of God. What the Lord says is an important encouragement for us, for most of us have to serve in our own country or nearby. We cannot go to some place where people will honour us because we serve the mind of God. We have to serve where, if we speak at all for God, we may expect to be despised. They may not be able to deny that there is something that is not ordinary there, but they will be offended. It is the normal course of things here. The Lord, perfect in everything, accepts the limitations. He could not do any works of power there. Matthew adds, "because of their unbelief", but here it is the blessed Prophet recognising that works of power had their time and place, but He was under restraint in these conditions. Where people are offended in the word it is not suitable for works of power. But divine grace is never wholly shut up: He laid His hands on a few infirm persons and healed them. "Luke alone is with me" shows that the physician is there in 2 Timothy days and therefore healing. Luke's gospel is a healing medicine and balm.

But however much we may be limited locally we must not forget that the Lord's universal administration goes on and He maintains His testimony. "Two and two" would indicate the subdivision of things locally so that there is adequate power as sent. Where there is anything of assembly character, however feeble (for two is the smallest collective number), the Lord's power is with them, but on their side they must be careful not to weaken the power by having human resources. Divine support only -- a staff. No scrip, no bread, no money: absolute dependence and counting on the faithfulness of the One who sends. But they are to have sandals. Their walk is to be preserved in the character of those who are on a journey, not settling here, but nothing superfluous for the body.

I would enquire why the beheading of John is introduced at this point and in connection with the Lord's name becoming public, coming in, too, between the sending out of the

twelve and their return to Jesus. Herod's conscience was active; some might say Elias or a prophet, but to Herod it was John whom he had beheaded. Men are conscious that they are in hostility to God. Man is lawless and governed by his lusts even though he may do many things, and Satan gets man into his hands that way.

Jesus' name becoming public (verse 14) produces a certain activity of conscience in men. The public testimony of God does this because it calls attention to what is unlawful. The conscience takes sides with what is right, but lusts carry man away.

The apostles are gathered together to Jesus -- a model for all who serve. Relate to Him what you have done and taught: He calls them apart into a desert place. Public activities are apt to leave us no leisure to eat. When the servants rest there is an opportunity to see what God has done by them. There is no attraction there but what was spiritual. The great crowd represents those who have been affected by the ministry of the twelve.

There is an urgency about the Lord's action in verse 45, "He compelled his disciples to go on board ship". They were intended to have learned through the feeding of the five thousand what would have prepared them for their experience in the ship. "They understood not through the loaves: for their heart was hardened". If things take us by surprise we ought to consider whether we have not missed some precious lesson in the school of God.

"To go on before to the other side to Bethsaida". He had sent them out in service in verse 7 and they had come back. But now they are sent on before, the only occasion, I believe, when the disciples were sent away from Him, other than as sent out in service. What is the import of this?

The Lord sends the five thousand away satisfied. They go to carry the testimony of satisfaction. The One who had satisfied them sent them. It is really the close of Israel's day. A divine Person came in manhood to verify all the promises of God.

FELLOWSHIP AND SATISFACTION

Mark 6:30 - 44; Mark 8:1 - 9

C.A.C. My thought in suggesting these scriptures was that we might see that the fellowship which the Lord has set up in the desert is marked by complete satisfaction. I think it is an aspect of the fellowship that we do well to consider. The gathering together of the five thousand would seem to be morally connected with the ministry of the twelve. They had gone forth and had accomplished their service, and they came back to tell the Lord what they had done and taught, and the Lord withdrew them into a desert place to rest awhile; but it would appear that the mission of the twelve had the effect of gathering a great crowd together. It seems to me it is a picture of the result in this world of the testimony of the apostles. Their coming together gave occasion to the Lord to disclose what was in His own heart, and that is to have a company of persons in fellowship, for they were all caused to sit down and eat together, a figure of communion or fellowship in which everyone is marked by satisfaction. My impression is that it is a primary thought in connection with fellowship in the Lord's mind that all those who participate in it should be marked by complete satisfaction. It is a great proposal! That is what is in the Lord's heart and mind for all those who are drawn together by the power of His name as a result of the testimony of the apostles. I believe that is the impression that the Lord would give us this afternoon, that His thought is to introduce to our hearts elements of complete and divine satisfaction.

Bread is a figure of Christ as having come down from heaven in order to be satisfaction for human hearts, and in the crowd eating of it together there is also the thought of communion or fellowship, showing that the Lord's intention is that there should be a multitude in the desert who so enter into what is come down from heaven in the person of Christ

that they are restful and satisfied. I believe that satisfaction is really what marks the fellowship. It is a great thought in the heart of God.

Ques. I suppose we arrive at this by recognising who the Lord is?

C.A.C. Yes, and it seems tome that the converse is true; that is, that we learn who the Lord is, how great He is, by what He can do for us. If the Lord is great enough to set up a large company of persons in this desert world in complete satisfaction, and in communion with one another in that satisfaction, it is a great testimony to this world. It is not only the fellowship; it is the testimony. A company like that is the testimony here to the greatness of Christ. So that the Lord refers them to the miracle of the loaves (chapter 8: 17 - 21). He reminds them of the five loaves, of the seven loaves and of the abundance, the surplus that there was. It was only because their hearts were hardened that they did not at once perceive how great He was. I believe the Lord would put that impression upon our hearts today, that He is equal to everything. This is not just a matter of theory; it is for us individually and collectively to prove it to be a reality. There is not much testimony in our talk about being satisfied, if, after all, we are unsatisfied. Satisfaction is the result of getting the good of the Lord's service.

Ques. Would you consider that however small a company may be, there is no reason why they should not know the Lord in such sufficiency that all are satisfied?

C.A.C. I think the Lord in causing them to sit down by hundreds and by fifties intimates to us His pleasure that His saints should sit down together in relatively small numbers.

The whole of the fellowship represented by the five thousand was under His eye, but He signified His pleasure that we should sit down in relatively small numbers, and then we should find Him acting in such a way that there is complete satisfaction for all.

Rem. Some suggest that our readings are dry.

C.A.C. That is a fine opportunity for them to be like Gideon's fleece, full of the dew of heaven while all around is dry!

The incident of the five thousand brings out the weakness that exists on our side. The second feeding of the multitude is altogether different. It is a matter there of spiritual persons who are characterised by spiritual elements, but in chapter 6 it is a company of persons marked by conditions of weakness, as sheep having no shepherd; even the disciples have only five loaves. The number five in this connection evidently intimates a small supply. The disciples, you might say, were in despair; the resources available were so small (see Luke 9:13). The Lord would give us the sense that things are small; I do not think we shall get His grace and power if we do not feel that things are small, but He would not leave us there. It is really a desert place. There are no resources to be found in the world to give satisfaction. Momentary gratification may be found there, but not satisfaction. In our own circle there may not appear to be much available, but the Lord would show us how unlimited is His power to multiply what is of Himself and to make it adequate for complete satisfaction. He would not leave us under a depressing sense that the resources are inadequate. The devil would like us to think that they are.

Ques. What is the suggestion of the green grass?

C.A.C. I think it intimates the favourable conditions which the Lord would provide for His people: for instance, I regard such a meeting as this as a manifestation of favourable conditions. We can come together in our own company unmolested, and can be in quietness. The normal conditions in which the saints come together are marked by what is favourable and what ministers to comfort. There is a difference between that and the circumstances in chapter 8, where there is no grass, and where they sat down on the ground. It needs spiritual persons to do that, and be happy.

Ques. What are the barley loaves?

C.A.C. It is mentioned in John 6 that the loaves were barley loaves, and I think that would carry with it the thought of resurrection. In a general way, bread signifies the Lord as having come down from heaven, bringing all that is of God and heaven's grace near to us, so that it may be available for the satisfaction of our hearts. But then the additional thought of barley would carry things on to resurrection, that all that came down from heaven in the Person of the Lord Jesus has been carried through into resurrection. The whole of God's faithful grace as witnessed in Christ is now carried through into eternal conditions. It is all secured in resurrection. So that the faithfulness of God, all that God delights to be for men, is set forth in Christ and is now carried into the permanent condition of resurrection.

Ques. What is your thought about the elements of satisfaction?

C.A.C. Well, what comes out of heaven has that character. The desert is a place where there is no satisfaction, and that is the character of the scene in which we are found outwardly. But then, God having brought in Christ, we have been singing with joy that He has engaged our hearts with Christ, and in doing that He has engaged us with that which has every element of satisfaction in it.

Rem. The real testimony would be that satisfaction.

C.A.C. That is the testimony. One of the primary and essential features of the testimony is the evidence that God is able to satisfy a people in this world without their needing a single particle of the world to contribute to it. That is a great testimony! Are we all set to go in to prove it?

'Five' speaks of such an apprehension of Christ as might be found in those who are small in stature. It is "a little boy" (John 6:9) who had the five loaves. I do not think a little boy would ever have seven loaves. That makes it suit some of us very well, who feel that we are not very great in stature spiritually, and that we have a small and restricted apprehension of Christ. The apprehension of Christ is limited. I do not

know how others feel, but that has often been pressed home on my spirit. But the Lord would use the very sense of our own smallness spiritually to cast us upon Himself, and He would show that all His grace and power is available to multiply the little apprehension of Him that we have, so that it shall become great enough to result in complete satisfaction for ourselves and for all those who are in the fellowship. The grace of the Lord in meeting small conditions comes out in chapter 6; His greatness in filling up spiritual conditions comes out in chapter 8. In chapter 6 it is His grace. His condescending gentleness and grace, in coming down to small and limited conditions and giving them such expansion that there is no lack. It is the testimony to His greatness that He can do it.

This is the character of the fellowship in which we are found in the desert. In all the circumstances of the world we are left to be witnesses of the greatness of Christ, because He has brought us a satisfaction in Himself that has made us independent of everything that is in the world. I do not think the fellowship means much if it is not a fellowship in divine satisfaction. Bread is for the sustainment of life, and life without satisfaction is far short of God's thought of life. The element of satisfaction was evident at Pentecost, and it is a vital thing in the fellowship, though we often overlook it. We have such doctrinal ideas about fellowship. People talk and discuss it from all points of view, but we want to get to the vitality of the fellowship. Why are we heart to heart and shoulder to shoulder? Because we have been introduced into such a personal acquisition of Christ as the great expression of God's faithfulness that we are satisfied, and we are separate from the world because we are satisfied without it. It is a marked contrast with what obtains in the world; even those who have desires after Christ produced by the ministry of the twelve are often as sheep having no shepherd. There is a crowd today who have been affected by the ministry of the apostles and have desires after Christ, but they are as sheep

having no shepherd, and it is obvious to an onlooker that they have no satisfaction. In contrast to all that, the Lord is setting up a fellowship marked by satisfaction; it says, "They all ate and were satisfied". Then He could trust them; He could dismiss them to go into their various spheres to bear witness to the wonderful character of the Person they had been in contact with.

Ques. What about the two fishes?

C.A.C. I think that the loaves represent what is available in Christ, but I do not know that fishes are ever typical of Christ. They are typical of the saints as taken out of the world for God. Fishes that can be eaten have been taken out of their natural element. They are fish out of water! That is exactly the right character for a saint to have. He has been taken completely out of his natural element, but he has been taken out of it to be for God. And these fish were undoubtedly cooked. The Lord would never have given people raw fish. They had come under the action of fire, which is most important if we are to be palatable. Everyone knows the difference between a raw fish and a cooked one, and the Lord uses cooked fish. When He made a dinner for them there was a fire of coals and fish laid thereon (John 21). The fish represent that element of the fellowship which has to do with the moral state of the saints, and that is as important in its place as the bread. Speaking in figure, we may say that if the two fishes had not been there the loaves would not have been available for the people. We cannot have the satisfaction of what is in Christ apart from certain moral conditions brought about in ourselves. The two fishes represent adequate testimony to that.

Ques. Why is fish given to the Lord in Luke 24?

C.A.C. The fish there is in a form that is palatable even to the risen Lord. He partook of it. But even there it is a partial thought; it is "part of a broiled fish". The two small fishes show that the thought connected with the fishes is not a predominant one. Things are, so to speak, small on that side,

but they are real, small but real. And the Lord cannot dispense with that. However small it is it must be real. We do not read of "great" fishes until the millennium as typified in John 21.

The fishes which the Lord would make food for us are fishes that have been under the action of fire. When we were converted God took us out of the whole sphere in which we lived. In that sense we are fish out of water. And we should always remember that divine grace has taken us completely out of our former element. The same grace has brought us under a process of self-judgment which answers to the cooking of the fish, a process by which we learn to judge all that is of the flesh in ourselves, and that is an essential feature of the fellowship of the assembly. The bread without the fishes would not constitute a fellowship that is according to God, and I should dread an increased ministry of Christ if it were not accompanied by intense separation from the world and deepened self-judgment. It would ever have these accompaniments according to God. We do not want to make exceedingly prominent, in the testimony, the separation of the saints and their self-judgment, but if it is not there there is nothing. The ministry would be ineffective if not accompanied by separation and self-judgment. It would nullify all that is in the loaves if we had not the fishes. One reason why many believers are not satisfied is that they have not taken the place of being fish out of water. They have not taken the place of having done with all the conditions of their former lives.

Ques. Do you mean that we must be taken out of the world, and then sent back into it?

C.A.C. It comes to that ultimately. But the fishes are seen here as representing an essential feature of the satisfaction that pertains to the fellowship. The real reason why there is not more satisfaction is that there it not a clean cut from the world. Moses left Egypt. The Spirit of God has told us that by faith he forsook Egypt. The whole thing was a

judged system to him, and he forsook it; there was a definite moment in his history when he forsook Egypt.

Ques. Is there such a thing as collective self-judgment?

C.A.C. There is such a thing as assembly repentance; the apostle was seeking to bring it about at Corinth; those exercises belong to us collectively as well as individually. The object before the apostle in writing to the Corinthians was that the company should be marked by self-judgment so that they might be a new lump as unleavened. They actually were that in the thought of God, but He would have it to be practically so.

Self-judgment is infectious if taken up before God. If one judges what is wrong, it is a help to others. In the fellowship we find no influences at work but what are of God. Whether it be self-judgment or appreciation of Christ, we find them in our brethren, and thus they are promoted in ourselves. These things are most important if the fellowship and the testimony are to be a reality. We do not want anything in the fellowship that savours of current religion.

It is important for us to link together the thought of the five loaves and the seven and the one. We read about one loaf in chapter 8. The one loaf is figurative of Christ in His exclusive power. So that there is no room for the leaven of the Pharisees, which is the religious side, or the leaven of Herod, which is the worldly side, or the infidel element of the Sadducees. If we have Christ as the one loaf He is exclusive of all those elements. Having learned what He can be as the five loaves and the seven prepares us to understand His divine pre-eminent exclusiveness as the one loaf. He shuts out all other elements and the ground is cleared for assembly formation.

Ques. How is collective self-judgment brought about?

C.A.C. I think that collective self-judgment is sought to be brought about by the Lord's appeal to the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3. He appeals to the assemblies as represented by the angels, and in five of His addresses there is a

distinct call to assembly repentance. As we know, the assembly as such never repented and therefore it becomes the responsibility of the individual to do what the assembly will not do. The overcomer is marked by repentance and by the appreciation of Christ, and therefore he rises superior to all the influences that have called for the Lord's rebuke. I think assembly repentance is of the greatest importance where there is need for it. I believe that there is often need for it. If saints profess to be walking in the light of the assembly and they do things in a way that the Lord does not approve, there will be no restoration for them unless they repent. The Lord will not let anything pass. If we are near the Lord in any measure He will not let things pass. He allows many things to pass in the current religious world, but He will not allow things to pass with those who are nearer to Him. I have known occasions when saints have had to judge actions that took place twenty or thirty years ago. Saints will never be right as to assembly character unless they judge what the Lord does not approve. If we have done what is wrong, it must be judged.

Ques. What is the difference between giving thanks and blessing?

C.A.C. In connection with the five loaves it is the Lord's coming in grace to magnify and to multiply what is very weak and feeble on our side; He comes in in grace; He comes in, so to speak, on God's part, in His grace to multiply any little that we have that is of Christ. My comfort is that if I have a little bit that is of Christ He can multiply it. If we have a little bit of Christ and put that in His hand He can multiply it so that the whole fellowship is benefited. That is connected with blessing.

In connection with the seven loaves He gave thanks. That is headship. There are conditions which allow the Lord to take His place in headship, and wherever those conditions are found He will do it. The Lord loves to take His place as Head, but it requires spiritual conditions. In chapter 8 there

are no conditions of weakness. All the conditions are marked by spirituality. There is no crowd like sheep having no shepherd. They were three days in the company of Christ, a spiritual company. None but a spiritual company could be held in the company of Christ for three days without expressing a single desire for anything natural. Amongst such a company as that the Lord can suggest. Everything is suggested by the Lord in chapter 8. The need is suggested by the disciples in chapter 6 and in lordship He meets it, but in chapter 8 the suggesting is all from the Lord. Chapter 8 links with Colossians, and therefore you have elements now that are universal in character. There is no sitting down in companies; the whole four thousand is in view. Four is the number of universality. All that is spiritual is universal in character.

Ques. Why does the Lord bless the fishes in chapter 8?

C.A.C. Because when we think of our side there is always the need for His blessing. But His giving thanks for the loaves confirms the thought that headship is in view here. If we have known what it was to be with Him for three days that would carry us to resurrection. And amongst saints who are risen with Him He takes a place on our side in headship. The Lord can take His place along with spiritual persons, and voice their thanksgiving. This brings us in picture -- a spiritual picture -- to the saints viewed as risen with Christ: Colossian ground. Three days speak of resurrection. When we come to that ground we are universal in our affections, so that as regards the Colossians and Ephesians, Paul thanks God because he has heard of their love to all the saints. Love cannot be limited to what is local.

In chapter 7 the Lord exposes what is in the heart of man. Then a poor Gentile comes up having learned the blessed character of what is in the heart of God, and then we have the Lord doing all things well; He makes the deaf to hear and the speechless to speak. It is on that line that spirituality is reached, and we see, in figure, a company marked by

spiritual features in chapter 8. 1 hope we covet to walk together as having spiritual features, so that we may have seven loaves.

Ques. What are spiritual features?

C.A.C. I think they are such features as Paul and Epaphras laboured to bring about in Colosse. They laboured and agonised that the gentile saints should be marked by spiritual features, that they should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. A spiritual person is one who has nothing less before him than the whole precious thought of God in connection with Christ and the assembly.

When we come to the spiritual sphere we get outside what is local, just as we do in the morning meeting. We are local up to the time of the breaking of bread, but then if we pass on to give Christ His place as Head we are outside locality and time in the universal and eternal sphere of spiritual privilege.

Ques. What about their being dismissed?

C.A.C. The dismissal intimates that permanent conditions are not yet reached. All the satisfaction and the moral conditions which we have been speaking of are provisional. We take up things locally in the light of what is universal. It would not be right to do anything here in N. that it would not be right to do anywhere else. But when we get into the true spiritual privilege of the assembly we get outside what is local, and we think of the whole company of saints as in the mind of God, united together as one body and increasing with the increase of God. Every member is nourished and ministered to, by what comes from the Head, showing how great Christ is: He is great enough to do that. Many true saints may not understand it, but the point is, do I understand it? Is Christ in my estimation great enough to fill with satisfaction the whole company of saints upon earth?

The satisfaction in chapter 6 stands in relation to all the need of our hearts. We have certain needs, and they are all met in gracious power; but the satisfaction of chapter 8 is

connected with the fruition of all that is in the heart and mind of God. All is from Christ's side; He makes suggestions, and as spiritual persons we look for satisfaction in what is of Him; we are not dependent upon green grass. As fed under the headship of Christ we are independent of favourable conditions here. The Lord would use all the testing exercises that come upon us as we walk together to intensify our appreciation of what is spiritual. The hard ground often ministers more to spirituality than the green grass. If He calls us to go through conflict and exercise, the bearing of burdens and the enduring of sorrow, that is lying on the hard ground. And the Lord may make the hard ground much more blessed for us than the green grass. He can use even that to cast our hearts back upon Himself, upon the heart of God and upon all that is spiritual. Thus we may have profound satisfaction even though we are lying on the ground.

The surplus gathered up in the baskets indicates that the thought of satisfaction is not to terminate with the present assembly period. Enough will be left over to be administered in a wider sphere in a coming day. The twelve baskets of chapter 6 speak of this, while the seven larger baskets of chapter 8 suggest that there will be not only completeness in administration so that every need is met, but the spiritual perfection and fulness of God's thoughts as secured in Christ will be the satisfaction of those who know Him. But no new elements of satisfaction will be added to those which are available now. This brings out in a wonderful way the wealth of resources which is provided for our satisfaction at the present time. It is good to think of the christian fellowship in this blessed feature of it, that it is a participation in common in that which is wholly of God, and which affords complete satisfaction. May we know more what it is to have the good of it.

SPIRITUAL FOOD

Mark 6:34 - 52

The lessons connected with the five loaves and the seven and the one are most important. In each case it is a question of what the disciples have which can be made available for food. Have we got anything which the Lord can multiply? There are things which melt away to nothing if the Lord touches them, but there are other things which He can multiply to any extent. These are the things which His disciples are possessed of: in one word, as they are possessed of Christ.

The outlook of the Lord upon His people today must be much what it was in verse 34. He would "teach them many things" and he would have them fed. In view of the widespread need He would say to us today, "How many loaves have ye? Go and see". Have we got anything which will feed men's souls? I think we shall find that we have. They had five loaves. Five is what may be called the human number: man has five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot, and five senses. It speaks of what man is as a creature in dependent weakness which has become intensified by the fallen condition in which he is found. And it speaks of the grace of God in Christ to meet all human need. The disciples were conversant with the Old Testament, and they knew that God had pledged Himself in hundreds of promises to meet all the need of Israel. They had Christ in their thoughts as the One in whom all those promises were verified and fulfilled. I believe the five loaves represent that. It was to be known, and will be known, in Israel.

The two fishes represent the testimony that was there to men being secured for the pleasure of God. We know from John 6 that they were "small fishes", but still it was there in testimony. If a divine thought is maintained even in the

smallest way it is something which can be divinely multiplied. Its value reaches, or may reach, the whole of the people of God. We are privileged to hold and maintain it for all saints.

Whatever promises of God there are, in Christ is the yea and amen of them all.

The disciples "understood not through the loaves: for their heart was hardened". How we need to be preserved from that hardness of heart that does not understand! If our hearts are hardened they get narrowed down to human thoughts, natural thoughts. It is a great thing to have hearts that are soft and impressionable spiritually, so that we understand the greatness of the Person with whom we have to do, and what He can do. Perhaps each one of us has enough of Christ to feed thousands of His saints if it came under His hand. It is a question of the sufficiency of Christ.

Then in chapter 7: 27 we find that the children of the kingdom had forfeited all title to the promises. They were hypocrites, with their heart far from God, and making His word void, their heart a fountain of wickedness. The Lord exposes all this, but He also brings to light the work of God in one who had no title to anything on the line of promise (verse 28). It was just to her what God was in Himself in His infinite goodness. This lay behind all the promises. Whether man has any title to promise or not, God is what He is, and I think the seven loaves are connected with this (chapter 8: 2, 5). It is not promises, but God Himself come forth to bless in the revelation of what He is. It is not here a crowd who are as sheep having no shepherd, but who have been with Christ three days. Such need food that they may return from spiritual privilege strengthened for the responsible life, so that there is no fainting on the way. A young woman said, 'I think I should be perfectly happy if I could always remain in the meetings, but when I have to go home I get tested and I break down'. You need the seven loaves to meet that -- to know that God is for you, Christ is for you, and the Holy Spirit is for you. That is perfection of resource to keep you

up to the level of the spiritual privilege you have enjoyed. Your strength lies in appropriating what is available for you in divine Persons. 'The fulness of our God alone, the measure is of grace divine'.

THE FIVE LOAVES, THE SEVEN AND THE ONE (1)

Mark 8:5, 14, 19 - 21

I would like to gather some spiritual instruction from the references in Mark to five loaves and seven and one, seeing that they are linked together by the Lord's words in verses 19 - 21. There is something in common between the incidents or they would not be thus linked.

The gathering of the five thousand in Mark 6 comes after the mission of the twelve, and it would prefigure the result of the administration of grace by means of the apostles. It was a very extended result, and it gave occasion to the Lord to disclose what was in His mind. He would shepherd them, and do it in such a way that every one in that great crowd would be satisfied (verse 42). It was a striking picture of the communion or fellowship that He would set up in the desert of this world. A primary thought of the assembly is that under the shepherd care of Christ everyone is fed and satisfied. Companies and ranks by hundreds and by fifties would show that the Lord has pleasure in comparatively small numbers of His saints sitting down together. The Lord, we might venture to say, undertakes all for us if we follow His directions.

The disciples knew that the crowd had not anything to eat, but they had to learn that it was intended by the Lord that they should give them to eat, and that they had sufficient to do so. It is well to "Go and see" what we have. The disciples had Christ; they had gone forth as His personal representatives; they knew the power of the kingdom as present in grace.

I think it may be said that bread represents Christ as incarnate having come down out of heaven (John 6). "This is my body" would confirm this. But five loaves or seven would suggest that as apprehended by men, there are different

measures which give character to the communion which may be enjoyed together. 'Five' would appear to refer to the grace of heaven as it may be apprehended by those who have not much stature: it was "a little boy" who had the five loaves. But 'seven' would indicate a spiritual completeness such as would pertain to those mature, full-grown in Christ. 'One' loaf would be exclusive of all others so that no fleshly religious or worldly element is to be admitted into our communion.

Then why do fish go with bread here and in John 21? They do not seem to be figurative in Scripture of Christ, but of men as those who can be caught for God. The communion of saints cannot be according to God if this element is wanting. It is not a preponderating thought for we know that in the feeding of the crowds the fishes were "small ones". I do not think we get the thought of "great fishes" until John 21 where the great result in the millennial day is typified. But the communion of saints is not possible without the recognition that men are secured for God. There is adequate testimony to this, though it may be outwardly small.

The Lord's asking, "How many loaves have ye?" on each occasion shows that He attached importance to the number. The real lesson of each occasion was bound up in the number. In the first instance the Lord is calling attention to the fact that He commits to His disciples responsibility to furnish material for the communion and satisfaction of all those who are attracted to Him. But at the same time He brings to light that what they have is very inadequate for the occasion. In the other three gospels they remark on the smallness of the supply. This would evidently be the import of the number 'five', at any rate in this connection. The Lord would make us conscious that what we have of Himself is limited. We have all felt that, I am sure, and never do we feel it more than when the Lord puts responsibility upon us to minister to the communion or satisfaction of those who have been drawn to Him out of a scene which could give them

nothing. But then He would give us the consciousness that He intends to use us to bring about the communion and satisfaction of His people. I take it that one very important and precious mark of the fellowship is satisfaction. Those who are attracted to Christ are caused by Him to sit down by companies in favourable circumstances "on the green grass" that they may eat and be satisfied. Let us never forget that this is a feature of the testimony which is of great importance. In the midst of a desert scene, where so many thousands even of true believers are as sheep not having a shepherd, He would have His people to sit down in companies, and to be so fed as to be fully satisfied. This is the Lord's intent, and He knows well, in forming this intent, how small things are on our side. He will use what is of Himself in our souls, and every divine feature, however small it may be. Thank God, there is something here which our Lord Jesus can connect with heaven, and with all the grace of heaven, and which He can bless. There is nothing of Christ amongst His disciples that He would not multiply so that it should become the common portion and satisfaction of all who sit down in companies. This is the fellowship, and it is also the testimony.

It is good to have that which He can take up and use and multiply. Whatever is of Christ, even if it be weak and small, can be multiplied under His hand, so that it becomes a common portion for His saints and tends to their satisfaction.

But for this there must be a testimony to the fact that the saints are taken out of the world to be for God, and that they have come under the action of fire. Everyone knows the difference between a raw fish and a cooked one. The evidence of self-judgment and of separation from the world are as essential to the communion as the joint-partaking of Christ. Indeed we cannot have the one without the other. One would dread an increased ministry of Christ if it were not accompanied by the evidence of intensified separation from the world and deepened self-judgment.

THE FIVE LOAVES, THE SEVEN AND THE ONE (2)

Mark 8:14 - 21

I believe the Lord would raise an exercise with us as to what we have got which He can multiply and make available as food for His people. It is a poor thing to have that which makes a show before men, but which the Lord cannot multiply -- that which shrinks into nothingness when He touches it. Laodicea makes a great boast of resources, but there is nothing there which the Lord can multiply: there is nothing for Him.

One cannot doubt that there is much instruction for us in what is conveyed by the disciples having five loaves on one occasion, seven on another, and then one. These occasions tested the perception and understanding of the disciples, and I think I may say they test our perception and understanding. It is a question of how we have learned Christ, of how we have become possessed of Him, for He alone is Bread for men. If you have an apprehension of Christ, the Lord can multiply that to any extent, and make it food for all His people. You may say, it is a very small apprehension, but the Lord would give you perception and understanding of how great what you apprehend really is. It is so great in relation to God that it is more than equal to supply all need. There is that in it which can be magnified and multiplied to any extent. I think the Lord would encourage us to take spiritual account of what we have, and to see what expansion it is capable of under His hand. I take it that we have all learned something spiritually of Christ; we have become possessed of Him. Now if we place that at the Lord's disposal He can so multiply it that it becomes food for every one of His needy people who comes within our reach. He can make it reach out in strengthening grace to thousands! You may be feeling

how little you have; the Lord would give you an impression of how great it is in His estimation, and of how He can bring out its greatness and astonish you by the capabilities that are in it.

What we find in the first incident is that the Lord's compassion is drawn out to a greater crowd "because they were as sheep not having a shepherd". That is, they needed care.

They seem to be rather contrasted with the many coming and going in chapter 6: 31, who were only a distraction, depriving the disciples of leisure even to eat. But these are seen of the Lord as subjects of compassion and as calling His shepherd care into exercise. I am sure there is a great crowd of this kind today. How many of His people are truly in this condition! A flock of sheep would always interest a true shepherd, and if he saw they lacked care and food it would move his heart. Now, are we looking upon the sheep of the flock of God with something of the shepherd solicitude that is in the heart of Christ? We speak of having part with Him. May it not be an empty word with us!

He would teach them many things. "He began to teach them". It was in the exercise of His shepherd care: that is the kind of teaching the sheep need. You may be sure that every word of that teaching was marked by consideration for their true need, and by that which would help them spiritually in relation to God whose sheep they were. For a true shepherd would always have before him not only the sheep but the interests of their owner. The sheep are to be tended so that their owner may have full gain and pleasure in them.

It is humbling to find throughout the gospels that the disciples more often appear in contrast with the Lord than in concert with Him -- humbling because it is a true picture of how we are so often found ourselves. Here they would have the people sent away to buy themselves bread but this was not His thought: "Give ye them to eat". The disciples had what sufficed because they had what He could multiply. And I venture to say we have sufficient to feed the whole

flock today if we placed it, as it were, under His hand for multiplication.

I regard the five loaves as representing the apprehension which the disciples had, that He was the Christ as come in on the line of the promises to Israel. He was to them Israel's Messiah to bring in the kingdom of God. They had learned Him, believed on Him, and were following Him as having the faith of this. He had come in to meet all the need of Israel, to verify in Himself every promise of God in the Old Testament, the need only serving to show the resources and power that were in Him, and the true character of the kingdom of God. He was Zion's provision abundantly blessed. To send the people away was to confess that He was not sufficient; that they must care for themselves. The disciples had five loaves: they had in figure an apprehension of Christ, but they had to learn how great He was in His availability for the flock of God, and how He could multiply what they had.

Now have not we five loaves? Are we not, through grace, possessed of this, that we know Christ as the perfect answer in grace to all the weakness and need of men? As need arose, God met it by promise, but when the time was fulfilled He brought in the verification of every promise in the Person of Christ. Have we not got the faith of that? Do we not know that all the wealth of God's kingdom came here in grace to men in Christ? You may say, our apprehension is weak. Yes, 'five' speaks of that, but however weak the apprehension, the thing apprehended has infinite potentialities. Put it at the Lord's disposal and He will show you the boundless possibilities that are there. It is just what the flock of God needs today.

When we come to the seven loaves we get a distinct advance upon the five. There is an important spiritual education in chapter 7 which I think would have the effect of giving us an apprehension of Christ answering to the seven loaves of chapter 8: 5. That is, the heart of man, even under the greatest outward show of purity, is seen exposed in the light

of God as a fountain of impurity. But then we see another thing. The Lord uncovers the working of God in a Syrophenician woman by which she goes behind all the promises and counts directly upon what God is in Himself. It seems to me that when we come to learn what God is in His nature, in His ineffable goodness that cannot be other than what it is, no matter what men may be or whether they have any claim on the ground of promise or not, we come to an apprehension that is indicated by the number 'seven'. It is perfection as known in its blessed Source in God Himself.

Then the incident at the end of chapter 7 presents the skill of Christ in dealing with man in respect to both his hearing and his speech. How wonderful to hear in such a way and to speak in such a way that it just becomes the evidence of the skill of Christ! This again would link itself in my mind with the number seven.

Now the crowd in chapter 8 calls out the Lord's compassion "because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat".

Before pursuing this subject further I feel constrained to seek light from God as to why in Luke and John we have the 'five' and not the 'seven', while Matthew and Mark give the 'seven' also? Would it connect with Matthew being the assembly gospel, as comes out in chapter 16, and with Mark showing full competency for service in the universal sphere indicated by the four thousand? Whereas in Luke it would be the ministry of divine grace to men as in local companies "by fifties".

In Matthew there are no companies in connection with the five thousand or the seven thousand: it is universal.

In Mark He orders the disciples in the case of the five thousand "to make them all sit down by companies on the green grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties" (Mark 6:39, 40). But when we come to chapter 8 -- the seven loaves -- it is the crowd, four thousand, regarded universally.

In John the men are simply made to sit down, and we are told there was much grass in the place: there are no companies. It is really a figure of what is given "out of heaven" perfectly suited in grace to men as in dearth and death, but given out of heaven that men might eat and not die. It is God considering for men, and bringing in from heaven just what men need, that they may live in relation to Him.

In Matthew and Mark the Lord is educating His disciples to take the place of Israel as the light of the world, and as maintaining His service and testimony here. To this end He was giving them a knowledge of God in His goodness, and of His infinitely perfect service, that gave them a sense of perfection in One who had the heart of a Father, and in One, too, who was the Father's delight in manhood. They were learning perfection in an altogether new way, so as to be competent to feed men with it. Not only that all men's need can be met but it is met out of the perfection that is in divine Persons. God would set up in the place of Israel a witness to Himself in those who know Him through Jesus His beloved Son. I think the seven loaves would speak not only of every promise fulfilled but of God known in His own perfection as giving character to the new order and testimony that was coming in. Matthew and Mark are educational, to show how the line of promise is confirmed and established in Christ, but to lead on to the line of revelation and to the new order and testimony that was about to take the place of Israel. Luke and John give us the development of what is connected with revelation, both in relation to every question connected with man's responsibility and his having a wholly new place with God and in God's house as in Christ, and in relation to life and family relationships.

In the ship there is no question of storm or toil on their part. The Lord is with them: they have one loaf in the ship. The only exercise in this connection is that no element should be admitted other than what was there. This is a very important exercise. In one sense it covers the whole exercise of the

testimony. To perceive and understand the import of the loaves and to beware of foreign and injurious elements cover the whole exercise of those who are passing over, in isolation from the world, to the other side.

Here it is the exclusiveness of Christ; hence the one loaf. It is not His widely extended availability for man's hunger, but the exclusiveness which makes Him the only One, and which involves the greatest care that nothing else should come in.

Here it is the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The Sadducee does not come in here. It is religiousness or the world in its profane or political character. I have no doubt that in view of service these are the two great snares. The Sadducee would come in in Matthew because there it is a question of how your thoughts of Christ are formed, but in service the danger is that you go on the line of the religious man, assuming a sanctity that is not real, or you descend to the level of the world to avoid reproach and secure their approbation.

FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES

Mark 8:27 - 38; Mark 9:1 - 6

Caesarea-Philippi was the farthest point from Jerusalem which was reached by the Lord, about the same distance as Tyre and Sidon; it was beyond the Jordan. It is noticeable that at that point He raises the question of who He was. Every other question is of little account compared with that. All that has gone before in the gospel is to prepare us to answer it, "Who do men say that I am?" The thoughts expressed are not thoughts of enmity, but they all fall immeasurably short of the truth. "But ye, who do ye say that I am?" "Thou art the Christ". The men were blind; they had no vision in a divine sense. Men cannot rise above men: they may have good thoughts of Jesus, but human thoughts. Peter had really come under the hands of the Lord and had some vision: I do not say he saw all things clearly yet, but he had had the spit upon his eyes and the hands of Jesus upon him. It is not presented here as by the Father's revelation, as in Matthew; it is here rather the result of Christ's service, applying the virtue of His own Person to the disciples so that they got the power to see from Christ Himself. In Luke this question comes in in immediate connection with Jesus being alone praying. Saul said, "Who art thou, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). How He would love to answer that question!

He was the One on whom God had put His anointing. "With my holy oil have I anointed him" (Psalm 89:20). "Anointed ... with the oil of gladness" (Psalm 45:7). "Messiah, the Prince" (Daniel 9:25). We know that people were looking for Messiah (John 1, 4, 11); Herod and others. The disciples recognised Him, but they were not to tell any man of Him. He began to teach them about His sufferings and death and resurrection. The Messiah was to be cut off and have nothing. Peter rebuked Him, missing all that was in the mind of God at that moment.

Then He calls the crowd with His disciples; this is something for all to hear, "Whoever desires to come after me" (verse 34); He presents Himself as leading the way. There is but that one way in the waste, which His footsteps have marked as His own; that path always demands the denial of self; that is not self-denial as men speak, but a refusal at some cost of one's natural thoughts and feelings. Indeed "himself" (verse 34) would cover everything that is not Christ. It is moving away from oneself after Christ; it is a daily and hourly experience.

Then taking up his cross is the public position. A man bearing his cross was going to execution; he is not expecting any place or honour here, the honour lies in following Christ. It is a path through the waste of this world, a path of divine light and certainty amid the darkness here.

If we desire to save our lives we shall lose them. How much there is in this to ponder! Christ and the gospel are the two great motives, but if they govern us it will mean in some sense losing our lives, but in a real and true sense saving them. That is, the life which can be viewed apart from Christ and the gospel is not a thing that we should desire to save.

On that line it will assuredly be lost. But if Christ and the gospel make us willing to lose our lives we shall save them.

Our lives become valuable. Human life becomes worth something when it is influenced by Christ and the gospel. To gain the whole world and to have nothing of value in the soul is very unprofitable. There is nothing we should value more than our souls. Have I saved my soul today? The Lord and His words are to be valued above all else: there is purity there in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation. We see what a solemn thing it is to be ashamed of Christ and His words. The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father.

In Luke it is a threefold glory -- of the Son of man and of the Father and of the holy angels. Here it is the glory of His Father with the holy angels: the glory is that of the Father.

He will come invested with the glory of His Father, with the holy angels; that is, He will identify Himself with other

beings who serve in a holy way the Father's glory. It is "with his angels" in Matthew and Mark. In Luke it is first, "his own glory", then that of the Father, and then that of the holy angels. What a glory belongs to the Son of man! Man is truly glorious in Him, glorifying God in every way. So the glory of the Father invests Him -- divine glory of God in revelation. And thirdly, that of the holy angels: that is, unfallen creation is going to bring in its own peculiar glory to adorn the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord's announcement in Mark 9:1 following upon the confession of Him as the Christ, and upon His speaking of His sufferings and death, was a most gracious encouragement to the faith of His disciples. Some of them would not taste death until they should have seen the kingdom of God come in power. It would be seen by mortal eyes in its essential power. They had known and confessed Him as in humiliation; they would be permitted to see the kingdom in its power. This does not come at the beginning of the Lord's ministry, but towards the end. That is, they were morally instructed first to know and appreciate Him, and then they were allowed to be eye-witnesses of His majesty. The kingdom in its power actually came, not exactly down into the world, but "on a high mountain by themselves apart". They were taken up, something like John being set on a great and high mountain to see the holy city. What an elevation to be brought to, "the holy mountain" as Peter calls it! "His foundation" -- what He has founded -- "is in the mountains of holiness" (Psalm 87:1). We read in the Old Testament of the "mount of Jehovah" (Genesis 22:14), "the mountain of God" (Exodus 3:1; Exodus 4:27 etc.), the law given. Horeb is called "the mount of God" (1 Kings 19:8). It shows that we have to go up to reach the height of divine thoughts. The earthly-minded believer, like Lot, shrinks from the mountain: it is a place to dread. But on the mountain Jesus is seen transfigured. He is seen as heaven knows Him. Mark does not speak of His countenance as Luke, or of His face as

Matthew. It is simply, "he was transfigured before them". Matthew and Mark alone say "transfigured". He is seen as God's power, God's wisdom, hidden from men, but seen by His own as the "Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). But we find that the transfiguration extends to His garments. They become shining ("white as the light", Matthew says; "white and effulgent", Luke says; "exceeding white ... such as fuller on earth could not whiten them", Mark says). I doubt "as snow" being right because this would be earthly whiteness, whereas the point seems to be that it is heavenly. Purity such as belongs to heaven is evidence of the kingdom having come in power, but seen here as investing the Son of man.

Then Elias and Moses appear as talking with Jesus. God's former testimonies are seen as communing with Jesus (Luke says "two men"). All that God had set up by Moses, and to which Elias had recalled an apostate people, is thus linked up with Jesus. Moses came down with glory shining in his face: Elias went up into the heavens by a whirlwind. The kingdom of God brings in the testimony of Moses and the prophets: they are in accord with Jesus. "For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus"; so here they speak with Him.

Peter puts the Lord first, but he gives Moses and Elias an almost equal place, not knowing what he should say. The cloud overshadows ...

These notes are unfinished

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Mark 9:1 - 13

C.A.C. I thought we might continue what we have been looking at together. We have been looking together at the transfiguration as presented by Matthew and by Luke, and I thought it might be helpful to us to see the instruction connected with it as presented by Mark.

Matthew presents the Son of man coming in His kingdom, the kingdom in prospect. The future is brought into the present as divine light, so that we might be set now in the blessedness of what is yet future, for the Son of man has not yet come in His kingdom. We have something more than the prophetic word: prophecy is like a candle, Peter had "the prophetic word made surer" on the holy mountain: the day dawned in Peter's soul; the morning star arose in his heart when the Spirit put the power of it in his soul (2 Peter 1:16 - 21). We have "the day dawn" and "the morning star" as well as the lamp which makes the future present.

Luke presents the kingdom of God in pattern, the present character of the kingdom of God as known by the subjects of it, all patterned in Jesus.

Mark brings before us the kingdom of God come in power; he occupies us with the power of things; nothing is more important for us because the character of the present day is form without power, "Having a form of piety but denying the power of it" (2 Timothy 3:5). We all need a great deal of education about power; this chapter gives us a spiritual education in the subject of power, in what the power of God's kingdom really is. Naturally, we think of power as giving us ability to do great things here, but the prominent feature of the kingdom of God in power is the exceeding whiteness of His garments, "Such as fuller on earth could not whiten them". It is good for us to get that thought of power-

the greatest evidence of divine power at the present time is to be enabled to maintain purity. Mark's presentation of the kingdom is a peculiar one and differs from those of both Matthew and Luke. Mark puts Elias first -- we have all noticed that. Why does he put Elias first?

Rem. He comes last historically.

C.A.C. That is why Mark puts him first! Moses was the lawgiver, and he represents the ways of God in setting up the testimony originally; Elias comes in in connection with restoration, the restoring of things by prophetic ministry after things had departed. It is the line of restoration; the gospel of Mark has restoration specially in view.

Rem. Malachi speaks of Moses and Elijah (Malachi 4:4, 5).

C.A.C. He reminds them of Moses, but he says, "Behold, I send unto you Elijah the prophet", and the Lord says here, "Elias indeed, having first come, restores all things" (verse 12). What marks the ministry of Elias is restoration, restoration when everything has departed. When you have everything gone to corruption in the christian profession, you get the power to restore original purity.

Elias being put first suggests to me the thought of things being restored to original purity. Mark was a restored man himself; that is why he was selected to write this gospel, to render to the saints a service which he had himself experienced. What a pleasure it must have been to him to write about restoration; if there is not restoration there is nothing.

Ques. How long a time elapsed prior to Mark's restoration?

C.A.C. I do not know, but it says that "John separated from them and returned to Jerusalem" (Acts 13:13); he had been restored later (see Colossians 4:10, 11 and 2 Timothy 4:11). He had proved the power of the kingdom in restoration. We know the kingdom in that character today. What marks it is the heavenly purity of it; purity of associations, "Such as fuller on earth could not whiten them", not of earth at all. It is a great thing to get that idea of power; that is, not to

do great things, but ability to maintain a character of purity suitable to God after all the corruption that has come in in christendom. It is most encouraging. No fuller on earth can give the heavenly touch; it is "in Christ Jesus"; in the glorified, heavenly One. In Malachi the Lord Himself is the Fuller (chapter 3: 1 - 4) and it is "the children of Levi", the servants, who are to be purified, mark that. It is restoration brought about by the heavenly Fuller. The kingdom in power brings in the action of the heavenly Fuller and Refiner. The original purity suitable to God as seen in Christ is the character of purity suitable to God, a heavenly character of purity.

The Lord pledges Himself to become the Fuller and Refiner, to bring about in the last days that which is pleasurable to God. If you once see the ways of God at any time you get the key to His ways at all times, purity of ways and associations, the holy purity that marks the people of God.

Mark's gospel is for the tribe of Levi, the servants; Mark presents the true Servant. The effect of going through Mark's gospel on your knees would be that the whole tribe of Levi would be purified. Do we want to come under the cleansing of that blessed One, a cleansing which no fuller on earth could accomplish? "Let thy garments be always white, and let not thy head lack oil" (Ecclesiastes 9:8). "Thou has a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy"

(Revelation 3:4). That is the kingdom in power, people walking with their garments undefiled. "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). Power is seen there, in the maintenance of a character of purity and associations suitable to God.

The days of Moses answer to the apostles', but those of Elias to the days when things are being restored by prophetic ministry. God cannot be satisfied with a second-best; it must be restoration to first principles. The power of it is set forth in pattern in Jesus. The object in view in all this is that there

may be pleasure for God in His people, "Pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years" (Malachi 3:4). God looks for that in His kingdom; His people should be for His pleasure, and should take a sacrificial character and become characterised by a pure oblation (Malachi 1:11). "Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt" (Mark 9:49).

The effect of learning the power of the kingdom would be that we should become an oblation, an acceptable offering to God. I hope we all covet to be sacrificed; there is nothing for the pleasure of God apart from that.

Ques. Is this Romans 12:1, "I beseech you ... to present your bodies a living sacrifice"?

C.A.C. He brings the compassions of God to bear upon us to that end, and there we "prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God".

Rem. "And be not conformed to this world".

C.A.C. "But be transformed" or transfigured; it is the same word. It is all linked up with the transfiguration. The saints are to be transfigured. If we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our intelligent service, we shall come out in the holy purity of the kingdom, and that is the evidence of power.

Rem. "Strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance and longsuffering with joy" (Colossians 1:11).

C.A.C. It shows the line of power; the kingdom in power enables you to preserve a character of associations so white that there is not a spot left to hinder you listening to the beloved Son. "And there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son: hear him". A people who are transfigured are ready for translation, a people answering to that character of things seen in Christ on the mount. If the will of man has been displaced in my affections by the will of God, I am transfigured, and from inside there is a new kind of mind, of thinking, patterned after Christ. People think of the will of God as to where they should live, but it is all seen in

Christ. It is not a question of whether I live here or there; the will of God is seen in Christ, set forth in purity and power. If my affections have gone out to Christ, preferring Christ to myself and saying, 'I have seen a Person I like better than myself', that is the start of a Christian. He falls in love with what He sees in Christ; he has started now with the will of God. Until then, he has been occupied with self: good self, bad self or middling self; the eye now sees an Object in whom shines the will of God. I see it in all its perfection in Christ. Can we really say, 'I prefer what I have found in Christ to anything I have ever found in myself'?

Ques. What is meant in Philippians 4:11, "1 have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself"?

C.A.C. The apostle was a man of resources -- he was satisfied in himself; the word is that used of an island that produces in itself everything that the inhabitants need, self-contained, independent of anything outside. The apostle was satisfied inside with Christ and the Spirit. He had the resources of the kingdom in himself. There is absolutely nothing in the kingdom of God but the will of God; you could not have the will of man there. The power of that kingdom liberates us from every influence to listen to the voice of the beloved Son, and to hear Him tell us that He has sanctified us, and made us sons with Him who is above. It gives us a marvellous place in the resurrection world. It is all coming out in resurrection. You carry your own secret, you are one of the brethren of Christ; you do not want to be displayed in this world, but to move through this world in the power of that world. That is the power of the kingdom.

It would help us to start with the fact that the path of Christ is impossible to man, but possible in the power of the kingdom. The disciples could not use the power of the kingdom; we are often like that, not sufficiently cast upon God or in the spirit of self-renunciation -- all the power of the kingdom is in Him; He could meet the whole situation; if

I have not the power, He has. God has brought in His grace and the power of the kingdom that we might be patterned after Christ. The new commandment is, "Which thing is true in him and in you" (1 John 2:8). It is to be seen in those who believe on Christ.

This chapter shows us how the power works; the disciples did not understand it, they were disputing, "reasoning with one another who was greatest" (verse 34). Is that the kingdom in power? "And taking a little child he set it in their midst, and having taken it in his arms he said to them". Are you content to be a little child in the hands of Jesus, one who is conscious of being loved by Him? That is the power of the kingdom. Only as in the power of the kingdom can I be "last of all, and minister of all", as a little child in the arms of Jesus, conscious of being in the love of Christ and bringing the affections of Christ with me. I would rather the brethren received me as a little child in the arms of Jesus than as a 'big brother'. The power of the kingdom is there. The only claim that I have to attention is that I am Christ's. "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (verse 41).

John had to be educated (verse 38); he did not understand the power of the kingdom. Everybody who is doing the work of the Lord is "for us" (verse 40). Whatever is being done which is really the work of the Lord is "for us". It is different in Matthew 12:30, "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters". There is to be no neutral position with regard to positive adversaries, such as those who deny the inspiration of Scripture, the atonement and so on; they are against Christ. There is to be no neutral position with regard to them, but here (verses 38, 39) the man was "casting out demons in thy name"; you can pray for such; they are "for us". But I feel very sorry for that man; he was doing the work of the Lord, but he was not walking with the Lord; he missed the path, and the privilege of the divine

path. 'There is but that one in the waste, Which His footsteps have marked as His own'. He was serving Him but not walking with Jesus and following Him. He was exercising the power of the kingdom externally, but not internally.

And how are we to act with regard to a snare? Cut it off! Snares expose us to temptation and evil. "Cut it off" (verses 43 - 48). Is it what you read? "Thine, eye"? It is a positive snare. Is it a place in the world that you are after? Better be maimed for this world. Snares are the way to hell. Do you say, 'I thought believers did not go to hell'? Is that to be an excuse for walking a step that way? It is a solemn thing to walk that way. If you do not want to reach the terminus, do not go that way.

The Lord helps us: "For every one shall be salted with fire" (verse 49). The Lord's judgment and discipline help us. I am a firm believer in purgatory, for I have been there myself, but in this world. "But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:31, 32). You have a principle within you whereby you can judge yourself. You do not let the salt lose its savour. You do not let what is of God lose its savour in your soul. If the kingdom is in power the salt will keep its savour, salt in ourselves in our own exercises carried out with God and salt on the sacrifice. "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another". Be self-judged and thus there will be no element of discord; for the people of God to walk in peace together is the kingdom of God in power. These things are most exercising and helpful.

WHEN WILL THE LORD COME?

Mark 13:32 - 37

There are other parables in Matthew and Luke with similar teaching to this one. In all of them there are servants waiting for the return of their master, and exhorted to watch because the moment of his arrival is uncertain. There are two events to which these parables are commonly applied. Some teach that they refer to the coming of Christ at the end of the world. They cannot mean this, because as all Christians agree, according to Scripture, there is to be a millennium -- a thousand years of peace and blessing -- before the end of the world, and how can we "watch" for an event which we know to be a thousand years off?

Then another and more usual explanation of these parables is that they refer to death. The Scriptures show that the Lord's coming is not death. Moreover, in all these parables the coming of Christ is spoken of as being at an unknown and unexpected time. Now this is not usually the case with death, which in the vast majority of cases gives full warning of its approach.

It is clear that these parables refer neither to the end of the world nor to the hour of death. Their application is to the coming of the Lord. Christ tells us most distinctly here that no man knoweth the day or the hour. If these servants had known that the master was not coming until morning, they would have gone to sleep, but he desired them to watch till he came, and therefore he did not tell them the hour of his coming. The Lord has not told us when He is coming, that we may watch for Him always. If it had been recorded that the Lord was not coming for nineteen hundred years, it would have robbed the early Christians, and all past generations of believers, of that "blessed hope" which had such a prominent place in the teaching of the apostles, and was such a cherished part of the faith which believers held in those early days.

Much discredit to the truth has been brought about by the vain imaginings of men who have pretended to discover from prophecy the exact date of the Lord's return. One simple scripture is sufficient to disclose the unspiritual character of their pretensions. We always find that these men fix dates more or less distant from the present moment. If they say the Lord is coming in ten years, or one year, or next week, it is saying in substance, "My lord delays to come", and that is the utterance of the wicked bondman (Luke 12:45). The Lord's coming may take place at any moment, and He expects every believer to be waiting and watching for Him.

But has not the world to be converted before Christ comes? In 2 Timothy 3 we have a prophetic description of the professing church in the "last days". Do we read anything there about a triumphant gospel and a converted world? On the contrary, we find there a picture of evil which is almost identical with that which the Spirit of God has given us of the heathen world before christianity came into it. Compare this with Romans 1:29 - 32.

Be not deceived; the future of the professing church is summed up in one dark word -- apostasy. Soon Jesus will come and receive every saved soul, every true believer, to Himself. He will then completely disown the great mass of empty profession which will be left behind, spewing it out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16). The professing church, deprived of every living member of Christ's body, will continue its history on earth as Babylon, whose haughty pride and whose fearful doom are so vividly described in Revelation 17 and 18.

There is not one prophecy to be fulfilled before Christ may come. His coming is our present hope.

But does it not say plainly that it is "appointed unto men once to die"? The scripture in Hebrews 9:26 - 28 speaks of Christ's one offering and says, "Now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice. And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment; thus the Christ

also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear to those that look for him the second time without sin for salvation".

It is in the order of nature that men should die, but why is this stated here? Simply to bring out the fact that Christ has taken man's place and endured the death and judgment which man and his sins deserved. The believer sees the judgment of his sins at Calvary, by faith reckons Christ's death as his own, and has eternal life in the risen glorified Son of God. Read John 5:24, where the word "judgment" is the same as that in Hebrews 9:27, and say if our deliverance from death and judgment could be more complete. Everlasting glory be to God and to the Lamb!

If the Lord should tarry we may fall asleep, but "we shall not all fall asleep". If the Lord comes this hour "we shall all be changed, in an instant" (1 Corinthians 15:52), and have our bodies fashioned like unto His glorious body without dying at all.

Many scriptures might be quoted to show how real the hope of the Lord's return was to the early Christians. The defrauded labourer, suffering injustice, was exhorted to "have patience ... till the coming of the Lord", and was comforted by being told that "the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh" (James 5:7, 8). The saints at Corinth were "awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:7). The believers at Thessalonica had been converted "to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens" (1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10). The Lord's coming was not to them a vague, visionary idea, of little or no importance, as it is, alas, to many believers nowadays. It was the object of their fondest hopes, a source of deepest joy. Are we, as believers, imitating their example? The Lord is coming. We are drawing near to the glorious and happy termination of our wilderness journey. "Behold, the bridegroom" (Matthew 25:6).

THE FULNESS OF THE SUPPER

Mark 14:22 - 24

I have no doubt that it was intended that we should carry with us the thoughts suggested in each gospel with regard to the Supper. We do not get the same presentation in each gospel, but the Spirit would enable us to hold each in its place with intelligence. We shall then distinguish and gain the value of each. The institution of the Lord's supper is only in Luke; only in that gospel do we find the words, "This do in remembrance of me". We could not gather from Matthew or Mark that it was ever to be done again. The thought of remembrance is not introduced there; what is suggested is rather the spiritual apprehension and appropriation which would qualify us to take up the remembrance as in Luke. We have to carry in our souls what Mark and Matthew present as well as what Luke presents; we should then be prepared spiritually to take the Supper together as instituted in Luke.

The disciples' thoughts did not go beyond the passover, but the Lord was about to give great expansion. However far we have got in our knowledge of divine things, it is possible that the Lord may add something. We only know in part, so that we may look for continued additions. It is the Lord's pleasure to add to us; so that we may come more and more into the precious light of God and be affected by it.

"And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken bread, when he had blessed, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take this: this is my body". The lamb being killed and roast with fire spoke of the unblemished perfection of Christ and His ability to take up the question of sin and to bear its holy judgment so that every claim of God might be met and the ground cleared for the blessing of His people. The love in which Christ bore the judgment becomes the nourishment of those who believe; they eat the lamb roast with fire. That in itself is a great apprehension of Christ; it brings us to true

self-judgment, for it is the evidence that all that attached to us, as in the flesh, was of such a character that it called for the judgment of God, but the spotless One has come under the judgment and been sacrificed for us, and the love in which He did so is food for our hearts.

But as they were eating the passover the Lord introduced a new figure of Himself; He took bread. This was something additional; it presented Him in an aspect different from the passover Lamb. The passover was the divine provision in view of sin and its judgment according to God's glory; it spoke of the suitability and sufficiency of Christ in that relation. But His coming into the world in a body brought in all the pleasure of God in a Man here, and it had in view the establishment of the pleasure of God in the sanctified ones through the offering of that body.

The Lord blessed the bread in Matthew and Mark; He gave thanks in Luke. In blessing it He invested it with a new and spiritual meaning; He clothed it with a new significance for His disciples, but in giving thanks He took a place on their side in the acknowledgment of all that was set forth there as come in on God's part for man's infinite blessing. In giving thanks He takes up all the value of it as on our behalf Godward. But in the gospel before us He blessed; He gave that bread a wholly new character as constituting it a symbol of His body. When He says, "This is my body", what wondrous thoughts are suggested to faith! It is no longer a question of the removal of sin or bearing its judgment but of the coming in, according to Psalm 40, of all that is positively delightful to God, and of its coming in in such a way as to be available for all who believe on Him. The whole sacrificial service of judaism, failing to meet the pleasure of God, is set aside.

My impression is that, the Lord having connected this precious figure of Himself with the passover, that feast will never more for faith be separated from the apprehension and appropriation of what came here in Christ for the positive

delight of God. That blessed One coming in flesh, the second Man out of heaven, could not fail to bring in this new and greater blessing, and He linked it on to the passover by giving it to them as they were eating the passover. A young convert might not apprehend more than the passover aspect of Christ's death. Indeed I suppose many pious persons do not go beyond this. They come to what they call the holy communion with affectionate gratitude to the Lord for having died for them and borne the judgment due to their sins. But the Lord would lead them to see much more than this in His body given and His blood poured out. The communion which Christians are privileged to enjoy together, of which the eating of the Lord's supper is the public expression, takes its character from what the Lord instituted Himself, which every spiritual person must see goes much beyond what was set forth in the passover. We could not eat the passover now in a spiritual sense without recalling that the Lord has connected with it this new and blessed figure of Himself. To everyone who knows what it is to eat the passover the Lord would say, "Take this: this is my body", and He would help each one to apprehend what was secured by His taking that body, and by the offering of it in death. Israel in a coming day will not only know the passover aspect of the death of Christ, but they will see Him as the One who has brought in all the will of God -- the Servant of divine pleasure. How they will delight in "my servant", as Isaiah speaks of Him! They will see the law, the sacrifices, the promises, all fulfilled and perfected in Christ. They will apprehend all the pleasure of God in Christ; they will "take" it as made good in Him. This is our great privilege today; we take up the will of God in an entirely new way as made good in Christ. None of it could be available for us apart from His death. It was through the offering of His body that all was secured. They would not take the bread actually until He broke it, neither could we take it spiritually apart from His death. The Lord breaking the bread would intimate that the

pleasure of God could only take effect in regard of us through His death. Now He says, "Take". He would have us apprehend all that has come in through the dedication of His body in death. It is our privilege to apprehend the wondrous ways of God in Christ: how He has brought in His whole pleasure as unfolded in Hebrews 10, and how we are perfected in conscience and set apart for God in the value of it. The passover clears the ground; the man under judgment has gone in judgment. But that is not all, the pleasure of God has come in as fully secured in Christ, who has gone into death that we might be sanctified according to that pleasure.

The Lord's calling attention to His body in Mark would specially bring before us what that body was in relation to the service of God; He was "my servant". The effect of His coming in was to introduce every element that was delightful to God. But then the fact that He took bread intimates that it was to become food for us, so that we might live by Him, in the strength of what came here in Him. What is prominent in Mark is that the Lord says, "Take"; in Matthew He adds, "Eat". We must "take" before we can "eat"; apprehension comes before appropriation. We must first spiritually apprehend what is set forth in the bread as His body, then we can eat; we can appropriate what is spiritually set forth in that bread. Eating would suggest that the spiritual constitution of the disciples was to be built up on Christ so that they might come out morally in the life of Christ, so that what was true in Him might become true in them. There is nothing in us for the pleasure of God which has not been derived from Christ, and of which Christ is not the strength. Matthew presents very fully the moral character of Christ -- the true character of the kingdom set forth in the King. The beatitudes give us this, and it is in that gospel that He says, "Learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). We are to take character and constitution from Him. All that is pleasurable to God having come in, it is to be perpetuated in the saints as brought under the influence of

heaven, and strength for this lies in the appropriation of Christ. If we have apprehended the fulfilled pleasure of God in Christ and have appropriated Him so as to live by Him, we find ourselves in a world where Christ is not, and we find that we are privileged to come together for the affectionate remembrance of Him in the eating of His supper.

The 'taking' as in Mark, and the 'eating' as in Matthew, would have a spiritual import, and would be preparatory to the affectionate remembrance of the assembly as called for in Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians 11. In the latter scripture the eating is the public act of eating the Lord's supper, which may be done worthily or unworthily. The Lord would take account of anything irreverent or unbecoming in the manner of our eating His supper. If one took it as one would take bread and wine in an ordinary sense it would be profane, and would make one guilty in respect of the body and of the blood of the Lord. If one did not distinguish the body (1 Corinthians 11:29) it would prove that he had not really taken it according to Mark 14:22. Taking and eating in an inward and spiritual sense would be necessary as a preparation for rightly remembering the Lord, and announcing His death, as those who love Him and who feel His absence here.

Then the cup does not speak of the blood of the passover lamb, sheltering from judgment, but it is the blood of the covenant, shed for many. It secures righteously the setting up of relations between God and His people which give satisfaction to His love. The covenant is unalterable because it stands in virtue of the blood of Christ. God found fault with the first covenant because it did not make His love known to His people, and it did not set them before Him in suitability to His love or in response to it. But "the covenant" -- it is doubtful whether "new" should be in Mark or Matthew, though it is in Luke -- now makes known the love of God in its fulness, for it is in the blood of His own Son. God has revealed Himself in the blessedness of His nature; He yearned to be known in His love, and that not by a few, but

by "many". He is going to bring "many" into the covenant. Whatever is needed on their part He will do. He will work in them by a thousand exercises, stripping them of every bit of self-complacency and self-confidence, emptying them of everything that they have trusted in, or thought of value, but this is all that they may acquire ability by His own work to appreciate His love and respond to it. He will give Israel a new heart and put a new spirit within them; He will put His Spirit within them, and give them one heart and one way so that they fear Him all their days and do not turn aside from Him. See Jeremiah 32 and Ezekiel 36.

The aspect of the covenant that is brought before us here is that it is a cup out of which all the disciples drank. It is a drinking of the love of God such as could not really be apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit. The love of God known as a rich and cheering draught making glad the heart as He is known there in the blessedness of His holy love. "All shall know me in themselves". The knowledge of God in love comes into the hearts of "many", and becomes the living power of the covenant bond which binds His people to Him in an unalterable way. I have no doubt that when the apostle says that we "have all been given to drink of one Spirit"

(1 Corinthians 12:13) there was a link in his mind with what he speaks of as "the cup of the Lord". As drinking of one Spirit the saints are possessed of divine love; they have it in themselves; and this becomes the spring in their hearts from which such features develop as are described in 1 Corinthians 13.

But we are possessed of love as having found it in God, and as having drunk into it through the death of His Son, so that what is witnessed in the blood of Christ has a real place with us inwardly by the Holy Spirit. In Luke it is "for you"; the assembly is there in view as the company that alone stands in the blessedness of the new covenant now. But in Matthew and Mark it is "for many"; the outlook embraces all that will come into the bond of the covenant, whether the remnant, or the houses of Israel and Judah in the coming days. Saints of

the assembly know the covenant in a peculiar and blessed way as the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness (2 Corinthians 3). It is characterised by subsisting and abounding glory, and it gives access to the holiest. How blessed to drink into the love which is the spring of all in the heart of God!

The Lord adds a word which He emphasises by "Verily I say to you", as to "the fruit of the vine". He felt it to be of much importance to them to know this, and surely it is not less so to us. It is essential to the spiritual understanding of christianity that we should know what the Lord meant when He said, "Verily I say to you, I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God". "I will no more drink" intimates that up to that time He had drunk of it. It referred, I think there can be no doubt, to the joy the Lord had in being with His beloved disciples after the flesh. He had His delight in that association. They were very precious to Him as the "little flock", "the salt of the earth", and "the light of the world". They were the children that Jehovah had given Him. He had been with them as the Bridegroom, and they had been "sons of the bridechamber".

This expression "the fruit of the vine" lets us into what it had been to Him to recognise in them as the true Israel, the product of His Father's planting (Matthew 15:31), and yielding Him such fruit as He had looked for in the vine which He brought out of Egypt. He had found it pleasant to drink of the fruit of that vine in the midst of all the wild grapes which the nation at large was bringing forth.

The blessedness of the covenant was there in His own Person, for He was the Covenant (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:8). All the wealth and blessedness of God was there to win men to Himself, and the disciples had in some measure entered into this, and been sharers in the ministry of it. It had been a festive time (Mark 2:19) with its own peculiar character of joy. There was something of new covenant character about it as

making God known, but it needed His death to do that fully, and that meant the breaking of the link of association as according to flesh. All that could be made known of God was there in Christ incarnate. But the full revelation of His love could only come out through the death to which all was leading.

It was blessed for Christ to be with His own according to flesh, and to have them as His eye-witnesses and attendants, companying with Him. It was a joy that was of God, so that it was "the fruit of the vine" to Him. His delight was in the saints (Psalm 16:3) and His companionship with them as "the sons of the bridechamber" was sweet to Him as it was also their joy. But they had to be prepared for that association coming to an end, so that its joy might be known in a new way. None of its blessedness would be lost, but it would be tasted under entirely new conditions. He could not continue with them as the Bridegroom; He would no longer enjoy their companionship as with them according to flesh. However blessed the remembrance of the association in which they had been with Him here, it was according to flesh, and they were to know it as having been terminated by His being taken away from them.

If we are to understand christianity, we must know the great change from Christ, according to flesh, to Christ, risen and glorified. We must know the difference between being disciples here awaiting the gift of the Spirit -- though knowing the joy of the Bridegroom's presence -- and being put into correspondence with a risen and heavenly Christ by the reception of the Holy Spirit, and thus set up in the kingdom of God.

It is worth while for us to pay a good deal of attention to this statement of our Lord as to "the fruit of the vine". There was to be another day in which He would drink it in a new and different way. He would be a risen and exalted Man, and His disciples would stand in all the blessedness of His body as given, taken and eaten, and in the joy of the covenant in His

blood. Though the disciples were subjects of the Father's work and teaching, plants of His planting, they could not possibly apprehend or appropriate His body or His blood until He died. They were still in the flesh, but He had just been leading them, anticipatively, to apprehend and appropriate His body and His blood, that they might pass into new spiritual conditions. It is as having done so that we can look back, and say "when we were in the flesh" (Romans 7:5). We know Christ according to flesh no longer; we know ourselves according to flesh no longer. We stand in the value of His body given for us, and of the covenant in His blood, and we have the Holy Spirit. Christ having died is no longer "according to flesh", and as we apprehend and appropriate His body and His blood we realise that we are not in the flesh.

"That day when I drink it new" tells of the present joy of the Lord in and with His own. The day has come when the Lord drinks of the fruit of the vine in a new way in the kingdom of God. He has joy in His own in a new way. He has gone through death, and He has brought them through death on to entirely new ground. They stand in the value of His body and His blood in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they are in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the sphere where the will of God is carried into effect through the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. There the Lord has His joy; He drinks the fruit of the vine. He has joy in His own as blessed in Himself, and blessed in the knowledge of God as revealed in love. It looks on, no doubt, to the time when the will of God, as established through the death of Christ, will have its place with Israel, and they will drink into the covenant and be in the kingdom of God. But this is anticipated in saints of the assembly now. In thinking of the joy which we have in drinking of the cup of the covenant, let us not forget His drinking -- the joy which He has in His saints as blessed according to the pleasure of God in Him, and as made to drink into the love of God. We may gather many precious thoughts of the Lord's joy in His

own from John 13 - 17. All this is the precious divine truth. It is for us to recognise it, and to identify ourselves intelligently and affectionately with it. Our great concern should be to know the truth and to be thoroughly identified with it. Nothing else is of any value.

Then we must not overlook the sweet touch in Matthew 26:29: "Until that day when I drink it new with you". This is additional to what we have in Mark 14:25. It is His own portion and joy in Mark, but in Matthew it is added that He would drink with His loved ones. He would share with them, and they with Him. It is the joy of the Head shared by the whole company of those who have taken and eaten His body, and who have drunk the blood of the covenant. Our Lord and Head is joyous; He has brought to pass the pleasure of God, and revealed the love of God, and on His side He has set His saints in the blessedness of this. It is a searching question for each one of us, 'Am I enjoying what the Lord enjoys? Am I really in accord with Him?' Where would be dissatisfied or unsatisfied hearts if we knew this in spiritual reality?

But then if He associates His own with His joy, and shares it with them, we find ourselves carried beyond the thought of the kingdom of God. In Matthew 26:29 it is "in the kingdom of my Father". A sweet and holy touch of relationship is brought in. It is the kingdom of Him who is in the affectionate relationship of Father to Christ. The character and features of that kingdom were seen perfectly in the beloved Son as Man here. The rule of that kingdom was in manifestation here. So that when He taught His disciples to pray that the Father's kingdom might come, they knew what they were praying for; they had seen the true character of it in Him. Well might they pray that it should come and irradiate the earth with its light and blessedness.

His Father's kingdom will be realised and set forth in a company of sons, who will "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43). Matthew 17 begins

with the transfiguration where Jesus is announced by the Father as "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him". But in hearing Him we learn how He sets His own in the same relationship; this we see at the end of the chapter. "What dost thou think, Simon? the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive custom or tribute? from their own sons or from strangers? Peter says to him, From strangers. Jesus said to him, Then are the sons free. But that we may not be an offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when thou hast opened its mouth thou wilt find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and thee".

Think of the joy of the Lord in having a company of sons to be with Himself as knowing the Father's rule in parental affection. They are in the kingdom of His Father; they have learned to know God as Christ's Father, and to know Him in the liberty of the Spirit of sonship, but also in the rule and discipline of His love. In the kingdom of His Father there is parental government (see 1 Peter 1:17) and fatherly chastening (see Hebrews 12:5 - 11). Those in that kingdom have not only received sonship through infinite divine favour and love according to Galatians 4:4 - 7, but they have known the instruction and correction of sons under the Father's disciplinary rule. In that way they acquire the education and manners of sons. What joy has Christ in and with such! In an order of things which is of His Father, Christ can have joy with His own. We cannot have the companionship of Christ in the world of lawlessness, but we can have it in the kingdom of God and of Christ's Father. What is still future as to public manifestation is spiritually present now.

This leads to singing. "And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives". We cannot doubt that the Lord Jesus led that singing. It was an anticipation of how He would as the risen and ascended One be found singing in the midst of the assembly (Psalm 22:22; Hebrews 2:12). We do not know what they actually sang in the guest-chamber, but what a

hymn does Christ sing in the midst of the assembly! How He celebrates the praises of God as having secured the establishment of His pleasure! He hymns the One who has made known the depth and blessedness of His love in the covenant. He sings as One who delights in the company of His brethren to whom He has made known His Father and God as their Father and God. He sings as knowing the Father's delight in having a company of sons, of whom He Himself is the Firstborn, and who are to be brought to full conformity to Him in heavenly glory. The assembly is the fruit of God's eternal purpose and electing love, now brought to light through redemption. It is composed of those into whose hearts the Spirit of God's Son has been sent out crying "Abba, Father". How rightly is God praised in song for all this! If we taste the joy of it how can we help singing? The hearts that know it, even in small measure, must be uplifted in grateful and joyous notes. Our Lord and Head is in the perfect intelligence and joy of all that He has revealed, and of all that He has secured for God and for us. The nearer we get to Him the better shall we understand it, and the deeper will be our joy. I have no doubt we have an intimation here of how these precious spiritual realities work out in the souls of saints as divinely taught under the influence of Christ.

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

NOTES OF A READING

Luke 2:22 - 40

Rem. Although Simeon was not an official priest, he was a spiritual one.

C.A.C. The Spirit's day seems anticipated in Simeon. "The Holy Spirit was upon him" (verse 25); things were "communicated to him by the Holy Spirit" (verse 26); he was moved by the Spirit.

Rem. The Spirit of God has a great place in these early chapters.

C.A.C. God prepares spiritual conditions. The chapter is full of holy exercises and affections. The suitability of all the persons is obvious. God prepares conditions when He is going to move, especially when He is about to move in a new way, as now -- it is a spiritual and priestly character of things here in Luke.

Rem. The shepherds found "the babe lying in the manger" (verse 16) and here Simeon "received him into his arms" (verse 28).

C.A.C. The great sign is "a babe" (verse 12). It is the great sign in the New Testament. "And this is the sign to you: ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger". In the Old Testament the sign is "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son" (Isaiah 7:14), but in the New Testament it is "a babe". How the grace of God was coming down to the lowest point to meet man, that God might shine out in His grace!

Rem. Simeon "received him into his arms, and blessed God".

Ques. Why did he bless God, and not the Babe?

C.A.C. You would not expect him to bless Jesus because the Babe was not the Source of all blessing. When we embrace the Lord Jesus we are put in priestly relations with God and have something to offer to God.

It is important to give place to the Spirit of God. We see in Simeon, beforehand, a beautiful intimation of the activities of the Spirit.

Ques. Was not Mary a priest, and are not sisters priests?

C.A.C. Any one who is near to God is a priest -- that is the designation of a priest. We read, "And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah" before Aaron was consecrated (Exodus 19:22). Here, there were a number of persons near to God who understood the character of the day that was dawning -- "the dayspring from on high has visited us" (Luke 1:78).

Rem. We are told the way He came in here.

C.A.C. Yes, and it gives you a key to what you are to look for. That is, the most insignificant things outwardly. We have to be consistent with the manger sign. It is suitable to God, for if God comes into a scene of disorder, He must come in at the bottom and bring in His salvation! It is the intervention of God in grace in God's anointed One, the Christ. He would come in at the top if all were in order, and will do. He has come in flesh and at the very lowest point; Adam began as a full-grown man, but the Babe comes in in the greatest weakness.

Rem. Here the sign is that He is actually and truly a Babe. How we love the manger!

C.A.C. It is the character of things that God would have faith look for. It is the great sign that God would have us consider. You look for the greatest things spiritually but not pretentious, and you do not expect to see many grand people connected with the testimony. "For consider your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born" (1 Corinthians 1:26). You go along with the lowly (Romans 12:16). You look for what is spiritually great, persons greatly dignified by Christ becoming the power and wisdom of God to them.

"A light for revelation of the Gentiles"; there are a few here tonight! "And the glory of thy people Israel"; when they have lost all their own glory. In chapter 7 the Gentile is

brought to light for blessing in the centurion who evidences "so great faith". "For revelation of the Gentiles" means that they should come into view as having faith; and then, the woman gets a new glory -- there is "nothing to pay", and she finds her glory in the "certain creditor" (Luke 7:41). You can understand her laying her glory at His feet; it works that way, and God has visited His people that way, a way suitable to Himself and suitable to us. He becomes our glory. Salvation, forgiveness and all that His lost and guilty creature needs are brought in for him.

Simeon understood by the Spirit that the Lord was going to be rejected; else, he would have said, 'Let me stay and see the kingdom glory'. He really gives up the earth because he realises that although the glory and blessing of God are coming in, they are not yet to have any place here, so he says, 'Let me go'.

Rem. These are the lines on which the Spirit moves today. Spirituality lies in the knowledge of God and in the appreciation of Christ, as bringing in the light of God. Ignorance of that brings in the confusion which is existing today.

C.A.C. Simeon is a beautiful character for us to study. His soul was filled with all the blessedness that had really come in. The salvation of God was there.

Rem. There are four indications of His death in this chapter. He came to die. All heaven is moved here, but in Matthew all Jerusalem is moved to put Him to death.

Rem. The Lord said, "I praise thee, Father, ... thou ... hast revealed them to babes" (Matthew 11:25).

C.A.C. Glory belongs to God. If God brings in what is of Himself, His anointed One, He does not make anything of man.

Ques. Will you tell us further as to "alight for revelation of the Gentiles"?

C.A.C. Luke, a Gentile, and writing to a Gentile, makes a great point of that. God was going to bring the Gentiles into view for blessing as having appreciation of Christ -- as

Simeon has here -- for the pleasure of God. The promises did not extend to the Gentiles, generally speaking; but God's salvation could not be limited to Israel.

Rem. You get expanded when near God.

C.A.C. There is nothing like getting near to God for expansion. The meaning of the two names Simeon and Anna is interesting. Simeon means 'one who hears', Anna means 'one who gives'. Those two things must always go together. The Lord had spoken to Simeon, and Anna's mouth is opened to speak. She is the spreader abroad of the Light that had come in. We must hear first before we speak. It was true even as regards the Lord. He says in the prophetic scriptures, "He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed". Every day He entered on His service having been instructed as a Learner. "The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to succour by a word him that is weary" (Isaiah 50:4). The tongue was dependent upon the ear.

Rem. We have a dumb priest in chapter I but praising priests in chapter 24, "continually in the temple praising and blessing God".

Ques. Would you connect verse 35, "and even a sword shall go through thine own soul", with Genesis 3:16?

C.A.C. It indicates the deep exercise through which light and blessing must come in. It is very deep exercise to realise that Christ must be rejected. Everything turned on that Child. "Lo, this child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against". He becomes the turning point of everything. He is either "a stone of stumbling" or "for a sanctuary" (Isaiah 8:14). Some stumbled over Him but He is set for a sanctuary for others. Christ is still the great test; He brings to light the thoughts of many hearts. You bring Christ in and everything is exposed. What a change there is in a family when God comes in and converts one of them. Ishmael is a mocker when Isaac is honoured. Everyone is tested and measured by Christ. The features of

the righteous One coming out in Abel brought out the hatred in Cain. You will get some reproach if the ways of Christ come out in you. It is the beauty and ways of Christ that bring out the hatred in man's heart. The Man of God's delight and the man after the flesh could not be brought into partnership. "That the thoughts may be revealed from many hearts", the thoughts of God's heart and of man's heart and the thoughts of faith. Ishmael is the man that does not appreciate Christ; that is the character of my flesh, I have that in me that is like that. It gives me a great shock when I find that out.

Rem. The best part of us hates Christ worst of all.

C.A.C. It would have been a fine thing for Peter if he had kept up his first convictions. "I am a sinful man, Lord". We do not maintain our first convictions, and that leads to all sorts of trouble. Repentance deepens all through the lifetime of a saint; you cannot get over it as you would measles. With increased light of God, we judge ourselves but we are enriched in Another. Simeon and Anna were enriched in Another. God has brought in what delights His own heart. I have thought that, perhaps, one reason why Christ was brought in as a Babe was that man in every feature of his development was thus presented before God according to His pleasure. Increasing development of perfection was brought before God in Christ from the Babe to the Man. Always perfect but yet there was development. "First the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). That is maturity. "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight" (Luke 3:22), is said of all the thirty years. And that Person is God's salvation for us, a salvation without a flaw. There should be growth with us. We begin with a sense of the perfection of Christ as God's salvation for us but the Spirit continually develops in our souls new apprehensions of Christ, that we may be, as Peter says, "neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:8). We are thinking a little more

of the preciousness of Christ this week than we did last week. The Lord is spoken of as "the Branch", in the footnote in Zechariah 3:8, the 'Sprout'. A new Shoot of an entirely new character. There is development of perfection in Him. Wherever you look elsewhere you will find a flaw but the more you consider Him, the more His beauty shines out. And there is a company developing after the same order. "There shall be abundance of corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon" (Psalm 72:16). Saints will come out in the world to come with appreciation of Christ; there is nothing like it. And here in these chapters (Luke 1 and 2) they come one after another, in secret cherishing Christ, with beautiful utterances, filled with appreciation of Christ. It would, and will, separate us from this present evil world. Deliverance is to be occupied with Christ, and devoted to His interests. When I am occupied with Christ in secret, at that moment I am holy and in my responsible pathway I am devoted to His interests. All that the disciples found in themselves made them appreciate all that they found in Him. Just as God had prepared a suitable company then to receive Him, so now He is forming the saints' affections on Christ. It would not be suitable to God for the Lord to return without there being a people prepared to receive Him. I know the character of the Spirit's movement in all the hearts of His own by how He moves in my heart. God is going to maintain the devotion of Christ's heart before His saints. My confidence is in God. His movements are great. One would not look for great things outwardly, but for the greatest possible things spiritually; not externally, but content to realise the most wonderful things ever known by the hearts of men. Simeon was moved by the Spirit. If we cultivate what is spiritual, we shall not want 'pleasant Sunday afternoons'. They are like wine and strong drink, stimulating nature; they spoil your appreciation of Christ. I would not like anything to spoil my appreciation of Christ.

"A MAN IN JERUSALEM"

Luke 2:25 - 32

I have read these verses with the thought of bringing them, by the Lord's grace, into present application, for, as we know, Luke writes with method, and ever has before him moral and spiritual instruction, and not merely what is historical.

It seems to me that we have in Simeon the thought of one who was at the very centre of divine things; "There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon". God would have us, beloved brethren, to cherish the thought of being at the centre of divine interests. Alas! our hearts are too ready to be content to be at a distance, but why should we be found at Dan or Beersheba if it is possible to be in Jerusalem? After the return from captivity "the people cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city" (Nehemiah 11:1). Nine out of every ten were content to dwell in their cities away from the divine centre, and yet they recognised that Jerusalem was the favoured spot, for they blessed those "that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem". This shows that even in times of recovery there is danger of missing the greatest privilege of the moment.

I would press on my own heart, and on the hearts of others, that we should really live at the centre of things in a spiritual sense. It cannot be denied that at the present time the assembly, and the great reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, are the very centre of all that has divine importance, and yet how many believers live practically at a distance from that centre. It is sorrowful to think how much they miss.

This "man in Jerusalem" was marked by the fact that "the Holy Spirit was upon him". Even in Old Testament times, God called attention to certain individuals who were said to

have the Spirit, or to have the Spirit upon them. This must have suggested to every pious Israelite the possibility of such a thing. It was clearly in God's mind that His Spirit should be upon men. Thinking of those favoured men, every pious Israelite must have been ready to say, 'Would that it had been me!' But such a favour was not within the reach of all then. It was not until Jesus was glorified that the Holy Spirit became available for all who believe on Him. And this, indeed, in a much more blessed way than any Old Testament saint could know. But the very fact that it is so is intended to raise exercise.

We are told of the five prudent virgins that they "took oil in their vessels with their torches". It was their exercise to be thus furnished. The Holy Spirit is available on the divine side; there is no restriction, no limitation, on that side. Indeed, the Old Testament promise, quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit would be "poured out" on all flesh, showed how extensive was the thought of God. But on our side the Lord has suggested that we should "take oil" in our vessels. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God, but a gift is to be received, and many scriptures speak of the reception of the Spirit, and I do not think it is ever supposed that this takes place unconsciously.

What God does sovereignly is His matter; I dare say He often gives the Spirit to believers on the Lord Jesus who have had little exercise about the Spirit, but normally He would give souls exercise about this great gift, so that it is not a matter in which they have part without their being aware of it. God would have His gift valued. The Lord suggested to the woman at the well the wonderful character of God's giving, and His own giving, but He brought in a condition on her part. "Thou wouldest have asked ... he would have given". The gift of the Spirit, as announced in the glad tidings, becomes the subject of faith; that is, we come to it in the faith of our hearts that it is in the mind and love of God to give us His Spirit. So we are encouraged to put in our claim

with confidence; if we have received Christ as the gift of God we are entitled also to receive the Spirit as His gift.

But we cannot contemplate the gift of the Spirit without realising that it necessitates moral suitability on the part of the recipient. The Spirit could be upon Simeon without any incongruity; he was "just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel"; there was nothing about him to jar on the sensitiveness of the Spirit. If there are dark corners where unrighteousness is hidden, or if there is a lack of piety, the Spirit cannot be restful. It can hardly be said of such that their hearts are purified by faith. It must be remembered that the gift of the Spirit is the divine witness to a certain condition of heart. Peter said, "The heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit ... having purified their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8, 9). Believers are said to be "according to Spirit", and to mind the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5). If we are not in moral suitability to the Spirit we may miss practically the gain of this wondrous gift.

Then Simeon's outlook was such that the Spirit could identify Himself with it; he was awaiting the consolation of Israel, he was looking for the Lord's Christ. The saints today are marked off from those in the world by their different outlook. Those in the world have no outlook that the Spirit could identify Himself with, but the saints have a divine outlook, they are looking for the coming of the Lord. That has been God's great objective ever since sin and death came in; it will bring all that is of God into the world. In Simeon's case he was, of course, awaiting the first coming of Christ; it is ours now to await His coming the second time. None are in harmony with the Spirit who are not awaiting the coming of Christ. To be out of harmony with the Spirit is to disregard His presence.

Then the Holy Spirit made communications to Simeon; He made known to him "that he should not see death before he should see the Lord's Christ". We are living in a wondrous time, for the Spirit is even now making communications to

the saints. In John 14 - 16 the Lord enlarged upon the way in which the Spirit would make divine communications. Clearly this was in the first place to those who had been with the Lord in the days of His flesh, but they were of our company, and what they got was for us. The Comforter brought to their remembrance all the things which Jesus had said to them. There must have been much more in that than has been recorded in the Scriptures.

Overcomers today are marked by having an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies. I wonder if we are habituated to hearing what He is saying? We may be quite sure that He will never say anything contrary to the Scriptures, or that cannot be substantiated from the Scriptures, but He can bring out the mind of God in a way that never would have been gathered from the Scriptures alone apart from His speaking. The Spirit has always something to say to the assemblies. Speaking is characteristic of each Person of the Trinity, and this is in a special way the time of the Spirit's speaking. I think it possible that when the time comes for the assembly to be translated, the Spirit may communicate to many that they will not see death. One would covet to be amongst those thus favoured of God, but whether we have this privilege or it is reserved for others, let us see to it that we do get the communications which the Spirit is making. Let us consider the possibility of having communications from the Holy Spirit who is dwelling here, and who is acquainted with everything that is in the mind of God. There is no part of the will of God, or of divine counsel, that is not perfectly known to the Holy Spirit, and He is here that it may be made known to us.

But if we are to have the gain of this we must not be "scattered abroad". We must be at the centre of things. Simeon was there, and because he was there he missed nothing that was possible at the moment. He was where divine communications were not missed. A well-known servant of the Lord said that he always got things first by the Spirit, and then he

had to search them out in the Scriptures. I say this that we may be encouraged to give a very real place to the Holy Spirit, and to expect to get spiritual things from the Spirit.

Then we see that Simeon moved in a practical way under the control of the Spirit. If he had been half an hour earlier in coming into the temple, or half an hour later, he might have missed a most blessed opportunity. If we move with the Spirit and in the Spirit we shall not miss divinely given opportunities.

Simeon saw the whole salvation of God -- all that the Scriptures had spoken of for thousands of years -- substantiated in a little Child. It was no longer promises or statements of Scripture, but all that was of God was there substantiated in a Babe six weeks old! And he received Him into his arms.

There have been moments, I dare say, when we have thought how blessed it would have been to embrace that holy Babe.

But, beloved, it is our portion to do so -- to embrace Him in our affections. What appeared to be small was really infinitely great. Its outward smallness tended to hide its greatness, but it was not hidden from Simeon. He saw that all peoples were before God in relation to that Babe; the Gentiles were to come to light for blessing, and He would be the glory of His people Israel. The man at the centre could take in the whole circumference of divine thoughts.

We may be sure that those who are at the centre think much of Christ, and they think much of what is of Christ, that is, of the assembly which is His body. Christ is not now here personally, but He is here substantially in His body. The Spirit would lead us to see what is here now -- His body deriving from Him. He said to Saul of Tarsus of His suffering saints, 'They are "me"'. If we truly embrace Christ in our affections we cannot fail to take account of His body here. He is here substantially in His body. We look at every believer as of the body potentially, and we want him to be of it substantially as formed in the features and moral qualities of Christ. We do not want merely to think of the statements

of Scripture in an abstract way, but to have them brought into concrete expression in ourselves and in all saints. We can see that Simeon received very real substance into his arms, and God would have us to regard the assembly, the body of Christ, as a substantial thing, composed of persons who have very definitely derived from Him so as to be in their measure expressive of Him.

We do not wonder that Simeon "blessed God", and we may well bless Him for all that He has brought within our range. It is of all importance that we should be at the centre of what is of God. Christ and the assembly are at the centre; the assembly is the body, the fulness, the completeness of Christ. If we are really in mind and affection at the centre, the Spirit will have His way with us; we shall get communications such as no worldly or carnal believer could know anything about.

The whole moral universe comes within the scope of the communications of the Spirit, and it is the privilege of the saints of the assembly to dwell, as it were, at the very centre. Hence the apostle prayed that we might be "strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height" (Ephesians 3:16 - 18). If Christ personally dwells in our hearts, what is of Him in His members -- His body down here -- will have a very great place with us. We shall then look at the saints according to what they are potentially, and we shall desire that what they are potentially as called ones they may be substantially as formed by the Spirit in the features of Christ. It is evidently of immense importance that Christ should come out in His body in a substantial way; that is, as morally and spiritually formed in His members here. May the Lord help us in regard to these things!

THE TEMPTATIONS (1)

Luke 4:1 - 13

If you speak of one being full of the Holy Spirit you regard such a person as a vessel. We all feel that we do not know much about being full of the Holy Spirit, but God would be greatly pleased to give us an impression of the character of such a man, for it is a great part of the work of God to give us an impression of the Man who was full of the Holy Spirit. This is set before us in Jesus; we see a Man upon this earth who was full of the Holy Spirit; we are introduced to such a Person as that. We all know the man after the flesh, and I hope we know him so well that we wish to have nothing more to do with him. Jesus was a divine Person in the Godhead, but we see Him here as a praying Man; He comes before us as a Man marked by absolute dependence upon God. There is nothing on the divine side to prevent us from being filled with the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus is, in some sense, a pattern of what is possible, through grace, for us. Jesus as a vessel was closed to the world but open towards God; He always looked Godward. It was a delight to God to have a Man who could withstand every temptation which could be brought against Him. He was personally a delight to God, and before He began His service He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tested. The question was raised whether the dependent Man could stand where the independent man failed, and it is God's delight to show us that Jesus could stand invulnerable against every temptation Satan could bring. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit can stand against every temptation that Satan can bring.

Now look at the 13th verse: "And the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time". The three temptations which are here recorded comprise every

temptation. The devil may have ten thousand different ways by which he tempts man, but these three temptations cover in principle everything Satan could bring; he had no other weapon in his armoury -- he exhausted all temptations. The Spirit has singled out these three temptations as comprising every one that Satan could bring against man, and the way in which Jesus met them is a pattern of how we should meet temptation. There is a kind of man that Satan cannot touch; it is the dependent man who is full of the Holy Spirit and is in the consciousness of sonship. Power lies in seeing the place that the Son of God has taken as Man with reference to God. Christians greatly overlook this fact. They look at Jesus as the Saviour from sins, as having effected redemption, and other wonderful things, but we must not forget that He came into manhood as God's beloved Son to be the Vessel of the Holy Spirit, and to meet in that condition every power of Satan.

Tonight we look at Jesus in relation to the devil -- we have seen Him in chapter 3 in relation to God. I am deeply interested in desiring to know the kind of man who is full of the Holy Spirit; I have known the man after the flesh for a good many years. The relations which Jesus took up when here are patterns for us. There is to be a harvest for God, and every grain of wheat that will be gathered into His garner will take character from Jesus. It will as surely be brought about in every one of us as it was brought about in Him; God will realise it. As our souls come under His influence, He will work it out in us and enable us through grace to maintain such relations with Him as Jesus maintained when here on earth. God's thought for us is that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. We see this in Him first, and in seeing it in Him we see it in absolute perfection; then we cannot happily or spiritually accept anything less.

The first mark of a man who is full of the Holy Spirit is dependence upon God, and all the exercises God puts His people through in the wilderness are to teach us that important

lesson. Man can only live by communications from God. Man is always trying to live on something that really cannot be made into food; but God is teaching each one of us that we must live on divine communications. Happy family conditions will not satisfy you: you must have something from God and then you will begin to live. Most Christians appreciate how good it is to read a little Scripture and have a little prayer before starting out in the morning. When you get something which is really food for your spirit you feel fortified, and it is really wonderful how one finds that God gives exactly what you need for the circumstances of the day. "Every scripture" is of great importance. An infidel who at one time was intimate with J.N.D. said that he had never met a man who was so purposed in his heart that not one word of Scripture should be a dead letter to him. He once asked J.N.D., 'What would have been lost had what Paul said to Timothy about bringing the books and parchments been omitted?' J.N.D. said that that verse just helped him with regard to his not disposing of his library. A sister once said to me, 'My religion is to go to meetings'. Meetings are not everything, we must have personal communications from Him, and when you receive a divine communication you then turn it into prayer. You are handling in this way a draft from the bank of heaven, and it will be honoured! God says, 'It is My currency; it bears My image and superscription and I must honour it'.

THE TEMPTATIONS (2)

Luke 4:5 - 15

It is a great favour from God that we should be brought to know things in divine perfection. One feels how precious it is to see all that is suitable to God without a flaw. The true character and blessedness that is our portion through Christ is patterned in Him. You see the thing perfectly patterned in Him, so we can learn our own true character, and our true place and blessedness in perfection as patterned in Christ.

Luke writes with method. There is divine method in the way he writes, and he puts things in moral order. We learn first how such a Man as Jesus lives, and then how such a Man worships and serves; and next we see the perfect way in which such a Man confides in the known love of God. Now this is the true character of our life as being of Christ, and we have to admit as believers that we are of Christ. So I have to learn my true character according to grace, in Christ. As to the life of our spirits, we live by what God has spoken to us; and this comes out in connection with the first temptation, that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live by what God has spoken to us, and that constitutes the life of our souls; God has spoken to us in Christ, and it is what comes to us from God that constitutes our life, whether we have fed on it little or much. Every communication from God enlarges our capacity to live Godward, and it is very interesting to see this. He speaks to us so that we might live on it, and that principle runs right through the Christian's life: we live by what God speaks to us. The thought of God is that we should live in relation to Him, in the conscious appreciation of every word that He has been pleased to speak. The Lord actually did live on every word that proceeded from God's mouth -- it formed His life morally as a Man down here. We have,

perhaps, received very few of God's words to live upon, but they constitute the measure of our life. What we should seek to get hold of is the positive features which the temptations brought out -- they brought out positive features in Christ. As believers we are no longer listening to the serpent; those who are of Christ are closed to Satan and open to God. I should like the youngest believer to set that down as a definite spiritual fact, that he is after Christ by the grace of God. God speaks to us that we might be free to worship and serve Him.

In the first temptation what comes out is how God has moved towards man to speak to him in such a way that he can live by what God says, and the measure in which we have appreciated what God has said is the measure by which we live spiritually. But God has spoken to us because He wanted worshippers and servers; He wants us to do homage to Him, and it is His pleasure that we should serve Him.

In the second temptation we see that all the power and glory of the world's system has no attraction for Jesus, and it is interesting to note that the thought of worshipping and serving God is set against all the power and glory of the world, which would be the full scope of man's ambition as a fallen creature: God sets against it the power and glory of being able to worship and serve Him.

There is an infinitely greater power and glory in worshipping and serving God than in anything that the devil can confer. So one sees it is infinitely greater and nobler to serve Him than to receive all the glory and power that belongs to this world. This is the true way of deliverance from all human ambitions. If our hearts have fed upon what God has spoken to us we shall have affection for Him. To covet the power and glory of the present world system requires that one should become a worshipper of the devil: it demands that we shall do homage to the one who holds it out as the great prize to the ambitions of men.

How does God see us? How are we known of God? Now let each of us consider, how does God know me? If

I have believed ever so feebly and simply on Christ as God's salvation, then the way that God knows me is as one who stands in all the value of redemption, and the one who has received the Spirit, so as to be formed after Christ. God does not know me according to the flesh; He knows me in Christ. And we have to rise up to the thoughts of God. God's thoughts are that we are of Christ, we are blest through Christ, in Christ, and for Christ, and Christ is in us, and we are to be with Christ and like Christ through all eternity. We learn that the object God has in view for us is to learn an entirely new power and glory. There is power which lies in the gift of the devil, but we want nothing to do with it; we want as little to do with it as Christ did; we want no more of the power and glory of this world than Christ had. Can each one of us say, 'It is true of me through God's infinite grace'? As Christians we have a new thought of glory; we are attracted by an entirely new kind of power and glory, which the natural man never wants, but Christ wanted it and we want it.

The sanctuary is the place where God is worshipped and served, and what a mercy it is to be transferred into such a region as that. The devil has not got a jot or tittle that is spiritual; he has nothing to offer beyond death, nothing of true value.

That blessed Man of Luke 4 was in the brightness of the sphere where God is worshipped and served in the beauty of holiness, and what belonged to the world system had not the least attraction to Him; and that should be true of everyone who has the knowledge of Him. I think the glory of doing homage to God, and serving Him, would put the glory of the world out of hearts and keep it out. The glory of the world is for a moment: there is nothing abiding, nothing of true value. That system of things has gone: it has lost its hold on our hearts, and what holds us now is God speaking to us, and we now live to God. What a moment it will be for me when I open my eyes in a scene where there is no distraction! God has thoughts about me that transcend all human conception

and I shall then know as I am known. What a comfort it is to know that we are known of God; and as such we are able to serve God, and to do homage to Him. I have had a thought from God and I have just closed my eyes and said, 'Glory to God'. That is doing homage to God.

The world is the full limit of man's ambition, but we learn there is a greater glory in serving God. He has delivered us out of the hands of all our enemies, to serve Him in holiness; He has delivered us in the power of redemption, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. I came to this meeting with the thought of being spiritually enlarged. I do not believe in coming to a meeting and going out again in the same manner as I came in. The more I receive the more I can give, and I worship and serve in the light of what God has spoken to me.

The third temptation brings out the restful assurance of divine love in which the Lord Jesus was kept while here below. The devil comes and quotes Scripture, and asks the Lord to put it to the test and see if it was true or not! There is always the subtle tendency in our hearts to want proof that God loves and cares for us. The great danger is that we may be like the Jews desiring a sign; when the Lord was here, they came to Him asking for signs, and it is very often Satan's way to want us to acquire some evidence that God really does love and care for us. Christ is our evidence, and we do not want evidence of the love and care of the blessed God other than Christ.

MINISTERING TO CHRIST IN LOVE

Luke 7:36 - 50

C.A.C. It is remarkable that it is the activities of the woman that we see here rather than the activities of Jesus. We might say that Jesus does nothing; He is sitting at meat, and He remains sitting; all the activities are on the part of the woman. It is very sweet when such a point is reached when the Lord has no longer to be active but can be the subject of the activities that divine grace has set in movement in the heart of a sinner. This incident seems to set forth not so much the grace that forgave as the effect of that grace in a heart that had come to appreciate it.

Ques. Does this suppose that there has been a previous movement on the part of God and the Lord Jesus which this woman has taken account of? Is she responsive to the piping of divine grace?

C.A.C. Yes, I suppose so. Luke writing with method is leading us up to identification in affection with the divine testimony, and we get the climax of it in the beginning of the next chapter. Chapter 7 ought to end at the end of verse 3 of chapter 8 -- that is the end of a very distinct section of the gospel. Chapter 8 verse 4 begins another subject which one might call the public result of the word of God being preached in the world. But what comes out so beautifully in this woman is that there is a result produced in her affections which sets her in activity. I think we shall miss the point of it if we do not see that it is the activity of the woman here; the Lord is not seen in activity, the woman does everything. It leads up to this that the Lord goes through the country, city by city, and village by village, preaching and announcing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him, and certain women and many others who ministered to Him of their substance. Is that not the climax? The kingdom

of God is composed of those who love Jesus and minister to Him; and no power of evil can touch that. Evil is completely displaced in those who appreciate and love Jesus, and are engaged in ministering to Him. If any manifestation of the power of evil comes out in me it shows that I am not in the appreciation of Jesus. No evil can touch the heart that is in the appreciation of Jesus.

The Lord's intention is that throughout the sphere of divine testimony there should be a witness to the power of the kingdom of God in every city and village. That is the form that the kingdom of God takes; it is localised in the cities and villages.

This part of the gospel is a wonderful section as bringing out the answer to what Simeon said of the Lord, "a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2:32). We see a Gentile brought into view at the beginning of chapter 7 as having a right thought of Jesus. The widow who lost her son no doubt represents Israel. Israel's hopes were all dead, but she proves the compassion of Jehovah in restoring her hopes on the principle of resurrection -- she gets her son, her hopes are restored to her. Peter talks of hopes restored in resurrection. It is a comprehensive view of what God is doing, bringing to light the Gentile and bringing Israel to light as having a right appreciation of His grace as revealed in Jesus.

Ques. Does it show the way in which God had gained the affections of His creature?

C.A.C. It is all a question of the wisdom and the counsel of God; we must take account of that. It says the Pharisees rejected or made null the counsel of God. It is not a question of meeting man's need but of carrying out the wisdom and counsel of God. It is on that line that the Gentile comes into view for blessing, and Israel gets every lost hope restored on the principle of resurrection. It is only the children of wisdom who justify the counsel and wisdom of God. If God is moving in wisdom and according to His counsel, the natural man will

never justify Him. John the baptist had to learn to justify God; he had to learn to accept his own ministry, as we all have to do when we are put in prison and get no honour at all.

We see here the greatest servant of God and the greatest sinner put side by side. The Lord said of John there was no greater born of women, he was the greatest servant of God that ever was up to that time. And we see also a woman of the city, a sinner, and both have to be brought to the point of justifying God.

Rem. The wisdom is manifested in the way God has approached man in grace.

C.A.C. Yes, and that the creature should love and minister to Him; and that is the kingdom of God. We have come into the kingdom in the measure in which we love Jesus and minister to Him. It is not working for Him -- Christendom is full of the idea of working for Him -- we can work for Him and be as legal as the day is long, but we can only minister to Him in love. To minister to Him is to do everything for Him, and that is what Simon failed to do. We are in the presence of a great profession; Jesus is in Simon's house now, in the place of great profession which pretends to honour and serve Him, but does not minister to Him. In the presence of that we have to learn to minister to Him. The kingdom of God in its vital power is known then. One covets this sweet privilege; it is put within our reach, the privilege that the greatest servant of God up to that time never had. John the baptist never had the privilege that the woman had. In that sense one could say that she was a little one in the kingdom of God and greater than John the baptist. He never had the privilege of washing the feet of Jesus and anointing them; it was not given to John in the wisdom and counsel of God, but it was given to the woman and it is given to us if we have the love to take it up. I often think the most interesting part of the gospels is the unwritten part. I should like to get alongside of this woman in the scene of glory and ask her

how she came to the appreciation of the Lord. The Spirit of God has not told us how she came to it -- that is the unwritten part -- but she did come to it. What an appreciation she had of Him! It has been called elementary, but I should be thankful if I could reach up to it a little. What a wonderful thing for the Lord to be able to say of any one of us, "She loved much". It is not that she believed or did wonderful works outside, but she loved much.

Ques. Has the Lord that in view with us?

C.A.C. Yes, I think that is it. The Lord would set up in every city and village a testimony of it. That is the true testimony of the kingdom of God. I think we see how it is worked out. Here is a woman deeply affected by the forgiving grace that was there in Jesus. The Pharisee was blind to it; all he could see was a prophet who would know a sinner when he saw her and would repel her. That was Simon's idea of a prophet, but the Lord was not like that at all. The Friend of sinners had come in and the woman appreciated Him. I believe the testimony of God in this world largely hangs on that, Do we appreciate the Friend of sinners? The creditor has come in, but as a Friend, and He is not insisting on payment, but He frankly forgives. What is most touching is that He becomes such a Friend as that at His own cost. I have no doubt that the myrrh that the woman put on His feet was suggestive that the way He was taking in grace was at His own cost.

Ques. Do you think that the woman had a previous knowledge of the Lord?

C.A.C. I do not think Scripture explains how things are arrived at, because when God works in the soul that is the mystery of the kingdom of God. The mystery is something altogether hid from view; we see the result but we do not see the process. No account is given of the process by which the woman reached the result, and it is like that with every one of us. The wisdom and counsel of God had produced fruit in this woman, for who has an honest and good heart naturally?

In the next section we get more the public result; there is only one ground that produces a normal result, an honest and good heart; that is the outcome of the counsel of God.

Grace was there for Simon as well as for the woman. In a gospel preaching the grace of God in Christ is there for everybody; but the very fact of the preaching brings to light that there is a great difference in the state of soul of those addressed. Jesus being there brought to light that there was a very great difference between Simon and the woman. The woman appreciated Him and Simon did not: the woman had an honest and good heart, the whole truth of her sinful condition was all understood and out. She was astonished at the wonderful character in which He was there; she appreciated it and ministered to Him; the Lord set all the inward affections of her heart in movement. But Simon had no idea that He was the creditor.

Ques. How can we minister to Him in a practical way today?

C.A.C. I suppose in the presence of all the self-righteous pride that marks the public profession it is our privilege to be near to the Lord, to express our appreciation of Him and lavish on Him all that our hearts have found in Him. The Lord's intent is that in every city and village within the scope of the testimony of grace there should be the witness of that. I understand that to be local responsibility.

Ques. Is that on the line of "Wisdom hath built her house" (Proverbs 9:1)?

C.A.C. I think so. Every element is there; there is the heralding forth of the kingdom of God, it is to be heralded forth with the sound of the trumpet. It is evangelical, men are made to feel that it is very good news. You do not insist on man's responsibility but on the setting forth of the grace of God; it is good news. Then there is the administrative authority of the twelve who were with him; that element is there. I think it shows what the Lord set up in every city and village. The testimony of God has taken that form now; it is

not centralised in Jerusalem, Rome or London, but it is set in every city and village. And then the women are there, some are named and many unnamed, and they "ministered to him of their substance" (chapter 8: 1 - 3). There was to be a witness in every place of the supreme blessedness of Jesus, that He was loved and served and ministered to. I believe that is the vital character of the kingdom of God, and it is something to be a little one in it. As to the real power of the thing, it is not only what we know of Scripture, or the path of outward separation, but what tells is that Jesus is loved and ministered to; and His heart is gratified by what He finds in those who love Him -- that is the kingdom of God in power. Wisdom's children would do right things at the right time and in the right way. Nothing is more blessed than that Jesus should be appreciated as the full expression in manhood of the forgiving grace of God.

Ques. Would love be the keeping of His commandments?

C.A.C. Yes, that is why the twelve are with Him. The twelve would seem to suggest the divine system of administration, the mark of divine authority which He set up in this world. People say they love the Lord, and are very busy working for Him, but the test would be, have they got the twelve? Do they recognise the authority which the Lord set up in the apostles? That would bring in assembly order.

Being healed of evil spirits and infirmities results in peace, and it is only in the spirit of peace that we can be identified with the testimony.

Ques. Why does the Lord bring up the question of sins with this woman when she came as one who loved Him? Is it because of what Simon said?

C.A.C. I think the Lord justified her in the presence of Simon. He told her her sins were forgiven, she got the positive word from Him that it was so -- that was confirmation. I think the Lord always gives confirmation. If there is a shadow between one's heart and the Lord there is not the consciousness of forgiveness at that moment. If I am

unforgiving it shows I have lost the sense of forgiveness at that moment. I think we get a sense of forgiveness in a general way, but it is a distinct advance to get His word personally. We might get a sense of forgiveness, but not being attached in love to the Lord we do not get the personal consciousness of it. I think there is such a thing as the Lord telling a soul that his or her sins are forgiven. It is not merely a text of Scripture, though it might arrive that way, but a distinct sense in the soul, 'He told me my sins were forgiven'. The soul knows it as a personal reality.

Ques. Do you think the woman came to the Lord with the burden of her sins on her?

C.A.C. I had thought what burdened her was an overwhelming sense of the grace that was in Him; it was that that overwhelmed her so that she forgot the Pharisee and the conventionalities that would have kept her outside, and she broke through everything. She no doubt had a sense of her guilt, but in this gospel, as we have said before, it is not that man needs God but that God needs man, and God comes out to secure the heart of man for Himself: He needs it. We may say reverently that the Lord needed love. There is a proverb that says, "He that covereth transgression seeketh love" (Proverbs 17:9). The Lord came to cover transgressions in order to procure love; that was His object in coming. The whole principle of Luke's gospel is that God needs man. He wants him to fill His house; He wants him to put the best robe on him and feed him on the fatted calf: He needs him in order to display the wonders of His grace in him. This woman got a sense of why the blessed God came forth in His beloved Son as Man here. He wanted her, and He came forth in the grace of forgiveness; nothing could keep her at a distance, she had become possessed of Him, she ministered to Him and gave Him pleasure. We have that privilege here locally!

This woman got outside the sphere of sin altogether; it is blessed to know that we can do that. When we love Jesus and are ministering to Him we are as completely outside the

sphere of sin morally as if we were in heaven. To keep in that attitude of soul is the true power of holiness. People talk in the religious world of holiness by faith, but holiness is not by faith but by love. Here we see a person absolutely in the sphere of holiness. We should all like to be more holy; well, this is the way to it. Luke presents this as the way that Mary Magdalene got free from the seven demons. It says, "Had gone out". Luke does not say that the Lord cast them out; they went out because no demon could stay in the heart that loves Jesus. In loving Jesus and ministering to Him, there is the true power of the kingdom and no demon can stop there, and all infirmities will be healed. We have to take this up if we suffer from a demon or infirmities; we have to take this up and see where deliverance comes in. Sin had no longer any power, so the Lord could say, "Go in peace". She was completely free from the power of sin and in true holiness, for holiness is a matter of heart.

The opening verses of chapter 8 are the public testimony to the kingdom as brought out in every city and village; the woman represents what goes on inwardly. Chapter 8 verse 4 begins a new subject; it begins with the sower going out to sow. If the word of God is sown it is a public matter. Not everyone is converted who comes under the sound of the word. Luke makes a great difference between those who come under the sound of the word and those who keep the word in their hearts. Many come under the sound of the word and bring forth no fruit for God. We need instruction in the mysteries of the kingdom of God, so that we are not carried away when we hear that five hundred people have been converted somewhere. We are not elated by that because we know that it has all to be sifted out. On the other hand we are not depressed when we find that a great deal that we thought was the work of God proves to be of no value; it does not do to be depressed by that, we must know the character of what is going on publicly.

THE FAITH PERIOD

Luke 8:22 - 56

C.A.C. I suppose the Lord was intimating in this incident that there would be a time of testing before the world to come would be manifested; there would be a time of 'passing over'. The Lord is not seen here as sowing. He has the fruit of His sowing with Him but He does not put the disciples in settled or stable conditions; He leads them into a ship that they might be exposed to testing, but He is with them in it. This intimates that there was to be a faith period instead of the kingdom being set up. The Lord had been preaching the kingdom of God, sowing the word of God, but now He intimates in this section of the gospel that a faith period was to come in, and that the disciples would have to pass through unstable conditions, apparently without security or protection from evil and with no active intervention on His part, because He fell asleep. They were to have a time of testing; that is the present character of things. The question is, have we confidence in the One who is with His people? We have not the conditions of the world to come, we are not on dry land yet which could speak of settled conditions, but we have the Person who can bring about all the conditions of the world to come. Have we sufficient faith in Him to be restful in the presence of unstable conditions, dangers and things that test us severely? Can we trust Him? The Lord does not propose to secure His people from storms; He does not propose at the present moment to put us on dry land. It is a matter of moving through unsettled conditions where we are exposed to danger and the power of evil.

But then the Lord sets the pattern of what is suitable under such conditions. We have been seeing more than once, and we shall see again how in this gospel everything that is right is patterned in Jesus. His being asleep was a pattern for them. It indicated that the proper attitude for them to be in was one

of restfulness and confidence. It was divinely right for Him to be asleep at that moment, and His attitude was, in pattern, the right attitude for His saints. The disciples ought to have been as restful as He was; if they had had faith in Him they would have been.

Ques. Would Peter being asleep in prison convey the same thought?

C.A.C. Yes, the storm had broken on the little ship. James had been killed with the sword and Peter put in prison; a squall of wind had come on the little boat and those in it. The Lord was with them but He did not manifest Himself; He was asleep as it were. He let Herod kill James and He let Peter be thrown into prison without any intervention.

Ques. What would be the present application of the "other side"?

C.A.C. We have not reached our destination. The destination of the saints is the world to come; that is what all Christians talk about: "the habitable world which is to come, of which we speak" (Hebrews 2:5). It is that order of things which is under the Son of man, under Jesus; that is our destination.

Rem. We are not to look for outward intervention today, but to be kept in peace and quietness.

C.A.C. Yes, that is the great test. I know how it tests me when squalls of wind come. It is a great thing to know that the Lord is with His people though we are in unsettled conditions, exposed to storms, and there is weakness in ourselves; such a ship as they were in was not much security against a violent storm, but the Lord was there. We have to hold to the faith of His Person. Is the Lord enough for us even if He does not apparently exercise His power? If He lets James be killed with the sword is He enough then? The Lord feels it when we cannot trust Him. It is said of Israel that they tempted Jehovah; what was the temptation? They said, "Is Jehovah among us, or not?" (Exodus 17:7). If we say that, we tempt Him; we have called His love in question.

Tests show whether we have faith. If the Lord was always intervening for us and swept aside any difficulty at the moment it occurred there would be no test of faith at all, it would be the world to come actually here. When we reach the world to come there will be no troubles, no sea to pass over, no boat and no storms! Most of us, perhaps, would like millennial conditions now. The Lord said His last word to us in the end of John 16"In the world ye have tribulation", but He says, "These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace". Is He enough? or can I not trust Him unless He does something wonderful for me?

The Lord knew what He was leading them into. "He entered into a ship, himself and his disciples"; He knew what He was doing and He knew all the circumstances in which they would be found; He knew all about the storm that was coming. He intentionally put them in that position, but He was with them in it. Note that word, "Himself and his disciples". Let us ever think of "Himself". When afterwards He said, "Where is your faith?" it was as much as to say, 'Did you not know Me well enough to be able to trust Me in a squall of wind?' It is necessary we should know the Person who is with us. The Lord in the previous part of this gospel had been unfolding Himself as the source of every grace, and now He put His disciples in a position where it would come to light whether they had really got to know him or not. It is a question of how we know the Lord. We may think we know a good deal about Him, but do we know Him so that we can trust Him if He leaves us to face a difficulty, if He lets a squall come down, and the waves beat into the ship so that there is a real danger? Can we trust Him so that we do not wake Him up? Unbelief woke Him up, faith would have let Him sleep, and we might say would have slept with Him. We have not the happy conditions of the world to come, and we must not expect them, but we have the Person who can bring in all the conditions of the world to come, and that is greater. We have at this moment something greater than the world to come.

The previous seven and a half chapters have been enough to show who He is. How have we been using the times of ministry? For every one of us there is a time of ministry: when we were converted we began to know Him, but we are led along in grace and have been brought to know Him as we have seen in this gospel, in the way that Peter, the leper, the paralysed man and others got to know Him. The Lord gives every newborn soul food and light, and brings it into the assembly to be fed and illuminated. We learn through His own ministry the Person who is with His saints. Now have we learnt Him so that we can trust Him even at a time when He does not appear to do anything for us? The Lord has told us plainly that it is through much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God, and Peter says, "Take not as strange the fire of persecution which has taken place amongst you for your trial" (1 Peter 4:12). In those days they were imprisoned, thrown to lions and burnt to death; we have not such fiery trials as they had, but we get our testings, every one of us. But we have that wonderful Person, spoken of in Hebrews 1 and 2, who is greater than the world to come, for He is great enough to bring it in. Are we content to have Him, and in the peace of this can we be restful and sleep even in a storm? Stephen was perfectly restful; he was able to kneel down quietly and calmly and pray for his murderers, and he fell asleep though there was no outward deliverance wrought for him. The Lord does not always intervene, and faith does not expect Him to. Did the martyrs expect the Lord to intervene and save them from a martyr's death? How many hundreds were burnt and imprisoned; they did not expect the Lord to intervene; they trusted Him and felt it was part of the witness for Him that they should go that way.

This is a wonderful instruction; we are passing over, and we have a Person with us who is going to bring in all the conditions of the world to come, but He is not always going to relieve us of our little pressures and trials; He is not always going to take us out of our difficulties, or keep the storm off

us, and faith would trust Him even then. We have a precious word in the Song of Songs: "I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please" (Song of Songs 2:7). When He pleases He will awake and quiet the storm, but let Him do it when He pleases.

Ques. Does Hebrews 2:9 give the key to the position, "We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour"?

C.A.C. Yes, that is the point. We do not see the conditions of the world to come, but if we see Him crowned with glory and honour, is that not enough? I know how it finds me out. Is it enough to see Jesus crowned with glory and honour? Is that not greater than to have circumstances changed, difficulties removed, or storms quieted? To look up and see Jesus crowned with glory and honour is always open to us. Such is the Lord's tender compassion that He often quietens the storm, but He did that here in answer to what was really unbelief; He said, as it were, 'If you cannot trust Me, I will come in and quieten the storm for you, but I would prefer that you should trust Me without any intervention'. He has done that for me many a time when I have been shaking in the presence of a ripple or two, but that is to His praise, not mine. We should honour Him now by trusting Him. He will assuredly not fail in consideration for us; He is so tender and considerate that if He sees it is too much for us, He wakes up and quietens the storm, but that is not exactly the triumph of faith. Some people can tell us wonderful stories of what the Lord has done for them, but it would be better if they could tell us how exceedingly precious the Lord Himself was to them when He did not do anything for them. J.B.S. used to say that when you sit down and talk to people the first thing they talk about is their troubles, and if you say, 'Have you nothing else to talk about?', they say, 'Oh yes, I prove many mercies'; but neither the troubles nor the mercies are Himself. When we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour we are not thinking of either troubles or mercies.

The Lord sleeping was a divine voice to the disciples, and they should have listened to it. Things are patterned for us in Him.

Ques. Would you say that Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had faith?

C.A.C. Yes, they counted on God for deliverance, but at the same time they said, 'If He does not deliver us we are going to stand firm'. God is able to do anything, but can we trust Him when He does nothing? "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Rem. Here the Lord did awake and silence the storm.

C.A.C. Yes. As we said last week, this section of the gospel looks on to the establishing of the world to come and all its blessed conditions; but the thing is to be in the faith of the Person who is able to effect full deliverance and bring in the conditions of the world to come. We have not got the conditions yet but we have the Person who is able to bring them in, and it is our true blessedness and confidence to think much of that Person. That is the present situation; it is not a time of outward intervention, but of trusting the Lord who is undoubtedly with His people. Do we want anything more?

Rem. His being asleep does not mean indifference.

C.A.C. No, it means He is not in manifested activity; He does not always do the things that we might wish to be done; He does not always change circumstances, but He overrules them all for the good of His saints and in view of His testimony. All the power of evil broke loose after the Lord went to heaven, and the storm has been raging more or less ever since, but the Lord is with His people, and faith has the privilege of trusting Him during this time of 'passing over'.

In the next incident we see that something outside the borders of Israel comes into God's account in grace. "The country of the Gadarenes ... is over against Galilee", and what is seen there sets forth the conditions of things in the

gentile world. The Lord uses this peculiar interval of passing over to land to the blessing of the Gentiles, the blessing of those in whom the full strength of evil was manifested. This man had a legion of demons -- the full strength of the power of evil was in the gentile world.

I think this incident shows how the Lord would effect full deliverance for those outside Israel and would secure restfulness and testimony among the Gentiles. He secures one to whom He became everything and He secured him in restfulness to sit clothed and sensible at His feet. The Lord was not only going to have a company of Jewish disciples, but He was going to have a witness among the Gentiles of the power of the world to come. This picture does not contemplate the world to come as actually present, for He is rejected in the country of the Gadarenes, but as being in view and having its powers manifested in the way of testimony. Christians have tasted "the works of power of the age to come" (Hebrews 6:5). The full power of Satan was seen in the gentile world in idolatry, licentiousness and every form of wickedness; we have only to read Romans 1 to see the legion of demons. The gentile world was the sphere where there was nothing that was adequate to check the power of the devil. In judaism there was what was of God, and it was a protecting influence; so the Jew in a certain sense was clothed; he was not quite like the Gentile.

The Lord brought Himself to have such a place with this man that this one desire was to be with Him, but he was left in his own place for testimony. That is secured now in those who believe among the Gentiles, though in general the Lord is rejected.

There is an intimation here that the Gentiles would reject Him because they besought Him to depart from their coasts and He did leave them. People are doing that really in christendom now: they are beseeching the Lord to leave them, and He is accepting His rejection. Jesus is not wanted in Christendom any more than He was in judaism, and as He accepted

His rejection at the hands of the Jews so I believe He is accepting His rejection at the hands of the Gentiles; He got into the ship and went back again. It is intensely solemn. When the Gentiles definitely reject Him, as they are doing, He will return to bless Israel who has been prepared in the meantime to appreciate Him; they have learned to say, "Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord".

This is one of the most instructive sections in this gospel, and if we want to be intelligent in the mind of God we should very prayerfully consider Luke 8. From verse 22 to the end of the chapter is one section; and it sets before us wonderful principles connected with the ways of God at the present time.

In the gentile world man was absolutely in the power of evil, but the grace of God had in view man's deliverance, and it is represented in the demoniac. We have said several times that in Luke's gospel it is not that man needs God but that God needs man, and we may say that in the fulness of His grace God needed the Gentile. It was not a sufficient end with God that the Jew alone should be blessed. The Jews alone could not fill God's house, they were not great enough; so the bondman was sent out to the highways and hedges, that is the gentile world (Luke 14). This man never asked for blessing; it was rather the other way, but the Lord's eye and heart were upon him, and in the sovereign power of His grace He set him free. What a marvellous sight for heaven to look down upon and see Corinthians, Thessalonians, Cretans and Romans -- people, who, as we read the epistles addressed to them, we can see had been possessed truly by a legion of unclean demons -- clothed in holy garments, and sitting at the feet of Jesus! What a sight for heaven! This man had been, as we should say, beyond the pale, an utter outcast, a terror to everybody, but the power of grace subdued him to Jesus.

This gospel was written that we might know the One who has power to subdue even all things to Himself, the power which will be manifested in the world to come is being

manifested morally now in view of testimony. The Person is available in whom all that power subsists. What will He not do for us? He will deliver us as completely from the power of evil, if we let Him have His way with us, as if we were already in the world to come, so that instead of demons ruling us at their will, we shall be found clothed and sensible sitting at the feet of Jesus, loving Him, and left here in testimony for Him.

Speaking generally, the Lord is rejected in the gentile world, but He has left a witness here, and every believer is part of that witness. We are not allowed just at present to go with Jesus to the right hand of God, but we are left here in the place where we were possessed by demons to be a witness to the delivering power of Jesus.

It is solemn when people ask the Lord to depart out of their coasts. It will be actually so when the apostasy comes, but it is drawing near now and the Lord accepts it. He does not force Himself on unwilling hearts.

THE TRANSFIGURATION IN LUKE

Luke 9:28 - 36

Ques. What is the difference between this account of the transfiguration in Luke, and that in Matthew?

C.A.C. That is just what I thought we might look at. What Matthew presents is that God would bring the future glory of the kingdom into the present, so that what is future might be present power in our souls. It is "The Son of man coming in his kingdom" which is clearly future, but God would have it become power in our souls now and present to those who have spiritual vision.

Luke gives us the present aspect of the kingdom of God, and shows us how we shall be affected, and the kind of character that will mark us, if in the good of the kingdom. It is our side of it. In Matthew it is the divine side, majesty; He is the King. It is our side in Luke, our side as seen patterned in Jesus. In Luke He is the pattern of one who is a true subject of the kingdom.

Rem. Luke is moral.

C.A.C. It is the kingdom of God here: in Matthew the future is made present, seen in its perfection in Jesus.

Rem. It is "As he prayed" in Luke.

C.A.C. A praying Man, it is our side. That is why it is "after ... about eight days"; Matthew and Mark say "after six days". The Spirit has a reason for all these things. "Six days" seem to suggest the kingdom coming in as the seventh day in contrast to the six of man's days that have gone before it. God is going to bring in what will stand in perfect contrast to man's day. God will have His seventh day! "Eight days" speak of an entirely new beginning for God in Jesus. All the Greek letters stand for numbers, and those composing the name of Jesus make 888 - 8 intensified. That is Jesus! The beast's number is 666, all short of perfection, man's number;

but 8 speaks of the pleasure of God, all patterned in Jesus. What marks Jesus as seen in this gospel of Luke is that He is found praying seven times. For a man to be praying shows that God has His right place with him. The first element in the kingdom is subjection, involving dependence, a giving up of our own will and a sense that the will of God ought to prevail. God has His rights then, and man is in his true dignity. Any prayer not flowing out of subjection and dependence and the will of God is not worth anything. The degradation of man is that he is lawless. The first sign of a man being elevated is that he prays.

Rem. It was true in Saul of Tarsus.

C.A.C. We see in him a man subdued: "He is praying". Matthew's presentation of the Lord will subdue us. The majesty of the Lord subdues us; it is "a light above the brightness of the sun" (Acts 26:13).

Rem. It took seven years to subdue Nebuchadnezzar, but one flash of that light subdued Saul.

C.A.C. It took seven years in Nebuchadnezzar's case because it was not the kingdom. Sometimes God uses providences to subdue us, seven years of discipline. Saul was subdued by the majesty of Jesus. Each time it is recorded it grows with him: "A light out of heaven" (Acts 9:3), "A great light" (Acts 22:6), "A light above the brightness of the sun" (Acts 26:13). The longer he lived the greater his sense was of the light and of its magnitude. Saul was patterned after Jesus. Jesus is not only the King, the supreme One in the kingdom, but He is the pattern for His subjects.

There is a great need of our being subdued to the light we have; we all have light, but are we subdued to the measure of the light that has shone upon us? If we are, we are true subjects of the kingdom and we shall be marked by prayer. There are three things that man needs. Firstly, his heart satisfied -- the Ethiopian is an example of that. He had gone up to Jerusalem to worship but was going back disappointed.

Philip preaches to him Jesus; he finds satisfaction and "went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39). Secondly, the burden of his sins on his conscience removed -- Cornelius is an example of that. When Peter reaches the point in his preaching, "That every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins" (Acts 10:43), they all got absolution. "The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word". Thirdly, his will subdued. There was a terrible will with Saul of Tarsus. He had no burden on his conscience; he could say, "I have walked in all good conscience" (Acts 23:1); but he had an unbroken will. He needed subjugation, and he was subdued in one moment. Up to then, he was doing nothing but his own will, but one ray of celestial light shone in and subdued him. It was "according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself" (Philippians 3:21). Saul is an example of how the Lord could subdue a man and the effect is that "he is praying". There is no prayer but what ascends from a subdued heart; Saul never got away from the influence of that subduing; it came in and never went out.

Rem. I suppose the will is the worst part of man.

C.A.C. It is that which rises up in rebellion. There is no kingdom of God in my soul until the will is subdued, and that is maintained by prayer; it must work through prayer. If we get away from dependence, from prayer, very soon there will be a rising up of what is not suitable to God. Dependence is portrayed for us in Jesus in Luke; "He went out into the mountain to pray" (Luke 6:12). Man is never so elevated as when speaking to God. If I could always have an audience with the King, I should be regarded as having great dignity. To approach God is great dignity. In human things a king ought to be a pattern for all his subjects. It is certainly so with our King. In the kingdom of God a new order of Man has come in, and is marked by prayer, "And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance became different". I wonder if we

have ever prayed until the fashion of our countenance becomes different? Through prayer the countenance of a man becomes different.

Rem. It says of Stephen that they "saw his face as the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15).

C.A.C. A man's spirit expresses itself in his countenance. A true man cannot put on a false face. There was no need for any moral change in the Lord Jesus, but the proper effect of prayer is patterned in Him. A man's disposition, thoughts, feelings and sensibilities are so changed that the fashion of his countenance becomes altered, and it is also true of his spirit. That is the kingdom of God; it sets God forth. With a praying man or woman the fashion of the countenance alters -- it works from inside. You get filled in with what God is, His feelings, compassion, motives. That in the heart alters a man. We are often heavy with sleep, "but having fully awoke up they saw his glory". We want fully to wake up to see the glory of that kingdom set forth in Jesus.

Rem. "We all, looking on the glory of the Lord ... are transformed" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

C.A.C. That is where we are put; "transformed" is the same word as is used of Jesus in Matthew 17:2.

Rem. "Taking Peter and John and James he went up into a mountain to pray".

C.A.C. A mountain suggests elevation, far above this world, where Jesus takes us. There is no higher elevation than to be brought up to the level of all that was patterned in Jesus. The actual transforming power is the glory, but it works through prayer. As you see the blessed shining of God in a Man -- in Jesus -- you pray about it and get changed. That is how it takes place. There is nothing more important on our side than prayer. All true prayer begins, "Let thy name be sanctified ... let thy will be done" (Matthew 6:9, 10). That shows that a man is subdued. The Lord certainly gave His disciples a true pattern of what true prayer is, although it was not given as a form of prayer, but all the true features of

prayer are set forth in it. I do not see much in prayer if it does not flow out of a desire that the will of God may prevail. In the path of the Lord, He had His great occasions, peculiar and distinctive moments, as we all have, and we find Him praying at all these moments: when He was baptised, when He called the twelve, on the mount, in the garden and on the cross.

Rem. "Jesus having been baptised and praying ... the Holy Spirit descended ... upon him" (Luke 3:21, 22).

C.A.C. There was that there which was suitable to the Holy Spirit -- suitable wood to be covered with gold.

Rem. And prior to Pentecost they "gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer" (Acts 1:14).

C.A.C. They showed the same kind of spirit; they were patterned after Christ. There were ten days of prayer. It is that new thing that God has brought in. The man of sin and shame is not under His eye, but the Man of His pleasure. If the change in us comes through prayer it makes nothing of us after the flesh.

The first thing is that the "fashion of his countenance became different"; the second is "his raiment white and effulgent". "His raiment" would speak of everything about Him. With us it would speak of our habits, our associations, our relations with our brethren, our households and our businesses; it is not 'advanced truth', for the apostles wrote of it to young converts. "We used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify, that ye should walk worthy of God" (1 Thessalonians 2:11, 12).

Rem. "Let us ... have grace, by which let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear" (Hebrews 12:28).

C.A.C. That would affect all your raiment. We have the great privilege of being so affected by the kingdom of God that everything about us becomes affected. One has seen it after conversion in the way one deports himself, really seeking to be brought by divine power to be in correspondence with the light that has reached him. Are we all exercised to

be in correspondence with the light? It is "from glory to glory"; you do not get on to the top step at once; it is a staircase; you get the light of the finish at the start. But you go from one stage of glory to another, adding a little more in correspondence to Christ. I want to move up that wonderful staircase of glory. John says, "Grace upon grace" and Paul says, "Glory to glory". You never become inflated; if there is a danger of it, the Lord will deal with it.

Ques. What is "prayer and fasting"? (Matthew 17:21).

C.A.C. Fasting is giving up something that you are justly entitled to because you are absorbed with something else. "This kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting". Fasting is necessary then, because there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. To meet the power of Satan, prayer and fasting become necessary.

Ques. Why do Moses and Elias speak of His departure (verse 30)?

C.A.C. That is a great feature of the kingdom. Moses and Elias represent those who have spiritual intelligence. It was not to be found then on earth, so the Lord introduced two from heaven. "And lo, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elias, who, appearing in glory, spoke of his departure which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem". They spoke of His departure, His exodus -- He was going out of everything here. It is a most distinctive mark of the kingdom; it is not atonement. Moses and Elias knew quite well in spiritual, heavenly communion with Him, that the character of the kingdom of God as seen in Him could not possibly have a place in this world which is not suitable to Him. The kingdom necessitates that you and I shall have our exodus because it is patterned in Jesus; it is not atonement or glorifying God as to sin here.

Ques. Why was there an exodus for the children of Israel?

C.A.C. Because there was nothing suitable for them in Egypt as the children of God. If the kingdom is in us and we in it, we shall go out, out from this world and out from its

religious character. He was to accomplish His departure in Jerusalem, that city of solemnities; it is from that very spot that He goes out -- that is the kingdom. The wisdom of the Spirit of God commands one's admiration.

In Luke the kingdom is patterned in Jesus; and a most important feature of it is that He goes out; you could not possibly have such a kingdom here; it does not fit. It says of Moses that "by faith he left Egypt". When? I do not know. But in his heart and mind and spirit he forsook Egypt. It was not good enough; he went out-the Spirit records it.

What makes Satan angry? It is not the reformation of the world. No! It is when people forsake his kingdom; when they leave the whole system, religious and all. In heart and mind and spirit you must go out. No one who does not go out is in the kingdom of God. Why do you go out? It is because Jesus has gone out; "He has died to sin once for all" (Romans 6:10) and has left all that kingdom. "Died to sin" means that the whole thing is left behind. "For sin" (Romans 8:3) is atonement; Romans 4 is the "Fear not: stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah" of Exodus 14:13.

"Go forward ... on dry ground" (Exodus 14:15, 16). You make your exodus publicly and "with a high hand" (Exodus 14:8), not as convicted felons.

There is a double baptism, "in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2). The cloud is that of the glory of God shining out in grace through Jesus. If we knew what it was to be immersed in that -- justification, peace, access, the love of God, reconciliation and eternal life -- we should not be afraid of being baptised in the sea but should have a great desire for it.

Rem. "Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried" (Ruth 1:17).

C.A.C. Our exodus is outwardly by baptism, which is a form of teaching (Romans 6:17), and we get the gain of it when we accept the teaching. When we have learned what baptism means, we go out under the influence of all that has come to us, "through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

The Israelites were prepared to go out; "There was not one feeble among their tribes" (Psalm 105:37). They went out in military order, "Arrayed out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 13:18). It was said that "the shout of a king is in his midst" (Numbers 23:21). You cannot sing the song of Exodus 15 in Egypt, but on the wilderness side of the Red Sea; and as these things have place with us we shall learn the blessedness of sonship. The reason why we do not know more of the Son's place with the Father is that we have not worked out kingdom exercises. There must be a foundation laid in the soul first before you can learn sonship.

At His transfiguration the Lord was marked by prayer, by the difference in His countenance and by His raiment becoming white and effulgent. "There was a voice out of the cloud"; the scene around fades. If we are in the truth of the kingdom of God we shall get that "voice out of the cloud".

SPIRITUAL MANHOOD

Luke 9:30 - 35

The thought in my mind is that our growing up to spiritual manhood is a simple matter to those whose affections are commanded by the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When He was here the Lord was forming His disciples in the features of spiritual manhood, and the result of His influence was their coming to realise that there was no one with whom He could be compared. There was variety of opinion about Him, but here (verse 20) He challenges the disciples as to what they could say of Him. And the challenge is continually brought to us as to what our hearts can really say as to His Person. Peter says He is "the Christ of God". The Lord had an unrivalled place in their affections, and this confession was an opportunity for Him to point out the character of the testimony, to speak of that to which He was about to come. He was free to tell them of His sufferings and subsequent glory and what would involve on their part suffering and the losing of their lives for His sake, and that they would need not to be ashamed of Him or His words. That is, He was preparing their hearts for the suffering time when the features of manhood would be necessary. It is all very well to be babes, to be carried, but such are no good as support to the testimony.

So the Lord takes chosen men in this instance, and He permits them to see Him glorified, and the two greatest servants in the Old Testament, Moses and Elias, with Him glorified, speaking with Him and standing with Him. It was surely to impress their hearts with the great favour that was there. They were from day to day, from week to week, and from year to year in the presence of a light that never shone on Moses and Elias; they were more highly favoured in walking with the Son of God than these saints were.

These two men seen in glory are not occupied with it, they are speaking with the Lord of His departure that He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. That is something greater than the glory of the kingdom. They had understood God's ways with them, had come to maturity and so understood that the whole kingdom glory rested on His decease that was to be accomplished. I cannot but suggest that this is a feature of spiritual manhood.

When the disciples got the Spirit they must have loved to contemplate these two great and chosen servants of God, borne along in their ministry and prophetic word by the Spirit, so that they are in the glory in a glorified condition, not occupied with it but with what was the basis of it all. How far has the death of our Lord established itself in our souls, so that we are not absorbed with the full glory of the kingdom, but with His death? All is based on the precious and unspeakable value of his death, and it must be so if we are presented "unblamable and irreproachable", as these two men were. They had something greater in their hearts than kingdom glory -- the marvellous death through which He would bring it all about, the basis on which the world to come stands, and on which the world of bliss stands for eternity.

The vision fades, Moses and Elias depart (the kingdom glory must give place to something in which they have no part), and the cloud overshadowed the disciples, "and they feared as they entered into the cloud". They could not possibly understand it, so that it occasioned fear. But it was a blessed indication that all that Moses and Elias could know of the kingdom glory was to give place to something transcendently wonderful. They were not only shadowed by the cloud, but enveloped in it, referring no doubt to what was coming in in the ministry of Paul and John, to the economy of the Father and the Son. It was, as Peter says, "The excellent glory" -- the surpassing glory. It is the place we have in connection with the beloved Son, the place in the Father's love in association with His Son. We can understand how

spiritual manhood is necessary for it; the very perfection of it is seen in the beloved Son. But we reach it by steps: the Saviour, the Lord, the Christ precede it in our apprehension. We are to see the wonderful place of the Son in the affections of the Father, and we are called into the participation of it. John's gospel and first epistle unfold it -- John's gospel in chapters 17 and 20 leads us up to the pinnacle of it. John writes as a man, he speaks of "men", accrediting them with receiving the words He had given them of the Father. He looks at them in the new period as having the Spirit, grown up to the apprehension of the great divine thoughts.

The question is how far we are capacitated to enter into the things we have in the faith of our souls. As having our place in the economy of the Father and the Son, we have something that infinitely surpasses the kingdom glory. "The glory which thou hast given me I have given them" -- the cloud of glory envelops the saints as we enter in. It requires manhood that rises up to the most cherished thoughts of divine Persons. How marvellous that we should be able to rise up to the heights of our greatest privileges, and cause pleasure to the Father and the Son by entering into Their thoughts. May we be helped in that direction for Their praise.

"HEAR HIM"

Luke 9:35

There is One who has received from God the Father honour and glory. The excellent glory has uttered its delight in Him. Though cast aside as worthless by man, He is chosen of God and precious. The honour and glory that He received was not something added to Him, but the display and announcement of what He was. The "holy mountain" was in the light, and within the hearing, of heaven, and those who were there learned Christ as the Object of the Father's love and delight.

How blessed it is to be abstracted for a while from what is of man, and from the circumstances and exercises of our everyday life, and to be introduced to the Father's circle! The Father delights to communicate to us -- as to the disciples on the holy mount -- His own good pleasure in the Son of His love.

His word to us is, "Hear him", important words spoken by the Father directly to men! It is not now a question of hearing Moses or the prophets, but Christ the beloved Son, One who can tell out all that is in the heart of God. The thoughts of love that were hidden in the depths of God have found utterance in the Word become flesh. He came forth in Godhead fulness to make known all that was in God's heart and mind. The Father says to us, "Hear him". He wants us to be listening in quietness of spirit to that voice that tells us all that God is in blessing and grace for man, that tells us, too, of perfect and devoted love in Christ -- love to the Father, maintaining all His glory at infinite cost, love to the church that would go down even to death to secure and bear above His bride, love to the saints that would bear our curse and condemnation that we might be with Him in His life and have his Spirit. What a blessed, soul-transporting occupation it is to "Hear him"!

The effect of hearing Him must be to fill our hearts to overflowing. What is spoken in Christ is so great, so glorious that it must absorb and satisfy every heart that really takes it in. Not that we can comprehend it, for we are tiny vessels in the presence of such a mighty ocean of love and blessedness, but by the Spirit we do, in some small measure, apprehend it. The disciples on the holy mount were filled with fear; they did not know what to do or say in the presence of the glory. But God has given us the Spirit to form in us capacity for divine affections, so that instead of being lost in it, we might be perfectly happy and at home in a circle where the glorious pre-eminence of Christ appears. How amazing that we should be withdrawn in spirit from a restless and unsatisfied world to taste the holy joy of a circle where Christ is everything -- where we anticipate, in a feeble way, the occupations of those scenes where it will be ours 'only to adore'.

The one thing for us is to hear Him. The Father wants us to concentrate our attention on that blessed One, and to feast our souls on His love. To be near to Him, to learn what He is to the Father and what He is for us and to us, is the secret of all joy. He not only meets every need, but satisfies every desire. Indeed, He exceeds and surpasses every expectation and desire; in His presence we are more than satisfied. We cannot be dissatisfied if we are near Him. It was said to Naphtali, "Naphtali, satisfied with favour, And full of the blessing of Jehovah" (Deuteronomy 33:23). This is the portion of those who hear Him. The thought of what He is and of what He brings to us makes our hearts unable to contain themselves. We feel we cannot give Him worthy praise; we cannot describe His beauty or define all the blessedness that we perceive in Him.

The Father has called us to share His rest and delight in the Son of His love, and this is by the Spirit. Such is the grace and love lavished upon us. I trust it is daily more wonderful to us, calling forth deepening worship and praise.

GRACE, AND ITS EFFECTS

Luke 10:1 - 42; Luke 11:1 - 54; Luke 12:1 - 59

We are exhorted to seek the kingdom of God; and I desire to show how the kingdom of God is established in our hearts, and the practical result. In other words, to speak of grace, and its effects in those who receive it.

Luke 10:30 - 37 illustrates the principle of the new covenant. The law, represented by the priest and the Levite, could not help the poor half-dead man. Indeed the only thing the law could do for a sinner was to kill him outright. The principle of grace is that God acts from Himself, and all is the outcome of what He is, and what He does.

The only thing that commended this man to the notice of the Samaritan was his need. He had brought his distress upon himself, and deserved it all, but his need became the subject of divine compassion.

I have been interested in connecting several Old Testament scriptures which have reference to the new covenant with this incident in Luke 10. For example, in Jeremiah, God tells His people, "Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, to bind up thy wound; thou hast no healing medicines ... . thy sorrow is incurable; for the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins are manifold, I have done these things unto thee". Then He goes on to say, "For I will apply a bandage unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah" (Jeremiah 30:12 - 17). Then again we read that they "shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for corn, and for new wine, and for oil, ... and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not languish any more at all ... . and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah" (Jeremiah 31:12 - 14). All this grace is seen in "a certain Samaritan". The Son of God came here to bring all the grace of heaven to

those who had lost everything and come into the deepest misery by sin. "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17). In binding up the poor man's wounds we get a figure of righteousness, and in the oil and wine we see typified peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Have we known what it is to taste, as this man did, that the Lord is good? "My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah". It was no question of what the Samaritan found, but of what He brought. All His own resources were ministered freely to the subject of His compassion. Do we know what it is to have all our need met and our souls satisfied with "the fulness of the blessing of Christ"? (Romans 15:29). He administers all the grace and goodness of God in perfect blessing as, in figure, Joseph did in Egypt. The moment we realise this our hearts bow before Him. The grace that is in Him wins and bows the heart, and He thus gets His place as Lord in our hearts, so that He not only commands the blessing for us, but He commands us for the blessing.

So long as we are occupied with ourselves we cannot have any true knowledge of grace. But we are entitled to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find that all the favour of God is secured to us in Him. He is righteousness for us, for He went into death to glorify God in the removal of our sins, and all our unsuitability to God as in the flesh. The effect of righteousness is peace. Every question is settled, and the Holy Spirit ever bears witness to this. God says, "Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more" (Hebrews 8:12), and "Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Knowing the fulness of grace that has come out to us, "we are making our boast in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ", so that we have "joy in the Holy Spirit". God thus brings our hearts under His own blessed sway. We come under the lordship of Christ, and are

commanded by Him. He has brought the grace of heaven to us, and in tasting that grace we touch a new life which has its spring outside everything here.

This brings us to chapter 10: 38 - 42. He commanded Mary.

The sense of who He was, and of all that He brought, was great in her heart. She knew that He was here to minister, not to be ministered to. He came into Martha's house; in that sense He came near to them in their circumstances, but His object was to withdraw them from their circumstances into the circle of divine love. Mary responded to Him; she was commanded by Him; she "having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word".

Martha was busily engaged in promoting His interests according to her own thought of what was needed at the moment, and she was annoyed that Mary did not take the same course. But the one thing needful was to obtain the knowledge of God, and Mary chose "the good part". She sat down under the shadow of Christ with great delight. I think we may say that her eye was single, and her whole body full of light. She gave great pleasure to the Lord.

The other Mary in John 20 was also commanded by the Lord, and her eye was single. "They have taken away my Lord". He had brought the grace of heaven to her for the satisfaction of her heart, and now she was entirely commanded by Him. The world, judaism, the apostles were all as nothing to her since He was gone. And the result of her devotedness was that she was brought into the knowledge of most blessed things even before the apostles. She was sent to them with the wondrous message, "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

Then in Luke 11:1 - 13 we see that on our side exercise is needed, of which prayer is the expression. It is need and exercise that teach us to pray. A man in real need knows how to pray, and comes to the point at once. "Friend, let me have three loaves", is a very definite petition, and expresses a distinct need. True prayer is never vague and general; it is

always definite and importunate.

Ministry and reading will not do us much real good if they do not produce exercise, and turn us to God in prayer. Christians often hear most blessed ministry without making much spiritual progress because they lack prayerful exercise. It is God's way to prepare us for spiritual blessing by making us feel the need of it. He fills the hungry with good things, and satisfies the longing soul. If God presents His own blessed things to us in ministry, it is in order to awaken exercise about them in our hearts. We have to pray our way into these things, if we desire to make them our own.

A beloved servant of the Lord, now with Christ, told me that it had been God's way with him all his life to give him definite exercise about one thing at a time, and I believe if we were more with God we should have more definite exercise. We should pray about a thing until we get it.

God first gives us a glimpse of what there is for us, so that we see there is something worth going in for. Then we have to find that our flesh is a great hindrance. Many are scarcely conscious of the evil of the flesh, because they are so little set for spiritual blessing. But if God's things become attractive to us, we soon find that there is that in us which is a great hindrance. The Lord convicts and chastens us. He brings home to us the evil of the flesh so that we may judge it, and He chastens us so that we may be morally apart from it. When we see that the flesh is a hindrance, and we desire to be free from it, God comes in to break it down. And while all this is going on we pray, because we really desire that God's work should proceed in our souls.

We are sure to get the spiritual blessings that we pray for. I might ask for something connected with this life, and it might not be God's pleasure to give it; it might not be good for me to have it. But it is God's pleasure to give me spiritual blessings, and it is good for me to have them. So "every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it will be opened". "If therefore ye, being evil, know

how to give good gifts to your children, how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

For us who live in the Spirit's day, it is not only a question of praying for the Holy Spirit, but for things of that order -- "the things of the Spirit of God": those blessed "things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit"

(1 Corinthians 2:9, 10). There is not the smallest doubt that if we go in for these things we shall get them. What we need is the single eye, the simple and steady purpose of heart. Mary had a single eye, and the man who went for the three loaves had a single eye, and they each got what they were set for. Now are we set for the things of the Spirit -- those things which are connected with a risen and glorified Christ?

If we ask for those things we shall get them, though it may be through much exercise. We have to be formed spiritually for the knowledge and reception of divine things. It is not that there is any reluctance on God's part to give these things; they are "freely given to us of God"; but it may take a long time to form us spiritually so that we may truly receive and hold them.

The Prime Minister might be asked to bestow a place in some government office on a youth, and the favour might be freely given, but the youth would have to be formed for the post in education etc. before he could enter upon it. He must be fitted to receive the gift. In like manner we have to be spiritually formed to receive those blessed things which God delights to bestow freely upon us. We cannot apprehend or appropriate, or even appreciate the things of God, except as we are spiritually formed through exercise and discipline.

The Corinthians were carnal, and were not able to receive the deep things of God. Paul had to feed them with milk and not with meat.

Now I want to say a few words as to the result which

follows from having a single eye. God enlightens us that we may become luminous for His praise (Luke 11:33 - 36). God gives light in the hearts of His saints that there may be a light for Him in this world. The result of tasting that the Lord is good, and of being nourished by the pure mental milk of the word, accompanied by prayerful exercise, is that we become luminous. "The lamp of the body is thine eye: ... If therefore thy whole body is light ... it shall be all light as when the lamp lights thee with its brightness".

A Christian thus luminous is clothed with "the armour of light" (Romans 13:12). There is that about a spiritual man which forbids the approach of evil suggestions and wickedness. Men feel instinctively that they cannot approach him with suggestions of sin and folly. They hush their lewdness and blasphemy in his presence. He is encircled by the protective power of God's light. He thus escapes many a snare that is laid for the feet of the half-hearted and the worldly believer. The life-testimony of a saint never fails to tell upon men's consciences, however much they may profess to scoff at the whole thing.

The Lord warns us against the influence of five things which ever tend to dim or extinguish the light.

Firstly, "He began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1). The leaven of the Pharisees is the desire to appear better to others than we really are. The Pharisee is also marked by being particular and scrupulous about little things, while he neglects matters much more weighty. He also loves pre-eminence, such as the first seats in the synagogues, and covets a reputation for piety while his secret life corresponds little therewith. We need constantly to watch and pray against the spirit of all this, for it is natural to our flesh.

Secondly, there is the spirit of the doctors of the law: "Ye lay upon men burdens heavy to bear, and yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers" (Luke 11:46). It is so easy to lay down the law for others, and to expect more

from them than we render ourselves. The flesh finds a certain pleasure in this, but to its own condemnation. I have no moral right to claim from anybody, even in my mind, what I am not rendering myself. The great thing is to be displaying what is right, not to be demanding it. The true spirit of the Christian is not to impose burdens but to "bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

Thirdly, there is the fear of man: "Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do" (Luke 12:4). The worst that men can do, if their enmity is allowed to go to its full extent, is to send us to heaven!

Fourthly, covetousness is a great hindrance if it gets place in our hearts: "Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness ..." (Luke 12:15 - 21). The desire to increase possessions here is a terrible blight upon spirituality; it quickly puts the extinguisher upon God's candle. It is not so much what one has that hinders him, but what he desires to have. If the heart is set upon things here the soul cannot prosper. A man's business is for discipline, that he may provide things honest in the sight of all men, not to promote covetousness.

Lastly, a saint may be hampered and hindered by fears and cares about his circumstances. This is an opposite snare to the previous one. The Lord says, "Consider the ravens, that they sow not nor reap ..." (Luke 12:24 - 30). If a believer gets anxious and full of care about his circumstances he cannot be shining very brightly. It often happens that believers are afraid to let their light shine for fear of possible consequences. But the God who thinks of a sparrow will not forget a saint, especially a saint who may be suffering for Christ's sake. He has put a number on every hair of our heads, and His faithfulness can never fail. In most cases, saints who are anxious about their circumstances are not in extremities, but they are afraid that they will be. David proved that Jehovah not only saved him out of all his troubles but delivered him from all his fears (Psalm 34:4 - 6).

The result of keeping free from these things, which tend to dim or extinguish the light of God in our souls and in our testimony, is that we are "like men who wait their own lord" (Luke 12:35 - 37).

THE PRIESTLY SUPPORT OF CHRIST

Luke 10:38 - 42

There is just one fact I would bring before you. If there is a desire to respond to the love of Christ we shall have His support.

But there are two things that hinder this: unsuitability and infirmity. If a soul is not quite sure that his sins are forgiven he is not free to respond, and if a soul does not know what it is to be delivered from the flesh he is not free to respond. By the cross all the unsuitability has been removed, the sins and the flesh. And then there is infirmity, the cares of this life. It was not unsuitability that hindered Martha but it was infirmity; the cares of this world, they weighed upon her; she was "distracted with much serving". It was no small thing to have a number of men drop in to dinner, as we might say; she was pressed by it and was not free to enjoy His company. It was a wonderful thing to have the Son of God in her house, and she was so glad to have Him there that she could not enjoy Him!

It illustrates a soul occupied with what the Lord is to us on our side. We might know His grace in coming to us in our circumstances and be so occupied with it that we are not free to enjoy His company. People say that Mary had more grace than Martha -- not a bit of it! Mary was no better than Martha. It was not the grace that resided in Mary that supported her, it was the grace in Him. It was the grace of the Lord that freed Mary. Grace resides in the Lord, its living Source; it does not reside in individuals. Mary knew how to appreciate the grace that was in Christ. Christ delivered Mary, and why? Because she was disposed to be free. There is that to notice; she made choice of His company; her heart was free and ready for it. The cares were real to her, but she had His support. She could sit down amidst it all and be

absorbed with Him. We have cares, anxieties and difficulties, beloved brethren; are we disposed to be free?

While Martha had the Lord with her in her circumstances, Mary joined the Lord in His circumstances; she is supported by His priestly grace in His company. A pious Christian knows what it is to have the Lord with him in his circumstances. A spiritual person knows what it is to join the Lord where He is, in His circle; he is so attracted to the Lord that everything else is forgotten. The Lord ministered so to Mary's heart that she forgot everything else. Do I know what it is for the Lord to minister to my heart? The Lord says, 'I will maintain her. I will see that she is not distracted'. The Lord knows how to free us from infirmity.

The two disciples going to Emmaus had a care, but deep in their hearts they had the disposition for His company, they did want to have it and the Lord knew it and went after them and made Himself known to them. And He so ministered to them that they forgot the care that had pressed them before; they forgot their own circumstances; they forgot their own circle and they went back to Jerusalem to the circle of His interest. And that is priesthood. Beloved, how much have we forgotten our own things in the desire for His company? I ask my own soul, How much am I disposed for His company? We can have it if we want it.

The Lord when leaving His disciples lifted up His hands and blessed them, and those uplifted hands have never been put down; they are uplifted still in priestly grace to enable us to forget everything but Himself. If so, we must be absorbed with His company, and He will see to it that we have it. If there is heart disposition the infirmity is not too great for the priestly grace of our Lord. May He give us to know better what it is!

THE HEAVENLY GIFT

Luke 11:14 - 36

C.A.C. There is now the most wonderful character of giving, the Holy Spirit given out of heaven. It is rather remarkable, verse 13 might read, 'The Father who from heaven will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him' (see note in Darby Translation). The present time is really the time of the heavenly gift.

Rem. "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).

C.A.C. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the supreme gift.

There could be nothing greater. When the Lord was here He was acting in the power of the Holy Spirit. We see in the miracles of the Lord samples of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ques. Is that why this circumstance is recorded directly upon the mention of the gift of the Holy Spirit in verse 13?

C.A.C. The Holy Spirit is the finger of God, "But if by the finger of God I cast out demons". In Matthew it is the Spirit of God: "But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons" (Matthew 12:28), showing us that the Holy Spirit is the finger of God, the mighty power of God. When the Lord was here He was bringing that power to bear upon men, "then the kingdom of God is come upon you". In every man that was healed or delivered from the power of a demon, the power of the kingdom of God was present. It was shown and proved that there was a power come down from heaven and used by a lowly Man on earth great enough to deliver man from every power by which he was acted upon from beneath.

The great sign from heaven now is the Spirit. They sought a sign from heaven. The Lord was that when here, showing how he could deliver poor man from every evil power. The Holy Spirit is the power, divine power here.

It is a most significant incident; the man was dumb.

Nothing is a greater proof of the power of Satan. He was

unable to speak to God or for Him. One of the greatest acts of power that any of us can do is to pray; the creature is thus linked with the infinitude of divine Persons. "Praying in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20), what a wonderful thing to be able to speak to God in the power of the Spirit! What efficacious prayer! We do not wait enough on the power of the Spirit in prayer, not allowing one's own desires to take the lead but allowing the Spirit of God to give expression to His desires in us. What a character it gives to prayer, to ask, seek and knock now in the power of the Holy Spirit come down from heaven, and be set free in our desires and speech from all that comes from beneath.

Rem. The only thing that the Lord suggests the Father giving is the Holy Spirit in contrast to the good gifts we might give to our children.

C.A.C. It is most comprehensive to have a divine Person. I have a great desire to understand the greatness of it. A heavenly gift, the Spirit, at the present time brings in the finger of God and baffles all the magicians. We are either magicians or men of God. The magicians imitated what Moses and Aaron did, "Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses" by imitation, but they could not turn the dust into gnats. They could turn water into blood and bring up frogs -- they could turn life into death and spread evil influences broadcast -- but the finger of God is needed to bring in life (Exodus 8:16 - 19). The Spirit of God brings in what is living; He is the power of life out of heaven. There is no greater evidence of that life than that man should speak to God and for Him. The power from beneath makes a man dumb.

Rem. We might well desire that our mouths might be opened.

C.A.C. The Spirit came down as "parted tongues" (Acts 2:3). It is most suggestive that it should be in that form. Upon Christ the Spirit "descended in a bodily form as a dove"; in relation to the blessed character of that Man there was dove-like gentleness. The dove is also a mourner. "I mourned as a dove" (Isaiah 38:14). The Spirit comes to link

Himself with Christ as a heavenly mourner here. But "parted tongues, as of fire" suggest ability to speak.

Ques. We were saying last week that we thought that asking suggested desire, seeking suggested energy of faith, and knocking suggested patience. What do you say to that?

C.A.C. It is very good. All those things need to have their place with us. Dependence is learnt from the Lord Himself: they learnt it from the Lord. The very way He prayed made them long to pray like Him.

The Lord suggests others using the same power; He says, "Your sons -- by whom do they cast them out?" There were those in Israel able to cast out demons. It is very suggestive, others are to have the power. At the present time that power is acting in the saints. There are others now, sons of men, able to exercise the power of the Holy Spirit.

Rem. Previous to this the disciples say, "We saw some one casting out demons in thy name, and we forbad him, because he follows not with us" (Luke 9:49).

C.A.C. A sad thing for the man.

Ques. Would "in thy name" suggest the greatness of that name?

C.A.C. It would suggest the power that there was in that name.

Rem. It would go to prove that there were those casting out demons in the power of that name apart from the disciples.

C.A.C. Many do so today, but it is a pity not to follow. What a privilege he missed, using divine power but not following. He missed the wondrous and never-to-be-repeated privilege of following the Lord with the little band knit to Him in affection. There are many like that today.

Rem. One would prefer to be a follower if it were a question of choosing between exercising power or following.

C.A.C. "If any one serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant" (John 12:26). The man was not where the Lord was, he was not in the

company or circle but a freelance: he was a true servant and truly using divine power but what a privilege he missed. Those three and a half years were a most wonderful moment, the Son of God walking about with His disciples, with "signs and wonders". These were the most wondrous times that the world had ever known. The man missed the greatest privilege of all. Though the Lord's power was with him, he was not with the Lord.

Ques. I suppose a crisis had been arrived at here in the Lord's ministry, when His works were attributed to the devil, so that is it a question now of being with Him, different from chapter 9: 50? Our path is more distinct than ever in view of the departure and approaching apostasy of christendom.

C.A.C. It is a great thing now to have something positive. There is a solemn warning here about being empty. It is not enough for the unclean spirit to be gone out of the house and for it to be "swept and adorned". Very often nothing more is aimed at than getting rid of gross evils, and the result is an empty house.

Ques. What does "adorned" suggest to you?

C.A.C. It suggests the outward influence of what is of God. With regard to Israel, they were not guilty of idolatry in post-captivity days -- the evil spirit of idolatry was cast out. They were very particular about the law, and services were set up. But it was an empty house. An empty house, however clean it may be, is no security. The house must be occupied; Christ and the Spirit must have Their place. If the house is unoccupied the unclean spirit can come back. He has "gone out of the man" here, not cast out, and he comes back. People get free from what is outwardly displeasing to God, but we want something positive, divine Persons having Their place with us. Peter speaks of some who "if after having escaped the pollutions of the world" are "again entangled, they are subdued by these, their last state is worse than the first" (2 Peter 2:20). It is the solemn result of an empty house, made very nice in a formal way.

Rem. Outward cleansing is true of christendom.

C.A.C. It is where Protestantism stopped short. The idolatrous spirit of popery went away but there is no power in that alone. As Christ and the Spirit have Their place with us there is security. Christendom cannot keep evil out; demons are creeping in denying the inspiration of Scripture, Christ's Person and the truth of the assembly.

Rem. They have no Ark.

C.A.C. That confirms what I am saying. The Lord Himself is the Ark of the covenant and our only security now is as He has His place with us. It is the very centre of everything in christianity; all centres in the Person of the Christ -- all for man's blessing and for God's pleasure. "Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it". Natural sentiment is set aside. If we hear the word of God now we shall get a great thought of Christ as the true Jonah and the true Solomon, and our whole body shall be full of light. If you bring light in you get rid of the darkness. There are many hymns that people sing sentimentally but they still walk with the world that does not care about Christ. It is a great thing now to hear the word of God; we shall thus find security from every sort of wicked spirit. John says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Ques. What would you say was God's "unspeakable free gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15)?

C.A.C. All that divine grace that had come in as embodied in Christ and known by the saints in the power of the Spirit. It is the character of the giving expressed in Christ and the Spirit. It is unspeakable; that is, infinite, and it is a free giving; that is, a giving of divine Persons -- God giving His Son and His Spirit. There is an unspeakable character of it, we cannot compass it.

Ques. Would you say that the truth is presented to us objectively in Christ but that the Spirit would suggest what is subjective?

C.A.C. Both Christ and the Spirit are spoken of as being the truth. The Lord says "I am the way, and the truth, and the life", objectively; and "the Spirit is the truth" (1 John 5:6) subjectively in the souls of the saints. The verification of everything lies in the Spirit. When the failure came in, which was even before the apostles had gone, the remedy adopted was a falling back on the outward order. Obedience and subjection to bishops was pressed in the second century instead of exhorting to fall back on, and give place to, the Spirit. The Spirit is the security and safeguard. The bishops became like the princes of this world; there was no security there. Security is found in giving place to Christ and the Spirit. The religious world aims at having the house "swept and adorned" but there is no security in that for "the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first". It is true of christendom in its terrible apostasy, and all because the house is empty. We may find ourselves exposed to evils that we little expect if we do not, individually, give place to Christ and the Spirit.

What wealth there is in Christ as the true Jonas. Jonas is a sign to an evil generation. Solomon stands in relation to an appreciative heart; one who would come a long way to hear him.

But the only sign God has for an evil generation is the sign of Jonas. Jonas was cast out and in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. Then, after that, he went to Nineveh and was a sign to the Ninevites. They repented at his preaching. It is a solemn thing to face the fact that man after the order of Adam has fallen and is offensive to God. He has to be cast out and completely removed from before God. The Son of man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. We have to learn the necessity for the Son of man to go into death. It is a very solemn thing that the Son of man has come in to take up what attached to man, and there was nothing for it but that He must be dead and buried. It is a solemn impression of Christ. Everything that I am

according to the flesh is really subject to the judgment of God. The Son of God has been into that place and has been buried. I have to learn, in the death of Christ and in His burial, my association with an evil generation. He took it up in grace -- charged Himself with it. Now there is a Man living before God for His pleasure, and that is Christ -- no other but Christ! Man after the order of Adam is gone in the death of Christ, absolutely removed -- buried -- from before God. Is that me? What a complete clearance. What do I want with religion and ordinances? Christ is the great sign of God's intervention. Then you are ready for Solomon. Jonah brings in the Son of man in relation to a wicked generation -- Christ is known in death and resurrection in connection with that generation that I belong to in flesh. What is it in view of? Solomon as King of glory. He is called Jedidiah, beloved of Jehovah. God's eternal delight is in Christ risen and glorified. The only delight God finds in me is when He sees me cherishing thoughts of Christ. There was an appreciative heart in the queen of Sheba. She came a long journey to get into contact. She represents the Gentile; "She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon". She was typically attracted by the report of all that God has gathered up for His pleasure in a glorified Christ. We have to take that journey and leave our own greatness and glory.

Rem. The report set her in movement.

C.A.C. The Spirit from a glorified Christ in heaven has come to report His glory that we might move that way and that there may be with us a single eye and a body full of light, luminous, not hidden away but shining for everybody.

God has taken me up to make me like a glorified Christ. The house is occupied. The eye is simple. The eye is either simple or wicked; there is no middle ground. It is simple if it is really fixed on Christ. If Christ is not the object it is a wicked eye; the wrong person is in view. A simple eye recognises that everything for God's pleasure is in one Man, His own risen and glorified Son. God has attached us to that Man

that His features and qualities may be reproduced in us. If it is not Christ whom we have before us it is the wrong man. "See therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness".

Ques. Would Saul's conduct with regard to Amalek be a warning to us in that regard?

C.A.C. The whole of Amalek was to be devoted to destruction. Saul lost everything by retaining that man. He lost his kingdom and his life.

RELATIONS IN WHICH WE ARE TO DIVINE PERSONS

Luke 12:11,12,29 - 44

C.A.C. I may say that my desire in suggesting this scripture was that we might be reminded of the relations in which we are set to divine Persons at the present time, more particularly as suggested to us in this chapter. I think we should all perceive that there is nothing of greater practical importance than to understand our relation to divine Persons and that of divine Persons to us. The scripture we have read together speaks of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Lord. And each of us, as believers having the Spirit, is set in relation to these Persons of the Godhead, and our prosperity, our development according to God, depends upon our being true to the relations in which we are set with divine Persons.

Ques. Are you speaking of relationship?

C.A.C. No, relations: that is, the relation in which we view the Persons of the Godhead.

The Holy Spirit in this scripture teaches us how we should speak. That is the particular relation in view.

The Father is brought before us in His paternal interest and care over us and as having a kingdom that we may seek. The Lord is presented as having a household of which we are left in charge, to hold it in suitability to Himself, that He may come to it at any time that suits Him.

Those are the relations in this chapter. Firstly as to christian speaking, all christian speaking properly is the kind of speaking taught by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come to teach us to speak. In this scripture it is brought before us particularly in regard of answering (verse 11), but I wish to speak of the general principle that the Spirit as a divine Person is given to us to teach us how we should speak. Everything that is proper to the Christian is patterned in the Lord Himself

seen in this gospel as sealed and anointed with the Holy Spirit. There was a moment when He received the Spirit. He was the Son of God, but there was a moment when He took up the place which is His in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus the relation in which we are set is patterned in Him. We should all be ready to admit that the first way the Holy Spirit teaches us to speak is to God. He comes into our hearts as the Spirit of God's Son crying, Abba, Father -- as the Spirit of liberty in speaking to God and saying Abba, Father.

Rem. "Praying in the Holy Spirit".

C.A.C. All christian speaking is in the Holy Spirit. We find the Lord having to speak to the adversary immediately after the "voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight ... . But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness" (Luke 3:22; Luke 4:1). We find He has to speak to the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the character of His speaking, not His own authoritative voice but the same kind of speaking as is possible to you and me. How pointed and effective His replies to the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit! We are often brought face to face with those adverse to the truth, those who are in direct opposition to what is of God. It is a comfort to know that the Holy Spirit is given to us to know how to speak to those people. The Lord used the words of Holy Scripture. That is the character of speaking to use to adversaries. There is power in it, and God supports it. The adversary knows its power. There is power in their consciences when we use the words of Holy Scripture.

Ques. Would Stephen be an example? "And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:10).

C.A.C. Yes. We next find the Lord in Galilee speaking to men (Luke 4:21, 22) as the anointed Preacher, the full Vessel of divine grace -- every word in the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not give place enough to the Holy Spirit

in this particular character. It would preserve us from a great deal of unprofitable talk if we considered the Holy Spirit as given to us to enable us to speak in a christian way. We are not patient enough to wait on the teaching of the Holy Spirit that it may be given "in the hour itself what should be said" (verse 12). The Spirit greatly helps in speaking. We should give more place to the teaching of the Holy Spirit as to how we should speak, and firstly to God. Very often we speak to God in a way that does not please Him at all. We get impressed with the consciousness of our weakness and failure and get shut up to selfish exercises. How do you speak to God?

I am sure you are humbled as to how much you speak about yourself. The Holy Spirit would teach you to speak to God according to the grace in which He has made Himself known to you and also of the preciousness of Christ: that is liberty. If you begin to speak to God of what you know of Christ and of His grace your heart expands immediately. You want power to judge failure. The power for self-judgment is the better knowledge of God and of Christ.

Rem. Both prayers of the apostle in Ephesians are in regard of the knowledge of God. He says, "I bow my knees".

C.A.C. The Holy Spirit would never teach me to speak but in harmony with all the thoughts of God and of the value of all Christ has accomplished. We are put on a divine platform to speak to God, to adversaries and to men. The Holy Spirit teaches and supports that kind of speaking. We are privileged to speak in a divine way (1) to God, (2) to the devil or those who are his instruments and (3) to men.

Each one of us as a believer is entitled (1) to speak to God as a son, (2) to say to the enemy, 'I am a subject one'. That silences him. The Lord was subject to the Word. People not subject to Scripture cannot use it. And (3) to speak to men. Each one of us is constituted a vessel of grace to make God known in grace to men. "And there appeared to them parted tongues, as of fire ... . And they ... began to speak ... as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth" (Acts 2:3, 4).

Rem. It is said of the Lord in Acts 1:2, "having by the Holy Spirit charged the apostles".

C.A.C. The Lord in resurrection still speaks in the Holy Spirit. When the apostle warns against "foolish talking" etc., it is in immediate connection with being "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:4, 18). We should speak according to God. In Mark 7:32 they bring to the Lord "a deaf man who could not speak right"; at the end "he spoke right" (verse 35). Would not each one of us like to be an example of speaking right according to the Holy Spirit?

Ques. Must there not be conditions with us for it?

C.A.C. The principal condition is that we should recognise the presence of the Spirit. If there is a definite recognition of the Spirit it involves the refusal of the flesh. There is power for the refusal of the flesh in the recognition of the Spirit. It is often long after the soul has received the Spirit that he recognises the Spirit as the result of the death of Christ. Every believer can say, 'Through Christ's death my sins are forgiven', but it is equally true that through death -- the death of Christ -- I have the Spirit.

In Romans 4 we have two things brought before us: the blessedness of sins forgiven (verses 7, 8) and circumcision -- "seal of the righteousness of faith" (verse 11). Both lie in the Holy Spirit. Circumcision involves that I cannot go on any longer in the flesh; the power to cut off has come in in the Holy Spirit.

Forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit go together. God has forgiven me that He might give me the Spirit. He would so clear the believer of all imputation that He may give him the Spirit. It is the great end God has in view. So that now we are able to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can all see, I trust, the important truth of christian speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We come now, secondly, to the Father. The Lord speaks to us in a most affecting way of the Father's care and He shows us the end the Father has in view in exercising this care over each one of us -- for those who have "little faith". Many

believers have little faith as to the Father's paternal interest in us. Many take high ground, but when testing in practical life comes they have very little faith in the Father's paternal care. He feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies with glory, but no raven and no lily ever said 'Father' to Him. And the Lord says, "How much rather you?" Do we make material things our chief object? or advancement in this world? All that stands connected with food and clothing. "All these things do the nations of the world seek after". But the Lord says, 'I would give you such a sense of the Father's care that undistractedly you may seek the Father's kingdom'. How does it work? How have you seen it work? I never saw anybody seeking the Father's kingdom lacking any good thing needed for the pathway here. Have you? You have never seen it and you never will. "Your Father knows that ye have need of these things". What are we to seek? "But seek his kingdom". It is the Father's kingdom here in Luke. "It has been the good pleasure of your Father to give you the kingdom". What encouraging words for us.

Rem. It is important that we should seek it.

C.A.C. The paternal care is to set us free that we may seek the Father's kingdom. Many make their material needs an excuse for not seeking the Father's kingdom. It is a kingdom of great moral and spiritual realities. Those are the things to seek, those precious things that fill the Father's kingdom, the result of God revealing Himself in grace in His beloved Son. He will look after the temporal things if we seek the Father's kingdom. The things in the Father's kingdom are quite diverse from what is in the world. John has summed it up, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). It is all outside the Father's kingdom and not to be sought after. What are His things? Learn it in His blessed Son as Man in this world. He says, "I am not of the world" and to His disciples, "Ye are not of the world", also of them, "They are not of the world,

as I am not of the world". Have you considered what it means?

"The lust of the flesh". That was not true of the Son of God. Divine love filled Him -- the contrast. No thought of gratifying self, but divine love in its ceaseless activity for the good of others. He devoted Himself in every way for the good of others.

"The lust of the eyes". The intellectual world appeals to the young -- intelligence and knowledge. They are allured by this aspect of the world. Was there any in the Son of God? There was no element of worldly intelligence but the perfect outshining of the light of the knowledge of God.

"The pride of life". This is the dominant characteristic of the world. Divine holiness marked Jesus. He was "meek and lowly in heart".

These things-divine love, divine light and divine lowliness -- fill the Father's kingdom. Seek these things. They are abiding things. Our thoughts are turned heavenward, to what is valued there. "Make to yourselves purses which do not grow old, a treasure which does not fail in the heavens" (verse 33). I had reason to buy a purse today and was told that it had 'everlasting wear'. But the "purses" we read of here cannot be bought in shops. They are only known by those in the Father's kingdom. He is delighted to give you the kingdom. Righteousness, peace and joy -- the new covenant in the knowledge of God -- eternal life -- immense things.

Rem. "Whatsoever things are true, ... noble, ... just, ... amiable, ... of good report; ... think on these things" (Philippians 4:8). They would be things belonging to the Father's kingdom, I suppose.

C.A.C. They abide and put us in the place of the "little flock" here. We could not be connected with anything pretentious here. Fine buildings, good singing, etc., are thought necessary to hold people, but they are out of keeping with the knowledge of the Father and His kingdom and the things belonging to it, all of which put us in the place of the "little

flock". "The little flock" is the whole company as viewed in relation to the Father's kingdom, so that no exception need be taken to the hymn book being said to be 'for the little flock'. The Father has the whole flock before Him.

Thirdly there is the relation in which we stand to the Lord.

We have considered our relation to the Holy Spirit in regard to christian speaking, our relation to the Father as knowing His paternal care and the character of His kingdom. Now we come to our relation to the Lord, and the first thing suggested is that He was going to be absent. His absence is supposed in the scripture we read. He speaks to us as those whose loins are to be girded about and whose lamp$ are to be burning, "and ye like men who wait their own lord whenever he may leave the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately" (verses 35, 36). The figure used is of a house and of a household of servants in it keeping a place of suitability to an absent lord. What a privilege and honour to be left here to keep a place suitable for Him whenever He comes. Conditions of suitability are found maintained so that there is no need for delay in opening the door. "That when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately". That suggests our relation to the Lord.

Ques. Would the book of Revelation suggest the same, and at the close, "Come"?

C.A.C. We could hardly have the Spirit and the bride saying "Come" without suitable conditions and all being ready for Him to come.

Ques. Is it the rapture?

C.A.C. There is nothing at all about the rapture here.

They are not looking for Him to come and take them away, but for His coming to His house, so that everything is preserved and cared for in suitability to Himself. He is so pleased that He serves them (verse 37).

This scripture suggests that He comes repeatedly -- there are repeated visits. "And if he come in the second watch, and come in the third watch" (verse 38). The "second watch" and

the "third watch" suggest repeated visits. The Lord has left His household here, and us, His servants, in charge of His household, that things may be so preserved that any time He likes to come all is suitable. When He left He meant to come repeatedly. Wondrous blessedness of it! "Blessed are those bondmen" (verses 37, 38).

The Lord is received as having obtained the object of His affections. "Whenever he may leave the wedding" (verse 36). The bride is not seen here nor in the gospels generally. We read of "the sons of the bridechamber", the "virgins", the "friend of the bridegroom", etc., but the bride herself is the great secret of the gospels; she is never seen there and she never will be seen till the Lord brings her forth Himself. The Lord is received here as having obtained the object of His affections. What a character in which to receive Him, as having secured the assembly. He comes in that character.

Rem. "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you" (John 14:18).

C.A.C. That is a parallel passage, and there is the orphan idea. When the Lord was here He had brought the warmth of the Father to them. In the presence of the Lord they were all the time under the Father's influence, guarded and folded up in the Father's name (John 17). But He went away, and now He comes to renew all that blessed impression of the Father that He had made them conscious of. He comes spiritually. The Lord's supper is the Lord's knock. He says, as it were, 'I want to come in and have a place in your midst where I can serve you according to the love in My heart'. To eat the Supper rightly would secure all the conditions the Lord would desire. He comes in to minister all that the household may need at that particular time. We could not eat the Lord's supper in an unholy way. "It is not to eat the Lord's supper. For each one in eating takes his own supper before others" (1 Corinthians 11:20, 21). As it is the Lord's supper we should be jealous to maintain the conditions suitable to it. Great exercise is needed to eat the Lord's supper.

The title of Psalm 24 in the Greek is "A Psalm for the First Day of the Week". The door is open for the Lord to come in, victorious in battle, Jehovah of hosts.

These are great things which concern each one of us as to how we stand in relation to the Holy Spirit, to the Father, and to the Lord as composing His household during His absence. One would earnestly seek that the Lord would work this out in our exercises to His praise.

THE YOUNGER SON

Luke 15:11 - 24

There is nothing more wonderful than the parables of the Lord Jesus. They are the work of a Master hand. They are such pictures as none but the blessed God Himself could have presented. They are simple and within the capacity of a child, and yet so profound and so full of divine meaning that a great intellect cannot comprehend them, nor fully grasp them.

Of all the parables this one is the crown. It is the most blessed setting forth of the heart of God that has ever been presented to creatures, and one has a certain hesitation to speak upon it. It is so exceedingly glorious and blessed that one has the fear of spoiling it, but one has confidence the blessed God can make it speak for itself. If one were not conscious that the Holy Spirit of God were here and working to make these things known in power, one would not touch the holy work of the gospel.

There are three distinct parts in this history (not connected with the elder son but connected with the younger son): departure and degradation; what went on in his mind when at the lowest point of departure; and the wonderful reception he received at the hands of his father.

It is the whole history of man as a fallen creature, and that of the work of God in the souls of men, that by which they are brought to themselves and to Him, and also the history of what God's grace delights to do for those who turn to Him.

I want you to notice that the younger son was indebted to the father for everything. Apart from the father's goodness he had nothing. All we have we owe to God -- life, strength, mind and so on. All our capacities we owe to God; all is derived from the Father. Are we using them for self and the pleasures of sin? As soon as the younger son gets his portion

he takes a journey into a far country. It is very terrible. We have departed from God. The whole of the human race takes the good that God bestows -- health, ability and so on -- and uses it all for self-pleasing. He wasted his substance. It is solemn to waste one's substance. I have often been exercised at the end of a day and said, 'A wasted day, nothing in it for God'. It is a solemn thing to waste a day but what is it to waste a life! If we have not come to God we have wasted substance. Every day has been wasted. The life of a creature away from God is all waste.

Ephesians 2:2, 3 is a good picture of the far country: "The ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience"; all is pervaded by that influence, and people are kept away from God. They may be base or refined influences, but they keep people away from God. It is the power of Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air.

The whole atmosphere of the world is full of influences that keep people from God and cause them to waste their substance. There must come a moment in your history when you will realise that the whole of your life has been wasted because God has not been in it. It may not have been filled with terrible things, perhaps, such as would be condemned in a human court of justice, but you have been away from God, and that leads to all kinds of bad things. Read Romans 1:28.

It is God's not being given a place in man's heart and conscience that leads to all kinds of wickedness. They refused the knowledge of God. The younger son comes to the lowest point of degradation: he hires himself out to feed swine. The Jew knew what that meant. Swine are unclean animals; it was degrading work like Romans 1. In Ephesians it is doing the will of the flesh and the mind pleasing self -- a wasted life.

That is the position to which man has brought himself; he does not know it. It is a strange insanity. Notice it says, "And coming to himself". The power of sin is a kind of madness; there is no madness so terrible as the madness of sin. It is departure from God. The madness of living without Christ and God in the world is an awful form of madness.

The second part of this history gives us the work of God in the souls of men. Man is in a place of distance, far from God, and in a place of degradation, and he has no sense of it. That is the moment when God begins to work. How does it happen? The influence of the father's house begins to work. A ray of light from the father's house and the father's presence shows itself in the soul. I think it is beautiful how the thought of that place from which he had departed, and of the person, comes back to him. The preaching of the gospel is to bring the light of God in goodness and love into the mind and heart of His fallen creature. The first thought that entered the younger son's mind was the thought of the goodness and satisfaction that belong to the father's house. It was, "How many hired servants of my father's have abundance of bread". That is the first thought. The first moment when God's goodness presents itself as an attraction is a wonderful moment in the soul's history.

In the natural heart there is no thought of the goodness of God -- like the elder son; he was in the far country in his mind. "To me hast thou never given", he said! That is the thought we have of God. That is the thought Satan puts in man's mind, that one has to work hard for salvation: "Thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sowed". Was he not as far away as the younger son inwardly? In the midst of the scene where the father gave everything, he turned round and said, "To me hast thou never given". He was as far from God's heart as the depths of hell are from the heights of heaven. It is a wonderful thing to get to the goodness of God. It is true: "Ye spend money for that which is not bread", but if there is hunger in the bottom of your heart, God is calling upon you to delight yourself in that which is good and satisfying. He is good enough to do it.

When we come to the third part of this history the person who fills the scene with grace and activity is the father. As soon as a soul reaches this point, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee", all depends unconditionally on what God is, and what God is pleased to do. What is God

pleased to do with a poor sinner who says, "I have sinned", and whose heart turns to God? Just think of God presenting Himself in this lovely and living picture.

"But while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, ... and ran". In the original Greek the words "far country" and "a long way off" are the same. It was the extreme point of departure. The father saw him and ran. I have often heard an elaborate discourse on the younger son's return journey, but there was no journey home! It was the father's feet that covered every step of the distance. He saw him in the distance in all his rags and filth and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses. Do you believe in the presentation of God's love? God is delighted to put the kiss of His love on the poor sinner. The moment man returns to God, all depends on what God is. The moment a soul turns to God it comes into all the good of what Christ is. Before a word was said he received the kiss! The kiss is a witness of love. God wants the sinner to be conscious of His love. People say, 'How can I know that God loves me?' The death of Jesus is the commendation of God's love to the poor wretched sinner who turns to Him. He begins with the thought of the goodness and wealth of the father's house, then he says: "I perish here by famine"; he was convicted of the truth of his position. "No one gave to him"; it was an empty scene.

If we know the truth of our position we get the thought of the goodness of God. That is conversion, and divine conversion -- the turning round of the soul to God. The whole damage of the garden of Eden is undone when a soul turns to God. We then get the sense of the goodness and blessing of God and His disposition to give the very best. Is there a heart here that has had enough experience of the world to have the desire to turn to God? His work in the soul is to bring this about.

He gave His own Son as come into the world to die for sin, and "God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us" (Romans 5:8). It is the death of

Christ that the Holy Spirit uses to shed abroad in the heart the love of God. The love of God is the love of Calvary. It is where God gave His blessed Son to die. What is the measure of His love? It is immeasurable. It is impossible fully to measure the blessings of the gospel because one cannot fully measure the love of God. The love of God is shed abroad by His Spirit in the hearts of those who believe, so that the believer has a greater sense of the love of God than of anything else in the universe. It is a great thing to get the sense of the love of God. God wants us to get it.

In repentance one gets the seal of it; the kiss is for all, but only the repentant get it. The only thing the younger son has to say is, "I have sinned". Before this he had been kissed and had the seal of love on the cheek. All one has to say is, "I have sinned", not 'I have turned' but "I have sinned". One cannot be too simple. Keep on that ground, "I have sinned", and give God the glory and praise of His wondrous grace. When you get to the point of saying, "I have sinned", you have done all the thinking about yourself that is necessary. The more you keep on this ground and have done with yourself, the more you get in faith and love what the Father loves to bestow (verses 22 - 24). Every provision was made. The father anticipated the return of the younger son and made every provision for the occasion. Not only did he do this for the younger son but he did it for his own delight. There is wonderful provision in his presence. It is in Christ, in His Son, that God has made provision. All who come to Him are invested with Christ. In Zechariah 3 we read of Joshua being invested. God wants us to be attired in festival-robes. He receives us in all the acceptance of Christ. If we are not received in Christ we are not received at all. We now live in the light and joy of Christ, the risen and glorified Man. We cannot measure the acceptance of the glorified Man, yet it is that and nothing less than that that is the acceptance of every believer. It is the acceptance of a risen and glorified Christ. "Make me as one of thy hired servants" would not have

suited the father's love. God wants us in the place of sonship, so sends the Spirit of His Son into the heart of the believer, crying, Abba, Father. The idea of eating together implies communion. Nothing will suit the heart of God but that those He blessed should be in communion with Himself. It is sonship's place. We share His thoughts of His blessed Son and feed on His perfections. That is the reception a son gets. If this does not attract us to the heart of God, what will? The gospel goes forth to make this known. There is joy in heaven and to the heart of God.

May God give each one here to taste of it

"FLEE FROM IDOLATRY"

Luke 15:25 - 32

The truth of fellowship involves the whole question of what our enjoyments consist in, and where we find them. God loves His people too well to allow them to have enjoyments apart from Himself.

The elder brother in Luke 15 did not care for the merriment and rejoicing which were going on in the father's house; he had no communion with his father's delights; he had a fellowship of his own. "To me hast thou never given a kid that I might make merry with my friends". It was "I" and "my friends" without his father; he "would not go in" to take part in the communion of infinite grace. His fellowship was really an idolatrous one, for it was as much apart from his father as were the self-gratifications of the younger son in the far country.

It is against such selfish and idolatrous enjoyments that God warns us. Every ox, sheep, or goat slaughtered in Israel was to be brought to Jehovah, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrificed as a peace-offering to Jehovah. "And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto demons, after whom they go a whoring" (Leviticus 17:7). Any enjoyments that cannot be taken up with God, and shared with His people as in relation to Him at the altar, may be suspected as likely to open the door to what is idolatrous.

"Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (1 Corinthians 10:7). They gratified themselves in the absence of Moses, and without God. To do so is to forget that Christ has died here, and that He is absent as rejected by the world. In introducing the subject of fellowship the apostle says, "Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say. The cup of

blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:14 - 16).

In a professedly christian country we have not idols of wood or stone, but there are a thousand things which practically rob God of His place in the hearts of His people, things which have no connection with His altar and no place in the spiritual fellowship to which He has called His people. All worldly amusements have this character, and much that is connected with religion is really idolatrous, because it tends to please and satisfy men at a distance from God.

God loves His people, and would have their happiness connected with Himself. He would have each one of His people to say truthfully, 'My God, the spring of all my joys'.

Everything that truly belongs to the fellowship -- all that is of Christ and that comes to us through His death, and the holy love of God revealed to us through death -- can be shared by all who love God. If I have a source of gratification which is not the common portion of all saints, I might well ask, What is its character? What we can enjoy in common lies entirely outside of the world; it is the fellowship of the body and blood of Christ; and this puts our enjoyments on the resurrection side of death. We may enjoy together feeding upon Christ, with the happy consciousness that what we enjoy is the common portion of all who love God, and that we enjoy it as near to God and in communion with His altar.

The tent of meeting was the rallying-point for the whole congregation. It would remind us of our relations with one another. We stand committed to a holy partnership, and we have all to be true to it. Should I like to know that all saints are doing what I am doing? If not, can it be right for me to do it? If I do what is not according to the truth of christian fellowship, I misrepresent all my brethren, as well as failing to maintain what is due to the Lord. Each partner is to be a true representative of all the others. Everything that we do either ministers to the support of the fellowship or weakens it.

It is good to remember that each partner in the fellowship represents all the partners. Sometimes a believer may think he is of no account, and that it does not matter what he does, or where he goes, or how he spends his time. Each believer has been called to the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9), and what he does is either true to that fellowship or is a misrepresentation of it; hence each should be very careful as to conduct, and should heed the injunction to "flee from idolatry".

THE SPIRIT OF LITTLE ONES

Luke 17:1 - 10

The Lord has been bringing before the hearts of His disciples the blessedness of God as known in grace. They had come under the influence of Jesus and had learned in Him something of the spirit of "little ones". If God is to be great, man must be small. We know that in the coming day all the greatness of man will be brought low and "Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11), but that can be anticipated spiritually.

The Lord warns His disciples that offences are inevitable. The enemy would make persistent efforts to ensnare them, to take them away from the spirit of "little ones". The Lord's influence ever tends to reduce our dimensions, but the enemy is at work all the time to counteract that influence and to take us away from the place of littleness. Whatever does that is a snare, a stumbling-block, an "offence". A great many of our difficulties, when traced to their root, are found to arise from self-importance, but to have a sense of the greatness of God in grace is a marvellous reducer!

One feels how much we need to be exercised continually that we may be preserved in the spirit of "little ones". If we are little, there is room for God. It is a great favour to be kept small enough to give some expression of God. Such a person would manifest that a divine influence was pervading him instead of self-assertion, and he would bring in the influence of God. We should covet that.

How solemnly the Lord speaks! It would be more profitable, He says, to be cast into the sea than in any wise to be a stumbling-block to "one of these little ones"; and every true saint would say that he would rather even that should happen to him than that he should be exerting an influence counteracting the Lord's; anyone who would do it deliberately would be an adversary to the Lord and would be judged as such.

The Lord tells us (verse 3) how we may be tested. A brother who has sinned against you may be an asset if you know how to regard him rightly, for he affords a valuable opportunity for the activity of grace -- grace that can restore. The Lord supposes that one may be naughty enough to sin against you seven times in one day. If that happens to you -- it has never happened to me! -- you are to take heed that even that does not move you from the spirit of grace that marks a little one, one who is not thinking of self at all.

Of course, forgiveness is not administered until there is repentance, but it is to be in your heart; that is why you rebuke your brother, so that he may be restored, not that you may get your due. This preserves from legality. If you have to rebuke a brother it is in order to bring home to him that he has done what he ought not to have done, and there is a gracious opportunity for repentance. You do not stand off and wait for him to stoop to a low depth of self-abasement. The moment he says, I repent, there is to be free-hearted forgiveness. We might say of a person who sinned against us seven times in one day that if he had really repented he would not have repeated the offence, but the Lord says, Yes, he may! To deal with such a case makes a great demand. To rebuke one who has sinned against us, we need to be steeped in the wonderful grace of heaven, because the flesh may easily come in under such circumstances. We must own that a great deal that causes trouble amongst saints is simply self-importance, but the Lord refers here to some positive wrong having been done. It is to be met in this wonderful spirit of grace. The Lord's name would be hallowed in it, and all would be edified.

The disciples felt this to be a great test, and we may all feel, as they did, that we are not up to it. It is easy for the flesh to come in at all times, and a rebuke given in the flesh raises the flesh in the person rebuked: a rebuke given in the Spirit subdues it. There are very few Christians who could resist a rebuke in the power of the Spirit of Christ. To us naturally the effect of seeing wrong in another is to exalt self.

The Lord warns us here against what would interfere with the normal effect of the teaching of grace. That teaching would keep us very small. The trouble continually is that I am too big. It is faith we need. The Lord says the smallest bit of it -- "as a grain of mustard seed" -- would introduce a principle powerful enough to uproot all the self-importance from the heart of any man! The principle of faith is that God is great to us, and the smallest bit of the knowledge of God in grace is adequate to deal with the self-importance that is natural to man and dispose of it effectually.

Our spirits are to be governed by the light of grace which has been brought to us by the Son of God. Simple to say, but most searching in the working out of it in practice.

Faith is the light of God as known in grace, and we are to be governed in everything by the light of the dispensation. If we allow things to govern us practically which are not according to the revelation of God, faith cannot operate. If legal principles come in they are most damaging. God has discarded them as useless, and they will not work in His assembly.

The Lord warns His disciples further (verse 7) that they might even become self-important through diligence and faithfulness in service. If God allows us to do any little bit of service, and we were to do it as perfectly and as faithfully as it could be done, it is no credit to us at all. I am a bondman. If I had done everything I ought to have done, as it should be done, I am to say, 'I am an unprofitable bondman; I have done what it was my duty to do'. Personally I could not say that; very few of us could.

Our strength lies in having the greatness of God in grace before us, and the greatness of the Person in whom He has made Himself known -- no thought of honour for self at all. It must need much grace to be an abundant labourer and yet not to think that anything is due to one for what one may have done. The Lord knows what self-important thoughts come into our hearts, but His grace would enable us to judge

them in secret with Him. It is not that the Lord will not approve or praise or honour those who serve Him, but this has reference to our own spirit. What do I think of myself? I am a bondman, and an unprofitable one too!

It is all a question of what place God has with me. God is to be great, the Lord is to be great, the brethren are to be great, but I am to be small. The bondman does not seek any place or reputation; he goes on with the little bit of service he is given to do. No bondman need be jealous of another. What the Lord has set each to do is just as much as he can manage.

THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (1)

Luke 20:1 - 26

We were speaking last week of the Lord as maintaining the true character of the temple, the house of God, in spite of the state of the nation and the city being under judgment, the true character of the house being maintained by the Lord in spite of all that was public, and the true character of the temple as the place of divine light. We were thinking that this answers very much to the Lord's position at the present time; whilst the public profession of christianity is the subject of judgment, yet divine light is maintained for those who have an ear to hear, answering somewhat to Revelation 2 and 3.

The Lord would maintain in our souls the true character of the house as the house of prayer, so that faith in God remains; whatever be the public state of things, God is available as the resource. The Lord has preserved that to us, it is preserved in the last days; and divine teaching is preserved.

God is found in these chapters: He is found teaching in the temple. The character of the temple as the place of divine light is maintained. One was thinking that that is very much how the authority of the Lord is being exercised today. His authority is being exercised, not on the line of miracles, but on the line of maintaining divine light in teaching for the people of God, so that everyone who has an ear to hear what the Lord is saying and who comes into subjection will be preserved in the secret of the mind of God in spite of all the conditions around. That is the character in which the authority of the Lord is being exercised, not exactly to put things right, but to bring out in an authoritative way the mind of God for us.

An ear to hear can only be found with a self-judged person. Only those who are in a condition of repentance, who have listened to John the baptist, will be prepared to

recognise the authority of the Lord and His teaching, because it is a question of moral discernment. It is no longer miracles. We have come to the end of miracles here in the Lord's teaching. The miracles are over; in the temple He works no miracles: He is teaching.

There is a call to repentance, showing how necessary that is in conditions which have become unsuitable to God in that which professes to stand in relation to Him. Things have become unsuitable. Repentance is the first condition; there will be no moral discernment apart from it, and the Lord does not justify His authority to persons without moral discernment. A repentant person is the first condition of assembly material.

You have at the end of chapter 19 that "all the people hung on him to hear". What a blessed attitude to be in! Self-judged; hanging on Him whose authority is exercised in the way of teaching. The whole mind of God is being brought out in the temple in the authority of the Lord at this present moment just as really as it was then. It is extremely encouraging. It is remarkable that the call to the one who has an ear, in Revelation, comes after the promise to the overcomer in the last assemblies. There is a certain quality of overcoming needed in order to give one an ear.

We should get this temple thought in our minds. It is of the greatest importance that there is a sphere where the authority of the Lord is in exercise. We recognise that those who buy and sell should be cast out; that selfish and commercial spirit has no place in the house of God, it must go. The authority of the Lord would eliminate all these elements. Then the house of God is the place of prayer. The Lord is reconstituting, as it were, the truth of the house and the temple. I think if the authority of the Lord is recognised and we are prepared to listen to Him, He would throw light on the whole situation as He is doing here, showing the character of the system of things which sets aside the rights of God, and giving a hint that there is going to be another structure in

which all the rights of God will be maintained. It surveys here the whole history of Israel and, I suppose, the whole history of man after the flesh. The principle of it is as true today as it was then. Things are taken up in self-interest, self-advancement and vain-glory in some way or another. Man is seizing on all that is due to God and investing himself with it.

I suppose the vineyard would indicate a place where God bestowed care and made provision that there should be fruit for Him. Israel was the vineyard. The principle of it would apply to that which comes under the cultivation of God, what is committed to man's responsibility: the principle would apply to the christian profession.

I think it is suggested here that God is not going to abrogate His rights: He will secure them. The subject is not developed, but the reference to the corner-stone is a hint which suggests that there is going to be a structure, a building, and in the Lord's mind all that was involved in that was present. It was going to be a structure in which all that was due to God and suitable to God's testimony would be fully maintained. It shows the entire failure of man after the flesh to render what was due to God, and his entire rejection of every gracious approach of God to him, so that even the beloved Son, the One whom God speaks of as "my beloved son: ... they will respect him", even that only brought out more the spirit that was there.

One is struck in looking at these closing chapters of Luke, how the rights of God get great prominence. The grace of God has been magnified exceedingly earlier in the gospel, but at the end the rights of God are very much insisted upon. The authority of the Lord is being exercised now in order to bring about a result for God, so that all that is due to God, all that He could delight in, should be fully rendered.

It is a great thing to respect the Heir. If we respect Him we are morally separated at once from all those who reject Him; we are not of that company at all. Hebrews is largely to teach us to respect Him, and in that way you have material for the

house of God -- persons who respect the Heir, the beloved Son. They are living stones really; they are suitable to be brought into connection with the corner-stone.

I thought we see the truth of "upon one stone are seven eyes" (Zechariah 3:9) here. That is, the Lord is viewing everything. His eyes are surveying the whole position, and He is bringing in divine light on every phase of the position. There is no idea in the mind of the Lord at the present time to improve things at all. I believe the utmost thought with men is to improve things, to get things put into a little better shape; but then the Lord has nothing less before Him than that all shall be according to the pleasure of God.

We come under the teaching of the Lord and His authority; it is now expressed in teaching, not in working miracles. Men are being deceived today by miracles, but the authority of the Lord is known in teaching, and in His teaching He does not allow anything that is one whit lower than the full thought of God. Well, it brings us to a very spiritual order of things -- One who teaches from the standpoint of all that is due to God -- and that is what we have to do with now. We look for great things. Though governmentally we have to pay tribute to Caesar, as it were, yet everything that is due to God is maintained.

This section really begins with the Heir being secured, so that all that is kingly is secured, but not at all in a pretentious way; the colt represents how the rights of God are carried in testimony at the present time; there is nothing pretentious, but they are all maintained, and maintained in the presence of hostility. It says that they feared the people, and it is exactly the same today. Religious leaders are no more favourable towards the testimony of God now than they were in the days of the most violent persecution, but God has ordered it that there is a spirit abroad among the people which will not suffer it, and His own are preserved. He is exposing that they have no moral discernment, for along with the greatest pretensions to increased light, there is on all

hands a tremendous increase of uncertainty. Whilst there is a great pretension to increased knowledge, there is a greater feeling of not knowing than there ever was before, so that they are being compelled to say in all quarters that they do not know. There is no moral discernment, and nothing can be asserted with any definiteness. The only definiteness now is found with the divine Teacher and the rights that He maintains in the temple. What a contrast there is between the certainties that we enjoy together and all the mixture and uncertainty which is around us in the religious world! That is the way the Lord is exercising His authority. The very fact that there is the maintenance of the mind of God in teaching is the present exercise of the authority of the Lord, and the more we come under subjection to Him, the more we shall increase in our knowledge of God and in all that is suitable to God in His house.

We ought to be conscious of the extraordinary place we have through the favour of God, and it should be a real exercise with even the youngest amongst us not to miss the divine teaching and not to be carried away by anything, however pretentious, that does not bear the impress of the Lord's teaching in the temple.

There is a general impression about that rights belong to Christ. That is why there is power in the confession of Christ, because if any of us says, 'Jesus is Lord to me', it smites through the conscience of the other person. The other person thinks, 'He ought to be Lord to me'.

I do not think there is anything authoritative now but what takes its character from the authority of the Lord. The authority of the Lord was the authority of obedience and dependence. He would not tell these men the source of His authority because they were morally incapable of understanding it. The source of His authority was obedience and dependence, and only persons on that line were capable of understanding it. Authority is preserved amongst the saints and in the assembly exactly on that same principle: obedience and dependence. There you have divine authority, just

the opposite from self-assertion. The Lord does not exactly assert His authority here; it is felt rather than asserted. His adversaries felt it; they spoke of authority; He did not.

What does not correspond with Christ has to be broken. I am referring to the stone which tests everything; what does not correspond with Christ is either broken or ground to powder. There is nothing left that you can build with, and that is the result of the rights of God being maintained judicially. The rights of God are maintained judicially, the man after the flesh with all his pretensions is ground to powder. I suppose the stone has not yet fallen on people to break things judicially, but a great number through many centuries have been stumbling over Christ and been broken. They stumbled, being disobedient. Disobedient ones stumble over Christ, showing how the spirit of subjection is so necessary. The whole position is set forth here that Christ is rejected, He is refused by the builders, "cast away indeed as worthless", Peter says (1 Peter 2:4). We are face to face with that system of things; we once belonged to it, were part of it, but now that through grace we are brought to respect the Heir, we are face to face with a whole world that rejects Him and that cannot fit Him in in any way, and so they cast Him away as worthless. And in that way we really come to Him as the living Stone: that is how we come to the part of this new structure in which all the rights of God are maintained. So you get the holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, and the royal priesthood, a people for a possession to set forth the excellencies of God; everything is maintained for God. It is all involved in this rejected stone being the corner-stone.

I think He is the Ornament. Isaiah 4:2 tells us that He shall be "for excellency and for ornament". God says, 'I have got a structure of which He is the ornament and the bond which unites together all those who have an appreciation of Him'; and in that structure everything that is for His pleasure is maintained. You feel it is worth going in for.

He is chosen of God and precious; there is a definite issue

raised. He is cast away as worthless by men, but he is chosen of God and precious, and He becomes the preciousness to those who believe; they are governed by Him and find their place in relation to Him; they become capable of rendering to God what is due to Him, and find their delight in doing it.

Peter proposes all this to newborn babes. So that the youngest should take an intense interest in it and see the blessedness of it. He that has an ear -- that is the key to the position. The 'tribute' would suggest the conditions in which the testimony is found in the last days. The very fact of paying tribute to Caesar was the evidence that the rights of God -- what was due to God -- had not been maintained. No one felt the domination of Caesar as the Lord did. He submitted to it, and in His submission the will of God was carried out. His very birth took place as expressive of submission to the alien power which was in authority under the government of God. He comes in, as it were, in that very attitude of submission to the authority. The whole condition of the christian profession now, the subserviency, and the domination of the world, is the result of what is due to God not having been maintained. We cannot ignore it, and the Lord would have it to be recognised; but then He puts alongside it the rights of God, and whatever the conditions which have come in governmentally are, they do not diminish the rights of God. So that though the people of God are suffering governmentally through the past failure to maintain what is due to God, the rights of God are still maintained by the Lord; and we have not to wait, so to speak, for Caesar to be dispossessed, we have to maintain the rights of God now whilst submitting to the governmental conditions which have come in, but not surrendering one whit of what is due to God.

THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (2)

Luke 20:27 - 40

C.A.C. The place that these two chapters 20 and 21 have in the gospels is very distinctive. They show us the Lord teaching in the temple. His service of grace amongst men was over. That is, we get no miracles of healing after this, except the healing of a man's ear which Peter had cut off, but we find the Lord giving the temple its true character as the place of divine teaching.

I suppose the object of this gospel is to make us temple-dwellers. It leads to that point. The Lord's disciples are found "continually in the temple". The gospel is designed to bring us to that, and as being there, we are to be fully acquainted with the mind of God. The mind of God is known there. In Psalm 27:4 David speaks of inquiring of Jehovah in His temple. Chapters 20 and 21 are the two temple chapters in the gospel. The Lord is not seen as teaching there before. Divine light is thrown on some of the most important questions, and divine teaching is given to us.

Teaching is greater than meeting our need. The latter is our side. The Lord as teaching brings us to the mind of God about things. The mind of God seems connected with the temple. It is the place of divine teaching: "He was teaching day by day in the temple" (Luke 19:47).

The selfishness which blinds man to the perception of that which is of God is displaced. Room is then made for the mind of God to be made known.

One of the greatest subjects that Scripture presents to us is resurrection.

The idea of the temple has not been set aside or discarded; God never disposes of any thought that He introduces, but carries it through; none of His thoughts have lapsed. He

would have us to be temple-dwellers like Anna, "who did not depart from the temple" (Luke 2:37).

The great blessing to the overcomer in Philadelphia is, "Him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out" (Revelation 3:12). God would have us dwell where His mind is known. The Lord's teaching in the temple covers the whole range of subjects upon which it is important to have the mind of God. There is a holy sphere, apart from the world, where God's saints are able to approach Him and learn His mind. That goes on. "Ye are the temple of God". In the temple all holy subjects are understood. "The temple of God is holy" (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17) -- there is no room for the mind of man which is essentially unholy. Holy, uncorrupted thoughts are to be learned in the temple. One would desire to value more and more the temple character and the teaching belonging to it.

God has before Him to bring in what is wholly spiritual; His pleasure is found in that. The Sadducee is the man who refuses all that is spiritual, "neither angel nor spirit" and no resurrection. Only the natural is admitted in his mind. If only the natural is admitted, when a man dies that is the end of him. It is a dreadful form of blindness not to be able to entertain the thought of anything spiritual. The thoughts of the Sadducee were formed on the line of what was natural.

Rem. The Lord does not argue with them.

C.A.C. A sharp contrast is drawn by the Lord between "this world", that is the natural, of which marriage is the most distinctive feature, and "that world" in which the natural has no place at all. If we really understand this, we shall see clearly the difference between that which is temporal, under death, and that which is eternal, out of death and for ever for God's pleasure in resurrection. That is a very precious, divine instruction for us.

Ques. Who are "they who are counted worthy to have part in that world, and the resurrection from among the dead" (verse 35)?

C.A.C. Nothing is going into God's resurrection world but what is suited to be there -- only spiritual features; every saint goes in as worthy to be there. In this particular teaching the saints go there as having spiritual features. How could anyone not having spiritual features be happy in a spiritual realm? He would be quite out of place, and there would be no pleasure for God in it. All are certainly going to be raised, but the wicked are raised for judgment. The Lord would have us cultivate the features suitable for the resurrection world. We all have features which are suited for the natural, but through grace we may gain spiritual features.

It is true that the thief on the cross went to paradise, cleansed from all his sin, but he had spiritual features too. That is clear enough, for he condemned himself, and that is the mark of a spiritual man. He had a great and high appreciation of Christ. It would be impossible for God to leave out of His world a man who appreciated Christ. He had a great sense of grace, and was the one solitary confessor amidst the darkness of Calvary while the Lord was alive upon the cross. He stands out before the universe to confess the Lord's kingly rights and it was as a spiritual man that he went to paradise. That man must be raised; a man like that could not be left in his grave.

Rem. The apostle Paul is an example of a spiritual man in Philippians 3:10, 11.

C.A.C. Quite so. He was fully and earnestly set for it and intent on gaining the spiritual world and being fit to be in it.

Rem. It requires a great deal of displacement in us for that.

C.A.C. What God brings in in His grace and in Christ is quite adequate to bring in the displacement. He brings in the displacing power for it.

The thought of resurrection, as presented here, goes so far as being the means of our becoming like angels. It does not say like Christ but "equal to angels", because it is something

to be coveted. We used to sing of desiring to be like an angel; it is a spiritual desire, because angels are wholly spiritual beings. Psalm 104 speaks of God, "Who maketh his angels spirits". The elect angels have never known the natural; they are beings of a spiritual order, wholly spiritual. The Lord presents it to us as a wonderful thing, that we shall be wholly spiritual.

Ques. Is the next thought, "sons of God", higher?

C.A.C. Yes, "being sons of the resurrection", outside the touch of death, and "equal to angels". What an elevation of rank! It is immense! You go up to a higher range. It is elevation in rank, "sons of God, being sons of the resurrection".

Ques. Are not the angels spoken of as sons of God?

C.A.C. Yes. There is a point of sympathy clearly in Scripture between angels and men. Angels are our fellow-bondmen, that is a point of sympathy between us; an angel is an obedient and happy servant of the will of God; if I am, there is thus another point of sympathy between us; they are also holy; if I am, I am in line with the angels; and as far as I am spiritual, I am in line with an angel.

Ques. What is meant by "sons of the resurrection"?

C.A.C. It is a very striking word. It would seem that men only reach what is before the mind of God for them as being brought forth in resurrection. God is going to secure everything for His pleasure in resurrection. God has outwardly lost everything that He brought into the world, even Christ, all has gone down into the grave. But all He brought in in Abraham (calling), Isaac (promise) and Jacob (discipline) is not lost but exists again in resurrection. It looks as if it were lost and that all had gone into the grave. But it is nothing of the kind. They lived for God hundreds of years after they were buried. It was the sure pledge that they would come out of their graves. It is a death-blow to the belief held by the Sadducees.

Ques. What does verse 38 mean, "For all live for him"?

C.A.C. It is a general statement. Men have not disappeared

in God's account, and that involves resurrection. That is a sufficient proof of resurrection. All those who have been put into the graves are coming out. Resurrection does not refer to a man's spirit. The spirit of a saint is with Christ. 'We put his body in the grave' we hear brothers say. That is not how Scripture speaks, for it says, "And pious men buried Stephen". They buried Stephen; we bury the saint, and that saint will be raised. "Come see the place where the Lord lay"; the Lord was identified with His body by the angels. Every saint in the mind of God is identified with his body. In the point of view of resurrection, J.N.D. is in his grave but he is coming out of his grave.

Ques. What happens to "the spirit" of a saint?

C.A.C. His spirit (viewed from that aspect) departs to be with Christ. From the standpoint of resurrection, Scripture identifies the man with his body, "the dead in Christ". There are many graves well known to the angels; they are marked spots in heaven. Two graves may be near one another, one the grave of a brother or sister who died in Christ, the other that of an unbeliever. There is an immense difference between the two. We can say of the one, 'Our brother lies there'. It is one aspect of the truth that we need to remember. That man who lived for God and for Christ is buried; he is in his grave and, in the faithfulness of God, it is impossible that he be left in his grave. Resurrection is a fine thing! Never listen for a moment to people who want to argue about resurrection. "Fool" says the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:36.

The Lord brings all this out to us in His teaching in the temple; is it not a comfort to us all? What a comfort to think that the moment the breath goes out of a believer's body, he has done with all the complications and only that which is spiritual goes into God's world.

Cultivate the spiritual! That alone subsists for God's world. Let us cultivate the spiritual; the natural is only for a moment, the little time that remains to us!

SOME THOUGHTS ON RESURRECTION

Luke 20:29 - 39

We have an unfolding of the truth of resurrection in these verses, and this is of the utmost importance, as it is in resurrection that God permanently secures all that is for His own pleasure. There is a resurrection world which the Sadducees knew nothing about; all their thoughts were formed on the model of the present world. There are two worlds; the world of the natural and the world of the spiritual. The Lord would lead us into the light, faith and spirit of the spiritual world. That world is going to abide untouchable by death, and beyond its power.

The Sadducees did not get beyond the range of the natural. The most prominent and characteristic feature of this world is that its sons marry and are given in marriage; its distinctive feature is the natural, and the Sadducee cannot see beyond that, he cannot see the spiritual. If there is nothing but the natural, there is nothing for the pleasure of God, for death is on the natural; the fairest and most lovely thing in nature has come under death.

Now the Lord would lead us away from the natural into the spiritual. Resurrection brings us into an order which is entirely spiritual. It is good to entertain the thought of what is spiritual, for nothing will go into God's resurrection world but what is spiritual. No one will be there who is not worthy; there will be no unworthy material in that world, "but they who are counted worthy to have part in that world".

Every spiritual element which God has introduced into this world is material for His resurrection world; the natural contributes nothing to that world. Our great concern should be to be developed in the features that will secure our being counted worthy for the resurrection world.

The Lord speaks in verse 37 of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God had introduced in these men elements suitable for His world, and they had apparently been lost, for the men in whom they had appeared had died and been buried. They could not be really lost because God must have every element of His spiritual work in His resurrection world.

The natural appeals to us very strongly, but if we come under the teaching of the Lord He will cause the spiritual to appeal to us more powerfully than the natural. The Lord would have us walk in the light and faith of resurrection even while we are still connected with the natural.

One feels the great importance of cherishing this thought of being counted worthy of that world; it raises the question whether we are cultivating features which God must have in His world. The thief on the cross judged himself and vindicated Jesus, and he acknowledged that all the kingdom rights belonged to Jesus. These were spiritual elements which God could not leave out of His world. If one is able to see the blessed character of God's grace as it is available for sinful men, that is a spiritual element, however small it may be. People think they are going to be together in families in heaven as they were on earth, taking up old links, but that is entirely natural.

The power to see what is of God is a spiritual element which goes along with new birth, the ability to see God's kingdom. There is no question of growth, or formation in connection with seeing; a babe a day old can see, and the ability to see what is of God is an element which God must have in His world in a resurrection condition. He is going to gather it all up, nothing goes into His resurrection world but what is fit to be there, and the fitness is acquired now. I trust we desire to be more worthy of that world where all is spiritual. Those who are worthy are elevated to the rank of angels, to the rank of beings who are wholly spiritual.

We should be more exercised to be spiritual than to enjoy the happiest natural relationships. In the resurrection world

there is no more death, we are going to be equal to angels. We do not often talk of being like angels, but the Lord does here. "Equal to angels" is the character of being, and "sons" is the relationship in which the being is set. It has pleased God to have certain beings who are wholly spiritual, "who maketh his angels spirits" (Psalm 104:4). Even our bodies will be spiritual in the resurrection world, and it is important to see that the Lord Jesus as teaching in the temple would put an impression of that world on us, so that we should not be henceforth dominated by the natural, but by the spiritual.

Resurrection unto life is a question of personality; it is those who have practised good who have part in it (John 5:29). To practise good is a spiritual element, and God wants that for His world.

The thief on the cross was wonderfully honoured. In that supreme moment when the Son of God was on the cross, he was singled out to confess the Lord in circumstances of extreme outward reproach. What a place he had, what a confession! He was surely the object of admiration of all heaven. He had a unique place of confession, as completely vindicating the Lord, and investing Him with all the glory of the kingdom at such a moment. God could not leave such a man as that out of His world. So with everything that is the fruit of grace, it is all needed for God's world; that is why the saints have to be raised, there is that about them which God cannot do without in His world.

From the point of view of resurrection the saints are not viewed as being in heaven, but in their graves; the Lord says, "All who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall go forth" (John 5:28, 29). Abraham is in his grave from the point of view of resurrection as are all the other saints who have died. God worked in those subjects of grace and produced in them spiritual elements, but the natural was there too, and they died. So apparently and publicly God lost all these spiritual elements, for the saints have died and been buried and are still in their graves. They went down, so they

must come up. The person is identified with his body in Scripture. "Pious men buried Stephen"; and the angel said, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" -- He was identified with His body. At the end of Matthew's gospel there was a singular public witness to resurrection power having come in; "Many bodies of the saints fallen asleep arose, and going out of the tombs after his arising, entered into the holy city and appeared unto many" (Matthew 27:52, 53).

The bodily condition suited to God's world is brought about by resurrection; the saints are going to be raised in a condition wholly spiritual. We get the thought in 1 Corinthians 15 of what is sown; that implies that whatever the condition in which the sowing takes place there is seed suitable for resurrection.

One regards the saint's body as the temple of the Holy Spirit; it has been dedicated to God and presented a living sacrifice. There is a holy character about the body of the saint, inasmuch as it is a vessel of the activities of the Holy Spirit. There is a moral and spiritual identification between what is sown and what is raised; the believer put in the grave comes out, and comes out in a condition wholly spiritual, and it is good to seek that order of things now. "To them who, in patient continuance of good works, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility" (Romans 2:7). To be seeking incorruptibility is to be seeking what is outside the natural altogether; it is wholly spiritual. Paul was earnestly set for it, "If any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead" (Philippians 3:11).

Death having come in as a blot on God's creation, it has to be removed publicly by resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 there is no mention of going into heaven; my impression is that the object of the apostle was to lead the hearts of the saints into a spiritual sphere so as to wean them from the power of the natural. Resurrection is marked by incorruptibility, glory and power; it is a spiritual condition. The Spirit of holiness places man outside all that is corrupting; it has

been verified in the Lord Jesus; He has been "marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead" (Romans 1:4).

That the spiritual is greater than the natural is one great point of temple teaching. If we were more in the light and faith of resurrection we should think more of what is spiritual, more of what is angel-like. Think of spiritual and holy beings whom it has pleased God to maintain by His election -- for we read of the elect angels -- beings who are able to participate in the delights of God's grace, and who are taken into confidence as to His activities in grace. Angels are the willing and happy servants of the will of God, and are in every way on spiritual lines. What a character of being to resemble!

Being spiritual lies at the basis of being sons of God. "Equal to angels" is the nature of the being; then there is the wonderful relationship, sons of God and sons of the resurrection. The pleasure of God will be permanently secured in a deathless scene, a scene that is wholly spiritual. Think of the blessedness of it! If we have known it, even for half a minute, when we were really in the Spirit and absorbed with God and with Christ, think of it being perpetuated in God's world in incorruptible conditions! We shall indeed have a greater intimacy with the blessed God than ever angels had. The apostle Paul longed for the resurrection state: "If any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead". He was pursuing it, leaving the natural behind, the whole energy of his being reaching out after what is wholly spiritual.

The Lord does not speak in Luke 20 of the resurrection of any but saints, but in John 5:29 He says that those who have done evil will go forth from the tombs, "to resurrection of judgment".

NOTES OF A READING

Luke 20:39 - 47; Luke 21:1 - 38

Ques. Is there any link between the raising of the relationship of Christ as the Son of David, and the blind man who calls on Him for relief in the end of chapter 18?

C.A.C. Well, I think there was a link, but it would seem that the Lord's intention was to enlarge greatly the truth of His Person. It was a great thing that the blind man should recognise Jesus as the Son of David, the Messiah. He recognised Him as the One who had opened the eyes of the blind. It was commonly taught by the Jewish rabbis that the opening of the eyes was a miracle reserved for the Messiah, reserved for the Son of David. The Old Testament Scriptures which speak of the opening of the eyes of the blind clearly refer to the days and the power of the Messiah, so that the blind man had the faith of that. He had the faith that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. No one else could open the eyes. But did you not think that in this temple instruction the Lord's desire was to give great enlargement to that thought? The scribes and the Pharisees had the thought that the Messiah would be the Son of David, and the blind man had got so far as recognising that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of David. It would appear that as teaching in the temple the Lord would give great enlargement to the thought of His greatness.

Before passing judgment on the temple the Lord gave it its true character as the place of divine teaching. He was just about to pass judgment on it and to say that not one stone should be left upon another. You see, in the sense in which the Lord is found in the temple it is the public side of things. It is not exactly the shrine, it is the public side of things. Before the Lord concluded His ministry of grace to men -- which is the theme of Luke's gospel -- He gives the temple its true character as the house of prayer, and the place of divine teaching,

and so divine light is thrown upon the greatest questions that were exercising faith, and exercising the minds of the people generally. Because what you find is that all the people are in the temple. They are all listening, not only the disciples, but all the people are there, showing that this is a public aspect of things. And I think divine teaching is public. It is not confined to the disciples, but it is public. As the Lord says, "And in secret I have spoken nothing" (John 18:20). The Lord publicly vindicates the truth in respect of divine authority, and in respect to the rights of God, to the government of God and to resurrection; and now, having disposed of these questions, He Himself raises a matter which was far greater than any of the others, the matter of the greatness of His own Person. 'Son of David' was not a title great enough. It was a wonderful and blessed title, but it was not great enough.

'Son of David' does not describe the true greatness of His Person.

Rem. I thought that it was evidently a crisis when the Lord raised this question; the crisis of the whole life on earth.

C.A.C. Yes, and it was the most important question that the Lord had ever propounded. As we get in another gospel, "What think ye concerning the Christ? whose son is he?"

(Matthew 22:42). It surpasses in importance all the other subjects upon which the Lord had thrown divine light; and the Lord does still publicly throw divine light upon every question; He maintains the temple character of things publicly and I believe He will do so to the end. There will always be, as long as the saints are upon the earth, a public maintenance of teaching in regard to every subject that men have to consider relative to God. I do not think the Lord is ever going to allow that to lapse. That is not what we enjoy privately, but it is public and it is for all the people to listen to.

Rem. That seems to be very fine in connection with the present questions amongst the saints.

C.A.C. Yes, the Lord allows questions to arise, and questions relating to the Lord's Person are the greatest and most important that can ever be raised. Men think they

are unimportant, matters of opinion, matters that are not practical, but that shows that men think of things entirely from their own standpoint. When we begin to think of things from God's standpoint the question of the Person of Christ is the great question. Every other question sinks into insignificance in the presence of the matter of the greatness of the Person of Christ.

He has many titles, Son of David is one of them, but even such a blessed title as Son of David is not great enough to bring out His proper personal glory, and so the Lord raises the question. He does it suggestively. He does not do it dogmatically by saying all that He might have said; and the Lord likes to suggest thoughts to our minds for us to work them out for ourselves. That is the way of the Lord's teaching. He suggests a thought so that we may follow it out and work it out and reach the completion of it for ourselves. He would rather that we did that than that we were spoon-fed all the time.

Rem. I have been struck lately how little the Lord speaks of Himself personally.

C.A.C. Yes; He raises the question of the consideration of Scripture. That is how the Lord would help us; by turning our attention to what has been said in the power of the Holy Spirit. In another gospel He says, "David himself said speaking in the Holy Spirit" (Mark 12:36). Now what has been said in the Holy Spirit is worth attending to. We shall never get on to a wrong scent if we pay attention to what has been said in the Holy Spirit. We shall get divine thoughts and we shall get them according to divine measurements too, because it is one thing to have a divine thought, and it is quite another thing to have it according to divine measurement. We often have the right thought, but not the right measurement. It is rather like the man who said that the water wagtail was a magpie. He had the colours right, but did not know the size of it! But when you come to think of the Person of Christ, that is of all importance. Not only have I got the right thought, but have I got it in its due proportions -- in its

magnitude? The scribes and the Pharisees could see, they had got their Bibles, chapter and verse, Christ is the Son of David. Well, the Lord says, stop a minute; listen to what David says about Him, "David ... calls him Lord" (Mark 12:37). Then He must be something more than Son of David. No man would call his son his Lord. The Lord says, think about it; and He left them thinking about it, and some have been thinking about it ever since.

Nothing is of more importance than to see that whatever titles the Lord has -- and He has many -- whatever dignity He has and whatever offices He fills, the greatness and glory and majesty of His Person give character to every one of them. So that we have no right thought of any single character or office which the Lord fills unless we hold it in our minds in connection with the proper greatness of His Person, His glory as a divine Person -- as God. There is what He is essentially and personally: He is a divine Person -- He is "over all, God blessed for ever" -- and whatever offices He takes and whatever title He wears we have always got to hold it in connection with that fundamental truth of His Person; and I think that is very helpful to see in connection with the exercise that has been raised recently in a public way. These questions have been raised before all christendom now. The Messiah had a dignity in relation to David which was greater than being his Son. He was his Son, He came into that place. He was of the seed of David according to the flesh. He was raised up of David's seed according to promise. It was written that He should sit on the throne of His father David. But then He had a greater dignity than that -- He was David's Lord. And that really involves the whole sacred mystery of the incarnation.

I think the Lord indicated in the previous section that God was going to secure everything on the platform of resurrection; everything was to be retained permanently for God on that platform, even Christ Himself. Publicly God had lost everything that He had ever brought into the world, but He

was going to lose Christ too. That is, all the men of faith had gone into death and been buried, and Christ was about to go into death and to be buried. But the Lord brings out the great truth that nothing was really going to be lost; all was going to be secured in resurrection. The sons of God would be sons of the resurrection; they would be set up in perpetuity of holiness. But everything depends upon Christ; nothing that is secured for God in resurrection could be secured apart from Christ, so that the final and great question is that of the greatness of Christ. As we know, He was "marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead" (Romans 1:4). Resurrection declared Him to be Son of God; it declared the greatness of His Person.

Ques. Do you connect this with Isaiah 61"The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me"?

C.A.C. Well, there He is seen as Jehovah's anointed Servant, and He is seen in that character through this gospel very clearly. He is the anointed Vessel of grace. But then behind all that is the truth of His own Person. So that we find, as recorded in this gospel, that though He comes in of the seed of David according to promise, yet He comes in in an altogether miraculous way; He comes in as conceived in the power of the Holy Spirit; not born in any natural way, but coming in by a divine conception, so that He is a divine Person come in flesh. So that "the holy thing" that should be born was to be called Son of God. Therefore, He had a dignity far surpassing that of David. A son in Scripture is not regarded as being his father's equal, but in the Lord's case He was David's Lord: not only his son, but his Lord. He was greater than David inasmuch as divine glory attached to Him. He was One for David to worship and to adore.

Rem. One would like to have some sense in one's soul what it must have meant to the Lord when He repeated to the scribes, "Sit at my right hand".

C.A.C. Yes, surely, and it covers the whole present

period; the "until" has stretched out a long time as we speak -- nearly two thousand years -- and it is the great distinctive feature of the present time that the Messiah, after being rejected on earth and put to death, is exalted to the very highest place in the universe, sitting at God's right hand; everything must be subdued to Him; everything adverse must be His footstool -- that must be so -- but His greatness comes out in the place where He sits. He sits at the right hand of God, as Hebrews 1 says, He "set himself down". That is more wonderful still. He "set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high" -- He did it Himself. Not only that, God calls Him to sit there. But in His own personal greatness He set Himself down there. What a Person!

Rem. He delights in hearts that accord Him that place.

C.A.C. Yes, indeed. If we accord Him that place we shall be too much out of love with the man who likes long clothing and chief seats for him to be prominent and bring himself into evidence. That is the religious man. How petty and how mean and sordid the religious man looks, if you have had a vision of the greatness of Christ.

The Lord does not need to give you an extended picture of it. The Lord came into the place of the Son of David, but we can all see clearly that in doing that He came into a place that was in itself less than His own full personal glory. We can see that Son of David would not describe His full greatness. He came into that place, but He was greater than the place He came into. Now we may also say that as to His title Son of God, He was found here as Son of God in manhood, but even that great and glorious title, far surpassing as it does the Son of David, does not cover the full glory of His Person.

So that when we think of the proper glory of His Person, we have to think of Him as in absolute equality with God, and as being God. He was on equality with God; so that He did not need to snatch at it, or reach after it as if it were something above or beyond Him. It really and essentially belonged to Him, because He was God. Therefore if you

think of Him in His proper dignity and glory you rise above even the thought of Father and Son, because there is disparity between Father and Son. The Son is never looked at in Scripture as being on an equality with His Father. The terms are not co-equal; they are relative, but not co-equal. In Scripture the thought of a son is first that he is begotten; then he comes under the care and instruction of his father, and under the obedience and service of his father, and he is a pleasure to his father because he serves him and he loves his father; and the quality of love in a father is different from the quality of love in a son. It must be so, because love in a father is conjoined with authority. Love in a son is conjoined with obedience. It is so all through Scripture, so that there is a certain subordination with a son. He serves his father. That is the idea. The Lord has come into a place where He is the object of the Father's love and He receives everything from the Father in subjection and obedience, and He pleases the Father in everything that He does. He completes the wonderful services which the Father entrusted to Him. He takes everything from the Father. Now, there is not quite coequality in that. The Lord is in a place of subjection, receiving all from the Father, and doing all for the Father, and finally is glorified by the Father. The Father does everything for Him. But when you go right back into the truth of His Person He is absolutely on equality with the other divine Persons, and you could not carry the thought of Father and Son into that because there is not equality between father and son; they are never supposed in Scripture to be relationships that are on absolute equality. You would upset the whole teaching of Scripture to think so. The wonderful thing is that the One who was so great, so majestic in His own Person, who was God, as Scripture says, and in the form of God, should come into the place and into the relationship which was characterised by obedient affection and subjection to the will of the Father, and that He should carry that right through; and it is all magnified before our hearts as we think

of the greatness of the One who came into that place. It all belongs to the transcendency of His stoop of grace, so that we may know God. So that really the truth of the Lord's Person is the greatest truth in Scripture.

Ques. What is meant by the expression "sons of the resurrection"?

C.A.C. It seems to me that Scripture makes it clear that the Lord came in the depth of His love into the place of sonship in view of men having the place of sonship. It says, "God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship" (Galatians 4:4, 5). That sets out the place that God's own Son was found in, in view of bringing men into sonship.

And this was to be of an eternal order. It was really secured in Christ in resurrection. It was all there in His Person before death, but then it was not permanent after the flesh. Death came in upon it. But in resurrection things take a permanent character, and they are going to take a permanent character in the sons of the resurrection. That is a blessed thing, so that the sons of God are sons of the resurrection. Paul says, 'That is what I am set for', "If any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead" (Philippians 3:11). So that the result will be in full answer to the original thought of divine love before the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Christ that we might be holy and without blame before God in love, and were marked out for sonship through Jesus Christ. That is the end that God had in view when He sent forth His Son; the Son accomplished redemption and He is raised and glorified, and He is going to be the firstborn among many brethren, and all the many brethren will be sons of God. And they will be sons of the resurrection too. God will triumph in that way. But the Person who did it all is no less than God.

He is, as one of our hymns now says, 'of full Deity possessed' (Hymn 11), and that is the greatness of His Person.

Yes, there is nothing more precious than that we should get a true thought of the greatness of Christ. It is greatly to be desired. A simple and humble soul, with no learning of

this world at all, who has a true, even if feeble, sense of the greatness of Christ, is most acceptable to heaven: heaven delights in such a soul. And so you find that such a soul as that can be commanded. We could not have a true sense of the greatness of Christ without being commanded by it.

So that the poor widow comes upon the scene as far greater in the estimation of heaven than the temple and all the consecrated gifts. Not one stone was going to be left upon another in the temple. All that public system was going to disappear, and all the right gifts which men had ostentatiously given were going to disappear. But this poor widow brought something there that was an imperishable adornment of the temple, and which will have its place in the eternal temple. She had an appreciation of the blessed God. That was more to God than all the costly gifts that Solomon presented when the temple was consecrated. I suppose it was the best day in the history of the temple! And the Lord would not have missed for anything being there to see those two mites, which is a farthing, thrown into the treasury. It was worth coming from heaven to see a woman who was so dominated by devotion to God that all her living went into the treasury of God. What a spectacle for angels and for the blessed God Himself! Now, morally, that is the result of apprehending the greatness of Christ. The result is, if we get the right thought of the greatness of Christ, well, He is worthy of the utmost devotion of every heart that knows Him. And so this woman, this great figure, is a greater figure in the history of the temple than Solomon. What was thought of her?

You can fancy the condescending smile with which the officiating priest would regard this insignificant trifle. Probably they thought, 'What a foolish woman, she needs it herself, and it is nothing in this pile of treasure -- it is nothing'. They might have smiled as they saw it, but with a smile of contempt. But that which was contemptuous in their eyes was the wonder of heaven. God had succeeded in proving before the universe that He could make a human being love Him with heart, soul, mind and strength, and give all to Him.

God's great triumph! The temple had to come down after that! It had served its purpose. No wonder that no stone was to be left upon another. Sometimes when a thing reaches the climax of its glory, it goes. God has no object in further retaining it.

Ques. What will produce widowed hearts?

C.A.C. Well, she had a profound sense of God's sufficiency, acquired through experience of having nothing but God. It is wonderful to have nothing but God, and to find that He is sufficient, to find that in saying 'nothing but God' you have just said everything. I have heard an old sister say, 'I have no resource now but the Almighty', as if she was very badly off! It is really laughable, but that is your heart and mine.

Ques. I wondered if this was the climax of Isaiah 61?

C.A.C. Yes, I think it is a climax. I think the Lord reaches a climax here. It is very interesting to see the steps.

You get prayer characterising the temple. Prayer is man in complete dependence on God. And then you get the assertion of divine authority in the way of grace, and on that basis you get the maintenance of all the rights of God as seen in the vineyard which is now entrusted to us; it is given to others; it is given to us to maintain all the rights of God. And then we are to recognise the government of God whether in the world or in the church; we have to recognise the government of God and to be humbled as to it. At the same time we are not to surrender the rights of God, notwithstanding His government. You see everything secured in resurrection for God, and everything resting on the greatness of the Person of Christ, and then you get this devoted heart yielding all to God. It is the most wonderful picture. That is the temple teaching. It puts everything in its right place, so that man gets his right place in dependence and the rights of God are fully owned in every sphere. All is secured in resurrection on the ground of the greatness of the Person of Christ, and then you get a widowed heart bereft of everything as to this world,

with nothing before her but God.

Now a heart with nothing before it but God as revealed in Christ is a heart that is wealthy Godward. So that the Lord could say that she had cast in more than all the rest. They had silver and gold and costly jewels, but only the expression of their poverty Godward. They were really adorning the man that is an offence to God. But here is a poor widow that is filled with God, without a thought of herself. What a triumph! I do not know anything that will be much more interesting in scenes of glory than to get alongside that widow and to ask her how she came to such a blessed apprehension of God! I believe we shall learn it by and by. She is introduced to us as having reached a climax, as having reached the blessedness of God within the human heart; how she reached it is veiled; it is one of the blessed secrets reserved for us by and by. I look forward to having a word with that widow!

Rem. All these features are seen as having reached culmination in the city.

C.A.C. Everything culminates there. That city has the glory of God, but then, how did she acquire it? Well, you see she acquired it through the glad tidings. It is very interesting that all this teaching is spoken of as glad tidings. It says in the first verse of the chapter, "And it came to pass on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and announcing the glad tidings" -- that is the character of it. It is all glad tidings. It is as much as to say, if you take this in you will be supremely happy. The Lord's proposal is that we should be supremely happy. And I believe the Lord is maintaining this character of things.

Ques. How are we to understand Galatians 4:6: "The Spirit of his Son"?

C.A.C. Nothing is more interesting than to see that it requires the presence of another co-equal divine Person. The Son came to effect redemption so that we might receive sonship, but for us to be in the good of it for the pleasure of God

requires that another divine Person should come, and be sent into our hearts. So that in our hearts He might cry 'Abba, Father'. The Spirit of His Son -- how wonderful! That is how we come to be sons of God. Not on the line of nature at all, not on the line of education or development. We receive sonship as a gift and then there is the response -- Abba, Father.

And I think you will see in the widow, you might say, one who was really in the spirit of saying, 'Abba, Father'. I mean as an illustration. Her whole heart is abounding in affection to the blessed God. Now that is the spirit of sonship. It is not merely that we say the words; they are words that we can read and repeat, but that is not the idea. It is that that is the attitude of our hearts. It is the adoring appreciation of the blessed God as known in love, so that the heart is full and can only express itself in saying, 'Abba, Father'. It is the language of the heart, not of the lips. And it requires the presence of a living Person in our hearts to enable us to do it.

Ques. Why is the Spirit sent "in my name"?

C.A.C. "In my name" is that He comes in really on behalf of Christ the Son. He comes in as given by the Father on behalf of Christ the Son. So that what was seen perfectly in Christ is produced by the Spirit in the sons. It is maintained here by the Spirit of God. So that Christ is the true Object, and the Spirit is the true Subject, and the One corresponds perfectly with the Other.

NOTES OF A READING

Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Corinthians 11:23 - 34

We had before us what the Lord did in taking bread and blessing it and in giving thanks for the cup. We have seen how He would have us to enter into the spiritual import of the symbols to which He has given such wondrous meaning. The consideration of this must come first. We must think first of what the Lord did and of the significance with which He clothed the bread and the cup, so that we might apprehend and appropriate what He has made available for us spiritually in His body and His blood.

Now we pass to the consideration of what He would have us to do, and we would seek His gracious help in doing so. His intention was that we should do something, for He said, "This do in remembrance of me" and "This do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25). It appeals to our hearts as to what place the Lord has with us, for it is either an affectionate remembrance or nothing. The Lord has been pleased to call us to remember Him in this way. It indicates His deep personal affection and the desire of His heart to have a very definite place with us. It is in doing the act which He has appointed that we call Him to mind.

In the sacrifice of the day of atonement there was "a calling to mind of sins yearly" (Hebrews 10:3). This is the only passage where the word is used, save in relation to the Lord's supper in Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians 11. It serves to illustrate how an act can call to mind that with which it stands in relation. The act of bringing the sacrifices called to mind the sins of the whole year that had passed. Now what we do in breaking the bread and eating the Lord's supper calls the Lord to mind in a collective way. It is a remembrance assemblywise, for the saints do it as having come together. The Lord desired to be called to mind in this way, and He provided a divinely simple way for us to do it, a way that was suggested

by love and that appeals to love. In His wisdom He took up material things so that there might be a tangible act which we can do in which He is called to mind. It is not merely a mental or spiritual act, but there are material elements, which remain simply what they are, bread and wine. They suggest the Lord, and concentrate our thoughts upon Him at a time and in a character when His love found full expression. The doing of this act is the one thing which normally brings the assembly together. I am sure that there is special grace from the Lord which may be confidently looked for, so that the act of eating the Supper does become what He intended it to be. Any heart coming to the Supper with affectionate desire may count on His grace for this.

In coming together we have definitely before us that the Lord would have us to call Him to mind. We do what He has told us to do in the affectionate sense that He is not here, and we call Him to mind in doing it. Love delights to respond to love in the way that love has suggested. Sometimes, perhaps, we lose the sweetness of the remembrance by having other things before us, such as the presence of the Lord in the midst, or assembly privilege of association with Him before His Father and God. But the Supper is for remembrance: it is for the calling Him to mind in the place from which He is absent. I believe the more we give our hearts to that, the more we shall realise His presence and spiritual leading.

What an appeal it is to the hearts of His own! He has asked us to do a certain act. In eating the Supper every heart and mind is concentrated on the Lord Jesus; this brings our hearts into unison. We are blessed, enriched and filled, but thinking of that is not the remembrance. What we do calls Him to mind, as having given expression to all the thoughts of His heart, and His devotion to the will of God and to us in love; it calls Him to mind as the Testator of the love of God. We know it all as for us but we know it in its full blessedness as manifested in Him. This is not exactly apprehension or appropriation but the heart appreciation of the blessedness

disclosed in Him when He went into death. Eating the Supper thus we affectionately call Him to mind in His own appointed way. The emblems before us speak of Him, not as living here or as risen and in heaven but as One whose body has been in death for us and whose blood has been poured out having the new covenant in it.

We do not, surely, forget His wondrous pathway here; it was, indeed, a 'path of worth'. Nor do we forget that He is risen and ascended. But He has said, "This do in remembrance of me"; and what we do does not speak of Christ after the flesh, but of Christ in death, His body given, His blood poured out. He is a risen, living and heavenly One now, but what we do for the remembrance of Him speaks of Him as in death. I believe it is peculiarly sweet to the Lord to be called to mind in a way that brings so definitely before us the supreme act of His love. Nothing can ever express His deep personal affection to His saints and His assembly as the giving of Himself did. It brought out the measureless character of His love. There has been a spot where all that was in the heart of Christ, and all that was in the heart of God, could be told out, and that spot was reached when He went into death. That was an act in which adequate expression could be given to it all; everything blessed was concentrated there. The death of Christ will be to all eternity the greatest fact in the moral universe.

Luke 22 brings out in a most affecting way the contrast between what was in the heart of the Lord in instituting the Supper, and what was found in His disciples. "Behold, the hand of him that delivers me up is with me on the table". "And there was also a strife among them which of them should be held to be the greatest". Simon, too, declared his readiness to go both to prison and to death with the Lord just when he was about to be sifted as wheat by Satan. The Lord would not have us to forget the actual conditions which are known of Him to be present. The consideration of them leads to deep self-judgment. And 1 Corinthians 11 corresponds

with Luke 22 in regard to this, for it exposes conditions on the side of the saints sadly out of accord with the Lord and with His supper, and which, if not repented of, can only come under His judgment. It is deeply humbling and exercising to think how much there is with us that is a matter of judgment. The Supper is not only the sweet and holy privilege vouchsafed by love to love, but it is a divine call to self-judgment. We have to judge ourselves in the light of the body and blood of the Lord. The public bearing of our act in eating the Supper is to announce the death of the Lord until He come. Privately there is "distinguishing the body" and proving oneself in self-judgment.

We come together as knowing that the Lord has been delivered up by one of His chosen companions, and as knowing, too, what we are in ourselves. We are as ready to want to be great as the disciples; we are as untrustworthy as Simon; as ready to think first of ourselves as the Corinthians. But in presence of that which speaks of the body and blood of the Lord all this is deeply and truly judged and the Lord gets His place with us as known in the supremacy of His love. We realise, too, that the Lord is not here, and that He is not wanted here, but we love Him and we do the act which He instituted in remembrance of Him.

But then while we do so, we cannot forget how the Lord spoke of the joy which He had in being with His own as the fruit of the vine to Him. He had spoken of that joy being resumed under entirely new conditions. His companionship with His disciples here had been cheering to His heart and He had made known to them the delight He had in being with them. They had known in His company how true was that ancient utterance of His Spirit, "My delights were with the sons of men" (Proverbs 8:31). He had said it to them according to Psalm 16:3, "To the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent thou hast said, In them is all my delight". It is sweet to think that He said it not merely of them, but to them, that they might know it. He had called

them to be with Him, to follow Him, and they had proved His tender interest and care in a thousand ways. Particularly in those closing hours He had made known to them what they were to His heart: "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer". It was the last act in a companionship that had been sweet to His heart; He had made them conscious of His love to them. He could say, "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). Indeed John 13 to 17 is an intense expression of how He loved His own who were in the world. John 14:3 shows that He would have them Himself in His Father's house. It was love's desire, for love must have the company of its objects.

Now in the light of all this can we not understand Him saying, "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you"? The Lord sums up, as it were, all He was saying in, "Ye have heard that I have said unto you, I go away and I am coming to you" (John 14:28). Do you not think this must have been exceedingly precious to the disciples when it got its place in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter? It was to be characteristic of the period during which the world would see Him no longer. He would come to His loved ones because of the joy which it would be to Him to do so. It is the wine of His soul, drunk in an entirely new and spiritual way. He comes to His own that He may find His joy in their company.

The Lord would have us to look for His coming to us; He would have us to cultivate the spiritual conditions which would make it possible for Him to come to us. These conditions would be found where His commandments are kept, and where that act is done which He has appointed for the affectionate calling of Him to mind. For as we have seen, this would involve self-judgment and the purifying ourselves from everything unworthy of Christ.

We see in Mark 3:32 - 35 that there were those sitting around Him at whom He could look round in a circuit and recognise them as His moral kindred doing the will of God.

But now that He is no longer here, the circle is reconstituted as He is called to mind in His own appointed way. The will of God is that every saint should find his and her place in that circle. We should thus stand in obedience and affectionate relation to the Lord, and to the brethren who love Him. The Lord loves to come to such because of the pleasure He has in being with them. Every lover of Christ should be found in the circle which is constituted by the doing of that act which is for the calling of Him to mind.

The Lord came and stood in the midst on two successive first days of the week, suggesting to them His pleasure in their being together on that day; we know that the disciples assembled to break bread on that day (Acts 20:7). It is in coming together to eat the Lord's supper that the assembly comes into evidence as a concrete company; it was never intended that it should be a mystical or invisible company.

The Lord comes to His own because He delights in them, and loves to be with them. He comes to His saints in the joy which He finds in being with them, a joy which expresses itself in singing. We have no instance given of the Lord singing in resurrection, but it was made known prophetically that he would do so. "In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises" (Hebrews 2:12). It was revealed that after all the infinite sorrows of atonement He would be answered "from the horns of the buffaloes" (Psalm 22:21), and that He would have brethren and a congregation in the midst of whom He would praise God. That Gentiles should have a part in this was assured by the word, "For this cause I will confess to thee among the nations, and will sing to thy name" (Romans 15:9), quoted from Psalm 18:49. 1 understand there is a suggestion in the word translated "sing" in the latter scripture that it is to a musical accompaniment. Think of the gentile saints in their varied local assemblies being brought into accord with the singing of Christ so as to be the tuned instrument to vibrate in harmony with His singing! Truly He is "the chief Musician", and there are "stringed instruments"

tuned by divine grace into accord with Him (Habakkuk 3:19). How much of profound spiritual value should we lose if we had not the Old Testament.

We may learn from the Lord through Mark and Matthew the spiritual import of the symbols which He has been pleased to clothe with such wondrous meaning. We learn too, how He has spoken of being with His own in joy, and how this leads to singing. I believe that when we come together for the affectionate remembrance of Him, He would have us to look for His coming to us. He would have us look for Him to come in the joy of that new kind of association which He has brought to pass that we might follow His lead in singing to God. I would not say that He always comes thus, for the assembly in its actual condition might need instruction or even rebuke. But the desire in what we do is that the Lord may have His place with us, and every uncomely element may be subdued and brought under judgment in presence of what speaks of the body and blood of the Lord, so that there may be a congregation or assembly where there is a place for Him, and where hearts look for Him, and where all are divinely and spiritually free to praise God in accord with Him.

The bread and the cup are for us. Then the Lord has His personal joy in coming to those whom He loves, and who love Him. Then God is praised in song. Where those things are realised there is liberty to move as led by Christ our Head into that region of spiritual and heavenly relationships which are suggested by the mount of Olives. "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God" (John 20:17).

NOTES OF A READING

Luke 22:19 - 38

C.A.C. Attention is particularly called to the fact that the Lord gave thanks. He gave thanks for the loaf, and I suppose saying "In like manner also the cup" would imply that He gave thanks likewise for the cup. Evidently the thought of thanksgiving enters very much into the character of the Supper. So that people are right so far in speaking of what they regard as the Lord's supper as the holy Eucharist -- that is, the holy thanksgiving. It is important that the thanksgiving side should be prominent with us.

Rem. It is very remarkable that the Lord is really giving thanks to God for His own body; "A body hast thou prepared me".

C.A.C. Yes, there was that brought into presence that was a cause and spring of unmixed thanksgiving to God. How far we are removed in this from many thought of imperfection! We are moved quite away from the region where there is imperfection, and where there is a shadow upon anything, into a region where the only activity and service that is called for is thanksgiving. It was a wonderful moment for the Lord. A moment when He could give thanks in the contemplation of His own body about to be given, and of all that was bound up in the giving of His body for His loved ones. The more we consider in spirit the Lord's thanksgiving, the more we shall understand what the Supper means. In giving thanks the Lord is clearly taking a place on our side; that is, He is seen as Head when He gives thanks, it is on our side Godward.

Ques. Why do you think the Lord gave thanks for the whole loaf and not for the broken loaf?

C.A.C. I think the breaking of the loaf has in view our participation. Whereas the loaf in its unbroken state speaks

of the Lord's body, and of everything being secured on the principle of obedience, I think the completeness of it is suggested in the unbroken loaf -- that His body is given for us. We know that it necessitated His death; it was really in death that His body was given, the full devotion of His life coming out in that marvellous and never-to-be-forgotten way.

Rem. It is very remarkable too, that He does not say "This is my body which is given for you" of the whole loaf but of the broken loaf.

C.A.C. Yes, He has in view their participation. We could not participate in an unbroken loaf; the breaking comes in in view of participation. But we entertain the thought of the completeness, the whole character of what was there in His body.

Ques. I was wondering if there were more in it than participation?

C.A.C. Well, it is in connection with His giving it to them. The breaking is in view of the distribution. He gave it to them, so that all might become partakers. We all partake of one loaf, according to 1 Corinthians 10. But then we partake of it as broken, as made available for our participation. The Lord has made all secure in His Person, and through His death it is made available for us. The breaking of bread really implies that all that has come in in His blessed Person and through His death has now become available for our participation, so that He broke the bread and gave it to them. You see the same thing when the Lord blessed the loaves in Luke 9. The breaking seems to be connected with the distribution. It is the same in chapter 24: "Having taken the bread, he blessed it, and having broken it, gave it to them". It seems to be connected with the distribution.

Ques. Does it not produce an effect in those who participate in it?

C.A.C. I have no doubt there is that. "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?

Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:16, 17). There is a moral idea connected with it there, no doubt, that we all partake of Christ, so that we become one body as all partaking of one loaf. It enters into the very nature of the institution that we all participate. Indeed the saints generally are all looked at there as having part in the act of breaking bread -- we break the bread, we bless the cup; there is the collective idea in it, for the disciples came together to break bread.

Rem. It is not so much the eating of it by which we remember Him, it is "This do in remembrance of me". It is the breaking of it that brings in remembrance.

C.A.C. There would be no remembrance according to His thought if we did not eat and drink. It is expressly said of the cup, "This do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:25). It is that way the Lord is called to mind collectively; it is not an individual thing. It is most blessed that the Lord has in view that all are to participate in the precious fruit and value of His having taken a body and having devoted that body in death, so that His thought in breaking the loaf is that all are to participate in it, and that is how we remember the Lord. We remember that He has taken a body and that He has devoted that body in the most absolute way, and in doing it, the great thought before Him was that the whole company of His saints should participate in it. If we limit the breaking of bread to a figure of His death, and make the remembrance lie in that alone apart from the partaking of it, I think we might lose the exceedingly precious thought that in the breaking of bread the Lord has before Him the thought of all participating, and we remember the Lord in that regard. He has taken a precious holy body; He has come into a condition marked by obedience, so that He might take up, in the obedience of love, all that is in the will of God in regard to us. He has taken it all up and carried it into effect through death, and now His thought is that we all have a common participation in it. It is only

through His death that it is possible for there to be participation, so that in that sense the breaking of bread can be regarded as a figure of His death, as that which has made possible participation in Himself and in all that has come to pass on the line of obedience. I think the Lord would have us to recognise that everything that is delightful to God and that is for our eternal blessing and joy has come in on the principle of obedience. What we have before us is the perfect obedience of one blessed Man, an obedience that is of such a character that it has not left a single element lacking in regard to the pleasure of God; and now the divine thought is that we should participate in it. It is very precious! We really participate in it, so that we can join the Lord in His thanksgiving. He could foresee and estimate it all, according to its full value, and He could give thanks before a single disciple, even Peter or John, understood it. Now we participate in it and we give thanks, so that the assembly of God is marked by this wondrous thanksgiving which continues.

Ques. Do we participate in the obedience?

C.A.C. In the fruit of the obedience; everything is on that principle, it is all involved in the thought of the Lord taking a body. He has come into a condition that is marked by obedience. "Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will" and, "Thou hast prepared me a body" (Hebrews 10:7, 5). He has come into that place, and it is a great thing for us to recognise that blessing can only come in on the principle of obedience. When God proposed the covenant, the people said, "All that Jehovah has spoken will we do!" (Exodus 19:8). They had the idea that obedience was right; they could not very well say anything else. Then God brings in the details of the burnt-offerings and the peace-offerings and the altar, all speaking of Christ. In Exodus 20, when God gives the law, the moment He has completed the law He turns to speak of the altar and then brings in Christ at once. Then the Hebrew bondman has his ear bored and continues in obedience through love. That is Christ. Now we have found the principle

of obedience and the practical working out of it in Christ, and all is in view of our blessing; that is what we delight in and what we give thanks for. Perfect obedience has come in, and everything pleasurable to God has come in on the line of obedience rendered by the One who loved; it is because He loved that He obeyed. He has secured through death the whole pleasure of God in regard to us; that is the spring in our souls of unmixed thanksgiving, and the very thought of the breaking of bread suggests the participation of all. We all participate in Christ and in all that has been secured through His perfect obedience. The whole pleasure of God was entrusted to Him to carry out in obedience, and He has done it. Now we can sit down together to participate in it. What a spring of thanksgiving in every heart!

Ques. Is there the thought of that extending to the universe, because obedience will characterise the universe?

C.A.C. I think that is really what we come to. We see in Christ the way that divine love has operated, so that everything originates in love. It is love on God's part and on the part of Christ, divine love, but love moving on the line of obedience. As we think of all that, nothing remains in our hearts but thanksgiving. Not now thanksgiving for mercies and for God's goodness and loving-kindness to us in the pathway, or for the personal relief and blessing that we have, but thanksgiving for all that has been secured through the death of Christ, and that is going to spread out until it embraces the universe. Before it goes any further than the assembly we all participate in it, and the participation is involved in the breaking of bread. The more we have a sense of that the more the Lord would rise up before us as the Object of remembrance. He would rise up before us as the One who commands reverence and affection and fully occupies the mind; it is a question of the mind, 'This do for a calling of me to mind' (see note i, 1 Corinthians 11:24). He absorbs the mind of everyone, so that we do not think of any other, but we think of Him in the blessed assurance that we participate

in all that He has brought in and all that is secured through death.

Rem. The Lord does not say, 'Do this for a remembrance of My death', but it is "of me".

C.A.C. Quite so; I think that is most important, because you have the completeness of it there. You remember the Person, not just the act. The Person includes everything; He is so great. And He says, "This do in remembrance of me".

That Person has been devoted in love to us even to death, and it moves our hearts to their very depths that a divine Person should become Man and be devoted in love to us to the fullest possible extent.

Ques. Would His body given and His blood shed be the act?

C.A.C. Well, it brings out how He has dedicated Himself; everything is looked at as coming from the divine side, so that it is all perfect. The very fact that He had a body at all is from the divine side. A body was prepared by God, and the Lord, on His part, came into it; He became flesh; He came into that condition by His own act as a divine Person; then the giving of His body was all His own act, and the pouring out of His blood was on the divine side; therefore there is not a flaw, not a jarring note, in the thanksgiving. The quality of what is before us is perfect, it is divine in quality; you see the wonderful character of it.

We come together as having judged ourselves, we have had all out before we come. We have all been before God before coming. It is not supposed that we shall come to break bread without the process of self-review. "Let a man prove himself" supposes that you come from a process of self review and as having come to the conclusion that everything connected with you as in the flesh is absolutely worthless for God and needed to be blotted out in the death of Christ.

Apart from that you could not look at divine things at all.

Then, when you have, so to speak, bathed your flesh in water, you find that there is that before you which is a spring

of unmixed thanksgiving. Every feature of it touches the spring of thanksgiving in the heart, and whether you apprehend little or much -- a babe in Christ apprehends but little, and a father in Christ apprehends much -- what we apprehend is absolutely perfect and is a spring of thanksgiving. So that we come together in that spirit of thanksgiving which the Lord inaugurated when He gave thanks.

Ques. Would it be right if every believer came together with the sentiment that imbued Paul when he said, "The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me" (Galatians 2:20)?

C.A.C. Surely that is right. If we are moving on the line which the apostle Paul indicates when he says that, it would be all right when we came together. He says, "In that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me". Now that is a daily matter, is it not? If we go through the week in that spirit we should come together in the same affectionate mind. We come to think of the Lord collectively, because that is the idea in the breaking of bread; it is a collective thing. We come to call the Lord to mind in a certain way which He Himself has appointed, collectively and unitedly. We do it in a most significant act -- we break bread so that everyone present is to participate.

Ques. Do you think it would be possible, if all the saints were together in the way which you have been suggesting, that we should reach the point in which His love would be predominant?

C.A.C. Yes, I think the whole point of the institution is that divine love dominates -- the love of Christ, a divine Person; He has become Man that He might give His body for us, and then He says, "This cup is the new covenant". I believe the Lord in this takes up the position of One who could Himself consummate the covenant; only God could do that. The pouring out of the blood was a divine act. That it was done by the Roman soldier is a very material way of

looking at it. The whole point is that the pouring out of His blood was His own act, and it is beautiful that even in the Old Testament, Jehovah says, "I have given it [the blood] to you upon the altar" (Leviticus 17:11). Even of old, God would have the blood to be regarded as His own gift, in the type. When we come to the precious antitype He says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you". It is God consummating the covenant from His own side in all the infinite value of the precious blood of Christ. There is not a flaw there, is there? You see how beautifully it would give a thanksgiving character to it all. We need to pray that we may have more apprehension of what the loaf and cup really speak of. We should ask the Lord before we come together. I have said sometimes that we pray for realisation, but it would be more intelligent if we prayed for apprehension. Realisation rather turns the mind to some process within, but apprehension is that you take account of what is presented to you objectively. Now we need to pray for that; everything that is set forth in the body of Christ and in His blood is a subsisting reality, and we need to pray that we may apprehend the reality, and as we apprehend it we shall be abundantly furnished with material for thanksgiving. The brothers will be all ready to voice it because the sisters' hearts are all filled with it; what the brothers say depends on what the sisters think.

All this leads to the remembrance having its true character. There would not be any remembrance if we were not common participators. That is something more than our thanking the Lord at home. We have all remembered the Lord a good many times today; it has been a bad day for us if we have not, but then that is not breaking bread. Breaking bread is a company thing, it is the Lord's own institution so that we should call Him to mind collectively, as all having come into participation in all that exists in Himself and which has been made effective in regard to us in His death. That is the true idea of the breaking of bread, and it gives true

assembly remembrance of the Lord. We remember Him assemblywise, and quite differently from what you can do in your own room.

You do not know what sort of meeting you are going to have next Lord's Day. We should cultivate the idea that next Lord's Day it is going to be something different from what it has ever been before. We are going to have a deeper and sweeter apprehension of the Lord's body given for us and His blood poured out for us than we have ever had before, and therefore we want, and expect, a more powerful spring of thanksgiving than we ever had before.

Ques. How far did the woman in Simon's house enter into this?

C.A.C. Well, she had apprehended the grace of the Creditor, she had apprehended that the Creditor was there, which poor Simon had no idea of. The Creditor was there, but He was there in the unbounded grace of forgiveness, and therefore she could express the apprehension that she had of Him; it would make a very good start towards all this that we have had before us.

Ques. I would like to ask what the Lord meant by "This do in remembrance of me".

C.A.C. I think it was the whole, you could not leave any part of the institution out. The Lord's taking the loaf, giving thanks and breaking it all enter into the thing; if you left one of these elements out it would not be right. We know that we should not feel at all comfortable to get up and break the bread without giving thanks. The youngest child would feel it was not right, and it would not be right to give thanks and then pass the loaf round without first breaking it; you would have left something out. If the bread were broken and thanks were given for the cup without the saints partaking in both it would not really be the Lord's supper. Every detail has to come into it, and as it does, the Lord rises before us. It has often been said that the brother who gives thanks really suggests the Lord, if he is spiritual. That is, the very way the

brother gives thanks suggests to the affections of the saints how the Lord gave thanks. Very often the brother actually refers to the Lord's own actions.

Rem. The Lord was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

C.A.C. Quite so. Nobody could do it as He did, and so we love to think of Him breaking the bread. He is absent and we come together to do it, but we remember how the Lord did it, and therefore profound reverence marks the occasion; every lover of the Lord regards the breaking of bread with profound reverence. There is nothing like it. There is nothing else that the Lord has so connected with His own Person. He says, "This do in remembrance of me". He has connected it with His own Person so that we feel when we come together that it is most holy. We feel, as we come into the room and see the loaf and cup on the table, that morally we should take our shoes off. That is, we put ourselves into a worshipping attitude as we come in, so that the Supper becomes more holy, and commands more the spirit of adoration every time we do it.

Ques. What is the setting in Corinthians?

C.A.C. In 1 Corinthians the thought of the communion is emphasised to correct the local state. The occasion is not only one of communion but it involves a public witness. There is the public witness that the Lord has died; we "announce the death of the Lord, until he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The saints coming together to eat and to drink have the character of public witness; that is, it is a memorial to the Lord. The Supper has that character as it stands here as a memorial to the fact that the Lord has died in this world, and that memorial is going to stand until He comes again.

Rem. It is maintained in all its freshness, on account of the Person who has instituted it.

C.A.C. It is wonderful the interest that the Lord maintains in the hearts of His saints. We have had hundreds of readings on the Lord's supper, and the saints never tire of it.

If the Lord could have found a better means to speak to our hearts than He did, He would have done so. The very fact that He took a loaf and a cup shows that in the wisdom of divine love there is no better means of our being collectively enabled to call Him to mind.

NEARNESS TO BE ENJOYED IN THE ASSEMBLY

Luke 24:26 - 31, 36

I read this scripture having in mind to say a word that would further the spiritual movements that have been suggested to us during the past few days, and to encourage us in regard of those things which would make our place of association with Christ a very great reality to us.

We thankfully accept as divine light what has been made known to us, and no doubt hold it as a matter of faith, but the Lord would exercise our hearts that we might have it more consciously in a sense of personal nearness to Him. I have in mind the sense of nearness that can be enjoyed in the assembly. It is most important that we should understand that our relations with Christ are on the footing that He has entered into His glory.

His sufferings and death were a deep divine necessity; indeed, He says here, "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things ... ?" His sufferings and death were a divine necessity, as we all recognise. But there is no suffering Christ now. There is no dead Christ now, either on the cross or in the grave. He was there in His matchless love, and it touches and captivates our hearts to know that He was there, but the assembly does not know Him there. That is, the relations of the assembly are not with Him as on the cross or in the grave; our associations are with Him as having entered into His glory. The consideration of this is of deepest moment to us.

The Lord has been in conditions of humiliation. When He was here in His precious, holy life, it was not a time of glory, but of humiliation. For the glory of God He was here in suffering manhood, and this is precious and profound beyond compare. It touches and wins our hearts. Yet we

need to know with personal affection that our links are with Christ as having entered into His glory. The eyes of the disciples were holden so as not to know Him. Often it is thus with us. We may have precious ministry which makes our hearts glow within us; we may enjoy the Scriptures, and being together, and the breaking of bread -- we may have all that, and yet no personal recognition of Himself as near to us. But He wants us to enter into this, and particularly in the assembly.

The Lord's supper is intended to prepare us for a manifestation of Himself. He said, "This do in remembrance of me", or, 'for the calling of me to mind'. If He is called to mind, the mind of the assembly is filled with Himself. Such a company would be very attractive to the Lord. He would be moved to come to us. We can hardly think of His coming to a company that was not attractive to Him.

In Luke 24 we see the service of the Lord in grace to educate and adjust disciples, so that they might be prepared for a manifestation. They were not ready when He joined them, their eyes were holden. No manifestation is given except to those prepared for it. He went over the whole scope of the Scriptures in reference to Himself, and so moved their hearts. They had known Him as in death, and their hearts were very sad, though they need not have been.

The Scriptures and His own words would have kept them from being downcast. Mary of Bethany was not with them, and I can hardly think that she was downcast, for she had learned Him as the resurrection and the life. They were out of the secret, and how often we are out of the secret of God's mind. But He ministered to them until their whole hearts wished to have it. He warms our hearts so that we want Himself. Do we want Himself? It is precious to hear of Him and His glory, but all is granted that we should want Himself. "It is I myself" -- that is what He wants to bring us to. Hearts that want Him will get Him, and the moment was reached when He sat down at their table and the blessed touch was given to them that manifested Himself to them.

When the Lord took the bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them, they recognised Him. It was not now facts about Him, but Himself. The bread He broke represented the new condition into which He had come through death. It is death viewed from that standpoint; that is, as His way into His glory. The fact that He broke the bread and put it into their hands suggested a new condition of manhood into which He had entered through death, and His giving it into their hands suggested that they were to have part in that kind of humanity. Whether they be few or many, there are moments in privilege and blessing when we realise that we have part in His risen life, we are of that order of humanity into which He entered in resurrection. His giving the bread to them was an indication that they were to partake of the same order of life in which He was as risen. The other disciples were confounded and frightened when He came, but I can hardly think that those two were affrighted.

They had learnt the wondrous lesson that they had a part with Him in the new order of humanity in which He was as the risen One. It is a sorrowful thing that thousands of lovers of Christ have never learnt this lesson. They think of His life on earth and of His death as making atonement, and they believe in the fact of His resurrection, but Himself as risen they do not know, still less that they have part in His life as risen. But He comes to His own to give us consciousness that we are of His order of manhood, and that we can be near to Him without the slightest sense of disparity.

His disappearing from the two disciples was as much as to say, 'If you want more of Me, you must find it at Jerusalem'. And so He gives us personal touches in order to bring us to the assembly -- He makes His saints conscious that they have part in His life, and so are suitable to be led into all those thoughts of divine love that are known in the assembly.

We may enjoy ministry, but something more than that is needed to satisfy the heart of Christ. It is the consciousness of His personal nearness, so that He is known by those who have part in His own life.

NOTES OF A READING

Luke 24:36 - 53

A.M.H. When considering this part of the chapter we do not want to ignore what immediately precedes, for it has a bearing on the subject; that is in the two going to Emmaus, the Lord conversing with them and finally going in with them and making Himself known in the breaking of bread. You have in a way an illustration of what takes place at the Supper.

Often with us there is the idea that certain preliminaries are required, and the reason is that we have not sufficiently recognised the character of the Supper, which in itself is preliminary. The Supper is the preparation for the assembly. The Lord saw that it was necessary for us, as coming from our wilderness conditions, to have something to open the way for assembly functioning. The. Supper is the institution for that purpose. We may not have wandered into the country, but we need this touch from the Lord. It is normal for the Lord to make Himself known to us in the breaking of bread. The touch of the Lord is some spiritual thought of Himself and often develops throughout the Supper as we follow it.

At the commencement of our meeting we do not need an introduction. We may begin with a hymn, which is a kind of carry-over from the previous meetings, and an expression of joy; the Supper is introduced as an ordinance to start us, and taking it thus at the beginning gives time for development as under the Lord's leading.

Rem. The breaking of bread you refer to was at Emmaus in a house.

A.M.H. The immediate effect is that they are found in the company. "And rising up the same hour, ... they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together". The breaking of bread puts us together. The Lord shows Himself in the breaking of bread, and there is an immediate transition

from the individual to the collective position, which is proper. The Supper adjusts us as coming from our various homes, it puts us together, and the Lord has introduced it for that purpose.

C.A.C. The Lord has done much for us in giving us to see that it is a normal summons which brings the saints together in assembly character. Is there any other?

A.M.H. Anything else would be introduced by ourselves, and that would be foreign to the Lord's mind.

C.A.C. It is very beautiful that the Lord should have thought of such an exceedingly simple act for us to do: "This do in remembrance of me". But it requires that those who love Him in every locality where His name is called upon should be unified in doing it. There is nothing sectional about it.

A.M.H. Naturally we each dwell in our own separate surroundings, but the Lord's supper is the unifying element. When the Lord was here He was the unifying element, but now He has provided for His absence.

C.A.C. And also that we should do something: "This do in remembrance of me".

A.M.H. You attach importance to the fact that we are all doing something.

C.A.C. Yes, and everything outside of what is set forth in that is excluded by the words, "remembrance of me". There is nothing more unifying than that. It is the appeal of the Lord to all that love Him, and if listened to would practically unify all the saints in every place.

A.M.H. Because while the bread speaks of His giving His body for us and primarily bears on what we are locally, it would include all He gave Himself for -- all the saints, and in our minds we include all.

C.A.C. And it must be taken up locally, because if it is not, there will be no concrete expression of the divine thought at all.

Jos. S. You mean it is not possible for all believers to meet together in one place?

C.A.C. The idea is that it is done locally, and the one bread and one cup themselves suggest that the saints would respond to the Lord and do what He says in relatively small companies.

A.M.H. It is a very local matter here. These two had got adrift from their brethren, but the Lord showing Himself to them awakens immediately the normal sense of the company to which they belong, and they return to Jerusalem to the ordered condition of things. They fall in with what they find there, and say certain things in line with what is being said.

C.A.C. Was there development suggested in the Lord's movements in chapter 24 as compared with His institution of the Supper in chapter 22? In that chapter the bread and cup spoke of the Lord in death, but in chapter 24 He is leading them by a moral road which ends in the revelation of Himself as risen. I was wondering if the breaking of the bread in chapter 24 did not carry us further than the loaf and the cup in chapter 22, as bringing us, in the apprehension of our souls, to Christ as risen. Does not the breaking of bread in chapter 24 suggest His death as that by which He comes to a new position and condition as risen? Would it not embody in a striking symbol all that was substantiated in Himself as risen? He had been showing them how all the Scriptures referred to Himself. And the loaf in chapter 24 would set forth all that is established in Himself as risen, and He is known in relation to that, so they go back to the company. It had a unifying effect, and the company was gathered in the light of Himself risen.

A.M.H. It shows how the light adjusts; they get a view of the Lord as risen, and it carries their minds to those who recognise Him as risen.

C.A.C. Is not the development of spiritual intelligence very prominent in Luke's gospel, especially so in this chapter? Hence the great detail connected with the scope of Scripture, how all the scriptures speak concerning Himself, and more particularly as bearing upon Himself as risen

(verse 27). I was wondering whether that would not put us outside the present world system altogether.

A.M.H. Would it bring the tabernacle system into view? The death of Christ as severing us from one scene, and resurrection bringing another world into view in Him?

C.A.C. We must seethe thing established on the ground of the death of Christ before we are prepared to touch the resurrection sphere.

A.M.H. The death of Christ gives the right basis for everything and conveys the impress of the love of Christ to our hearts, carrying captive our affections, and displacing all expectations from the scene in which He died. All this is now in Him. How far would you carry that in relation to the loaf? I suppose it includes the idea of the saints: one body.

C.A.C. I thought we had a further development when we come to resurrection and the Lord's movement in resurrection; we are then on another footing altogether. Is not the close of the gospels designed to bring the saints in their affections on to the ground of being risen with Christ? The disciples at the end of the gospel were brought in their affections to taste of being risen with Him. They could be in the company of a risen Man in an out-of-the-world condition. This would challenge all our hearts. Do we know that, to be collectively, not simply individually, in association with a risen Man?

A.M.H. It is not easy, evidently. The disciples were afraid -- in their minds and feelings they were still on this side of death.

C.A.C. And the Lord would take extraordinary pains to verify Himself to us as risen, in our affections collectively, so that we may be in concert with One who is alive out of death. One feels how little one knows of this, but how can we be really in testimony here unless we do know something about it?

Rem. In John 20, Thomas is not there, and the Lord comes in again when he was there.

C.A.C. Yes, He would bring them all the way in John, but it is as far as Bethany only, in Luke.

A.M.H. What is all the way?

C.A.C. It has often been said that the saints were gathered in John 20 by a message given to Mary: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God"

(John 20:17). That is all the way; you can never get further than that, it is the terminus.

A.M.H. When He comes among them in John's account He shows them His hands and His side. What would that indicate?

C.A.C. That calls attention to Himself as the One whose mighty hands had carried into effect all the purposes of the Father's love; those purposes are only carried out and brought to pass in the power of the blood and water which flowed from His side, which effected not only complete expiation but also purification. So He can say of the saints, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". We cannot go higher or further than that. That is further than Bethany!