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THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (1)

Colossians 1

F.E.R. It is important to apprehend the light in which Christ is presented in this epistle. Each epistle takes its character from the peculiar light in which Christ is presented in it. This is very important. The epistles are quite different from the gospels. The former give us the light of what Christ is where He is now on high (especially in Paul's epistles); but in the gospels it is what Christ was here on earth. Testimony is to what is about to be displayed. The testimony of the Christ is what Christ is in relation to the "all things" -- Christ is Head in Colossians. He is Head of creation, for He created all, and all were created in view of that; and therefore, if He became man, He must be pre-eminent. He has creation rights; but there is another ground on which He is Head -- He takes all up on the ground of redemption.

We get the same two Headships in Revelation 4 and 5. He is Head on creation ground, and also on redemption ground.

What is reconciliation?

F.E.R. All things are to be brought into reconciliation and into unity and harmony; and that can only be by being taken up in the Head. He has made peace by the blood of His cross. He has removed all that brought in the confusion and lawlessness, in order that all might be brought into reconciliation. What comes under the eye of God is Christ; He is the Head, and all things are taken up in Him.

The reconciliation of the world is based upon the fact that man is taken up in the Head. The judgement of God will be brought in because man sets up a rival head instead of accepting the divinely-appointed Head.

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Ephesians follows Colossians. In Colossians you get all things reconciled in Him and so brought into divine complacency; and then in Ephesians you get Christ filling all things.

Why are the rights of creation brought in?

F.E.R. If God had not the right of Creator, He could not have the right of Redeemer. All things were created by Him and for Him, and hence, Christ must have all on creation ground. God is going to have His rest in His creation. He never gives up the right of Creator. Redemption has come in, but things are not all brought under the power of redemption; for instance, our bodies are not brought under the power of redemption. We await it; our souls have come under the power of it. The thought of reconciliation, i.e., the saints brought under divine complacency, runs all through the epistle, "You hath he reconciled". It is the saints brought under the eye of God, into divine complacency. In chapter 3, what marks the circle are the graces of Christ. It is Christ under the eye, or the saints brought under the eye of God in Christ. The object of the apostle's ministry was that every man might be presented perfect in Christ. He could come into this creation with a universe hid in Him. You get a Babe laid in a manger; but everything was hid in Him. The church was to come forth from Him. There was nothing manifest while He was a Babe; but the heavenly hosts say, "Glory to God in the highest". It is wonderful how God sets to work to bring to pass a universe which is according to Himself, out of the wreck and ruin of this. And how does He do it? By the introduction of a Babe! but with resurrection inherent in Him; so He says, "I am the resurrection and the life".

Rem. So it is Himself who is everything.

F.E.R. To study the gospels from the point of view that He was greater than every man, is what has been before me lately. He walked on the water. He

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fed the multitude. He knew every man -- whatever kind of man came before Him He read. I have been thinking of this lately.

Rem. This company (that is the Colossians) were prepared to receive the truth.

F.E.R. Yes, the Spirit of God addresses people according to their state -- the Corinthians were -- so, too, the Galatians; and I think the principle goes through. It is so in Philippians and Ephesians, and in this epistle likewise.

What is the hope laid up in heaven?

F.E.R. It is the hope of God's calling which you get in Ephesians. The Lord says, "I go to prepare a place for you".

Rem. The inheritance is reserved in heaven.

F.E.R. Yes; it is because we have a place in heaven that we come into the inheritance. The Hebrews had lost everything here; hope on earth had fled, and you get a hope laid up in heaven. God did not come in to give the Gentile the Jews' portion, but He came in to give both Jew and Gentile a common portion, a hope in heaven. "Fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us". We must get our place in heaven, it could not be that the saints should be manifested with Christ unless we had our place in heaven. We get our place in heaven by grace given to us. The three principles are brought in here: faith, hope, and love (see verses 4 and 5). We get the thought of association with Christ, and that in connection with earth, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me" ... "the oil of gladness above his fellows". If we are His companions, and He has taken a place in heaven, it involves our having a place there. He has entered, and He is the Forerunner, and we are following. Christ is the goal. Wherever Christ is, He will have companions. I think we have to accept the thought. The Lord said to His disciples, "Ye are they which have

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continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom", etc.; Luke 22:28 - 30. God has been gathering a company for heaven ever since sin came in. The assembly has a distinctive place; but, at the same time, God was working to gather a company for heaven. Revelation 5 proves this; there we get the four and twenty elders. The Old Testament saints might have had a hope of heaven, but now all is definite, because Christ is there as Man.

What is "Rejoice in hope of the glory of God"?

F.E.R. That is a wider idea. It is looking for the moment when God will shine out, and dissipate all the darkness. He will shine out in moral effulgence and glory. The world to come will take its character from that. The hope here is more definite. We have a place in heaven. If we had not that place, what promise should we have? I think saints have had heaven before them without going on to what will come out from heaven. When the Lord sends out the Jews to the nations, which He will do, they do not lose their place in Jerusalem. So too the assembly. The holy city comes down out of heaven; but it never loses its place in heaven. It was so with the Lord Himself. He was here as light, but He was the Son of man which is in heaven.

Will the holy city touch the earth?

F.E.R. Well, all we get in the Revelation is that it is put in relation to the earth. Think of what a vast company will be brought into display, and the heavenly saints all mixed up with it, although not forming it. The thoughts of people in regard to the gospel have been far too limited. The gospel has been regarded as the means by which people can be saved, whereas it really is the presentation of Christ as He is according to the purpose of God. The glad tidings of the Christ. It is Christ not merely as the

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Saviour of sinners; but the Centre and beginning of a universe. In the testimony of peace Christ approaches men in order to attract them out of the world, and to attach them to Himself. That is the object of the testimony. He came preaching peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh.

What is preaching peace?

F.E.R. It is the mind of God in regard to man on the ground of all moral confusion having been removed by the death of Christ, and now Christ is the preacher of peace, but the peace has reference to the world which comes under Christ. In that world all is peace. The object of the testimony of peace is to attract people to Himself as the Centre of another world. Christ has come to be the Centre of another world. People want the benefits of Christ, and to be in this world; but that is not God's mind. It is God's mind that we should be attracted to Christ as the Centre of another world. It has often been said there is no scape-bullock, nor scape-goat for us. It is intelligible to me; Israel will have a scape-goat, they will have forgiveness of sins in an administrative way. They will be a people evidently in the favour of God. We do not get it in that way. We have the witness of the Spirit, and there we get the good of what is God's mind for every man; and the effect is we can approach God; we can have liberty with God. In the world to come forgiveness of sins will be known in an administrative way, because the world to come will be established. No one will doubt that they are forgiven, for it will be evident that they are in the favour of God. They will have it in a national way. We get it more in an individual way. We cannot prove to others that we are forgiven; but we have the witness, and we have the good of it, in that we have liberty with God. The thought of the gospel has been far too limited. It has been diluted to mean that Christ is a benefactor to the world. The point

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to me is that the glad tidings are the glad tidings of the Christ; but then, Who is the Christ? He is the Centre of all things. You want to get the idea of it as a whole, and then you can take it up in detail. In preaching you have to remember that responsibility is connected with hearing.

In the Babe, God was announcing "peace". The angels said "Peace ... on earth peace". He came preaching peace. The thought of peace is intimately connected with Christ. He is the Prince of peace. He was the one who came to remove all the confusion brought in by the responsible man; and peace is what He brings in. He is the Prince of peace; and the gospel is the gospel of peace in contrast to all the confusion here. Peace is the dawning of the new day. He comes to them, and He says, "Peace unto you". It was the dawn of the day. It would be a great thing to get enlarged views of the gospel. I believe the gospel -- the testimony -- is the property of all. I am not content that the preachers should think the gospel belongs to them. My concern is that the gospel should be maintained, and that the preachers should know it. People talk about "winning souls for Christ". They are not won for Christ unless they are detached from this world. Preachers want to win souls to a confession of Christ.

What is an evangelist?

F.E.R. He is a presenter of Christ. It is one thing to have the gift of an evangelist, but we want him instructed. The glad tidings of the Christ are not apprehended in a moment. It is Christ as in relation to the "all things". In the light of that, this world is of small account with God. There are many things in which we need to be more enlightened. We need to see the gravity of lawlessness, and the true ground of responsibility, which is not so much in regard to the wrong thing, and that wrong thing which a man does, but more in relation to the rights of God.

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The apostle's description of them is that they are "holy and faithful brethren". The great thought in Colossians is the Christian circle, and the sensibilities which belong to that circle. You get them in chapter 3: 15. The peace of Christ to which ye are called in one body. Romans 12 brings in the truth of the body to enforce what is individual; so that in carrying out what is your individual responsibility you will take account of your relation to that body.

The Christian circle is that which is in Christ. The apostle addresses them in that way; and the Spirit of God contemplates them in that way, "the holy and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse". It is a great point to be able to apprehend the saints in that point of view.

What is "In Christ"?

F.E.R. In the sense of having life in Christ. The difficulty at the present time is to distinguish between what is provisional and what is the accomplishment of purpose. For instance, "the head of every man is Christ", but that is provisional, it is not the accomplishment of God's purpose. But when we come to what is in Christ, then we come to the fulfilment of God's purpose.

What is provisional?

F.E.R. Christ's present position, which is a light to the Gentiles, and God's salvation to the ends of the earth; Isaiah 49:6. And man is tested by that. But all that is provisional, and will give way for what will be the fulfilment of God's purpose. The two go on together just now. God gave the Jew his day, and He is now giving the Gentile his day. The casting off of the Jew is the reconciling of the world. The Gentile is now being tested, and the question is, Will they abide in the goodness of God? Christ is a light to the Gentiles, and God's salvation to the ends of the earth; but besides that, and underneath it all, and which is mystery, God is accomplishing His

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purpose in Christ. But this latter is not public, nor is it the subject of testimony, which the present position of Christ in relation to all men is. Christ is the Mediator between God and men. "The man Christ Jesus". That is what marks this moment; it is the public testimony that Christ is Head of every man. This is the day of the Gentile. Romans 11 proves that; the Gentile is being tested, and if they do not continue in the goodness of God, they will be broken off. It is important to see the position of things at the moment, and yet at the same time to know what God is working out underneath all that, to head up all things in Christ. The mystery of God's will is a wider thought than the church; it refers to the heading up of all things in Christ. The time of testing is not entirely over. In one sense it is -- as to fruit bearing -- but now the ground is changed, the marriage supper (Matthew 22) is the test. In coming into the world, Christ tested the Jew; but now the Gentile is being tested. But in regard to both, it is equally true, "no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him", John 6:44. There is a force at work underneath, whether men answer or not to the test. The Gentile, in becoming apostate, will be more guilty than the Jew, because they have the example of the Jew. The Jews are a standing witness to the effect of their apostasy. They are to this day a separate people, without king, without priest, without teraphim, etc. The Gentile will apostatise, just as the Jew; he will fail to take warning from the Jew, and he will sent up antichrist, and that will bring in the judgement of God; and then God in His mercy will take up Israel again. I believe, when Israel is brought in, that the Eastern world will be brought into blessing. I do not think the Western nations will; they will have had their day.

Christ is the test of the Gentiles; He is light and salvation to the Gentile, and to every Gentile. When

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all is displayed Christ will come out, not so much as the Head of every man (which is more provisional), but as Head of every family. He will be the Head of the assembly, of Israel, and of every family blessed. At the present time everything which is in Christ is God's purpose. If you find a company of "holy and faithful brethren in Christ", i.e., who have their life in Him -- that is God's purpose. The two things go on together: the testing by the present position of Christ as Head of every man, and the accomplishment of God's purpose in Christ; and hence you get the assembly. The assembly being in Christ puts it in heavenly places; but then Christ lives in His body here. Hence, in chapter 3 you get what are the graces and sensibilities of Christ, which really work in the body, in the relation of the members one toward another. Christianity in the true power of it is not doctrine, although doctrine is necessary. We could not communicate one with another without doctrine. It is important, too, as a limit to one's thoughts. It is "the law and the testimony" to which eventually every appeal must be made; but Christianity is vitality.

There is no real Christianity outside of the Holy Spirit. There are lots of people taking up doctrine. Great councils in the history of the church were largely formed of unconverted men, often violent men. They handled doctrine; but that is not Christianity. Christianity is the Spirit's work in the saints here, which is the answer to what is true in Christ in heaven. All I contend for -- I leave creeds where they are -- is that Christianity is life -- vitality. The Lord said, "I am come that they might have life", John 10:10. In the minds of many, Christianity is merely being orthodox in doctrine and correct in conduct. That is not Christianity; nor does it take you out of the world; which in its true power is Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. You get an answer by the Spirit

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here to what is true in Christ in heaven. What marked the Colossians (verses 4 and 5) was faith, love, and hope. They are the elements which go to make up Christian life. It is "faith in Christ Jesus"; which is a subjective thought, not so much the thought of having Christ as an object. Forgiveness is the first elementary truth, and the body being the temple of the Holy Spirit is the next ... but both are elementary.

The "hope" connects us with heaven. We have not got perfection yet; otherwise you would not have faith. These three elements all detach you from earth. "Faith in Christ Jesus" carries your hearts to where Christ is. Faith, love, and hope practically bring you into another world, to which Christ gives character. Faith and hope will pass away, but love will abide.

Why is "faith in Christ Jesus" subjective?

F.E.R. Because every quality which is in Christ is subjective -- "grace which is in Christ Jesus". It is different from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ Jesus is more a characteristic condition; it is that Christ Jesus is the source and spring of faith. These are qualities of which Christ is the power. Every quality which God can own is in Christ; it is not in man. It is the result of being alive in Christ, and He becomes the source and spring of every divine quality in a Christian down here. If a Christian is characterised by faith or grace, it is Christ who is the spring of it. You get coming out in the Christian the graces and qualities which characterised Christ Himself. Christ was the "Author and finisher of faith", so we can speak of faith as a quality coming out in Christ as Man. "Faith in Christ Jesus" is not so much Christ being the object of faith, but faith as a quality or state in the Christian, of which Christ by the Spirit is the spring, source and power. "Hope" too, is spoken of in connection with Christ, "My flesh also

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shall rest in hope", Psalm 16:9. For the joy set before Him, would also prove it. These elements all have a separating effect. Take a man of the world, there is nothing of faith, or love, or hope about him. An intelligent man of the world would scout the idea of faith. Faith has reference to things which you cannot verify. Faith is the apprehension of divine things which are the subject of testimony, and which you cannot verify. Christ is the great subject of testimony; but no one can go to heaven to verify it. The Spirit substantiates it to us. Science produces no moral effect on man. A man may have great penetration of mind in science, and be a bad man. If a man is going to reject Christianity for science, I say -- Show me a new man created in righteousness and holiness. Christianity can, and has, produced that. When scientists can show me a better man than Christianity produces, I may be disposed to listen to them. The light of God has produced a man "created in righteousness and holiness of truth", and I say, Show me a better man, and I may listen to you.

"The word of the truth of the gospel" is not merely the word of the gospel, but of the TRUTH of the gospel. Truth has come, and God is seen in His true greatness, and man in his nothingness. "If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself". Until the word of the truth of the gospel comes to us, we are inflated, and see things out of all proportion; but by it we learn things in their proper dimensions. When a man is apart from the world system, he is simply nothing. Napoleon was very great when in the moment of his power; but when separated from it he was a poor, miserable man.

What is "Knew the grace of God in truth"?

F.E.R. It is that grace has reached them, in a way which has placed everything aright, in its proper relation -- God in His place, and man in his. Truth is a contrast to a dream, or madness. In a dream the

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mind is active; but all is out of its proper relation or proportion. Now, the grace of God puts all things right, in their proper place and proportion, and the grace of God is the only thing that can do it.

What is "Bringeth forth fruit"?

F.E.R. That is another great thought, fruit is the evidence of healthy vitality.

Would the prayer of Epaphras in chapter 4, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, go further than Paul's prayer for the Colossians in verses 9, 10 and 11?

F.E.R. The prayer in chapter 1 has reference to their walk. Chapter 4 is "perfect and complete in all the will of God". The latter goes further. In chapter 1 it is all in view of their walking intelligently; they were to be filled with the knowledge of His will; but it was in view of walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. The will of God is a large thought. It takes in all that God has purposed and set Himself to accomplish. People fall into the mistake of supposing that God has some particular will about them; but the point is to stand in the will of God. If we move our residence, the question has to be raised, whether we move to serve ourselves, or whether we have the will of God in view. The great thing is to subject everything to the will of God. The path of happiness lies, not in our own will, but in God's will; our paths will be all right if we have the will of God in view. If you do well for yourself all men will praise you; on the other hand, if you do not, men will reproach you; you have not made the best of your opportunities. They said to the Lord, "Show thyself to the world". Christ pleased not Himself, but put Himself in the place of reproach, and we should be content to accept that place. Men like men who do well for themselves. In the present time it is of the last moment to be "filled with the knowledge of his will". That is real intelligence. All real intelligence has reference to the

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will of God. Then it is you walk worthily of the Lord. God's will is really to gather up all in a suitable head, who will gather up all in unity, and give character to it. That is the thought of the will of God. God has abounded towards us in all wisdom, to make known the mystery of His will. The mystery is, that it is not made manifest publicly, but it is to be known. The apostle says, "That I may make it manifest". It is important to insist that God has His own will in Christ, and that in contrast to the active will of man. It is for us to accept His will, and have no will of our own. There can be no security for the happiness of the universe until all is pervaded by one will. There could not be a state of things in which peace and content prevail, unless it were pervaded by one will. In Colossians, it is "walking worthy of the Lord". In Ephesians, it is "worthy of your vocation"; and in Thessalonians, it is "worthy of God". Each expression brings in a difference of thought. We walk worthy of the Lord in the sense that He is our Lord. Walking worthy of our vocation is that Jew and Gentile are builded together for an habitation of God. It is a great thing to walk worthy of the Lord. There is a tendency to adapt our ways to man, because man is in power for the moment. The corrective of that is to walk worthy of the Lord. It would keep people straight morally if they were to consider what is worthy of the Lord. The Lord is the One who gives effect to the will of God. The will of God at once brings the Lord into view; and, therefore, the only way in which we can be fitted to walk worthy of the Lord, is to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. The grace of God had borne fruit in the Colossians, and they had "love in the Spirit"; and so the apostle is led to pray for them, that it might be still further evident that they were trees of God's planting. The evidence of healthy vigour in a tree is bearing fruit, and growing. There is no more beautiful

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object in natural things than a healthy, vigorous tree.

What is the difference between the will of the Lord and the will of God?

F.E.R. The former had reference to a detail in the apostle's life. He was bent upon going up to Jerusalem. The Lord has His own will in regard to His servants. Paul was not quite in that path; he was mistaken, and would not be turned from going up to Jerusalem; and so the brethren said, "the will of the Lord be done". The will of God is a much larger thought. The will of the Lord is what is to govern the saints down here, and the will of God is what God has purposed in Christ. That is not indefinite; it is the heading-up of all in Christ, "thrones and dominions and principalities and powers"; all are to be headed-up in Christ. That is to govern us in all our ways; we should be labouring in view of that, that people might be detached from the world-system, and that they might be drawn and attached to Christ. God is working at the present time the first part of His will, that is the body of Christ. The point is not merely to get people converted; but that they should be in living connection with Christ. If we have the will of God in view, we shall have this thought before us. Christ died to the end that we might be delivered from this present evil world; and, if so, then it ought to be the end we have in view; and the only way that deliverance can be effected is by people being attached to Christ, who is the beginning of another world. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me", John 12:32.

The end of verse 10, "increasing", should be "growing by the true knowledge of God". It is like the sap of the tree, by which it grows. The knowledge of God is that by which we grow. There are many things that interest people; but I do not know of anything that affects people morally except the knowledge of God.

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Romans presents two attributes of God, righteousness and faithfulness; and that knowledge of God becomes the moral foundation in every Christian. Every man's real intelligence is his measure of the knowledge of God. One great effect of it is, that you get everything put in its place in your mind. In the world you may get a genius by an enormous development of mind in some particular direction; but it is spoiled by some great defect in another direction. Now, the knowledge of God never has that kind of effect; it puts everything in its proper place and proportion in your mind. "Some have not the knowledge of God", 1 Corinthians 15:34; that is, not that they were not converted, but their ways showed that they had not the knowledge of God. If I know God in His righteousness, it bears fruit according to itself; we shall be servants to righteousness. Then, again, if I know God's faithfulness, it produces an answer in me to itself. So love; if we know God's love, we shall love. In view of knowing God, you should cultivate intercourse with God; like Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus; she became intelligent. John drank deeply into the knowledge of God; the knowledge of God produced good results. The new man here is the witness to Christ in heaven. In verse 10 the figure before the mind of the apostle is a tree -- "fruitful in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God".

You get a remarkable expression in verse 11 -- "Strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory". The bearing of the power here is more subjective and operative in us, unto patience and all longsuffering with joyfulness; that is, that we may take the path of the Lord down here. That marked His pathway here: "Patience and longsuffering with joy". That is what will come out in us, by the power of His glory. It is not by His glory; but by the power of it. What a change it will bring into the world

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when Christ comes, and establishes such principles as mercy and longsuffering and patience. As you get older, you have the same strength of will, and less power to control it.

What is "Might of his glory"?

F.E.R. When Christ comes in His glory, He will come in power to establish such principles as patience and longsuffering. We have not got the glory; but we have the might of it. It depends upon the apprehension of the glory of the Lord. When He comes in glory, He will establish these principles. Christ is in heaven, and He tolerates Satan. He is crowned with glory and honour; and set above all authorities and powers, and yet He tolerates Satan. It will not always be the case; but he will not be cast down before his time. See the patience and longsuffering of the Lord in regard to this world. He has all power to put down evil, and yet He goes on in all patience and longsuffering. "The power of his glory" comes out in our waiting in patience and longsuffering. God will do nothing before the time. Even Antichrist cannot be revealed before his time. The mystery of God will be completed when all is made manifest; there will be no more mystery then.

From verse 12 we get on to the ground of the Father and the Son. It is like John in that way, "giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet". Meetness must be in some moral sense. There can be no faith in the gospel without some moral effect in a man. If you get new wine, you must get new bottles. It is a simple question of believing; but, then, it is equally true, that in believing, a moral effect is produced. When a man believes the gospel, his heart is affected by the grace of God; it is impossible for a man to believe the gospel without immediately some moral effect being produced. The thief was made meet, there was a work of God in him, as well as the work of Christ for him, and so he went to

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paradise. A man needs to be judicially cleansed; but a man must be morally cleansed too. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you", John 15:3.

In the gospel it is not a mere presentation of grace to men -- it is that -- but it is with a view to producing a corresponding effect in man. A man could not come into the view of the grace of God without being affected by it. The grace of God teaches us to live "soberly, righteously, and godly", etc. -- "Knowing the grace of God in truth". "In truth" is a most important expression. The apostle speaks of the word of truth. A moral thought is always conveyed in "truth".

You do not exclude the thought of the work of Christ in being made meet?

F.E.R. Oh, no; but there must be a corresponding work in man. There must be new bottles for new wine. When the word of God's grace affects a man, he builds his house on a rock, and it stands. The grace of God, which justifies a man, affects him morally. The Spirit when given connects itself with that which is already wrought in the believer. We receive the truth in the love of it; and when that is so, the Spirit when He comes, connects Himself with that which is already wrought there. The new wine is the tidings of grace, all that Christ has brought in, grace reigning through righteousness.

What is "Partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light"?

F.E.R. The work of God fits a man for the light. We are delivered from the authority of darkness; that is, the power of idolatry. With people who were brought up in idolatry it is more fully realised -- the immense change brought in by Christ.

What are "new bottles"?

F.E.R. They represent man as new. The gospel is presented that man may turn to God, and when a

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man turns to God, he is new. The Spirit when given connects itself with the work already wrought in a man -- but a man in believing the gospel is really affected by having believed it.

It is a great point to be "filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding". We could not conceive a greater privilege at this time -- when all is confusion and perplexity -- than to have the knowledge of His will, not dogmatically, but "in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding". Then we get two things, "fruitful and increasing", like a vigorous tree. I am sure we do not give sufficient diligence to being filled with the knowledge of His will. God has abounded toward us in all wisdom, having made known to us the mystery of His will. But that is God's side, and our side is to be filled with the knowledge of it, and in a way to turn it to account, that is by having it in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The mystery of God's will is that all is to be headed-up in Christ; and we could not conceive of things being rectified, and held in harmony and unity except by being headed-up in one. There are various parts in the moral universe; but all is to be headed-up in one. The testimony of God came in to overthrow all that existed and dominated in man's mind; and then to establish all that is according to God.

In Corinthians that comes out wonderfully. There is the temple, and the oracles; but the light in the temple is to be diffused. That is what God has done. Idolatry and philosophy were overthrown. Contemptible as Christianity was at the outset, what really took place was the overthrow of all that existed. It really did so in result; for the temple of God was established, and not only that, but the light and truth were scattered; the administration of the Spirit diffused the light. What dominated man was overthrown, and what was of God was established. Death,

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too, is overcome, and it will be finally destroyed. Victory over death came in.

Rem. The introduction to the Ephesians is similar to this.

F.E.R. Yes, they approximate. Colossians is the first epistle that brings us on to the ground of purpose: all the others are elementary: Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians; but here we come to God's purpose, His will; what is before Him to effect. The assembly has its place in that will.

Where does Hebrews come in?

F.E.R. It is solid food in contrast to milk. The epistle is trying to get them to the ground of purpose. There are two lines in Scripture: there is God's approach to man; and there is, too, the work of God in man. God's will is the fruit of His wisdom. God has intervened to bring to pass a universe according to Himself, and that out of the wreck and ruin of this; and the vessel by which God is to accomplish all is Christ. All is dependent on a Man. All was lost in a man; but all is recovered in a man. Of course, it depends upon who that man is.

What follows in this chapter is the unfolding of the headship of Christ. In Thessalonians we are to walk worthy of the kingdom; here it is to walk worthy of the Lord; and in another place it is to walk worthy of God. We show the effects of the authority of the Lord. Ministry is connected with the Lord; and we show the effects of it by being fruitful, and increasing by the knowledge of God. That is the evidence in us of the ministry of the Lord. We could not say that Christ increased by the knowledge of God; but it is the effect of the ministry of the Lord in us. It is really sunshine; growth depends upon light and air. We get everything by the Spirit. It is a great point to recognise that the Spirit is the Teacher. The effect and power of the anointing is to bring us into contact with divine Persons. Israel were not brought

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into contact with Persons; they had mainly to do with the letter. When the Lord came, His disciples came into contact with a Person -- and the effect of the Spirit having come is that we are brought into contact with Persons in heaven, and also into contact with persons on earth, the brethren. By one Spirit we both have access to the Father, and thus we are brought into contact with God and Christ. If you are to grow, you must have to do with God. Abiding in Christ is abiding in the light of God, which is effulgent in Christ. It is the knowledge of what God is in Himself, what He has declared Himself to be in righteousness and love. You cannot be in the light without being affected by it, and you would be characterised, too, by what you abide in. Everything, flowers, etc. -- take their colour from the light; particular parts absorb light, and so they get colour. If we abide in the light, we shall take our colour from it. It leads to enlargement, too; you get out of the littleness of man, into the greatness of God, into the light of His righteousness, and mercy, and love. You increase by the knowledge of God. Man's greatest idea of man consists in heroism and patriotism. The latter would have had no place if sin had not come in. When you come into the thought of God, you come to self-sacrificing love. There was no heroism in Christ; it was all a question of doing the will of Him who sent Him, and that in meekness. The ministry of the Lord Jesus here was the setting forth of the rights of God in mercy; the Lord asserted the right of God to show mercy to man. It is a great thing if we are set on being fruitful and increasing by the knowledge of God. It is "strengthened with all might", etc., and that not for heroism, but for patience and longsuffering. These qualities are not heroism; but they will enable you to stand in the testimony. By these you can gain the day and overcome. The apostle did so; he overcame.

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It is wonderful to see how everything of God was done; when God wanted prophets, prophets came. So John the Baptist came, and he did what God intended should be done. So, too, the Lord came; so also the apostles; they did what God intended; they kept the faith, and that is the great point. All that God intends, will be done. Moses broke the first tables of stone; but the tables were to be put in the ark, and they were put in the ark. So the prophets; they spoke, and gave their testimony, and the circle of prophecy is completed; and all that God intended was done. You may be sure, too, in looking forward to the future, that God will bring all to pass. Israel were to go into Babylon, and to Babylon they went; and they were to come from Babylon, and they did; and they were to reject Christ, and so they did. We are not left here to do great things; we are not to be conspicuous here; but to be here in all patience and longsuffering.

Rem. It supposes that things are against you.

F.E.R. Yes, it does; all is in contrariety. Christ has ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things; that is the might of His glory. The point with the Christian is to be here according to the last Adam, not according to the first. We are to put on the new man. That is what we are according to Christ, created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. Now, we get a remarkable passage following in connection with the Father and the Son (see verses 12 - 14). Then from verse 15 we get an unfolding of the headship of Christ; but the real point of the passage is what you are brought into contact with -- divine Persons. If we have the Spirit, and are thus brought into attachment to Christ, we are made meet. Whatever is in attachment to Christ is "meet".

In verse 14, "through his blood", should not be there, it is in Ephesians. The style here is more

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rapid; here the glory of His Person is more in prominence; here it is the Father and the Son; it is Persons. The Son is man, of course; but here it is His Person that is prominent. No one knew Christ except as man; but still we can abstract the mind, and think of the Person.

What lies between the passage that precedes and the "giving thanks to the Father"?

F.E.R. It is the climax; there would be an actual expression of your indebtedness to the Father. "Giving thanks" is an indication of the condition of the spirit; so here we are impressed with what has been done for us, and we are giving thanks. He has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and brought us into attachment to Christ -- into the kingdom -- into the sway of the "Son of his love". All is stated here on the sovereignty side; it is what God does. Attachment proper means brought into bond -- married to another -- joined to the Lord. It is the contrast to lawlessness, which means breaking away from bond and attachment. Attachment in the sense of affection is quite a conventional use of the word.

"In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins". Without that we could not approach; being brought into attachment you have forgiveness in Him. You are never called upon to believe that you are forgiven; but that forgiveness is there. It is the mind of God for every one -- faith apprehends that; but it is by the Spirit that you get it, and then having it, we have liberty of approach. It is by the witness of the Spirit, that we have a purged conscience. What faith apprehends is the mind of God for all; but many do not come into the light of it. People want to believe something about themselves. In Luke 7 you get that when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both; but Simon did not come into the light of it. When the Lord Jesus was here He was the witness of God's mercy to man, and available for

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every man. Man's responsibility in regard to God's testimony must be maintained. The Lord says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life".

Why redemption, even the forgiveness of sins?

F.E.R. Redemption takes that form in regard to us. Redemption is that the liabilities are met. You are free of that liability. Redemption is not yet applied to the body. Forgiveness is most important, for without it you could not approach God; you could not enter into all that is God's mind, unless you approach God; and forgiveness of sins is necessary for that. We cannot enter into the thought and purpose of God, except as we are in liberty with God, and in the holiest; and to be in the holiest you must have a purged conscience. Being in the kingdom of the Son of His love, and having forgiveness, you are free to approach. Darkness subsisted by man's ignorance of God; but bring man into the light of redemption, and the darkness is dispelled. In Christendom the moral idea of conversion is scoffed at, and people are kept in ignorance of God; and Scripture is discredited. Redemption is complete in Christ for God; but we have to appropriate it. Redemption was complete for God before any one was redeemed. All the ways of God are based on Christ Jesus; but we have to come into the light of it, so that we can say, "in whom we have redemption". We have come into the light of it. We lose the force of many of the statements which the apostle uses, as, for instance, the authority of darkness. As a matter of fact it has been broken. If we went into heathen, idolatrous countries, we should feel we were face to face with the power of darkness. I do not believe that idolatry was an invention of man; it was the power of darkness. One form of idolatry is covetousness; and another is doing homage to the god and prince of this world. In popery and high churchism there is an immense amount of idolatry; when you

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come to the "mass", and "mediators" and "saints", you come to idolatry in a very unmistakable way.

Verses 15 and 16 refer to the proper place of Christ in relationship to creation. He is the Image of the invisible God; that is, He is representative. The invisible God is presented and represented in the Image. He is the Firstborn of every creature. Christ as last Adam can take up everything in creation right. "All things were created by him and for him". "For him" contemplated that He would take up headship in regard to them. Had He not creation right I scarcely see how redemption right could come in. I cannot conceive anything more important than the relation of Christ to "all things". "For him" is in view of Him. "By him" is instrumentally by His power. "He is before all things, and by him all things consist". He is the pillar of the universe. The foundations of the earth are out, of course, but He bears up the pillars thereof. He holds all the parts of the moral universe together. When all became dislocated, it was only in view of Christ that God could go on with things. Angels sinned in heaven. God took up Israel and then the nations, but all was in view of Christ. You want an explanation of God being able to go on with things in heaven and things on earth, such as they were. There is so much in us that answers to the dislocation. What spoiled things in heaven was lawlessness. The devil sinned from the beginning. Then lawlessness came in on earth; then came disintegration. Cain slew Abel. You could not get greater disintegration than that. What marks the present moment is lawlessness and disintegration. Adam broke away from God, and then Cain slew Abel. Then all that followed in the history of the world evidences the same principles.

In verse 16 we get the expression "all things"; it is one of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, both with Paul and John. It refers here to Christ

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"for by him were all things created". When Christ takes up all things which He does in the world to come, He does so in the right of creation as well as the right of redemption. The same thing comes out in Revelation 4 and 5, "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created". I should attach great importance to the expression "all things" -- "all things are delivered unto me, of my Father", Matthew 11:27; "all things that the Father hath are mine", John 16:15 "gather together in one, all things in Christ", Ephesians 1:10. The expression "all things" does not refer to material things. It is principalities, and powers, thrones, and dominions. In the whole course of things right away from the beginning, whatever God instituted was in view of Christ, and to be taken up in due time by Christ.

"First-born of all creation". Is that synonymous with "all things"?

F.E.R. Yes, I should think so: "by him were all things created". It is specified here what are the "all things", viz., "thrones", etc. The Lord takes up all things on double right, creation and redemption: the first is the right of creation. The "all things" were created for His pleasure. They are now under liability, and He takes that up. The first dominion God created was that of Adam: it was the position in which God placed Adam. "What is man? ... thou hast set him over the works of thy hands ... thou madest him to have dominion". Dominion was conferred on Adam. He was the head; that is the first dominion God instituted in connection with the earth. In Noah the principle of government came in; he received dominion in connection with the sword of government. Moses and David were in divinely given dominion. Whatever God saw fit to institute, it was created in view of Christ. Then there are created things in heaven. Christ will not merely come in to

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take these things up, when men have failed, but they were created for Him, that is in view of His taking them up.

Will you explain "Old things have passed away and all things are become new"?

F.E.R. The "old things" were the things of responsibility, but the new things are the things of reconciliation. Adam and Noah and all the others who were put in positions were so on the ground of responsibility, and the question was, whether they could hold them for God. But they all failed. Moses failed.

Is new creation wholly subjective?

F.E.R. Yes; it is man who is new created. In general, new creation is used in connection with man, and is subjective. "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature", Galatians 6:15, and that is subjective. The positions themselves were all right, only those placed in them were unable to hold them. It is a point of the greatest moment, that all the dealings of God in the past, were in view of Christ. A breakdown has come in. But Christ has not come in merely as a remedy (though He is that), but all was created in view of His taking them up. "A man in Christ" refers to man's state. "If any man be in Christ .. a new creation". To head up all things in Christ is an objective thought, but "if any man be in Christ" is a question of state. It is a new bottle.

Is new creation involved in "Made us meet"?

F.E.R. Yes; it involves that. I admit that if a man has the Spirit, he is made meet; but still it involves the work of God in him. If a man has the smallest appreciation of Christ -- let it be as small as may be -- that man is "made meet". If there is appreciation of Christ, then there is affection, and that man is made meet. Quickening and new creation

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are akin; there is not much difference. In Ephesians 2 the apostle predicates both regarding the Ephesians: "you hath he quickened -- created in Christ Jesus". The difference of idea is, that in quickening it is for God, and for the circle in which God may place you. New creation is to put a man before men, a new man "created in righteousness and holiness of truth".

What is the "Kingdom of the Son of his love"?

F.E.R. If we have a distinguished king in whom every moral quality harmonises, he will give character to his kingdom. So if you get "the Son of his love", you may be sure He will give character to His kingdom. It is a great thing to see Christ as the Son: many a one sees Him as Saviour and Lord, who does not see Him as Son. "That every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life", John 6:40. There are things visible and invisible; there are things which have come within the range of man's knowledge, but there are things which have not. Man has not seen principalities and powers. Christ is the image of the invisible God: He is the perfect representation. Adam was made in the image of God, that is relatively to the lower creation. A man who sees no difference between man and the brute creation, is blinded. It is simply monstrous. No argument should be spent upon it; it is not worth it. Man was representative of God: he represented God to the inferior creation. Had Adam remained as God made him, he would have been an object of reverence to all that came from him. "Likeness" means completely free from moral taint. He was pure in the nature of things. God as God is invisible, "whom no man hath seen, nor can see". But if a divine Person becomes man, He brings God into the presence of men. God as God is outside the ken of man; although the Son of God became incarnate and God was revealed. But God adjusts that with the fact that God remains God,

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and as such He is invisible. In the incarnation of the Son of God you get the revelation of God, but you get too the Man of God's purpose. "He is before all things, and by him all things consist".

It is interesting to see certain things that came out in the course of God's dealings, which are never repeated; for instance, the flood. God purged the earth with water; but it was not in view of this world, but in view of the world to come. He purged some abominations which had come to pass and which He could not tolerate. The earth is never again purged. So with Israel: they were taken out of Egypt, but it will never be done again. They forfeited the land because of the golden calf and so they have yet to be brought into the land, but that will be in the world to come. Their captivity to Babylon was predicted before they went into the land. God will recover them from Babylon -- not again from Egypt.

What is "By him all things consist"?

F.E.R. They are held together by Him. For the moment everything seems dislocated, but things are maintained. They appear out of gear, but "He upholds all things by the word of his power". The whole physical system is held together by the Sun, so everybody will be held together in Christ as head. "He that is not subject to the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him", John 3:36. That describes the state of the Jew at this moment. They are lawless and out of their orbit. The wrath of God is upon the Jew -- it is suspended in a way, but when God takes up the Jew again, they will then come under it. The harlot will come under the wrath of God, her flesh will be burned. Things in heaven have been affected by evil, the throne of darkness is above. In Revelation a great conflict takes place between Satan and his angels, and Michael and his angels, and the devil is cast out, and he will find no more place there. "He is the head of the body, the assembly" (verse 18).

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In Ephesians Head to the church is the crown of all, but here it is the beginning: and is stated differently. Here it is inherent, and in Ephesians it is given. Looked at inherently, He is the Head of the body, but in Ephesians He is the Head over all things and Head to the body. It is His exaltation as man, first taken out of death; and then Head of the body is the crown of all. Here in Colossians He is Head inherently, not as a man down here. He is the Son of the Father's love. He began His history here as man, and He went up to the right hand of God; but John has another line. He came out of heaven, and this line touches John. It is exceedingly interesting to see it stated in this way -- He is the Head -- the beginning; the First-born from the dead. The last is relative, for others are to be brought in on the ground of resurrection; as death lay upon them. He is the First-born from the dead. A death blow is struck at death. In the fact of Christ becoming man, He is the beginning. Every family will take its character from Christ. The church will, Israel will, and all the Old Testament saints too, and the nations. It will be a great thing to see an end of all confusion, and see all in harmony, which will be when Christ takes up everything. Here on earth He could subdue all evil in His presence, and in every circle in which He was He gave character to that circle, and He is able to do that to the utmost degree. "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost", John 1:33. He received the Spirit that He might communicate it. Nothing stood before Christ; death, demons, disease depart. The effect of Christ coming here was brought to an issue in regard to Israel. There was a separation between the clean and the unclean; and the demons went into the herd of swine and down they go to the abyss and that is where the Jews are today.

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God would not have gone on with man except in view of Christ. The blood taken into the holiest of all proves that it went beyond Israel. Now we get the headship of Christ on the footing of resurrection (verse 18). In regard to creation, it does not speak of Him as the beginning. When it comes to the ground of resurrection, then it is that He is the beginning. The starting-point of everything is Christ risen. It is wonderful what you get in Christ as man. You get an Object of perfect divine complacency; one who can impart His Spirit to men on the ground of redemption. "All the fulness was pleased to dwell in him", and He "made peace by the blood of his cross". There you get the two things. The heavenly host celebrated "Glory to God in the highest", and "good pleasure in man". It was the same at the baptism and on the mount of transfiguration. He, as man, was the object of divine complacency, and He could impart His Spirit to man. "He is the head of the body", is actual and final. He is that, but there is a headship which is provisional. He is head of every man.

What do you understand by the body? It is a recognised thing in Scripture. It is assumed here; but what is the idea which is to be understood?

Is it not the assembly?

F.E.R. Oh, yes; but it implies that there is something here for Christ. I think it is that which lives in His life. The body is the vehicle of the life of Christ in a moral sense. Christ is a Man in heaven, and has His body, but the body is the vehicle of His life down here. It is the vehicle of blessing because it is the vehicle of Christ's life. Of course it must be taken up and understood morally. Every Christian is in the body. The Galatians were not living much in His life, but they were in the body. So, too, the Corinthians. They had received the Spirit, and so were in the body. Colossians is in advance of the elementary

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epistles. The great point in Colossians is life; the Spirit is only once mentioned. The idea is that the body is here in His life. You get "when Christ who is our life", then all the exhortations in chapter 3 seem to go on the ground of Christ being the life of the body. The body is always viewed as provisionally complete, like a regiment; if all were killed but ten men, yet the regiment is there. The body is not the public thing; we have to maintain individuality in these days, but I recognise the existence of the body, and therefore I could not be sectarian. Sectarianism is a practical denial of the body. It is a falsification of the truth. Every quality of Christ comes out in the body, compassion and mercy, etc. -- "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly". It is Christ in you. He is the beginning. It is a wonderful thing; you can never improve upon the divine beginning. A child learning to paint may improve upon the beginning, and in time may become an artist. So a potter, he may begin by some rough work, and eventually become a skilled potter. But that is because of human infirmity; but you cannot imagine any improvement in God.

Is He the beginning in incarnation, or in resurrection?

F.E.R. It is Himself who is the beginning, although resurrection is contemplated here. One of the Essays and Reviews is on "the education of the world"; by the late Dr. Temple -- and he says that there has been brought out an education of man, and Christ coming in was a part in that education. It was the education of fallen man. It all went on wrong lines, for it made man the beginning, but Christ is the beginning. How men who profess Christianity can commit themselves to such things in the teeth of Scripture is to me quite astounding. If Christ did not stand on the footing of "out of the dead", no one could stand with Him. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground

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and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit". You cannot improve upon God's beginning, for God's work is just as good at the beginning as at the end. The beginning involves the finish; the foundations of a house involve the roof. In the succeeding verses we get great light in regard to what will give character to the universe (see verses 20 - 22). Christ was personally the Object of divine complacency; but the object in view was that all was to be brought into divine complacency, and all the fulness of God is available for man as light, because it is in a Man.

Chapter 3 gives us things in the present. Chapter 1 goes back to what has been effected. "Christ made peace by the blood of his cross". It goes back to what Christ was here upon earth. "In him all the fulness was pleased to dwell". The Father was there, and the Spirit was there. "The Father which dwelleth in me, he doeth the works". They were the Father's works, and they were done in the power of the Spirit. There was the perfect setting forth of divine Persons. The fulness of Godhead was there. In the present time, if people disregard the Spirit, God will give no light; they are left to their own imaginings. What these great men put out are lies; they do violence to the Spirit, therefore have no light. It is impossible to understand divine things by the natural understanding. Man's mind does not rise beyond man's things. If divine things are to be understood, we must have the Spirit of God. The mass of Christendom give no place to the Spirit. I am amazed at people going and attaching themselves to the great systems of men. They have no understanding, or they could not. There is no gathering-point except Christ. The Spirit of God gathers to Christ. The Spirit of God will not gather any particular company to Christ. He gathers the whole company, and although we do not see it yet, we recognise it. "To reconcile all things unto himself".

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Then it is amplified, and says, "By him, I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven". It is a great thing to get into view the "all things" and Christ in relation to them. The assembly is only one item of "all things". It has a wonderful place, because it is His body, yet it is not the "all things". It is the inner circle. If a stone is thrown into the water, you get a great number of concentric circles; but then there is an inmost circle, but every circle has the same centre. The inmost circle is the only existing circle. In Hebrews 12 there is one company you come to, mount Zion, but that is a mount; then to the heavenly Jerusalem, which is an idea; then to the church of the firstborn, that is actually existing. There are the angels, too -- an innumerable company of angels; that company is actually existing. We do not come to Israel, nor the nations, because we have not come to them yet; but we have come to Jesus, and the blood of sprinkling, they are actually there, Scripture is so accurate. God has many controversies with men, but Christ came in, and settled every controversy. He made peace by the blood of His cross. God has no controversy with man at the present time; it is preaching peace to you that were afar off, and to them that were nigh. God will have a controversy with man by-and-by. Speaking broadly in regard to men, God has no controversy with man at the present time. God may have a controversy with an individual, in the way of discipline, but that is more a Father's chastening. When man sets up Antichrist, then he has a controversy with God. They refuse the appointed Head, but that brings in judgement. It is remarkable how all through God allows things to go on until they are morally ripe.

Rem. Revelation 14, "The grapes are fully ripe". The grapes are judgement -- the harvest is for God, and He says, "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe"; it does not say "fully ripe". Man precipitates

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things so; it is a great thing to wait until things are ripe, and they are fully manifested.

F.E.R. In cases of discipline they are often prematurely dealt with, and it brings in confusion. Then we get that reconciliation has already taken place in regard to the assembly (see verse 21). Reconciliation is not complete without presentation. The reconciliation of the prodigal was not complete until the prodigal was brought into it. It is not complete until we are presented holy and unblameable. The object of reconciliation is to bring into divine complacency, but then the objects must be brought into the consciousness of it.

Why does it say "if"?

F.E.R. It must be conditional so long as we are here. If you view saints abstractly, you can leave out the element of responsibility; but the moment you speak of Christians upon earth, you must bring it in, for there is nothing absolute upon earth. The only way in which we can speak of Christians as in heaven, is as looking at them abstractly; but the moment you look upon them as being down here, let them have as much light as may be, there is still the danger of their being moved away from the hope of the gospel.

Since the saints stood in the truth of reconciliation, the next thing was the "body" -- reconciliation paving the way for the body. We could not understand much about the truth of the body if we did not enter into reconciliation. Reconciliation connects itself with the gospel -- the apostle puts it, "if ye continue in the faith" ... and "be not moved away from the hope of the gospel". The gospel in one sense covers everything. The ministry of the mystery does not confer anything on you; the gospel confers everything. There are four ministries spoken of: (1) Ministry of the gospel; (2) Of the new covenant; (3) Of reconciliation; (4) Of the mystery. The gospel covers the first three. The mystery is sometimes called "the

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mystery of the gospel". We are really brought by the gospel into what the mystery unfolds. The ministry of the mystery unfolds what the gospel confers. Here in Colossians 1 we get two ministries -- the gospel and the mystery; and in 2 Corinthians we get the two intermediate ministries -- the new covenant and reconciliation. God has set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ what the terms are on which He is with us; this is the ministry of the new covenant. Reconciliation brings in the thought that all is to be for the pleasure of God, that man may be a new creation. We are reconciled that we should be holy and unblameable in His sight. He has removed the distance that we might be before Him according to His pleasure. We have to take in one thing after another, we cannot take in all at once. God in the gospel speaks from the height of His purpose (see John 3:16), but I doubt if we can take it in as quickly; so the truth is presented in a way that we can take it in, step by step; hence we get it presented in different ministries. The apostle speaks to the Corinthians as they were able to bear it; so the first epistle is chiefly taken up with the gospel (see chapter 15). Then in 2 Corinthians we get the ministry of the new covenant, and in chapter 5 we get the ministry of reconciliation. We could not take in the thought of God as to reconciliation unless we were believers. It was all in the thought of God from the outset. The father had all in his thought from the very first, when he ran to meet the prodigal. Of course, reconciliation has reference to the state we were in, but then the reconciliation was effected by the death of Christ, not by what was effected in us. The Corinthians had to enter into it, but the reconciliation was effected in the death of God's Son, otherwise there could not be the testimony of it, the "word of reconciliation". The Corinthians were not in all the good of the gospel. The parable of the prodigal carries us much further than the good Samaritan.

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One is the wilderness, the other carries you inside. Until a man is free of the judgement under which he is, you cannot talk to him of anything; when he knows that, you may set forth to him the terms upon which God is with him; then reconciliation being effected, he can be here for the pleasure of God, being a new creature. "We beseech ... be ye reconciled to God" is abstract. The apostle is stating in a broad way what was his ministry; what began in Christ: "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" was being continued in the apostle, though he could go further; for reconciliation having been effected in Christ, the word of reconciliation was committed to him.

When shall we be presented holy and unblameable in His sight -- is it future?

F.E.R. It is abstract. We are reconciled for this purpose. I should not say it is future. The statement of it having been made, we should seek to accept it, and enter into it now. The "if" of verse 23 is to recognise them as still in the place of responsibility; "to present you" is to set you before God. It is not a question of what we are practically (although in a way it is), but what we are in the new man. Just as much as we are in the reality of new creation, do we enter into being "holy and unblameable in his sight". Verse 23 is true of the most spiritual Christian that ever lived, that he is responsible not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. There is no "mystery" in heaven. "Mystery" refers to something that takes place on earth. In Ephesians 2, where saints arc spoken of as raised up and made to sit in heavenly places, there is nothing about mystery; but in Ephesians 3, where what we are on earth is taken up, we get "mystery" again. The remarkable thing that comes out in the mystery is that the Christ who was rejected from this earth is here on this earth; and how does that come about? His body is here, and that is

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the truth of the mystery. The apostle goes on to speak of the body (verse 24). "The afflictions of Christ". Christ is still looked upon as suffering here. What exposed the apostle to persecution was the preaching and the carrying of the testimony to the Gentiles. The Jews always persecuted for this, "forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles", as in Thessalonians. Still, after all, he was filling up the afflictions of Christ, and we ought all to be filling up what remains to us. Moses suffered the reproach of Christ because of his service; so Christ is still in affliction. He is suffering in His body, the assembly, and we have come in to fill up that which remains. If we were as devoted to the service of Christ's body as Paul was, we should come more into His afflictions. The Lord is perfectly sovereign, and if you are to serve His body, you will have to break with the ties of flesh; not that you become unnatural, but His body takes the precedence. If you go on the line of knowing no one after the flesh, and are content to take that ground, you are likely to suffer in the flesh, natural ties are subordinated to this. If I know people in a social line, it is knowing them after the flesh. We are to regard people as they are in new creation; so I should have as much objection to a sort of communism, as I should to social distinctions. There is as much evil in levelling up as in levelling down. Every saint will come out in display, otherwise there would not be a complete display of Christ; Ephesians 1:23. The thought of the bride is that He has the church for His own comfort. The body is that which is adequate for the complete display of Christ. In order to this you must have every saint; it is only thus it is adequate for a complete display of Christ.

We little know what it was for Him to become a Man. It takes the whole church to set it forth. The divine idea of the body is that Christ should be still here. The head and the body are always looked at as distinct. The figure of the human body is only taken

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up for the "body". Everything comes forth from the head to the body. It is head in the sense of "chief". Christ is Head of the assembly as the husband is head of the wife. There has been an attempt to employ and carry figures too strictly and literally. The Head is the One from whom we derive everything. Verse 25, "Complete the word of God". The epistle to the Colossians has always Gentiles in view. Reconciliation comes in more prominently with the Gentile; the Jew having been under law, responsibility is taken up in connection with him. The mystery explains how Christ can be in the very scene where He was rejected, and the only way that could be is in the body which is taken from Him. Nothing can really represent Christ except what is of Christ; we only really represent Him as we are partakers of the divine nature. The body is here -- the Head is in heaven, but we derive from Him. Christ was the light of the world when He was here. Now the assembly is that; but the assembly does not answer to the mind of God about it. It has left its first love. It has not represented Christ. It has not been a true witness, so the threat hangs over it to remove the candlestick. How little we look into the great thought of God about the assembly, that which is to represent Christ; and who can understand that Christ can be here, actually, in the very scene from which He was rejected. This can only be as we derive from Him, just as truly as Eve was formed out of Adam.

Was what came out in Christ "God reconciling" continued in the assembly?

F.E.R. In Christ, God was here. When Christ was here all the fulness of God was here; the line on which God was, was reconciling man to Himself. He draws near to man, "not imputing trespasses". The apostle was an ambassador. We could not say this of the Lord. It was God who was here. In Christ we get the full revelation of all God's thoughts in regard

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to man. There is a danger of losing sight of the very special place the apostles had as regards their ministry -- they inaugurated as it were -- they were pioneers. Our preaching and testimony is simply what came out by the apostles. They were inspired. The apostles could say "our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son". They write that our fellowship may be with them. The "our" is emphatic, and marks the special place the apostles had in the testimony and service. We constantly get an apostolic "we". Here in Colossians he speaks in the singular: "Whereof I am made minister". The apostle's wish was to make all know what they had seen and heard, that our fellowship might be with them, and then he shows the full height of their "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ".

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THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (2)

Colossians 2

F.E.R. The apostle desired that they might rejoice in his sufferings for them. He rejoiced in them, filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. Then he would have them know what great conflict he had for them, and not only them, but for all down to Laodicea, and not only there, but as many as had not seen his face in the flesh; which brings in us. The epistle to the Laodiceans was to be read by the Colossians, and vice versa. It is remarkable the scope and bearing of the apostle's ministry -- to "as many as have not seen my face in the flesh" -- his conflict was to the end given in verse 2 -- hearts comforted, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding. That is the great preservative. What comes out in Colossians is just what marks the present time. You get philosophy and science and human wisdom, and the name of Christianity retained, and yet throwing the law and testimony of God overboard. There could be nothing for God if there was no testimony -- when things are turned upside down all is confusion. There are those who say, there is no testimony, and others do not go so far, but they throw the Scriptures overboard; but if there are no Scriptures, I do not see what we have. Influences are at work to oppose the testimony of God; if there be no testimony, there can be nothing for God. "Thy testimonies are very sure", Psalm 93:5. The testimony will have its place in those in whom God has wrought, yet even true Christians come under the evil influences at work which tend to oppose the testimony. If man has departed from God, then, as a result, all is out of gear, and then we are absolutely dependent upon a

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testimony from God. The position in Christendom is illogical; for in a world of confusion, to discredit testimony, and yet retain the name of Christianity, is illogical. I often feel indignant at the enormous assumption of people who throw testimony overboard, and yet are quite ignorant of all that Scripture says. The great antidote is "the full assurance of understanding". The leaders who oppose the testimony have no idea of the "testimony of Jesus" being the "spirit of prophecy". The mystery of God is His purpose to head up all things in Christ. The full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is the resource of God, by which He can displace evil, and bring in what is according to Himself; God's ability to do that is wisdom. The form it takes now is, "Christ in you, the hope of glory". The mystery is manifest in that way to us, and in that way we are in the good of God's purpose, because in virtue of Christ in you, you get the power of sin and evil broken, and what is of God prevailing.

The new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness. It is only in Christianity you can have any real idea of righteousness and holiness; the terms may be used, but there is no real idea of them. We get a foreshadowing of the new man in Old Testament saints. What distinguished them before God was really some trait of Christ. Like Abraham, who was called out from his kindred, and from his father's house. It was a foreshadowing of Christ. It was He who was alien to His mother's children. Then again, Abraham went out, and left his country. It was really pointing on to Christ. It was He who had not where to lay His head. Every trait and feature in Old Testament saints which refreshes you, is all a foreshadowing of Christ, and is but some trait of Christ. The word of God is that which has been light all along the history of the world. Whatever bit of

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light there was, was always by the word of God. The word of God is the testimony. People greatly need encouragement. Some suffer under pressure of circumstances; others on account of the loss of natural links, because of the path they have taken. People are often liable to depression, and so saints need encouragement. People, however, live in a border land. They do not enter with full heart into the new links which the apostle John speaks of. We are to love one another; there is no neutral ground. The two-and-a-half tribes did not go over, and they were extremely liable to the influences of the world. Some people think they would be giving themselves away to answer to the claims of Christian love. We cannot afford to despise lowly people. We have to accept them because God has accepted them. We often cannot get past people's peculiarities, but the likelihood is they are more acceptable in God's sight than perhaps you are, and by you, I mean myself. I am not the best Christian! We want to get round to what Christ is for God. A babe knows the same Christ that a father does; but a babe only apprehends what Christ is for him; but a father apprehends Him as on God's side; that is the One in whom all God's purpose centres. If we apprehend Him as the Ark of the covenant, we must enter the holiest. A babe cannot go on to the riches of the secret of God; that is the knowledge of the mystery. It is all the work of the Spirit which brings us to the point to be arrived at, that is the knowledge of the mystery. It must be very great that all the treasures of resource are found in it. Christ is the Head. All things are headed up in Him. In chapter 1 Christ is spoken of as Head first in connection with creation, and then in connection with reconciliation. The mystery is the whole extent of God's purpose in Christ. The assembly has the greatest place in that purpose. God will displace sin and death in the same place where sin and death were,

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you get the introduction of all that is according to God. In the Head of all things you get all the fulness of God, all will be accomplished and brought to pass in the light of God. All will be established morally according to God, and all will be held together in perfect unity. It is all one in the Head. One Head holding all must bring in unity. There are circles in heaven, and there will be circles on earth, and each and all will take character from Christ, and in that way be according to God, and all held together by one Head -- "The Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings". It is a beautiful expression.

Rem. "Enticing words" was to make them dissatisfied and to want something else.

F.E.R. The apostle seemed to be alive to the danger that beset them. I suspect there was an effort in earlier days to bring in a mixture of philosophy, Eastern ideas and Judaism. There was an effort to allegorise scriptures, and in that way to destroy the moral application. The impudent way in which men try to get over facts stated in Scripture, and treating them as fables! Facts which have a great moral bearing, and yet these men do not openly deny the Scriptures, but are such traitors. In looking at Scripture, it is important to look at it from a moral point of view. Nothing is related as history, but entirely with a moral bearing, and with the intention to convey some moral thought; but we must have the foundation of facts, not fables. People try to accommodate themselves to philosophy and science; but it is no good, for those to whom they try to accommodate themselves have no intention of accepting any testimony of God at all. If people do not apprehend Christ spiritually, they cannot understand Scripture. The Scriptures were given for believers, they were written for our learning. If a man has not a spiritual apprehension of Christ, he cannot understand any part of Scripture, either Old Testament or New.

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In our day the most important things in Scripture, new birth and eternal life, are misunderstood. They have connected new birth with baptism, and eternal life has been taken up in a material way, and the result is these things have been made a laughing-stock. These things can only be understood by the Spirit of God. The apostle preached Christ crucified, that was intensely moral; it set forth the end of man, and set forth, too, what was God's demonstration of what flesh is in His sight.

Are there not some parts of Scripture more difficult than others?

F.E.R. Yes, there are; the most difficult parts of scripture to me are the writings of John. All depends on ability of apprehension. We are not men enough to apprehend them. "In understanding be men", 1 Corinthians 14:20. If so, these things would not be obscure to us. The apostle prays for this here. In John's gospel Christ is presented entirely as on God's side. It is essentially on the divine side: "We have contemplated his glory", John 1:14. He is the Father's sent One, come to do the Father's will. His words were the Father's words, His works the Father's works. In the other gospels the miracles were all as setting forth the virtue in Christ for man. The key to John's gospel is the "glory as of an only begotten with a father". Even the miracles related in John's gospel, which are sparingly given, are counted as signs, and they manifested forth His glory. John speaks of eternal life morally, and presents it in the Father and the Son, and so we can get it now. In the other gospels it is spoken of in connection with the coming age. The great struggle we have gone through has been to get the truth of eternal life out of the rut of materialism.

Verses 6 and 7. We have received the Spirit, and the great point is to walk in the Spirit, not as natural men. I do not think Christ is very much presented in

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preaching; certain things are pressed on people, and anecdotes are told; His work is put in afterwards, and forgiveness is pressed on them, but there is very little preaching of Christ, which is the setting forth of the present relation of Christ who is at the right hand of God, but yet stands in a special relation to all men. He is the One Mediator, the present living Mediator. The redemption is in Christ Jesus, and it is available for men as they are affected God-wards. Man has revolted from God, and therefore man has to turn to God. The responsibility of returning lies upon the one who revolted, and the truth of the Mediator is that the way is open the moment he apprehends the grace of God in the Mediator, and then he turns to God. The Mediator had taken up man's liabilities. The point in preaching is, to present to men the present position of Christ at this moment as having taken up a relation to all men. Christ is to be presented as Head: "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins", Acts 13:38. Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. If Christ stands by divine appointment in relation to men, which He is adequate and entitled to fill, then man has responsibilities in regard to Him. It is a great thing to press this upon men. Walking in Christ is the acceptance of Christ as wisdom instead of being such a fool as to trust one's self. It is a great thing to walk in Him, to find Christ as wisdom. I am a far better man than I should have been had I walked by my own head. It gives superiority; there is a moral dignity that is above everything -- that is in Christ. It is all morally great.

It is important to see the line on which things are presented and seen. There are many things in the world which are not "after Christ", and there are things "after Christ". The rudiments of the world, philosophy and vain deceit, are not after Christ; they are not on that line. Things are either on one

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line or the other. The literature of the day is on the line of philosophy and vain deceit, except when it is pure imagination. We have to test things, to try them, and the test is, Are they after Christ? The test is, Do they bring the light of God? The rudiments of the world, and the traditions of men, never brought the light of God. What is "after Christ" brings in revelation.

Rem. People speak about the light of reason.

F.E.R. But that does not bring in the light of God. The world did not begin with philosophy; philosophy began when certain social conditions existed, and deductions were then made as to what existed. Mathematics never originated anything. Reason originates nothing. All right reason must begin from the top; but what people speak of as reason is in the sense of from man to God; they begin at the wrong end. If there is no revelation, no real light of God, there are no premises to reason on. The traditions of men are very doubtful premises. They say, supposing certain conditions, then reason would be superior to passion. I do not believe it, because I do not think passion could be controlled by reason.

What does verse 6 refer to?

F.E.R. It is a remarkable expression, because it takes in three titles. Christ Jesus, the Lord, not the Lord Jesus Christ. Ye have received the Christ. The point of the epistle (the mystery) is really Christ in you, the hope of glory; in you Gentiles. It would not have been so wonderful to say this of Jews; but Christ is Jesus the Lord. "The Lord", brings in exaltation. "Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living", Romans 14:9. Then he goes on to warn them against being deflected: he brings in the Lord, because He is Head of all principality and power. The Lord is supreme for administration "to us there is ... one Lord Jesus Christ", 1 Corinthians 8:6. Everything for God

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is effectuated by the Lord. There is no one you can look at above Him. He is the Head: there are many below Him. No one ever gets free of Satan till he gets to the Lord. It is only as you get to the Lord, that you realise Satan's power. Israel had to be on completely new ground (resurrection) before they were free of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. If a person is under the power of superstition, liable to be carried away by imagination, when they get to the Lord, they get free of it. No one who has got to the Lord would occupy themselves with superstition. Those who can influence you are above you. If I have fallen under the influence of spirits, I have not got to the Lord. We are not going to affect the Lord. He will affect us; He is too great to be affected. The Lord will not bend to our point. He may bend us to Him. We like to persuade the Lord to our way of thinking sometimes, but we are not going to do it. We forget sometimes that He is the Lord. He is not only Jesus, but the Lord. It is a wicked invention that any human mediator could have influence with the Lord, to affect Him. The wonderful thing has come to pass, that Christ is in the Gentiles. The Jew could not understand Christ being among the Gentiles. Only one thing explains it, and that is that His body is here. In the gospels we get Christ presented to man, and in the epistles He is exalted and made Lord and Christ at the right hand of God. The Christ is the One whom Scripture has always had in view; therefore Christ come in the flesh was what was insisted on. The idea of Christ the Anointed, is that the one is come who is going to give effect to all God's will.

Is it for earth that He is the Anointed?

F.E.R. No. The one on whom the Spirit descended was the same who baptised with the Holy Spirit, and He did not do this until He was exalted. The great thought, however, in Scripture is a connection between

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heaven and earth. We get the kingdom of heaven now; we have to look to the heavens for light and direction. In Genesis God made the heaven and the earth, and so also in Revelation 21:3, "the tabernacle of God is with men". It is a great thing for saints to get to the Lord, to be ordered by Him. There is no greater favour could be conferred upon you than to give you His mind as to what is taking place down here. The great effect of it is, that you are not overwhelmed nor overcome by evil. There is no phase of evil but what the Lord has foreseen, and He lays it all down in Scripture. It may cause a sense of confusion in me, but He is above it. He is not confused by it. He saw it all from the outset. Verse 8 is a warning. The folly of philosophy is that it comes short of telling me about God. It can speculate and argue. The philosopher's premises are only from what he knows, but what can philosophy tell me? No one from what we see around us can know God. There are 10,000 witnesses of God here -- parental affection, filial obedience, etc. -- and yet these things are out of course; man's passions get the better of him, and all the evils resulting from that, and who is going to know what God is from that?

Does receiving Him go beyond faith?

F.E.R. Yes, I think so; they had received the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit, there is the recognition of Jesus the Lord. If we walk in the Spirit, we walk in the truth of the Christ.

Is it the same as "abiding in Christ"?

F.E.R. Well, here it is walk which carries the idea of conversation. Walk is the result of abiding, I should say.

Is it Christ dwelling in your heart by faith?

F.E.R. In Ephesians 3 it is prayer that it might be so, and it is the result of state; it is by being strengthened with might by His Spirit, in the inner man. Received the Christ, is having received the testimony;

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but that could be said of any Christian; but being strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith is, I think, a good deal further on. The epistle is essentially a "guarding epistle". It is with a view to their not moving away. The great effort has been to identify Christ and Christianity with the course of this world. It was the effort of Judaising teachers and philosophers. In this country it is what has been done; but it is all false. If Christ, the Son of God, came in as man, He cannot be a 'crown'; He must be a beginning, a Head; so it says, the beginning of the creation of God, not the end of it. People render it often a new creation; but that is not it. He is the Head, the beginning of the creation of God. He is the firstborn from the dead; that is, it was God's purpose to establish all on the footing of resurrection. Redemption is in Christ, and He is risen, and hence it follows that all in the creation of God must be on that footing, otherwise it would not be in accord with Christ.

Rem. The eagerness to connect Christ with this world is in order to put a sanction on it.

F.E.R. Yes; the way forgiveness of sins has been presented, is that man might have it in this world. The truth is, man is forgiven in view of another world. People are forgiven, and receive the gift of the Spirit, and that connects them with Christ and another world. The benefit is presented to every man, so that in coming to Christ they might receive the Spirit, and thus be in attachment to Christ, who is the beginning of another world. We are justified in Christ; not in ourselves. The disposition is to connect Christ and Christianity with the course of this world. Christianity has come to be the religion of this world. It is a point of the last moment to make manifest the great end of preaching. Forgiveness is preached in the name of One who is the Head of a

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system, and the object is that man may believe in Him, and, consequent on faith, receive the Spirit, which attaches him to Christ and to another world.

"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power" (verses 9, 10). It is a great expression that "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". The idea is, that "all the fulness of the Godhead" is brought into contact with man. All that God is, is brought into contact with man.

Verse 9: There is nothing left out of the Godhead "all the fulness", and it is in a vessel, "bodily". This verse refers to what the Lord is now, but chapter 1: 19 is what He was as down here. No one knows anything of God, save as we see it revealed in Christ as man. We have the full revelation of God in a man, without any confusion of God and man. There is where the mystery lies. There is the full setting forth of what God is in a man. The union of God and man is an improper thought. By the fact of the incarnation, the Son becoming a Man, He took a place lower than angels. Chapter 1: 19 is not what was true of Him in eternity. He was in the form of God then. You must have the vessel for the fulness of God to dwell in. In eternity the unity of Godhead existed, but after the incarnation there was a spot where the fulness of Godhead was pleased to dwell. In becoming Man He gave up the place that was proper to Him. The object of it was that everything might take its character from Him. The truth is God can trust nothing but the divine nature. There is no greater mystery in Scripture than the unity of Godhead. Three Persons, and yet unity of such a character that they can speak of an "I". Someone has said, "No separation of will, but each willing". In the Old Testament there is but one Person speaking, and nothing to show there were three Persons there.

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In Christ, the High Priest can touch the Ark. The Son became man, and in doing so He touched the Ark. The Ark and the High Priest are one. It is two lights in which Christ is presented; in Him the approach is equal to the revelation. The Priest has gone in and touched the Ark; He did not need blood or incense (the blood was on our account). Approach and revelation are set forth in the same Person; it is the foundation of Christianity that approach is equal to revelation.

In verse 10 we get He is "the head of all principality and power". Men are affected by principalities and powers, they are affected intellectually. The influences by which men are affected come from heaven. Take idolatry, superstition, and infidelity; these are influences which come from the unseen world. Satan has not yet been cast out of the heavenly places; and therefore Satanic influences come from heaven. Man never invented idolatry, nor do I believe that infidelity is natural to man; they have come in; but they have come in from somewhere else. In result, what will be is that every man will be affected by Christ, for Christ will be the wisdom of the universe. The universe will come under the influence of Christ. The wisdom which is from Him alone, is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy", James 3:17. It is a remarkable passage: the wisdom of man leads to "confusion and every evil work", verse 16. The universe will be influenced by Christ, and you will get -- not confusion and every evil work -- but purity and peace and gentleness, mercy and good fruits, and no hypocrisy. How would the world get on without hypocrisy and partiality? Every man in the world is a hypocrite. People keep up false appearances. We are warned against dissimulation.

The account we get of wisdom is very beautiful. It is a wonderful thing to look forward to a system

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where the wisdom which is from God alone will prevail. The first principle of the world to come is righteousness and salvation. That will be purity -- full of mercy and good fruits. The other expressions are what describe Christ. He was pure, peaceable, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. It is a description of what Christ was Himself while down here. No man can walk rightly according to God down here, except under the influence of Christ. You may distribute millions of money; but except you are under the influence of Christ, there is something wrong with it. Suppose you could cure all the poverty in the world; it would not improve man morally. Lawlessness came in first; but it was succeeded by hatred; and these principles mark the world now.

Principalities and powers generally refer to heaven; thrones and dominions refer more to things on earth. Principalities and powers are looked upon as the forces which act upon men down here, whether for good or for evil. Satan is the anti-priest; he is the accuser of the brethren; he accuses them day and night; he accused Job; and he tried to accuse Joshua in the time of Zechariah. Christians often want to walk according to men. What do the masses get from the great men in the world? Things are not improved by their influence. I believe what comes out now has never been surpassed. There may be the advance of education and civilisation; but what we want is the wisdom from above.

All that God is, dwells in Christ bodily. But in the fact of dwelling in Him bodily, it is all brought into contact with men. The moment He became man, all the fulness was there. The necessary consequence of the incarnation was that all the fulness of the Godhead was there. Nothing could affect the unity of the Godhead. Figures and illustrations which attempt to give an idea of the Trinity are useless. The Father

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and the Son are one in the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit is spoken of as the Spirit of the Father, and also as the Spirit of the Son. The truth as to God is that He dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see", 1 Timothy 6:16. Many people have poorly entered into the truth that Christ is God. Many sentimental ideas have been brought in in connection with the name Jesus, which have affected people more perhaps than they know. But the soul has to apprehend that He is God. "Ye are complete in him". That is, you lack nothing. You are complete in regard to wisdom. People read books, and they may get a knowledge of men and manners; but where is wisdom? I cannot see that wisdom has reference to this world only. You cannot be wise and leave God out. If you leave God out, there is no standard of good and evil, nor any solution of them. When you get an absolute standard of right and wrong, and can look on to the solution of good and evil, then you begin to get an idea of wisdom. The coming of Christ involves God bringing everything to an issue; and wisdom, therefore, has reference to that great question. Good and evil will each respectively find its own place. Everything has an end. There will be a disentanglement. The Son of God has been manifested that He might undo the works of the devil. He has come in, as the absolute standard of right and wrong, so that all may be brought to an issue. The disentanglement is now going on in Christians. They are to refuse the evil and choose the good. We have a perfect standard. Christ loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Now Christ gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from all lawlessness. A Christian being full-grown in Christ means that every moral faculty is developed; every part is proportionately developed. The heart and the conscience and the mind all exercised in proportion.

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What is "head of principality and power"?

F.E.R. There is nothing above Christ. It is a great thing to get this into the soul. He is the Head of all principality and power. Fulness of Godhead dwells in Him, and ye are complete, "filled full" in Him. You want no knowledge but Christ. What can philosophy give me? There is really no such thing as philosophy, for if you leave God out, it is not philosophy, no wisdom in it, and if you bring God in, it is religion. J.N.D. said, "If a person wants to be wise and intelligent, it is the knowledge of God will make you wise". The end of wisdom is God, to know Him. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". The tendency was to try and make philosophy and Judaism work together. The Jew adopted a great deal of the eastern speculation as to God; the teaching of the Old Testament was turned into allegories; the historical persons were made to represent some principle or other; all turned to mysticism. It is a great lesson for us to learn in what complete independence God has placed us of all that is of man. The apprehension of truth is not according to a person's natural ability, but according to one's spirituality. We do not learn through men, we are taught by the Spirit. It is the only way we get it. People may have a retentive memory and the like, but you only get what you are prepared for. We were speaking about Ephesians 2 the other day, and I felt I knew little or nothing about it. I felt I was not man enough for it. Scripture tells you (as someone has said) what you are to get, but it does not give it to you. It is the Spirit who gives it to you. I do not believe the Lord has a greater pleasure here in the good of His people, than to direct us into the will of God. We get "the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God", 2 Thessalonians 3:5. We may have truth suggested to us by another, but you have to get it by the Spirit. The disciples never learnt anything from the Lord

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upon earth, and they had the best Teacher that ever was, or could be, until they received the Spirit, and then they got all the gain of it afterwards. John 14:26: "He shall bring all things to your remembrance; whatsoever I have said unto you". Of course our walk must be guided by our knowledge.

If saints want to grow, do you not send them to the Scriptures?

F.E.R. No. I should try to lead him to the Lord. The Lord might lead him to the Scriptures. The word of His grace is a moral idea, not so much the Bible, but the expression of God's grace. Whatever expresses the grace of God is the word of His grace. It is the word of His grace, not the word of His requirement as the legal system was. Now in verse 11 you get the other side: "we are filled full in him", but now we are circumcised, we are cut off from the other man. Just as a saint grows in Christ, he grows in intelligence according to God. What will man's knowledge here be worth, if this world were to pass away. We want intelligence as to what is eternal and enduring, and just as we grow in Christ, we are intelligent in this way. We are complete in Him, and we are cut off from the other. All that is in Christ the fulness of the Godhead is available for you. "He is head of all principality and power" is brought in to cut off the system of mediation that they were bringing in. Circumcision meant the putting off the body of the flesh, and baptism meant burial so that you should not be seen. Circumcision refers to the death of Christ. Many a man died, but it was the death of Christ that was the putting off the body of the flesh, the whole state before God was condemned. In the circumcision of Christ all goes. The putting off the body of the flesh was what was effected in His death. No other death could effect it. Resurrection brings in the new man. We could not have putting off without bringing in something else. We are sanctified by being

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extinguished, as God will not allow the flesh in a man.

These are authorities by which men will be affected in the world to come, men will be affected by influences from heaven; but, then, Christ is Head. He is pre-eminent above all principalities and powers. The practical result will be, that all will be affected by Christ. "Worshipping of angels". Angels play a great part in the imagination. One great man supposed that there was an angel in every blade of a plant! Men intrude into the angelic world, which they know nothing about.

Rem. But the One who is above them all has come close to man down here.

F.E.R. When a man has got Christ he has got wisdom. There is no wisdom when the most important considerations are left out.

It is a great thing in regard to what is going to be displayed, that all the fulness of the Godhead resides in Christ, and that He is the Head of all principality and power. It is not the case in connection with this universe; it is in connection with what is going to be. When God created Adam, the fulness of the Godhead did not dwell in Adam, nor was Adam head of all principality and power; it is that which has come to pass in Christ. All that is in the Godhead has come into contact with men, and then again, no principality and power can be against man, for Christ is Head of all. There have been principalities and powers under which man has been; but all will be changed. It makes all the difference between the world which has sprung up in the providence of God, and what will be. When the Son of God became man, then of necessity all the fulness of the Godhead must be there; you could not have the Son apart from the Father; nor the Spirit apart from the Father and the Son. But, then, all the fulness of the Godhead is in touch with man. "Living water" is presented for every man -- "whosoever will".

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It is an immense point to see what has come to pass in the Son of God becoming man. It was only the One to whom the inheritance belonged who could take up the liabilities and accomplished redemption; so the Son of God became man; but, in doing so, all the fulness of the Godhead was in touch with man. All principality and power is tested by Christ; and in result all principalities and powers which do not answer to Him, will be ejected; and hence Satan will fall from heaven as lightning. I cannot conceive of a principle more important than that all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily, and that He is the Head of all principality and power. It seems to me that the whole system of blessing in the world to come is dependent upon these. They are, therefore, vitally important. "Ye are complete in him". You are furnished with all wisdom and knowledge and understanding. I do not care how men are going to carry out things. If any government came into office, the most astute politician cannot forecast what will be the course of things; but he will be governed by expediency and circumstances. It is not wisdom; there is no resource; and he has to depend upon circumstances. But what we get in Christ is all the resources of wisdom and knowledge. He is Head of all principality and power; that is, that every power which affects man must take its cue from Christ. Principalities and powers evidently refer to heaven; they are in the heavenly places. They do not now take their character from Christ. Satan does not acknowledge Christ, for he will set up Antichrist. But it is true now that Christ is Head of all principalities and powers, and in result they must be ejected.

In Luke you get tremendous things brought out. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven". Then you get "all things are delivered to me of my Father". Christ is the appointed Centre. Then He speaks of revealing the Father. Then He comes in

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as man's neighbour. He comes in to give the impulse and impetus to mercy upon earth. Satan falling from heaven will produce a great change in heaven. Then you get Christ as centre, and as the revealer of the Father. Then He comes to give the impulse to mercy. Man is more prone to judgement than to mercy. The heavens will be purged; now they are not clean in His sight; and so, too, the earth will be purged.

You get more proof of the deity of Christ in Luke's gospel than almost anywhere else; more moral evidences, not in statements, but in acts. "No man knoweth who the Father is save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him". He revealed the Father, and only One in whom all the fulness of the Godhead was, could do so. I think people might ponder these two statements: "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" and "He is the head of all principality and power". They are amazing! There are three things we are warned against here: (1) Reason, that is man's mind (verse 8); (2) Religious order (verse 16); (3) Sentimentality (verse 18). These three things make up man. There is an answer in us to all these. Reason takes up things and makes deductions, takes up traditions of men, and the elements of the world.

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days". There is religiousness about man, superstition, religious order. High-churchism is a kind of religious order; months and seasons and times. Then there is sentimentality, which is more strongly developed in some than in others; that is intruding into things which they have not seen. Take man apart from the animal part of him, he is made up of these three things -- reason, religious order, and sentimentality. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the

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world, and not after Christ". All these things have come into Christianity. The Colossians were warned against them. There are many things which are of reason in higher criticism. It is all after the traditions of men. Then strongly developed in Christendom you get religious order. The Roman catholic and high churchman live in a world of imagination. The point in this chapter is that they all belong to this world system. Now, the point is, we belong to another system, and one which God has already called into existence, "for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" -- and "He is the head of all principality and power". We belong to that order, and so we get "ye are circumcised", "ye are risen with Christ", and "quickened together with him". Circumcision is the putting off the body of the flesh; the whole moral condition which qualifies a man for this world. A Christian is not qualified for this world; circumcision is the putting off the whole moral condition which fits for this world. There is a certain moral condition which qualifies a man for this world in feeling and mind and desire: that is the body of the flesh. It is the complete moral condition (which is the force of "body"). The world is made up of the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life". Now circumcision is the putting off the complete body of the flesh. The point is to see the divine idea. The moral condition which suits a man of this world, does not suit a man of the world of which Christ is the Centre. These two moral conditions are as different as they can be. You are risen with Christ and quickened with Him. We are risen, for all that is in association with Christ must be in accord with Christ. When people depart from the truth, they get back to what is natural to man. It is not to be wondered at in some cases that people who have been brought up with us, go back to these things if there is no work of God in them. In some cases

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reason and mind are more developed, and people turn to dissent; in others, sentimentality is stronger, and high churchism attracts; but in every case religious order is accepted.

What is "Buried with him in baptism"?

F.E.R. Until the body of the flesh is put off, they could not be buried, otherwise you bury them alive. Then it is you come back to your baptism. Baptism is not a person's responsibility. People were baptised in the early days apart from their entering into the significance of it; but we have to come to it, in its moral import, which is putting off the body of the flesh, then we come to the truth of our baptism. On the other hand, you are risen with Him; that is, you are in association with Christ. Then, too, you are quickened; that is, you are qualified in respect of spiritual affections; that is, you have a new moral being according to God. If Christianity brings before you living associations and relations, I do not see how you can be in them save as quickened of God. You cannot get a new moral condition and being, in any other way, save by being quickened. It is the only way a new moral being can be produced. We are quickened. It is not only we believe. We are quickened; but we realise the truth of the statement by virtue of the work of God in us. The whole theory, "only believe, and you will have everlasting life", is wrong. It is getting people to believe something about themselves. We are called to believe about God and Christ. We get nothing by faith, we know what is there by faith, but it is by the Spirit we appropriate. Faith apprehends what is there in Christ; but what is in Christ is for everybody, not for me in particular. I apprehend by faith that forgiveness and salvation are there in Christ for every man; but consequent upon faith we receive the Spirit, and it is by the Spirit we can appropriate these things. The divine way is that everything is in Christ

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for man. By faith I apprehend that; but by the Spirit I appropriate what is in Christ.

The most lawless men sometimes are those who are so in mind, others are lawless in imagination; they pry into what is not seen. There is no lawlessness where the Sun rules. In the heavens (Psalm 19), "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge; they have no speech nor language, yet their voice is heard". The point in each and all, whether circumcised, risen with Him, or quickened, is to separate us from the course of this world. From the end of verse 13 to the end of verse 15 refers really to the coming of the Lord. We have no scapegoat. Forgiveness of sins is not now administered publicly in the world.

Then we do not get the handwriting of ordinances blotted out yet; but publicly we still are under the period of law. The dispensation is not changed. The High Priest has not come out, nor have principalities and powers been spoiled publicly yet. Satan is not yet cast out. These will all be apparent in the world to come; but we anticipate all by faith. All was effected in the death of Christ; but it does not come out publicly until Christ comes in glory. There are the sufferings of Christ, and the glories to follow. We are still in the period of the sufferings; the glories are to come. Forgiveness of sins in the end of Luke 24 is anticipative of the world to come. It is in His name. We have forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, and the object is that we might approach God, that we might have liberty with God. The witness we have is totally unknown by the world. The witness of the Spirit is good to me; but one proof to others is, I can carry my bed. The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The law previously killed him; but now he carries his bed. These things will all be manifested in the world to

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come; but in the witness of the Spirit we have the good of them now. They are all accomplished. The principle of Christianity is that we anticipate by the Spirit what is going to be displayed. Then the apostle warns them against these different things -- religious order and imagination.

Imagination is the most lawless thing; take a mad man -- he is controlled by imagination without reason; then take a dreamer, he is quite lawless. A novel writer is one of the most lawless of men in imagination; he allows his imagination to work; he himself lives in an unreal world; and he seeks to induce others to do so. "Paradise Lost" is all imagination. If people spend their faculties in research, putting things together which have occurred, that is wholesome comparatively. I respect historians; but I feel very strongly about novel writers. Judaism was a worldly religious order, feasts and new moons, etc. -- they were only shadows, but the body is of Christ. The body is the beginning of the substance; the substance is what God is going to set forth in Christ. "Holding the head". You can do that because He is revealed. He has come out. That is not intruding into things which you have not seen. Men can hold Christ because He has been revealed. The Holy Spirit has come down to report the glory of Christ; but that followed His having been down here. "Holding the head" refers to the Head of all principality and power. The body is the only thing now which is in connection with the Head, and so the body gets all the present good of the Head. The Head will supply all morally in the world to come; there will be sunshine and healing water. The Head is the source of supply now; we get all the good of the Head now. "Increases with the increase of God" is the divine nature; unto its self-edifying in love.

It is difficult to realise many of these things now, on account of the state of things; but in the early

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church we can see it. They were exhorted to let their love abound one toward another. It is wonderful that the fulness of the Godhead dwells in a Man, because it brings it close to men. Then that Man is the divinely-appointed Centre to which men are to be attached, that they may be delivered from lawless men. There you get the gospel.

Christ came out the first time to reveal God, and in redemption to lay the foundation of everything; but then He has gone in to present man to God, and He comes out the second time both as King and Priest; King to rule, and Priest for blessing, like Melchisedec. He goes in to present us holy and unblameable. He has gone in that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable. He presents Israel -- in fact -- all. It is the function of the Priest to present man to God. But when He comes again, He does not come out to reveal, for He has revealed God; and He does not present; but He comes out as King and Priest to rule and bless. The thought in this epistle is presentation and going in; we do get the coming out in the expression that "in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"; but that is not the point of view in this epistle. We are buried with Him, risen with Him, and quickened together with Him. It is all God-ward, and the thought of it is, that we might live towards God. They had been dead in trespasses and sins, and were dead in regard to God.

Circumcision is the seal of righteousness; it was a fleshly rite as taken up in Israel, but it is not of Moses, but of the fathers; and so to get the real significance we have to go back to Abraham. Then it is the seal of faith; it is the having put off the old man, and the putting on of the new. That is the seal that he is righteous. It is the proof and evidence that the man is no longer lawless; but is in attachment. Circumcision is of the heart and spirit, not of the letter.

Rem. Romans 3 and 4.

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F.E.R. When righteousness of God is upon you, then Christ is your righteousness. It is toward all, but it is not upon a man, until he is in Christ. The bearing of it is toward all; but it is upon all who believe. The righteousness of God is established in Christ, and those who believe are covered in that way by Christ. There has been a great effort to give a man a standing by faith. If a man is not in Christ, he has no standing, no real place before God. In Romans 3 God is declaring Himself from His own side. Christ is a mercy-seat for God.

Then, in chapter 4 we have Christ on our side: "He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification", and so Christ is appropriated as Lord; that is the test and evidence of faith. If a man confesses Christ as Lord, it is a proof he has got the Spirit (verse 13). Morally and dispensationally the Gentile was outside everything. The conduct of the Gentile was such that he was morally dead in regard to God; practically impotent. The terrible thing is that man is dead in regard to God, and yet alive in sin down here. Then God meets it by quickening us together with Christ, so that we may live in regard to God. Quickening is anticipative of the coming of the Lord, and the object is that we may live in regard to God. You are dead to the world, that is your baptism; but you live in regard to God. It is the contrast to your previous state, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God".

The great thought in this epistle and in the Ephesians, is Christ gone in to present (not as in other epistles coming out), and in connection with that the Spirit is given. "Thou hast ascended up on high, and given gifts unto men". "Ye are risen together with him", brings in the thought of association. Quickening accompanies being risen with Christ. You get association in Colossians; you are risen with Him. In

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mind, the Christian is on the same ground as Christ is.

Why bring in "having forgiven you all trespasses" after quickening?

F.E.R. You are quickened in regard to God; and so all that could come between God and man has been removed. Offences would come on man's conscience, so we get a purged conscience. Then, again, the handwriting of ordinances has been taken out of the way; that might hamper a Jew; but then the system is all abrogated.

Then He has spoiled principalities and powers. People were under the power of these; now all has been exposed; holy angels, and evil angels, they are all exposed. There was a show of them openly. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Christendom has put itself back under these things. In popery and high churchism people have no real idea of approach to God -- of access to God; all is carried on by the clergy. "Triumphing over them in it". The death of Christ was a great triumph. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. God made a way through the Red Sea. Pharaoh thought he had got the people; and then a way is made through the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them, and they went through to God. Pharaoh and his hosts were foolhardy, and they assayed to go, and were drowned in the Red Sea. So David slew Goliath; the enemy was led in triumph. When you come to the present application, the point is their power is annulled. You can drown flesh as the Egyptians, but not spirit; and so you cannot see principalities and powers gone; but, through death, the power of the enemy is gone. When a way is made through death, the enemy cannot terrify man. Man can pass through death to God; baptism is the figure. We pass through to the house of God, where the Spirit is. The object of this epistle is to plant the saints as to their intelligence in the sphere where God and Christ are, really

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on resurrection ground. There is no peace, unless people are living in this.

It is a point of the greatest moment that we see the testimony of that which God has had before Him to bring to pass. It is one testimony all through. The central point in the Pentateuch is the ark of the covenant. In the historical books the central point is David. In the Psalms it is Christ come out and gone in; and in the prophets it is the "testimony of Jesus" which is the spirit of prophecy. God takes up the kingdom under the whole heaven, that He may dwell in Zion. Scripture is in spirit and principle the testimony of God. It is not merely a collection of inspired writings; it is that; but it is in spirit and principle the testimony of God. I should like people to be established in the Old Testament. The enemy assails the Old Testament, and in doing so he wants to get rid of the New. The effort of the present day is to get rid of the Old, and then they think they have the New; but the truth is, when you get rid of the Old, you have also got rid of the New. If you do away with the Old, you make Christ an impostor. There is not a writing in the New Testament which has not a root in the Old. People want to get a comprehensive view, and to see that Scripture in the real spirit and principle of it, is the testimony of God.

What are "shadow of things to come"?

F.E.R. These things are shadows -- feasts, new moons, etc. "New moons" refers to the renewing of God's relation with His people; it is a new epoch; but it is a shadow of things to come. We do not want to be taken up with shadows now, for the day has dawned; for the substance has come in. It is not the exact thing that has come in; but Christ has come in; and the substance, the body, is of Christ. The people to whom these enactments were given did not understand them. They were written for us. A Jew did not know what a "new moon" meant. If a

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prophet did not understand his own writings, I do not think a Jew could understand what the "new moon" signified. Men like Abraham, Moses, and David were beyond their dispensation. God wrought in them in a special way. Moses said, "Show me thy glory". He saw God's hinder parts; he could not anticipate; he could only see something of God's past ways.

What would verse 16 answer to in the present day?

F.E.R. Religious order; days and seasons are regarded; Lent, etc.

How were these things shadows?

F.E.R. Because the things will be fulfilled in the millennium. The millennium will be a great holy day; so also the sabbath, and the feasts. The feast of tabernacles is a shadow of good things to come. There has been an effort, and a successful one, too, to interweave these things into Christianity, into the present world-system. The truth is they do not belong to this world at all. In the Christianity around, the spirit and principle of popery is Babylon; and when the harlot rides the beast, it betrays its true character. Popery, and all allied to popery, will ride the beast. It is Babylonish, and the glory of man is the feature. Everything comes to its own issue. In Zechariah the woman takes the ephah, and it is established in the land of Shinar. The harlot does not come under the judgement of God, the beast tears her. "Holy days", etc., suit the religious instincts of men; the ordinances which God gave to Israel were suited to a people in the flesh. "The body is of Christ", refers to the assembly. Christ is the substance; but the body is of Christ. There is a body here which is Christ's body. He is the Head of it in the sense of a Leader. If the House of Commons is summoned to the House of Lords, they follow the leader. The speaker is the head, and there is a body attached to him. Verse 18 is a figure; it refers to

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the place of association with Christ. Christians are often cheated out of their prize; they do not get what Christ has earned for them. True humility is holding the Head. We have no title to be in the presence of God; it is Christ who presents us there. Christ had a personal right to go in; but He has accomplished redemption, and so gives us His Spirit, and it is that which entitles us to go in. The real substance is you have got God. I do not see how you are going to deal with Christians if they have not God. If the young do not find their portion in God, I do not see what portion there is. You may get them occupied with service; but God is the portion. The priests had no inheritance. God was their portion. I cannot understand the rightness of any special treatment of the young. There is no justification of it in Scripture. The Levite derives from the priest. A man will not be much of a Levite if he is not something of a priest. I see the difficulty in regard to the young; but what people are devising to meet the difficulty has no vindication in Scripture. The deficiency with the young is, they are not really in the good of the Spirit. When I came into fellowship people were eagerly occupied with dispensational truth; but it is not so now; that has been made plain.

Rem. "Such were some of you, but ye are sanctified".

F.E.R. Sanctification of the Spirit is that we are set apart to God from the world and from all that is obnoxious to God. A sanctified vessel is one which is not used for common or profane purposes. Many want to go on with things externally, and to go on with the world; but if you want the enjoyment of God, you cannot have that and the world, which is made up of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The thought which has been too much lost sight of is attachment; that is, brought into bond to Christ. You cannot abide in Christ unless

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you have attachment. Christ is the point of attraction; then you get attachment; and then you get abiding, and the result of abiding is affection. If you are brought into attachment to Christ, you are detached from the world. The truth of the body is a great thing. It is the first-fruits of reconciliation. It is that which is brought into attachment to Christ in the presence of God. The object of reconciliation is to present us holy and unblameable and irreproachable in His sight.

It has been said that up to verse 12 we get the Romans side of truth; and then from verse 13 the Ephesians side. The latter part of verse 12 goes beyond Romans, that is being risen with Christ; but in the main it is the same line. Ephesians does not speak of us as being risen with Him. In Romans resurrection is more future. It says "shall live". "Raised up" is not the same order as "risen with". The former is the exaltation, as Christ was raised up, and set at the right hand in heavenly places. When the apostle comes to these exhortations, he takes up both thoughts; that is, "dead with" and "risen with" (verse 20 of chapter 2); and then in chapter 3 verse 1, "If ye then be risen with Christ". Verse 12 is more the ground we have taken; it is connected with baptism. We have taken that ground. It is through faith in the operation of God, who raised up Christ from the dead. It is not subjective; we do not get that till verse 13.

Why "faith" in verse 12?

F.E.R. We can be said to be buried without faith, because it refers to baptism; but you cannot take the ground of being risen except by faith; this the Colossians had taken. In early days Christians really left the world for the assembly; which is properly the new ground in resurrection. This cannot be done apart from faith -- and so we get "risen with him through faith in the operation of God, who raised him from the dead". "If" is brought in to give point to the

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responsibility. It raises no question, but presses the responsibility which attaches to the ground we have taken. It points out what is consistent with that ground. These Colossians were really baptised, so that they might leave the world and come into the Christian circle, really the truth of the assembly. There can be no association with Christ save in resurrection. The true idea is that in our relations with God and with Christ we have to leave the flesh behind. We come out on completely new ground, in the power of the Spirit. "In whom ye have been circumcised". The ground on which we are entitled to be baptised is that God has dealt judicially with the old man. Circumcision indicated in type that it was the only ground on which God could have to do with man. The saints understood these things very well in early days; it is more difficult now, for we have a Christian world all around. Then the assembly was entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit come down from heaven; and that had taken place consequent upon Christ being exalted. They were altogether apart, too, from the world. Now we have a spurious Christianity all around; but in early days, when they left Judaism, or heathendom, as the case might be, they came into an entirely out-of-the-world condition of things, entirely supported by a power come down from heaven. Christianity around us is, "they say they are Jews and are not, but do lie". What a corruption of Christianity it is all around! a complete falling back on what is of man and the flesh. The real ground is dead and risen with Christ. It is very difficult to realise this in the present day, the assembly having so completely lost its place. Nothing is more feeble than an effort to set up an imitation of the assembly. The principles and the truth remain as light; but all else is individual. The assembly must be taken in its full extent. When all is in ruin, all that is left is instruction to the individual. Verse 13, they are

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quickened, and all is gone out of the way, sins forgiven; writing of ordinances, etc. The object of quickening is that they may be in association with Christ. While God was testing man in the flesh, He never told him he was dead. Here God is acting to give effect to His purposes, it is the Ephesian line; but does not go so far -- we do not get raised up.

How are principalities and powers spoiled?

F.E.R. Because they are still viewed as being on earth; so we get, too, trespasses forgiven, because they are viewed as here. If we are to live to God, being quickened together with Christ, all must be removed -- there must be nothing left. The whole legal system was nailed to His cross, and so completely ended. Jews are transgressors; but Gentiles are trespassers, because they trespass on the rights of God. Transgressions are the infraction of a known law -- it is broken. Gentiles are said to be dead in trespasses. "Made a show of them openly", is that all was exposed in connection with Christ. Then the character is brought to light. If we are in bondage to the world, and the prince of this world, it is not because they have not been exposed in their true character. "Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out", John 12:31. Nothing subsists now in the eye of God, but Christ. When Christ died, nothing was left under the eye of God. Even when the law will be written in their hearts, it will be part of Christ. The earthly people will partake of Christ.

It is a point of great moment to see that there is nothing now under the eye of God but Christ. "The body is of Christ". So the law written in the heart of Israel is in a degree of Christ (verse 17). "Body" has a double meaning. It is the body of Christ; and yet it is a play upon the word. "Substance", is hid in the word "body". No one has ventured to translate the word 'body' in verse 17 as 'substance';

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the idea is the substance; but then the body is the substance. Verse 16 all points on to the fulness. We have not got the good things to which new moons and sabbaths refer. There were many things foreshadowed by the law which will not have their fulfilment till the millennial age. We have what is entirely new and better; not the good things to come, which are connected with earth. The law did not foreshadow Christianity. It foreshadowed a state of things in which Christ is recognised. It would be difficult to get a foreshadow of a time when Christ was in rejection. We get many things in principle which we do not have in literality.

The apostle's point in verse 16 is that they might not be entangled by these things, for there was no literal application of these things to Christians -- the substance is of Christ. Christ is rejected; and the only way in which He can be here now is in the body. Eve is taken from Adam; she was of Adam; the body is of Christ. The idea of head in verse 19 is taken from verse 10. He is chief; just as the husband is head to the wife. "Head over all things to the assembly", as Head of all principality and power (verse 19). The whole thing is an organism in the power of the Holy Spirit, so perfect that the organism is most delicate. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer". It is a great thought the being quickened together with Christ. It is easy to read it; but to know the reality of it is another matter. It is to bring you into the circle of affection in which He is. It has no meaning otherwise. If we ask ourselves what this means, we shall find we know very little about it. It is a state which is produced by the quickening power of God; and the divine object of it is that we live in association with Christ, and to bring us into that circle. It supposes that you are in the truth of what is true of you. The apostle could say it of the Colossians; I do not think he could have

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said it of the Galatians; but I think he could say it, of both the Colossians and Ephesians. "You hath he quickened", etc. If you attempt to introduce the idea of time, you spoil it, it is all moral. To enter into the idea of being quickened, you must be entirely apart from the flesh, and even apart from the body. "The body is dead because of sin". The Spirit connects itself with our spirit. In Old Testament times He connected Himself with the flesh; but now, living to God is in the Spirit. If you bring in flesh, or natural power, it spoils it. It is the Spirit witnesses with our spirits. We live apart from mere natural power, when it is a question of living God-ward there must be the abnegation of the flesh. It is a life with God, outside of a man's circumstances here; it is the circle in which Christ is. Still, in my circumstances I have to be for the glory of God.

Quickening with Christ is another order of things, and we cannot connect Christ with our life of responsibility here. I am under the Lord in it; but when it is a question of living together with Him, you have to be in another sphere for it; it is outside all here. The teaching here is all leading on to the truth of the body. We get the "body of Christ", and then we get "from whom all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God". In Corinthians we get the idea of one body, and the statement that it is Christ's body; but it does not give you the mystery which is, that it is of Christ, as Eve was of Adam. In Colossians we learn it is derived from Him. The epistle to the Corinthians is brought in to correct ecclesiasticism, which was a practical denial of the body here. If man sets up a minister, it is a denial of the truth of the body. In one body no one member can claim prominence; it must abide in its place; but when you come to Colossians, you get the wonderful truth -- "Christ in you the hope of glory".

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We come now to the hortatory part. The apostle applies the doctrine. I suppose we get here what the purpose of heart is as connected with the doctrine which had been brought out. The doctrine is what precedes. They were dead with Christ, risen with Him; that is the ground of the exhortation which we get here. If we are dead with Christ, we cannot take account of ourselves as alive in the world. The point is the account we take of ourselves. "If ye are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" Ordinances have to do with man's will, and they only apply to man in the flesh. The only ordinance we get in Christianity is the Lord's supper. It is the only thing which has the nature of an institution; it has the character of a commemoration. "Subject to ordinances". The real word is dogmatised, "why, as though alive in the world, are ye dogmatised?" In Christendom people are dogmatised, they are subject to ordinances, but they have no intelligent understanding of what they mean. The moment you come to dogmas, you have left the ground of Christianity. People cannot give account of things they go on with, which is the proof that they are dogmatised. Much that exists in Christendom has been taken up from Judaism and heathenism. The moment you go outside the Spirit, you have gone outside true Christianity.

What do you mean by outside of the Spirit?

F.E.R. Suppose you get into ordinances and institutions in which unconverted men can take part, you have got outside the Spirit. All the great systems around us are outside the Spirit. All that has a formal character is outside the Spirit of God. You could not impose formality on the Spirit of God. The ground of this epistle, and also of Ephesians and Philippians, is different to the other epistles. In the others the point is God's approach to man; in Romans,

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Corinthians, and Galatians, it is God coming out to man; but Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians are the other way round; it is man going in to God; even Christ is looked at in that way.

How do you apply this to Philippians?

F.E.R. God has exalted Him on high, and given Him a Name. In Him is set forth the calling on high. Hebrews takes up both. The apostle is God coming out; the Priest is man gone in. In Ephesians and Colossians the idea is priestly, not apostolic; it is man gone in. For that reason we get the thought of the body, because the body is identified with Christ, and it has gone in with Him. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

What are the epistles of John?

F.E.R. There it is God coming out.

Is there the same division in the gospels?

F.E.R. Yes. Mark and Luke are going in, and so you get the ascension in both; but Matthew and John are God coming out. It is as gone in that we get the thought of association with Christ. We shall have association with Him in His coming out again. We are associated with Him; we are quickened together, and raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places. You cannot make hard and fast rules, but you have to take the general import of what is presented in the gospels and epistles. The body comes in in connection with going in. Christ comes out the second time as King and Priest. He came at first as Apostle, and has gone in as Priest; but He comes out again as King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec. It is to establish blessing. In Matthew you get the kingdom of heaven; the establishment of the moral sway of what God has established in heaven; it involves a king. You get the moral sway of Christ in heaven now. It is going a long way to speak of people as not being alive in the world. It seems as if

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we were very much alive in the world; it pulls one up. The Spirit of God evidently contemplates saints as not being alive in it. "Why, as though alive in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" We often betray a considerable interest in the world, and yet it is inconsistent. Take the Christianity all around us; it is interwoven with the State. This is proved by its being called "The State Church". Dissenters, too, have become centres of great political influence, they are very much alive in the world.

These ordinances were connected with asceticism and harsh treatment of the body, but the general character of these things was not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh, for "every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving". It is not that which corrupts people. Now we get the positive side. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above ... set your affections on things above". All through the chapter the idea is kept up of the Christ -- the Head. It is official, where the Head is, there the great point of interest is, all takes character from Him. He is Head of all principality and power. In Daniel's time Jerusalem was the great point of interest; he opened his windows three times a day and prayed toward Jerusalem. We expect all to come from the right hand of God, not from Jerusalem. The influences which affect men come from heaven, but Christ is Head of all principality and power.

What is "not holding the Head"?

F.E.R. It is Christ as Head of all principality and power. That seems to be the antecedent; it is in contrast to people being taken up with angels. The entire body is in view here. In Ephesians the gifts are given for the edifying of the body. It is Christ's interest here. The idea of the body is priestly; it is association with the priest, as Aaron was with the people. The body gets the good of the Head. He

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has ascended and received gifts, and now the body gets the good of all that Christ dispenses.

What is the thought of the body; verse 17?

F.E.R. New moons, feasts, etc., are shadows, but Christ is the substance. The substance, which is Christ and the "all things" was what was foreshadowed. We have not got the "all things", but we have Christ and the body.

Is there not a twofold idea in it?

F.E.R. Yes; all that was foreshadowed was Christ, and the "all things"; and while we have not yet come to the "all things", we have come to Christ and the body. Things are anomalous. Christ is Head of every man, but that is not the mystery; the mystery is Christ and His body, which is bound up in Himself, and not yet made manifest.

In what sense were principalities and powers spoiled, and made a show of openly?

F.E.R. Their true character was exposed. Everything came out in the death of Christ. The principalities and powers are the powers of evil. It is like what you get in Revelation 12; when you get the Man-child, you get the great red dragon. It is the forces of evil acting upon the world so that the Man-child might be devoured. The principalities and powers are the rulers of the darkness of this world; that is how they work and affect men down here; they are the rulers of the darkness. The powers of evil work to get an entrance by taking advantage of men's lusts and passions. It is often said that men are carried beyond what they intend, a man gets into a certain path and cannot stop himself; he gets into the current of evil. Saul sank so low as to consult a witch. The triumph was in the death of Christ, because there all was exposed; all was brought to an end in the death of Christ, "having forgiven us all trespasses". Then the legal system is gone in the death of Christ, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. These

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principalities and powers are made a show of openly.

"You being dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh" refers to the Gentile; it could hardly be said to the Jew. At the Red Sea there was smiting and the destruction of the enemy. In Jordan there was no smiting. It has been said that when you get into the land, the Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce. The starting ground here is the being circumcised with the circumcision of Christ; that is, they are on the ground of purpose; they are really in the land. Jordan is not the action of God, but the ark of the covenant passing through it, and you are in the fellowship of Christ's death. In regard to the world-system and Israel, relatively Christ is dead. The ark of the covenant goes into Jordan, and it is in that sense that He is dead, and we are dead with Him. The bride was taken from Adam, when a deep sleep fell upon him; that is what has taken place in regard to Christ; while He is dead so far as Israel is concerned, we are dead with Him and risen with Him; that is the platform of divine purpose; it is "faith in the operation of God", the energy of God who raised Him from the dead. "Wherein also are ye risen with him". What follows baptism is resurrection. In baptism we come on to the new platform; baptism is the answer of a good conscience, but in the full issue of it it goes on to being risen together with Him; resurrection ground is in view in baptism.

What is the difference between circumcision and baptism?

F.E.R. When you come to circumcision you have come to your baptism -- baptism is not a part of your personal responsibility or experience. In circumcision you come back to your baptism. Circumcision is putting off the body of the flesh, and that is practically burying oneself. Circumcision is experimental; it is the point where your mind is in accord with the crucifixion of Christ; when you can say, "I am

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crucified with Christ". When people want to live in this world, their mind is not in accord with the death of Christ. We have to be in accord with the death of Christ, until He comes again; when He comes again it will be another matter. "Risen with him" is faith. It is the entering into the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. You must get into the light of the great system of which Christ is the beginning. That system will be established on the platform of resurrection. Death is upon everything; how can we find a footing with God except on the ground of resurrection? We have to get the light of the operation of God in raising Christ from the dead; it is the apprehension and light coming into the soul, of what God meant in raising Christ from the dead, and we are risen with Him. That new ground becomes the basis of conduct. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above".

In verse 18 the apostle was afraid of the saints being cheated of their portion; the reward is really Christ, but carries with it our place of association with Christ. The persistent effort of the enemy all along has been to bring Christianity down to the level of the world; within the reach of man in the flesh. That was the effort of the enemy -- 'voluntary humility'. You get an affectation of humility, with an unsubdued will beneath it; you see this in high-churchism. "Worshipping of angels" is another form, but it is all imagination; we know nothing about angels save their existence, and to go prying into it must be imagination. By far the larger part of Christendom at this moment who affect religion is after this sort of thing. People worship saints now, which is more gross. The germ of all these things came in in the apostle's day. We have two things to guard against in Christianity; that is, will and imagination. In religion there is great scope for imagination, and that is the very nature of it. All true religion depends upon

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the way in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself. Christ is Head of all principality and power; it is good ones, and they will have their part in the world to come. Michael was a prince, and angels will have a great place in putting down the forces of evil; they will bind together the tares in bundles. Christ is the great Head of the world to come, which is put under the Son of man, so that all may be established on the ground of redemption. God has taken up the right of Redeemer in Christ, and hence it is that the world to come is established on the basis of redemption. Michael, in regard to the last time, stands up for the children of his people -- they have their place in that way. The angels are holy. There are angels who have been maintained by God in holiness, and they desire to look into redemption. Christ came into contact with the power of evil here when tempted by the devil, but He overcame, and then He began to spoil his goods. In the case of the legion, you get that they pass into the herd of swine, and they went violently down a steep place, and perished in the sea; it is a figure, really, of what happened to Israel.

In verse 17 the Christ is the great Head in whom everything is established. Feasts, etc., were shadows of what will be fulfilled in the millennium; meanwhile the substance, the body, has come in, the substance is of the Christ. The good things will come; they will be fulfilled in the kingdom. The feasts, new moons, etc., foreshadowed the good things to come, but in the meantime the body is of the Christ. There is the idea of substance in the word in contrast to shadow, and yet it really refers to the church. We belong not to the shadow, but to the substance. The assembly is the beginning in that way. All Scripture has in view the world to come, and we have come to the Head, and so we can have an apprehension of the entire system. The meaning of Christianity is, that

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there is a body here, in which Christ lives. All that has ever been wrought of God will all come to light in the world to come; but the rest of the dead live not again until the 1000 years are fulfilled. What is heavenly is not dispensational. The earth will come under the benign influence of heaven on the heavenly city coming down, but heaven is outside of dispensation. It is a great thing that before Christ comes out in the character of Head of principality and power, that we hold the Head and are connected with and derive from Him. We belong to the world to come; we hold the Head. We are not to be insubject to the powers that be; they are ordained of God, but we want to be holding the Head, the Head of all principality and power. The apostle wept over those who minded earthly things. Instead of being taken up with the politics of earth, we know that God sitteth above the water-floods. The sea roars, but Christ sits above; "sitting" indicates rest. "Where the Christ is sitting", it is a place of rest for the moment. His offering work is over. He is sitting at the right hand of God. We know He gives rest; the moment He moves, it brings about a terrific revolution in heaven and on earth.

What is "the increase of God"?

F.E.R. It is the divine nature, really; it is all moral. It is the effect of all that is going on in the body; joints and bands hold all together. How these things are interfered with through the state in Christendom I cannot say. Joints and bands are most essential things to the practical working of the body; ministering nourishment and knit together. We should be of much more service to one another than we are. The Head is the source to the body, and so it will be at that day when He comes out; every family under the Head will derive from the Head. In the day of Christ, selfishness and covetousness, or pride, or arrogance will not be appreciated; meekness and gentleness will

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have the place. There is nothing more unlovely than an out-and-out man or woman of the world, and yet after all they have to die, and are no better off than a beggar who dies in the workhouse.

The second coming of Christ is the completion of His first coming. He brought in the light and revelation of God morally, and when He comes in power He will bring in God. In the world to come people will have no sense of insecurity, "we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved". There will not be the same feverish excitement of mind; man's faculties will not then be impaired. In the things of God there is the greatest scope for his intelligence; the more you know of them, the more there is to be known. Intelligent Christians are not inferior to other people. Their minds have worked in a different direction. People are disposed to despise a Christian, because he is one, and disposed to regard him as fettered and petty. I do not believe it is true at all. "Mystery" is what God is working, but is concealed from human gaze. The world will be much astonished one day when it all comes out into manifestation. Here the "nourishment ministered" is by fulfilling our obligations to one another. John 6 is individual; there our constitution is built up by food. Man is really a religious creature -- it seems instinctive in man; the devil brought in this. Man deified his lusts and then worshipped them, and that is idolatry which is Satanic. Satan has changed his method in our day; he transforms himself into an angel of light. Things have to assume a new form to act upon men in our day, the light of Christianity having exposed philosophy.

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THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (3)

Colossians 3

Rem. Seek the things which are above.

F.E.R. Well, Daniel's point was Jerusalem. His great thought was Jerusalem and the temple rebuilt. We do not look for that. The point for us is, that all will be fulfilled from the right hand of God, and all is established in the One who is there, so that it is the great centre of interest to the Christian. I do not care for political changes here; to a Christian it makes no difference whether this country is ruled as it is, or comes under the domination of another power; the only point is that we might live a quiet, peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. England is no more to you than any other country. For the Christian everything is at the right hand of God, where Christ is; all is established in Him, and He is the Head of all principality and power. "Risen with him" is that you are on the same platform with Christ. In the world of which Christ is Head, all is on the platform of resurrection, but we are already risen with Him. Paul, at the end of the Acts, had dropped down a bit; he claimed to be a Roman, and a Pharisee; he got depressed for the moment, swayed by his zeal for the Jew, but he did not gain anything by it; he wanted to go to Jerusalem, and the Lord told him he had better not, but he never gained by it, for he never got a hearing there. God overruled it, but the practical result was that Paul went to Rome as a prisoner, instead of as a free man; but we see the Lord encouraging him. In Scripture you get the most eminent men, and their faults are not hidden a bit; things are painted as they were; they were not coloured, nor like photographs touched up!

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It is a wonderful thing that God is to evolve a universe from one Man. The present world has been evolved from one man. That is what is going to be; it is all established; it does not remain to be established, it only remains to be displayed. "We have come to mount Sion", etc., they are not imaginary things. The "things above" are there. This world is a chaos, and no one can forecast events for fifty years to come. It is a scene of moral confusion. Christianity has failed in the world; the world has conquered it. It has, of course, effected God's purpose, but it has produced no revolution in the world; it is not peace now, but confusion.

Why is it "set your mind on things above", and not your heart?

F.E.R. We are first to seek the things where the Christ sitteth, then "have your mind on the things that are above"; "your life is hid with the Christ in God". It is the Christ, the Head. It is a great pity they have omitted the article. All will come from the One who is the Head of all principality and power -- from the right hand of God. "Your life is hid with the Christ". There is no element of spiritual life in the world; all is in Christ. We all held extraordinary ideas as to life: that we had life as God has it, that is apart from certain conditions. Man in the natural life cannot live without conditions. Let a man go up in a balloon, and go too high up, how long will he live? If persons say they have life, I say, where are the conditions? We have held impossible things. The conditions of life are all in Christ. It is a great thought that Christ is available to man, and all the conditions of life are there in Christ. If we are in Christ, then we come into the conditions, and then they are in us. The Christ is our life. The Christian has to live in Christ, his life is hid in God; it is not yet manifested. "When the Christ is manifested, who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him".

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"Ye are dead". It will not do to take up an expression in the hortatory part of Colossians to prove the doctrine of Romans 6. We are only dead by reckoning so long as we are down here. The reckoning may be sound and real, and true in the power of the Spirit, still it is a reckoning. "Ye are dead"; that is, you have come to it in the sense of things in your own mind. Your title to die is that Christ has died, and we are to reckon ourselves dead, and to reckon ourselves alive. You must take up both sides. Until a soul is in the reality of being alive in Christ, you cannot reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin.

Dead to sin, to law, and the world; are they all reckonings?

F.E.R. Yes, I think so; otherwise it becomes dogma. It is in the power of the reckoning alive that you can take the death side. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live". It is so experimentally. No one could accept death here unless he apprehended life in Christ as the Head and Centre of another world.

What is "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus"?

F.E.R. That is consistency with it; there is to be a reckoning of mind, but then you have to see that you are consistent with it; the reckoning becomes a basis, so here you get "mortify therefore". I should like to see people alive to the testimony of the Christ. God has made known to us the mystery of His will, to head up all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. I should like that to get into the view of people, and the testimony invariably refers to what is going to be displayed. We shall be very much alive when the Christ is manifested. It will be life then, but life will then still be dependent upon conditions. We never can get beyond reckoning at the present time, however real and true that may be. We get nothing by faith, and we do not reckon by

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faith, but we do not get anything without faith.

Rem. "Thy faith hath saved thee".

F.E.R. Well, faith is the way of everything, but you get everything by the Spirit; we have nothing apart from Christ and the Spirit of Christ. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his". Faith is recognised for righteousness. A believer is accounted righteous for God by faith; but how is a man to get the good of it? It is only by the witness of the Spirit.

Rem. "Through faith of the operation of God".

F.E.R. Well, it simply brings the mind into accord with it. Abraham's faith was accounted for righteousness, but we are not told how far Abraham knew that, for the statement only gives how God accounted him.

Rem. "Thy, sins are forgiven thee".

F.E.R. That is said to us now by the Spirit. What answers to the word of Christ when He was here, is the witness of the Spirit; it is by the Spirit we know it.

F.E.R. We get two thoughts -- one in the end of the previous chapter, dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world; and then in the beginning of this chapter, "If ye then be risen with Christ". The two things are bound to go together. You could not be dead with Christ without being risen with Him. If we are risen with Him, we are dead with Him; and if you are dead with Him, you are risen with Him. It is a great thing to realise this. We are on another platform, not of man, or of the flesh, but on a platform of being risen with Christ. We are circumcised with the circumcision of the Christ. If we be risen, seek the things above, where the Christ sitteth. "When the Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory". The great bulk of people in the present day are going on with the world -- they are not dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world, and they are dogmatised. If

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you have dogmas, you must have ecclesiastical authority; on the other hand, if you are risen with Christ, you seek the things above. It is a great thing to apprehend that new platform. Christ is risen, and the whole system of the world to come will be on the same platform with Christ, that is the resurrection platform; everything will have to be placed on that ground in order to be in accord with Christ. When Christ was here in the flesh, the disciples were taken account of as being on the same platform; they prayed, "Our Father, which art in heaven". Once Christ was risen, the entire platform was altered; it is their "knowing no man after the flesh". The disciples, when Christ was here, were recognised as in association with Christ as after the flesh, but when He was risen all was changed, and the platform entirely altered; it is then, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee". That was the new platform. The great congregation will be also on the ground of resurrection, and so Christ will praise in the great congregation. The question might profitably and well be raised, What do you belong to religiously? Do you belong to the world or to Christ risen? Faith in the operation of God is the apprehension and light of the platform on which God has seen fit to place everything by the resurrection of Christ. The promises were given to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac when in figure he was raised from the dead, that proved pretty clearly that all the promises would have to come in on the ground of resurrection. If it were not so, Abraham would not come into them. I do not see how God can bless except on that ground, for everything was under death. Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for everything; and He did so that everything might be placed on the footing of resurrection. We can see the working of things; it came in very early to try and accommodate Christianity to the world; that was the

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effort of the Judaising teachers in early days, and which the apostle had so often to counteract.

What are the "things above"?

F.E.R. It is all that prevails above; we have to look above for all that is good: "The way of life is above to the wise", Proverbs 15:24. "Every good and every perfect gift is from above", James 1:17. There is an above, and there is a below; and they are moral ideas. There is a scene above, and all there is ordered according to God. A man is coloured by what he pursues; if it is pleasure or gain, he is sure to be coloured by these. If we seek the things above, we shall be coloured by the things above. It is a great thing to apprehend that there is a scene of intelligence above all the moral confusion here. There are many things here which outwardly appear comely, but beneath the surface all is confusion. The "things above" are to be the object of pursuit. God gives colour to the things above. Surely there must be a place where God abides. He gives colour to it, and there is no confusion. When Christianity came in, idolatry was overthrown; but then the devil changed his tactics, he has tried to corrupt it.

A French astronomer is reported to have said, that he had searched the heavens with the telescope and could find no trace of God. It was very foolish; it is the working of the material mind of man. When Christ was here, no power of man could have detected Him; He was not to be discerned in that way. There is a scene above where God abides, and where there is no confusion. In regard to God Scripture says, "Whom no one has seen, nor can see". You get something very definite in connection with the things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. There is a scene, it may be impenetrable to man, but it is where the Christ sitteth. It is extremely beautiful in the end of Luke: "He was carried up into heaven". If you ask me where heaven is, I say, I don't know, but it is

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somewhere, and there Christ sitteth. Peter says, "Who is gone into heaven". The things above refer to the scene of divine affection. The consequence of the mind of the Christian being carried above, is that the members upon the earth are put off, and another character of things put on; but these things are not quite the "things above". In the scene above, all is divinely perfect, divine affections flow there, and there is no obstacle to them, Nothing contrary, nothing out of gear there. The things above are divine things, where all is ordered after God. The things above never come below; we get the result and effect of them, but they never come below. In the beginning of the Revelation you get the heaven opened, and John sees the things above; he saw the ordering of things above; the throne was there, If we set our affection on things above, we shall learn the ordering of things there; there is no confusion there; all that is of God is there; it is the scene where divine affections flow unhinderedly. In the time to come, God will bring to pass that everything on earth will be ruled by what is above: that is the thought of the city. The source of all blessing is above. There would be no rain were it not for the operation and influence of the sun -- evaporation and the like. The central point of interest in "things above" to us, is the Christ. The Christ is intelligible to us. He is not unknown to us, and we can enter into the knowledge of Christ.

What are the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him?

F.E.R. That is not quite "things above". Things above are things above, The Lord says, "I am from above". There was a scene from which He came. We are to "seek the things which are above", We must enter into this, that there is a scene into which Christ has entered as Man; into which He is received with acclamation: That scene constitutes the "things above". Stephen saw the things above; he looked up

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steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus; he was on the point of being put to death, and by the Spirit of God he got a sight of the scene above, where all is peace; there was One there, too, whom he knew. "Lord Jesus receive my spirit"; he knew that One. The rejection of everything on earth, and Jerusalem refused, and all the prestige connected with that, removes the scene of interest from earth; the scene of interest is now "where the Christ sitteth".

Why the Christ?

F.E.R. Because it is Christ viewed as the Head of all principality and power; it is Christ officially. Christ is at the right hand of God officially as the Head and Centre of the whole divine system. He is the seen, known, and recognised Centre of all reverence and affection in heaven. The glory of God and Jesus are inseparable. The Christ is not representative; it is connected with the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily, and as such Head of all principality and power. That is the Christ. Peter puts it, "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him", 1 Peter 3:22. It is most wonderful that there should be One in that place who is within the range of our knowledge. He may be known. There are so many beautiful things connected with the Lord in the gospels. Take the end of Matthew 11"Come unto me all ye that labour ... and I will give you rest". "I am meek and lowly in heart" -- that is the Christ. The Christ who is our life.

How is our "life hid with Christ in God"?

F.E.R. When the heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven, your life will be no longer hid -- all will come then into manifestation. We don't know what the conditions of life will be. We await manifestation. We know it morally, but we do not know what we shall be. The creation itself waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ is hid in

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God. He is hid for the moment. "The things above", when you get to them you come to God's abode. We shall dwell with God. "He that abides in love, abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16), and we find Christ there. It is most wonderful that we live because Christ lives. I do not live because the world goes on, or because I am a healthy man. I live because Christ lives; it is spiritually, of course. The Christ will be the life of God's universe. When God makes manifest His universe, Christ will be the righteousness of that world, and the life of it. Everything will be brought under the influence of Christ, Christ, the Sun of righteousness, will be the light and life of God's universe; and now we live because Christ lives. Everything for us depends upon our appreciation of Christ. It is our true measure, you may depend upon it. Christ is the life of the soul, and it is that which binds us all together. He is the eye of all our souls. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life", John 4:14. It is to Christ Himself it springs up; that is practically what eternal life means. Christ is going to be the life of the age to come. Christ is so great that He has ascended up that He may fill all things, and yet He would allow the disciples to ask Him questions, and to express their ignorance, and let a sinful woman touch Him. There are such heights and depths about Christ. He was not affected by the opinions of men here. He was far too great for that kind of thing. It is in that way that He has come within the range of our knowledge. He can be known in that way although He is the Christ who sitteth at the right hand of God.

The great fact is that God has come out to me, as low as I was, and that was death, and distance, and darkness, and that is redemption! Now we, by the Spirit, can go in to God, and we are permitted there

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to see the relations between the Father and the Son, and between the Son and the Father; and I believe that these relations and the affections connected with them, constitute the things above. Christ is the Object and Centre of every intelligent affection above. We shall be above some day. We want purpose of mind to seek the things above now. Whatever a man sets his mind on gives colour to him. A man who gives himself to science becomes precise and hard and material; that is the effect of it.

We shall come out in distinction by and by, in the full character of sons of God. We shall not come in glory, as we go into death -- "sown in dishonour, raised in glory", "sown in weakness, raised in power". Death was dishonouring to God, it was a reproach that the creatures God had made had to go into death; the glory of God is resurrection; the reproach is set aside.

The argument of the apostle in verses 3 and 4 is that our life is hid, and we should be obscure down here. What follows in verse 5 is practical, not quite as in detail, but the place in which these things are to be held. We are not viewed as in heaven here, but we are in touch with heaven, for we are in His acceptance. If a Christian has accepted death with Christ, he cannot admit of such things as verse 5 contemplates; it would be inconsistent. The apostle says, "as unknown, and yet well known", the world taking no account of us, and yet in another way well known in the circle of grace. The members on the earth are the natural vessels of the flesh; if left to themselves, the flesh is bound to work in them. The point is, "I have died", and I cannot allow my members to live in that connection to which I have died; death has to be consistently maintained. We walked in these things when we lived in them. Verse 6 is future; it is a serious consideration; there are certain things in the world which are repugnant to God, and will in due

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course bring down the wrath of God. One wonders sometimes if we know all the wickedness continually committed, and in such a place as London, that God bears with it, as He does.

Legislation does not do much to put down wickedness, neither does education; in the educated classes wickedness may take a less gross form, but the character of the evil is as great. We may not get such glaring crimes in the educated classes; but their education has not any effect upon wickedness, it enables people to keep it more under cover. We should be appalled if we knew what goes on. I know, as a Christian, what I am capable of, and it is a great mercy if by the grace of God we are restrained from giving way to the capabilities of the flesh. A man is not free of the flesh till he gets to Gilgal; there is always danger to the flesh so long as a man is entangled by the world. Chapter 2 is the doctrine, and chapter 3 is practical, based on chapter 2. The Red Sea is the judgement of God. Jordan is, we are dead with Christ. It is that which practically delivers from the world. We do not get the good of the brazen serpent until we come to Jordan. The brazen serpent is on the divine side. We do not enter the sphere of life where Christ is till we get to Jordan. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood", is really Jordan. We get the Spirit of life in connection with the brazen serpent. It is as risen with Christ that we are in life.

The point in Colossians is our association with Him; not so much in Him, in heavenly places, but down here, on earth, we are in association with Him. Our association with Him is the sense of being in His acceptance. We are in the acceptance of His resurrection. God was glorified in His death, and He is risen. He is accepted, and we are risen, and in His acceptance. Then the next thing is, we come into His sphere of life. We learn first we are accepted in Him, and then we are in His sphere of life. We may get rid of what

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follows (verse 8), they are habits acquired -- "anger, wrath, malice", etc. It will require a good bit of grace to put them off, but what we get in verse 5 is inherent in us; we do not get free of these -- they are lusts. Idolatry is whatever a man worships; covetousness is really the love of money -- money is his god. Idolatry refers to love of the world in any form.

Is a lie connected with the old man (verse 9)?

F.E.R. Lying is the most characteristic feature of the old man; it is a great propensity in fallen man. Take Eastern nations -- Chinese mendacity is almost natural, it is perfectly natural to the old man. The truth in Jesus is the putting off the old man. The apostle was able to speak in this way of the Colossians: "seeing that ye have put off the old man, and have put on the new", etc. We cannot transfer these statements to the Galatians, for instance. No one really has put off the old man until he knows something of its character; and it is only in the light of Christ that we discover the old man. We have another Man come. Christianity hangs on this. The second Man is out of heaven. All that is morally divine and heavenly is brought into manhood, and nothing will go to heaven but what came from heaven; even as to our body we get "our house which is from heaven".

What is the "new man"?

F.E.R. It is Christ in the saints; what is to come out in saints is Christ, The new man is looked at abstractly here. It takes in the thought of all saints. As to the character of it, it is new creation. "New man" here is fresh in character; in Ephesians it is "after God" -- created; here it is renewed in knowledge; that is, everything is looked at in a completely different light; whatever is presented to saints, they see according to God in an entirely new way. Then it is that all distinctions of flesh disappear, and nothing is left but Christ, and there is nothing before God but

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Christ. These distinctions exist in the old man, but it is only in the new man they are gone.

"Image of him that created him"; who is the "him"?

F.E.R. God. He is the Creator. "Image" is the exact likeness; things are seen entirely according to God. We see men according to their natural proclivities and peculiarities; but in the new man you do not do that. You then only take account of what is Christ in them. Everything is brought into manhood in Christ, so that it may be brought within the reach of man. It is a long time before nothing is left in us but Christ. It is very natural to view saints according to their natural peculiarities; it is another thing to view them in this light. The way in which we see Christ in others is the measure of how much there is of Him in us. The whole field is completely cleared, and nothing is left but Christ; the old man is gone! Nothing is left but Christ, and He is all, and in all. The practical working out of Christianity here is in the Christian circle, a circle in which all that is of Christ is recognised.

We get here a picture of what the world was as to the way people walked when Christianity came into it. Christianity produces effects, even when the power of it is not known. But here we get the state of things which existed when Christianity came into the world (see verses 5 and 8). It is a picture in a few words of the way in which people walked, under the influence of idolatry when God was unknown; man found ample scope and room for his lusts, as we get depicted here. We do not see things in exactly the same gross way now, as Christianity has produced certain results; but still, when God is unknown, people will be governed by their own lusts and will. When people live in darkness there is nothing to rebuke them, and therefore what is there comes out, and that is not strange. Any one who knows himself can find all these things in his

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heart. I am sure I could. We never can be absolutely free of these things while down here. In contrast to these, what has come in for our faith is "Christ our life". It is in contrast to what naturally prevails and governs men. "Our life is hid with Christ in God". Christ is the life of our souls, and when He is manifested we shall come out with Him in glory. The assembly will come out, and give the law to the universe.

What is "mortify"?

F.E.R. It is putting to death; these members have to be put to death. You have to deal with them in their conception. In verse 8 the things are more habits; in verse 5 it is more nature. Habits, if allowed grow upon you, and get the mastery in time. When man became lawless in regard to God, he became unfaithful in every other way. Infidelity in other relationships is bound to follow if a man becomes lawless God-ward. Corruption is bound to follow lawlessness. If a child became lawless in regard to its parents and broke away from its relationships, it is bound to become corrupt. It was on account of the moral irregularities which came in, that God brought in the waters of the flood. People are trying, at the present time, to prove that the flood is a myth; but it is an attempt to set aside any interference on the part of God. Things are restrained by the influence of Christianity for the moment, but when the apostasy comes in you will get moral irregularity. When man becomes lawless in regard to God, there can be no doubt the marriage tie will go. When Christianity in the power of the Spirit is gone, all check will be removed.

"Covetousness which is idolatry". Covetousness is not so much lust here as avarice. If a man begins to acquire money, he little understands what a hold on him it can have; man worships money because it gives him a place in the world. If you love anything too much, whether money or even a child, the danger

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is idolising. What you love you readily worship. Money is the vehicle of commerce; it has value for what it will acquire; you can get your money's worth. In Ephesians 5:5 it is a covetous man who is an idolater. It is the same word; it is an avaricious man. If you get a man avaricious, he very soon becomes unscrupulous. The love of money is the root of every evil. The great thing in contrast to it is to live in the life of Christ; to live in the appreciation of Christ. "Because I live, ye shall live also". It is a very practical thing to live in Christ. It is a great thing for Christ to live in the heart of the Christian, for if so, then it will govern you. If Christ is our life, then we are rich, for all riches are in Christ. Sunshine has beneficent effects, so Christ is our life. We want to be continually in the sunshine of Christ. It is a great thing for us to get into the reality of Christ, of where Christ is, and what Christ is; people are not half enough alive to it. In early days the riches of Christians were that they appreciated Christ, the principle that ruled them, and was the life of their souls, was Christ at the right hand of God.

There is a deliberate attempt in Christendom to connect Christ with the world. In early days the power connected with the Name made the lame walk, and leap, and praise God, as it will Israel in the latter day, when the lame man shall leap as a hart. Silver and gold could not give that. The Christian is not to live by the world, but to live by Christ. "He that eateth me, even he shall live because of me". The conditions of eternal life are unalterable and unchangeable, although people die, and pass off the scene, and await the resurrection, Natural men die and pass off the scene, but the sun and air remain for others who follow. So spiritually it is the same; the conditions of eternal life remain for Christians to enter into, and that is true, even though many die and pass away.

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In Old Testament times people lived on promises, now we live on Christ, in whom all the promises are gathered up. What a contrast to all the lust and pride, and arrogance and will of man, is the meekness, and grace, and gentleness of Christ; all that is in Christ being the life of the soul. If Christ is the life of the soul, the character of Christ must come out. The old man has his lusts and tempers, but the new man is renewed in knowledge according to Christ. In the millennium the outward distinctions of nationality will not go for much; they will exist to a certain extent, but what is moral and is of Christ will override it all, and will tend to bind everything together. The characteristics of the new man will prevail. A Jew will not make much of being a Jew in the millennium. The Jews will be a blessing to others, they will be like a dew from the Lord. The seat of every beneficent influence will be in the heavenly city; but then the heavenly city will become a joy to the whole earth.

We put off the deeds of the old man by putting off the old man; the putting off and putting on are the foundation of practice; they are what I would call a state of mind by the Spirit in virtue of which you discountenance the one and adopt the other. The old man was terminated in the death of Christ, and Christ characteristically is the new man; so we in mind discountenance the one and adopt the other.

"Mortify" is applied to things which you never can be free of down here, but you have to put them to death in their first conception. Habits are what are acquired; lying is a habit, we are to "put away lying". You cannot help lust having a place in you; it is there, but you can put it to death in its first movement. Lying and anger are habits, and a man may put these off, and so get free of them.

What is "Renewed unto clear knowledge, after the image of him that created him"?

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F.E.R. The new man is characterised as being renewed. Knowledge is capability; it is the apprehension of things by which you view everything from an altogether different standpoint. In the new man there is capability to understand God's things. The character of the new man is that he is renewed, made different. If I put on the new man, then it is myself. I have to be consistent with what I have adopted. Here, the putting off and putting on is stated abstractly; but when I have come to it, then it is I who am "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him". Image is exact impression of. The "putting on" is really a new creation; what we "put on" is what is of God. You may be exhorted to put it on, and yet if you do put it on, it is all the work of God. It may be anomalous in that way. If I hear the voice of the Son of God I live; and yet if I live, the truth is it is divine power, creative power, which has made me live. A moment does come when in experience the Christian puts on the new man; and yet when He is put on, it is said, "he is created". Christ does not fit Himself according to man. Nationality began at Babel, and with it rivalry and hatred.

What is "Christ is all and in all"?

F.E.R. He is all as object, and in all as life. He is all to us, and we live by the appreciation of Christ. In natural things the husband lives in the affections of his wife, and for that reason he is all to her. If Christ is all and in all, that must bind us pretty much together; and it must be so. It is a perfect object, and a common object.

We cannot make much of nationality or patriotism in the light of this: "where there is neither Greek, nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free". If we put on the new man, it is to govern us in all the detail of everyday life. In the new man all idea of nationality comes to an end; and in contrast to that "Christ is all and in all". It is for this reason that in the world

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to come the distinctions between nations will very largely be overcome. God will be glorified in this order of things; but this order of things is not entirely according to His mind, and so we get "Behold I make all things new"; then it will be God and man.

Rem. When imperialism is crushed, things will take a simple form.

F.E.R. "Put on therefore as the elect of God". When the Spirit of God has come to that point, the new man put on, then the saints are viewed in the place of Christ here. It is really Christ under the eye of God: "Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth". The graces of Christ are to be expressed in the saints down here; we are in the place of the "holy and beloved", and if we were in the sense of being that, in the eye of God, it would have a great effect upon us in regard to our ways; the great point would be that what is of Christ should come out in us, "bowels of mercies", etc. It began with that; Christ came in in "bowels of mercies", and the same thought is to be continued in us. It is the thought of the body standing here in the place of Christ. "Holy and beloved" is simple: the answer to the prayer of the Lord in John 17, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". What is to mark us is the expression of all that is of God in Christ; it is what it is in its adaptation to things down here.

It is curious that the epistles which speak most about the mystery bring these natural relationships into view -- that is, husbands, wives, children, etc. We get nothing in Romans nor in Corinthians nor in Galatians as to them; but in these two epistles, Ephesians and Colossians, where the mystery is taken up, you do get them. I think it shows that all these relationships have their place, and come in, God having brought all into reconciliation.

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Does it indicate a state in which they are fulfilled?

F.E.R. Yes. God recognises everything which He Himself has established; all is taken up in reconciliation. What is mystery now will be made manifest in the world to come. It is manifest now, in the way of testimony, but it will be manifested in display. "That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak"; that was to faith in those to whom the apostle was speaking.

How do the masters and servants come in?

F.E.R. I do not know that these relations will be done away with in the world to come. There are people who are unable to stand on their own legs, and God may make provision for them.

Rem. We get a picture of that relation in Boaz and his servants.

F.E.R. I am not putting out that there will be that institution of masters and servants in the world to come; but there are those who seem incapable of undertaking for themselves, and God may make provision for such. The millennium will be perfect as regards government, but as regards man you must look beyond. God may recognise certain things which are not a perfect state of things as regards men; it is a perfect state of things as regards governmental order. The Spirit of God in taking up these relationships in the epistles in which the mystery is found, it seems to me to indicate that they may have their place in the day when the mystery will come into display, that is, in the world to come. The divine thought in regard to children is brought in here, and it shows that they will have their part in the world to come.

God takes up everything which He has established, all along the line, and all is made good in Christ. The assembly is a preparatory witness before the day of display, that is the divine thought. It is a witness to Israel, you get that thought in Corinthians. The assembly is a witness to holiness and unity; the temple and the body. Then again the thought of the flock

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is taken up in the assembly. No godly Israelite, even in Old Testament times, ever embraced less than the twelve tribes, as the divine thought in regard to Israel was unity. In the assembly you get the preparatory witness to holiness, and unity, and love. What has been set forth is possible, and what has been set forth in the assembly is possible, because it has been. So if the Jews were once in the goodness of God, they can be again. In the assembly you get the preparatory witness of everything. There is a witness in the assembly that in the true Isaac "all nations of the earth shall be blessed"; but that is but a witness to what shall be. The assembly is (if we could see it) a witness to all that will be. The assembly is promoted from being a witness down here, to having a place above. It does not deserve it, for it has not been a faithful witness, except at the beginning; still it gets its promotion and goes above. The assembly will know all about things, and will exercise a most profound influence on the earth, just as the natural sun does. The righteous are to shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and it will have a profound influence. "Her light was like unto a stone most precious" (Revelation 21:11); that is a variegated light. I do not think we fully appreciate the great connecting link which the church is with what is past, and with what is to come. The Old Testament looks on to the world to come -- the kingdom; but then the assembly has taken up all that has been, and witnesses to all that shall be. So you can understand "that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God", Ephesians 3:10.

Rem. As to the future, there will be glory to God in the assembly throughout all ages.

F.E.R. The assembly here is a witness. Israel was a witness, the assembly is a witness, it is the body, the medium of diffusion. All is set in movement by the

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body; the body is the anointed body, and the object of the anointing is to diffuse the light. We have an unction, the anointing is that we may understand. "The anointing teacheth you", and it is that the light may be diffused. I take it up from the gospels of John and Luke. In the former Christ is the vessel of light -- the Temple; but He was the Man anointed to diffuse the light. This latter is what we get in Luke's gospel. The body is not only in view of our understanding by the Spirit, but also that the light might be diffused by the Spirit, and that is where gifts come in. The gifts are in the administration of the Spirit. The assembly, too, is the temple, and also the body -- the anointed vessel. "So also is the Christ". Where was the world before the light came in as to these relationships? Loosen the first tie, and the effect on the children is disastrous; loosen the tie between man and wife, and it will loosen the second, that towards children. In America this is very evident. The first tie is held loosely, and as to the children, they regard themselves as good as the parents. As lawlessness becomes more manifest, you will get the disintegration of society, and that will pave the way for full-blown lawlessness, and the setting up of Antichrist; but the mystery of lawlessness already works. The Spirit of God will hinder until He be taken out of the way. It is a great mercy that we have divine light, and that the divine thought is given to us in regard to these relationships.

What is the difference of the standpoint in Ephesians and Colossians in regard to these relationships?

F.E.R. In Ephesians they are taken up at their full height. The first witness given by God (Adam and Eve) was to unity. They were to be "one flesh", a setting forth in that sense of Christ and the assembly. Unity is inseparable from union. Unity depends upon union; union is an actual bond, an actual joining. Unity really depends on the Spirit. "By one Spirit

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are we all baptised into one body". We are joined to one another by one Spirit. It is a practical thing, but we are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit.

Is it possible to all think one thing?

F.E.R. It is all dependent upon every mind being kept within the limits of the Spirit, and that is the mind of Christ; then we shall all think the same thing.

On what ground are the children exhorted here?

F.E.R. It supposes the children of believing parents that they are in the Christian circle -- that they are baptised. These admonitions are spoken assuming that they had been brought in a formal way into the Christian circle, corresponding to the court of the tabernacle, and the precincts of the house where the laver was, and where the altar of burnt-offering was -- a place of acceptance; but the laver signified being washed from the pollutions of the world. Children escape these in a formal way by baptism, for the effect of the latter is to bring them into the precincts of the tabernacle. There are two public recognised institutions which God has allowed to remain as a witness to the truth of Christianity. They began from the beginning; for all records show that both baptism and the Lord's supper were practised from the beginning. People are very unintelligent if they do not see the propriety of baptism in regard to their children. The assembly does not properly belong to earth; it is only here for the moment, and yet everything is taken up in Christ. The law recognised children. The Lord took them up in His arms. So, too, now, they are recognised, and they will have their place in the world to come. The slaves (verse 24) will "receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ". It is the thought of the kingdom. It is retributive; you get both "reward" and "receiving for the wrong he hath done".

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THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER (4)

Colossians 4

F.E.R. Then masters are to give that which is just and equal.

Verse 3: "To speak the mystery of the Christ". It is a great pity that the article is omitted in our version. The Christ is the official Head, and includes the whole system which comes into reconciliation. "By him to reconcile all things". The apostle's idea of preaching was to preach the mystery of the Christ. The gospel preached today is a diluted gospel (I do not say adulterated). Christ is to be presented as Head of all things on the ground of redemption, and He is the centre of attraction for man; and hence, if people are attracted to Christ, they are connected with the "all things". Christ has come in as Head, and man has responsibility in regard to Christ, for He is Head of every man. Man has responsibility in regard to God, but he has also responsibility in regard to Christ. The latter is the greater test. In preaching, Christ has to be presented from heaven, that is the report of the Holy Spirit. Christ has ascended up on high, that He may fill all things. Faith cometh by report, and report by the word of God. The report has come by the Holy Spirit, and the report is that Christ is Head of every man on the ground of redemption, and that therefore He is an object of attraction to men. God will take all up on the ground of redemption.

What about angels?

F.E.R. Reconciliation depends upon redemption. All will be put under the Son of man, and angels will be put under Him as such. Unfallen beings like holy angels cannot enter into the sense of God's mercy as we can. Christ can; He came under the judgement of

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our sins and iniquities, and therefore He is the vessel of God's mercy to man; but unfallen angels cannot enter into that. It would be a great thing to enter into the mystery of the Christ. The only thing which will save things at this moment is the testimony of the Christ, and it has to be understood. Many people nowadays are hurried into preaching; we hear of boy preachers. What can such an one know of the mystery of the Christ? The mystery of the Christ is much more than presenting Christ as a Saviour. It is Christ in regard to all things. I do not think the testimony of the Christ is to be understood in a moment. The apostle had conflict for these Colossians to the end "that they might have the riches of the full assurance of understanding".

At the end we get the mention of different names, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, Archippus, Onesimus, etc. Demas is not described at all -- all the others are; there is some comment about every other. Demas has a cold mention, his defection may not have become apparent. The apostle was guided by the Holy Spirit. If a man has received a ministry of the Lord, he has to see that he fills it out. If a man goes about, he ought to have a sense of having a ministry from the Lord, and he ought to fulfil it. It was a recognised thing that Archippus had received a ministry.

The fact of our having the New Testament scriptures has not altered the ground of faith. The ground of faith is what it always was; that is the report. "Who hath believed our report?" "So faith then is by a report, but the report by God's word", Romans 10:17.

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THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

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THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Numbers 10:1 - 36; Hebrews 10:19 - 22

The things that happened in regard to Israel happened unto them for ensamples, and are written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world have come. It is extremely important to remember that. We get a great deal of detail furnished to us in connection with the wilderness, and the ways of God in connection with the people there; and these things are written for our learning. The anti-type to these things is found now in the assembly. What took place in the wilderness will never be repeated. So far as I understand it, God will never walk in the midst of Israel in the future. When the Lord comes again, He meets the people in the land; there will be also an ingathering of Israel from the nations; but that is not the wilderness. The people will not be delivered again from Egypt; the journey through the wilderness into the land -- all that has been, will not be repeated. What occurred were types of spiritual things -- things which are happening at the present time to us, and so you can understand that these things are written for our learning. I think I have been accustomed to look upon a great deal of that which is recorded here as having reference to the future, whereas I see now more and more plainly that it has far more reference to the present. We have set forth in types and shadows God's ways with a heavenly people in the wilderness; and we can derive much instruction from all this detail.

Now if you admit that, all that we get in this chapter must have some kind of fulfilment in us. This chapter (Numbers 10) is of great interest, because it is the first movement of the people in the wilderness: the tabernacle moves for the first time. Everything was

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arranged according to divine order; the tabernacle is set in movement and comes to a resting-place; and we see what marked its movement, and also what marked its coming to a resting-place. In the wilderness, in general, everything was movement. God's people could not rest there. It was not a place where they could have a city of habitation. People do not settle down in the wilderness. If you find Christians settling down, they are settling down in the plains of Moab. The wilderness is the place of death. Hence, what marks the wilderness, generally speaking, is movement, but at the same time, occasional rest. The ark of Jehovah went before the people, to find for them a resting-place, and from time to time they found a resting-place in the wilderness.

When first the people came out of Egypt, they were not occupied with the ark of the covenant, or with God dwelling among them: that did not take up their attention. What they were occupied with was salvation from the hand of the enemy, which furnished the subject of the song in Exodus 15. It is quite true that salvation was the pledge of something more; that the God who had brought them out would bring them in; but they were taken up -- and rightly -- with salvation from the Egyptian. Two things were true in regard to them: they were a justified people in virtue of the blood of the lamb, and at the same time, they had salvation from the power of the enemy. They had seen how God had destroyed the Egyptians; the power of death too had been broken; the Red Sea smitten in two by the rod of Moses. The moment that God made in Christ a way through death into resurrection, then the power of death was broken. Death was smitten in its hold over man, and the fear of death, which was in the hand of the enemy, passed away. We do not fear death: why? Because through death there is a way to life. The true David has entered into conflict with the enemy; the head of the giant is

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taken off, and is in the hand of the true David. This is true for a justified people, which Israel was in type. God had not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel, and He had been pleased to give them deliverance from the enemy. The same thing is verified in the experience of believers. When converted, they rejoice that they are justified, and, if they go on, in having found salvation. They are no longer in terror of death or Satan, because God has made through death a way into life. But when we go a little further another thing comes into view. When Israel was brought into the wilderness, they had no tabernacle of God among them: that did not come in until some time afterwards. In fact, the tabernacle was not set up until the beginning of the second year. God gave injunctions to Moses to take from the people material wherewith to construct the tabernacle; but the tabernacle had to be constructed and set up. But the first experience of the people in the wilderness was not connected with that. Before that came into view they had had many a lesson to learn; they had to prove the resources of God, and His mercy in regard to a people in the dearth of the wilderness. They tasted the manna, and drank of the water from the smitten rock. They had experience of the faithfulness and the competency of God in regard to a people in such circumstances; but while that was going on they had not the tabernacle in view. Now in this chapter the tabernacle comes into view, and forms the most important point in relation to the people.

Express injunctions were given as to how the tabernacle was to be carried, and the arrangement of the people was connected with the tabernacle. The people could not move an inch without the tabernacle, and if they wanted a resting-place, everything depended on the tabernacle; if they were to go out in conflict, everything depended on the ark of the covenant. The whole life of the people was bound up now with

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the tabernacle of the congregation. God had redeemed the people for a purpose of His own, and that is, that He might have a dwelling place here upon earth.

The people could not fail to get the greatest gain from the fact of God dwelling among them; but God dwelt among them, not for their pleasure, but for His pleasure. That is an immense point to apprehend in regard to God dwelling with men. I believe it is the pleasure of God, in result, to dwell in the universe. The universe is to be the house of God; where God will dwell for His pleasure. The universe will derive the greatest possible gain from this; it will get experience of all the goodness of heaven; but the fact remains that God will dwell there for His own pleasure.

There is one more point I want to touch upon in regard to the children of Israel: and that is, that though they had the ark of the covenant, they never saw it. The only people that saw the ark of the covenant were the priests. It was carefully covered up even before the Levites came forward to carry it. The people never saw it; they had not boldness to enter into the holiest -- not even the high priest had. I do not think the priests went into the holiest at all. The high priest went in once a year; but the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest. The ark of the covenant sought a resting place for them and led them against their enemies; but at the same time, they never saw it. There, in a way, the type fails. I am going to show you how the detail of this chapter is fulfilled in regard to us; but then, we get a great deal more than comes out here, and that is what led me to read the passage in Hebrews 10. We have "boldness to enter"; and the moment you enter the holiest you come into the presence of the ark of the covenant.

I speak of these things because they indicate steps in Christian experience. We begin with redemption, being delivered from the power of the enemy and brought into the enjoyment of salvation. Then we go

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on to the recognition that God is dwelling here by the Spirit, that He has a dwelling place in the midst of the assembly in the wilderness; then we go on to another point: we enter the holiest, and there contemplate the ark of the covenant. That is a great point to come to. When you come there, you have understanding, and are intelligent according to God.

It is an important point in the experience of a Christian when he recognises the fact that God is dwelling here. This fact is clouded to a very large extent in Christendom. The great bulk of Christians have no idea of the presence of the Spirit. Evangelical Christians have little idea connected with the Spirit, beyond an influence. The knowledge that God is dwelling here by the Spirit is limited to a comparatively small number of Christians. It is sad that it should be so, but the reason of it is intelligible. Men have tried hard to make Christianity a religion of the world, and the Spirit of God will not connect Himself with the world. When man came into prominence in Christianity, the Spirit of God was virtually displaced, and men lost the idea of God dwelling here by the Spirit. Men use still the expression, "the house of God"; but the common thought of it is that of a material dwelling place. The house of God in the true sense is almost entirely lost sight of, and the presence of the Spirit practically ignored. Do you think that if Christians believed in the presence of the Spirit they would have such things as ordered divine service, clergy, or appointed ministers? All that belongs to the rudiments of the world, and it goes in a moment when the fact is recognised that God is dwelling here by the Spirit. The recognition of that truth has had the effect of bringing many of us out of the various religious associations in which we were found in the world. It was a fact of such immense import that we were prepared to break with associations, friends, and even relatives, because of it. But the

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greater part of us were converted long before we recognised the truth, that God was dwelling here by the Spirit.

Now I want to point out how the presence of the Spirit is bound up with all our wilderness life. The assembly is in the wilderness, and the Spirit of God is present, dwelling here, and the Spirit's presence affects every detail of a Christian's life. In the case of Israel, as we have seen, the arrangement of the tribes was determined by the tabernacle of the congregation; their whole wilderness life and order had reference to the tabernacle of the congregation.

Now all our order down here is determined by the presence of the Spirit, for Jew and Gentile are builded together for a habitation of God by the Spirit. You can see what the effect of that must have been in early days. Think of a Jew with a family in the early days of Christianity, and a Gentile with a family, both brought into Christianity -- justified by the faith of a risen Christ and indwelt by the Spirit, they were brought into unity. Suppose for a moment that the family of the Jew were not converted, yet the Jew had to consort with the Gentile and to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; just imagine what a deadly offence that may have been to the family of the Jew! And yet, the life of the Jew and the life of the Gentile were determined by the fact that God was dwelling here by the Spirit. The Jew and the Gentile had to regard that, and in spite of family associations and everything else, had to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The same thing holds good in the present day. In a worldly family one member may be brought into the light of the truth, the recognition of the presence of the Spirit of God, and that person takes a certain course in consequence, that is, can no longer go on with worldly religious associations, but is in fellowship

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with people who are to a large extent despised in the world. What deadly offence that will often cause! You will see thus how the recognition of the Spirit's presence determines the course of a person here in the world, just as the tabernacle determined the order of Israel. I suppose the first obligation under which we are in the world is to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. A wife may have to do violence to the feelings of her husband because of that.

I bring these things forward to show that what is set forth here in the type is fulfilled now in the church; our course is ordered in reference to the Spirit, and we have to regard His order. Just as the twelve tribes were arranged in regard to the tabernacle of the congregation, so we are arranged in reference to the fact that God is dwelling here. A white man and his slave -- a black man -- may both be converted and brought to recognise the presence of God by the Spirit. They are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace -- but what deadly offence that may cause in the world! The world is framed on a totally different order -- on the order of the pride of man. Christian life, rightly understood, is framed on the recognition of the presence of God -- God dwelling here by the Spirit. Hence our first obligation is to carry out the order which is consequent upon that.

But we are continually in movement, because the wilderness is a place of movement. In the book of Chronicles David speaks in regard to the Levites that there had been a time when they were occupied in carrying the tabernacle, and now they had come to a place of rest. David found a resting place for Jehovah, and God saw fit to accept that place; but in the wilderness, the ark of the covenant was rarely quiet -- it was continually in movement. You could not get a greater expression of divine grace than in

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God accommodating Himself to the position of the people. If they had to march, God marched with them.

I trust we are continually in movement. It is a bad sign if we are not. If there is not continual exercise here, we are settling down into complacency with what is in the world. The influences of the world are extremely subtle, and where people are successful in, or have adaptability to the world, they are in the greatest danger of succumbing to the influences of the world. There ceases to be exercise; they settle down on their lees; they have everything their heart can wish. They forget that the bridegroom is taken away, and that the present time is one of fasting, and not of feasting. What is suitable to the wilderness is not rest; it is a place of exercise, and almost everything that comes in, in regard to our life down here, if we are at all faithful, tends to bring about exercise. In endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace many things come before me in my individual path which tend to cause exercise, because they raise the question of fidelity to the Lord. A possible marriage, an engagement in business, anything down here, will tend to raise the question of fidelity to the Lord in the mind of the saint. In the detail of Christian life I do not think the Lord will make known to people that He has a particular mind in regard to this detail or that. People are often exercised as to where they should go to live. I do not know that the Lord has any particular will in regard to that. If you want guidance from Him you must have no reservations in your mind; you must not say that a certain place would be prejudicial to health; you must go to Him with your mind as a clean sheet if you want His guidance. But I think these details are left to Christians, and they are tested by them in fidelity to the Lord. If we seek to order our way down here with reference to the Lord, I think we

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shall not go very far wrong, because God has given to us the spirit of a sound mind.

I refer to these things to indicate how true it is that the wilderness is not a place of rest, but of continual exercise; and yet, after all, remember this: God is going before the assembly. The great point is that we should recognise the presence of the Spirit of God, maintaining us in fidelity to the Lord. God is going before us now, to find a resting place. It is a great thing when we come now and again to a resting place. The idea of a resting place is that exercise ceases for the moment, and we come together to recognise God and His goodness -- that He is amongst us. There could not be worship while the people were in movement; everything was disturbed; but when the ark came to rest, then there was the opportunity for the service of God, and that is what I understand by the tabernacle resting. The people got the opportunity of recognising what was due to God in the way of worship. It may be with us that, during the week, all is exercise; but the Spirit of God leads us to a place of rest. We cease from exercises, and come into the blessed sense that God is amongst us, to make us conscious of His goodness and the fatness of His house. It is a point of great moment, in the history of Christians, that we come together in assembly, recognising the fact that God is here of a truth.

Then there is also the testimony of God in the world. The ark goes forward -- "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee". That was one thought connected with the ark of the covenant -- the leading out in conflict that the enemies of the Lord might be confounded. You will not suppose that I am referring to conflict with men -- it is with spiritual enemies; they are to be confounded, and to flee before the ark of the covenant when Christ leads in the power of His testimony.

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Now take into account these few simple thoughts. The fact that God is dwelling here by the Spirit determines our order, and the keeping the unity of the Spirit is of paramount importance. Then, by the very fact of the Spirit of God being here, we are in continual exercise, and He will keep us in exercise; but at the same time, we are furnished with a moment of rest now and again, and then we follow the ark of the covenant going forward in conflict against the enemies of God. This is all fulfilled to those who recognise the truth that God is dwelling here by the Spirit.

Now I go a point farther. I want to draw attention to the fact that the people of Israel never saw the ark of the covenant. There are a great many Christians now who understand the exercises of the wilderness; have had the enjoyment of the resting place; and have an interest in the testimony of the Lord; but it may be that they have never contemplated the ark of the covenant. I am almost afraid to speak of it, because boldness to enter the holiest is such a wonderful thing. I read the verses in Hebrews 10 to indicate what we well know, that we have that boldness -- it is open to us to meditate on the ark of the covenant. Evidently the Hebrews had not got that far, else the apostle would not have spoken to them in the way in which he did, for after making known to them that they had boldness to enter into the holiest, he says, "Let us draw near". They had not drawn near. The entering the holiest is to contemplate that which is there. Now I want to indicate what is there. So long as the first tabernacle was standing, the way into the holiest was not manifest. While the first tabernacle was standing, those who served were taken up with the things connected with the future glory of Israel. The table of shewbread, the candlestick, and the incense altar probably set forth the future glory of an earthly people in connection with Christ. So long as

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these were in view, the thought of entering the holiest was not present; but now that the first tabernacle has no standing, all that remains is the holiest of all, and in the holiest of all is the ark of the covenant. What I understand by the ark of the covenant is the secret of divine ways. The ark of the covenant conveys to my mind the idea of the great Head out of which the whole system of the world in which God will be glorified is to be evolved. It is no small thing to contemplate that. It is the holiest, and you have to be holy according to God in order to contemplate the breadth and length and depth and height of that vast system.

Now I will make that idea a little plainer if I can. Just contemplate what Christ is. He came here, the righteous One, who could perfectly glorify God on the earth, and set forth the principles of the kingdom. He could draw a perfectly defined line between good and evil; Psalm 45. The position of Christ here upon earth was, that He was establishing the great principles on which the throne of God would be based. Then He took up at the cross every liability of man, in order that, in His death, He might abolish the lawless man, the man in whom God had been dishonoured, and Himself come in as the Sun of righteousness. He accomplished redemption, and in doing it abolished that man. But then, He glorified God, and was raised again from the dead and carried to the right hand of God, far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. The thought which that brings before us is this, that the whole universe of bliss is to be evolved from Christ, out of the Head. If He fills all things, there is no room for anything else. The whole solar universe is filled with the light and heat of the sun, and there is no room for any other light. The electric light is very poor in the face of the sun. The only light I know of superior to that of the sun is the light of the Sun of righteousness. Paul

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saw a light above the sun. Now that is the Head -- the ark of the covenant. The law of God was in His heart. The law of God is love. Christ came here with the law of God in His heart, that He might make that the law for the universe. The law of this world is lust and pride, but the law which Christ will give to the universe of bliss will be love. He will bring about that in that universe; the ruling principle shall be love, and everything will originate in the love of God. The love of God will be so made known and become so real to men, that it will be the law of the moral universe. The great principle of the Ten Commandments was love: if we love, we fulfil the law. Now take up the detail of Colossians 2, "In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". Christ is replete with divine intelligence. The next thing is, "You are complete in him, who is the head (entitled to give direction) of all principality and power". I judge of every principality and power in the world by Christ, because He is the Head. Then He is the Head of the body, the assembly. The assembly lives in His life: He is the life of that body. The body is evolved from Him; and so I might go down to every other circle. The Old Testament saints will be in heaven in the life of Christ. Israel upon earth will take the law from Christ, and the same principle will apply through every circle. Every family is named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is evolved from the great Head, from the Sun of righteousness, the ark of the covenant.

I wonder if we have all contemplated that? I am afraid there may be many who are not prepared to enter into it; but it is there to be entered into. The great point of entering into the holiest is that you may contemplate Christ and that which is to be evolved from Christ; what Christ is as the Centre and Head and Sun of the universe of bliss. When all is filled by Him, you will not contemplate it in the same way. The privilege that we have now is to contemplate all

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in Christ, when it is not displayed and there is the possibility of entering into it. Christ is the great Priest over the house of God, and the house of God in result is the universe. I do not think you can contemplate this except in holiness and by the Spirit of God; but it is there to be contemplated.

I thank God that He has given us the faintest apprehension of the ark of the covenant. It is a most wonderful privilege to think of that great system of glory involved in Christ. It is going to be displayed; but it is an immense privilege, in the meantime, to contemplate it in the One who is the blessed Head and Centre and Source of it all.

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FRIENDS OF CHRIST

Luke 12:1 - 40

A great part of the New Testament Scriptures refers to what the mind of God is as to what we should be down here. I think I might say that the bulk of the writings of the apostles has that in view. They do not speak of the order of our conduct in heaven, but of our testimony here. The Spirit of God takes care to assure us that we have a place in heaven, because we have no place on earth. If we had a place recognised of God on earth, the Spirit of God would not speak to us of a place in heaven; but a place in heaven is the only place we have. Here we are strangers and pilgrims. We are followers of them who through faith and patience inherit promises. The effect of the promises on Abraham was that he became a stranger and a pilgrim upon earth; he had no place here. Christ has gone to prepare a place for us; and now God has raised us up and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ; but then, the point is, What are we to be down here? And you may be sure that if we answer to the mind of God in what we are down here, it is a true preparation for our place in heaven. I think it is a great thing to ascertain the mind of God as to us here. We can arrive at that; and by entering into it we shall be prepared for our place above.

We get that idea in this chapter. The Lord says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" -- that is our object down here. Then He says, "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have", etc. In seeking the kingdom, we are prepared to receive the kingdom. On the other hand, if we apprehend that it is our Father's pleasure to give us the kingdom, we act here according to the kingdom. We sell that we have and give to the poor, because the

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first principle of the kingdom undoubtedly is righteousness, and righteousness means dispersion. There is a remarkable passage in Psalm 112:9, quoted by the apostle in 2 Corinthians 9:9, as marking the righteous man. "He hath dispersed; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness endureth for ever". Now if we are affected by the reality that it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom, we shall lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven, not on earth.

I am going to take up a few details which come out in this chapter, to show what should characterise the friends of Christ down here. That is the position in which, at the beginning of the chapter, the Lord recognises the disciples: "I say unto you my friends". The disciples were His friends. I suppose the meaning of it is that He made known to them His mind. A man gives his confidence to his friend, and that is exactly what Christ had done to His disciples; He had not treated them as servants, but as friends.

Then the Lord unfolds, in the beginning of the chapter, the position which they were to occupy in testimony down here, and in the latter part, the conditions which are suitable to those in the place of testimony. It is one of the most lovely chapters you can find in the Scriptures, as marking out the conduct and bearing and deportment which is according to the mind of the Lord for those in the place of His friends down here. I think we may accept that place, as the friends of Christ. I quite admit the application to those who were round the Lord at that time, and who were to be the first to come into the place of testimony; but I do not think you can limit what comes out in the chapter to them, and I should suppose that it would be quite according to the pleasure of Christ that we should accept the place in which He puts His disciples as His friends, in the interests of the testimony.

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Now I want to go back a little to indicate to you how, in the tenth chapter, we have an entirely new point of departure. I do not think you will understand the succeeding chapters if you fail to apprehend that. The parable of the good Samaritan, as it is commonly called, presents to us an entirely new departure: it is the introduction of a neighbour. There never had been a neighbour before, and it is the beginning of God's real ways in regard to man. There had been the priest and the Levite; but the law never was a neighbour, nor was it intended to be. It was impossible for the law to show mercy, or to take account of the real condition of man. Moses was not a neighbour; the priest and the Levite pass by; and the real outset of divine ways in regard to man is undoubtedly the introduction of a neighbour.

The earlier part of the gospel is taken up pretty much with the kingdom. Now we get an additional point in regard to the kingdom, that is, the introduction of a man. That is the place which Christ came here to fulfil. Everything that had been, whether it were law or what not, in the dealings of God, was in anticipation of the introduction of a man; and this was the point of departure in the accomplishment of what was according to God's mind in regard to men. One point as to the neighbour is that he comes in from without. He is not regarded as arising from what was previously recognised. He is not raised up in connection with the pre-existing system; he is a Samaritan, coming from without; but the point of his coming in is to act the neighbour, to show mercy.

Now a few words in regard to the one to whom mercy is to be shown. The moral condition of man is deplorable. To begin with, he is weak. The proof of his weakness is that he has to come down to death. In a sense, man is already half dead, for from the time he comes into the world death lies upon him. The strongest man -- a Samson -- must come down to

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death. Samson in his end slew a great many Philistines, but he had to die himself. Then, too, man is without righteousness. The man that fell among thieves was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jericho was not the place to find righteousness. Man is without resources and afflicted of thieves. Satan has really stripped man, and left him without righteousness, without resources, half dead, with death upon him.

And this is not the condition of man at his worst, but at his best. Now the neighbour has come in to show mercy not simply to the Jew, but to man. He has come in from without, in the unconditional goodness of God. Every Christian is conscious at the beginning of his history that he has received blessing from Christ. It is, I suppose, our first impression in regard of Christ. Who, then, do you think has any claim upon you like the One who showed mercy to you? If it had not been for the mercy of Christ, we should have been in heathen darkness. He has come near to us in order that He might make us acquainted with God. This is the beginning of our acquaintance with Christ; but it is only the beginning.

The first point, then, is the apprehension of the neighbour, the relation in which Christ now stands to man, the new departure. All previous to that had been probationary dealings on the part of God, and when we come to the neighbour we come to the real point of departure. But the man who is the subject of mercy has to be formed, to be renewed; he is to be changed in the very texture of his moral being, and that comes to pass in regard to everyone to whom Christ has shown mercy.

There are two principles by which this is effected: one is by being riveted to Christ, so that the ear is entirely attentive to Christ, and the other is in having access to the Father by the Spirit. I have no doubt that those are the two principles by which the man who is the subject of mercy is formed according to

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God. He becomes "according to God" the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. What marked Mary was, that she was riveted to Jesus: she sat at Jesus' feet. Martha, too, had affection for Jesus, but she was not riveted to Jesus. Mary was; she had no ear for anyone else except Jesus: she heard His word, that is, the expression of Himself, so that He became known to her in that which He is; and she was affected and formed by it.

The Lord indicates thus the first great principle which affects the one to whom mercy has been shown. My impression is that many people allow other things to come in between them and Jesus. Even service, on the part of Martha, might come in between herself and Jesus; but a great many things which are not service at all may come in, and hence it is that the soul is not riveted to Jesus, and does not get the full benefit of His word. The Son of God is expressed in His word, and it ought to be an exercise with every one of us that we are coming to the clear knowledge of the Son of God. The effect of the mercy of Christ is to that end.

Now another point comes in, and that is, that such enjoy access to the Father. We learn what Christ is, but at the same time, through Him, we have access to the Father. If you have access to the Father, it is impossible to enjoy that without being very greatly affected by it. Even in human things we understand that if a man has access to great people in the world, he will undoubtedly be more or less affected by them. If a man keeps bad company, he will be affected by that company; but if a man keeps company morally superior to himself, he will be affected by it. So it is in regard to the Father: we enjoy access by Christ to the Father through the Spirit, and if this becomes a reality to us we cannot fail to be greatly affected by it. The practical result is that we are conscious not only of the mercy of Christ, but are formed according to

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God by the knowledge of the Son of God, and by the enjoyment of access by the Spirit to the Father. I think those are the two great principles by which believers are formed according to God. God intends that we should take our character from Himself, as made known to us in the Son of God: the new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

I want you to apprehend God's point of departure in the One who has come in to show mercy. It is a great thing to turn your back on other things, and to have your attention taken up with the blessed One who has come in as the vessel of God's mercy to act the part of neighbour; and the next step is that we sit at His feet to get the knowledge of Himself, and enjoy our privilege, by the Spirit, of access to the Father, that we may be formed in affections according to God. In enjoying access to the Father, you enjoy access to One who loves, and then you get the blessed response to this love on the part of the Christian, "We love Him because He first loved us". That is the way in which the friends of Christ are formed, and there is no other. His friends must be according to Himself, or He would not care about them: if Christ condescends to have friends, it is clear that they must be according to Himself, otherwise they could not be in the secret of His mind. Even in worldly things, I do not think that any man will be my intimate friend unless there is something in common between my mind and his; and if I am not morally according to Christ, I doubt if I can be His friend; but our privilege is to be in the place of friends of Christ.

Now I pass on to the twelfth chapter. We have seen how the friends of Christ are formed. The twelfth chapter, verses 4 to 12, contemplates them in the place of testimony. The first thing is, that you should not be afraid of man. And you can understand this: If you are afraid of man, you are in danger of playing

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the hypocrite. A hypocrite is a person who does not come out in his true colour, and I think that would often apply to myself, and to many a Christian: he does not come out in his true colour. His true colour is that he is a friend of Christ. You will come out in your true colour some day, but the point is that in this world we should not act the part of hypocrites, but come out as Christ's friends.

Another point is that we confess the Son of man. That means a great deal. I do not fear man -- man is about me; all his power and glory are in the world, and in spite of that I do not fear him. The secret of that is that I expect nothing from him. I believe many of us are hampered by having expectations from man, and are thus kept in bondage to man. The friend of Christ does not fear man: but fears God, and confesses the Son of man. In the eyes of the world at the present time the Son of man is simply nothing. In the politics of the world the idea of the Son of man does not enter; and yet, after all, God has put all things under His feet, and He is going to overturn everything in the world. His rights are in abeyance for the moment, while He is at the right hand of God; but He has rights in regard to the world here. Everything is put under His feet, and we are not ashamed of the Son of man: we confess Him. It is a great thing for us to apprehend the reality to which the Spirit witnesses -- a Man in heaven, under whose feet everything is placed. That Man is known to us. He is not ashamed to call us friends, and we are left here for a moment for the confession of that Man. When I see people prepared to accept the glory of man and to do homage to man in the world, the impression produced upon me is that they do not think much of the Son of man.

Now I come to another point. The same Spirit by whom we enjoy access to the Father is the real power of our witness down here. The disciples were not to

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be preoccupied with what defence they might make; they were dependent on the Spirit of God for their testimony. I think the Lord marks out simple guides and guards for the pathway. Do not be afraid of man; confess the Son of man. I do not think that means exactly that you should speak of Him to everyone you meet in the street: you can confess Him in a silent way -- by separation from the world, its glory and power and tinsel. Then there is entire dependence on the power of the Spirit of God. How can you talk about a Man in heaven except by the Spirit of God? A Man in heaven is contrary to all human experience. If you speak to me about the Duke of Wellington, or some great man who lived here, I have no difficulty in receiving that; but when you tell me about a Man in heaven, it is another matter. Who can enable me to speak about the Son of man in heaven except the Spirit of God? I do not think people know how dangerous it is to take up the things of God in natural ability. You can only know these things and testify of them in the power of the Spirit of God, who has come down to bring the witness to us of the Son of man in heaven. You get an example of this in Stephen: he was full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus. He was called before magistrates and powers, and confessed the Son of man, by the Spirit of God, before men.

That is the one true thing for the moment. The fear of man is morally a low thing. Under the influence of it many a person has done wrong things. The fear of man is ever dangerous, and when divine things are in question it is particularly so. If you are to be kept from it, you must be kept in the power of God, in confidence upon God. It is a blessed thought to me that the Witness to the Man in heaven is as great as the Man, and the Man as great as the Witness. What came to pass in the case of Stephen might in a certain

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sense come to pass in our experience. If we got our eye steadfastly fixed on heaven and saw Jesus crowned with glory and honour, then we should be prepared to be apart from man's glory in the world, in the confession of the Son of man, under whose feet God has put all things.

The next thing is, you must not expect Christ to interfere in the affairs of this life. If you do you will get the answer on the part of Christ, Who made me a judge or a divider over you? The Lord will say to you, Beware of covetousness. Men want to get their rights: the man who appealed to Christ wanted to get rights which possibly belonged to him in the providence of God. A man may have a debtor, and go to law to recover his debt. All right enough according to man; but what is the spring and root of that in man? Where did his rights come from? The spring of all man's rights is the confusion which sin has brought into the world; and when men set to work to recover their rights they really are in danger of covetousness. The Lord goes to the root of the matter. What I understand by covetousness is the love of proprietary possession. It is a very common failing; all would admit that. I do not suppose there is anyone who is entirely free from it. When man was simply as God made him, he enjoyed the benefits which God had placed within his reach; but there was not proprietary possession. When the Lord came here, He had nothing; Peter too could say, Silver and gold have I none -- I have no possessions. The Lord says, Beware of covetousness. All that comes out in the remainder of the chapter (verses 22 - 36) is the contrast of that.

The contrast to covetousness is dependence on God; and not only that, but confidence in God; the great point in it is that God is to us a reality. Every man is dependent on the care of God. God is the preserver of all men; all are dependent on Him.

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Do you think we cannot count on the care of God? If a raven can count on His care, surely I can; and if a lily is decked in a form with which the glory of Solomon was not comparable, cannot I count on the care of God for my clothing? That is what the Lord brings out. Whatever may be our pathway here, the circumstances into which we have been born, it is a great point that the heart should be free from the love of money, and that the spirit of one's mind should be that of confidence in God, in the blessed sense that God is a reality, and that He has special regard for those who believe. I have no doubt that God knows perfectly how to order the path of His people who wait upon Him; and though they may not escape exercises, "your Father knoweth that ye have need of such things". My conviction is that if a man has grace to give himself up to seeking the kingdom of God in this world of man's influence, God will not fail in His care of that man.

I think it is because people are half-hearted, partly seeking the kingdom of God and partly other things, that they do not prove the care of God in the way they might. If we are to seek the kingdom of God, we are to seek nothing else. It is not that I may not have to take up a business; but business is not my pursuit: it is incidental. My pursuit is the kingdom of God, and God will not fail me. If we are set on the kingdom of God down here, God will be set on our care. I have no doubt that God has endowed us with a large measure of intelligence; but I am sure of this, that if our piety is not according to our intelligence, God will not be well pleased with us. I am not the one to undervalue intelligence; but I want to see piety commensurate with our intelligence. The more intelligent we get, the more simple and confident we should become, and not be carried away by the pursuit of other objects in this world. I do not look for expansion in the world: I want contraction in the

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world, but expansion in the kingdom of God. I sometimes see people expand in the world, but I do not think they prosper in the kingdom of God. You cannot expand in both things; if you expand in divine things, you will be diminished in the things of this world. You will not get Christ to interfere in the things of this world. If you want Him to interfere to get you your supposed rights in this world, He will expose what is the root of your wish, and that is covetousness. But He marks out the path of piety, which is the suitable path for every saint. All I plead for is that God, and the grace of God, should be a reality to us: having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.

Now there is just another point. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". Suppose a man in this world could own millions, is that to compare for a moment with the kingdom of God? When God's kingdom is displayed, where will all the wealth of this world be? Tyre has a very poor place in the world to come; you cannot read the prophets without being convinced of that. There may be durable clothing, but the wealth which men accumulated now will be nothing in the world to come. But "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". In view of the greatness of that gift, you can afford to take the path of doing good: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men...". We shall set the example of doing good in the kingdom; that is what will mark the heavenly city. If we are left here for a moment in the reality of the kingdom, let us sell that we have, and do good. You will get the mind free from the influence of worldly means and wealth, and be set upon what the apostle Paul exhorted the rich to do -- to lay hold on that which is really life. This is the path for every one of us. There are not many amongst us who are possessors of wealth in this world; but it

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is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. There is a path marked out for the Christian -- not a new one, but a very good one indeed for us.

One thing more. The Lord makes things uncommonly simple. You are to be here free from covetousness, seeking God's kingdom, so that you have a supreme interest. If you have not a supreme interest, you are listless. Seek the kingdom of God. The Lord will give you understanding to do it, and to rest in the assurance of divine care. Then you are always to be ready to go. You have no link with earth; you are "like men that wait for the Lord". It is not only that we have the Son of man in glory, but we have the coming Lord. I cannot find my own Lord down here upon earth, but I am waiting for Him. You are all on the alert, so that when He comes and knocks, you open to Him immediately. You are morally prepared, so that He can come in immediately. Then you will know His service in His kingdom. He will make His servants, who have been marked here by fidelity to Him in His absence, to sit down, and will come forth and take the place of servant in regard to them. As has been expressed by another, He will become the minister of our joys above. If we have been faithful a little moment down here, steering clear of covetousness and maintaining fidelity to Christ, that will be our portion. The Lord on His part will give us a time of rest; it will not then be continual exercises. The Lord pronounces a beatitude on those servants whom He finds watching when He comes.

Are our spirits free from the influences of the world, that is, from man's glory and man's greatness, so that we are practically dependent on a God who we are quite sure will never fail us? You have His gift. He gives you the kingdom, and we are waiting for our own Lord. You cannot do any good down here unless your affections are linked with Christ

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outside the scene. The ten virgins in the parable all had vessels and lights. What constituted the difference between them was that the five wise virgins were linked in affection with the bridegroom before He came. The five foolish failed in that. The five wise ones had oil in their vessels, and that indicates to me that they had a link of spiritual affection with the bridegroom before He came, and therefore, when He came; they were ready to go in. "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema". We wait for our own Lord; but while our Lord is hid, there is the link of affection between us and Himself, so that we wait for Him, that when He comes and knocks, we may open to Him immediately.

I have endeavoured to show you the great starting-point of God, the beginning of divine ways in mercy, and the principles by which the friends of Christ are formed. Now they are set in testimony, and the Lord brings out in this chapter their dress, what is to characterise them. All I say is, Let it be our dress. I commend the chapter to you, as marking out the conditions which the Lord would have fulfilled in those whom He designates as His friends.

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CHRIST THE TEST

Luke 14

I have endeavoured to point out, in connection with the tenth chapter of this gospel, that we get there a point of departure in the ways of God, that is, in the introduction of another Man, for I think that the neighbour in the parable of the good Samaritan presents to us another Man coming in, and that Man the point of departure for God. Adam was but the figure of "the One to come"; and the One to come having now appeared, He is of necessity the starting point. Then in the twelfth chapter we see that there were those who, having been benefited and having received mercy at the hands of Christ, became His disciples or friends, and were to come out in the way of testimony.

Now I want to show, in connection with this chapter, how that Christ has become of necessity the test of all here. If you study the chapter attentively, you will find that from beginning to end it is full of tests. All men were tested by Christ. There was a test in the beginning of the chapter, when the Lord went into the Pharisee's house; He was a test in regard to the Supper; and in the close of the chapter the Lord speaks of Himself definitely as a test, that is, as to whether a man would follow Christ at the cost of every natural tie. The Lord puts the matter very strongly in the latter part of the chapter (verses 26, 27, and 33). The question is whether we are prepared to prefer Christ to our own life. What I understand by this is that a man has in spirit to forsake everything that attaches to him as a man; all that is distinctly of man, I mean morally, has to go completely. You have to be prepared to part company with all that tends to distinguish man, because of the sense of the value of Christ, and so Christ has become the test. No man

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would or could have invented such an idea. Men may have propounded systems of religion; but it is not in the capability of any man upon earth to present to us One, a Man, who has become the test, morally, to every man. The character of the test is, not that I am to try and imitate that man, but that I am prepared to surrender myself and everything else for the sake of that Man: that Man is to be preferred to all!

Now in the first part of the chapter you will see there is the idea of a house, and again in the latter part (verses 1, 23). Roughly speaking, we have the idea of two houses. The house of the chief Pharisee -- man's house, that is where man orders; and in verse 23 God's house, where God orders according to His mind. I want you to bear that contrast in mind; you will see how it works out.

The first point I touch upon is this, that in coming into man's house Christ becomes the test or standard of conduct there. Then, as we shall see presently, the supper, too, becomes a test to man. I think the house of the chief Pharisee is a kind of picture of the world, where man orders things according to his mind. Now Christ came into this world, and, coming into it, of necessity became the test of everything. In becoming Son of man, He put Himself in relation to man; and in that fact, of necessity became the standard of man. It is impossible to avoid this. People might say, Is it right to set up such a standard for man? But it was inevitable; the Son of God becoming Son of man becomes the standard. In fact, all must be of Him. When the Lord comes into the house of the Pharisee, He really judges everything by Himself (verses 7 - 14). He was that which He spoke. When Christ came into this house He had come, not to abide there, but as a guest. But He had come too into the world as a host; He could invite, gather to Himself, and He had good things to dispense. He could make a feast, in a certain sense, could give deliverance to the captives,

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sight to the blind, raise the dead; and hence the Lord acted the part, not simply of a guest, but of a host. He could be in the midst of hungry thousands and provide for them all. He did not there act the part of a guest, but of a host. So the Lord could gather about Himself a crowd of sick and afflicted people, and heal them all.

But in coming into the world as a guest, Christ took the lowest place; He was laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn. He had nothing whatever of this world's glory or attention. The circumstances in which He was brought up, were of the lowliest description. When He was brought to the temple, they brought for Him a poor person's offering. There was nothing magnificent in connection with Christ in the world. He came into man's house and took the lowest place. I believe that was because it was morally the suitable place. It was impossible for Christ in any way to touch the glory of this world; everything that was in this world was polluted. He was content to have part in the baptism of John: "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness". He identified Himself with the repentant and the poor of the people that were of no concern in Israel. That is the place which the Lord took, but it was morally the right place. It is impossible to understand any Christian in the present day taking advantage of anything whatever in order to secure for himself prominence in the world. There is nothing for us -- the world being what it is -- except to take the place that Christ took, the lowest place. He fulfilled in Himself what He laid down here: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted". For Christ had regard to exaltation by God. The Lord brings that out in John 13:31, 32.

Now I want to touch on the other side for a moment, that is, that Christ acted the part of host. He dispensed benefits which were at His hand. Though in one sense

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He was poor, in another He was rich. You will remember what marks the righteous man in Psalm 112"He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor...". Now that is what marked the pathway of the righteous Man here upon earth. He dispersed abroad, and he gave to the poor. He was full of virtue; if any but touched Him, virtue came out of Him and healed them all. It was dispersed abroad, and His righteousness remains for ever.

That was the standard, and the Lord brings it forward here as such. He first speaks to those who sought the highest places, and puts before them conduct of which He was the expression. He speaks also to the one that bade Him, and puts forward His own course as the standard. What a serious thing it was for the chief Pharisee to have asked Christ into his house! The man did not understand at all what he was doing, any more than Simon the Pharisee; but he never did such a serious thing before, for he brought into his house the divine standard and test of every man. In the presence of Christ every man found himself tested. Nothing short of that man could now suit God. But no one answers to the test. God had applied other tests until Christ came; but after that, all was over, and man after the flesh was practically superseded by the presence of Christ. From that point, the real question is whether man is prepared to accept his supersession by Christ. This ought to be very real with us. It is no use accepting it simply in term; we have to accept it in reality, so that Christ alone should be seen, and man set aside.

I trust I have made my meaning plain. It was the necessary consequence of Christ coming into man's house -- man's world -- that He superseded man and became the standard for man down here. I could understand the Pharisee saying to Him, I cannot act in the way you propose. The Lord says, I cannot help that; it is the way in which I act. I am not

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looking for any present recompense; I do not look to be invited again; I dispense what I have got; I am looking for my recompense at the resurrection of the just -- and Christ will get it too. Depend upon it, He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. He will get a perfect answer to all the grace He dispensed here upon earth.

I have no doubt the Pharisee had been attracted by Christ, and thought to do honour to Christ; but he did not understand the gravity of bringing that standard for man into his house. I wish we could apprehend the immense import of the fact that Christ has become man, has come into man's world, and that man has been superseded. At the present moment the real standard of man in the presence of God is Christ.

Now we may pass on to the next point -- verses 15 - 24. And I pray the Lord to enable me to give an idea of what the Spirit indicates in the great supper, and how great the test there is. At the beginning God gave man a wife; and then, later on, when He took up a people, He gave man a piece of land and five yoke of oxen. God did all that for man. Now the fact is that God was looking in a way that there should be some recognition of Himself in it, that His goodness might be recognised, so that man might thank Him. God looked for fidelity to Himself, and for thankfulness. The things spoken of were given to man for man's benefit. God gave Eve to Adam, and land and possessions to Israel. But did God get what He looked for? Did man remain faithful to Him? Man became an idolater; he took what God had given to Him, and if he worshipped anybody he worshipped Satan, and gave no thanks to God. This is what came to pass with the benefits that God had conferred upon man. The man that got the wife got away through her from God, became the beginning of an evil world; and in Israel, endowed with land and possessions, the history was repeated; they became idolaters like the rest of

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the nations. That was the result of God giving man something for himself.

Now is the great supper. God virtually says, You have your wife and your piece of land; you have given up fidelity to Me, and I have no thanks from you. Now I am going to take up everything for Myself in Christ. I am going to take up Israel in Christ, the nations too, the word of God, and the temple. That is what comes out in the four gospels. In Matthew we have, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son" -- Israel is taken up anew in Christ. So, too, in Israel the word of God is revived. Then Christ is in Luke the light of the nations, and in John His body is the true temple. All that which had, in a certain sense, been entrusted in the providence of God to man is now to be taken up in Christ on the ground of redemption. That is what is presented, I judge, in the great supper. You must take into account that God has dispensed certain things to man for man's benefit. Adam got a wife; the nations got God's sun and God's rain; and Israel had the land. And the question was, Would man remain in fidelity to God and give God thanks? He did not do it. Now God says, I will take up everything in Christ. That is what has come to pass now. If you get any apprehension of Christ on the blessed basis of redemption, you see Israel, the word of God, the nations, and the temple, all taken up there.

Now people are all more or less blinded by the glory of man. But Christ is presented to man, and He is presented as the One in whom every thought of God is centred, therefore it is the great Supper. But we have to remember that He is the One rejected from the earth, though glorified at the right hand of God, and the testimony of the present moment is of Christ exalted. Every divine thought and purpose is gathered up in that Man. God is not now dispensing things to man, to see whether he will give Him thanks, but is presenting to man the testimony of Christ at His right

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hand, in whom He has been pleased to gather up every purpose in His mind. God is presenting to man His world in Christ, and the test is whether men are prepared to leave man's world for the world which is centred in Christ.

I wish I could bring more vividly before you the blessed reality of there being a world centred in Christ, in whom God is glorified and every divine thought gathered up. Now that this is presented to us, we have of necessity, if we apprehend that world, to leave this world. Christ came into man's house, but there was no thought of His abiding in it. Christ died out of it; but He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and is presented by the power of the Spirit here in the world to man for faith. The real point is, What have you in view? Are you looking at seen things? They are temporal. The unseen things are the things not yet displayed, but which are centred in Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. It is those things which are presented in Christ glorified. They are presented that you may have part with God, that you may enjoy the things which God has prepared for Himself. The truth has come out that God has prepared everything for Himself; whether man will or whether man will not, God has secured everything in Christ for His own glory. Israel cannot now fail; the word of God cannot fail; the nations are brought to light and the temple stands, because God has been pleased to secure everything for Himself in Christ, and everything, morally, will come forth from Christ.

Christ is presented to men, and men are invited by God to come to the great Supper. God says, "Come, for all things are now ready". The test in that way comes to man, and what does man do? He says, I have married a wife; I have land -- I will enjoy that, and give God thanks: I will not become idolatrous or turn my back upon God. That is what man says virtually. He takes occasion of what God

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has been pleased to give him to ignore all that has come in on the part of God, consequent on the previous failure on the part of man. The one question at the present time for man is the acceptance of Christ. God invites man to come in to the great supper, to apprehend all that He has secured for Himself in Christ, that man may appreciate the grace and wisdom of God in Christ. That is a great education for us. It ought to impress us very deeply with a sense of divine wisdom and goodness, which, when everything had failed in the hand of man, has gathered up everything through redemption in Christ, so that man, who had failed, might be invited to a part in it. It is a great thing to appreciate the resources of God, so that nothing has failed, but that God has secured everything for His own glory and man's blessing in Christ. God has done great things for us, in making an outlet from this world of ruin, in order that we might be attached to Him who is raised up from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God.

The test at the present time is the presentation of Christ and the glorious system which is centred in Christ, which God has prepared for Himself, so that nothing should lapse, but that God might be glorified in everything that He has ever purposed for Himself, and in which He ever set man. God will be glorified in every relationship which has been established down here, social or national; but then it is in everything being secured for Himself in Christ, and man can come into that order of things as having an appreciation of Christ. God has nothing else to propose to you. "What think ye of Christ?" God virtually says, I think everything of Christ; He has declared Me, taken up all the liabilities under which man was so that I might be glorified, and has eternally secured every divine thought for My glory. What do you think of Christ? I hope we could all return a good answer. If anybody were to challenge me, I think I

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could say I have an appreciation of divine wisdom, and of Christ; I see the moral perfection of Christ, and how suitable in every way He is; He could humble Himself to the lowest point and dispense divine benefits here upon earth: I can understand then that it is suitable that everything should be gathered up in Him. Now when a man answers to the test and gets an apprehension of Christ, he says, 'That is the Man; there is no other'; that is a great point in a man's experience. I am prepared to accept direction from that man. It is of the greatest moment when you get an impression of wisdom in Christ.

When Christ is accepted, you receive living water. Now that is bound to produce a perfect revolution in feeling, and in regard to every relationship which exists in the flesh. There is a disruption of everything in the mind of the believer. It is not that you are going on a little better in the old relationships than you did before, but there is a shaking up of everything, because a higher relationship than all has taken the supreme place. Christ must have the all-governing place in the heart of the believer, and hence there is a complete reordering of all the natural relationships, they all have to be readjusted in regard to Christ. There is no possibility of evading it. All these things have their place under Christ; but the great revolution which has taken place in the one that has accepted Christ is that Christ has become of necessity the One who reigns supreme in his regard and affections. And Christ will not have any inferior place: He says, I am entitled to the supreme place; there is no one entitled to the place in your regard to which I am, and He has the right to say it. Who would be prepared to gainsay His right? Christ claims the allegiance of the heart, and rightly so too, because He has come down to the lowest place in order to accomplish redemption for us; He has dispensed with the most liberal hand the virtue which is in Him, and now He

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says, I must have the first place in the affections of every one who accepts me as Head. If anything or anyone pulls in the opposite direction, you must part company, in spirit, because you have to maintain fidelity to Christ at all cost in the sense of His claim upon you. It will be maintained in you in the Spirit which Christ has given you.

If you are not faithful to Christ, the Spirit is faithful to Christ, and the Spirit will maintain you in fidelity to Christ, so that He should have the first and supreme place in your affections. You must part company in spirit with everything -- your own life if need be -- which will tend to deflect you in a direction contrary to Christ; a man has to give up all that he has. That is no small thing. What are you, and what am I? What have we to give up? If I think of myself at the weakest point, the point of death, what have I to give up there? The fact is, whether man likes it or not, everything is then taken from him: naked he came into the world, and naked he goes out. Men can cleave for a moment to things which they have in the providence of God, but they are not going to keep them for eternity. If you are holding to anything down here as your own, it will come in between you and Christ. The Lord marked out the only safe path: a man must give up all that he has in order to be the disciple of Christ. But what a wonderful thing to be a disciple of Christ; to have part in that great Supper; to have an appreciation of Christ, in whom the glory of God is secured for eternity! For if you have an appreciation of Christ now in the time of His rejection from the world, you will have part in His glory in the day when He is manifested. If you suffer with Him, you will be glorified with Him; if you deny Him, He will deny you. The thing for the moment is the appreciation of Christ, the blessed expression of divine wisdom, in whom God has secured everything for Himself in such a way that man may have an outlet

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from this world and be eternally blest in Christ, that he may give up all his fancied possessions and glory and dignity, and honestly recognise that, after all, there is nothing for him but Christ. I would not have God give me anything to enjoy for myself. Whatever I have in this world, my obligation is to use it as a steward for Christ.

Christ is the great test, and is intended to be that. I cannot conceive a truth more pregnant, or of greater import, than that Christ came as man into man's house. Man was superseded by the Man that tests everybody; and men have to answer to that test, or to give up all that they have. But it is blessed where grace is given to accept Christ, and in appreciating Him to become His disciple, so that in the day of His glory one will be glorified with Him. It is a comfort to think that the Spirit of God is bound to be faithful to Christ. If anything depended on my faithfulness, I should soon go aside; but Christ has given us living water, to maintain us in fidelity to himself; and if we are disposed to be unfaithful, the Spirit of God never can be unfaithful, but will recall us by self-judgement to faithfulness. Christ is everything: if He is not everything, He will be nothing. He will have the one commanding place, and whatever we hold must be entirely secondary to Christ. If we are formed in Christ and Christ formed in us, all becomes uncommonly simple. May God work in us, by the mighty power of His Spirit, so that we may prove that of which Christ spoke, "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life".

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THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVEN

Luke 15

I have drawn attention to the parable in the tenth chapter, which we are accustomed to call the parable of the Good Samaritan, as presenting a starting point in God's ways in grace, in the introduction of Christ as a neighbour to man. There could be nothing antecedent to that as the full expression of grace. The beginning of all help for man was in the introduction of One who was capable of showing mercy, that which man really needed. In order to prove the condition of man, God saw fit to give the law; but God knew from the outset that that could not be of any avail to man: what man really needed was mercy. We never should have made any movement toward God if He had not shown mercy to us. Nothing could bring man one point nearer to God except the mercy of God, and it is on that ground that the neighbour comes in.

We see after that, the training or education of the disciples, and the character of the new witness, which comes out in the twelfth chapter. Then, in the fourteenth chapter, Christ having come into man's house, is of necessity a standard for man, however man may fail of it.

Now the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters are very important: they bring to light the influences which are at work here in the world. On the one hand, in this chapter, we see the influence of heaven; and in the next the influence of hell. These are points of great moment, because no one can doubt that men are acted upon by influences from without: there is not enough in man, as a matter of fact, to account for his conduct. That is the conclusion to which a thoughtful person must come. Man is a battleground between

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influences. Wherever the influences come from, there are such abroad in the world, and men are affected by them. I can remember to have seen a nation carried away almost to destruction by a kind of frenzy. I do not think the influence lay in the people, but it was there, and the people were acted upon by it.

Now in the fifteenth chapter the influence is from above; in the sixteenth it is from beneath. I refer to the rich man in the sixteenth chapter. The rich man paid no regard to Lazarus at all. Where did that come from? We read that he died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes. In a sense, it was a kind of natural descent. It was not the idea of a man cast violently into hell, but descending to it, so to speak, naturally. The man simply went to the place by which he had been influenced whilst on earth. What came out in the rich man was a selfish disregard for others, under an influence which came from another scene.

But my object now is to speak of the influence of heaven, and it is a great thing to apprehend that there is such an influence in the world, producing certain results, and, I may say, an answer to itself. Heaven is a long way off morally. But the Lord invoked heaven very frequently. One supplication which He enjoined was, "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". I think I could pray that any time; it is a very good prayer. The Lord said a great deal about heaven. He taught the disciples about their Father in heaven, and brought the light of heaven in continually. Heaven was not, I suppose, a thought foreign to the mind of a Jew. In this chapter the Lord opens up in a remarkable way the influence of heaven down here. It is felt here in the world, and produces results, and in a sense is to be reflected in man here in the world. When the prodigal was with the father, in the best robe and with the ring on his hand, I cannot

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doubt that he reflected the joy of heaven. I suppose it is what properly should characterise God's house -- the joy of heaven reflected here upon earth. Christians are not looking for earthly joys; if they are, I am afraid they will be grievously disappointed. They may get them for a moment, but they will fail; all find how evanescent they are. But God would not have us to court earthly joys. God may give us mercies, and comfort our souls with them, for He is a God of mercy, and favours us; but I do not think He would have us to be looking for earthly joys: He would have us to drink into the spirit of heaven, and in that way to reflect the joys of heaven. But we must first apprehend the influences of heaven which are felt in the world.

Now I think that reconciliation is the effect which the influence of heaven is intended to produce down here. The ministry of reconciliation is really an influence of heaven at work here, to produce a result that will cause joy in heaven, and that joy is to be reflected in those who are the objects of that ministry. The practical result of that is that you get communion between heaven and earth. I believe that was prefigured in the feast of tabernacles and is brought to pass in the present time. God gives us to understand something of the joy of heaven, and that is the result which God has intended to bring about. Another thing is seen in the seventh of John following upon it, viz., that out of the belly of the believer flow rivers of living water. This is because he is connected with the scene where Christ is; his mind is set on things above; he participates in heavenly joys and understands heavenly influences.

Now to turn again to the fifteenth of Luke. The beginning of the chapter is connected with the end of the preceding one. Evidently the Lord had something special to communicate, because He made an appeal to him that had ears to hear. The publicans and

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sinners drew near to hear Him, and that becomes the occasion of all that is related in the chapter. The Lord, through the chapter, vindicates Himself by showing that He was in a line with the influences of heaven (verses 4 - 6). Evidently the neighbours and friends had been in sympathy with the man in seeking the lost sheep; he would not have appealed to them had it not been so. In the face of verses 8 to 10, no one could gainsay that the influence of heaven is at work in the world, and the result is to cause joy in heaven, and that joy is reflected in man here upon earth. Supposing earth were left to itself, without any influence of heaven, where would man have been at this present moment? I do not know whether the world would have gone on; but if so we should have been in the darkness and degradation of idolatry. There was nothing in the world that ever delivered it from idolatry. Philosophy never did; the philosophers were idolaters themselves. Whatever they wrote was powerless with the people; it produced no effect. What they wrote was read and considered by a very limited circle; it produced no moral effect, because it never brought God to man. Whatever cobwebs they might spin from the rudiments of the world or the traditions of men, philosophy was powerless to affect man, for nothing does affect man radically except the light of God. The world was incapable of delivering itself from the bond and power of evil in which it was bound. Had it not been for the influence of heaven, we should still have been in the darkness of idolatry. What is it that has emancipated the mind of man, so that he should be active in the investigation of natural laws? It is the light which has been brought in by Christianity, so that the mind has acquired great activity. Whatever deliverance there has been for man's mind from debasement and degradation has been the effect of the revelation of God. My point is that it is the influence of heaven. If earth had been

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left to itself, and man had only been affected by the influences of earth, he would have remained degraded to a degree. There was the influence of hell in the world from the time that sin came in, and the condition of things in the world would have been appalling had the earth been left to itself, and unaffected by the influence of heaven.

Now the Lord was the expression of the influence of heaven down here, and that is the way in which He vindicates Himself. He said, as it were, 'I am here in perfect concert with heaven. I am not here simply as a benefactor of man; I am here in concert with the mind of heaven, and heaven is in perfect sympathy with Me'. That was His vindication in regard to the charge of eating and drinking with publicans and sinners. If He did eat with publicans and sinners, it was no very great degradation if He had heaven in sympathy with Him; there was then no moral reproach in being found amongst publicans and sinners. If all heaven could have been here upon earth, it would have been found in the company of publicans and sinners. Do you think heavenly beings could find much delight in Scribes and Pharisees? When a heavenly being came to earth, he went wherever there was a possibility of entrance for the influence of heaven. The publicans and sinners were less averse than Pharisees to these influences, and the Lord had come here, in the mind of heaven, to seek the lost sheep. The lost sheep refers, I suppose, to the Jew. There were ninety-nine that had not gone astray -- or at all events that did not think they had -- but there was one that had, and the shepherd goes to seek that one. The Scribes and Pharisees did not concern themselves about the one that had gone astray, but the Lord does. He virtually says, 'The ninety and nine are able to take care of themselves; I will go after the one that is lost'. It was the blessed influence of heaven which was concerning itself to recover that which was lost on earth.

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Then we get the parable of the lost piece of silver. The house is being swept to recover the lost piece. The light of the gospel has been brought into the world; and the object is to bring into view the lost piece of silver. There is something in the world which has been lost for God, on which He sets a value, and that has to be brought to light by the gospel. We cannot avoid the truth of election. If there were no election, there would be no sovereign mercy. There is that, for God will maintain responsibility. God will not do anything upon earth that sets responsibility aside. It is essential to the glory of God to maintain responsibility, in order that He may be just in His judgement all round. Angels came under the judgement of God, so did the world before the flood; God maintains for His own glory responsibility all round, and hence mercy must be sovereign. If mercy were universal, there would be no maintenance of responsibility; but God maintains responsibility and acts in the sovereignty of mercy. Hence you get the elect of God, the subjects of sovereign mercy. Though the number of Israel should be as the sand, it was a remnant that should be saved.

The glory of God would be compromised if God gave up the maintenance of responsibility. Hence the light comes into the house, testing as it were the whole world, but in order to bring into view the lost piece of silver, that which was of account and precious in the mind of God, the object of His sovereign mercy. All this comes out in Romans 11 -- Israel has to come in on the ground of mercy. Now the influence of heaven had come in to maintain the light in the world. The preaching of Christ is maintained by the influence of heaven. I think everyone ought to rejoice that there is an influence from above maintained here by the Spirit of God. The work of the gospel is going on to bring to light the lost piece of silver. The first part of the epistle to the Romans is on the line of testimony

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and responsibility; but when you come to the end of the doctrinal part you find that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. That is the conclusion to which you are brought. The effect of the testimony has been to bring to light those who are the called according to His purpose. I do not think any one of us would ever have loved God had we not been the called according to His purpose. I am sure I should never have thought of loving God had it not been that God saw fit to show mercy to me. Saul of Tarsus was self-confident, and would have scouted the thought of mercy; and yet God met him with mercy, and he loved God because God had first loved him.

Now I pass on to the latter part of the chapter. What I want to point out is, that the prodigal was being acted upon by the influence of heaven. There is hardly a greater comfort to my mind than that this world is subject to the influence of heaven; it is not left to itself. There is an influence of heaven here acting upon man. It does not do to make too much of man's work. God may use men to enlighten others, but you must not make too much of that; what is really operative here is the influence of heaven, eventuating in the ministry of reconciliation. That ministry is committed into the hands of man; but behind it all is the influence of heaven. The prodigal was up to a certain point held in by the providence of God. In God's providence he was allowed to go into the far country and waste his substance, and then to be in want. It is pretty much a picture of the Gentile, who had been allowed to go far away from God and to drop down into every kind of debasement; he had come to a condition of moral dearth. What is presented to us in a material way here, is really a picture of where man has got to by reason of sin. The Jew had a measure of light, but the Gentiles were in complete moral dearth. Why do people in the world

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want excitement? Because they are afflicted with moral dearth, and they go to all kinds of things to seek satisfaction, and they never really get satisfaction at all. They never arrive at a point of contentment. The craving after exciting literature proves a condition of moral dearth: people fill their belly with husks. No one gave to the prodigal. Giving is not the principle of the world, nor has the world ability to give to people that which will satisfy them morally.

Now the next thing is, that the man came to himself. That is the effect of the influence of heaven acting silently and underneath the surface. Elihu explained to Job the activity of God in regard of men. People are awakened in a most extraordinary way: and this is the influence of heaven at work in the world. I thank God that influence is at work. Were it not for it, no one would come to himself. Not all the preaching in the world -- even apostolic preaching -- could ever bring man to himself. That is the first great step: repentance is wrought. Now that the prodigal is awakened, he is enlightened more or less. He has come under the evangelist, or someone who has enlightened him; then he comes to the father, and is welcomed by him. The father has pleasure and satisfaction in receiving him. God delights in recovery. The Scribes and Pharisees did not delight in recovery: the publicans and sinners might have gone to the worst so far as they were concerned; but God delights in recovery. You may blame God if you like, but there is mercy with God. Hence it was that the prodigal, when he returned to the father, was welcomed.

Now I want to give you an idea of reconciliation. I think the object of reconciliation is that there might be a point of complacency for God. It has originated with God Himself. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; but the point in it is that in the very scene of distance there might be a point of complacency for God. Had there never been distance,

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there could not have been reconciliation. Reconciliation is a relative term, dependent upon a previous condition of alienation. When Christ came to earth, there was for God a point of complacency in man. But that point of complacency was limited to Christ, though it could not remain so, because reconciliation which was in view had reference to those who had been morally away, like the prodigal, and the point was that the complacency should be found where there had been the distance. How was that to be brought about? There were two simple things necessary: one was that the old man must be removed, and the other than Christ must be in his stead. That is reconciliation. Both are effected by Christ. One was effected in the cross -- where the old man was crucified, and the other is effected by the communication to man of living water. That is where reconciliation is brought into effect, the practical result being that the one who receives living water appreciates Christ, and hence he furnishes a point of complacency to God: where the distance was, the complacency is. That is a wonderful thing to be brought to pass. The prodigal is divested of all that marked him. He is the same person, but divested of all that characterised him. He was clothed in the best robe: he furnished a point of complacency for the father. That is what the influence of heaven has brought about down here on the earth. Numbers of us can say our old man has been crucified with Christ: that is one side; but Christ has made us to partake of living water, and that has brought about in us the appreciation of Christ. If anyone were to ask me as to that in which I differ from people in the world, the only point I could mark would be this, that I appreciate Christ, and I would be prepared to let everything go for the sake of Christ. I greatly prefer Christ to myself, and I feel very much ashamed of everything in myself, in the light of Christ.

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Where the appreciation of Christ is, there is the best robe, the ring on the hand and the shoes on the feet. Such an one is approved of God: God has found a point of complacency, and that point is Christ. That is how the ministry of reconciliation is going on -- all based upon the old man having been crucified with Christ. The apostle Paul says, 'You hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to bring to an end the old man, that He might present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight'. That is what has come to pass, and it is all the effect of the influence of heaven here in the world. Man has a part in the work of grace; but after all, what is really effectual in the world is the silent, unseen influence of heaven, that is bringing to pass what is according to God. It is carried on at the present moment by One who has come down here, from heaven, as the Servant of Christ. So long as Christ was here upon earth, the influence of heaven was centred and expressed in Him. Now it is in the Spirit of God, who is working down here, bringing that influence to bear upon man, that man may be affected by it, that there may be here a point of complacency for the Father in heaven.

Heaven and earth are brought into communion in the point of complacency which God has found down here upon earth! Think of the eye of God resting on Christ down here! Those who were round the Lord when on earth came into the complacency in which Christ was; but now it is no longer Christ personally upon earth, but Christ in the saints, by the Spirit of Christ. Where the old man was, and distance, the distance has gone with the old man, and complacency is there, for the eye of God rests upon Christ in the saints. The robe, the shoes, the ring, are all characteristics of another Man. It has been said by one intelligent in the things of the Lord, that the best robe formed no part of the prodigal's first inheritance.

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When God fitted out man in the beginning, He did not fit him out with the best robe, the shoes, and the ring: he never could have those until the introduction of the man in whom God is glorified. Now that the Man from heaven is brought in, you get the best robe, the ring, and the shoes, for the one who had come under the influence of heaven.

The elder brother represents the Jew who is incensed at the idea of the Gentiles being brought into God's mercy. The father vindicates his reception of the younger brother. The younger brother does not get the elder brother's portion. The father says to the elder brother, 'I am not wronging you: all that I have is thine. I am not taking your portion to bestow it on the Gentile'. The Gentile has another portion, and that is, that he reflects the joy of heaven. That is our portion -- first to be conscious of the joy of heaven, and then that that joy should be reflected in us down here, so that we might be in the communion of heaven -- that we might be bright in our souls, without having any earthly or material portion. I do not want land, or five yoke of oxen, for I have a very great portion, and that is, the joys of heaven. You get the practical and blessed result, the communion of heaven and earth.

What a mercy it is that there is the influence of heaven! Picture what a state the world would have been in had it been left to itself! But this influence has been brought into operation, and produced its own blessed result. Do you not think that the prodigal was bright when they ate the fatted calf and began to be merry? He had his part in the merriment. I do not suppose he coveted the elder brother's portion; he did not want any oxen or land; he was content with his own portion with the father. He had really learnt by divine teaching that the old man was crucified with Christ: God had removed that man, and he had nothing whatever to glory in save that which had

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been conferred upon him in the grace of heaven.

You cannot glory in yourself -- in your flesh -- but you are entitled to glory in Christ, and the prodigal had reached that. We begin to be merry, and it is a joy that will know no end.

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ADDRESSES AT MANCHESTER

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THE KINGDOM

2 Peter 1; Colossians 1:12 - 14

It is plain enough that there is a connection between the thoughts in these two passages. In the first of Colossians the apostle Paul speaks of the Father having delivered saints from the power or authority of darkness -- idolatry was the expression of that -- and translated them into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Peter also refers to the kingdom when alluding to the vision which they had seen on the holy mount: what they saw in vision there was the kingdom of the Son of God's love. In verse 17 we have the record of what had passed on the holy mount, the voice which came to Jesus, saying, "This is my beloved Son". Therefore in this chapter Peter evidently refers to the same thing to which Paul refers in Colossians 1; in the mind of Peter it was based on the vision which they had seen in the holy mount. The peculiarity of Paul is that he gives the kingdom a present application to us.

I want to bring before you, if I can, the great importance of the kingdom. I am sure it has not been sufficiently apprehended. If you want to go on in divine things, you must begin with the kingdom. What I understand to be the gain of the kingdom is, that God has been pleased to set us in rest and security, in order that He may teach us. What He proposes to teach us is, in principle, the force of the new covenant; and the object of that is, that we may come out in the character of the heavenly city, the bride of Christ, here upon earth.

I am going to speak a little about the kingdom, and the gain of entering into it. I have no doubt whatever that a great many people have received the kingdom who have hardly entered into it. To give you an

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illustration of that, I would turn your attention to Luke 8 and 9. In the former the sower sows the word, and the product of it is the mysteries of the kingdom. In chapter 9 you get the vision on the holy mount, and then it was that Peter, James, and John entered into the kingdom. Not simply had they received the word of God, as in chapter 8; but they were taken up by the Lord on the holy mount, and they saw the vision here recorded. If I look abroad upon Christendom, I should say that men have received the kingdom in the way of testimony, but they have never left the world and gone into the holy mount, like Peter, James, and John, so as to enter into the kingdom. It is one thing to receive it, another to enter into it. There are two steps: the first is, to receive the kingdom of God as little children; the second, to enter into it. In order to get the gain of the kingdom you must enter into it; you need to leave the world in which Christ is rejected, and to go up into the holy mount, as it were, in company with Peter, James, and John, and there to apprehend the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face" -- that is how you apprehend it. You have to leave the world, not in fact nor in body, but in spirit, for the glory of the Lord.

My main object is to show you the great gain of entering into the kingdom. It means a great deal more to people than they have been accustomed to think. But first let me say a word in regard to the ministry of Peter. Peter's ministry is peculiar in a way; it leads on to the heavenly city. In the holy Jerusalem, in Revelation 21, we find that the names of the twelve apostles are in the foundations. The city is built up, not exactly on the testimony of Paul, but on that of the twelve. Paul's testimony comes in and gives a peculiar character to the church; but, as to the fact, the foundation of the church was really formed by the testimony of the twelve. Hence,

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when the holy city comes down out of heaven in connection with the kingdom, we find in the foundations the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Paul's name is not mentioned, for the reason, I suppose, that when the church was founded he was persecuting.

In the chapter before us there are two great points which come out; one is, the apostle looking that the character of God may be expressed in the saints, and the other that an entrance may be ministered to them abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The general principle of Peter's testimony is that the saints were to be partakers of the sufferings; and if they were, they would be partakers also of the glory. I have no doubt the testimony leads on to the holy Jerusalem. It is as forming the holy Jerusalem that we shall be partakers of the glory of Christ. But the condition preceding that is, that we suffer with Him; and in the meantime, while the saints are suffering, the object of the apostle Peter was that they might be partakers of the divine nature. If we become partakers of the divine nature -- love -- then it is that we are apart from the world of lust; the two things cannot possibly go together. If you want to come to separation, the point to reach is the divine nature. You cannot mix the nature of God and the fallen nature of man.

What Peter looks on to is an entrance being ministered to them abundantly. It is, possibly, an allusion to the holy Jerusalem coming down from God: they would come into the kingdom in a glorious way. The great principle by which the church has been formed as the bride, the Lamb's wife, is by the testimony of Peter, which involved that the saints would suffer with Christ and be partakers of His glory. That will be to us a time of abundant joy. The saints are obscure and hidden now; but they will come out then, from God, out of heaven, as the holy Jerusalem,

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which has the glory of God. That which is displayed is of so infinitely precious a character that the nations of the earth walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour unto it.

One word more about the kingdom in Peter's connection with it. Of the three evangelists who record the vision on the holy mount not one was present. The only reference to it on the part of anyone who was present is here in the epistle of Peter. In the latter part of the chapter I have read, Peter gives a present application to the vision; and that brings before us the kingdom, not as future, but as present. I think verse 19 is extremely important. The vision of the kingdom was the confirmation of prophecy. The prophets all looked forward to the kingdom; it was their theme. Therefore we can understand that when the disciples were permitted to see a vision of the kingdom on the mount, Jesus receiving from God the Father honour and glory, the word of prophecy was made very sure to them. The kingdom was there: that is what I want to press. It is not that the kingdom to them was future; its prophetic application was future, but they came under the power of the kingdom in the holy mount. Now the apostle says, you do well to take heed to prophecy up to a certain point: until the day dawn. What do you think the day is? It is the day of the kingdom. The day-star is Christ. It does not say you do well to take heed to it till the Lord comes; that is not the idea; it is till the day dawn, and the day-star arise, not publicly, but in your hearts. We have thus entered into the thought of the kingdom, not as future, but as present. It means that, in a sense, we have left the world. In heart the Christian is separated from the darkness of the world by the fact of the day having dawned, and the day-star having arisen in his heart. You can well understand that the kingdom of the Son of God's love has no connection with this world,

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but with the world to come; only I fear that, in saying that, some might entertain the idea that I refer the kingdom to the future. I do not, because the world to come is already spoken of in Hebrews 2. If it is spoken of, it is present in a sense. It has yet to come in the way of display; but if you speak of it, it is there. The difficulty of the kingdom is this, that the mysteries of the kingdom really take place in this world, while the kingdom itself belongs to the world to come.

Thus we anticipate the display of the kingdom. We have an apprehension of the glory of God's beloved Son, and in the light of that we have come into the kingdom. I think many people make a mistake in occupying themselves too much with future things. I quite admit there are things which are future; but the attention of the saints is to be taken up with present things. The moral effect of future things upon people is not great; but the effect of present things is very great indeed. If you apprehend present things, which have come to you as light, they will exercise the greatest possible influence over you. We have not to wait for the kingdom; it is there, and God has translated us into it. There are other features of the kingdom which have to come to pass; in the time to come there will be the dominion of the Son of man, and the throne of David. These are in abeyance for the moment, and in the meantime the character which the kingdom has is the kingdom of the Son of God's love. That is the vision which was seen on the holy mount. What preceded it was that Christ forbade the disciples to say any longer that He was the Christ, and then He passes on to speak of the sufferings of the Son of man. That makes it clear to me that, for the moment, you cannot look for the dominion of the Son of man, nor the throne of David.

Now I do not mean to say that we can go up the mount of Transfiguration; but the fact is, we go up

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higher. The great declaration of the glory of Christ is His session at the right hand of God. It is that He has been saluted as the Son of God. It is there that He has received the kingdom; He did not exactly receive it on the mount, but He has received it at the right hand of God. We cannot see the throne of David, nor the kingdom of the Son of Man, nor the power of evil cast out of heaven; but we see Jesus at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour. The kingdom of God subsists in the Son of His love; God has translated us into it.

What is the gain of that to us? I think the two first principles of the kingdom are spoken of in the second verse of this chapter: grace and peace. If you enter into the kingdom, and apprehend the glory of the Lord, the effect upon your soul is that you come into the enjoyment of grace and peace. Grace and peace are multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. You come under the light and influence of heaven, of the glory. These are great things to enjoy. It is a great thing to enjoy grace -- to apprehend God's attitude towards you -- and peace in the sense of security. They are the first principles of the kingdom. The more we are acquainted with God and with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, the more familiar our souls become with grace and peace; and if there is grace and peace on the part of God, you have security from the power of evil.

I will tell you another thing you get in connection with the kingdom: that is the benefit of the "neighbour". I refer to the parable of the good Samaritan: you are carried and cared for. That is one great idea in the kingdom. Priesthood connects itself properly with the kingdom; we get carried and cared for at the charges of the neighbour.

What I want to bring you to is this: an entrance into present things. Suppose, for a moment, we could

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draw aside the curtain which hinders our view of unseen things, and could see things as they really are:

I think we should be astonished to find them inexpressibly better than we had ever thought, we should apprehend what God's attitude is towards us, and what we have in Christ as neighbour.

One more point: you are carried and cared for, you have Christ's succour and sympathy; but there is another thing: unfailing support in the power of the Holy Spirit. Authority is at the right hand of God; but the Holy Spirit has come in order to make the kingdom effective upon earth, in the hearts of the saints, so that they may have a sense of rest and security in regard to everything down here. I am not alarmed at anything, because "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world". Let the forces of evil at work down here be as powerful and subtle as they may: the Holy Spirit is greater, and the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the power of the Holy Spirit. These things are maintained in divine power that you might not be afraid of anything here. Why is government maintained in this country? There is no country in the world so well governed as England; government is not much seen, yet there is government; you go about the streets with a sense of security, and people in the main are at rest and quiet from fear of evil: that is the effect of good government. So it is, spiritually, in regard to the kingdom of God. You have security against the power of evil, so that you can be at rest and in peace. The great object of it is that God may take you in hand and make you the subject of His teaching. You cannot come under the teaching of God unless you are perfectly secure and at rest in regard to all the power of evil.

This is not the kingdom of the future: the holy Jerusalem will be the conspicuous feature of the kingdom of the future; but I am talking about the present. The great thing is to look at the things

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which are not seen. God is building up a great structure in the present, and I want everyone to apprehend it, so as to look at things which are present. The effect is that the inward man is renewed day by day whilst we look at the things which are unseen and eternal. The first element of these unseen things is the kingdom. Many people receive the word of the kingdom who are not really converted; but no unconverted person can ever say, "We see Jesus". They never enter into the kingdom. But the point is to enter into the kingdom; to come under the light and influence of heaven; to enjoy grace and peace, and to rejoice in the knowledge of the neighbour -- in principle the Priest; and at the same time to know the power and support of the Holy Spirit, a power in us which is superior to all the power that can come against us in the world.

May God be pleased to make this subject plain to you, that you may have the great gain of this first principle of unseen things.

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GOD DWELLING

1 Timothy 2:3, 14, 15

I want to lead you, if I may, a point farther than we went in the previous lecture, and to show you what of necessity follows upon or accompanies the establishment of the kingdom.

First let me say that I think the great thing for saints at this moment is to be an apprehension of the world to come: it will tend to deliver them from a great many things. No one ever got deliverance from the present world except by the apprehension of the world to come. Moses got deliverance from the present world by the apprehension, so far as it could then be apprehended, of the world to come. He had as fair a prospect in regard to this world as most men could have; but he gave up the present world, because God gave him a ray of light in regard to the world to come. He rejected the world, and the powers of the world, and preferred the reproach of Christ, esteeming it greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. The reproach of Christ has reference to the world to come; I do not mean to say that in the world to come Christ will be in reproach, but I think it stands in that relation. Christ would not take any place in connection with the system of this world; if He had, there would not have been reproach: it was because He would not accept this world, or its prince, that He came into reproach. I think the world to come was early in view, and it is the light of that world that has determined the path of God's people in this world. Abraham had the light of the world to come. I have no doubt that the promise to Abraham implied eternal life: it was the light which God gave him in regard to the world to come that determined his pathway in this world. This is a principle that is seen throughout the whole

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of Scripture. The moment sin came into the world, this world was spoilt for God. It was impossible to repair the world, because man could not be repaired; but God had in mind another Man and another world, all to be brought to light in due time. I reject the principle of free criticism of Scripture, because you cannot apply principles of criticism which belong to the literature of this world to a book which is occupied with the world to come. I believe there is hardly a thing related to us in Scripture except in its bearing on the world to come: it may be more or less difficult sometimes to see the bearing; none the less, I do not doubt the fact.

I was dwelling in the previous lecture upon what I may call the first principle of the world to come -- the kingdom; now I am going to take up another point -- the house. This follows upon the kingdom. If God rules, it involves that He dwells -- God is not content with ruling: He dwells; and He dwells in order that He may bless. The kingdom does not in itself bring the blessing in: it paves the way for blessing; but the necessary accompaniment of ruling is dwelling. And then grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. God has established the reign of grace; but the great end in view is the blessing -- eternal life. God intends to make manifest the greatness of His triumph over everything which the devil has brought in, hence the introduction of the blessing, that is eternal life. It is a pleasure to me to see the moral relations of divine things; to learn that everything has a proportion of its own, and every truth stands in relation to some other truth. There is no such thing as truths; there is such a thing as truth. You may see truth in part or in detail; but at the same time truth is one complete whole.

I refer for a moment to the epistle to the Hebrews to substantiate what I have said as to the world to come. That book gives us every feature of the world

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to come, and brings these features before us in connection with the present. The very expression "the world to come" might make people look on to the future; but the world to come is brought into presence. The difference is whether you look at things dispensationally or morally. The bulk of Christians are hindered by looking at things dispensationally; if you do, you are still virtually in the time of law and prophets. The world to come is not yet displayed, and therefore you could not say the kingdom, or the world to come, has come to pass dispensationally. God has not yet seen fit to change the order of things in the world, nor has He brought into display the world to come; but if you look at things morally, all is present. The Holy Spirit has come down here until things are brought out dispensationally, in order to give us power to look at things morally: then everything is present, and is made good to us in divine power. A great many of us have been hindered by the disposition to look too much at things dispensationally. Peter and James and John, in the mount of Transfiguration, had to look at things morally; they saw the kingdom, but when they came down from the mount, they found things below as bad as ever they were; things were not changed in the world; but they had seen a great sight on the mount: they had been permitted to see the kingdom. The account that Peter gives of the vision in his second epistle is essentially moral in character.

Now I just want to show you some principles of the world to come as seen in Hebrews. In the first chapter we get the throne, in the second, the glory of Christ; in the third, the house of God and the Spirit, in the fourth, God's rest; in the fifth, the calling of the High Priest; in the seventh, our approach to God; in the eighth, the minister of the sanctuary and the mediator of the covenant; in the ninth, perfect purgation, and in the tenth, sanctification, so that we have

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boldness to enter into the holiest. Every one of these is a principle of the world to come: they will come out when that world is displayed. God is allowing the present world to grow old, to wear itself out, in order that He may in due time display the world to come. But looking at things morally, every one of the items I have enumerated is true to us now. We have the good of all, they are available for those who are able, by grace, to look at things morally.

In the first two chapters of Hebrews the point is, as we have seen, the throne, and the glory of man in Jesus; in the third, the house of God is in view, "whose house are we", and then it immediately adds, "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith". You have come to the house of God, where God speaks. The kingdom is there for those who apprehend it, the house is the necessary consequence of the kingdom. You get the idea in the song of triumph in the fifteenth of Exodus, "I will prepare him an habitation". As far as I understand it, when once a soul apprehends the kingdom of God, is brought under the sway of grace, the next thing that soul wishes to do is to serve God. I could not understand a person being truly converted without that person having a certain desire to have to say to God. In the expression, "Behold, he prayeth", there is the anxiety to have to say to God: in principle that means, I will prepare Him an habitation. I do not think the habitation is the end: eternal life is the end; but the habitation follows upon the kingdom, and the kingdom introduces God's habitation: God comes in to reign in order that He may dwell.

I doubt if anybody is prepared for the house of God that does not understand the kingdom. The first point on the part of God was to bring man to righteousness. God could, so to speak, very well take care of His own righteousness; but the difficulty was to bring man to righteousness: He could not have to say to him otherwise, except in judgement. In the day of

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judgement, God will certainly maintain His righteousness. Even in the millennium, there is an inside and an outside; there is an inside of blessing, and an outside of wrath: so too in the eternal state. There is the universe of bliss; but there is the lake of fire. The outside of wrath is the witness of the righteousness of God, but at the same time there are the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells. If sin had never come in, we should probably never have heard about the righteousness of God, but the fact of sin coming in immediately raised the question of the righteousness of God. God has vindicated His own righteousness without looking to man for help in the matter; but it is a very much more difficult thing for man to come to righteousness. It is the reign of grace which brings man to righteousness; law never did, but the reign of grace makes righteousness possible to man. The moment you come under the sway of grace and know you will never come into judgement, you say to yourself, I must alter my ways; my will must no longer have place; I must walk in self-judgement. That is the way in which God brings about righteousness in regard to man. Then you get the help of the Spirit in walking here in self-judgement; consequent upon that you get peace and joy in the heart of the believer. I should say very few Christians get the full benefit of the kingdom, because they so little walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Having become a servant to righteousness, walking in self-judgement, now you are prepared to recognise the fact that God has come to dwell. If the Holy Spirit is here, God is dwelling. The Spirit has not become incarnate, but He has come here to dwell, that He may maintain the kingdom. Therefore another thing has come to pass: there must be a house, else, where is the Holy Spirit to dwell? It is impossible for the Spirit of God to dwell in the world that has rejected Christ. The Holy Spirit has come that a

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company of people down here in this world may be set apart for God.

The present form of the house is that Jew and Gentile are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, and in connection with that you get the idea of Christian fellowship. Christians partake in common of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the Spirit is connected with the house of God, with the blessed fact that the Holy Spirit is dwelling here.

The next point I wish to touch upon is sanctification. You get the expression very frequently in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit came to dwell, to establish the kingdom; but at the same time He came in the power of sanctification, that there might be the setting apart here of a company from all that is contrary to God; from sin, the world and Satan's power, for God, that they should be no more of the world than Christ is of the world. The first expression of that separation was baptism: the house of God was entered at the first by baptism. The force of baptism was dissociation from the world, in order that saints might be set apart from all that was not of God. I know the difficulty of the present moment: things are very much changed outwardly; the world has become Christian, hence sanctification has become very much more difficult. Sanctification cannot have altered in the mind of the Spirit, but we are in the midst of a Christian community; you can hardly say to people today, 'Save yourselves from this untoward generation'. It is difficult to understand sanctification now unless you look at it from a purely moral point of view. If sin, the world and Satan's power have part in the Christianity that is current, we have to distinguish between things that differ, between the truth and the form; to purge ourselves from vessels to dishonour. The path becomes a narrow one; it is a path that can only be discerned morally. There is a kind of sanctification within sanctification. Professedly Christendom

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is sanctified, but it is not really sanctified; sanctification never can go beyond the Spirit, and therefore you have to get within the limits of the Spirit to realise what is suitable to God. There is nothing that affects us more than the presence of the Spirit here. Had it not been for that, I should still have been in the State church; it was the recognition of the Spirit's presence that determined my path; I saw that Christianity around was inconsistent with the presence of the Spirit here. The Spirit of God has come down, not to affect the world, but to set apart a company for God, where God can dwell -- Jew and Gentile builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. What I apprehend in connection with the chapter I read is that the house of God is morally outside the world and its order.

One thing that is identified with the house of God is prayer. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" holds good for a different time. It is the place where God is approached in the way of supplication. You cannot understand prayer, intercession or giving of thanks for kings and for all men, unless you see that the house of God is outside of the order of the world. If we were of the world, we should pray for a particular king; we should go in for patriotism, loyalty, and all that kind of thing. It is only in apprehending that the house of God is outside the world that we can understand prayer for all men.

The first principle of the house of God is that in it God's mind is understood. The house of God is an enclosure in the world, co-extensive, properly, with the presence of the Spirit. God's mind, His attitude towards all men, is appreciated and understood in the house. The heathen known nothing about His mind; they may see His goodness in the sunshine and rain; but in the house the secret of His mind is known. Take the 120 disciples in Jerusalem when the Holy

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Spirit came down; all outside of that upper room was Jewish, and opposed to Christ and to God; but those inside were in the secret of God's mind. They were not men of any account in the social or religious or literary world; yet they formed the house of God, and the Holy Spirit came there. Really they were a most exalted company, because they were in the secret of God's mind. They were in the consciousness of grace and peace; they walked in rigid self-judgement, and they knew God's mind in regard to man. Another thing was that they were prayerful. Read at your leisure a few chapters in Acts, and see the wonderful way in which they turned to God in prayer. They felt they were where God was, that He was nigh to them, and they drew nigh to Him. If we return to first principles, depend upon it we shall be marked by that lifting up of holy hands, without wrath or reasoning. In the detail of life, I do not want to be in accord with this world, but with the world to come, and in the world to come there will be no wrath or reasoning; there will be holy hands.

Then as to the deportment of the women: when the world to come is established, do you think women will adorn themselves with gold and pearls and costly array? Do you think the Paris fashions will rule in that time? I am sure no sober person could think so for a moment. When Christ is reigning, everything will take its character from Him. The tinsel with which people adorn themselves in this day will look very shady in that day. When you come to the house of God, you want to be adorned suitable to the world to come: Christ is the standard of that world, and hence you want the hidden man of the heart in that which is incorruptible. There is no male nor female in heaven, but there is in the world to come; each one will have to order himself in accordance with the standard of that day, and the standard of that day is found in Christ Himself.

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If you want to get the gain of the kingdom, you must accept the principle of the kingdom -- grace reigning through righteousness. People want the grace, but evade the righteousness. God brings grace to bear upon man in order that man may become servant to righteousness. Being thus in accord with the mind of God, you are brought to His house, and are free to make supplication to Him. As to deportment, we are not to be governed by the principles of the world which is, but of that which is to come. The Holy Spirit has come down here to enable us to apprehend things morally; of course when the glory of God appears all these things will be displayed dispensationally, and in them all God will be glorified.

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DIVINE TEACHING

Luke 10:21 to 11: 13; Hebrews 2:14 - 18

In the two previous lectures we had before us the thought of the Kingdom and the House. If God sets up a kingdom, which He has done, there is the house of the kingdom. It is not simply that God has established the reign of grace; but that He dwells, in order that there may be blessing: "there he commanded the blessing, life for evermore". The Lord Jesus spoke of the same thing: "I know that his commandment is eternal life". God commands the blessing where He has set up His dwelling place, and that has become true in Christianity; the blessing is connected with God's house. In the millennium the same principle will hold good; when the world to come is displayed, there will be the house of the kingdom: two thoughts are presented in the Psalms and the Prophets, Jehovah reigns, and Jehovah dwells in Zion. You find those thoughts connected at the present time with the house of God. It is plain that blessing cannot be outside of the house of God.

The point before me now is divine teaching: that follows on the establishment of the house. It is a point of great interest to all of us, because divine teaching is that by which we are formed. We all have to be formed; you may have an apprehension of the grace of God, but you may not be formed. The fact is that divine teaching comes in so that we may be formed for God. I cannot insist too much upon the importance of this, for what we are for God is the result of what God has formed; no one is beyond that for God. Whatever sense a person may have of the grace of God, the stature of no one is a bit beyond what he is by God's formative work. A person may

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have been really converted and brought into the enjoyment of the grace of God; but the sense of that that may grow old, and it has grown old with a great many people. If a Christian is to be maintained in freshness, there has to come in that which is produced by the formative power of divine teaching, and one does not grow old in that. There is nothing more important to us as Christians than to apprehend the formative power of the Spirit of God. That was God's thought even in regard to Israel: He brought them into the wilderness that He might teach them judgements and statutes; and they were to be formed by them.

In the passage I have read we get a parable and two incidents; they are grouped together, in order, by the grouping, to convey to us a certain picture. In the parable of the Good Samaritan -- which is peculiar to this gospel -- Christ presents Himself to us under the idea of neighbour. He is neighbour to the man who has need of Him. In the following incident, Christ is seen as Revealer. In the house of Martha, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. Then in the beginning of the eleventh chapter we see Christ still in another character, and that is as Teacher: He teaches His disciples to pray. Now I believe the object of it was, that Christ intended to show the means by which the new Man was to be produced -- a new man where the old man was. It would be easy enough for God to produce a new man; but the point before God was to produce a new man where the old was. The old man was myself; and what God has set to work to do, in regard to Christians, is to produce a man of a new order in the very place where the old order was. The truth in Jesus is the having put off the old man, and put on the new. All that which is brought before us by the evangelist is in order that we may apprehend how the new man is formed. There are two things about the new man: one is a new susceptibility, and the other a new capability.

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If I were to take a dog, or any other intelligent animal, I could not communicate to it the susceptibility or the capability of a man.

Now if God can bring to pass in a man a susceptibility and a capability which never belonged to that man, in principle you have a new or different man. Whether as regards man before the fall, or after the fall, man as God made him had not the susceptibility or the capability of which I speak. I go a point farther: if he had remained what God made him, he might never have had this susceptibility and capability. The object of the passage I have read is to show by what means the new man is formed -- the new man which is after God's nature in righteousness, and holiness of truth.

This is a wonderful part of the gospel; and it hangs on what the Lord said in the first two verses which I read: "I thank thee, O Father", etc. I think the Lord introduces that thought because He was about to bring to light Christianity; therefore He speaks of the revelation of the Father, which is the great characteristic truth in Christianity. In the eighth and ninth chapters you do not get exactly Christianity, but the kingdom. In the eighth chapter we have the mysteries of the kingdom, and in the ninth, the vision of the kingdom. Many people have come into the mysteries of the kingdom that never come into the vision of the kingdom. In order to see the kingdom, you need to apprehend the glory of the Lord. The kingdom is bound up with Christ, as Lord, at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit down here. The kingdom is for God: it is the sway of God. But in the tenth and eleventh chapters, the kingdom is no longer the point: we have not what is for God, but what is for man; what is brought to light is what Christ would produce in man; the kind and order of man He would produce, and how He would produce him. This is what I want to make plain if I can, the

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power by which the new man is brought to pass where the old man is.

The first great principle is the neighbour, and the work of the neighbour is to set us perfectly at rest in Christ, and I do not believe that can be until we get the thought of the Priest. I do not think authority would ever give perfect rest in Christ. God's authority must be maintained; but authority will not exactly attach the heart to Christ; what will attach the heart to Christ is the knowledge of priesthood. You apprehend in Him a neighbour; a neighbour is not a lord. In the kingdom the question is of lordship and authority; a neighbour is one who lives next door to you, one upon whom you can in pressure fall back, on whose services you can count. The Lord is in the picture showing the transition from law to grace, and grace brings in the thought of the priest, and the neighbour is almost equivalent to the priest. It is the apprehension of Christ as being on our part, as having come close to us, so that you can always rely upon His service. If you have not apprehended Christ in that light, you have not the gain of the neighbour. Many confess Him as Lord who have very little apprehension of Him as neighbour. His service is effectual so long as you are down here. The Samaritan took up the man that fell among thieves, relieved him, and then carried him and cared for him as long as he was in want of care. That is what Christ is to us as neighbour: we are at His charges until He comes. He is the resource of His people. If I want succour, or sympathy, or encouragement, I fall back upon Christ: I can come boldly to the throne of grace. If you are in trouble through bereavement or loss, do not turn in the first place to man: turn to Christ; fall back upon the neighbour, then you will find that grace will work in others, so that you get sympathy on the part of the saints. You get more good and gain by turning to Christ than by turning to man; for He

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can command sympathy and sensibility towards us in the hearts of His people.

Now the point of the passage which I read in Hebrews is to show us the qualifications of the Priest. There are three ideas connected with the Priest in that passage: firstly, He delivers from the fear of death; secondly, He has made atonement for the sins of the people; thirdly, He succours those that are tempted. That is what is ministered to us through the Priest. I stand no longer in the fear of death, for death is now the gateway that leads to the Lord. Then there is the sense of forgiveness; He is a merciful and faithful high Priest that has made atonement for the sins of the people; and then the qualification for this office is that, having been tempted, He can succour the tempted. Everyone will admit that you have an efficient neighbour -- one who can deliver from the fear of death, give the sense of forgiveness, and minister succour. What marks the present time is the ministration, not of law, but of grace. Christ has come down to where we were, in order that we might know Him in delivering power, as ministering to us the sense of forgiveness, and as able to succour us when we are tempted. I do not think people really understand grace if they do not apprehend the efficiency of Christ as neighbour, so that in every emergency and temptation into which we may come, we can avail ourselves of the One who is close to us. This is all connected with priesthood: priesthood is an essential part of the kingdom. This is brought out in the Old Testament, and will be made good in the millennium, for Christ will be a Priest upon His throne, and the counsel of peace is between the king and the priest. You get this thought in Zechariah.

Mere authority would not always help us. The authority of Moses brought the children of Israel under the discipline of God; priesthood had to come in, and Aaron was there: when authority could not

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help them, priesthood did. When we come into trial and temptation, authority alone would not avail us: we have a neighbour who is serviceable and efficient, who can sympathise with us in our infirmities; and that is the priest. If we laid hold of that, I think we should be restful and quiet down here; for whatever trouble or trial may come along, at all events there is One to whom we can always turn, so that we are never left desolate. Young people with plenty of health and vigour do not much know what trial is; but we see people sometimes come under overwhelming trial, and one might wonder how they will get on? The fact is, they do get on; they avail themselves of priesthood, and Christ affects the hearts of others, so that they get an amount of sympathy and support of which they never dreamt. They get it to a large extent through the saints; we turn to the throne of grace, and Christ, as Priest, affects the hearts of His people towards one another.

Under all circumstances, you may be restful in spirit. If you are not, you do not rightly come under the light of Christ; when people are like Martha, fussy and unrestful, they do not come under the influence of Christ. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. What could the word of the Son be? I think the word of the Son could be only one, and that is, to reveal God: I cannot understand the word of Christ in any other light. That was His peculiar testimony. The law and prophets declared the will of God and spoke of things to come, but they did not declare God. Who could declare God but Himself? God became His own testimony in order that He might be declared. All the way through, that was the testimony of Christ; it went right on to His death, for after all the great declaration of God was in the death of Christ. The veil of the temple was rent in twain for God was declared. It was absolutely impossible for the Jewish system to go on any longer.

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God had come out, in order that man might go in. That is what I understand by the testimony of Christ.

I think Mary was affected by His grace; she had learnt that Christ was neighbour. If the thought of Christ being neighbour to you has inspired your heart with confidence in Him, the next thing is that you will want to come abidingly under His influence: to be in the position in which Mary was found. His word is not so many articulations, but it is that which is expressed in Himself, the influence of which He will bring to bear upon you; He would bring the light and love of God to bear upon your heart. I have no doubt but that is what He brought home to the heart of Mary. Martha was cumbered about much serving. It is not simply that she was busy with the common occupations of life, but they distracted her. If you are in danger of being distracted from the influence of Christ, you ought to look to God for grace that He may deliver you from that which tends to distract you, so that you may be able to attend on the Lord with undistracted mind. Then you begin to get discernment of the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. It is amazing that people can be indifferent to the love of God -- to see the thousand and one distractions which find place in their hearts, so that they fail to occupy the place which Mary had. It is a most blessed place to be in: I think I may say I covet it; I would delight to sit at His feet, to be instructed in the love of God. No one can really instruct you in the love of God except Christ Himself.

Now I turn to chapter 11: 1 - 13. In this passage it is plain that Jesus assumes the place of teacher. When it is a question of making God known, He is not exactly teacher, but revealer. When it is a question of our approach to God, He takes the place of teacher; we get lessons from Christ Himself. I could not tell you exactly the manner of His teaching; but He

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teaches us to articulate "Father". He became man, and in that place He articulated "Father", and He teaches us to do the same.

In Mary I see a susceptibility which never belonged to the natural man, not even before the fall. It is the fact of our having fallen under the power of evil which, when God begins to work, really brings about a susceptibility which man, as God created him, never had. I do not believe it would have been possible for man, as God created him, to have entered into the love of God in the way that we can who have fallen away from God; God uses even the depth to which man has fallen to create a susceptibility to His love. When I recognise the reality and the greatness of the fall, and see how God has come in to meet it in His grace, I can appreciate the love of God. I have no doubt that Adam had a great sense of the goodness and beneficence of God; but there was not the susceptibility to the love of God which there is in a fallen man when God has begun to work in that man.

But in the opening of the eleventh chapter, it is not a question of susceptibility, but of capability: the capability is consequent on the susceptibility. When you become acquainted with the love of God, you are then taught to cry "Abba, Father". You have come under the influence of Christ that you may be made acquainted with God's love, and the result is that there is a capability which never belonged to man as God created him. I do not think that Jews in the millennium will cry "Abba, Father": it is what is peculiar to Christians. As we appreciate the love of God we can freely address Him. If you have the capability of calling upon God as Father, it is really through the teaching of Christ.

The teaching of Christ, in a sense, completes the picture. The man that fell among thieves was taken up in the condition in which he was, but it was that he might be carried and cared for, so that he might

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have confidence in the neighbour. After that you come under the influence of the word of Christ. He brings you under a completely new influence, not known in that way to an angel -- the love of God; He is going to teach you to answer to that influence in the cry, "Abba, Father"; you love God, because He first loved you. Then you get a great expansion of intelligence. You go on to know the things that God has prepared for those that love Him; you get the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the glory of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power. That is what I understand by coming under divine teaching. You are dependent upon Christ for everything. The object is that Christ may bring us so under the influence of His teaching, that our hearts becoming familiar with the love of God, may respond to the love made known to us in the death of Christ.

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UNITY

1 Corinthians 12

It appears to me to be extremely important for saints to get an apprehension of God's ways. I think a great many Christians lack spirituality because they do not understand them. Moses was led into the secret of God's ways, and the Spirit of God would lead us too into the same. I want to bring before you the order and continuity of the ways of God. I may say that the whole structure which God is building up with the greatest patience is entirely apart from the present order of things. God holds His hand over the present order of things -- keeps in check the different principles of evil at work in the world, but that is not the work of God; not even the ways of God. It is the overruling hand of God, very much connected with His providence, behind which God is hid. Now God would not be hid from us, and He has been pleased to make known to us the secret of His ways.

What has already come before us is the kingdom; then we have had Christian fellowship, that is, the house of God, consequent on the kingdom; then the new covenant, which really means divine teaching. The covenant is the setting forth of God's disposition towards us, and hence for us is a thing to be learnt; it is that which can only be learnt by divine teaching. The covenant is that to which God has engaged Himself. If a man makes a will, he engages himself, as far as he can, to the provisions of the will; so God has engaged Himself to the provisions of the covenant, and the knowledge of that is the result of divine teaching in regard to us.

Now we pass on to another point, which comes, I think, next in order to and is the effect of divine

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teaching, and that is unity. It is in connection with unity that we get the idea of our testimony down here: the collective testimony of Christians is bound up with the thought of unity. It is enforced by the great truth of one body: but it is the unity of the Spirit, a unity expressed in mutual sensibilities, and service one to another. Whatever God has been pleased to give for service is to be exercised one towards another in unity. The thought of unity pervades Scripture. Israel and Judah are to be brought together in the future under one king, bound in one, in the unity, in a sense, of the Spirit; in the meantime, the Christ, the body, has come in, by one Spirit we are all baptised into one body. After the covenant, unity is the next great point in the ways of God. In the tenth chapter of this epistle we have the truth of fellowship, which is the principle of the house of God; in the eleventh, the new covenant, as seen in the Lord's supper; and in the twelfth, unity in the Spirit. If you accept that, you will admit the order in which I have tried to present things to you.

In 1 Corinthians 8:4 - 6 we get the truth of what exists to us, in contrast to idols, one God and one Lord. In heaven and on earth there are gods many and lords many; many governors, and gods -- idols -- upon earth, many dominions; but to the Christian there is one God, even the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him -- One to whom is committed all that is connected with divine administration. I should be disposed to be in all subjection to the queen of this country; if I lived in another country, I should be in subjection to the ruling powers there; they would be part of the "gods many and lords many"; but nevertheless, it ever remains true to the Christian that to us there is one God and one Lord, and He is Lord in the sphere of the world to come, He has authority over conscience which is put under Him.

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Now in the tenth chapter, the point is the table of the Lord -- fellowship, and fellowship tests faithfulness. I see further that fellowship is hardly a thought connected with heaven, for in heaven you will not have any test of faithfulness, but fellowship down here is a test of faithfulness. It is true that even the children of saints, are, in a sense, entitled to the benefits of fellowship: they are baptised and brought thus within the sphere of fellowship, and God intends it to be so. But fellowship on the part of saints is really the test of faithfulness. Fellowship depends on an existing bond, and everyone in fellowship is under obligation to be true to that bond. If there is any infringement of the bond of fellowship, we are under responsibility to take notice of it. Our fellowship is to be maintained suitably to the Spirit of God; and if a person proves himself to be unworthy of fellowship, we deal with that person. One word in regard to discipline: assemblies have often made the mistake of judging cases. We are not called upon to judge a case; what we are called upon to judge, in regard of fellowship, is persons. The church of God is not a legal tribunal where the merits of a case are decided: it may have to judge a person, as to whether that person has proved himself unworthy of fellowship. The death of Christ is the bond of fellowship; that is the idea of the table of the Lord, hence the death of Christ is the test to us of everything down here. How could you go on with idolatry in the presence of the death of Christ? The Christian is to judge every association here by the light of Christ's death. Christ has died to the whole course of things here, and therefore I could not expect Christianity to be in honour in the world. Our fellowship involves separation from the world, and we have to maintain faithfulness to the bond. The great point is to be faithful now, so that we may be entrusted with authority in the kingdom.

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Now in the eleventh chapter we get divine teaching; for the Lord's supper really means divine teaching. We have the authority of Christ Himself for saying that the cup is the setting forth or expression of the new covenant. In the tenth chapter the cup comes first; in the eleventh, the bread; for the object in the tenth chapter is God, in the eleventh it is Christ. When it is a question of God, the blood comes first -- He has been met; when it is a question of Christ, as in the eleventh chapter, we have the import of His death, as set before us. It is first His body, our complete setting aside in His death; His body was given for us that we might be put completely out of view as to all that we are after the flesh. The cup is the setting forth of the love of God; and so it is called the cup of blessing. The cup expresses to us the new covenant -- the disposition of God towards us, and hence we get divine teaching in the cup. The death of Christ is the revelation of the love of God, to the end that an entirely new individuality might be stamped upon us, that there might be a complete change of "I" on the part of the Christian. The Lord's supper is simple in that way; you come to the Supper to call Him to mind, that He may have His own proper place with us. We call Him into conscious presence; and we are at the same time in moral accord with the lessons to be learnt from Christ's death.

After divine teaching comes unity, and unity is impressed in the fact that by one Spirit we are all baptised into one body (Ephesians 4:3, 6; Colossians 3:15; John 10:16; John 17:11, 20, 21, 23.) I have read these passages to show the immense importance which the Spirit of God attaches to unity, and our obligation, as being divinely taught, is to unity. In unity really lies practically, to a great extent, separation from the world; and there is connected with it another thought -- that of testimony to the world.

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There was to be one flock and one Shepherd; testimony lay in unity. The obligation to unity lies in the fact of our being one by the Spirit. You get the truth of the body brought out in chapter 12: there is a body on earth the spirit of which is Christ. I do not here say the Head, for that is not brought out in Corinthians; the thought in this chapter is the body, the complete body is here, and that body is the body of Christ. Saints had been baptised into one body, and the spirit of that body was Christ. Hence in the latter part of the chapter the apostle says, you are Christ's body. But how could the flock subsist without a shepherd? They were to have the liberty of the Spirit in going in and out, finding pasture, being instructed in the love of God; but there was to be one flock, one Shepherd. That is what has come to pass. Jew and Gentile have been made to drink into one Spirit. There is no true Christian in the world without affection for Christ; for we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. It is a wonderful thing for God to have brought to pass down here the existence of a body of which Christ should be the spirit and principle. Hence the peace of Christ is to rule in our hearts. Bickerings and difficulties are not to be amongst saints; saints are not to be divided in thought and feeling. Do you think that nine-tenths of the things which trouble us would trouble Christ? The peace of Christ is to rule in our hearts; that is a first principle of unity -- the uniting bond of peace. Every one that composes the body has part in the life of Christ. The failure of man cannot affect what God has brought to pass. Saints may have failed in regard to fellowship; but the one body cannot fail, and the unity of the Spirit is enforced by the fact that there is one body.

Another point in the truth of the one body is that there is no such thing as pre-eminence; no member in that body can claim pre-eminence. No member of

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the human body would think for a moment of asserting pre-eminence: every member serves every other member. The figure of the body is brought in here to check a great deal that was going on amongst the Corinthians, tending in the direction of clergy. It is a great thing to apprehend that we are members one of another, and have been made to drink into one Spirit. Gift creates no pre-eminence in the body. The apostle had his place as apostle, but that gave him no pre-eminence in the body.

We are under obligation to keep the unity of the Spirit -- to keep out everything that would bring disturbance in. A little bit of grit will interfere with the unity of the Spirit, the cherishing of a little bit of animosity or envy. We are called in one body to the peace of Christ. We have to look to it that we are not ready to take offence. We are to be thankful, and that is a great test. If you are offended and your spirit upset, you are not thankful: if you are continually thankful, it proves your spirit is not ruffled. I do not think there is a greater test to us down here than of abiding thankfulness.

Another point is mutual sensibility: if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. If you see a brother becoming useful in the work of the Lord, you most heartily rejoice with him. If you see any decline of devotedness in another who has had part in the Lord's work, you suffer. This is a great principle, illustrated by the human body: there is reciprocal sensibility, because the body is of Christ.

One word more: unity is our testimony. Christ intended that there should be a testimony here upon earth which was not of the world, and the testimony of the church to the world was unity. That is what will be brought to pass in the heavenly city when it comes down from God; then will be witnessed in glory the unity of the church. The world will have testimony thus that the Father sent the Son. It is

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not simply the testimony of righteousness, but of unity, made good in the heavenly city. In John 17 the Lord first prays for the apostles: "That they may be one, as we are". I have no doubt that was brought to pass; the apostles did not have divergences of aim or object: they wrought to the same end; the general principle which regulated them in their work was unity of purpose. When difficulties arose they were carried up to Jerusalem, so that perfect unity might be maintained. Peter speaks in his writings of the epistles of Paul, and gives them the name and place of Scripture. The next unity in John 17 is of those who should believe on Christ through their word; that in separation from the world they might be a testimony to it that the Father sent the Son. That unity came to pass too; the saints were so distinctly one that they were a testimony to the world, which the world found it impossible to gainsay. Christianity was established in the world, not simply by preaching, but by the unity of saints. Whatever men may say in the present day, Christianity has been established in the world in divine power. We live in a day of apostate Christianity, but it was first established here in divine power and light: there was unity amongst saints.

I was speaking of reciprocal sensibilities: these sensibilities, and the affections in which they lie, must take precedence of natural obligations. If God has been pleased to bind saints together in this way, so that there is a body here of which Christ is the Spirit, the obligations connected with that body must take precedence of all other obligations down here. I am not seeking to make light of these: I am under them myself; but the obligations which lie in the one body have the priority. If you carry out, by the grace of God, the obligations which properly belong to the body of Christ, you will find yourself greatly helped in carrying out natural obligations. The person

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who recognises the obligations which belong to the body, and seeks to walk here in the exercise of their blessed sensibilities, knows best how to carry out the obligation of husband or wife, parent or child, master or slave. I beg you to discountenance and to disallow anything which tends to interfere with the peace of Christ, and to covet that your heart may be maintained in continual thankfulness.

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RECONCILIATION

Colossians 1:18; 2: 3

I desire to continue on the line which we have had previously before us, to make clear, if I can, the divine structure of truth which God has reared. It has many parts, and it may be looked at in different aspects; but it is one great structure. There are not really such things as truths: there is the truth. We may apprehend things in detail, but Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth; the Father's word is the truth: it is one complete whole. It conveys the idea of a great structure which God has reared up, which sight and sense cannot apprehend, but which is true to those whose eyes are opened. It will displace everything which exists: and awaits the moment when things down here are ripe. The children of Israel could not come into the land of promise for 430 years after Abraham, because the iniquity of the Amorites was not full. When things are ripe, God will interfere, and everything that is seen will be set aside by the introduction of the things which are not seen; but the things which are not seen are existing things for faith.

We saw, at the outset, the kingdom, which I may call the first principle of God's ways in grace. No one can take a step further in the ways of God without apprehending the kingdom. God has come forward, in the establishment of the kingdom, to bring man under the dominion of grace, that he might find a place of security from the power of evil. The kingdom is characterised by peace, hence it means security from the power of the enemy. Then another point follows, and that is Christian fellowship, in connection with the house of God. The Spirit of God has come down to make good the kingdom. There must be a

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power upon earth equivalent to the authority in heaven, otherwise the kingdom would be in word and not in power. The authority in heaven is the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, and the power down here is the Holy Spirit.

Consequent on the Holy Spirit being here, there is the house of God, and in connection with that there is Christian fellowship. That is the principle of the house of God. Believers were brought into the house by baptism, and in that way Christian fellowship was formed. Whatever may be the general state of things around us, and the confusion in the great house, yet there is a great reality about Christian fellowship. The idea comes out in 1 Corinthians 10 in contrast with sacramentalism. These are two characteristics of Christianity as seen in the world: on the one hand sacramentalism with unjudged flesh, and on the other, fellowship in the bond of the Holy Spirit and of the death of Christ. The next subject we had was divine teaching: the soul brought by the Spirit under the teaching of Christ. He reveals to us the Father, and teaches us to cry "Abba Father". The illustration I gave was of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. This is followed by the disciples asking the Lord to teach them to pray, and the first thing He teaches them to say is "Father". Then we had another point connected with the presence of the Spirit, and that is unity; where the presence of the Spirit is recognised, we accept the obligation to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Spirit has come down to separate the body for Christ, and we have to keep the unity of the Spirit.

I purpose at this time to come to the point of reconciliation. If there is one part in the scheme of truth which is less apprehended than another, it is that of reconciliation. It is no use going to a dictionary to find the meaning of Scripture terms. Words are employed in Scripture by the Spirit of God with

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peculiar significance. The apostle Paul speaks of communicating spiritual things by spiritual means, in words which the Holy Spirit teaches. It has been pointed out that the word 'reconciliation' does not occur in the Old Testament, and on the other hand, that the word 'atonement' does not strictly occur in the New. Atonement is as peculiar to the Old Testament as reconciliation to the New. I think the reason of this is that reconciliation is the great pervading doctrine of the New Testament. The majority of people look at reconciliation as indicating a sort of change of feeling in them: I do not think that such is the force of the expression in Scripture. I want to give you the scriptural thought of reconciliation; it is evident that it is something which we receive: "We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation", Romans 5:11.

If you look at the passage I read from Colossians, you will find that there are in it three thoughts: verse 18, Christ is the Head of the body; verse 21, you hath He reconciled; verse 24, His body, the church. So that you have first the head; then reconciliation; and lastly the body. You have to put these three thoughts together. It is remarkable that the passage does not put the head and the body together. After speaking of the head, the apostle brings in the thought of reconciliation, and then of the body. We have to learn things in that order. First you learn the truth of the Head, then you are able to see that the church is the first-fruits of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a very large scheme, and involves a great deal; but the church is the only thing at the present time which can be said to be reconciled. It is the first-fruits of reconciliation, not the completeness of it. The object in reconciliation is that everything may be for God. There is this difference between the new covenant and reconciliation: the new covenant

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is for man, the setting forth of God's disposition towards man; but reconciliation is for God; we get the teaching of the new covenant, in order that we may be prepared for reconciliation.

First as regards the Head. Christ is not here looked at as being part of the body, but as Head of the body, very much like a husband is of a wife, and much like what Christ is in regard to principalities and powers. It is noticeable that it does not say here that He is from the beginning, nor in the beginning. In John's gospel He was "in the beginning", and in John's epistle, "from the beginning"; here it is "the beginning". If I were to speak of Christ as Lord, I should not speak of Him as the beginning, because the name of Lord presents to us the authority of God vested in a man. Lord conveys two great ideas, authority and administration. But when we view Christ as the Head, He is the beginning. Morally, Christ is as man the beginning of everything for God, and in the great end and issue of God's ways, everything will partake of Christ. We shall see that God has displaced one man, that every man may be of Christ. God tried one Man in a variety of ways, and removed him in the cross. Now He has introduced another Man according to His mind, and in the result of God's ways, everyone will derive from that Man. We derive from Him now; in the millennium Israel will derive from Him. You might pursue the subject into the eternal state, when all men will derive morally from Christ. It means the complete displacement of Adam in order that Christ may occupy his place. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself"; that was a completely new departure in the ways of God. The mark of the moment, when Christ was down here upon earth, was that God was not imputing unto men their trespasses, but was reconciling the world unto Himself in Christ. He is the beginning.

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But you have another point: He is the first-born from the dead. If He had simply been the beginning, that would not have done for you and me. He was the beginning here after the flesh, the corn of wheat, but He abode alone; there was no real association with Christ after the flesh. For association resurrection had to come in. There was no common platform so long as Christ was here after the flesh, so He takes the position of first-born from the dead, that there may be a platform of association. You are risen with Him: that is the mind of God about you. In the eye of God you are outside of every order of man here: God has created a platform, in the resurrection of Christ, on which you can be in association with Him. We see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of His disciples, so long as He remained with them; John could say, He dwelt among us, and we contemplated His glory, as of an only-begotten with the Father; but so long as He was here after the flesh, there was no association. In resurrection everything was changed: the Lord says, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". Association came in, because He was now the first-born from the dead. The new departure which marks God's ways is that Christ is the beginning and at the same time the first-born from the dead, in order that there might be a platform on which we can be with Him. He takes that place in regard to the church.

The first principle in regard to the body is that Christ is the mind, the spirit of it. The moment I regard Him in the light of Head, He is distinct from the body. He loved the church and gave Himself for it; He is here distinct from the church. If I regard Him in connection with the body, He is the spirit of it; but to the church He is Head. No husband is lord to his wife, else he is a bad husband; he is head to his wife. Two things which the wife gains from her husband are the direction and support

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of affection; that is what Christ is to the church, which is the first-fruits of reconciliation. I will give you a simple thought of reconciliation: I think the scriptural idea of reconciliation is that complacency has come in where distance was. In becoming man, Christ brought in complacency in man. When He was born into the world, the angels were all moved; a multitude of the heavenly host was there, saying "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men". There was divine complacency in a man. You get the confirmation of this in the baptism of Christ: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". Again, on the mount of Transfiguration. But there was not as yet complacency where distance had been. It is in the death of Christ that the distance is emphasised and marked. The One in whom was all the complacency cries on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?". He entered into distance to remove the distance; now the distance has gone, and the complacency remains. The distance has all been burnt up, as in the burning of the carcase of the sin offering without the camp, and now there remains nothing but the sweet savour of the burnt offering. Reconciliation was completely effected in the death of Christ. You may get the application of it to things; to the church, to us; to principalities and powers, but the great principle of it comes out in the death of Christ; that is what I should call the word of reconciliation. Before Christ died, in the moment of departure, He says, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"; the distance was gone, and there was complete complacency; but I have no doubt complacency comes out fully in resurrection. Just as the distance was marked on the cross, so complacency was marked in resurrection. All things -- principalities and powers -- are to be reconciled; there has been distance in regard to all of them; everything is to be taken up in Christ,

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so that where distance has been, there may be complacency. Adam's place, Noah's dominion, David's throne, Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom -- everything will be taken up in Christ, with the result that where distance has been there is complacency.

Now it is said distinctly in regard to us, "And you ... now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight". This refers to those that were sometime alienated and enemies in mind; you cannot alter or improve that. You cannot alter enmity of mind, for the reason that it is enmity of mind: God does not alter it. If it were a question of a fault or difficulty, I could understand its being repaired; but there is no such thing as repairing enmity of mind. The fact is, all has been removed, in the body of Christ's flesh through death. Everything of yourself, as to what you are morally by nature, has to go, and, for God, it has gone in the death of Christ. The old man has been removed for God, but the old man has to be put off in the case of the Christian; the old man is never amended. The way for us is the acceptance of the cross. The apostle Paul had to come to it. God would not tell you to put off what could be repaired; but if it cannot be repaired, it must be put off. We have to come to that point, to put off in regard to ourselves that which was put off in the cross of Christ for God. In human things, enmity means distance; if I nourish enmity against a man, I am distant from that man; and if there is enmity in the heart of man towards God, it implies distance. You see enmity in families; brother and brother in bitter enmity. In human things it is extremely difficult to bring about reconciliation; but in regard to God distance lies in will, and there is no such thing as reconciliation possible in that: it has to go. The Christian has put off the body of the flesh; he refuses and repudiates that which has gone for God.

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Now I come to the other side: that where distance was, there is complacency. Supposing it were possible for a man to be made friendly disposed toward God: that would not bring about complacency; it would not bring about that which is suitable to God, so that God could have complacency in it. God's way is to bring about complacency where distance was, so that His eye may rest upon that which is morally suitable to Himself I venture to say that at the present time, the church is the vessel of complacency. You may say, I know very little of it; I admit I have travelled very little on that road. Well, but that is what Christ died for, that where there had been distance there might be complacency. If we would be well pleasing to God, we ought to accept that, and to covet to be according to God's mind. You cannot attain holiness by faith; I do not think there ever was a greater delusion than such an idea. Righteousness is by faith, for the simple reason that it is not your righteousness, but God's; but holiness is partaking in the divine nature. If you are under the influence of love, you get holiness promoted.

Now we come to the body. The glory of the body is, Christ in you, the hope of glory. If the Jews had accepted Christ, He would have been in them the crown of glory. Now the grace of God has gone out to the Gentiles, and you have the body, and the glory of the body is Christ in you, the hope of glory. If Christ is in the church, the hope of glory, then the church is not far removed from glory.

There are two great thoughts in the ministry of Paul; one is of the new man, and the other is of the body. The body is the first-fruits of reconciliation; Christ is presented in it under the eye of God, and He is in the church the hope of glory. The Colossians were looked at as being a sort of first-fruits of reconciliation; they were to be holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in God's sight. Do not refer that

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to the future; there is no point of time in the passage at all. Then you get the mystery: Christ is here in the body; He is the animating spirit of the body. This brings the church very near to the glory; one single instant might usher the church into glory, into the full result of divine purpose.

May God give you to take in the three simple thoughts I have sought to bring before you; if you put them together, you will get an idea of what God has brought about in this world for Himself.

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READINGS AT PECKHAM

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UNION

Notes of Reading

Ephesians 1:15 - 23

The idea of union is being brought to Christ where Christ is. Two great thoughts come out in Scripture in regard to Christians -- association and union, and the latter is more limited than the former. Association is connected with the Son of God, while union is with the exalted Man; association is a greater thought than union. The thought of association comes out in sonship; and then when the inheritance is brought in we get the thought of union. The practical bearing and meaning of union is that saints share in all that belongs to the Bridegroom; the bride shares with Him as Eve shared all that belonged to Adam. We do not get the idea of association in connection with Adam, but we do of union. We are associated with Christ as the Son of God, but we are united to Him as the exalted Man at the right hand of God. Both thoughts are unique, and belong to the church only; they are not co-extensive, the one is greater than the other. Rebecca is united to Isaac for His comfort, and she shares all that belongs to Him. The place of the bride as a faithful spouse is to stand to the truth that all centres in Him.

We never have sonship in common with Christ; while we share sonship, we can never be sons of God in the sense that Christ is. The whole object of God in predestinating us to be conformed to the image of His Son is that He might have the place of pre-eminence -- "that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". But we share the inheritance in common with Christ. If we speak of the Son of God, it brings in the thought of what is proper to Him. But Christ has gone up to heaven, and has carried all

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the interests of God there, and the bride is to stand faithful to the Bridegroom. I refuse to have any part in the interests of this world. The poorer a man is, the better off he is spiritually, for he is less handicapped. Children are not very good judges of what is best for them, nor are Christians. The poor man is the least encumbered with the interests of the world; having food and raiment he is therewith content, but when people get rich it is surprising how they come under the influence of the world.

The bride does not bring in the idea of the worshipping company. Mr. Darby pointed out that our place as sons is greater than that of the bride. Christ takes a place in connection with the "many sons"; sonship brings in the thought of affection Godward, and worship is connected with this. If we do not view things aright we do not get the true gain of them; it is an immense thing to get into the secret of God's mind, for it is according to His mind that the Spirit works in us.

In the end of Ephesians 1 we get the exaltation of Christ as Man, and then in chapter 2 we get the church exalted -- raised up with Him, and seated in Him. We have a place above; we have none here; and now the point is, that while we are here upon earth we should be faithful to the interests of Christ. God has not a single interest on earth connected with earth; every divine interest on earth has been taken up to heaven by Christ, and until He comes out of heaven nothing will be put right here, but meanwhile we are to be faithful to Christ's interests here. The papal system says, "I am no widow"; but the true place of the church is that of a widow. It is a time of fasting because the Bridegroom is not here. It is wonderful to apprehend Jesus as the glorified, exalted Man, and that we have a place where He is; the effect is that out of our inward parts flow rivers of living water.

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We do not touch union apart from appreciation of the affection of Christ. Association and union are collateral, but I should not like to say that one was dependent on the other; they are two distinct lines of things. Sonship is true of any one when he has the Spirit of God's Son, and yet many have received the Spirit who are not in the conscious reality of sonship. It is the same in regard to union; every Christian who has received the Spirit is in principle united to Christ; but if a person claims to be in the power of it he ought to be able to give some account of it. Saints are hindered from entering on these things consciously because they are occupied with the interests of earth; they do not enter into what is involved in Christ having left the earth and having gone to heaven. When Christ was here the earth was recognised, and therefore it was right, in a way, for people to take up the interests of earth. There were promises connected with earth, but now, Christ having gone to heaven, every interest of God connected with the earth has been carried to heaven. Now the apostle speaks in a condemnatory way of those "who mind earthly things". When there is blessing on earth again the movement must come from heaven.

Sonship is dependent upon the revelation of God as the Father; the moment the Son comes into view God is revealed as Father. John 20 gives us association; the thought of it is in Psalm 22, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren". The best type of association is Aaron and his sons. Access to God depends upon the measure in which we appreciate the love of God; as we appreciate the love of Christ we enter into union. You must distinguish between what is connected with the Son of God coming out from God to reveal God, and what is connected with Christ as the exalted Man. "All of one" is association in the mind of God, all of one stock and origin, all of the love of God, "for which cause he is not ashamed to

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call them brethren". I should not be ashamed of my brother or of my sister, for we are all of the same source. Association is, as I have said, greater than union; association puts you in company with the Son of God, though you cannot share in all that belongs to the Son of God; but we can share in all that belongs to the exalted Man. In association we can be in company with Him, and He can be in company with us. Christ breathed into the disciples in John 20, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit". We could not impart the Spirit, but we do stand in company with the One who can.

The inheritance is every interest of God in heaven and earth; Christ the exalted Man has taken everything up to heaven, and the bride has to be faithful to that, and she therefore stands apart from every interest connected with the earth. The departure in the church was that she left her first love, and thus she ceased in principle to be a witness; she ceased to appreciate the love of Christ. The place of the church as witness is that she is faithful to the fact that there are no interests of God on earth connected with the earth, and we have to be in spirit clean outside of it all, and in the sense that every interest is secured and established in Him, that every interest has been carried up to heaven, and the church is left here as a witness to that.

The great thing is to get back to the Spirit. Popery came in, and High Churchism which is the same in principle. Men connected with that system feel the need of a system which has the claim and merit of continuation as the ground of their confidence. Then dissenters want a written faith -- the letter of the truth -- as the ground of their confidence. But the only true ground of confidence is the Spirit as witness. The reformers did not go far enough; they depended upon the letter, but the Spirit is the Witness, and if we are in the Spirit's witness we shall be set free from

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all that obscures and hides the church here. The Spirit forms us by the knowledge of love; it is by the knowledge of God's love that every Christian is formed, and in that way we are fitted to enter into association and union with Christ. The living water springing up leads us to the appreciation of Christ. Protestantism makes everything of the letter of Scripture, but the Spirit is what we have to depend upon; it is the Spirit who is the witness to Christ. Mr. Darby said that divine words could only be understood as divine things were known. Scripture is the divinely given form of the truth, but I learned everything by the Spirit before I got it from Scripture.

"The hope of his calling" (verse 18). The calling refers to the first few verses in the chapter; the calling carries you to heaven. Here the inheritance is "in the saints"; in the early part of the chapter the inheritance is in Christ. The inheritance is all that has been taken up in Christ, but it is to be made good in the saints. God took up the land of Canaan in Israel, but He takes up all the inheritance for the saints and in the saints. Whatever God has taken up in Christ the saints will come into the enjoyment of, and God will have His pleasure and rest in seeing the saints enjoy it.

Ques. What is it to be in heavenly places in Christ?

All spiritual blessings belong to courts above. All that is properly priestly belongs to heaven. We come in anticipation into what belongs to courts above. There is much that is priestly which does not connect itself with what is within the veil, but the higher functions of priesthood properly belong to heaven.

Ques. What are "spiritual sacrifices"?

Hebrews 13 is a very good explanation of that. Sacrifices call for self-denial; a man might spend his substance upon himself, but instead of that he does good and communicates. We enter the holiest as the

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sanctified company in virtue of association with Christ. Sacrifices are always Godward, but you may have man in view in offering them; Christ offered Himself to God, but for us. I connect the golden altar more with Israel; it was in the holy place. Nothing was within the veil save the Ark.

People will not master divine things by the study of Scripture; we must not put Scripture in place of the Spirit. The Scriptures give the light of God's mind, but the Spirit alone can give the consciousness of divine things.

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IN CHRIST

Notes of Reading

Romans 6:9 - 23

This chapter corresponds with the early part of 1 John 3, "He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous". That is much akin to being "servants of righteousness".

It is a great thing to get hold of the fact that Christ has accomplished redemption, and become the Centre and Sun of a new system; He is the Sun of righteousness. This is the first principle we have to understand in order to enter into what it is to be in Christ Jesus. Being set free from sin, we have become servants to righteousness; we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Christ Jesus, where sin is not. "In him is no sin"; if we abide in Him we do not sin.

In Romans 5 we get Christ as the Head; He has come into the place of Head of every man provisionally, a place which He will occupy in the world to come. Romans 5 gives Christ's position; chapter 6 gives ours.

Redemption is in Christ Jesus; Romans 3:24. The purpose of God has been to take up His inheritance, and He takes it up in Christ; He has made Christ the Heir of all things. Redemption has come in that Christ may take up the inheritance as having removed all the encumbrances which lay upon it. Being in Christ involves having a link with Christ, and that link is by the Spirit, and a man must be free of liabilities -- he must have received forgiveness -- before he could have the Spirit.

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Sin is looked at in chapter 6 as a kind of rule; the reign of grace is contrasted with the reign of sin in chapter 5: 21. Sin in the flesh is taken up in chapter 8, but in chapter 6 it is looked at as the universal ruling principle here.

The gift of the Spirit puts a man in Christ. No one is righteous relatively until he is in Christ; to be righteous relatively you must stand in relation to Christ as the divinely appointed Head, as the earth stands in relation to the sun. This goes further than justification. Justification is relative to offences, and is equivalent to forgiveness, but righteousness is relative to sin. Israel will stand in relation to Christ, and then they will be righteous. We are in Christ by the Spirit. By receiving God's testimony in the glad tidings we are justified from offences; then we receive the Spirit and are in Christ, and then we belong to the order of things according to God which is established in Christ. We are attached to Him in whom is no sin, and "whosoever abideth in him sinneth not".

To present every man perfect in Christ is looked at as the effect of ministry, but it takes time to arrive at that, We begin as babes in Christ, and have to go on to be full grown in Christ. On God's side there is the complete setting forth of all His mind in regard of us in Christ, but on our side we have to grow up into Him in all things. If you want to know your righteousness, or sanctification, or redemption, it is all set forth in Christ, but we have to be expanded in intelligence, and to grow up into the apprehension of all that is God's will for us as set forth in Christ. The apostle laboured hard to bring the saints up to that, but there are many obstacles which stand in the way. Salvation is all perfect to be entered into, but it takes a long time to enter into it fully. We get liberated from one thing and then another, but God would have us brought into perfect freedom in every respect. If the Spirit

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of God brings about attachment to the new system of which Christ is the Centre, certainly there must be detachment from things here. The apostle had nothing before him for the saints short of presenting every man perfect in Christ. We are not to be occupied with our progress; it is other people who see growth. Those who bemoan making no progress, never make any progress at all. I am convinced that the great point for our apprehension is the light of Christ as the divinely appointed Beginning, and Head, and Centre of the divine system according to the purpose and will of God.

Rem. Righteousness is the rule of that system, just as lawlessness is of this.

Yes; we come under the law of that universe of which Christ is the beginning and Head. Christ has come into our view in that light, and it is in that way that we become servants of righteousness. The practice of righteousness is the proof that one belongs to that order of things of which Christ is the Head and Centre. Righteousness is doing right, it is fidelity in every divinely appointed relationship, and we practise righteousness as standing relatively righteous to the Centre and Sun of God's world. Under the law of Moses it was a question of God and one's neighbour, but now we have to take account of the divinely appointed Head. It is the righteous One who has accomplished righteousness, and in virtue of having done so He is the Sun of righteousness. He could not have done it had He not been God. The righteous One is divine, and now He is the Sun of righteousness, and we are righteous by standing in relation to Him.

The love of God has found its expression in righteousness; love is really the source of righteousness, and if we come under the influence of righteousness we come under the influence of love; the two are now inseparable. It is wonderful that love should

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have come out in the way of righteousness and redemption. Righteousness simply means what is right. God has seen fit to take up all the liabilities under which man lay, and Christ came to do His will. Surely it was right that He should do so if He saw fit. You cannot separate righteousness from love. God made the creature and He loved the creature, and it was His love which gave Him the right of redemption.

Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. God intended to bring in eternal life, but there were rights of God to be regarded, and grace came in and took up all the liabilities in order that it might issue in the blessing of eternal life for man.

Ques. What is it to be alive to God in Christ Jesus?

It is moral. I have the appreciation of God which I had not before; there is the recognition of God in my heart, and hence I count myself to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

The first great thing is to come under law or rule, then everything is right. The earth is under rule or law to the sun, and then it gets the benefits of rain and sunshine, and consequently it brings forth fruit. So with us; we are held by a moral bond to Christ, and therefore we are righteous in being attached to Christ the Head by the Spirit; we are bound up with a system of which the rule or law is righteousness. The result is we have our fruit unto holiness, because we get the benefit of the sun and the rain, and so there is fruit.

The fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ; we are cleansed from all unrighteousness by getting into the bond of righteousness. The great thing is to be in the reality of the bond, and not to be content with the mere statement. Christianity is a system of which God is the Author, and Christ the divinely appointed Head, and we are to be under the rule which characterises that system. Christianity anticipates the world to

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come. The true starting-point, the beginning of real awakening on our side, is when we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Christ Jesus. It involves that we have apprehended that God has come out in the revelation of Himself, and that necessitates another world, for this world could not subsist in the light of that revelation. All that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- can only go on in darkness. The revelation of God necessitates another world, and that involves a new Head.

Everlasting life is the great end and issue of God's way. The law brought in a ray of light, but it did not bring in what was in the heart and mind of God. Romans 5 gives us the issue of God's way, but chapters 6, 7 and 8 show how we are brought into liberty of soul in order that we may serve God. It is proper for the Christian to joy in God, but the question is, how are we to do so: chapters 6, 7 and 8 come in to show us the way of liberty.

God never calls upon us to believe anything about ourselves; we are to believe much about God and Christ. We take account of ourselves as being dead indeed unto sin; virtually we are free of a lawless world, free from its influences. Then in chapter 7 we are free from legality; most people think there is something due from them to God. Then in chapter 8 there is freedom from the flesh. There is a way by which we can be free from all these things, and until we are free we cannot really serve God. We must be in liberty in order to joy in God, and to serve Him. The highest point morally is in chapter 5, because it is the presentation of God to us, but we need what is unfolded in chapters 6, 7 and 8 in order that we may be free. The three chapters go together, they are not successive. We are not absolutely free from the three things spoken of -- sin, law, and the flesh -- but we are freed from their domination.

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Being freed from sin we come under the principle and rule of God's moral universe. Christ has been looked at too exclusively as a rival Head to Adam, but there is only one Head, Christ is the Head of every man. He is the Head of a vast, divinely conceived system, and if we are attached to Christ we belong to that universe, and we have to be delivered from this world, which is not according to God, but is Babylon. Jerusalem has been swallowed up by Babylon, and of that world Satan is the god and prince. The world that was came under God's judgement, and He allowed Babylon to swallow it up. Rome is the continuation of Babylon. The political Babylon has been wounded, but Babylon has come into the church, and we are now in the time of the Mother of harlots. We need to keep ourselves "in the love of God", "praying in the Holy Spirit", and "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life",

Ques. What is it to be "quickened together with Christ"?

It is the anticipation spiritually of what will take place when the Lord comes. It refers to the work of God in us, in virtue of which we anticipate in the point of view of our spiritual being what will take place when the Lord comes. Quickening our mortal bodies will take place then. In Ephesians 6 the parts of the armour taken up are those in which Christ will come out when He comes again. He will "put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head", Isaiah 59:17. We anticipate that. These things are needed to enable us to stand, and maintain the rights of Christ. All preaching is really proclaiming the rights of Christ, but for that the armour is needed.

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CHRIST IN THE SAINTS

Notes of Reading

John 14:15 - 31

Rem. You said last time that being in Christ is dependent on redemption, and the gift of the Spirit.

Yes; the work of grace is to put us in Christ, but the great thing is to see what is involved in being "in Christ". We have to apprehend that Christ is the Centre and Head of the new divine system. Every family in heaven and earth is named of the Father, and all will be blessed in Christ; Israel will be blessed in Christ, and so will the nations. All that is connected with Christ's universal headship, but what marks the present time is that the church is in Christ. Then correlative to our being in Christ is the fact that Christ is in us. In this chapter it is Christ in us morally; it comes out in the way of character in the saints.

Ques. Is Christ formed in us individually or collectively?

I have thought collectively. The saints are the epistle of Christ, and they could not be so unless Christ was formed in them. John always takes the subjective side, so that in his writings we get more Christ in us.

The point in this chapter is comfort. In chapter 13 there is every element of disturbance, but in this chapter every element of comfort. It is a great thing to be here with the heart not troubled, for there are a great many things which tend to trouble. Every heart knows its own bitterness, and I suppose every Christian knows what trouble and disturbance are in some way. "Comforter" is not the best rendering of the word; it is rather the idea of 'patron' or 'solicitor'; it is one who takes your cause in hand.

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The Spirit corresponds to Christ in heaven: Christ intercedes at the right hand of God, and the Spirit intercedes in the saints: "We have an advocate with the Father"; Advocate there is Paraclete, the same word as Comforter here.

In this chapter we get first the thought of a place, and then the thought of access; the Lord speaks of these before He goes on to speak of the Comforter. If we had not a place we could not have access; the one hangs on the other; no one has liberty of access to the King save those who have the place. It is because He is there that we have the place and the moral effect of His going to prepare a place is that we have access. Our suitability as to having access is met in that He is "the way, and the truth, and the life", We get in Hebrews the introduction of a better hope, which we have "as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered". It is by that hope we draw nigh to God. If we have liberty of access to the Father it involves our going to the Father. So in Ephesians 2:18 we get "through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father". That is preceded in verse 6 by "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus". We get the place, and then we have access as the result.

Rem. We cannot have two places.

That is just it. "This world is a wilderness wide". Man had no title to a place in heaven, he was created for the earth, but there was a place for man in heaven in divine counsels, and according to God's sovereignty, in connection with the Second Man. He was out of heaven, and will go to heaven, and He will take a company with Him.

The Spirit would abide with them in contrast to Christ's going away, and Christ would be in the saints by the Spirit. What could Christ have imparted

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so great as Himself? This He has done by imparting His Spirit. You cannot distinguish morally between Christ and His Spirit. In Romans 8:9 we read, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his", and then it adds, "If Christ be in you", etc.

"I will come to you" (John 14:18) is by His Spirit; it is in that way Christ really brings Himself to us. Then verse 20 amplifies it, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". I think the early disciples had great enjoyment in their relations one to another; the Spirit of Christ in them was a great reality and a great comfort. In our day things are very much clouded, and it is difficult to realise spiritual affections in the way they were realised in early days. In John's gospel the Father is looked at as the Source of everything; even when Christ sends the Spirit it is from the Father, Christ in us brings in unity, because it is one Christ and one Spirit, and it makes one body. If we know that Christ is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us, we really know all that is worth knowing.

Ques. Why is the question of love raised in connection with the coming of the Comforter?

It was to such a company that the Comforter would come; the real link with Christ is love. The disciples were tested by the presence of Christ; we are tested by one another. If we do not love one another, it would be futile to say that we love Christ. The test to them was that they kept His commandments; He did not question their love, but His commandments were the test of their obedience. Christ is entitled to the obedience of His saints, though many take little pains to keep the commandments of Christ. People often like to do their own will, and do not consult Christ in regard to what they do.

Rem. All this was in view of His going, so that there might be the proof of their love when He was gone.

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Yes, and, as we see in the beginning of the Acts, the disciples studiously kept the commandments of Christ, and the Comforter came. The Comforter has now come, but I question if we get the good of His presence if we fail to keep the commandments of Christ; the gain of the Comforter is dependent on that. Every injunction of Christ is binding on the saints. The commandments of Christ have reference to our relations one to another; our righteousness is to love one another as Christ has loved us; we "ought" to do so; it is an obligation. The "words" of Christ are more in the way of communications; but His commandments are of binding obligation.

If we have the Spirit He can make us conscious of the nearness of the Father and the Son (verse 23). There is no limit to what is possible in the Spirit; the limit is in our state. The Spirit is sensitive, and resents what is unsuited. Everything depends on the presence of the Spirit, but there must be fidelity to Christ to get the good of it. There are two things which saints need to get clear of, their own wills and the world. The disallowance of one's own will, and being apart from the world, are involved in keeping His commandments and words.

"I will come to you". There is no moment when He would not be with us; we are not left orphans. There is not a moment when the saints come together, but the presence of Christ may be realised. The saints being together according to Christ involves His being with them. What more intimate connection could there be between Christ and the saints than that they should live because Christ lives? A man of the world dies when the world fails him, but we live because Christ lives. The world is not at all indispensable to us. "He that eateth me, even he shall live by me".

Verse 20 is the apprehension of the entire situation; if you take it in, you do not want anything else. There can be no corporate blessing unless there is individual

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faithfulness. We are greatly hampered when we come together if we go on individually with unsuited associations.

Ques. What does the Lord mean by saying "I will manifest myself to him"?

It means that He puts Himself in evidence to you. But "we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" is more continuous. If we have the Spirit we really live in these associations. I am sure people do not estimate what an extraordinary gift the Spirit of God is; He has come really to bring God in. God's way of taking up a place in His own creation is secured by the Spirit as the result of redemption. There is very little stability in Christendom, and I suppose the real cause is that they do not give place to the Comforter. Christ formed the house; He was the true Son of David who built a house for God, and then the Spirit came and dwelt in it.

Ques. What is the force of Christ being formed in us, as in Galatians 4:19?

The Galatians were hindered, and disposed to go back to legal observances, and Christ had not taken shape in them. It is not so much in character, but Christ was not formed in their minds. If Christ is formed in the mind He will have no rival. There was no longer Jew nor Gentile; there remained nothing but Christ, and Christ will not have anything else religiously. The Jewish mind had a great deal of detail to apprehend in the law, but for us, if we are simple, it is Christ; we need nothing to commend us to God, but appreciation of Christ. Christ being in you is the consequence of new creation; it is first "Ye in me", and then "I in you". It is the purpose of God to head up all things in Christ; the church has its own peculiar place, and there is nothing in Christ yet save the church, but in result all will be in Christ. For illustration the king is the great head of the social system; he is also head of his wife, but then she is

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much nearer to him than anyone else. The church is in Christ as the bride of Christ, and God has made known to us the mystery of His will to head up all things in Christ, but the church has its own peculiar place in relation to Christ.

John 17 is the climax. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one". Then it is absolute. New creation in an absolute sense is the displacement of all of the first creation; therefore Israel will not be in new creation as we are. Morally they will be after God in righteousness and holiness. Christ in us involves displacement; will and the world have to go; if we could get rid of these there would then be room for Christ. It is impossible to keep the commandments of Christ with unsubdued will. If people are determined to go on with certain things, I should call that unsubdued will. Then the influence of the world tends to chill spiritual affection, it tends to maintain status and position here, but these things act as a great check upon spiritual fellowship and love. The Father's house is where everything is according to His mind, where He can be complacent. In the world all is confusion, there is such mixture of good and evil, but in Him we have peace. We get comfort by being true in our relations one with another; our hearts "comforted, being knit together in love". There is comfort in that way. Peace is in contrast to confusion, comfort more in contrast to disturbance.

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GOD'S PURPOSE TO BRING HIS PEOPLE IN

Numbers 32:1 - 27; Ephesians 3:14 - 19

One thing must strike anyone acquainted with Scripture, and that is that Scripture presents to us reality. It does not conceal anything as to the people of God; it is not simply what is bright that is presented, but everything is presented. In the most distinguished men of faith, it is not only their faith that is recorded, but their failures; and unsparingly so. The failures are not seen as man sees them always, but they are brought out nakedly, according to what they are in the eye of God. So with Israel all is presented.

Scripture does not give us utopianism, a kind of state of perfection down here. The people are presented and certain thoughts of God with regard to them; but their failures and the snares into which they fell are brought before us also; it is all a proof of what Scripture is. All things are written for our learning. The snares are recorded for our learning in order that we may avoid them, for we are likely to fall into them. It is in that way that we are compelled to look at the Old Testament, and at God's ways with the children of Israel. They are types of a people who are going through the wilderness in a much more real way, and it behoves us to be vigilant that we may not be ensnared as they were.

Scripture presents too the preservative against the dangers, and that is why I read Ephesians 3; the antidote is there in a certain sense in the apostle's prayer. If Scripture does not present utopianism, on the other hand it does present a point to be reached down here. The point in the apostle's mind was the point to be reached by peoples' souls down here, while they knew they were safe enough for heaven.

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The prayer in Ephesians presents what is to be reached, not in heaven, but down here; and it is a point beyond which it is impossible to get. The apostle says in Colossians, "whom we preach ... that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus". You cannot go beyond that, that is certain, but "perfect in Christ" is to be reached by saints down here, and that is really the aim of the prayer. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts", and why? That you may know the love of Christ. What is the great end? In one word -- 'Christ'. Your soul has to reach Christ in another sense, not only in faith but in love. That is where I believe the great deficiency lies. I do not doubt you have reached Him in faith, believed on Him, but it is another thing to reach Him in love, and that is done when you can say you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.

Now, dear friends, I come back to the scripture I read. We find in it the last hindrance on the part of the children of Israel. The great point was that they should enter into the purpose of God, and that was the land. From the outset God had expressed it to Moses. He would bring them out, and bring them in. God does save people, He makes Himself known as a Saviour God, and we could not go a step further if He did not, but it is the same God that brings out, that brings in. It is part of God's purpose to bring out, but equally His purpose to bring in, to bring us into the light and knowledge of His purpose. The same God who delivered the people from His own judgement and the oppression of the Egyptian, purposed to bring them into a good land flowing with milk and honey, and we in a way repeat the history of the children of Israel.

The great bulk are content with the knowledge of forgiveness but are very slack to apprehend the purpose of God to bring them in. They know they are safe for heaven but are slack with respect to His purpose,

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which is to bring them into the land where He dwelt, the mountain of His inheritance. He dwelt among them in the wilderness, yet the wilderness was not His thought, but the land, a good land on which His eyes and His heart rested from the beginning to the end of the year. That was the character of the land into which it was the purpose of God to bring them.

We have seen how many hindrances occurred on the part of the people. Scripture is not silent about them, for Scripture is the light of God, and if so everything is exposed. The light makes manifest, and the brighter the light the more manifest everything is.

Wherever God was dealing with the people, the light of God was there, and everything contrary to it was exposed. Christ was the light of the world; in His presence everything was exposed. I quote John 8. The Lord speaks in that way: "I am the light of the world". The law did not convict the people who had brought to Him the woman taken in adultery and who were boldly claiming the execution of the law upon her, but the presence of Christ did. The light exposes, convicts, but at the same time does not condemn. It is not the office or part of light to condemn, but the brighter the light the more it exposes and convicts.

I have tried to show you as simply as I could that from the time of the brazen serpent and the springing well, the people are regarded in a new light; the people of God's purpose. Two or three circumstances will prove this. One point is the prophecy of Balaam. I cannot question for a moment it had reference to the elect people of God brought to light; that is why the brazen serpent and springing well are brought in. I do not know who they are; if I am an evangelist, I have to preach to everyone; I have not to judge who are the elect, but at the same time life brings to light the people of God. Those prophecies describe what the thoughts of God are as to His elect people.

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Then there is the numbering of the people; the Spirit of God took account of the people who were to inherit the land; not the people who came out of Egypt but in regard to entering on the inheritance. It is very clear to me that we have the elect people of God in view, not the people in the light of profession, but in the light of the purpose of God.

I was dwelling on one danger into which they fell, worldly associations. They fell into the trap -- the daughters of Midian -- and the practical result was, they dropped into idolatry. The purpose of the enemy never lies on the surface. Apparently the trap was the daughters of Midian, but the object of the enemy was to draw them into idolatry, to drag the people down to the level of the world, so that the people of God should no longer possess any claim to distinctiveness, they would then be like the nations of Canaan. What came to pass was that God came in, the plague broke out, they were delivered and then they found they had to enter into conflict with these very Midianites. The result was they gained a victory and spoil, for when once they took the ground of faithfulness they had God with them. They had victory and honour from God and the priest and Levite received their part of the spoil of the people by whom they had been seduced. We may have been seduced by the enemy, but when we are recovered we have to set ourselves against the very thing by which we were entrapped, and so we are more than conquerors.

Now we find another temptation, and mark this, the object of every temptation was to prevent the people from getting into the land, as the previous one would have done. Now it is to make them stop short of it. They are in the plains of Moab and it was suitable and agreeable, and the object was to settle down there and not go over Jordan; to utilise the good land they had conquered, without the necessity of going over Jordan. It offers a temptation very

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commonly presented to people now. I will speak to you presently of the advantage of going over, and the disadvantages of staying on the east side.

They had conquered this land with their sword; they were kings connected with Canaan, and the land belonged to the people. It was a goodly land and well suited for cattle and for their children; no one can doubt it. At the beginning the proposition on their part angered Moses; and there is no doubt he was right. Though he was not going in himself, yet he was unsparing in his condemnation of those who would not enter. It was only when they offered to take the lead in the warfare that he consented.

I would like to dwell a little upon this; it was a land that they had conquered, and what I understand by it is this: it represents what we may have gained by spiritual faithfulness, or what may have been recovered to us in these days. If we have separated from a great deal that is contrary to the mind of God, He rewards us, and gives us possession of truth which others fail to possess. We have gained greatly in the sense of the word of God, and have received light about the truth which others have not, and this I take as an evidence of spiritual faithfulness. But you see a danger now comes in. We have all this light, and have got away from what is contrary to God; we have all that amount of land which has been given us, as the effect of faithfulness, and what now? The tendency of the flesh is to settle down and say "let us enjoy". If we have flocks and herds and children, so much stronger is the tendency to settle down in what God has given, to utilise the confirmation of Scripture in our souls as a ground for stopping short of the land of promise.

It is a great blessing to enjoy all the light we have, to bring up our children in that light, and to see the bearing of the word of God, and all the intelligence possessed in these days. This is a great privilege and

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favour, but at the same time it may be used as a plea for settling down on the east side of Jordan, putting death between ourselves and the purpose of God about us. There should be no such thing as settling down here, and I will tell you why. Because the purpose of God is not down here but above, the other side of Jordan. The purpose of God for His people is summed up in one word, 'Christ'. You ought not to be satisfied till you have reached Christ; not only believed on Him, owned Him as Head, but reached Him according to the purpose of God about you. Christ is not to be found on the east side of Jordan, the providence of God may be there and much light, but Christ is the other side of death.

I am sure many must be conscious of this danger. The more I possess providentially, the greater opportunity I have to gratify myself down here, and the danger is very great. In that sense I do not doubt but that ample means may become a very great snare to Christians. You may say "I have a great deal of light and gain from God and will settle down; it is a very good place, we can make fenced cities for the children, and I do not want to be troubled to go any further". But we see that they had to go further; they had to go before their brethren to war, but the mischief was that they came back, and then the Jordan was between themselves and the ark of the testimony. They were not where God was, and it is everything to be where God is. These two tribes had to set up a memorial altar of their own, for they were not where the tabernacle was.

What do we see about the apostle? He was not content to be there. He said "This one thing I do". Only one thing. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling (the calling above) of God in Christ Jesus". That was the line of the apostle. Now I venture to ask you, what do you think attracted the apostle? Surely it was the love of Christ. He

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was so sensible of the love of Christ that nothing would content him but to be where Christ was; not simply in faith but in affection. I believe it is affection that carries us to where Christ is. See the prayer in Ephesians 3, how every divine Person is involved in that prayer. I want to call your attention to the way in which divine Persons are bound up with the saints. The prayer is addressed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is His Spirit by whom we are to be strengthened, and the object is, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. It is wonderful the way in which the Christian is bound up with divine Persons. Do you not think that God displays His power at the present time? I am sure He does! The great thing for us is to be in the scene where He displays it. He works by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts.

Now supposing this prayer is fulfilled (and it is the purpose of God to fulfil it), see where we are brought. Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Christ is supremely the object to God the Father; is He supremely the Object to us? What is the object before your heart? What are you pursuing? If Christ is dwelling in your heart by faith, you are pursuing one thing -- Christ. The apostle said "this one thing I do".

We see the same thing in Mary. Martha was a true servant, but fussy; she wanted the Lord to reprove Mary. But He says, "one thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her". People are distracted by a multitude of objects from pursuing Christianity; their business, their families, and I know not what else. Scripture gives one thing, and if so I have the heart governed by one object. God has one object -- Christ -- and there is but one for the Christian. That is what it is, to have Christ dwelling in the heart by faith. He is enthroned there. But you may say 'have I not got other things to do?' Yes, but Christ will not be

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content to share your heart with a competitor, and you must be content to give Him the first and supreme place. When Isaac was weaned, Ishmael had to leave the house.

Now what is the result? That you may be able to comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height, etc. There are three things: (1) "rooted and grounded in love", (2) "able to comprehend", (3) "filled to all the fulness of God".

Now the way to this is not by faith, though you could not reach it without faith -- but it is not a question of light but of love; then it is that you are able to comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height. Why can love alone comprehend that? Because the length and breadth and depth and height is the expression of love; it is only love that can comprehend the great purposes of love; no other power can enter into it. I have thought of that verse till my mind has been excited to get an idea of it. I never got an idea of it in that way, and I do not believe anyone ever will, for only love can comprehend love.

The prayer proposes that we should be rooted and grounded in love, for it is love that knows love. You are first impressed with His love; "He that loveth not, knoweth not God". How can you know Christ but by love? Then you get a vast comprehension of the length and breadth of the purposes of divine love, for the love of Christ is known. The beginning of it is in death; then you learn it in His intercession, and in bringing you to the Father's heart, as He will bring you to the Father's house. The climax is to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge; and the end is, you are filled with all the fulness of God.

If you come to the intelligence of His purpose and know the love of Christ and are filled full, the great end is, that saints may be the expression of God here. I call attention to a passage in John 4, "No man

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hath seen God at any time". The same expression is used in John 1:18 of Christ Himself; now as to Christians, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us". Here it is to comprehend with all saints. That is the motive spring of love to all Christians, only the enjoyment of the love of Christ towards ourselves; if He loves us we ought to love one another "as I have loved you".

I believe the meaning of it is that you have really reached the house of God; that is my conviction. You have got all the good of the house of God, the light of His purposes, the knowledge of the love of Christ, you are really in the land, and identified with the tabernacle, the house of God on the other side of Jordan.

It is complete deliverance from the religious course of things here. I am not in accord with any of the religious things down here; and my whole course should be a protest against these things. I am across Jordan and my soul has reached Christ where He is. I realise the house of God, now I am where the tabernacle is, on the other side of Jordan westward. I am risen with Christ, quickened together with Him and now my soul knows what it is to live with Him where He is. Do you believe that Christ so loves you that He wants to attract you there? His love begins to be known in death, it is carried on in intercession, and then the same love brings us into the Father's love as it will do into the Father's house.

There is just a little interval till that day comes and that is filled by this "that you may know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge". He says, "I will present to you the attraction of love"; a love of which we can get no idea except in Him, that He may draw us to Himself, on the other side of Jordan, the blessed scene on which He has entered where He is the Centre and Object of all the purposes of God, and

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so it is that you enter into the length and breadth and depth and height.

May God give to us to know more about it. I do not think we are defective in faith, but there is no doubt we are in love. I do not think we have followed up the love of Christ; it does not sufficiently impress our hearts. That love is encouraging, attracting, attending on His people so that they may leave everything as Peter the boat, to find Him the other side of death where He is to be found by affection.

May God grant that we may have a much greater sense of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.

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THE PRINCIPLE OF LAW OR RULE IN CHRISTIANITY

Leviticus 6:8 - 13; John 3:16 - 21; 1 John 2:29; 3: 1 - 14

It is very important to apprehend that there is such a principle in Christianity as law. It may seem paradoxical, but I think it has been too much lost sight of. It is a thought not very difficult to substantiate; a charge of the apostle Paul to the Galatians was, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ". So James speaks of the perfect law of liberty. The Lord Himself speaks about a yoke: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me". The passages I have quoted are amply sufficient to substantiate the thought that in Christianity we have the principle of law. I do not mean law in a technical or formal sense, but the principle of law; and it seems to me that it is extremely important to maintain this, because it greatly helps us to understand the first great moral element in Christianity, and that is righteousness. I should be thankful if the Lord enabled me to bring it out in some little way.

I have thought much of late that it is very important to apprehend Christianity in its moral characteristics; not simply as a system of faith, which really means very often a system of dogmatism -- a creed: that is not Christianity. Christianity is made up of a great many moral elements, which all blend like the colours of the rainbow, and when they are perfectly blended, there is no colour. The moral elements are there: they are blended in perfection, but we apprehend them in detail, for if we do not apprehend them in detail we cannot apprehend them at all. We have not yet come to that which is perfect in point of knowledge. I never feel much troubled at being accused of imperfection in the way of stating things; my answer is,

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We know in part and we prophesy in part, and that must be the case until the perfect is come.

My subject, then, is law; that is, law in Christianity. And when I speak of law I do not mean law, as I said, in the technical sense, as it was in the case of Israel; but I mean the principle of rule in a moral sense. I do not believe God ever turns aside from this for a moment. I see even in the new heavens and the new earth the principle of rule: righteousness resides there. Righteousness is the expression of the principle of rule. I do not know any other term at all which would suffice to take its place: it is the great principle of rule morally. Righteousness is the law of the moral universe.

If we go back to the beginning, in the order of things established in regard to the earth, we see the principle of rule. When God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that was not rule, but on the fourth day God set lights in the heavens, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and, as I have before pointed out, life is developed in the presence of light. You do not get life until the lights were set in the heavens to bear rule upon the earth.

Now the effect of sin was that man got morally outside of rule. Adam did his own will in defiance of the commandment of God. The commandment of God involved abiding in the rule of God. When Adam acted outside the commandment of God, he got away from rule, and into lawlessness. That is what the transgression of Adam meant. It comes out a little more distinctly in the case of Cain and Abel. Abel was righteous, abiding within rule morally -- he was not lawless; but his brother's works were evil -- Cain was lawless. Then in Cain's posterity the world became utterly lawless. They had departed from rule, and the lawlessness of the world brought in the flood. If you pay attention to Scripture, you will find that

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lawlessness brings in the judgement of God. The judgement of God came in at the flood because man had become lawless -- outside of rule in any moral sense. We see the same thing in Sodom and Gomorrah. Men had completely turned aside from rule: they were failing to observe and respect the relationships that God had established down here; they were lawless, and that brought in the judgement of God. The same thing was true in regard to Israel: they became lawless, and that brought in the judgement of God upon them. Lawlessness brings in the righteous judgement of God, but not until it has been completely proved. I might have said the same thing in regard to the Canaanites and the people who inhabited the land of promise; lawlessness had to come to a climax before God interfered to cast out the inhabitants of the land.

I think the rule of righteousness is very simple; it is the maintenance of the relations in which it has pleased God in His wisdom to place man. No principle could be more simple. It has pleased God to set man upon earth in certain relationships, and righteousness is the maintenance of those relationships as God has established them. If men fail to observe these relationships, it makes manifest the principle of lawlessness: man has got outside of rule in any moral sense.

Now I take up for a moment the dealings of God in regard to Israel. The position was peculiar. Israel, when brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, was entirely unlike the rest of the world: it was a little world of its own, completely separated from all the rest of the world. I daresay most will remember the prophecies of Balaam. The first was, the people were to dwell alone, and not to be numbered among the nations. Then they were justified in the eye of God. There is a description then of their beauty as seen dwelling in their tents, and the last prophecy is of their

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ultimate glory: that is in connection with Christ. I refer to that in proof of the point which I mentioned, that when God brought Israel into the wilderness, it was a little world of its own with God as its centre. They were a kind of choice people, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God was in their midst. Almost the first proposition, when they were brought into the wilderness, was that God would set up His dwelling-place among them, and consequently He took from them what was needful for a dwelling-place.

Now I would like everyone to seize the importance of that: there was a world having its own peculiar character. All the great world was going on outside them -- the Canaanites on one side and Egypt on the other -- Israel was in the wilderness, shut off from any other nation; but the dwelling-place of God was there in their midst. They never dared to move without the tabernacle; and whenever they rested, they did so with the tabernacle in their midst. They might rest for a day, or a month, or a year; but whenever they rested, the tabernacle was in their midst. There never was anything on the face of the earth like it: a world of which God was the centre. When God brought them into the wilderness, He brought them to mount Sinai and gave them a law, because they must be under rule. I am not now speaking of what might be called the ceremonial law; but a people with God in their midst must be within rule, and therefore God propounded rule to them. It was the only principle on which it was possible for God to be among them. How could God be in the midst of a lawless people? In the very nature of things, if God proposed to dwell among them, He must propose law to them. God gave them a law, and they were to abide in that law. They were tested by it, and the continuance of God among them was dependent on the people continuing in the law. If they did not, God would not continue among them.

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Well, things went on: the people came into the land. They did not continue in God's covenant, and God says, "I regarded them not". God sent many prophets to recall them to the covenant; but the people would not be recalled, and eventually they were cast off because they had broken the covenant. The effect of God's dealings with Israel was to make manifest the lawlessness of man. It had come out before the flood; but it never came out in such a way as it did with Israel. The people before the flood never had the opportunities and privileges which Israel enjoyed. They never had a law proposed to them; and when lawlessness came out in Israel, it came out worse than in Sodom or Gomorrah. They would not have God: that is what was proved through the law; they became idolaters, worse than the heathen, and were carried away captive to Babylon because they did not continue in God's covenant. The law made manifest the lawlessness of man: it may be that God intended it should.

Christianity is in contrast to law-giving in this respect: Christianity is not intended to make manifest the lawlessness of man, but the work of God. In the case of Israel, the question was not of the work of God, because God was testing man after the flesh. There were individuals in the midst of Israel in whom there was a work of God; but speaking in general, God was testing a people after the flesh, and it was a question of man and his state. The law was added for the sake of transgressions, that is, to make evident the lawlessness of man.

Now Christianity is morally Christ; and Christ did not come here to make manifest man's lawlessness, but the work of God. There is, then, a great contrast between the law and Christianity. In connection with the work of God, you get a race, a company down here upon earth, who are within rule, and that never could be apart from the work of God: man could never

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come morally within the application and operation of rule except by the work of God. "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him". Man never could come within rule except as being born of God, and the light of Christ has come in to make manifest the work of God down here.

Now look at John 3. It says in verse 21, "his deeds are wrought in God"; the work of God is in such an one. How could a man's deeds be wrought in God if there were not the work of God? We see in verse 19 that the coming of the Lord made manifest that man's deeds were evil, the light confirmed the law; what the law had proved, the light proved.

In the first epistle to Timothy, speaking of law teachers, the apostle shows that what was condemned by the law was condemned by sound doctrine according to the gospel. The light condemned what the law condemned; the light made manifest that men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The necessary effect of God coming into the world was to make manifest that there were those who continued in darkness; but at the same time it had another and a much more important effect -- it brought to light the work of God. That was the purpose of the light coming into the world -- to bring to light the work of God. In John 3 the first great point that comes out is the new birth; that is the work of God. Then the second great truth is the testimony of God. Then in the fourth chapter you get the gift of living water; that is the Spirit. That must always be the order: there is the work of God, which ever has been, and is now going on where the testimony is. The testimony comes in to make the work of God manifest; then there comes in the gift of the Spirit, which is the water that Christ gives, in the believer a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

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I will say a word or two now in connection with the light. There are two things which are manifest in connection with Christ: one is that He is light, and the other that He is a gathering point. The Lord Jesus said in John 12, "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me". He is the centre of the universe of God and the gathering point for man. But He is also the light: He has brought into the presence of man the light of God's testimony. We get that very distinctly in John 3:16. The cross of Christ brought into the presence of man the testimony of God's love, and the love of God never can be learnt except in the cross. The only begotten Son of God is no longer here upon the earth; when He was here He was the light and the witness of God. He is here no longer; but what is here is the light of the cross, and the cross is the declaration of the love of God. The death of Christ was sacrificial as on behalf of man, but it was declaratory on the part of God. The love of God was declared there and the love of God cannot be learned apart from the death of Christ. I do not think anyone would dispute this for a moment. Christ is the testimony of God, and that testimony is brought close to man, into his presence, in the death of Christ. The One who suffered on the cross was a Man for men, but that Man was God's only begotten Son. There divine love is brought into the presence of man, and close to man.

The effect of the light is, as we have seen, to make manifest the work of God. What, then, can be more important than the maintenance of God's testimony in the world? That is the light in the world. As long as Christ was in the world He was the light of the world; He showed forth the light of God down here, brought it into the midst of a dark world. So the testimony of the cross at the present time is the light of God in the world, witnessing to man what is

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in its bearing universal, that is, the love of God toward man. Undoubtedly it has two effects: on the one hand, making manifest the darkness of man who will not come to the light, but, on the other hand, making equally manifest the work of God; 1 John 3:10.

The proper effect of the light is to lead men to God's gathering point. Christ is now the test; the light has come out in Christ. The testimony of God to man is set forth in Christ; in His Name repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached; all that God has to say to man is in Christ, and what lies behind all that God has to say to man is divine love. All has come forth from divine love through the death of Christ. I cannot conceive anything more important to present; divine love is the source of all, and divine love has expressed itself to man in the death of Christ, and whatever is announced of divine love to man is announced in the righteous One. The object of the light is to make manifest the work of God, and to draw to God's gathering point. Whenever the light acts on a person, and the soul is brought into the light, the effect must be to draw to God's gathering point, to Christ. The result of that is that there is a company of which Christ is the Head and Centre; 1 John 3:1. To be the children of God is to have come to the gathering point. God's light acting upon the soul of man is to draw it to the righteous One, away from the world. Souls come to Christ to get from Him living water; but they come to the righteous One, the One who is the centre of God's universe. They are drawn by the working of God. The Lord said, "No one can come unto me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him"; that is the work of God drawing man to God's centre and gathering point.

The effect is that you apprehend that Christ is the righteous One. There is then the generation of the children of God here who have been brought to light

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by the testimony, and what marks them is that they have come within rule; they are no longer lawless. You will have noticed the passage I read in Leviticus; the principle of that passage is this: Aaron and his sons had to observe particularly the law of the burnt-offering -- the fire was always to be kept burning on the altar. If you have come to Christ you have come to the place of God's holy judgement. The testimony of Christ is sealed by the Spirit, and you are thus brought to the place of God's holy judgement: you have an altar, and you must observe the law of the altar. The law of the altar was that the fire was always to be burning in it, from morning till night and from night till morning. God never relaxes His holy judgement in regard to His people; they must walk within rule.

Now, in regard to Christ Himself; you may read Psalm 40:7 - 10 in illustration of the expression "the righteous One" in the epistle of John. The "righteous One", in regard to Christ, implied that, as Man, He was ever within rule. On the one hand, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt there, and He was expressing the light of God; on the other, He was man here upon earth, but ever within rule. "I come to do thy will". "Thy law is within my heart". Then follows, "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation". I can hardly conceive anything more wonderful than the Son of God displaying and expressing the light of God here, and Himself as Man, the righteous One, abiding within rule. I think you will understand from this scripture the force of Christ being the righteous One. Righteousness was maintained here upon earth in a man to the glory of God.

Now there is to be a universe of bliss, and the centre and gathering point is the righteous One, and what is going to fill that universe is righteousness; and we have come now to the beginning of it. Christ is the beginning, as the righteous One. You have the company of God's children who have been made

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manifest by the light. They are companions of His, and what marks them is that they are righteous, even as He is righteous; they walk down here within rule, even as Christ has taken that place Himself. He is the righteous One, never ceases to occupy the place of man, in whose heart is God's law; and those that do righteousness are righteous, even as He is righteous. We could not be practically righteous if we were not accounted righteous, if our liabilities had not been met in the death of Christ; but because we have submitted to the righteousness of God it comes to pass that we can be practically righteous, that is, we put on the breastplate of righteousness. Things with man are all out of course; with Christ nothing was out of course. Everything was according to God -- "thy law is within my heart". With man everything is abnormal, and the first application of righteousness to us is in this way, that we walk in self-judgement, and self-judgement refers to every movement of the human will. You have to observe the law of the altar. Self-judgement had no reference to Christ; it has a great deal of reference to us, for the reason that there is the flesh in us, which is prone to be rebellious and to wander from the rule of God, and therefore every movement of the flesh has to be judged in the Christian, and that is the first principle of doing righteousness. If you do not carry out self-judgement you have not the first principle of practical righteousness.

The light has gathered us to God's gathering point. We are of the company of God's children, we practise righteousness; this becomes manifest in us in our walking here in the spirit of self-judgement. The world cannot understand a man that walks in self-judgement. I think the world can understand and appreciate a man of great strength of will or force of character; such a man makes progress. But the world does not appreciate a man who refuses and disallows every movement of his own will. No man is entitled to a

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will. If a man loves God with all his heart, that man will not allow his own will to work; and hence you can understand that the first principle of righteousness must be to judge anything and everything that interferes with the rights of God.

The next point is that you love your brother. God has asserted His righteousness, and we admit it in judging what interferes with His rights, and in the admission of God's rights we love Him. The right of God is to be loved by His creatures, and the source of His rights is that He loved His creatures. His love has become effective in the death of Christ. We admit His rights, and answer to them. But then there are our brethren, and we have to love them; and, after all, that is only the proof that we love God. My brother has a right to be loved by me, and I have a right to be loved by him. We are placed in righteous relation to one another, and it is only righteousness to love one another, just as it is to judge one's self and all that conflicts with the rights of God. If I admit the right of God to the supreme place in my affections, I submit to the righteousness of God. The effect is that the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. What marks the children of the devil is lawlessness and hatred. They are outside of all rule, like a star outside of its orbit. If a planet could get outside of the influence of the sun it would get into lawlessness. That is where man has got to -- outside of the influence of rule; and this brings in the judgement of God in due time. Righteousness is that you abide in the appointed orbit, in the maintenance of every relationship in which God has placed you -- to love God, to love your brother, and to be faithful in every subordinate relationship here upon earth. The secret is, that the light of God has come in by the death of Christ, and God has purposed, by the righteous One, to fill the universe with righteousness. Man can desolate this world by works of destruction, but God

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builds up, and the centre of all God's work is the righteous One. All begins with the righteous One, who is the blessed gathering point. The children of God are those who have been drawn to the gathering point, who see that the prince of this world is judged. They have been attracted to the righteous One, and it is impossible to be companions of the righteous One without ourselves practising righteousness.

All that is intensely moral, and it commends itself to me because it is such. No one upon earth could have conceived these things. Men may have had ideas, but there is no approach in their thoughts to what God has proposed. What holds me to the truth of Christianity is the deep conviction that all is of God. The proof that all is of God is the moral perfection of all that which God has been pleased to present.

I think we ought all to be very jealous for the maintenance of righteousness, that we keep within rule; that we walk down here in self-judgement in regard to every movement of the human will, so that God may have His rights and place in our hearts, and that we may love those who are of God.

May God give us understanding in these things, that His will may be fulfilled in us, and that we may see how separate we are from the lawless world around, in which things are ripening for the judgement of God.

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PERFECTION

1 Corinthians 2:6 - 16

"We speak wisdom among the perfect". There was not power to apprehend it in the Old Testament although there was faith. But now there are those that are perfect -- those who are prepared to apprehend this wisdom of God. What I understand by "the perfect" is that they have accepted crucifixion with Christ, the putting off of the old man. That is a great point to arrive at, the putting off of the body of the flesh; then we apprehend the wisdom of God. Christ was actually crucified; we are called upon to accept in mind what in Christ took place actually, and thus we are prepared for the deep things of God. If you get a Christian anxious to save himself in this world, and to save the world in measure, he will not be prepared for the deep things, but if I accept crucifixion it is because I apprehend that there is another world before God. That is the only way, just as you offer a child something better in order for it to give up something it has; it is only as we see there is something better that we are prepared to give up this world.

The death of Christ, while it was the condemnation of sin in the flesh, was especially the revelation of God's love (John 3:16) and now there is another scene filled by the love of God and man responsive to it. With ourselves, if we live, we live in the light of divine love -- it is the great formative principle in the saints, and then they are said to be born of God.

Verses 10 - 12 show the way that God's wisdom is made known, first to the apostle, and then he communicates it to the saints by the Spirit. No amount of words would bring love home to a person. You might read Scripture from beginning to end without getting

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the love of God brought home to you. They had received the Spirit of God that they might know the wonderful thoughts of God for man. Words would not make known His love. God commends His love and then sheds it abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.

Then (verse 13) the apostle has to communicate them by spiritual means -- words which the Holy Spirit teacheth. I admit words are used, but you cannot understand by mere words, but only by the Holy Spirit giving you to understand -- you are taught by Him.

I have thought that people sometimes err on the side of studying Scripture, as though they would master Scripture as they would a science. I have done it and if I had my time to go over again, I would give more time in the presence of God. I dare say you have come to Scripture and found it as dull as possible; at another time it has been lighted up because the Spirit of truth has been active. You did not understand the meaning by the letter merely.

I argue from that the vast importance of the soul being with God, not merely the study of Scripture. The object of Scripture is to lead your soul into intercourse with God. Get under the power of the word of God, and then there is another thing of the greatest importance -- intercourse with God. I do not say prayer, I prefer the expression, intercourse with God. It is a great thing to sit before God. David sat before Jehovah; the habit is of the greatest importance. You can never be useful for Him unless you cultivate intercourse with God. That is by the Spirit of God and you will soon find Scripture lighted up.

In verses 14 - 16 we see the way they are made known to the apostle and then how they are communicated. In early days they had not the inspired writings; in a way they did not need them, as they had the apostles. It is the greatest possible mercy

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of God to leave us with these inspired writings, but the words will remain as a dead letter, and do so to many Christians because they do not recognise the presence of the Spirit here. I have to recognise His teaching within and not trust my own mind. My mind may get over-burdened, but what we want is quietness to sit before the Lord. Even the attention to the word of God needs to be balanced by intercourse with God. In the end of Luke 11 we see Mary sitting at Jesus' feet and hearing His word, and in chapter 12 the disciples are saying, "Lord, teach us to pray". I do not sit at the feet of Scripture. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus -- the One Scripture makes known. You would not be regardless of Scripture, but the two things balance each other: sitting at His feet and hearing His word. I am afraid both habits are not strong enough with us.

I am much inclined to warn people against meetings, that is, if going to them excludes these things in private. Sitting at His feet is essentially private. On the other hand there is intercourse with God. Even our food is sanctified by intercourse with God and prayer. Do not neglect it if you want to make progress -- get into your chamber and cultivate intercourse with God. One mark of a spiritual person is that he refers everything to God -- a carnal person refers everything to himself -- one is the contrast of the other. A spiritual person seeks in everything to refer to God. He takes up nothing in self-pleasing. If it is a question of worship, it is not self he wants to please; if service, he does not want to carry it out in self-pleasing. The same thing would come out in many things here -- in family and business. If we seek God's pleasure -- that is the mark of a spiritual person, but if it is to please self (and we do to a large extent) then it is carnal. The carnal man uses things in regard to himself, but the spiritual man takes up everything in regard to God. And the effect of the

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Spirit of God in a man is -- "the spiritual man discerns all things", the carnal discerns nothing.

The apostle had perfection in view -- as again in Philippians. It comes out in one way in new heavens and earth. Then the holy city is perfection and that is the ultimate end to which Christ will lead. It will come out to express God, and be the centre of the universe, and His activity is to draw us to Himself. Christ will make you conscious of the love of the Father. That is the great end to which God is leading -- to that blessed scene where God is all in all, contrary to the confusion here, a scene of divine love perfectly appreciated. What a contrast to the cobwebs spun out of the mind of man! There are no principles in the world, good as they may appear to be, which will lead to perfection here, for passion is the strongest thing in the world. Take drink for instance: you may show a man how it is bringing him to ruin, and present the great good of turning away from it, but all the philosophy will not turn him aside. But the greatest results will come from divine wisdom, a scene where God is all in all. If you get a man converted, you get a man who is brought into the love of God and responds to that love, and he begins to appreciate the wisdom and the great end to which God is leading. You have now the man -- the spiritual man -- who can enter into these things.

May God exercise our hearts to look to it! If He has given us the privilege of sitting at His feet, of intercourse with Himself, we cannot afford to neglect it. In taking advantage of it we become spiritual. God becomes our object and not flesh. The spiritual mind refers everything to God. God is the standard of everything. The mark of a spiritual mind is that one is controlled and influenced by the Spirit of God.

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THE LORD'S PRESENT MIND AS TO THINGS HERE

Revelation 3

What I desire to bring before you in reading this passage, is the thought that the Lord has His mind in regard to the whole state of things around us in the professing church. I think this is a point of the greatest moment for every Christian to apprehend, and it ought to be the desire of everyone to be in the secret of the Lord's mind. We get what I may call the whole history of the professing church brought under our notice prophetically in the second and third chapters. There is no doubt that there were these seven churches existing in Asia when John wrote, and they are taken up as having certain marks and characteristics which enabled the Spirit of God through them, to portray the history of the professing church on earth, from the beginning to the end. I do not think that anyone acquainted with Scripture can doubt this. There was a time when we knew but little about the book of Revelation, but it is better understood now.

Now there is a great principle running through the word of God, that is, that whenever God places Himself in relation with a people, He marks the fact that He is God, by foretelling the end of the dispensation from the beginning. Critics may disdain the idea of prophecy, but facts remain, and God in that way has proved that He is God. I might go through the Scriptures in detail, and show you how the result has always verified the forecast. God makes the forecast, and God only can make it. Men talk about forecasts, and to a certain extent a shrewd man may make such. I can understand a man putting things together, and discerning the probable operation of

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principles, and so giving a judgement of what will probably be the result of the working of things in the world, but it is in the power of God alone to make a true and certain forecast. God can make known the end of a dispensation from the outset, and He has done it again and again, and the result has invariably proved that He is God.

I will just give you an example or two, because it is important. Before Israel entered Canaan God foretold their captivity. They carried with them into the land, in the book of Deuteronomy, the witness of what would befall them there.

Again the prophet Isaiah, before the Babylonish captivity, takes up the subject and shows how God would bring back a remnant from Babylon, and would present Christ to them and that they would reject Him. I need hardly say that God spoke truly. Another case is when God gave up His people in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and committed supreme power to the Gentile. At that time, God foretold what would be the end of it. I have heard of wise people, or rather those who think themselves wise, who tell us that the book of Daniel never was written by him, but I prefer to believe on the authority of the Lord that it was written by Daniel. Daniel did not prophecy of what was to take place in the succeeding few years merely, but he gives us the whole of the times of the Gentiles, and speaks of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that should fall upon the feet of the image and break to pieces the whole Gentile power, every bit of it, from top to bottom. All that goes on to the future. Now when you come to the New Testament you find the kingdom of heaven set up, and the Lord in Matthew 13 foretells the end from the beginning. It began with the sowing of the seed, but the end is described in a variety of parables -- tares, mustard seed, leaven, etc. From the time the seed was sown, the Lord predicts what the end would

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be; that it would become a great conspicuous thing like a tree and the fowls of the air should lodge in its branches; and the Son of Man finally sends His angels and gathers out of the kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity. Then in the Revelation we get the same principle in the seven churches. The history is taken up from Ephesus, which was a remarkable church in many ways; its history is largely traced in Scripture, and going on from Ephesus to Laodicea, we get a complete picture of the whole time of the church from the beginning down to the end.

My point is this, to give you an idea that the Lord has His mind, specially and very definitely in regard to the whole state of things by which we are surrounded down here. It greatly affects me. I hardly know any thought which has affected me more distinctly than that. One may have a thought more or less right as to things but if I have the Lord's thought that must be right. How many would be concerned if they thought that the Lord had a mind about things here? The fact is that Christendom goes largely on the assumption that the Lord has no mind about it at all, that all is left to man. If you see that, it leads you to think very seriously. I know it affected my life very much when the truth was brought home to me, that the Lord was watching with interest all that was going on in His name down here, and it still greatly affects me, and I think many here can say the same. We want to be in the secret of His mind, to have His thought: "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches".

Now I venture to say, that the Lord has not any particular mind with regard to the world; the world is looked upon in Scripture as that which has rejected Him, and in that sense it is left under the hand of God. Christ will have His mind as to it by and by, but not now; now, He has a thought in regard to the church.

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There are two ways in which I can speak about the Lord in connection with the church. One is that He is the Minister of the sanctuary; He orders everything connected with the worship of God; He has to do with those who are true Christians; He leads them in the worship and service of God. He is the antitype of Aaron, who had to carry on the service of God; he was charged with the ordering of the lamps and the shewbread, and had to do with the vessels of service. In all this he was a type of Christ. Christ takes the place of Minister in resurrection. In Psalm 22 He says, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee". He is Leader. We get this amplified in the epistle to the Hebrews. He is the Minister of the holy places, of the true tabernacle; the true antitype of Aaron and of Moses too, but the antitype of Aaron. The priesthood being changed the character of the service is changed. Christ has offered the sacrifice that can cleanse our consciences; we have purged consciences, but that is not all the truth. When it comes to serving the living God then it is that He, properly speaking, leads the praises of His people. He is the Minister of the holy places: He is a great deal more, because He is the antitype of Moses, but He is the true Priest. The order of Christendom is all against this; there are many priests there, also a great many Christians who have no idea of being companions of Christ. Every Christian has his part in the service of God, just as each son of Aaron had his part. I can tell you why things subsist as they do in the common order of Christendom -- ministers, clergy, people, etc.; it is because all sense of the power of the Spirit of God has been lost. Order and rule of a human kind came in when Christians lost the sense of the presence of the Spirit. If they had any sense of the power and presence of the Spirit of God, they would understand what it is to be associated with the High Priest -- who

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leads the praises -- in the service and worship of God. There may be some in every congregation who ought to be taking their part in the service. In a general way in Christendom, all is entrusted to one official and the others -- many of whom are perhaps qualified by the Spirit of God -- are concealed, and this one man is put over them by the ordering of man: the reason is plain enough, Christians have lost all sense of the presence and power of the Spirit of God.

But there is another character in which Christ stands to the people of God; He is Son over God's house. When I speak of the house of God, the term covers all those who profess the name of Christ. There are many in the great mass of profession around, who are really Christians indwelt by the Spirit of God, but then there is the great external system -- and my point is, that Christ has His mind about that in every part of it -- this is a point of importance to understand.

I will now make a few remarks on the chapter read. To begin with, it is exceedingly important to notice, that to the angel of the last three churches, the Lord speaks of Himself in titles connected with the millennium. It shows me this -- that if attentive, we shall find ourselves in the light of the world to come and consequently be discontented with all that is here, as must be the case if our hearts are in the light of the world to come; I will just explain this in detail.

In Sardis He has the seven Spirits of God, that is the Spirit in relation to the millennium; the Spirit is not spoken of in this way except in relation to the earth. In Philadelphia He is the Holy and the True, but there is another point, viz.: that He has the key of David and opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. A key is a symbol of administration, and it is the administration which Christ has in relation to the earth. When I pass on to Laodicea, I find Him

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there as the Amen; the confirmation of the promises of God; the faithful and true Witness, which is the place that He Himself takes in the millennium, when every other witness has proved unfaithful. It is well to weigh these titles; they bring us very much into the light of the world to come. Everything for God is established in Christ, and if you are in the light of Christ you are in the light of the world to come. Christ has come, redemption has been accomplished. God has exalted Him and has given Him a name above every name, not simply in this world, but in that which is to come. He has set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, and every promise and purpose of God is established in Him. We are in the light of that.

I pass on now to speak a few words on what comes out in the addresses to these churches. There is Sardis on the one side and Laodicea on the other. I think that each of them depicts a state of things with which we are familiar. We have a great mass in Christendom in this part of Europe who are marked by having become political and worldly, having a name to live, because what they are connected with (as having started with) was the vindication of the word of God, and escape from the corruption of popery, but spiritually all has become dead. Of what does the Lord warn them? I will come on thee as a thief if thou shalt not watch. One of the characteristics of a Christian is that he watches, and the Lord here says, "If you do not watch I will come as a thief". That is, He treats them as the world; the Lord comes to the world like a thief in the night, that only tends to show you the moral identification of Sardis with the world. Protestantism has become political and worldly, and the Lord will come upon it as a thief; they will not know the hour in which He comes. He does add, "Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments". That is, they have escaped the corruption of the world. That is one side.

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Now I will ask any thoughtful person here, to look abroad and tell me whether that is not the true character of things around us; the savour of the truth, and the idea of the coming of the Lord have been lost, but the Lord is deeply concerned in all that is going on. I do not point to any particular body, but Protestantism has largely become a vast political machinery, and we can understand the Lord saying, "I will come on thee as a thief". One of the Lord's last sayings was, "Watch ye, therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning", and the last word of that passage is: "What I say unto you I say unto all, watch". Sardis does not watch. I should not like to be here and not watching, to be overtaken by the Lord as a thief. People will be; when they say, "Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them".

Now turn to the other side, to Laodicea. What marks Laodicea is the pretension of the human mind, higher criticism and the like. They are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; but do not know that they are "wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". They do not know the misery of their spiritual condition. That is what I understand by being rich and increased with goods. They say, Man's mind is competent for everything; we can trace the sources from which the word of God came and can judge of it all: and yet after all they have not the faintest spiritual idea of what the word of God is. They deal with the letter only, and that in the most superficial way. If they were asked to explain what is meant by "The letter kills, but the Spirit giveth life", they could not tell you; nor could they explain the meaning of the expression "The Lord is that Spirit". They may be very clever and able in oriental languages, and all that kind of thing, and you might pay attention to them as regards the

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text; but in forming judgements and deductions on God's word, they will find the letter of Scripture a very deadly thing to handle -- the letter kills. I have sought now for many a day to get at the spirit of Scripture; the Lord is that Spirit, and when you find Christ in it you will find much profit. For instance, what dull reading Leviticus would be, in the letter; but if we want to know the details of the sacrifice of Christ, how wonderful is the instruction we there get; so too the detail of the feasts would be dull reading, if it were only an account of the feasts of Israel; but when their typical character is seen, what God has done or will do in Christ, how different all is! Christ is the spirit of Scripture. What you want to reach is the spirit, not the letter. I only say that, in connection with criticism which merely deals with the letter, the critics have no conception of the Lord who is the spirit, and yet they say, 'We are rich and increased with goods'. Thus you have the vast mass of worldly Christianity on one side, and on the other, higher criticism which pretends to be able of itself to deal with the higher things; but between the two there is another thing, and that is Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is so important because it reveals to us what is according to the pleasure of the Lord; in the midst of all that of which I have spoken, there is still something down here which meets His mind and is according to His pleasure. It is very small and unpretentious, nothing in the eye of man; yet according to His mind, what He says to it is: "Thou hast a little strength"; "Hold that fast which thou hast"; "I come quickly". His word is kept; in this you have the spirit of Scripture; that which He has brought to light; all that has come out by Him in His word. His name is not denied; it is that which is set forth in Him. All this is kept and guarded, and has to be kept and guarded. We want our souls to be in the blessed sense of what He is; of all that

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which God has been pleased to set forth in Him; that is His name and is what is cherished by those who love Him. They keep His word and they do not deny His name.

Does that mark us? Is your heart in the full light of that revelation which Christ has brought, in the full light of the love of God? Is Christ everything to you? Do you refer everything to His name? Is Christ a real living Lord to you, a real living Head? Is His name that which you cherish in His absence? It is His name that we speak about now in the time of His absence, we should not want to do so if He were present, but it marks His absence.

These two things are the great safeguards of the saints. I judge everything around by His word and His name. I look to see whether things are consistent with what God has been pleased to set forth in His name for it is the touchstone; at the same time my soul is in the light of His word, of the blessed testimony which God has been pleased to give. All God's righteousness, holiness, love, power, have come to light in Christ, and God has given Him a name above every name.

Now I call your attention to what the Lord engages Himself to. Look at verse 9: "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie". I judge the synagogue of Satan to refer to those who take successional Jewish ground here upon earth. The synagogue of Satan had previously appeared; chapter 2: 9. I do not think it is literally the Jewish synagogue, but those who take that sort of ground here upon the earth: "I will make them to come and do homage before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee". I doubt if that refers to what will take place in heaven. I believe that if in this day of general deflection, we are found true to Christ, and not denying His name, God will put honour upon us. I feel confident of this, that

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those who set up this Jewish pretension will be made to know that Christ has loved us, despised as we may be.

Thus we see on the one hand, worldly political power; on the other, rationalism, and we see too, the synagogue of Satan, high churchism, that which settles upon earth, with successional priesthood and sacrifices. The Lord says, "I will make them to come and do homage". Depend upon it we are in a very critical moment. In the midst of all this, it is the mind of Christ that there should be a feeble few really in the light of His day, keeping His word and not denying His name, and the Lord knows how to confer honour upon those who honour Him.

Just one word more: He says, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth". That is another engagement. It signifies that they will not pass through the tribulation that is to try all that dwell upon the earth. This has its application to the whole true church.

Then He says, "Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast". It is not long we have to wait. Now the injunction is: "Let no man take thy crown". A great word for us. May we not break down at the close. We have to guard ourselves, the coming of the Lord is imminent. This word is given to encourage us so that we may go on and hold fast what we have, that no one take our crown.

Just a word as to the overcomer. You have always to overcome in any state of things down here; to go against the current. That is a sign of vitality. If you see a fish going with the stream you conclude there is no life there, a living fish goes against the stream; so it is in regard to us, the real test of vitality is to go against the current. The constant tendency is in the

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way of deflection. Whatever the state of things that has been set up here by the Spirit, always and without exception deflection has set in. To go against the current is to overcome, each soul being maintained in freshness and vitality, in the power of the Spirit. Each one of us has to see to it that he is an overcomer. In the kingdom, you will be distinguished by everything in which you have been faithful here; nothing will be forgotten on the part of the Lord. He says, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Why? Because he stood as a pillar of the temple down here. "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name". Why? Because he was jealous here for 'the name of my God and the city of my God and for my new name'. It will be true in regard to every one of us, that what you are marked by down here, as an overcomer going against the current, will make you conspicuous in the kingdom; you will come out in that colour, the colour of your own faithfulness down here. It is immensely important to see, that in the midst of Sardis and Laodicea there is a little spot, an oasis in the desert, where is found that which is pleasing to the Lord. The Lord has revealed what is agreeable to Him and for His pleasure; the effect upon us is that we want to answer to it. I do not expect to do great things or to see great things done now. To keep His word is not a great thing to do, and one would like to be found among those keeping His word and not denying His name; and our compensation is great. The Lord says: "I have loved thee". That refers to what Christ is to the church. Those who seek to be true to Him realise it; they come to the blessed consciousness of His love to the church. It is a great thing to be without pretension in a day like this; the bright days of the church never will be restored. Now that which began

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so bright has become leavened with Judaism, rationalism, and popery, with all their assumption, it is a great thing to be unpretentious and simple seeking simply to answer to the mind of the Lord. He will conduct our souls in the full revelation of His name, so that we can test everything by it, and not care to touch anything unsuited to His name, or carry out His work otherwise than in keeping with His name.

He that is holy, He that is true. God has given Him to be all for us, all in regard to His people.

I come back in conclusion to what I started with, there never was a state of things down here in the church as to which the Lord had not His mind. He is not simply Minister of the sanctuary, but Son over God's house, and He walks in the midst of the candlesticks. With regard to all the pretension and rationalism, though outside, He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me". The Lord says that, even to a church like Laodicea, but He cannot stand at the door and knock always, He waits now, that someone may open the door. That is how the Lord attends on the church and waits.

May the Lord give us light and the sense that no power can shut the door He opens -- I cannot conceive a greater encouragement than that; and to know that He has His mind about everything here. We should be jealous to be unpretentious and simple, but morally answering to His mind.

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"ANOTHER COMFORTER"

John 14

It is remarkable that before the Lord went away He made plain all that would mark the present time with regard to His people; all was over in regard to the world. The Lord had said, "Now is the judgement of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out"; but now the Lord is taken up with His own, and He pictures for them what would characterise the present time.

These chapters take up the coming of the Comforter; Christ was on the point of going to prepare a place for them, He was taken up with the Father's house, and now the coming of the Comforter would come to pass, and with that these chapters are taken up.

The coming of the Comforter involves the absence of Christ; He says to them, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you", chapter 16: 7. We can well understand that the whole condition of things must be altered, because the presence of the Comforter is not like that of Christ. Christ came down here into human circumstances, and was a gathering point here on earth, a few simple people were gathered round Him drawn out of the world to Himself, they were His companions, and the Lord said to them, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations". The Lord kept company with them, but all this was outwardly after the flesh. When the Comforter came then all that must be changed; Christ was gone as after the flesh, and the Spirit was here whom the world could not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. This could not apply to Christ: He was with them, but He was not in them; with the Comforter it is different, "He shall be in you". This

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indicates that there was a great change before the mind of the Lord. These chapters have an application to us also. I used, in considering them, to try to imagine myself in the position of the disciples, but I now see I do not need to put myself in their place because all has application to us -- as to them. Thus we see the mind of the Lord laid out in regard to us, for the position in which we find ourselves cannot be changed until He comes again. Everything depends till then on the presence of the Comforter. There can be nothing for God on earth at the present time save what is by the Spirit of God. All that is connected with the presence of the Spirit is of vital moment in regard to us.

Thus all in these chapters has its application to us. To begin with, the Lord contemplates the possibility of their hearts being troubled. This has application to us. I can understand that the Lord's departure was felt keenly by the disciples in regard to the state of things in which they were left. The Lord protected them while He was with them; He sent them forth, and cared for them. It was a terrible prospect to be left in such a scene of agitation without the One who had protected them; and their case is not very different from ours. The difference is that we are in a scene where Christ is professed; they were left in a world which manifested hatred to Christ, and which hated them, hence their position was thus very difficult and trying. We are left in a world professedly Christian, but the principles of the world are not changed one bit; it has put on a new garment, so to speak, that of the profession of Christ, but that has not altered one bit the character of the world, nor shut out the influence of the god of this world. Therefore we must take to heart what the Lord says here: "Let not your heart be troubled". The world is trying to right itself, but that is an effort to steady itself without a head. It is like a ship without a

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helm; it tries to set things right, but what is crooked cannot be made straight; the world cannot and never will right itself. Well, we are left in the world which never can be right without Christ who is the Head of all principality and power, and when He is manifested as Head all will be set right, but it is vain to think it will be so now. If we accept this, we see that this world is a scene of confusion; the Bridegroom is absent; and if the eyes of the saints are opened to the confusion of the world, their hearts become troubled. But the Lord says, "Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me", etc. When we become awake to the character of things in the absence of Christ, we find that many things in which we trusted are only rotten props, and we feel cut adrift from the props to which we have been accustomed; which is a very painful experience. The Bridegroom is absent, and everything is out of gear on account of that. I found that though there were things which appeared stable and commendable, I could not lean upon them, they were not according to God, and so I had to come to the conclusion that the only supports left were the presence of the Spirit and the reality of Christ in heaven, and there is the answer to the trouble which affected one's spirit. "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me".

This chapter may be put in contrast to the next in a kind of way; they bring out what Christ is to us (chapter 14), and what we are to Him (chapter 15). The latter is connected with fruit-bearing. But in chapter 14 we see what Christ is now to us because of the coming of the Comforter. The making good to us of what the Lord speaks of depends on the coming of the Comforter. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter", etc. (verses 15 - 17).

I want now to touch upon two or three points which come out in connection with Christ. It is by

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the Comforter that Christ makes Himself real to us. There is no solid comfort to be found outside of Christ. You will find that everything else fails you. You may think that you have satisfaction in Christian friends, relations, etc., but all of that fails, and my impression is that real strength and comfort is only to be found in what Christ is to us. It is a very wonderful thing to me that the heart of Christ is down here. Though the Lord is absent, having gone to prepare a place for us, yet none the less His heart is down here, and I do not think that anyone can gainsay that if the heart of Christ is down here He Himself is not far distant. That I believe to be the point of this chapter, that though personally absent, yet the heart and interest of the Lord remain here, and that all will be brought home to us by the presence of the Comforter.

There are two or three expressions in reference to Christ here. The first is: "I go away"; after that, "I will come again"; then, further, "I will manifest myself"; and further still, "We will make our abode". I want to touch upon these expressions; they are all points connected with the present time, and serve to indicate what the Lord is down here in the power of the Comforter. The Lord says practically, I am going away in your interests, but my thought is not to leave you, I am going to prepare a place for you, "In my Father's house are many mansions", etc. The Father's house is a large thought: I have not come to the end of it. There are many mansions or abodes, and abodes refers to families. "I go to prepare a place for you". The only thing necessary for the preparation is for Christ Himself to be there in the presence of God. He has taken up a place for us in the Father's house. I have a place in the Father's house, and I am a stranger and a pilgrim here. Abraham was a stranger and a pilgrim, so were Isaac and Jacob; and I would rather be a stranger and a pilgrim in the world than a man of position, because

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a stranger and a pilgrim is cared for by God, but a man of position has to care for himself. I do not want to go beyond faith in preparing for every eventuality. A stranger and a pilgrim is cared for by God, because he has a place in the Father's house. The world passes away, but the Father's house is going to endure. I have a place in that which is going to endure. I do not think the poor are so much to be pitied; they are cast upon God in dependence, but they are cared for by God. Whatever may be our position here we should be dependent on God, and take our true place here where all will pass away, but the Father's house will not pass away, and you have a place there. The Lord says, I do not lose sight of you, "I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also".

The grace of God has called us to be companions of Christ -- He will have companions. "Behold I and the children which God hath given me". It is the divine purpose to have companions, and the Lord went to prepare a place for them.

The Lord also says, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you", etc. (verses 15 - 20). It is to be noted that this is dependent on the Spirit of truth, not simply on the Spirit, but on the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of truth is in us. I believe truth to be a point of vital moment if we are to know the reality of Christ being with us. We cannot realise Christ being with us if we have not the Spirit of truth; because of the Spirit of truth being in the saints we have our loins girt about with truth, that is, the affections of Christians are regulated by the Spirit of truth. It is vitally important that our affections should be regulated, not by nature, but by the Spirit of truth. It produces a revolution in us, because objects of affection come in that were never conceived of before. The way He forms our affections is according to truth. There may be disruption, because often what is

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natural prevails in our hearts to the exclusion of what is spiritual. If we are to realise Christ. being with us it is all important to know that the Spirit of truth is in us.

Into what region do you think the Spirit of truth brings us? We are brought into a large and wealthy place, and this is the love of God. The Spirit forms our affections in the love of God, that we should be kept there and not moved away; that we should be brought into the fatness of God's house, where we joy in God -- into the abode of holy love. God had that design in regard to Israel in Exodus 15 they were brought to God's holy abode, and God has brought us into His holy love. Did you ever consider who is the central figure in the love of God? It is Christ Himself, He is the Firstborn of many brethren; He associates us with Himself, and that is in the love of God. He is no longer on earth, and we are not yet in heaven, we are to be there, and what marks the meantime is that we have our abode in the love of God. The apostle Paul says, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

The Lord says: "Because I live, ye shall live also". Now we must live in some atmosphere, natural life cannot subsist without an atmosphere, nor will spiritual life. You do not live to God as on earth, you do not yet live in heaven, but where do you live? It is in the love of God. But then, the one central figure in that love is the Son of God. "Because I live, ye shall live also". That is our privilege. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father" -- that is, in the affections of the Father, "and ye in me" -- in my affections, "and I in you" -- in your affections. Then it is we realise what it is to have Christ with us,

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for Him to have His own proper place in our affections. If we are conscious of having a place in His affections, He, too, has His proper place in our affections.

The Lord says, "I will come to you". I will minister comfort to you. Comfort is that we have a place in His affections, and He has His place in ours. We want to make room for Christ in our hearts, and how is this done? By being careful that nothing shall contest the supremacy of Christ in our affections. "If one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again".

Now Christ has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. The sun fills the universe with light and warmth, and so Christ is to fill all things. But the point is that He should have His proper place now, and we ought to be zealous of this. If you keep yourself in the love of God, then Christ, who has revealed that love, will be the central figure and object to you.

"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". That is our comfort.

But the Lord says another thing: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him".

Now, no one can doubt how, from time to time, it has been the pleasure of God to make Himself manifest to faith down here. In the Old Testament we see it constantly, the angel of the Lord appearing to this person, and to that; to Abraham, for instance, and to Moses, etc. It seemed the pleasure of Jehovah to manifest Himself to faith. I only refer to this because it is indicative of what the pleasure of Jehovah was. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, ... and I will love him, and will

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manifest myself to him". It is a great thing to keep the commandments of Christ, as He kept His Father's commandments. What were the Father's commandments to Him? Every expression of the Father's mind was a commandment to Christ, and now in the same way, every expression of the mind of Christ is a commandment to us; it is the way in which we prove we love Him. He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love; and we keep the commandments of Christ, and abide in His love. We prove our love to Him in keeping His commandments.

Here on earth we are charged with the interests of Christ, every Christian is charged with His interests. As individuals we are to be in fidelity of heart to the Bridegroom, and every word of His is a commandment to His bride, and I prove my love and fidelity to Christ in keeping His commandments, and in not being contaminated by the world. "I will love him, and will manifest myself to him". We see how Christ put Himself in evidence to Paul; He knew how to make Himself manifest to him. In times past it was more difficult, but in the present time it is less so, because Christ puts Himself in evidence to the one that loves Him by the Comforter.

You may be sure of this, that when Christ was on earth, the Father was not far off. The Lord said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with me". And if the Comforter is here, Christ is not far distant; where there is attachment to Christ, there He makes Himself manifest. You then find Christ very close to your heart, there is no form seen, and yet the Spirit brings Him home to you; He comforts and strengthens you. He is the Bridegroom, and we are in the position of the bride; He has attachment for us, and we are attached to Him.

Then the Lord says further, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode

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with him". Then, again, there is no doubt that the fact of the Father and the Son making their abode depends on the presence of the Comforter. The fact is that the removal of every barrier in redemption, and the coming of the Comforter, make everything possible for saints here.

Now we want to understand what we are to Christ. The assembly is His body. What does that imply? The assembly is that in which Christ lives; I live in a way in my body; it is the vehicle of life for me; if I am present in my body I am alive. Now I understand the assembly as the body to be that in which Christ lives; consequently He nourishes and cherishes it. I take care of my body; and He nourishes and cherishes the assembly, which is His body. The assembly, too, is the bride of Christ; let the figure remain in your mind. The point in a bride is, that she is uncontaminated, and faithful to the bridegroom; she has to take care lest she be contaminated by attachment to any other, and to maintain fidelity in the absence of the bridegroom. Now, our place is like that of a faithful wife. The Lord says, Though I am absent, I will not leave you without comfort. Our great stay is in the presence of the Comforter; but the Lord says further, I will be your comfort, I will be to you the supreme central figure in the love of God. I will manifest myself to you.

All this is consequent on the coming of the Comforter, and we have to look to our hearts that we realise the character of the moment, and do not settle down here when the Bridegroom is absent. The Lord said, "Can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days", Luke 5:34, 35.

Fasting is appropriate to the present moment. I am not speaking merely of fasting in outward forms;

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but fasting is practical self-denial in regard to things that are lawful, but which are not appropriate to the moment. I might have a great deal of money, and a large home furnished with everything that heart could wish, but the Bridegroom is absent, and I have to consider what is suitable to the absence of the Bridegroom. If we are prepared to consider what is suitable to His absence, Christ will take care we do not fail to receive comfort. If the Father and the Son make their abode with us, do you think that anything is to be compared to that?

The Lord speaks of what is comfort for those who see the absence of the Bridegroom, and whose hearts are troubled. The disciples had no resource in this world. Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none". Do you suppose Paul possessed much here? If he had much he gave it all up (see Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:33).

What is appropriate to the present moment is to be fasting during the absence of the Bridegroom.

Christ Himself has removed everything between God and us, so as to speak peace to us, and everything is made good and assured to us by the Spirit.

May we follow what is appropriate to the present moment, that we may have comfort ministered to us in Christ's absence, and thus He will come again and receive us to Himself.

The Father's house will not be a strange place, Christ has gone to prepare a place for us there, and says, "I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also". There is the sense of the affection of the Lord for His own when He is absent from them.

Birmingham, 27th May, 1901

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THE PERSON OF THE CHRIST

While extremely unwilling to enter on the field of controversy, especially on subjects touching the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have thought it right, in the interests of the truth and of the Lord's people, to put out a few remarks on two points of importance which have been in question. In so doing I decline to reply to any attacks which have appeared, based on isolated statements culled from letters I have written, partly from reluctance to notice them, and partly because I see in these attacks the tendency to shift (it may be almost unconsciously) the ground of conflict, in order to gain a point of vantage. In what I have to say I adhere therefore to two points that have been in question, which are these

(1) As to whether Christ is ever viewed in Scripture as man, distinct and apart from what He is as God.

(2) As to whether the truth of His Person consists in the union in Him of God and man; a favourite formula with those so holding is "God and man one Christ" -- and with this is connected the idea that every title referring to Christ covers the whole truth of His Person.

Now I affirm that the denial of the first, while claiming to maintain orthodoxy, is destructive of Christianity in its real power; and I would affectionately warn saints against giving up, in zeal for orthodoxy, the blessed foundations of Christianity. Further, that the assertion of the second is derogatory and dishonouring to the Son; and I proceed to show that both the denial and the assertion are contrary to the teaching of Scripture.

The first betrays a singular inability to apprehend the great reality of the incarnation, at all events in a most essential aspect of it, namely, the fact of Christ

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having by it a place as man God-ward. As the Word become flesh He dwelt among men and revealed God, and in Him all the fulness was pleased to dwell; but He Himself filled and still fills a place as man toward God (see Psalm 16); and the two thoughts are wholly distinct conceptions, which cannot be grasped at one and the same time by any finite mind. "No one knows the Son save the Father". As Man He is both Apostle and High Priest. In other words in the Apostle God has, so to say, come out, and in the High Priest man has entered in. Now these two thoughts, though realised in one Person, must of necessity be separately and distinctly apprehended. The one presents God, the other, man.

The reality of Christ's manhood in its aspect God-ward is amply presented in the New Testament. There we have the truth, that Christ, having died to sin once, lives to God; Romans 6. The having put off the old man and having put on the new is said to be, "as the truth is in Jesus", Ephesians 4. Christ Jesus before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession; 1 Timothy 6. He sings praises to God in the midst of the assembly; Hebrews 2. He praises in the great congregation; Psalm 22. He has entered in for us as Forerunner; Hebrews 6. He appears in the presence of God for us; Hebrews 9.

Now, while fully admitting that morally Christ's manhood had its unique and blessed character from God, for in becoming man He gave character to manhood, yet in the thoughts above presented it is utterly impossible to introduce the idea of Deity in its proper character and attributes, because in every case it is man that is presented, or rather, Christ is viewed in the light of man God-ward.

The refusal of this is destructive of Christianity in its true power, for it is on the side that I have indicated that Christ is placed within the reach of our appropriation, so that we can eat Him and live by Him. He is,

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as second Man, the pattern of our blessing, the Leader of our salvation. He draws us to Himself by making known to us His love; and the affection on our part begotten by this appropriates Him as the expression and pattern of what we are according to the counsel of God; and it is in this way that the believer is led into the true sense of the greatness of his portion, and even partakes morally in the life of God. As "Lord" Christ is the Object of faith, as Head He is held by the believer, who is led by Him into heavenly blessing. Hence I am entirely at a loss to understand how the truth of Christianity can be maintained in the absence of the apprehension of Christ in His place as man God-ward, distinct and apart from the glory and attributes which belong only to God, and in which Christ has part as Himself being a divine Person.

I may observe here that Christians are, as a rule, uninstructed in three important points of Christian doctrine:

(1) Reconciliation, which they do not know as in the mind of God. The distance between God and the sinner must have been removed to effect it, and but few know the nature of the distance. They do not see that the man after the flesh has been terminated judicially in the cross in the Man Christ Jesus.

(2) Christ as manna. They do not apprehend in any degree the manner of life of Christ here as Man, "the life of Jesus".

(3) The mystery. They have no true conception that the church is the complement of the Man who glorified God here; but while admitting that all saints are united to Christ, they are leavened with the error that they are united to the Son of God, and they thus betray their ignorance of the mystery.

Hence, it is not surprising that many find difficulty in the apprehension of Christ in the point of view which I have sought to make plain.

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The second error maintains that the truth of Christ's Person consists in the union in Him of God and man.

Now, this idea arises, I judge, from confusion of thought as between person and condition, and has been fostered by expressions found in hymns, and the like, which have been used simply and devoutly by Christians without any very strict inquiry into their real force; but it involves a thought very derogatory to the truth of the Son, namely, that in becoming Man a change has taken place as to His Person -- He is in Person something which He was not before. This is not the teaching of Scripture, nor do I think that it can be entertained. When I come to the word, I find that while in three gospels the truth of Christ in certain official positions is prominent, the fourth (John) is given to us to afford full light as to His Person, that is, "the Son"; and in this respect He is seen in three positions, namely, as eternally with the Father, as come into the world, and as going back to the Father, the same Person unchanged and unchangeable.

Further than this, the Person is even viewed as acting in regard to His form or condition, divine or human; "Being in the form of God, he emptied himself and took on him a servant's form, becoming in the likeness of men".

He comes to do God's will in the body prepared for Him.

He raises up the temple of His body.

He gives His flesh for the life of the world.

He lays down His life (human condition) to take it again.

We have thus a divine Person presented, even apart from the question of form, and the idea of the unity of the Person in the sense asserted is not found.

The One who being in the form of God, emptied Himself, and took on Him a servant's form, is the same who, having become Man, humbled Himself,

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and became obedient to the death of the cross, and is now highly exalted. There is no idea either of unity, or of change, in the Person. It is the same Person in servant's form, and entering into what that form involved.

The truth of a divine Person assuming human condition, the Word becoming flesh, and in such wise as that He can be viewed objectively as man, I believe; but that is not a question of unity of a Person. It is a Person in a condition in which He was not previously.

Another idea connected with the above appears to be that every title or name inherited by the Son or applied to Him in Scripture embraces or covers, if it does not describe, the whole truth of His Person. Now I believe this to be a fallacy, and a mistaken way of apprehending Scripture. Unquestionably the Lord is identified or designated, and designates Himself, by official names or titles, as "the Christ" or "Son of man"; but such titles, though serving sufficiently to identify or designate the Person, do not cover the truth of His Person; and different titles applied to or fulfilled in Christ have to be understood each within its own appropriate limits. They describe the office, but not the Person that holds the office. In the same way we commonly use official and acquired titles, as 'The Queen', 'The Colonel', 'The Doctor', to identify or designate a person, but we have no idea that such a title is descriptive of the person, or covers all that is true of the person, though once the person is so designated, many things can be said which refer to the person, and have nothing whatever to do with the particular designation; for instance, I might say, 'When the Queen was a child'. She was not queen as a child. It is simply a title used for designation, which has its own particular force and meaning.

Jesus is the anointed of God, that is, the Christ, but not properly so until He was anointed, whatever might be true in purpose. So too, He was not Son

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of man until He became Man, yet He says, "The Son of man came to minister". "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" "The Son of man which is in heaven". The simple fact is that a title serves to designate the Person, without being descriptive of the Person, or involving any question of the unity of the Person. The titles "The Christ" and "Son of man" are both official titles which could have had no place or meaning except in the Son having become Man; and it is remarkable that the Lord does not in the gospels use what is, perhaps, the nearest approach to a personal name, that is, Jesus, in the same way.

In conclusion, I earnestly entreat saints to come prayerfully and patiently to Scripture to get their thoughts of Christ formed by the word of God; and not to adopt the creeds or moulds into which men, often with pious intent, have cast the truth in the vain effort to guard against error; and it is significant that those who have of late come forward to expose what they deemed to be error, have shown a tendency in their minds in the direction of a kind of Tritheism. It is not in this way that the truth of Christ's Person is guarded, or that of the unity of the Godhead maintained.

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24th December, 1895.

My dear brother,

I have received your letter of 10th November, and am glad to reply to it -- I am thankful that you have read the little paper, "The Person of the Christ" -- and have found any profit in it. Some have found fault with it, but I am more and more convinced that it presents only what is substantially right. That others might have put the points better is likely enough, but they have not done so.

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My use of the term "divine Person" in reference to our Lord was not from any lack of faith or sense on my part that He is God -- but to avoid the idea of His being God in such an absolute and exclusive sense as to trench on the unity of the Godhead -- that "God is one" may be said to be the backbone of Scripture -- but in the New Testament we have the additional light that in that unity are three Persons all equally divine -- and I should speak of the Holy Ghost being a divine Person in the same way as I would speak of the Son being so.

I have no doubt that you know something of Greek -- and that in the use of a noun as a predicate it makes a distinction by the use or omission of the article which we cannot so well make in English. When a noun is used as a predicate and has the article the proposition is reciprocal and the subject and predicate may be reversed -- for instance it says "sin is lawlessness" -- it may equally be said that "lawlessness is sin". When, however, the article is not directly before the predicate the predicate is characteristic, and the proposition is not reciprocal. This is the case in the expression "The Word was God" -- there is no article before God -- God is characteristic of the Word -- but the expression is not reciprocal -- for if God were the Word you would exclude the Father and the Spirit from the thought of God, and thus set aside the unity of the Godhead.

It is only in this sense that I would apply the term "divine Person" to Christ, in the same way that I would apply it to the other Persons of the Godhead, viewing each in His distinctiveness and yet with the sense in the soul that each is as truly and as characteristically God as the other.

The passages in my paper in which the term occurs would not admit of the substitution of "God" in its place. For instance "we have thus a divine Person presented" -- I mean here the particular Person who

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became man. So too "the truth of a divine Person assuming human condition". In neither sentence could I rightly say "God" -- the statement would not then be right.

What I understand by "God has been manifested in the flesh" is, that all that God is (Father, Son and Spirit) has been set forth down here in words and works, all the fulness was pleased to dwell in Christ.

I do not think that Deity and Divinity mean the same thing in common language -- the former applies exclusively to God as such -- the latter is often used in a much more general sense as of writings, etc.

I have no difficulty in saying that Jesus is God -- but in the same way that I have referred to in the expression "the Word was God". In all such statements the unity of the Godhead must be maintained in the soul.

I think if you weigh the above you will see that there is no attempt to trespass on any ground other than that of what is revealed.

With love in the Lord.

Believe me.

Your affectionate brother,

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EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM F. E. RAVEN

22nd July, 1891.

I was encouraged at ---- . The brothers there were very hearty. There are some who will not have what for God has been effectuated in Jesus -- the bringing to an end of the old man, and the bringing in of the new. I suppose one must make up one's mind for conflict till the end.

... As regards what you say as to John, I believe we have there what is essentially heavenly, i.e., what is out of heaven, and what is out of heaven is heavenly and cannot change its character. It does not bring before us the exaltation of man in virtue of redemption, as does Paul, but the moral excellence of what has come forth from heaven -- the living bread and the Father's love. Hence eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus Christ His sent One (not exactly His glorified One), and into all this heavenly grace which has come out of heaven we enter while we are here; but it does not lose its heavenly character; and by Christ's death we are free from the system in which flesh has its life. I think that to enter into and enjoy what is essentially heavenly, as having come thence, is greater privilege than to enter into the divine counsels which have their place in Christ in glory, which is more Paul's line. If a concordance were consulted I take it heaven would be more often found in John than in Paul, only with the former it is more what comes thence, but without changing its character, and with the latter, what goes there. This may be rough, but I think it gives the idea.

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8th September, 1891.

... I am extremely sorry to hear of ---- having been so poorly and being still so weak. Even when there is not acute pain I think weakness is a trying experience, but perhaps to some of us it is needful -- giving us opportunity of proving the sympathy of Christ. One comfort is, we shall not always be weak, for we shall live by the power of God. I think weakness is what is best suited to one's present mixed condition.

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21st October, 1891.

... We began the fortnightly meetings last evening, and had a good time on the armour in Ephesians 6 ... I look for the mercy of God.

Hebrews 12 has come home to me (referring to the illness of one of his children), and I think with you that God in a sense prepares us for what we have to pass through, though perhaps when we come to the point we are sometimes spared it.

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16th November, 1891.

I hear that a "keen critic" of mine takes exception to the idea of God dwelling among men save in the eternal state, in any other sense than that Christ is reigning. My point was taken from Leviticus 16, that the tabernacle remains among the children of Israel on the ground of the blood being carried into the holiest, and we find in the Old Testament abundant testimony to Jehovah dwelling among them. The last word in Ezekiel is "Jehovah is there", and I think two ideas are continually presented, viz., Jehovah their God and David their king. Jehovah and His Christ. The two may be in one Person, but they are distinct thoughts, and the association of ideas in each case is distinct.

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I stuck at the point you refer to in the paper. My thought is this, that it is of divine perfection that when a divine Person comes into the place and form of a servant obedience is there; but I cannot carry back the idea of obedience to One "existing in the form of God" -- though I see the place relatively of the Father and the Son,+ and it appears to me in Philippians 2 the Spirit of God will not bring in obedience and humbling until He had emptied Himself. There may have been the capability, but I doubt if obedience could be spoken of as characterising a divine Person as such .... It is of all importance to maintain that in order to take a servant's form He emptied Himself.

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24th March, 1892.

As regards your question as to the distinction between "the kingdom of God" and "the kingdom of heaven", the two expressions strike me as follows, viz.: the kingdom of God refers to the moral sway of God as such; a man must be born again to see or to enter into it. Our souls as Christians are under the influence of what God is morally, as revealed in grace. Hence the Son could say when here, "the kingdom of God is among you", and we read in Romans that "the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost". These are the portion of a soul under the moral sway of God. I think the tenth leper (Luke 17) who returned to Jesus to give glory to God in a sense illustrates it. The kingdom of heaven refers (it appears to me) to constituted authority, as the Lord said, "All power has been given to me in heaven and upon earth". It seems to carry out the principle indicated in Genesis 1:17, 18, viz. that the earth should be in the light and under the rule of heaven.

+See letter, 23rd November, 1898, on page 313 -- ED.

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What God has established in heaven consequent on redemption is to illumine and rule on earth. Hence hereafter the heavenly city is the seat and vessel of light and rule; the nations walk in the light of it. We as Christians are in the kingdom of heaven; we are of the day, in the light and under the rule of Him who in heaven is made Lord and Christ. I do not know if this will tend to make the matter any clearer. I think I can see the distinctness of the two things.

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23rd April, 1892.

I am glad to send you a line in regard to my short visit to the north. I think I may say it turned out happily and I trust for mutual good. On the Saturday and Sunday at S ---- we had readings on Romans 5 and 8, which seemed to be much appreciated and helped, I think, in some measure out of old grooves of thought .... On the Monday we had the largest gathering. I tried to show from 1 Corinthians 3 the importance of recognising the temple of God (where the living oracles are), and that saints are stones in it, and that the result of so doing is that we get light on the word. I showed how it was led up to in chapters 1 and 2 -- that Christ was all for God -- wisdom and power, and man nothing, and that for the apprehension of the wisdom of God we need to be in touch with a new scene (perfect) and characterised by a power beyond and outside of man's mind (to be spiritual) .... In the evening I took up the place of hope and faith with a Christian.

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June, 1892.

I am glad you wrote to me on the points mentioned in your letter, because although I do not think they are my originating, I am probably more responsible with regard to them than ---- . I cannot say that I

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regret so much as some do questions of this kind being raised, as any hard and fast system of interpreting Scripture is in my judgement undesirable, and if matters are freely talked over I am sure what is not of God will not stand.

I should not for one moment be inclined to contest the position that the word of Christ in Matthew 16:18 refers to His assembly in its full extent. It is that which He, rejected of His people, would build on the revelation and confession of Himself as the Son of the living God. Hence it takes in all saints from Pentecost to the coming of the Lord -- in other words, the whole period during which in our point of view the church has been on earth, and it will come out perfected in glory. But I cannot think that J.N.D. could have intended that we should find no present status for the assembly in Matthew 16. On the contrary, I have often heard him identify Matthew 16 with 1 Peter 2, and surely a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, is true of the saints now. In the same way the whole building, fitly framed together, grows to an holy temple in the Lord; but saints are already God's temple. They have that status and privilege. Though statements in Scripture may leave room for what may go on during an extended period, I doubt if it is the bearing in which truths are in general presented to us in the New Testament. I have heard it said that New Testament scriptures do not usually contemplate things beyond the lifetime of those addressed. The ten virgins who went forth to meet the Bridegroom are here when the Bridegroom comes. So the assembly that Christ builds would (as appears to me) have place here consequent on Christ's rejection, and the gates of hell could not prevail against it. The gates of hell are hardly in heaven. So that I think we are justified in taking our thought of Christ's assembly from Matthew 16.

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As regards Matthew 18:20, I take the passage in its connection with the chapter, and the subject of the chapter seems to me the ordering of conduct in the kingdom of heaven. In the main the instruction in the chapter refers to individual conduct (see verse 35). The assembly, as having a voice, is brought in only incidentally in reference to a particular individual difficulty. The "again" of verse 19 seems to me to take up a point additional to the "moreover" of verse 15. It refers to two of them agreed as touching anything they should ask in Christ's name, and on this follows the statement that where two or three are gathered together to My name, there am I in the midst. You may say, that is Christ's assembly, and I should not dispute it, but it appears to me that verse 20 is given as encouragement for those agreed in verse 19, and that the two or three in the former refers to the two in the latter. I should not like to stereotype the two as the assembly, though surely they must be in the truth of it, for nothing else is really recognised; but I should be sorry for the simplicity of the passage to be marred. It is a matter of fact in your letter you apply the passage to two or three gathered to Christ's name in a day of ruin, who certainly cannot be said to be the assembly, though acting in the truth of it, and this, in principle is really all that is contended for. What is of value to us in a day of ruin had its value also when all was in order.

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13th June, 1892.

I remember a question being asked on the Saturday morning (Quemerford) as to the kingdom. For my own part I cannot see much relation between the kingdom and the house. The assembly is Christ's, and He gives the keys of the kingdom showing that He is supreme in it. Peter was a stone for the

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assembly, and received the keys of the kingdom -- but the assembly is a structure of a new kind (built), and the kingdom regards us individually. We come in by the word; we come into the order that rules in the kingdom.

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30th September, 1892.

In regard to your questions, I think that Scripture speaks guardedly of "Christ in you", though it is what one may call proper Christian state. In this way it is used in Romans 8, "If Christ be in you", and he tells you what then characterises -- "the body is dead", etc. But it is to the Colossians he speaks of "Christ in you". In the Galatians He was not formed, but they had the Spirit. Every Christian has accepted the testimony of Christ as Saviour, but I think it is when they apprehend Him as the only Man before God, the pattern to whom they are to be conformed, that Christ is formed in them. This may be hindered, as with the Galatians; but till then I doubt if it can be said, "Christ in you". I do not say it is attainment, for it is the proper starting-point for attainment.

I think in Galatians 2:20 the apostle personifies in himself the true Christian state. Romans 8:2 indicates the way in which we have life now with God -- not, so to say, in the actuality of heavenly life, but in the Spirit, who has that character to us, "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", so that we can be, in a sense, with God outside and apart from our mere outward, natural life down here.

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5th October, 1892.

The questions which you have heard raised are not very formidable ones. As regards my having said that Christ died to law -- I have heard it said ever

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since I came into fellowship -- Christ was made under law. He bore the curse in being hanged on a tree, and by death He passed out of its application and curse, and in resurrection He entered on a condition of life as man to which law does not apply. "The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives", and Paul had died to law in being crucified with Christ. I do not pretend to speak with inspired accuracy, but I think to say that "Christ has died to law" sufficiently expresses one's sense of the truth. I suppose the objector would hardly say He has not died to law.

As to the other question, the thought of Christ living in him is, it appears to me, individualised by Paul. I admit the title of every believer to reckon himself alive to God in Christ; and in his having the Spirit of Christ, Christ is his life, and in principle it is true that Christ is in him, as he is in Christ; but what I understand by Christ living in Paul is that he was so practically in the realisation of death to all that in which flesh lives, that Christ in the power of the Spirit was the spring in him of affections, thoughts, desires, of all in which life morally consists. I do not think this is true of every Christian. I do not think it was so with the Galatians, but it is the proper Christian state.

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Belfast, 15th October, 1892.

We have come to an end of the meetings here, and I think there is but one feeling prevailing -- that the Lord has been with us, and that we have in consequence had light and help. You will have heard what we read (Colossians and Hebrews), and the impression produced on me is that each time we read these epistles we get an increased sense of the Person, and thus in a way become less distinctly doctrinal. Now I think there is a general feeling that the truth comes

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before us at these meetings in a more distinct way as bringing to light the living associations in which we are set by the Spirit of God. Many old notions which had obtained place and currency are being exploded, but the living organisation which the truth reveals is coming out in their place.

I was led to speak on the first afternoon on the connection between light and love, in that light not only exposes man, but reveals God, and that the more we are in the light the more conscious we are of the love.

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25th November, 1892.

I do not think any writings make one feel one's spiritual feebleness like John's.

I have certainly not written to any one that the Lord had the nature of a man before He became Man, though I certainly hold that what characterises Him morally as Man was of Himself, and not from Mary.

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17th December, 1892.

I took up, or rather sought to bring out, the glory of Christ as presented in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John -- official as connected with the assembly and the kingdom in Matthew 16 -- moral as connected with the administration of grace to men, and His service in heaven in Luke (Luke 12); and personal (the Son in distinction to the Father) in John. You may well suppose the handling was poor enough, but I trust it may serve to excite more interest in the Scripture, and lead to increased knowledge of the Lord.

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15th May, 1893.

It is very good of you to say what you do as to having been helped by my ministry. I am sure I often feel tried with its poverty, though in the intelligence of divine things I am conscious of having been helped of God; and certainly I have found more opening among saints than I could ever have thought of. The Lord's ways are inscrutable. He uses whom He will. I cannot undertake to explain the sentence you quote from the reading on 1 Corinthians 10, for I do not understand it myself, although as I write it dawns upon me that I was deprecating the practice of connecting the Lord's table with discipline, i.e., putting people away, and I maintained that the Lord's table brought in responsibility in regard to our own associations (i.e., reflectively) and not in reference to dealing in discipline with others (i.e., objectively). I think this explains the sentence.

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20th July, 1893.

... I return the enclosed, which gives no good reason for departing from what we have been accustomed to hold as to the seven churches. Paul sees the ruin of the assembly as a professing body as much as John. (See 2 Timothy.) John carries it on to judgement to make way for "the things after these", and eventually gives the judgement of the great whore before the marriage of the Lamb. But when the Revelation was written the seven churches in Asia existed and stood in the normal relation of the church to Christ, and to the Spirit. They were not in judgement, but threatened with it. Taking the extended view of the seven assemblies there must come a moment when Christ alters His position, and His body is taken, and all the arguments in the world would not convince me that this makes no difference to the

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professing body. The house will be left desolate, and Christendom will no longer stand in any present relation to Christ or the Spirit. Judgement comes in and other things begin to operate. When the twenty-four elders are round about the throne the "things after these" have taken the place of "the things that are", i.e., of the assembly on earth in its relation to Christ. I do not believe that the church is any longer owned in any sense, and it cannot be proved.

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21st July, 1893.

Mr. Darby used to say that such an experience as that described in Romans 7 in which the desires were entirely right and the practice wholly wrong never really occurred.

He used to speak of it as a Christian's estimate of the experience of a soul under law. The soul is born again, and is looking to its own conduct as the ground of acceptance, and hence sees God as a judge, as you say.

Justification is, speaking generally, that you are righteously relieved of judgement. There is no longer imputation of sin, and you are free of death (as God's judgement), for Christ has been raised for your justification.

It is, I think, in the apprehension of Christ as last Adam, and of the justification of life through Him as such that you see that you are gone as to all that you are morally in the eye of God. Here it is that I think we pass out of death into life, and it is as in life, in the power of the Spirit, that the soul really learns the completeness of Christ's work through which it has been brought where it is.

We ought, in a sense, to learn Romans 6 and 7 in order to enter on chapter 8, but most of us have to learn 6 and 7 after we have known something of 8,

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though I question if we are really established in chapter 8 till we have learnt chapters 6 and 7, and I do not think we learn deliverance until we have learnt the reality and power of what we are to be delivered from, so that deliverance should become a necessity to the soul. We have to know what the "body of sin" and "the body of this death" mean before we really enter into deliverance by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

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I think there is mischief in trying too much to balance; a judgement is thereby formed more by what is said than by Scripture. All know well enough that I have no kind of difficulty in speaking of an Old Testament saint as alive spiritually in his soul. My contention is against the idea of the communication of life (as a substantive quantity) in new birth. I believe the thought entirely misleading and hindering souls from seeing that the One who bore the judgement of death is the One who is a quickening Spirit towards man. Whatever there was of God in man before, Christ came that the sheep might have life. Before that they were not free of the judgement of death.

I do not think I ever connected born again exactly with John 5. It seems to me more the question of the Son of God in testimony and its effects; the one that has heard His voice shall live. In chapter 6 we have the sustenance of life -- the living bread.

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3rd February, 1894.

I am glad to reply to your letter, and to share with you any little light I have on the word. John 6:53 - 57 is a very interesting passage. I should not say that verse 53 is a sinner eating for salvation. It seems

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to me that the Lord is showing (while still living on earth) that His death would come as a test, and if not eaten would prove that they had no life in them. I fancy that the first true evidence of life in the Spirit is the appropriation of Christ's death. It is felt by the soul that it can no longer be in communion with the world in which sin reigns, and in which the flesh finds its life, and it appropriates Christ's death as that which is morally suitable to itself. It is its suited food -- and this appropriation becomes habitual. Then comes the eating Him as the living bread by which I am supported in life outside the course and order of this scene. The flesh and blood seem to me to be more akin to the passover than to the brazen serpent. (See verse 4.)

I think the prominent idea in it is grace rather than condemnation. It is undoubtedly the privilege, and, as to life, the necessity of every believer, but I fear that many Christians know but little of it.

Anyway, there can be no eating but in the power of the Spirit of life. The Israelites in Egypt ate the flesh on the night of the passover, but they could not drink the blood. The blood was for God. Now we eat the flesh, and drink the blood, for every claim of God has been met, and the Spirit given.

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9th April, 1894.

I am glad to send you a few lines in answer to your note. The idea of "spiritual" in 1 Corinthians 2:15 as to the question of perception, as evidently the mind of man is not competent in things entirely beyond the range of its powers, and hence the necessity of the spiritual man for entering into God's things. The thoughts connected with the "temple" and the "body" in 1 Corinthians are that they are privileges proper to Christianity, and to which Christians can therefore ever return. The truth of the temple (i.e.,

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of the Spirit being here) shuts out man as such as to all his importance, he is not to be gloried in; and the thought of the body brings in the positive place of the saints to be descriptive here, by His grace and gifts, of another Man -- the Christ. One man is put out, and another brought in.

1 Corinthians gives us the present responsible place of the saints. Ephesians shows us their place in the thoughts and counsel of God; hence everything begins from the Head and the body, and the temple is seen as going on to completion, and there is added a kind of supplementary way the present status of saints as built together for a habitation of God by the Spirit. 1 Corinthians takes in general the present responsible side of the truth and Ephesians the counsel side.

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21st April, 1894.

What is in question is not the Person of Christ but the mode of apprehending what Scripture presents. In God's ways in grace many thoughts are brought before us, as eternal life, High Priest, Prophet, Mediator, Son of man, Christ, Last Adam, Second Man, etc., each of which has its distinctiveness and value and measure, and must be so apprehended by us, for we know in part, but all centred in the Person of the Son. But to me His Person stands out clear and distinct amid all these official glories, and Scripture does not confound these glories with the truth of His Person, though they all have their lustre from it. There is "My glory".

As regards the question of death with Christ, I think the ground on which we die is that our old man has been crucified with Christ. I think my history as a responsible child of Adam was ended for God in the cross where my sins were borne, and hence when I see this I am entitled to die under the eye of God. I was dead in sins, but as made alive in the

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Spirit I die to sin. But I do not think I am dead to sin save as I account myself dead to it. So too I put off the body of the flesh because of the circumcision of Christ. I do not think the thought of having died IN Christ is right as a present thing.

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June, 1894.

I believe the testimony of Scripture to be that Christ, while in Person divine, did not take here the place of God but of Man (Mark 10:18; John 8:40) and of servant. He came not to be ministered to but to minister. Still being in Person divine, and He could not be less, Jesus could speak with the authority of God, as we see in John 2:19; John 8:58. But He spoke and did nothing from Himself, and in this place and state as Son of man in the power of the Holy Spirit which was in Him without measure. He spoke the Father's words, and did the Father's works. Thus God was manifested in the flesh. I believe this to be the Lord's own account of Himself, and the testimony to Him of the Spirit. The miracles which He did as anointed with power attested His word and approved Him as man. But He could not be such a man without being God. He, existing in the form of God, emptied Himself, and took on Him a servant's form, becoming in the likeness of men, and as man humbled Himself in obedience. But at the same time it was the Person of the Son that did this and became identified with manhood. Now I would not be prepared to say that in becoming Man He did or could divest Himself of attributes that properly belong to His Person (see Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3), though when here in the place of man we do not see Him in the exercise of those attributes, but in the truth of the state and place He had taken. How this could be is beyond human power to say.

I hardly conceive love to be an attribute of God, but rather what His nature is substantively.

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June, 1894.

The real point in the case is the question of Philippians 2:7. I really prefer the authorised version, for the expression "emptied Himself" suggests to the English mind -- "emptied of what?" and I question if this can be definitely answered .... I should not like, in the face of John 8:58, to say that He emptied Himself of the status of God. I am sure it is better left alone. But behind all this the question remains, was Christ here as Man or as God? I am content to take the testimony of the apostles to Jew and Gentile on which Christianity was founded (Acts 2:22; Acts 10:38; Acts 13:32 - 39), and I need not say that they knew He was in Person divine, "The Word became flesh", the Son revealing the Father; I think I am as distinct about that as any, and that adequate evidence of it was given; but none the less it remains true that His glory was veiled, and that He entered here into all that was suitable to man and to the servant, that God might be glorified in the Son of man, and I am not inclined to surrender this.

I trust things may make for peace and not disturbance. I am content to be in the shade, and to wait on God. I know of no divergence of thought between myself and J.B.S.

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23rd October, 1894.

As to the trouble at ---- they shut out ---- and those with him because the latter will not own them as Christ's assembly. I for one utterly repudiate that kind of church pretension. It seems to me that the only justification for our being apart from the outward order of Christendom is that we are morally in the truth of Christ's body, and that the order of Christendom is inconsistent with it; but we are certainly not standing apart from it to set up pretension to be

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Christ's assembly, or indeed any pretension at all, for if we are not morally in the truth we are the worst sect going, and if we are in the truth we shall not care to set up any pretension, because we know that we have the truth.

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8th November, 1894.

I think that in approaching the subject of atonement we must remember that of necessity Scripture regards man here on earth from God's standpoint, and that is with the sentence of death on him from God, and nothing could free him of that sentence save death having been borne for him.

This has been effected in Christ, who has tasted death by the grace of God, and the blood is the witness that death has been suffered. Hence God can have to say to man here in grace. He sets forth Jesus a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. But then death, though the penalty resting on man here, is not the bearing of the wrath of God, for which sin calls, nor the real clearance of sin from before God, though without shedding of blood is no remission. Hence in the nature of things, I think we must distinguish between death and the wrath of God, which in man's case is the second death, the lake of fire. Now I believe that Christ in being made sin bore the wrath of God, which, as I said, death is not, and drank the cup of wrath to the dregs. And sin having thus been removed, He entered into death, the governmental penalty of sin, in perfect love and obedience, so that man down here might not only enjoy forgiveness, but be freed from the penalty under which he lay. And further, the state in which man sinned against God has been removed, and in such a way as that God has been glorified in its removal; hence man can now be in a new state before God for God's glory.

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24th November, 1894.

What I see is that the assembly is actually here both vitally and responsibly, that is, as Christ's body and God's house.

All would allow that the body is here in completeness (co-extensive with the Spirit) and that Christendom has the responsibility of the house, hence my objection to the assumption by any company of Christians of assembly status, etc. Even in early days before ruin came in, I imagine that there were comparatively few who entered into the proper privilege of the church as united to Christ, and hence I can see no reason why those privileges should not be enjoyed by a few now, but they are spiritual and do not necessitate the assumption of assembly status; but I do not believe we could enjoy them but as having departed from iniquity. This is of all moment.

As to Matthew 18:20, I believe it was spoken for the saints when the assembly was in order, but I judge it would stand equally good for two or three now in the truth of the assembly, and apart from evil in a day of ruin. We constantly and I should say rightly come together in the faith of it, but I doubt if it was intended to constitute the two or three "the assembly" as referred to in verse 17. It seems to me that verses 19 and 20 are a distinct point from verses 15 to 18. My contention with ---- was that Matthew 18:20 contemplated an actual meeting together of saints, not a fellowship, and that as the ground for our fellowship in a day of ruin we must go to 2 Timothy 2:22 where we find that the foundation of it is moral and not ecclesiastical. The Lord's table properly represents the fellowship, that is, of all the saints in a place -- as one body in the fellowship of Christ's death. But this can now only be seen in Scripture -- not now in practice. It is a great thing to be in the light of it, and as far as we are concerned, in the fellowship of Christ's death.

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I feel sure brethren have to get away from formalism and ecclesiastical moorings, and to remember that the church is in ruins.

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25th November, 1894.

I will endeavour to answer your questions according to such light as I have. I think that in the history of a soul (I do not for the moment speak of new birth) the first thing is that it is enlightened, in other words it receives by faith the testimony of Christ, and has thus the place of a son before God (though not yet conscious of it), because God's purpose for us is sonship. I need hardly say that without a work of God in us we never should have received light.

Thus the first step is gained. The soul is in the light of Christ, and in Christ in the eye of God. Then the Spirit is received by whom we cry, Abba, Father -- but as yet Christ has not been formed in us, but all is secured to us in the Spirit given, and we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. The receiving of the Spirit is the proof that we are in Christ, God's seal on a man's faith. Then begins by God's power in us (which is well described in the two passages you quote from the Synopsis) a work by which a life, a character, a moral condition of being -- a new man is produced in us (Christ formed in us) so that it can be said of the believer that he is quickened together with Christ, is new-created in Christ Jesus. He is in Christ, and Christ in him. This is what I should speak of as the proper Christian state, i.e., viewing state as the work of God, and not in the sense of practical condition. It is a state which faith accounts as our true state before God. Christ now lives in the Christian, but this is by the Spirit, for in our present actual condition down here we live for God only in the Spirit; but there is the nature or being that is

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suitable -- the new man created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth; but this is not exactly life, in the sense of power to live in the relationship in which God has set us.

The difference between "in Christ" and "in the Spirit" to me is that the one marks our position before God as in a new Head, the last Adam, and the other our state; we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. This never ceases to be true down here though it may be, and is, true of a saint before he is said to be quickened together with Christ.

I think that Romans 5, where we have the thought of peace with God, does not give us Christian state as I understand it, but rather the blessings in which God has been pleased through redemption to make Himself known (righteousness, peace and joy), and which are now the portion of the one justified in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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5th December, 1894.

The question of the previous meeting (brothers' reading) came up, the point being to know where we are and why we are there. I maintained that the existence of a fellowship as distinguished from actual coming together in assembly was what really marked us off from Bethesda, who, by the course they took at Bethesda, repudiated the idea of fellowship. Further, that the original and only possible ground of fellowship here is that of calling on the name of the Lord, the obverse being the fellowship of His death; that the difference now is that as it is incumbent on every one that "names the name of the Lord to depart from iniquity", we now have to look for those "who call on the Lord out of a pure heart". The truth of the one body I hold to be light and privilege for those gathered in fellowship, and it is realised in our being

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together in assembly. I do not know that anything was advanced against it save that the one body was said to be a bond of fellowship, a sort of ecclesiastical formation, in which case I maintained that we should be a sect.

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1894. 

The attack on my lecture which seems to me entirely uncalled for is easily answered. The allegation is that I should have taught that Christ was only a channel of the grace of God to man. The answer is that the allegation is a deduction or inference, and that I never said nor thought anything of the kind. The omission of special reference in the lecture to the deity of Christ is explained by the fact that the subject of the lectures being "The Church" Christ was spoken of in them naturally in that relation, assuming that my hearers were as assured as to the true deity of Christ as I am myself. Paul might have been arraigned on the same principle for omitting in the epistle to the Ephesians any statement of the deity of Christ or for saying to the Corinthians that to us (Christians) there is one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ....

... I hardly need to answer the various questions raised in the letter as to the Lord's words and actions here -- they are an effort of the human mind to prove to itself the deity of Christ.... I have little doubt that in seeking to meet error on one side, error was plunged into on the other, and I judge it has arisen from want of appreciation of the Lord's own statement of Himself in Luke 4 and the apostle's testimony as to Him in Acts 2 and 10. It was on this testimony that Christianity was founded and by it the first thoughts of Christians as to Christ were formed, but I grieve to say that this is dismissed, in the latter being said to be "the lowest character of testimony to the Son".

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It is no wonder then that the truth of the real human identity of Christ is missed -- the horn of salvation raised up in the house of David -- the vessel of divine grace, so that there could be the anointing with the Holy Spirit and power, the going about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Thus it was that the grace of God was presented to man in a Man, all in the pathway of obedience, and it is in Him as Man that the connection is maintained in the line of promise, and that risen and exalted, He (Christ) is given as Head to the church His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all. That the One in whom all this was true was Himself in Person divine, the Son revealing the Father, who could while here being Himself divine speak, subject to the Father's will, with the authority of God, and that abundant testimony was borne to Him by the Father and by the works which He did is what every true Christian sees and delights in, but none the less the truth remains that He was come from God and went to God, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses. It seems to me that the first principles of the truth of Christ have not been learned in the Spirit. Paul brought out in testimony the truth that Jesus, was the Son of God, but this does not set aside the first testimony of the apostles, and John's gospel is given that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and while I reverently accept the second, I am not going to give up the first. The greatest proof to one of the deity of Christ is the fact that He was such a Man as could receive the Spirit without measure.

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9th April, 1895.

... and now in reference to your question as to Ephesians 2. The statement in that chapter is clearly of what God had by His power effected in the saints.

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He had (as is seen also in Colossians) quickened them together with Christ. In referring to it my point was to show what it is in which this is displayed. Evidently the first thought is that Christ risen is the centre and point on which all is formed; then we stand associated with Him a heavenly band. We have (conscious of His love) appropriated Him in what He is to God as risen from the dead, and thus we live together with Him God-ward in love. (See chapter 1: 4.) It may be said that this is mixing up what is in a sense experience with the power of God, but I think that the result of God's work is viewed as a whole in Ephesians, the fruit and effect of His power working where nothing was but death, and producing a result suitable and sufficient for Himself. It is seen there in its full extent, and is what is true in principle in all Christians, though not realised by all. I trust that this may simplify the matter.

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1st July, 1895.

I look upon Philippians 2:6 as the place taken by Christ in the fact of assuming a servant's form; it was, so to say, an act of mind in taking the servant's form. I really prefer the authorised version, "He made himself of no reputation". It was not only that He assumed the form but the mind suited the form.... ---- accuses me of not holding the real humanity of Christ, because I will not accept his idea of a complete man, "spirit, soul and body", distinct from deity. He seems to me to have no idea of the Son becoming Man and giving a spirit to manhood, in fact of the incarnation.

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8th July, 1895.

To J.B.S.

It is with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that I send you a few lines to convey to you a sense of the privilege accorded me in having increasing sympathy

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and interest in the service which our blessed Lord has entrusted to you. I feel that the great point of late years was that the truth which the Lord had opened up by Mr. Darby should be maintained. Many made the mistake that it was to be guarded by insistence on the letter. I believe that the true way was in its being made good in the Spirit's work in souls, and here I see the great value of your perseverance and service. I desire nothing better for myself than to be enabled to continue according to the measure of grace on the same lines.

I thank the Lord for the energy in which He supports you for what is needed both in the way of interest and inquiry in truth and in imparting to others.... We are having readings each afternoon at 3.30, in which I am seeking to awaken as far as I can some sense of our true place in assembly as Christ's companions -- but they are not very quick learners -- and it may be that I am but a poor expounder.

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September, 1895.

To J.B.S.

Our meeting ended too late yesterday for me to send you anything. We were together from 3.30 to 7.30; though I cannot regard the meeting as a glorious triumph, for one would have desired to carry the truth with more absolute conviction, I think it has ended in the way most conducive to the peace of the saints. There was the giving up of charges of heresy, the admission of misunderstandings, and in result we parted in peace. There was long discussion on many points, but it became evident that the point on which all turned was distinguishing personality from the idea of pure deity in the case of the Lord. We insisted on this as that on which the truth of the incarnation depends and on the complete identification of the Person with the state He took. So that it was

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very distinctly a personal humanity, but the Person still the same though the state was changed. Our allowing that He spoke and acted as Man according to the place and state He had taken seemed to clear away much of their difficulty. It is evident to me that some have gone astray in the endeavour to make out Christ from man, instead of learning what man is (according to the divine thought) from Christ.

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8th October, 1895.

I am very glad of your letter as giving me some authentic news of Mr. Stoney. Since I wrote you last I heard rumours of an accident, and hardly knew what to think of it. I can understand the shock you received in seeing him fallen, and though the injury is a bruise, a severe bruise after 80 cannot be a slight matter, and having to lie in one position must be very wearing. I am only thankful for where you are. I am sure that my heart and that of a great many more will be lifted up to God for him and for his recovery, as we can in nowise afford to lose his service. Meantime I pray that he may have much comfort from the Lord.

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19th December, 1895.

I had a telegram this morning from S ----, "Restless night, about same, end approaching", -- J.B.S. + ... The breaking of these links is hard to us -- and I am very thankful for all tenderness of affection -- but if we could see all we should see that in the Lord's light, he has finished his service -- long and diligent and devoted service -- and is about to be taken to rest; and according to his own saying the Lord shows His sympathy in drawing us to His own side. For myself

+It was a year and a half after this that he was taken to rest.

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I can say that there is no one on earth whose ministry and self have produced so lasting a moral effect on me as Mr. Stoney. It is a great figure removed from us whose place no one on earth can fill.

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30th January, 1896.

It is, I think, clear that the church is viewed in two lights -- as identified with Christ in the presence of the Father (all of one), He being Firstborn of many brethren, and as the vessel in which God sets forth the riches of His grace; and I think it is in this latter line that the thought of the body and the bride comes in. The church is Christ's fulness, and the vessel (in Him) in which God shows the exceeding riches of His grace. Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God in one body, but they are also one new man created in Christ Jesus.

Christianity, as in the thought of God, becomes increasingly wonderful to me, and I can fully echo the thought that one is only in the infancy of it. Had it been maintained according to God, what a wonderful thing it would have been in the world! Certainly it was wiser on the part of the enemy to corrupt rather than to oppose it.

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9th March, 1896.

Our subject in the main was the Lordship of Christ and the sphere of His administration. I contended that this belongs to that course of things in which the will of God consists, and that we must remember that if He is Lord to faith He has been rejected here, and that we have to be with Him in the things in which He is. We do not know Him after the flesh.

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15th March, 1896.

As regards last Thursday (Greenwich reading in Philippians 1 to end), I am glad that you said what you did. It leads me to reconsider the point, and certainly one must attach importance to what the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 5, "willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord". I daresay I spoke too strongly, but what was in my mind was that while here we are in the activities of Christ's body, which is hardly the case when we are with the Lord. Anyway, if we are taken before the Lord comes it is a comfort to know that we enter on what the apostle desired, and are with the Lord instead of being absent from Him. But then we shall be out of the path of testimony and responsibility.

I am rather thankful to have taken up the Psalms at Hazelville. I think that I see my way more through the first part of them.

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29th April, 1896.

To J.B.S.

It has been on my mind for some time past to send you a few lines to let you know what is going on in connection with the "testimony of our Lord", so far as it comes under my observation, for I am sure of your great interest in what is going on, though you are yourself shut out from the activities save in spirit and mind. So far as I see, a great and general interest is maintained in the truth, and the old ideas of "standing and walk" have given way to an apprehension of God's purpose in Christ and of the moral state in the believer which is the answer to that purpose and the effect of the light which has been brought to man. The experimental side from Egypt to Canaan, especially the bitter waters of Marah, the brazen serpent and Jordan, are now subjects of much attention, and seen,

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I think, in their true light as the line by which we approach God's purpose as to the church in Christ. It is on this line that ministry arouses interest. That there is here and there a certain amount of disaffection in one and another is indeed true; but I think it arises from the defect of clinging to dogmatism and ecclesiasticism, and failure of apprehension of the "living stone". They do not, I judge, know, save in terms and doctrine, the true foundation of Christianity, the Father and the Son, they lack an acquaintance with the Persons, and in the affections proper to that acquaintance ...

Our readings in London are largely attended. We are still reading Matthew; we began chapter 17 last time, but harped back on the church; we held that the structure was built up in the divine nature -- love; the foundation being the revelation of Christ as the expression of that nature, and hence the gates of hell could not prevail against it.

... I have been spending two or three days in Birmingham. Our subjects in the afternoon readings were deliverance (Romans 6 to 8) as necessary to the new position of the believer in Christ in regard to God ... and in the evening the raising up of man, as seen in John 5 by the light in the heart of the Father and the Son, and the absolute separation of the saints from the world by the Spirit of truth (John 14), with a view to fruit-bearing (John 15), and the unfolding to them of the Father's things in which the Son was glorified (John 16).

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30th April, 1896.

I can hardly think any one could put such a construction on Philippians 2. He (Christ) certainly left His first estate to take a servant's form, becoming in the likeness of men; the Word became flesh to dwell among men, but I do not understand this to mean

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that He relinquished attributes that properly attached to His Person, though I believe that in becoming Man He entered into the reality of the place He took as Man, and that Scripture can and does view Him (when seen in relation to men) distinct and apart from what He is as God, though what He is as divine gives its character to all.

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10th June, 1896.

We had a reading last evening at ---- and they proposed "the new man" in Ephesians 4. I tried to point out how after the epistle has given us a place in the heavenlies the great point all through is the presentation of God here. In chapter 2 we get Jew and Gentile builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit; in chapter 3 the saints are seen filled into all the fulness of God, and in chapter 4 we have the new man created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. It is to me a wonderful thought.

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19th October, 1896.

I am beginning to get into the thick of things in London and am thankful to notice the apparent absence of any contentious spirit. I trust that through God's mercy we may be allowed a moment of quiet. The fortnightly readings are being looked forward to with a good deal of interest and there is general satisfaction at Romans being taken up. It has brought home to me the importance of resurrection, as the great principle of God's actings in blessing. It is by resurrection, first in Christ, then in those that are Christ's, and then figuratively in Israel, that God will set aside the whole existing order of things which is under the power of Satan, sin and death. In Romans 3 righteousness is the basis; in chapter 4 Christ is risen on the ground of righteousness; in chapter 5

[Page 307]

we get the setting forth of all that is established in the Lord Jesus Christ for man, in contrast to sin and death, and we are in the light of it; then in chapter 6 we accept death to sin and account ourselves alive in the One risen from the dead; it is a wholly new order.

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5th December, 1896.

... I return the little paper into which I have suggested to bring a few more words, having regard that it is partly intended for Christians outside ourselves. Amongst ourselves the mischief is that while in a sense the terms are accepted the great reality is so little appreciated and for the want, I think, of deliverance. I think that we but poorly enter into the meaning of Christ's death. We had the question of Romans 3 up again on Tuesday. I said the question was not the righteousness of God in all His acts, all would admit this, but of the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel and that this was (in the words of another) in that "the man that was under judgement is gone in judgement". Some tried to carry on the thought of righteousness to resurrection in the case of the Lord. I maintained that in the word of redemption which was of the will of God the thought of righteousness as between divine Persons is inappropriate. They tried to limit Romans 3 to sins instead of seeing the end of the man (blood) and hence they are not clear in their apprehension of the second man.

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10th December, 1896.

... I am very thankful to have had my attention turned to Romans. I see that the epistle is not intended to give us the terms of the gospel, but to show to us God's purpose in it, to bring the light of Himself into the soul of man. Hence in chapter 3 we have the righteousness, which is the foundation in the soul,

[Page 308]

and in chapter 4 it is faith (not works) which links the soul with the God of resurrection and our Lord Jesus Christ, and in fact with the world to come, in which we have a footing, in "Christ raised for our justification". Our justification has reference to God and to that world in which Christ is supreme, and hence we accept death here.

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17th December, 1896.

We did not seem able to escape the subject of the house and the body .... I had deprecated the idea of the matter being brought up at the meeting, but ---- plunged us into it by raising the question of whether responsibility (collective or corporate) was connected with the house or the body.

I maintained that the body was Christ's body, the vessel of the Spirit, and that a true idea of the body did not go beyond the work of the Spirit in saints; that if there were responsibility as to the body it must belong to the Head, and that the light of Scripture as to the body (the mystery) was given us to enable us intelligently to carry out our responsibilities in the house. Some seem to fear that something is being taken from them. They have been accustomed to depend on mere statements without apprehending their import. They divorce the baptism of the saints by one Spirit into one body from the baptism of the saints individually by the Spirit, instead of seeing that the fact of our all receiving one and the same Spirit must of necessity form one body. They have an idea that by being formed into one body they gain something additional, instead of seeing that it adds nothing, but that the church is thereby subjected to Christ. My impression is that the real defect lies in want of knowledge of the gospel, hence they are not prepared for the mystery.

I think we distinctly gained ground.

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19th March, 1897.

To J.B.S.

I cannot send you on the enclosed without taking the opportunity of writing you a few lines. I saw ---- last evening and had a good account of you, and am most thankful that you are still sustained in vigour of mind and comparative freedom from bodily suffering. One can take account of this as being very distinctly of the Lord's goodness. There are other proofs, too, of His interest in and care for His testimony and those identified with it. The refusal of the ridiculous performance at H ----, and the bringing together on a moral platform of the scattered elements there, seem evidence of His hand. I think, too, that there are signs of a growing apprehension that deliverance must accompany life in the Christian, and that life is enjoyed in the light of Christ revealed as the expression and pattern of God's purpose as to us. I think that many, and I trust myself too, see that we have to leave the boat and walk on the water to apprehend the Lord in a quite new light. I trust that thus what we have been through in the last few years has not been lost upon us.

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23rd March, 1897.

... I am very glad that you apprehend my thought in Numbers 21. I think it must be that God may approach man in the accomplishment of the counsels of His love, and this brings in the truth of the cross and the Spirit of life in Christ.

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1st May, 1897.

And so the end has come at last and we are left without the living voice of J.B.S. My feeling is as one without a father. In emergencies and difficulties he has never

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been weak. I have always felt that he understood the discipline of God, and no one has so much affected and influenced me in my course here, apart, in a sense, from the light gained through him. How thankful one is that his mind and brightness remained till the end, and thus he was a pillar of the truth.

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9th September, 1897.

I have read through your diary+ and have been very thankful for the opportunity. One cannot help being struck with the sustained spiritual energy evident both in the utterances and the writings, and it makes clear to me on what line a soul needs to be so as to have the Lord's unfailing support in the extremity of natural weakness. I think it is a mercy that we have such a record.

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19th November, 1897.

... I have been at ---- for some weeks and trying to bring before them the platform of resurrection. It is evident that it is the only platform on which we can really be with God outside of sin, the flesh, and the world, and it is as much God's mind for us as our justification. Concurrent with it is the work of God in us which brings with it practical deliverance. This is all very plain in Colossians 2.

... We were on 1 Corinthians 13 on Tuesday and I was glad of the thought that love puts us with God where there is neither knowledge nor prophecy, nor faith nor hope. It never fails and is greater than all.

+Diary of J.B.S. during his illness written by his daughter.

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16th December, 1897.

As regards the point to which you refer I think that faith apprehends the testimony which God presents. It appears to me that Christ risen is now the great testimony of God. In Him thus God has expressed His mind and pleasure in regard of man, and it is not only that man is justified but that he should be before God outside every order of man down here, in association with the One through whom He is justified. This is true for every believer, but I do not think that it is available save as there is in us the corresponding work of God, that we are quickened together with Him, and thus we can enter into the light of God's pleasure. But it was God's testimony from the outset in the operation that raised Christ from the dead.

Ephesians and Colossians speak so much of the work of God in the believer and its effect that it would be impossible to apply them indiscriminately to all Christians. Romans is God's testimony and therefore to all. "Raised up" in Ephesians is what God has effected in Jew and Gentile, not exactly the light of His testimony in Christ. I do not know if the above will at all make matters clearer but I think it runs with J.B.S.'s thoughts.

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8th March, 1898.

People may pass away sooner or later with all the attendant disruption of natural ties and laceration of human hearts, and the only one thing abiding is Christ, for whom all else must in result give way.

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24th March, 1898.

I think it is interesting to compare the armour with the marks of Christ as He came out in revelation. My fear in regard to saints is as to whether they are prepared to put themselves at the disposal of Christ. They enjoy the truth and engage in certain activities, but

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there is more than this when a heart is under the influence of Christ's love, and that is the only secure place for a saint down here.

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30th April, 1898.

I had not realised that twelve months had passed since the departure of Mr. Stoney, but it does not do to allow the mind to go back on the things behind, and one can look forward to the time when J.B.S. will be conspicuous as "a pillar in the temple of my God, and go no more out", and we shall see all God's ways having their result in the heavenly city.

I do not know that my mind has any well-defined distinction between our being formed in Christ or Christ formed in us. I may have used the expressions interchangeably.

We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus; that I suppose is wholly God's work; on the other hand Christ being formed in saints appears to be an initial work, and the work of ministry, the "apostle laboured in birth till Christ were formed in them". It may be something of the same thought as the saints being Christ's epistle. Had the Galatians appreciated Christ they would not have turned to law.

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27th June, 1898.

I think that we are now exercised as to the subjects to be taken up at the (so-called) Conference. I think there is a good deal of prayer about it.... It is pretty much agreed that the evening meetings are to be lectures, but my anxiety is as to the readings. I earnestly pray that we may have the mind of the Lord in the matter and that we may be occupied with great principles of truth and not with points. In the existing state of Christendom, great responsibility rests on brethren that they should set forth the mind of Christ.

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20th October, 1898.

From Chicago

My desire has been (referring to the meetings they had had at Rochester) to lead saints to look at things in a moral light, so that they may apprehend truth as a whole, the revelation of God and of His will, that thus they may be led into the knowledge of God and of His calling.

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23rd November, 1898.

I was naturally glad to reach home again, but I was very happy in contact with the saints in America, where are many whom I very highly esteem and am thankful to have been in contact with. I feel that I have gained by it. I am sure that I shall not forget them and I trust they will not forget me. I am now extremely busy with the notes of our meetings, which have been very fairly taken, and will be published in America....

... As to what you refer to my point was that it was permitted to us to know divine Persons AS and WHEN revealed and only so. In view of that revelation the Son has taken a new place relatively, that is, of inferiority to the Father, coming to do the will of God, though of course there would be no change morally or in affection. The names under which we know divine Persons, that is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are, I judge, connected with this position, and I doubt if we are allowed to enter into the eternal relation of divine Persons apart from this revelation. No one knows the Son but the Father. What I think led me to it was a fear lest in our minds we should almost insensibly give to the Son a place of inferiority (save as regards revelation) in our thoughts of the Godhead, which could not be right. The point is to be within the limits of Scripture and not trading on what is merely orthodox.

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10th March, 1899.

... Though still weak I am gaining ground ... I am thankful in some ways for an enforced retirement from activity. It seems difficult to get it when in health and strength and I am sure of the need of it. Going on continually in service may prevent one from finding one's true measure spiritually, and this is very needful. I made an effort to go to the brother's reading on Tuesday and do not think I suffered any harm. We had a pretty good time on Luke 17 and 18, dwelling on the moral character of the kingdom of God in the time when the rights of the Son of man are in abeyance.

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12th March, 1899.

... I think that comparatively few see that the basis of the word of God is the world to come. They look upon it simply as light come into this world, hence they fail to apprehend the significance of baptism as in figure the passage from the one to the other.

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June, 1899.

... I am very glad to send you a few lines in regard to the meetings here (Quemerford). I can say I am thankful for it, though I do not think that it has been marked by any great display of power, but we were helped of the Lord, and the bulk have gone away brighter than they came.

I think Mr. Reynolds was pretty much on the line of practical piety, and maintained that, until we had in spirit passed the judgement seat, we had not much entrance into privilege. My main point lay between our instruction in divine love, in connection with discipline, purging and the like down here, and our touching the scene where love can rest because all is according to the divine glory.

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... The readings were fresh, and turned mainly on divine teaching and the true place of the scriptures. There seemed pretty hearty fellowship all through.

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28th March, 1900.

As regards the Scriptures I have always maintained most carefully that as being the inspired record of God's communications it is the word of God. But the word of God has in my mind a different force. It means to me the revelation of God and of His mind directly or immediately to man. In the case of the fathers this was by direct communication. In the case of Israel God speaks on the mount. He gave His commandments to Moses on the mount. With the prophets it was by the Spirit of Christ in the prophets. Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In the incarnation the Son of God was Himself the Word. In the apostles God gave the Spirit of God that they might know the things that were freely given of God. In the Revelation the mind of God was made known by visions. We find then that there was another stage, namely, that the things made known were recorded or taught in words that the Holy Spirit taught, hence we get the body of doctrine. And indeed, without it we could not well communicate with one another. Scripture itself tells us its own value; we find this in 2 Timothy 3:15, 16. But I am sure that its good would be frustrated if it hindered our seeing how God has given His mind in a living way, for whatever may be said Scripture never can be other than the letter. The point is to get to the Spirit. I am very sure in my own mind that many of us have put the Scripture in the place of the Spirit of truth as the means of teaching, and when one tries to cast saints more on the anointing, there is a cry that the Scriptures are being made light

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of. I think that it is extremely important to see that God's communications to man are directly by the Spirit of the living God.

As regards the question of standing I have no objection to the term being applied to the Christian as a justified man here on earth. But the Christian is a child of God, and here the term is quite inappropriate. My objection has been to applying the term to such ideas as "in Christ", being "risen with him", "dead with him", "quickened with him", and the like. These all speak of the work of the Spirit in the saint and it is meaningless to speak of them as standing, and further leads to unreality, because the Christian takes credit to himself for things which are true for him as though they were true in him.

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31st May, 1901.

... + The position I have held has never been other than that of a help. I fully admit the importance of there being no uncertain sound about the teaching. But nothing that I have said ought to produce any sense of uncertainty as to what is really the subject of the teaching. It refers only to the condition in which the good of the teaching is realised. And every one must prove this for themselves. Very much more has been made of this question of "the holiest" than the matter called for. The sum total of what I have said is that it appears to me that the teaching of the epistle to the Hebrews refers to saints individually, and not to the idea of the saints come together in assembly, though it does say they were not to neglect this. I do not know that I ever thought anything much different from this, though I may have mixed up the two things rather in my mind. The fact is that it has come home to me that we must take the assembly come together as we find it, and that the first principle is that they

+This letter refers to its having been said that Mr. Raven had changed his views as to the Holiest.

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come together right as to one another. One may have in one's mind an idea of the church as typified in Aaron and his sons, but this is hardly likely to be realised in practice. And I think we have to take things as they are and to be content with that which comes from the heart. All this does not indicate any radical change of thought, only things getting more into their places, and one cannot desire other than this. I have no doubt that the pioneers in the truth were upheld in a very remarkable manner; we that have followed have taken many things on trust, and we have to feel our own feet. But all this does not seem to me to touch the great principles of truth: it only affects the question of how we are going to hold those great principles, and anything that tends in this direction can be no harm to any one. What I deplore is that there are those who go away from a large meeting and magnify the importance of any modification of what may have been previously said; and further there are those that are prepared to make a bad use of it. However, one has to go on in patience, holding faith and a good conscience.

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8th February, 1902.

... We had a good reading on Tuesday; of course the thought of eternal life became prominent, but I think more are beginning to look at it in its moral light rather than in the material way in which it had so long been regarded. It appears to me that to look at it as a certain substantive thing received through faith deprives it of all reality. The work of God in the soul of a believer will undoubtedly result in experience and practice, but it does not affect the truth that the man is still subject to death. The Lord

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says in John 6, "I will raise him up at the last day". This hardly looks like a man having eternal life in himself. On the other hand, all the conditions of life, all that which is essential to living, never varies, it is unseen and eternal. I wish that it could be indeed said that one lived in the world to come; one is ashamed at the way one is affected by the present world, and I know of nothing that will deliver one's soul out of it but the knowledge of the Son of God. It is a mercy that there is a witness to Him in the believer. "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" May God in His grace lead us all into this more and more.

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10th March, 1902.

I am very sorry that you are subjected again to the trouble of moving. With some people there is a pleasure in moving into a new house, but I am sure that this is not so with you, and that it is simply a question of pitching your tent elsewhere. When one is accustomed to value things down here at their moral worth, it is astonishing how it takes one's interest out of many things.

I had rather a trying time at Manchester, being poorly most of the time. I can only be thankful that I was not hindered from going to any of the meetings, in which there was much interest. We had one good reading, at which I tried to show how salvation runs concurrently with eternal life; they professed to get help from this.

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17th June, 1902.

There are not many in the present day that one can reckon on as having all their interest in the truth; so many seek to save themselves in this world, seem so afraid of losing any advantage in this world. I am sure

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that no one will afford what is grateful to God save as they are affected by the love of Christ. It is a wonderful and most blessed thought to me that we are attracted to Him so that we are delivered from all lawlessness.

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17th June, 1902.

It is a great comfort and support that there are those that have sympathy with the truth, and are not disposed to be limited to the ruts of orthodoxy. It comes more and more before me that Christianity is vital, and that no one can do much good save as they apprehend Christ as the beginning of a new order of things, and understand that they have been attached to Him by the Spirit so as to bring forth fruit to God. The mere holding of correct doctrine is no power in the soul. Correct doctrine is gained by abiding in Christ.

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23rd August, 1902.

I was very glad to have your letter, as indeed I always am. There are so few with whom one can count on complete sympathy. And I do not know why this should be, for I am sure that I for one desire nothing but the advance of the truth both in myself and in others. I am so pleased that you are so happily situated at ----, and have found the poor brethren there having interest in the truth. There is this to be said about the working men, that the truth is all to them, and that they have not luxury to divert them. I am not sure if they are not the best off. We are enjoying the time here (Scarborough) ... There are two or three severe cases of sickness, which have a sobering effect. The arrangements are as usual. Besides the readings we have a weekly lecture, which brings a good many. I have been endeavouring to bring before the saints the course of divine ways which culminates in the heavenly city. And to lead them on

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to desire the knowledge of God, I took up on Wednesday a passage in Jeremiah 9:23, 24, and sought to show them that this is our present education in order that the glory of God may be set forth in the heavenly city.

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25th August, 1902.

There is an effort to reconcile what has come into view with that which has been customarily held, and this temper is not one conducive to the apprehension of truth. The habit of mind to be desired is that of readiness to surrender anything that does not help, so that the truth may be held in divinely given form. The truth has to be got hold of as that which is part of oneself. And no one has rightly hold of any truth, until he sees how he is affected by it. As regards the thought of eternal life, I have no doubt that the idea of it in Scripture is objective, just as all the conditions of life are objective to a newly born child, and yet the child cannot live without them, and when the child is living, all these conditions may be said to be abiding in the child. What I refer to are the conditions of natural law (rule), atmosphere and light. These are the necessary conditions of life, and they are all objective, but when the child is living in them, they may be said to be abiding in the child. The child requires to be nourished with good food that it may live in these conditions, but however well it may be nourished it is never independent of these conditions, they are its life. So it is spiritually, we may be well nourished by the suitable food of grace, but we are dependent on Christ in whom are found all the necessary conditions of life. He is life to us. We find in Him the principle of rule, so that we are kept in the orbit of God's will, we abide in Him, and do not sin; in Him is the love which forms the atmosphere of the Christian circle, and which the lungs of the believer

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must breathe, and in Him is the light of God, in all His mind toward to us in our pathway here, and by which our hearts are gladdened. Thus we have in Christ all the conditions of life, He is the eternal life. And if we are abiding in these conditions, they abide in us, but they do not abide in a murderer. If we abide in Christ, He abides in us, but He does not abide in a murderer, because the murderer does not abide in Him. People need to get hold of things intelligently and not like parrots. I am glad to hear what you say of ----; I trust that he may be kept. There is a brother going out from Croydon named McBride -- a devoted man -- and I should think will be a help. I hope that he may be happily received.

I trust that you are all well, and with love in the Lord, remain,

Your affectionate brother.

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18th September, 1902.

I have only time for a line of farewell ... I can say that in many ways I go in fear. I am not fond of the sea, nor of leaving home, but all that has to be put aside, and all has to be trusted to the mercy of God, and there all is safe.

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16th October, 1902.

We had three days' meetings at Rochester, and I think they were profitable. We glanced at the principal points in the gospel of John. The light of God coming into a dark world and living water into a scene of thirst. Then the light in which Christ is to be known to the believer. Then the effect of the light as to that which existed religiously. Then the witness

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borne to Christ, then the effects of the coming of the Comforter.

... We spent a week at Chicago.

... We took up the first epistle to the Corinthians in connection with the particular way in which Christ is presented in that epistle as the power and wisdom of God to bring to nought all that existed and that held man in bondage, and to establish what was of God -- the temple and oracles of God as the medium for the diffusion of the light. With this was the victory over death.

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5th March, 1903.

I very often feel oppressed at the poverty of my service, for though one may be useful in some little way, there are deficiencies which largely tend to counterbalance this, and hence one can find but scanty satisfaction in one's work. I daresay that this is well. I pray that you both may be greatly and increasingly enriched of the Lord in all that is good and enduring. I reached this (Manchester) yesterday, and this afternoon we began our meetings. A good many will be here from one place and another, and from what I gathered from a number of brothers whom I met last evening, there seems to be some expectation from the meetings, which I hope may not be disappointed.

... We had a good reading on Tuesday (Brothers' reading in London), and the thought of the house of God came before us. There was a good deal of conversation, and I think that there was the disposition to accept the thought of the house as a spiritual house, which could not lose its character. I sought to maintain that Christ was the Builder of God's house, while the work of man was connected with Christianity as a system of profession in the world.

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I think it should be clear to any one that faith brings light into the soul. Life is the work of God. I maintained at Birmingham that there were three steps in the work of grace in the soul, as seen in John 3 and 4. First, new birth, the sovereign act of the Spirit; second, illumination, God is made known to the soul in His love, and in this faith has its place; and third, the communication of the Spirit as life, i.e. power to live -- a well of water springing up into eternal life. And that the believer reaps eternal life of the Spirit. I further said that the expression in John of "every one believing", or "whosoever believeth in him" indicates the kind of person that has life rather than the way by which we get it. Life is the work of God.

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There is much that is interesting in the distinction drawn in General H.'s letters in the Indian extracts, but it seems to me that what I would call the moral element is wanting in the force which he attaches to both the words psuche and zoe, and to the latter he gives, I judge, a too exclusively objective import. Psuche appears to me to be the actual living principle in a creature which animates the body, and uses it as a vehicle. Hence it is common between man and the brute creation -- the difference with man being that psuche was in his case derived from the breath of God, and was therefore a living soul with moral elements and characteristics, and hence immortal. A character of responsibility also attached to it, and inseparable from this is the idea of individuality. Every man has his own soul, and soul is commonly used for person and to imply individuality. "The soul that sinneth shall die".

Zoe on the other hand, though employed in more senses than one, is a general idea, not in itself conveying

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the idea of individuality. We can speak of our life or life in general.

I may be mistaken, but my impression is that, like light, life is employed relatively in Scripture, i.e., in actual or implied contrast to death, Now death comes before us in two aspects, viz., moral and actual, hence we read "has annulled death and brought to light life and incorruptibility" -- death here meaning distance from God and the power of the devil. In another scripture we have "Son, thou in thy lifetime". Here life is evidently the period of a man's natural life on earth, bounded by and closing in death or dissolution. Zoe is evidently, therefore, used both in a moral and actual sense.

Now in the vast proportion of cases in which zoe is employed in the New Testament its force is undoubtedly moral. It is unquestionably used for life in the subjective sense, as "In him was life, and the life was the light of men". Men saw One in whom was (morally) the life of God, and those who followed Him had the light of life, Hence I can well understand the thought of life being communicated to a soul: it is quickened, i.e., made to live in the appreciation and enjoyment of another (the Son), and it is said having the Son it has life. The Spirit is life if Christ be in us, The result is that life is manifested in character, the moral qualities of the life of God are seen in the believer, who, being in the fellowship of Christ's death, is delivered from the flesh and its workings. And the body will be quickened so that it may be in every way a suitable vehicle for the quickened soul, and when this is the case life becomes an actual condition. Mortality will be swallowed up of life. Meantime the body is to be presented a living sacrifice.

But zoe is also evidently used in an objective sense as indicating the conditions, i.e., the relationships and surroundings in which life practically consists, and therefore there is constantly connected with it

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the expression "enter into". This is more often than not its force in the New Testament. It is specially the case where an adjective is attached to it, to characterise it, such as "eternal". Many of Daniel's people that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life -- the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

A man hates his life (psuche) in this world, and keeps it to life eternal, and the form in which eternal life is now realised is in the knowledge of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The present condition of eternal life is faith, which apprehends the objects in the enjoyment of which that life is realised.

It will be seen from the above that the senses of psuche and zoe are totally distinct, and that the one in no way displaces the other. In Christ was zoe, and He took a psuche, which had a moral character from the zoe (though His body was also the temple of God), and He could lay down His psuche (not zoe), and take it again; and further that the two senses in which zoe is employed with a moral force meet in the believer, faith coming in (so long as we are here) in the second sense.

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The following collection of Extracts is from letters written by Mr. Raven during his last illness to different persons.

21st May, 1903.

To have reason to believe that one's work has been of real service to the saints is a matter of great comfort. It has pleased God to reveal the whole divine system of blessing which is before Him, and whether we are faithful in testimony or not, He will display it in due time to His own glory. But one would greatly desire that the saints should have a clear sense of the testimony of the Lord, and that their lights should be burning. For the present I am out of all activity; whether the Lord will allow me to have part in it again I cannot say. In any case I would desire that He should be glorified in His saints through Jesus Christ.

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25th May, 1903.

I feel I should like to send you a line in answer to yours. My illness has had rather a stunning effect, coming on me as suddenly as it has done. This is going off in a measure.... It is a great disappointment to be shut out, at all events for a time, from all service of an active nature; but I doubt not I have to learn the power of the truth in its reflex effect on myself. I have learned one thing since I have been laid by, and that is the place one has in the affections of the saints, far beyond all I could have thought, and one can see in this the grace of our Lord. All things are in His hand, and He knows how fully to provide for all the need of ministry. I trust that the time at Quemerford may be exceptional in blessing and refreshment. My heart will be with the saints there ...

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26th May, 1903.

This illness has entirely shut me out from meetings and service. I have no doubt that I have many lessons to learn which could be learnt in no other way. Probably the reality of death can hardly be felt but in the presence of it, and if death be learnt, resurrection is also learnt, and this is great gain....

I have had so poor a sense of my service that I can hardly understand its being so highly rated by others. I have only endeavoured to set before the saints the scheme of divine counsel in Christ, and their part in it, and this in a very feeble way. If they have been helped, the praise is due to the Lord and not to me.

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June, 1903.

You may be sure how gladly I would be with you at the meetings. I hope that the grace of the Lord may be abundantly with you all. Conscious as I am that there are many brothers with you far better than myself, I could not presume to send you a message, but I trust it will be remembered in any ministry that all truth centres in Christ, and not in the saints. It is their privilege to be in Christ by the Spirit, and thus in the full light and blessing. "In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". While expatiating on the blessings that belong to the Christian, I doubt if the saints are really touched, but if once their eyes are opened to an apprehension of the universe of bliss of which Christ is the Head and Centre, and of His capability to fill it, their souls will be lifted up, and they will readily learn their own part in the blessing.

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4th June, 1903.

I have been intending to send you a line of thanks for sending me the copy of notes of the Quemerford meetings.

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... It was a great deprivation to be absent, but it was the will of the Lord, and so one can find ground of rejoicing. I am pretty much a prisoner, and have ample time for meditation. I can thank God for all that He has brought before one, for it furnishes light and brightness amid the weakness of nature, I trust that the Lord will uphold me and bring me more and more into the greatness of the revelation that He has brought us of God. There is no limit to what He can do in one that has the Spirit. My condition does not change materially.... One feels in such a case that man can do but little, I hope that I may get some relief in the mercy of God.

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1903.  

At present my mind is clear, and I am in a measure free to meditate on the unseen things and their blessed Centre, who descended into the lower parts of the earth, and has ascended far above all heavens, that He may fill all things. It is indeed wonderful to contemplate a universe that is morally of God, and which will be filled by the Son of God. Resurrection is the way into it.

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5th June, 1903.

I am pretty much a prisoner, and have ample time for meditation. I can thank God for all that He has brought before one, for it furnishes light and brightness amid the weakness of nature. I trust that the Lord will uphold me, and bring me more and more into the greatness of the revelation that He has brought us of God. There is no limit to what He can do in one that has the Spirit.... I would well like still to bear a part in the conflict for the truth, but the Lord has His own mind, and in the meantime I desire to know in my soul the power of His resurrection.

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6th June, 1903.

I suppose that if; humanly speaking, things take their course, my stay here will be cut short. It is a trial to me in measure to have no more opportunity to serve the saints, but this must be ruled by the will of the Lord. It is a great thing to have followed the Ark of the covenant over Jordan, for it is there, on the ground of resurrection, that every purpose of God must be fulfilled, and if this be the case it makes the article of death far less terrible. One sees Christ at the other side, ready to welcome those who pass over. The passage is but narrow.... I think I can witness to the sustaining grace of the Lord amid my present weakness.... It is wonderful how grace can sustain in the appropriate moment.

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11th June, 1903.

I cannot report much progress.... It is a time when I have much time for reflection, but little power for it in the sense of great bodily weakness. Still, I can find great satisfaction in the thought that the Lord is above all, and that one can rejoice in Him.

His day will be a great day -- when God shines out in light divine, in the fulness of that love of which Christ is the object, and into which we are called, and from which nothing can separate us, and we all have our part in it.

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20th June, 1903.

I need hardly say that it is a cause of unfeigned rejoicing to have been in the hand of the Lord an instrument of blessing to others, and in it I have certainly reaped a blessing myself, for in this time of being laid aside I have been enabled to review with pleasure the truth on which I have sought to dwell. It is a great thing to have before one a living system

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centred in a living Person, who has power to subdue all things to Himself, and who is at the service of such as we are. I hope that brethren will get dislodged more and more from the old doctrinal methods, so that they are not only learning about Christ, but living Christ.

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22nd June, 1903.

It would hardly have been my choice to have been laid aside in the way I have been from the path of active service, and I would fain have had a little more opportunity of serving the saints, but the Lord has willed it otherwise, and He knows what He does. It is now a time of suffering in measure, but I trust too of learning more the reality of things, and I pray that I may not fail to use the opportunity. The whole system of eternal things is not far off, and if one has to make the passage of death, the Lord is on the other side.... So Stephen found it.

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25th June, 1903.

My being put aside has not at all dimmed the sense of the importance of the things which I have sought according to the measure of grace given to minister. I hope that the saints will get a clearer glimpse of that resurrection land where Christ is waiting to take the place appointed of the Father's love. We all await it. Some may join the Lord earlier than others, but it is a common hope....

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25th June, 1903.

... The affection of the saints is a very precious thing in this world, for it is pure and unalloyed, and it is a witness to me of the ability of Christ to fill all things, for if He can fill many a heart in such a scene

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as this, in the day of His power He can surely fill all things. This is a great thing to hold fast. I am thankful to say that the land that is over Jordan is precious in my thoughts -- the land that God loves, because it is of His purpose, and the true Ark of the covenant is found there. I look for the mercy of God in this time of great weakness, and trust that one may not be overcome by bodily suffering. I think that one can count on the goodness of God in this way.