Hebrews 2; 1 Peter 3:18 - 22; 2 Peter 1:17, 18

I should disclaim all idea of bringing forward anything new, for in one sense there is nothing new to be brought before saints. Things in Christianity are new only in the sense in which the Lord speaks of a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven bringing out of his treasure things new and old. Certain things are characterised as new, for instance, a new song, a new covenant, and the like, and it is well to speak of these things. In fact they are the things of which we speak -- but this is not inconsistent with giving place to the old things.

I am going now to speak about new things in that light, not at all in the idea of ministering to a craving after that which is novel. There is such a spirit much abroad among men and even among Christians, but I want to minister, not to that desire, but of the things of which Christianity speaks, new things.

Now in two of the passages I have read we have kindred expressions with regard to Christ. In Hebrews 2:9 we read, "But we see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour". Evidently the reference of the Spirit of God there is to Christ in His place at the right hand of God. He is crowned there. Peter in his second epistle, speaking of what happened on the mount of Transfiguration, says, "For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". The words employed here are the same as in Hebrews 2:9. Peter says He received honour and glory, and in Hebrews it is said He is crowned with glory and honour, and that is at the right hand of God. He could not be crowned on the holy mount. Testimony to Him was given

there, but He could not be crowned, for it was not high enough. When He goes to the right hand of God, then it is He is crowned with glory and honour.

Now what comes out in Peter is full testimony to the present place of Christ. Peter was an eye-witness of His majesty on the holy mount, and he was a witness, by the Spirit, of the glory He has at the right hand of God. He speaks of Christ as having suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, and afterwards says, "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". That is equivalent to, "We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour", He has tasted death for everything, and now He is crowned with glory and honour.

I am going to trace, with the Lord's help, the steps which have led to the present place of Christ at the right hand of God, and then to bring before you the significance of this in regard to us. In regard to God it has its significance, but my point now is its significance in regard to us.

Two things meet in Jesus. The one, all that is for God, and the other, all that is for man; they meet in one and the same Person. You cannot understand God's ways if you do not apprehend that. We see it in the first two chapters of Hebrews. You can examine the two chapters at your leisure; in the first you will find that everything is for God. It sets before us the throne, and shews thus the maintenance of what is due to God. The Son has inherited a more excellent name than angels and everything for God is secured in Him. He is the effulgence of God's glory, and the exact expression of His substance, and God has appointed Him the Heir of all things. Everything for God is secured in Christ. God has established the throne upon the basis of the perfect discrimination of good and evil. Those are the lines. In chapter 2 you have everything for man. To me this order is very

beautiful, and I would not have it otherwise. People do not get established if they do not see that everything is secured for God. That is the first truth in connection with Christ; and then everything has been secured for man. The expression, "We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour", involves that grace is equivalent to glory. That principle comes out in Luke's gospel; the greater the exaltation, the higher Christ goes as man, the greater the grace to man; for grace is commensurate with glory. If we knew more of the glory of the Lord we should know more of the power of grace. The throne of grace is spoken of later on, where we obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The principle is that the grace is equal to the glory on account of the Person who is glorified.

I am going to note two or three points in the path of the Lord Jesus, which has led up to glory, and will then endeavour to show you the bearing of it in regard to us.

In God's ways of grace in regard of man all began in the birth of Christ, and hence you get the remarkable celebration in connection with His birth. There was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men", Evidently that was the point of departure, in God's ways, in regard of man.

The next step was the baptism of Christ; that indicated that the Lord saw fit to identify Himself with the repentant on earth. He said, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness". He went into the waters of Jordan to mark His separation from what was ungodly on earth; from the course of the world. He took that place, but, at the same time, it was to identify Himself with the godly of the earth. It is very much a fulfilment of Psalm 16, His delight was in the saints, the excellent of the earth. It was not, morally, a question of Himself at all, but of those with whom He saw fit to identify Himself. The answer to it was

that the heavens were opened to Him. It indicates to me that you must not connect the Lord with the course of this world. Christ was here in the world as a man among men, but had no resources in it, and was in interest completely apart from man: He was ever true to the place He took in baptism.

The next step is the transfiguration, and that was figurative. Those who were on the mount with Him were permitted to see a vision of the kingdom, and hence what took place there was figurative of what was to take place on high. The principle of it was, that a man went up from the earth to receive from God the Father honour and glory in the recognition of who He was. By the fact of His birth and His baptism He identified Himself with man. He was the Son of man by being born of woman, and He identifies Himself thus with man, and in His baptism He identifies Himself with the godly of the earth; and now, on the mount of Transfiguration, He receives honour and glory and is saluted as God's beloved Son. He was the Son of man, Son of David, and Son of Abraham, and in going up above He presents Himself on behalf of man to God -- and there He received honour and glory when there came to Him such a voice from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son". There was a vision of the kingdom.

That was the third step, but glory could only then be evanescent, redemption not having been accomplished what took place there could not be final. But the glory saluted Him. The real fulfilment of glory was when Christ ascended up to the right hand of God. When on the mount He had not suffered for man, but when He goes to the right hand of God it is as having suffered for man, redemption being accomplished. He had tasted death for everything, and He goes to the right hand of God on the behalf of man in the value of a work accomplished for man. It is not simply that He receives honour and glory, but

He is crowned with it. He has suffered for sins, as a man on the behalf of men, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit"; and "is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him". He is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead".

Two things have come to pass in the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. One is that the kingdom in righteousness is secured for God; and the other, that everything is secured on the behalf of man. If you want to know the measure of grace, you learn it in Jesus crowned with glory and honour. The closer you come to God, the more conscious you must be of grace. There is nothing with God to repel, because Christ is crowned with glory and honour as a testimony to man. Man is invited. The whole course of the Lord -- His birth, baptism, and the mount of Transfiguration, and His being crowned at the right hand of God -- indicates to us that all that is for man is found there.

Everything for God and everything for man meet in the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. In one sense you can look at His work as accomplished for God, but even in that light it is spoken of as on account of us. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him". On the cross the Lord occupied our place: it was a work done for God's glory on man's behalf; He is raised, too, on our behalf, and gone to the right hand of God, and is crowned with glory and honour, as a witness to men of what subsists for man, namely, unlimited grace. The more we are apart from the course of things here, and the closer we are brought by the Spirit of God to the glory, the more conscious we become of the acceptance and favour in which we stand.

I believe, in regard of our pathway here, that there is no limit to the grace which is ministered to us. We cannot always count upon being delivered out of trying circumstances, but we can always count upon the plenitude of grace which will be with us in our circumstances down here. Christ went to the right hand of God to take up a place for man, and He makes intercession for us there.

Now I want to speak of the effect of this in regard to us, and I will read a few verses at the end of Hebrews 2:14 - 18.

The first thing here spoken of is a work done: that comes out in verses 14, 15. "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage". Verse 15 describes a class which existed here. When the Lord came there were saints on earth who were subject to bondage through fear of death. This is hardly intended to describe a class which is here now. They were in bondage on account of the uncertainty to them of what was beyond death. They had glimpses of light, but they had no clear revelation of what lay beyond death, and hence they were distracted and terrified by the fear of death. You get that exercise, up to the time that Christ died, with godly people. Satan was active in it all, and we find him even coming against the Lord, but the Lord said, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me".

By death Christ brought that to an end, for He came to destroy him, or rather the power of him, who had the power of death. God had seen fit to let the terrors of death be in the hand of Satan as against man who had listened to Satan, and hence it was that Satan affected man with the terrors of death and judgment; but the point upon which God is now bent is his salvation. I think that man wants salvation out of the

power of the enemy, and God has wrought to effect this. You see this in the case of the Israelites. God was declared in the blood on the lintel and door-posts, and so with us, the blood of Christ is the witness that God's righteousness has been vindicated and declared, and God presents Himself consequently in grace to man. The announcement of the gospel is the remission of sins, and this is proclaimed that man may be brought into salvation from the enemy. The salvation of Israel was from their enemies, and from the hand of them that hated them: from the power of the Egyptian. God was with them all through, but His purpose was that they might be delivered from the hand of their oppressor. He would bring them out of the land of Egypt that they might serve Him without fear.

God has wrought deliverance for us that we might not be in the fear of death. Our knowledge of God is of the God who raises the dead. The God we have to do with is the Saviour-God, who raises the dead and calls the things which be not as though they were. We know Him in that character, and, if we know Him in that way, it is entirely impossible that we can be in the fear of death. God has raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, "who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification". We have to say to God, we pray to Him, give thanks to Him, and hope in Him, but it is in the God who raises the dead. All our acquaintance with God and everything in which we have to say to Him is in that light, and hence saints cannot be in the fear of death. The only God I know is the One who raised Jesus for us. And if death has terrors for me, it only proves that I do not know God. Christ has ended the fear of death. By death He has destroyed him that had the power of death: that is, the devil, to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Such a class could hardly exist

at the present time. When that class existed God was not declared in the power of resurrection.

Abraham probably apprehended God in that way when he offered up Isaac. And all our hopes in connection with God are bound up with God, who acts in resurrection power. The Lord speaks of that in John 5, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them: even so the Son quickeneth whom he will". The effect of apprehending this is to deliver us from the world and all connected with it. Many Christians cherish expectations in this life, and make a good deal of a pious life here -- which one would not at all seek to discourage -- but, at the same time, it must be remembered that our relations with God are with the God who raises the dead and calls the things that be not as though they were. God never intended to communicate to us blessings on this side of death. He has communicated the Spirit in order that our souls may be occupied with Him on the other side of death.

The other point in the passage I last read comes out in the two last verses. "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people: for in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted". You must take into account, in regard of this chapter, that it presents Christ as on the part of man; hence it is that in the passage read the qualification of Christ to be Priest is presented. He takes the place of offering priest before He enters on the high priesthood. It behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren that He might first become an offering priest. No one could make atonement under the law or deal with an offering except a priest; and Christ must needs assume the place of offering priest. Who was to offer Christ except Christ Himself? And hence,

preparatory to His taking the place of High Priest, He is the offering priest. He makes atonement for the sins of the people as offering priest, but it is at the right hand of God that He is in the place of High Priest.

In connection with God who raises the dead, we are delivered from the fear of death, and in connection with the offering of Christ we get the forgiveness of sins; but it is one thing to believe in forgiveness, and another to have the consciousness of forgiveness. According to the Apostles' Creed, all believe in the forgiveness of sins, but that is not the consciousness of forgiveness, which lies in the appropriation of Christ. Many a Christian believes in the forgiveness of sins, but is not conscious of it, because he has not learned to appropriate the Priest. Such do not know that in Jesus there is not simply everything for God, but everything for man; hence in the appropriation of Christ as Priest you get the gain of all that is connected with the Priest, and it is as offering priest He made atonement for the sins of the people, that we might have the consciousness of forgiveness of sins in the power of the Holy Spirit. The office of the Spirit is to lead on the soul to the appropriation of Christ.

The same thing is seen in the fifth chapter of John's first epistle. "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth". When the apostle speaks of the witnesses in regard to us, he puts the Spirit first, because it is in the power of the Spirit of God, in appropriating the one witnessed of, we become conscious of the effect of the water and blood. Water and blood signify purifying and expiation, and the Spirit makes good in us the consciousness of these, and thus we can have fellowship one with another. In the light of God, and in Christian fellowship, we have a good conscience by the resurrection of Christ.

A good conscience is really in the Christian circle, into which baptism brings us, and is in the consciousness of forgiveness of sins, which lies, as I said before, in the appropriation of Christ on our side.

I could not do you a greater service than to impress upon you how completely Christ is on our side, and as such has gone to the right hand of God, where He is owned on God's side as His beloved Son. Now we have the kingdom, and in connection with it the offering priest, who, having effected everything for us here, has gone into heaven to take up the place of High Priest on behalf of His people. His qualification is seen in verse 18, "For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted".

I judge that succouring the tempted may be accomplished by Christ directly or indirectly. We see the Lord acting directly once and again in the case of Paul. The apostle got succour directly from Christ. There were circumstances in which he was placed and in which he might be distressed, but he experienced succour from Christ. He came into difficulties in his path, partly by the conduct of others, and partly by zeal on his own part, and then the Lord appears to him, He comes in to succour His servant. That was the interference of the Lord, directly communicating succour to His servant when he was tempted. Every one is in great danger when in a false position, like Peter in the high priest's palace. We sometimes, by zeal, or it may be by carelessness, get into a false position and are exposed to temptation, and then the Lord can come in to succour. I sometimes feel myself using the language of the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation", for I desire to be kept out of circumstances for which I have not faith; I would be extremely likely to fail, but, at the same time, there is the succour of Christ. It is that I might be recovered, that my faith may not fail.

The end of priesthood is that we might hold fast our profession. It is that we may not fail, but if we have failed that we may be recovered.

But Christ can also succour through His people. If He is at the right hand of God, the hearts of all His people are at His command, and it is possible for Him to succour His people indirectly. Just as He can wash the feet of His people mediately so can He succour them. If we drink deeply into the Spirit of Christ, then we are qualified to sympathise with God's people and to help them in circumstances of temptation to which they may be exposed in some way or other upon earth. We should be desirous of occupying the priestly place here in regard to one another. Christ has the hearts of His own under control, and sets them in motion one towards another, and if we were near enough to the heart of Christ we would be used of Him to help one another. He is the great High Priest.

It is very blessed to think that, in Christ crowned with glory and honour, everything is secured for God in the Man who is gone up to the right hand of God on the behalf of man. The Son of man is the Man taken from among men, gone up to heaven, having accomplished redemption on man's behalf and the consequence of this is that He is the pledge of the complete overthrow of everything that is contrary to and opposes man. He is declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, on the principle of the mount of Transfiguration where He received from God the Father honour and glory.

Now these things exist and are connected with the world to come. Do not get into the erroneous notion that the world to come is something future. It is not yet manifested, but that in no way proves that it does not exist. In Jesus crowned with glory and honour everything is secured for God and for man we know God who has acted in the power of resurrection, and have the consciousness of forgiveness of sins in the

appropriation of the Priest, and succour in circumstances of temptation.

It is of all moment to see the purpose of the grace of God. The remission of sins is His glad tidings to man, God proclaims this in order that man may be delivered from the bondage of this world to serve God. That is God's purpose in the gospel. This leads on to the truth of the church. If God sets His people free to serve Him they must serve Him according to the appointed order.

I trust that the thought may remain with us, that grace is commensurate with glory.

(2) THE BELIEVER'S LINK WITH CHRIST RISEN

John 15

On the last occasion I was trying to point out the way in which believers are connected from the outset with the God of resurrection, that is, with God who acts in that power. It is evident that God could not act in that way until death had come in; but from Abraham onwards faith apprehends "God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were". The link is formed thus as between God and man, and it is with God in that aspect that we have to do. We are greatly affected by links that are formed. That is true in natural things, but we are more affected by spiritual links than by natural links and ties.

Another point that came before us was that in the first two chapters of Hebrews we have presented, in Christ, both that which is for God and that which is for man. As to the latter it says in chapter 2, "We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour"; that is on man's behalf. The Son of man has gone up, and that is the reception which He has met with at the right hand of God; just as He received on the mount of Transfiguration honour and glory; but it is a man going up on the behalf of men, having tasted death for everything, and He is crowned with glory and honour. That comes out in chapter 2, where we have, "He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren".

This leads me to the thought of the link which has been formed between saints and Christ in resurrection. It is one thing to see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, but another to understand the link that

connects us with Him. I am sure that the apprehension of it must have a great effect upon us down here. I believe it to be so important, because the link being with Christ raised again from the dead, there is brought in the power of life.

All spiritual vitality has its spring the other side of death. Christ is the true source of it: we abide in Him, and His words abide in us, and then we get the evidence of vitality, which is fruit-bearing. In the first part of our chapter we have fruit-bearing, and in the latter part, testimony in connection with the Holy Spirit. Fruit-bearing and witness, I may say, are not exactly the same thing. Fruit is spontaneous and the evidence of healthy vitality. This is the case in a healthy tree.

Now I do not think that the bearing of resurrection is always understood, though the fact may be accepted. There is scarcely any truth presented to us in Scripture which has not been neutralised in its application in Christendom. You get the terms of truth maintained, but the bearing of truth has been falsified in the use of it. Events have been taken up as in connection with this world and commemorated in that way. Christ's birth is commemorated on one day and His death on another, and even His resurrection; and we have been brought up in this, and what we have learned traditionally is extremely likely to remain with us. Christ's birth and His death were events in this world, but resurrection cannot have that character. God never intended that it should. It is the beginning of a new order of things. Resurrection really means the introduction of another world, because it introduces another Man. There has been one world, and that world depended upon a man. I am not now speaking of the material world, but of the world in the moral sense. The existing world has been built up on one man departed from God. You never get a right idea of the world if you do not understand that. The

expression 'world' is used in the writings of John for the people in it. But also indeed in a moral sense, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof". Still John frequently uses the world for the people in it, and the world, as we know it, was built up on man departed from God.

But resurrection brings in another Man. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive". The terms of the gospel, as stated in Scripture, are that "Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures". "Buried" is the end of a man so far as the world is concerned, no more is known of a person after he is buried. Christ died vicariously, and in the fact of His dying and being buried there was an end of that order of man. The passage goes on to say, "He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures"; but that brings in another order of man. The first man was the natural one, but the second Man is the spiritual one. The resurrection has brought to light the spiritual, and is by a man. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead". The present world, as we know it, is built up on one man, and so also the world to come. You can see the world to come because you see the Man on whom it is built up. Until Christ was raised, the world to come was future but it is no longer future, because the Man is there upon whom it depends.

Now you can see how erroneous it is to connect the resurrection of Christ with this world. Resurrection is the platform for God. "God, who quickeneth the dead", is true in principle from the time that man fell. Abel's link with God, and Enoch's and Noah's,

was with the God of resurrection. Abel came to God through a sacrifice which really involved resurrection, Enoch was translated, and in Noah you get the figure of death and resurrection. The same is seen with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham is spoken of as having "believed even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were". Christians "believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead". You have in Him the foundation, and on that foundation the world to come is built up. God has formed the link that connects Christians with Himself in the power of resurrection, and the effect is that death has lost its power. As you advance in life, death comes closer to you, but you find that the power of death is gone if you are conscious of being linked with the God of resurrection.

It is most confirmatory to faith to see that this has been the principle throughout the whole world's history from the time that sin came in. It came out before the flood, and more distinctly in those to whom the promises were confided. I feel intimately bound up with the Old Testament worthies, Abraham, Isaac, and David, men whose souls had faith in the God who quickens the dead. David learned that God would not establish his throne in his seed after the flesh. The true seed, according to God, was Christ, and David learned this, though it may have been obscurely.

My point now is to shew the link which we have with Christ in resurrection. The thought of being connected with the God of resurrection delivers the soul from the fear of death, but the point is our link with Christ. If a man marries a wife he forms a new tie, and that man is greatly affected by the tie he has formed; and if our souls are linked with Christ, the effect is that the power of resurrection is brought in and thus we are delivered from the fear of death. And being now linked with Christ the result is that we bring forth fruit; we give evidence of vitality. The

apostle Paul in his second epistle to Timothy, when counterfeits and imitations were coming in, insists that the only answer to these was in vitality. Imitations could only be effectually answered by the real thing. There was a divine basis in Timothy himself. He had been instructed in divine things by the apostle, and from a child had known the holy scriptures; and the way in which he was to meet the imitations, was by the evidence of life. All spiritual vitality has its source the other side of death. To shew that, I will read a passage or two, first in Romans 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God ... But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held: that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter". Again in 1 Corinthians 6:17, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit".

The passage in 1 Corinthians brings before us the truth that the link with Christ exists, not in the outward but in the inward. In a certain sense, when Christ was here, He was, as a Man, in association with the outward; but now, it is, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit", and if the link is in spirit, manifestly it is in the inward. When you realise that you are joined to the Lord, there is unity of spirit apart from flesh. That is where the link subsists in which we are bound to Christ. The figure of marriage is employed, but we have to realise union in spirit in the inward apart from the outward. But few of us have learned to withdraw from the outward and retire into the inward. Scripture speaks of the inward and outward man, hence there must be such a thing as retiring from the outward into the inward. The idea of a sort of connection with Christ after the flesh has come into the professing church, but Scripture teaches

that, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit".

I read the passage in Romans for the purpose of shewing the object for which the link has been formed; we have been delivered from one order of things, in which possibly we were bound, in order that we might be married to another, or joined to another: to Him that is raised up from the dead, with the object of bringing forth fruit unto God, and that we might serve not in the oldness of the letter but in newness of spirit.

God has made Himself known to us in grace. The kingdom has come in that we are delivered from the power of evil. Grace has brought man salvation from the power of the enemy that we should serve God. God has not intended to set us free for our own wills, but that we might serve Him. The principle of this we find in Israel. Jehovah charged Pharaoh to let His people go that they might serve Him; and so, too, in regard of Christians. The purpose of God in bringing salvation to us is that we might serve Him in bringing forth fruit: but that really comes from Him who is raised up from the dead.

I cannot conceive anything more important than to enter into the reality of the link which binds us to Christ. If there is that in us which is of service to God, in the way of fruit bearing, it lies in the apprehension in the soul of that link. We have to meet imitations today, and that can only be by the production of reality. We must give incontestable evidence of vitality; and the secret of that is in the knowledge of the link that connects us with Christ who is raised from the dead.

We are set free from the law by the body of Christ with the object of serving God. In Romans 7 it does not exactly say you are married to another, but that you are delivered from one bond, from the first husband, that you might be married to another: to Him who is raised from the dead that we might bring forth fruit unto God. Being set free from the law of sin

and of death, we are linked with Christ that He might be to us the source of vitality, of which fruit is the proof and evidence. Vitality has not its source in the Christian, but in Him who is raised up again from the dead. If my mind is not in accord with Christ I shall not bring forth fruit unto God. There will not be that in me which is acceptable to Him. If you want to know the character of fruit you will find it in Galatians, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law". Fruit is the blessed and comely result of the link which exists between the Christian and Christ raised up from the dead.

Now to turn to our chapter, the first six verses prove that you cannot have any link with Christ after the flesh. He was the vine when He was here on earth, and there were the branches, but that state of things cannot exist now. You can no longer speak of Christ being the vine. Israel had had that place previously, and Christ took that place when He was here; but He has it no longer, and all that there is connected with earth now is the spurious vine. The Revelation shows us the spurious vine, and God dealing in judgment with it: there is no true vine upon earth at the present time.

From verse 7 the idea of the vine is dropped. It says, "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples". Now mark the succeeding verses, 9 - 12, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love ... This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you". The first principle of the link is, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you". Do you believe that that is as applicable to us as it was to the disciples to whom the Lord said it? They were

representative of those whom the Father has given to Christ. Christ valued them because the Father gave them to Him. The church is the compensation which Christ has received in the time of His decease as to His own people, and the disciples were representative of the church, and the thought in the verse has its application to us as well as to them.

Every one should accept the truth of the verse, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you". You will never enter into the power of the link that binds you to Christ if you do not understand that the love begins with Christ. You will never understand that you are married to Christ if you do not see that the beginning is, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you".

In the following verses, we get the transmission of the love: the continuation of its character in the disciples. We come to Christ's commandments. But one might ask, what are the commandments? To Christ every expression of the Father's will was a commandment. Everything that He heard from the Father. All the commands are included within one circle, and that is the Father's. The Father will in result pervade and include and cover everything. Every family in heaven and on earth is named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ makes known to us in detail the Father's will, and everything in that sense is a command; and if we keep His commandments we continue in His love. The purpose of all was to separate His people from the world, and to bring them within the limits of the Father and of the Father's will. To confirm that, read verses 14 - 16, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you ... Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name he may give it you". The ground that the Lord takes here is that

He had not treated them like servants, but as friends. He had given them His confidence, and everything that He had heard from the Father He had made known to them. I am more and more convinced that there are two great systems which are brought out in the word of God. One is, that of the world which is of man departed from God, and the other that which is of the Father.

In the economy of grace everything is viewed as proceeding from the Father. Christ came from the Father, and the Spirit proceeded from the Father; the kingdom is the Father's, and eventually the Son, who holds it mediatorially, delivers up the kingdom, that God may be all in all; everything will be pervaded by divine love. The name of Father presents to us God revealed in love. The world is presented in the strongest contrast to the Father in John's first epistle. It says, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world". Hence one can see that it is a matter of the last importance for us to distinguish between the system of the world and that which is of the Father. The world is filled with lust and pride, while the system of the Father is pervaded by divine love.

The point for us is to understand the bond that binds us to Christ, namely, love. It is His love to us, not ours to Him. I believe we all fail to enter into the truth that we are loved of Christ. If the ear is opened to understand the communications of Christ, you will continue in His love.

It is a great thing to hear the communications of Christ. We see them coming out in principle in Luke 10. First we have the parable of the good Samaritan, in which Christ is presented to us as man's neighbour; and following upon that, Mary is seen sitting at His feet hearing His word. The Lord was giving to her communications. Some one might say,

What were the communications? Well, I think, it could only be one thing, for previously in the chapter the Lord had said, "All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him". The Lord was making known to her the Father's name and the Father's will. She sat at His feet to hear things which He alone could teach. How wonderful was this to Mary, she was entirely held to Jesus by it. Martha was restless; but Mary was held at Jesus' feet to hear the communications that He had to make known to her. He was making known what He had heard from the Father, for what He heard from the Father was given to Him to communicate, and He communicated it to Mary.

We get two things from Christ: (1) love, and (2) His communications of love. The psalmist prayed that God might not be silent to him, and Christ is not silent to us. We get His communications as we sit at His feet. If you apprehend His love you will get His communications. He communicates the Father's mind and will if we are prepared to carry it out, to keep His commandments, the effect of which is, that we continue in the sense of His love; we keep His commandments in loving one another as He has loved us. He loves us as the Father had loved Him, and we are to love one another as Christ has loved us, and in that way we continue in His love. It is the law of liberty.

We get the Father's will and work coming out in detail in John's gospel. In chapter 4 the Father seeks worshippers. In chapter 5 He raises up the dead and quickens. In chapter 6 He draws to the Son. In chapter 10 the Lord says, in regard of the sheep, "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all: and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand". John gives us the expression of the Father's love in

regard of Christians. If you are taken up with the Father's things, vitality becomes manifest in you in relation to the saints, and you will be separate from the world. What comes out in connection with Christ will surely bring you into separation from the world. You cannot be surprised that the world hates you. The world does not love what is of the Father, but what is of the Father is going to set aside completely all that is of the world. The world has not the elements of permanence. Scripture is clear about this, "The world passeth away"; but in what is of the Father, and set forth in Christ, we see the elements of permanence, righteousness, holiness, and love, and these are not corrupted, nor do they deteriorate.

My desire is to indicate to you the great reality of our link with Christ. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit", and we are to bring forth fruit unto God. Christ has loved us as the Father loved Him, and if we accept that, we understand the strength of the link with Christ, and the blessed effect is, that we love one another as Christ has loved us. You get vitality in the saints, the bringing forth of fruit to God, as the result of being married to Him who is raised from the dead.

Our faith and hope is bound up with the God of resurrection, and we are connected with Christ in order that there may be vitality and fruit-bearing in us in the world. The principle of resurrection does not connect itself with this world or its course, but the power of God brings in another world, for the reason that resurrection has brought in another Man.

May God give us to apprehend the great reality of Christ raised again from the dead, that we, being married to Him, should bring forth fruit unto God.

(3) CHRIST'S WITNESSES

John 15:26, 27; Ephesians 1:15 - 23; Acts 7:54 - 60

In connection with the thought of fruit-bearing, what was before my mind on the last occasion was that we might understand how that God has been pleased to connect us with what is on the resurrection side of death. We are individually, on this side of death, though risen together with Christ in connection with Christ and the assembly. But as a matter of fact, we are this side of death and expect to be quickened, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive". At the same time, it is very important that we should apprehend the link which God has already formed to connect us with Christ on the other side of death.

The source of vitality to us is the other side of death. I refer to Romans 7, "Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another" -- mark the next clause -- "to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God".

Now, the same thing comes out in the chapter from which I have read, namely, John 15. Fruit-bearing is spontaneous, the evident effect of vitality, and the source of this is the other side of death. The apostle says, "I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live I, but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me".

I want to proceed now on the same lines, and the point to which I come is witness, which is a little in advance of fruit-bearing; and, in connection with witness, I want to shew the power for it, and that, I need scarcely say, brings in the thought of the Holy Spirit. The Lord takes that up at the close of the chapter. The chapter in the main is occupied with

fruit-bearing, but, at the close, Christ speaks of sending the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, and He should bear witness. The apostles also were to bear witness, because they had been with the Lord from the beginning, or outset, of His ministry.

The witness of the Holy Spirit came out in a very marked way in Stephen. It came out also in Philip and others, but hardly perhaps in such a distinct way as in Stephen. He was a witness to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. So far as we know Stephen had not been in the company of Christ upon earth, nor was he a witness of the resurrection; but he was a witness in the power of the Holy Spirit, he was full of the Holy Spirit; and the effect of that we are permitted to see. Stephen became a martyr, he had to suffer for his witness.

Now my first point is, that the Holy Spirit has come down here to witness. He has not come to establish anything upon earth, that is not the idea of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is true that Jew and Gentile are builded together for a habitation of God by the Spirit, but that is not the establishment of anything upon earth. The object of the Holy Spirit is to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts of saints. The kingdom has come in the way of mystery, that is, not publicly, but at the same time, true in the hearts of believers. "The kingdom of God is ... righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit", and from the fact of the Spirit having come, to make good the kingdom, you get the house of God, Jew and Gentile built together for a habitation of God. The house is in a sense dependent on the kingdom, for it is evident that if God comes in in grace, the first thing He must do is to establish His sway over the heart of man; and that must be in grace. Judgment would assert and vindicate the rights of God, but grace establishes the sway of God in the heart of man. At the same time, the

Spirit of God has come to connect the hearts of believers with what is in heaven, and not only that, but to form them for it. You get the idea of this in the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

We see the work of the Spirit exemplified in Stephen. He looked up to heaven and saw what was there, and bore witness of what he saw. He saw the heavens opened, first of all, and the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and he was sustained in power down here. He was qualified in the power of the Holy Spirit for a witness, and testified to what he saw in heaven. The Holy Spirit gave him not only the light of heaven, but the consciousness of what is there; and to that he bore witness, and that is the true witness of the Spirit of God.

Evidently the witness of the Spirit of God must be to what is in heaven. He has come down from heaven -- not as the Lord did, in incarnation -- and has brought from heaven the report of the glory there. The Spirit has not formed any links upon earth; Christ did, of necessity, in becoming man. Scripture speaks of Him as Son of Abraham, Son of David, and Son of Mary; but the Spirit reports that which is in heaven, the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God.

What I want to dwell upon now is how we are formed for witness. I do not think a man is a real witness of anything which he simply believes. I may be able to speak of a thing and report it as fully believing it; but if I am to be a witness of it, according to the divine thought, I must be in the consciousness of the thing of which I am witness. I may have heard of some wonderful thing having taken place in some other part of the world, and fully believe it, and be able to report what I have heard, but I am not a witness of it, though I have the faith of it. If I have seen the thing then I am qualified to be a witness, because I have the consciousness of the thing of which I witness.

Faith is divine light in the heart of man, and a man cannot please God without it; but the peculiar spirit and power of Christianity is not faith but consciousness. In Old Testament times, saints had the faith of things, promises and the like, but they could not have the consciousness of the promises, because the time had not come for their fulfilment; but that is not Christianity. We begin with faith. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but, in the Holy Spirit, God has come in to give us the consciousness of the things that we believe. It is not only that we have heard a credible report, and can transmit it to others, but we are qualified to be witnesses of the things of which we have the consciousness, as was the case with Stephen. The glory of Christ has changed everything in regard to us. It has inaugurated a new order of things. The power of God in resurrection has brought to light a new Man, and consequently a new world connected with the new Man: and all God's ways, new covenant, reconciliation and so on, are connected with this new world, the centre of which is Christ, and that is very important for us to take into account.

God has been fully glorified, in regard of righteousness, in the death of Christ, and that has left room for the power of God to operate; and the result is that He has brought into view a Man whose origin was heaven. Resurrection really brought fully to light the heavenly Man, and the world to come is founded on Jesus, crowned with glory and honour; and hence it is that the Holy Spirit has come down to report the glory of God and Jesus at His right hand.

I will say a word, in connection with the verses in Ephesians, as to how we are formed for witness. The text is, "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom

and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding [heart, it should be] being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead". One thing I wish you to notice is that the word 'know' in verse 18 is not the same word as 'knowledge' in verse 17. The thought in verse 18 is to know, not only by faith, but in consciousness, what is the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe.

There are three things in the passage, (1) the hope of God's calling, (2) God's inheritance, and (3) the exceeding greatness of God's power; and the point is, that you should be conscious of these things; and the way in which you are to get at this is by the knowledge of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. Evidently that must be by the Holy Spirit. The first beginning of all real knowledge of God is by the Holy Spirit. You have no real knowledge of God Himself until you love. "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love". Apart from love, there is no real knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit has come in order that we may know God, not that we may know something about Him, but know Himself. You may hear a great deal about Him, but it is a different thing to know Him. I may hear a good deal about a man, but it is a different thing when I come to know the man himself. So with God; and you do not really know God if you do not love.

If you want to get intelligence in divine things the way is by the knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit has come down to form us in the divine nature, and

the beginning of this is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. The Spirit is not the witness of God's love; God's love is witnessed in the death of Christ. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us"; but the Holy Spirit has come to make that witness good in the hearts of God's people; and the effect of it is that we love, and thus prove that we are born of God. "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God". The spirit of wisdom is got by the knowledge of God.

If you would make advance in divine things you must set yourself for the knowledge of God. I think many good people have studied scripture as they would a science; but that is not the way to get at the knowledge of divine things. It is God's favour which leads you into the knowledge of divine things. No saint has any ability to grasp divine thoughts beyond the measure in which he knows God, and no one knows God beyond the measure of his love.

The spirit of wisdom and revelation is that we may understand. What I apprehend to be "wisdom" is "resource" and "revelation" means "unfolding". You get the spirit of resource and unfolding in divine things, and the end is that you may be conscious of the hope of His calling, of His inheritance and of His power.

Now all these things are dependent on the fact of Christ having gone to the right hand of God. First, we have the hope of His calling, and that is heaven. Heaven is open. It is no longer a secret to us, because a man has gone there, and we are in Him. The next thing is the inheritance; and the inheritance exists for man in all being now headed up in a man. In the early part of the chapter we have this brought out. God has made known to us the mystery of His will, and Christ is the One in whom all things are gathered up, and you see the greatness of the inheritance

because you see the greatness of the One in whom all is gathered up. But there is also the power which is toward us. First, you get heaven opened by the fact of Man having gone into heaven, God having been glorified, and then you have that Man as the Head of God's inheritance, He is the Heir of all things. Then there is the power of God that has raised Him from the dead, and that power is toward us; and having the consciousness of these things, we are qualified to be witnesses here for God. We are consciously linked with heaven and the things which are there.

Resurrection is the great triumph of God. It is the expression of His power triumphing over everything which was contrary to Him: death, sin and Satan's power. It is of great importance that we should apprehend the moral import of the resurrection, for it is the power of God's ways in the world to come. "God has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea". The enemy is silent, vanquished in death: God has triumphed, He has raised Christ from the dead.

The power of God is to put us, in due season, in possession of His inheritance. It is a power which has been proved, and therefore you can be conscious of this power, because it has been brought into exercise. You could not be conscious of the inheritance if Christ were not in heaven, any more than you could be conscious of the calling if heaven were not open. But heaven is open, and the power of God will put us there in due time. If we took these things in, we should bid good-bye to the world and take one simple step outside of it. We would see the heaven open, Christ there, and be very conscious of the power of God to put us there.

Now we are shewn how this came out in Stephen. The first part of his witness was, "I see the heavens opened". It has been said that the heavens were never opened until Christ was here. Now we get the

heavens opened to a man, Stephen, who bears witness of it. It was a new thing, a new point of departure. If the heavens are opened, do you think they could be closed upon the Holy Spirit? "Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven". The heavens could not be closed to the Holy Spirit, nor to those who are full of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is that the heavens are open. God has been glorified in regard of righteousness, and a man has gone into heaven on the behalf of men, and hence the heavens are opened to man -- we see Jesus. Every one of us would do exceedingly well to look up to heaven stedfastly.

The next part of Stephen's witness is, that he saw the glory of God and Jesus. What I understand by the "glory of God", is God's moral effulgence, that is, all His attributes effulgent, and, at the same time, perfectly in harmony with His nature, and that in regard of man. God has taken His own way to glorify Himself, and He is glorified, not in man, but in the Son of man. The Son of man is put in distinction from man, and in the Son of man God's glory is shining out. The One in whose face the glory of God is set forth is the One who is the centre and gathering-point for man. You must put these two things together. Nothing of God has failed. All is conciliated, and displayed in the One who is in heaven.

There is another thing about Stephen; you find in him the evidence of power. He is prepared to face the bitter consequences of his testimony, and is sustained by divine power. His spirit is superior to all through which he had to pass. He was conscious of the power that was toward him, and he knew very well that that power would land him in the heavens which were open to him.

We see the proof of this in what he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". There was a place in the heavens for his spirit, and further evidence of power

comes out in that he prays for the Jews, saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge". We get here a beautiful expression of Christ in Stephen. The grace of Christ came out very distinctly in him. He had looked up to heaven and seen the glory of God. I have thought in connection with this of Psalm 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God", and it is in heaven that God has set a tabernacle for the sun: the sun in heaven is Christ.

In the present day people are very much agitated by the confusion upon earth; but things are really resolving themselves into their elements. Ritualism and Rationalism are here, but the words of the Lord, and of the apostles as well, have led us to expect it, and we should not be taken by surprise. God has declared from the beginning what things would be in the end.

We are privileged in the power of the Holy Spirit to look away from the confusion to heaven, like Stephen, where there is no confusion. There was confusion enough in his day, and our course is the same as Stephen's. He saw the glory of God and Jesus. The heavens are open to us, and we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, and we know the certainty of the inheritance, because it is in Christ we have the inheritance, and in Him we find the power to maintain us here in the reality of these things.

If I have, like Stephen, to die the death of a martyr, I can commit my spirit to the Lord; but on the other hand, if I am to live here, the power of God comes out in my being a witness. If we are in the consciousness of things, we can bear witness on earth to what is in heaven. In the consciousness of divine things, I do not care much for what is going on upon earth; but I would like to bear witness on earth of the glory of God, and Jesus at His right hand, the gathering-point for man. "Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely".

I would like to lead people to the centre and gathering-point for man, Christ in heaven. That is the effect of being a witness. We are witnesses of what is in heaven.

In experience one has found that when people have heard something which is perfectly true and repeat it, they repeat it with certain additions or deductions. It is quite a common thing to know something by report, and to find that it is another matter altogether when you have the conscious knowledge of the thing. Then it is that you can bear true witness. That is the value of being conscious of what is the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe.

The effect of it would be not only that the apostle's prayer would be answered in us, but that we should be witnessing to the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God, and that would be a great thing.

May God in His grace give us to enter into the reality and consciousness of these things, that we may be true witnesses of them.

(4) THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHAT IS CHRIST'S BY THE SPIRIT

Genesis 24:34 - 41, 66, 67; John 16:7 - 15, 20 - 22

I think that all would admit that it is a matter of profound importance to enter into the great consequences of the coming of the Spirit. In Christendom, generally, the truth which has been let slip is the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is not that the Person of the Holy Spirit is denied, but His presence is not apprehended. When I began to know anything at all about the truth of things, I could see that there were comparatively few Christians who apprehended the presence of the Holy Spirit; and, when realised, it had a most profound effect upon one's course here.

If the mass of those around take no account of the presence of the Holy Spirit I think I can understand the reason of it. The tendency of modern times has been to adapt Christianity to the course of the world. This came in even in the time of the apostles. It is clear that it was that into which the Corinthians and Galatians were nigh falling, and from which the apostle sought to deliver them.

What is connected with the presence of the Spirit, is the bringing to light, though not into display, another order of things. He brings to light the unseen things. The Holy Spirit "was not" until Jesus was glorified. Christ being now glorified has become the Centre and Head of unseen things, and the Spirit has come down to make them known; He announces the whole truth connected with Christ in glory. Hence the impossibility of connecting the presence of the Spirit with the course of this world, and the presence of the Spirit must be ignored because people cannot fit in His presence with the kind of thing which they are seeking to build up here.

The apostle's challenge both to the Corinthians and to the Galatians was in regard of the presence of the Holy Spirit. He says to the Galatians, "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith", and to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" He takes up each on the ground of the presence of the Spirit, which they were virtually ignoring because they wanted to connect Christianity with the course of this world. The Galatians desired to be circumcised, to go back to law, to observe days, months, times and years: but to do that meant to connect Christianity with the course of this world. I refer to that because my point is to speak of what the Spirit announces.

In John 15 the first point is fruit-bearing, but, at the close of the chapter, we get witness or testimony -- the Spirit would bear witness of Christ. In chapter 16, we get the announcement of the Spirit, "He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you".

He first bears witness of Christ and then announces the things connected with Christ: that is the office of the Holy Spirit. I want first to say a word in regard to the Holy Spirit in relation to the world that is. Christ says, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you", and, having come, He would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That is one side, but the Lord speaks of another side, of that which He would announce: "All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you". Now that is what I want now to come to.

If these things have been announced, it is evident that they cannot be announced again. And if they are announced to us there is an object in it. I have no doubt the object is to connect the hearts of the

saints with Christ; to deliver them from one order of things in order that they may, in mind, be connected with Christ in another order. I think that we have been too much in the habit of taking truths up in an isolated way, instead of apprehending the whole system of truth: what the Lord speaks of here as, "all truth". "When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth". It is the completeness of truth.

If you a little apprehend the whole truth, you understand the detail much better. The soul lives in the system of things which the Holy Spirit has made known to us. I would like to bring before you that system, of which Christ is the Head and Centre; things which are of the Father.

The presence of the Spirit does not exactly test the world. The world has been fully tested by the presence of Christ in it. He was in it, and was the great test which God saw fit to apply to the world. When the Spirit came the world had been tested, and the Spirit came to bring the demonstration of the result of that testing; we are entitled now to have an apprehension of the great world system as it is in the eye of God.

In John's first epistle the apostle takes this up and says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one". The Lord probably refers to the wicked one in saying, "Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged". A difference between the gospel and the epistle of John is this: In the gospel the apostle speaks of faith, but in the epistle of the consciousness of faith, and hence it is he says, "We know that we are of God". He does not say, "We believe that we are of God", but we are conscious that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. The Lord bears witness to that in the gospel. The prince of this world was judged. Christ had been the test.

That is the position of the world in the eye of God,

and it is a great point to apprehend it. There is real deliverance when a person is practically set free from the influence of this world. Very many people live and act in the presence of the world, and adapt their conduct to the judgment of the world. I have seen real Christians ordering their conduct more or less with reference to the judgment of the world, but it makes little difference to me what the world may think of me. I cannot order my conduct to merit the approval of a world which is convicted concerning sin.

Christ was the test, and the test proved fatal. It discovered the self-will of man. Man was blinded by his self-will, and did not apprehend the witness which Christ brought. There was no lack of witness both in word and in work, but man's foolish self-will blinded him in regard of every evidence that Christ gave. "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father: for which of those works do ye stone me?" Man was so blind that he would stone the One who bore witness, and, therefore, the Spirit brings demonstration of sin, "because they believe not on me". They would not have been guilty in the same way if the evidence had not been there, but when Christ came the world was left without excuse.

I do not doubt at all that the result would be the same today if it were possible for Christ to come again in humiliation; man would shew that he is blinded by his own perverse will in spite of the evidence that the Lord might give. "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father". People were astonished at the works that Christ did, but they became accustomed to the mighty works, and self-will came in, and they did not believe in Him.

Now we come to righteousness. Jesus says, "Of righteousness because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more". The righteous One does not remain

here. All that is in the will of God must come forth from the Father, and come forth by the righteous One. Nothing can be brought about for God by any political change in the world, everything is brought about by the righteous One gone to the Father, and everything for God will come forth from the Father.

But there is another thing, the prince of this world is judged, and that shews us the position of the world. The world has been tested by the presence of Christ, and found wanting. There is no more testing for the world, but the Spirit brings demonstration that all has been brought to an issue by the presence of Christ. It is God's purpose to deliver us from this present evil world. "Our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father". You do not find prophets talking about the deliverance of people from this present evil world, but in the New Testament you find that Christ died to that end.

Now just a word as to the presence of God here by the Spirit, because this is a truth of profound importance. The Spirit of God must be our standard of judgment in regard of everything as to God. You only apprehend the true character of the world-system in the presence of the Spirit of God. He has come to us in order that we may have the consciousness of that of which John speaks at the close of this epistle, "We are of God". And He has wrought in us the conviction, "The whole world lies in the wicked one". That is the position of the world. The attempt to identify Christianity with the course of this world cannot alter the world in the presence of God. Christianity is corrupted, but the world is not really improved. But after all, light has come in to deliver us from the world system.

I pass on now to the other side, to that which is connected with the Holy Spirit. "When he, the

Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you". I read in connection with that the passage in Genesis 24. The servant says, "I am Abraham's servant. And Jehovah has blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he has given him sheep, and cattle, and silver, and gold, and bondmen, and bondwomen, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master after she had grown old: and unto him has he given all that he has".

I do not doubt that in what the servant said here we have a foreshadowing of the present moment. You get in John the remarkable statement, "All things that the Father hath are mine"; and the servant said, Jehovah has greatly blessed my master, and to his son hath he given all. That son was Isaac. Isaac was born outside of the power of nature, and all was given to Isaac. You can readily see that these two passages are very much akin. The Lord says of the Spirit, "He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you". That indicates to me the unchanging interest that Christ had in the disciples. I think, too, that all was bound up with the ways of God, for, in a sense, everything is looked at as coming from the Father. The Father is put in contrast to the world, and is presented as the source of everything which is for eternal blessing. The Son is regarded as the only-begotten coming forth from the Father: the Spirit proceeds from the Father: and the saints are given of the Father to Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself says, "Thine they were and thou gavest them me". In purpose they were the Father's, but the Father gives them to Christ: and

Christ brings them to the Father. We have it expressed in the lines --

"Thou gav'st us, in eternal love,
To Him, to bring us home to Thee". (Hymn 88)

They were the Father's, but given to Christ in order that He might conduct them to the Father. The world and the Father are put in contrast, the world system has been tested and is convicted; all its character is demonstrated by the Spirit, but in the Father we have the source of another system. Not simply is God revealed in love in the Father, but the One who is the Son and Heir of all that the Father hath, is presented.

The first point in the system of truth is the revelation of God. Everything which has come to pass is in the full light of God. When God created man, he was not in the full light of God, because the heart of God was not yet revealed. God created man perfect and set him in the presence of divine goodness, but he could not know the love of God till God revealed Himself. When man was created the moment had not come for God to reveal Himself. The revelation of God was, in a sense, gradual, for though in the Old Testament we get divine light coming in as to the character and attributes of God, we could not speak of the full revelation of God until the death of Christ. It was at the death of Christ that the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and then it was that God was revealed. Christ came here to reveal God. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". Eternal blessing is in the full light of divine love and glory. God is in the light; that is the principle to be apprehended.

Now another point is that all is centred in the Son, "All things that the Father hath are mine". The Lord ever looks to the Father as being the source of everything. Every family is of the Father. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians, "Of whom every family in the heavens

and on earth is named". Christ is the centre of every circle. There may be many circles, but He is the centre of all. "All things that the Father hath are mine". That is a remarkable word; and, from the very fact of all being His, He gives His own character to all, in order that all may be according to the Father. I judge that Christ has become Man in order that He may be Head of every family, the centre of every circle: that He may give a morally divine character to all. God does not again create an innocent man. Man, as such, was tested and failed; now the second Man has come into the scene, the Man who is out of heaven, and He takes up the position of Head that all may be according to the nature of God.

The great issue of God's ways is, that God is to be all in all, and that is consequent upon Christ having become Man, and giving His own character to every family which is under Him. He could say, "All things that the Father hath are mine". The effect of that was to interest the hearts of the disciples in Christ. The Holy Spirit would come and make known to them all the counsels of the Father, and the place which Christ had taken in reference to these counsels. All was to the end that the hearts of the disciples might find their centre of interest in the Son. The Holy Spirit would make known to them the whole system of truth, and the life of their souls was to be in the truth. Christ was the Son of God, and was the centre for them, and He counts upon their being taken up with His things, by the Holy Spirit, according to the Father's counsels.

The announcement of the Holy Spirit has been made. God has made known the detail of His will which He hath purposed in Himself for the dispensation of the fulness of times, to gather together in One all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth. God has given us an insight even into that which is to mark eternity. We have the light of the

heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God with men, and the abolition of the old order of things: no more death. Our hearts are carried on to that by the Spirit. All is taken up in the Son, in order that the Father may have supreme satisfaction in all; that is the meaning in all.

Now I want to say a word upon the practical effect of this. The Spirit of God, the Comforter, has come to give us the announcement. All is made known, but you do not enter into the understanding of it but by the Spirit. The natural mind of man cannot touch these things. It is not in the competency of man to take up these things at all. He could not understand them, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him". We get the power to understand these things in the Holy Spirit. "The spiritual discerns all things; and he is discerned of no one".

I might venture to ask the question, What is the life in which you are practically living? I can understand a person living in the life of the world; but, on the other hand, I can understand a saint living in the life of Christ. You have to put two things in contrast. For instance, Moses proposed to Israel life or death, blessing or cursing. He urged Israel to choose life and not death. My own thought has been to leave the life of the world in order to live in the life of Christ.

What marks the life of the world, to begin with, is sin and the shadow of death. I think if you have any experience of it you will admit that the will of man and pride, covetousness, ambition, and self-seeking, all that kind of thing, go to make up largely the life of the world. Politics form a great part of the life of the world. The principles which lie at the bottom of all are expediency and covetousness. Many people in the world have strong natural force of character, which God has been pleased to allow in man; there are in

man, too, evidences of God's handiwork; but all that does not alter the world morally: it is still the sphere of covetousness and largely governed by expediency. Inventions would have but a poor chance of success if it were not that they promote moneymaking. Covetousness gives an impetus to inventive power.

But while we have the life of the world on the one hand, we have the life of Christ on the other. And I touch on only two points in connection with it: love and holiness. These are the two great marks of the life of Christ. The life of Christ is morally divine, and must be so from the fact of who Christ is.

There is this principle in love, it works in every direction. There is love to God, love to Christ, love to the saints, and love to one's neighbour. In that way it fulfils the law, for "love works no ill to its neighbour; love therefore is the whole law"; and love is the true way to holiness. If you have part in the divine nature, you will not want holiness meetings. Holiness will be promoted in a very simple way. You cannot dissociate holiness from the divine nature.

Another point in connection with this is, that the life of Christ adapts itself to the circumstances in which we are here, and I am sure you can want nothing better or more suitable here; for humility, meekness and endurance all spring out of love. In the Lord there was love to perfection, and it adapted itself to the very incongruous circumstances in which He was found in the world. Love was natural to Christ. Love is the spring of everything that is comely and agreeable to God on the one hand, while, on the other, it is corrective of all which is unworthy and unseemly. If one needed proof of this, it is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

Being in the life of Christ, we delight to meditate upon the things which the Spirit of God has announced,

"All things that the Father hath are mine". The Holy Spirit has brought the announcement of these things in order that He may interest our hearts in all that which Christ is, as Son. The disciples were first brought into the light of it, then into the life of it; and so with us, we receive the light of it, but we have to be in the life of it. Love and blessing in the light of the Father are brought in by the power of the Spirit. He brings us into everything which is of the Father. The Holy Spirit came to open up another order of things, which is the fruit and blessed result of the revelation of God in Christ, and of the place which Christ has, as man, according to the Father's counsels.

(5) THE OFFERING PRIEST AND APPROPRIATION

Hebrews 2:17, 18; Hebrews 13:10 - 16

I want to bring before you the great importance of Christians appropriating what God has been pleased to place within their reach. I have a strong impression that many do not get all that they might, they have not the full benefit that God intends them to get, because they fail to appropriate what He has placed within their reach. It is a defect that I have suffered from myself, and have seen many another suffering from, too.

Faith is one thing, but appropriation is quite another. No one, of course, could appropriate who did not first believe. Faith is the light of God received into the heart of man, and whatever light from God I have received reaches me where I am down here; but appropriation is a step beyond that. When once I have believed what God has set before me, and the light has come home to me, then I see that God in grace has put certain things within the reach of my appropriation; and if I fail to appropriate them, I fail to enter into all the good that it has been God's pleasure to put within my reach. The point of appropriation is what I want to dwell upon; and that, as far as I understand it, is connected with the priesthood of Christ, or with Christ as priest. If you answer to the thought of God in that way, and use what God has been pleased in grace to set before you, you will get great good, and you will then be prepared to go forth to Him without the camp; you will praise God, and do good to men. You will answer to the mind of God down here.

Now, with regard to Christ, every type fails in what one might call the point of completeness. You can get no type of Christ in which victim and priest are

combined. For instance, if a man offered a sin offering, he brought the victim, and killed it, and then the priest came and dealt with the blood; there had to be the offering priest. What man could offer himself an offering to God? The fact is that the man's own life was already forfeited. So that a man bringing his offering, and the priest offering the blood, proved that victim and priest were perfectly distinct. But when you come to God's ways in Christ, you get what was never set forth in any type, both victim and priest in One. As offering priest Christ had not yet taken up the office of high priest, He was laying the foundation; He offered Himself. What other sacrifice could He have offered save Himself? And, on the other hand, who, but Himself, could have offered Himself without spot to God? He was both victim and priest.

I come now to a point of moment, that while there could be no revival of the victim, there is the revival of the priest; that is the truth in connection with the offering of Christ -- otherwise the point of appropriation could not come in; as far as the victim was concerned it was offered to God, and could not be revived. The blood was the witness of the life given up, which was the case as to the victim; but the priest remains.

It says in Romans 6, "Our old man is crucified with him", that is, that the man after that order is gone in the crucifixion of Christ; but the priest abides. Everybody will consent to that when it is stated, but perhaps we have not in our minds made the distinction between the two thoughts. God raised Christ again from the dead, the priest is still there, and He is there in the power of an endless life, and can never again have to say to sin. He came once into the condition in which He could die, but He can never die again, and as priest He abides for ever. He has gone to the right hand of God, and is there no longer as offering priest, but as high priest -- priest for

ever after the order of Melchisedec. Now that is the case with regard to Christ. I feel I must go over the foundations, in order to make the point of appropriation plain; if you do not understand the distinction of the victim from the offering priest, you will not be able to appropriate the priest. And if He was offering priest for us, to make "atonement for the sins of the people", to whom do you think He is going to commit the succour of the people? He will commit it to no one, the offering priest becomes the high priest in order that He may succour the people for whose sins He has made atonement. The close of Hebrews 2 brings out His qualification for that place, He is able to succour the tempted in that "He himself hath suffered being tempted". The tempter came to Christ, and the Lord passed through the fear of death, He suffered in view of all that lay before Him, in view of death and the judgment of God, but it is His qualification to succour the tempted. Though they may tremble at the thought of death -- not exactly in the way of misgiving, but heart and flesh quailing -- Christ is able to succour the tempted, and His qualification is that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted. Many a martyr has experienced the succour of Christ in this way, I do not doubt.

There is one more point of contrast I will allude to between Christ and law. Supposing a man brought a sin-offering to the priest, he could not offer the blood himself, the priest had to do that according to the divine commandment. But although the priest might offer a persons' offering, it did not at all follow that he had any particular affection for those whose offerings he offered. The priest was official, and that was the case all through that order of things. The Aaronic priesthood was official; the priest, as being of the sons of Aaron, was qualified to offer the sacrifices, but the priest had not necessarily affection for the people whose offerings he accepted. There was not the link

of affection; the man was bound to bring his offering, and if he brought it, the priest was bound to offer it according to the ordinance; his part was official, and officialism is a cold kind of thing. Such was the order in Israel in that day; there was a system of sacrifice, but not in the power of the Spirit, nor in divine affections. Now, everything is changed, it was in love Christ gave Himself; He was not a priest officially, "If he were on earth he should not be a priest", but in love he offered Himself, by the eternal Spirit, without spot to God; it was that the love of God might be expressed, and that changes the whole aspect of things. When one first got an apprehension of Christ it was as the victim; but the moment we begin to apprehend Him as priest, we learn that it was in love that He offered Himself; He loved us and gave Himself for us. You can appreciate the great difference between a priest officially, and a priest in divine affection. There are plenty of priests in the present day, but I would not care to trust them; a priest may profess to absolve people, but is he going to answer for them in the day of judgment? I would say to such an one, "If you cannot absolve me in the day of judgment, it is useless for you to absolve me now". But Christ offered Himself, a victim without spot, to God; He died for our sins, and the victim is gone, but the priest abides, and there is, too, what there never was under the old system, a link of affection between the offering priest and the offerer. Christ was the embodiment of divine love -- He loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. That is the great reality of what has come to pass in Christ, He offered Himself for us in divine love -- that is what we learn as we become acquainted with Him as offering priest. Death has come in upon the old man, the man that had offended; the blood is the witness of righteousness accomplished -- that is where we begin; but we see Jesus

raised again from the dead, we apprehend Him as the offering priest, and learn that His offering Himself was the blessed expression of divine affection. That is where appropriation comes in. I have often seen in the world a lack, in people failing to appropriate the affection which is at their service. Sometimes a wife fails to appropriate the love of her husband, though it is towards her; and, on the other hand, a husband fails to appropriate the love of his wife. And so, too, with children, they often do not appropriate the affection of their parents; I think domestic unhappiness arises to a large extent from the failure to appropriate affection. The affection is there, but it is chilled rather than appropriated.

Now divine love has placed Christ, as offering priest, within the reach of our appropriation; you are free to appropriate the Priest because, in love, He offered Himself for our sins. He was delivered for our offences, or, as we get it here, He made atonement for the sins of the people, and love lay at the back of it, was the spring and secret of it -- and you are entitled to appropriate His affection. The love of Christ is appropriated, and enjoyed, and responded to on the part of the saint, so that one can say, "and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" -- that is an instance of appropriation -- He loved me. The apostle apprehended Christ as the offering priest, and that it was in love that He had given Himself; he apprehended and appropriated, and was affected by the love of Christ. And he would have done anything for the love of Christ. And it is certain that nothing is worthy of Christ but what is done from love to Him. But my point is that His love is there to be appropriated; whatever may be our failure. I would not like to slight the love of Christ. You may depend upon it, there is something lying in the way if a wife does not appreciate the love of her husband, it may be a bit of

vanity, or self-will, or what not, but it hinders her appropriating the love that is at her service. And so with us, we may be indulging something that hinders our appropriating the affection of Christ, and Christ is distant to such a person; but He is there to be appropriated, and the end that He has in view is that you might respond to His love.

Now I will not say more on that point, but turn to Hebrews 13:10, etc. You get here again the idea of the Priest, and of the offering. He was going to sanctify the people, and the means by which He would sanctify them was His own blood. "Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate". The blood became the witness of the death of the victim, and that is how He would sanctify the people. Now we go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, that is, in mind we are in accord with the death of Christ, "I am crucified with Christ" -- that is what I understand by going forth to Him without the camp. He was crucified, and in mind I accept that, I say I died with Him. If He had not died for us, it would be impossible for us to die with Him, but since He has died that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, we go forth to Him without the camp bearing His reproach. I have no part in the religious order of the world; Christ fell under reproach continually because He had no part in the religious system of that day. He would not put new wine into old bottles, neither would He put new cloth on an old garment -- and that is the position of the Christian now, he bears the reproach of Christ because he will not accept a place in the religious order of this world. If anybody were to say, "Why do you not belong to the State Church?" I would reply, "I am not good enough". I could not take up such a position, for my mind is in accord with the death of Christ; I see my place to be His cross, therefore I could not take up the position of the man

after the flesh. There is another possible view of the world system, that it is wholly rotten, an imposture in every part of it. Many real Christians are ensnared in it, but the whole thing from top to bottom merits nothing but the judgment of God, that is my firm and deliberate judgment of it.

Now I want to draw your attention to two words, verse 15, "By him" -- what I understand by those two simple words is -- they indicate the appropriation of the Priest, it is "By him"; you are governed by the affection of the Priest. I have apprehended Christ as the victim, who has satisfied every demand of righteousness; I am justified; cleared in that respect; but more than that -- the heart apprehends Him as the offering priest, who in love gave Himself for me; and you will never do anything agreeable to God except as you are affected by the love of Christ. All else is dead works, and your conscience is purged from these, to serve the living God -- but how? Only by the power of the affection of the Priest -- it is "By him". Now are you going to let that love lie idle? If you do, it is to your damage, you may be small for eternity because you neglect the love of Christ now, which lies at your service. Do ponder these two simple words "By him" -- that is, you are governed by the affection of the Priest.

Well, then, you offer praise to God, and do good to men: it is not doing good to God, and blessing man; you could not do good to God, but you can praise Him, and it says, "Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me". You offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, but it is as your heart is affected and governed by the love of Christ. If my heart is under the constraint of His love, then I shall praise God. I offer to Him the fruit of my lips, "Giving thanks to his name". It is not a very great thing, but it is proof of the appreciation of divine love, that love in which Christ gave Himself for me; it begets a measure of

return in the Christian, he offers the sacrifice of praise to God. And what is offered to God cannot be called back, it is a sacrifice in the sense that it can never be recalled. On the other hand we are to "Do good, and to communicate ... for with such sacrifices God is well pleased". God has left us down here, that we may do good to men.

A path is marked out in which the Christian is affected by the love of Christ, and it is a very happy thing when His love is appreciated. Love would never do harm to its object, but love allied to infinite power to help and succour is what we have found in the high priest. What is the worth of a high priest who has not affection for his people? In the case of the children of Israel, the high priest carried their names not only on his shoulder but on his breast. So with Christ; we are in the enjoyment of His affection, but affection which is inseparably allied to power; He can come in to our succour when we are under pressure, and under pressure we will surely come down here, and want succour; but there is succour for you because there is affection. It is succour dictated by affection. You see one instance of succour in John 11. Jesus had allowed Lazarus to die, and why? I think it was because He was going to teach them His affection; but not only that, He was going to teach them a deep and divine lesson, that His affection was allied with infinite power. Mary never forgot that lesson; as long as they lived down here upon earth they could never forget the lesson that Christ taught them then. Not simply did they learn His love, but that His power was at the disposal of His love; there was infinite power to succour at the disposal of affection. He allowed them to be tried, for Lazarus died, but He was only waiting to teach them the lesson of His love. Mary says, "If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died". And you may wonder if Christ does not come in at the moment you would

like, but He delays in love; He will let you be tested for the moment, but His affection is towards you, and He will use His power at the right moment, as the servant of His affection, in order to succour you.

Now do not forget the expression "By him" -- under the influence of the love of Christ you can give yourself up to praise God; you can walk in the path that is well pleasing to Him; instead of murmuring and complaining, there will be fruit to God, the sacrifice of praise continually. And then on the other hand, though you cannot praise men, it would not do any good to praise men, you can do good and communicate -- that is the path of the Christian. Your mind is in accord with the death of Christ, and hence it is that you go forth to Him without the camp; you accept that you have no part in the religious order of this world system. The world does not trouble itself much about me, it goes on with its own things without me; but if I am crucified to it, on the other hand, it is crucified to me. I discern its character.

Now do not let the love of Christ lie idle as far as we are concerned. I would like everyone to be stirred up to appropriate the love which has been expressed in the offering of Christ, so that you can say with the apostle, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me". And then you will go through the world, very glad to be apart from its religious order.

(6) REST AND CHRIST'S YOKE

Matthew 11:20 - 30

It is important to notice that these words of the Lord Jesus were spoken at a critical moment in the course of His ministry. He brings out the point upon which everything turned. I doubt whether you get the force of the passage, if that is not apprehended. It must have been a peculiarly solemn moment when the Lord pronounced woes on the cities wherein most of His mighty works had been done. They had not repented, and the moment had come when the Lord took account of this. God knows the condition of things at any given moment, but often delays to take account of things, because when He does so, it must be in judgment. We see this in the days before the flood. The Lord too was conscious of the state of things which existed around Him, but He waited the moment when He should take account of it; and this passage shews us that the moment had come. And then we find that another order of things was to come in; Christianity was to come in, and take the place of the mighty works of Christ. The mighty works were properly the harbinger of the kingdom. There had been the mighty works of Christ, works of grace to man; and grace brought responsibility; the judgment of those cities would be greater than the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Where there has been no special testimony, there is responsibility, but at the same time, the greater the testimony the greater the responsibility. The gospel, which is the greatest testimony of all, fills up the measure of responsibility; people incur responsibility in hearing it. Now I am not going to speak about the woes, I only referred to them in order that you might appreciate the solemnity of the moment.

It seems a strange contrast to the announcement of woes, that the Lord says, "I thank thee, O Father"; He finds occasion to thank the Father. We see these contrasts in the Lord's ministry. I think one can appreciate them as one enters into the wisdom of the ways of God; the Lord could here thank the Father for the wisdom of His ways: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight". "These things" are, I suppose, the things connected with God's gracious approach to men. Christ was on earth expressing that approach; His mighty works were an expression of it. But the fact is this, that the revelation of God is not couched in a form which commends itself to the mind of man; when God works it will commend itself to man's moral being, but it is not in a form which would suit the mind of man naturally. It does not accommodate itself to the mind of the philosopher, or of the scientific man. I mention those two classes because they represent two particular forms which the mind of man takes, and the presentation of God suits neither the one nor the other. Men were compelled to notice the gracious words that proceeded out of Christ's mouth; they were compelled to own that He knew letters though He had never learned, and yet, at the same time, His word did not commend itself to the leaders of the Jews. Divine things are not couched by God in a form which would put any sanction whatever upon the acquirements of man. Philosophy and science are nothing with regard to the things of God. It is a remarkable feature in scripture, and was true with the Lord Himself, that everything is narrated in the simplest possible way; not at all in a way that would fall in with the conceptions of the philosopher or the man of science. The Lord did not seek to please the great or the intelligent of the earth among

whom He came; indeed, they found continual occasion of stumbling in Him; but though these things were hid from the wise and prudent, yet it was the Father's pleasure to reveal them to babes, and the Lord rejoices in this. It is the philosophers and men of science who are the greatest enemies of the truth, they claim absolute licence for the mind of man, and hence refuse the thought of a revelation from God; they reject any and every revelation of God by assuming that man's mind is to judge of it.

The fact is the mind of man is opposed to God, and God will never endorse it, so we find He had "Hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes". Man is in a state of moral ruin, and God will put no honour upon his mind or intelligence. When the mind serves the purpose of an eye, it is useful, but we are dependent upon the revelation of God to know anything of God, and upon the work of the Holy Spirit; and the mind of man has to cease from activity. It is serviceable as an eye, but is most dangerous when it becomes active in the things of God.

Now we get a very important point brought out, and that is this, that Christ was the centre and head of everything for the Father. That is implied in what the Lord says here, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him". He was the centre, the head, as Man here, of everything of the Father.

There is another point. There are depths in the Godhead which are beyond the ken of man, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father". God is known to us through revelation, and revelation connects itself with the economy of grace; our knowledge of divine persons is as they are connected with the economy of grace. When it says here "All things are delivered

to me of my Father", it is not a question exactly of Godhead, but of the place of the Son in relation to the Father; the position of the Father is that He sent the Son, and the position of the Son is that He was there to be sent, and content to be sent. So, too, the Holy Spirit has come, and has seen fit to come as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. It is in that way that we have divine Persons presented to us in the economy of grace, and our knowledge of them is limited by revelation. There is no such thing as absolute knowledge on the part of man in regard to the Godhead; as I said, our knowledge is limited by revelation, and revelation presents divine Persons to us according to the position in which they stand in relation to the ways of grace; that is, the Father as sending the Son, and the Son assuming a body that He might come; and the Holy Spirit coming as the promise of the Father. The Son goes back to the Father, and sends from the Father the promise of the Spirit. The office of the Son we get here, He reveals the Father to whomsoever He will.

I think the Son reveals the Father in His activities of love; in all that was coming out when Christ was here; for there was a point to which the Father could gather. The Father's activities could now be made manifest; there always had been the activities of the Father; all will remember the word in John 5, "My Father worketh hitherto" -- there ever were these activities, but when Christ came, they became manifest, because there was a point with which they could connect themselves. The Lord was continually speaking of the Father's activities, for all the activities of grace were connected with the Father; He said, "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven"; then again the Father sought worshippers -- "The Father seeketh such to worship him". It was in that way that He was making known the Father, and it was His pleasure, for He did not speak from Himself,

what He heard He spoke. The Son delighted to reveal the Father, and at the same time the Son was the blessed centre to whom the Father drew. The Father drew to the Son, because the Son having become man, it was of necessity that He should be the centre and Head of all those who were to be brought into blessing. There is the activity of the Father still; the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world, and that He might be the centre of those He saved. He wrought, and wrought to that end. Those blessed were given to the Son, in order that they might be brought by the Son to the Father. And the work of the Son at the present time is to bring us to the Father's heart, and in the future to bring us to the Father's house. So perfectly has He revealed the Father that He could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"; He could rebuke one who demanded to see the Father, for He had presented the Father. Not only did He speak of the Father, but He presented the Father in His nature and activities. The works that He did were the Father's works, He made known what the Father was doing in respect of man in divine mercy. There was the sovereignty of mercy which drew to the Son, that the Son might be pre-eminent in the midst of those who were thus drawn.

I wish that all might take in the position of things, in regard of the Father's activities, and of the Son as the centre and point of gathering for those activities to work upon. We get the prayer of the Lord in John 17, "I have declared to them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them", and the apostle Paul takes up the idea in Romans 8, "I am persuaded that neither death nor life ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" -- He is the centre of those who are blessed in the presence of the Father's love.

Now I pass on to what the Lord bases on that.

The first thought is this, there were those who were burdened and heavy laden; there were those here who were under the burden and weight of the legal system; the apostle Peter speaks of the law as a burden which neither they, nor their fathers, had been able to bear. It was the godly people who felt the burden, and they were unable to bear it; such was the condition of pious people at that time; they were under the yoke of the law, and laboured under it, and were heavy laden; and that was necessarily the state of such as were seeking to comply with the requirements of God. Of course as long as people were unconverted, they did not feel the burden, but where they were under exercise they felt the burden, and knew that they could not maintain themselves in relation to God by the law. They were very much in the position of the man in Luke 10, who had fallen among thieves and had been stripped of his raiment -- that pictured the condition of many in the time when the Lord was here. God gave the law in His wisdom, but it was a ministration of death to man. The law never brought death, but it ministered death, it brought it home to man; the law did not bring condemnation but was the ministration of it. It was the bringing home to man of his inability to meet the requirements of God. When the law came to a man it shewed him that he was sold under sin, and the law killed the man; the apostle says in Romans 7, "Sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me", and again, "I through law have died to law". It was connected with man's working, and was burdensome to him; burdensome in observances, and institutions, and ceremonies; it was not written in his heart, but a burden. It brought no assurance, or peace, or rest, but was a burden which lay heavy upon man all the time he was down here, and from which he could not relieve himself; it was all connected with doing. Well now the Lord says, "Come unto me ... and I will

give you rest", He gives us rest in making known to us the work of the Father; if the Father works there is no room for man's work. You get a picture of the Father's works in John 5 a man is there lying paralysed under the law, then you get the word, "Take up thy bed and walk" -- that gives you the idea of the Father's work; and when once man gets the idea of the Father's work in love on the behalf of men, then he ceases from his work; he sees that his work is perfectly futile. Thus the Father seeks to produce in men confidence towards Himself, and all man's work is useless as to producing one single spark of affection towards God. The Father sent the Son in the activity of love. When the soul begins to apprehend that the Father works, then it ceases from its work, it begins to know rest.

Now coming to Christ to get rest really means coming to One who is unsavoury to the world; the point had come in the ministry of the Lord when it was evident that He was unsavoury to the world. He had piped to them, and they had not cared to dance -- He was not agreeable to them. And therefore coming to Christ means that you turn your back upon the world, and no one comes to Christ who does not turn his back upon the world. Christ has been rejected by the world, and if people do not really leave the world, and come to Christ, they do not get rest; but once they do leave the world, He makes known to them the blessed activities of the Father, and they then cease from their works; my works were never any good, my righteous works were but dead works, the only righteous works were His. But now the time has come to cease from works, that Christ may produce in the one who has come to Him holy affections; He makes known the Father, and so produces the response of affection in the heart towards the Father.

Now the word that follows: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me" does not speak exactly of what

Christ gives, the previous verse did that; but this verse refers more to the pathway, and tells you what you will find in it -- "rest to your souls". You enter on a pathway in which you find rest. I have told you what I understand by the labouring and being heavy laden, but now the Lord speaks of a yoke. Well, the yoke of Christ is, I believe, bearing the burdens of others. The characteristic of the Lord's ministry down here was "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses", that is bearing the burdens of others. In Galatians we have the word, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ". Christ was free of every burden, but He came into a scene where people were under burdens, and He not only relieved them of their burdens, but He put Himself under them. You can see in John 11 how the Lord put Himself under the burden of Martha and Mary, He groaned and wept, moved by their sorrow. He bore the burden of others, and hence bearing one another's burdens is called the "law of Christ". "Take my yoke upon you" -- Christ was low enough down in the scale of the world to bear the burden of others; if He had been high up He could not have done it, but He was meek and lowly of heart, and could bear others' burdens, and that was His yoke down here. Nothing can equal the pathway of the Lord Jesus down here. It is a great thing to come down to Christ, to learn of Him, to see that a divine Person in becoming a man here is meek and lowly in heart; but it is just the suitability of divine love to the circumstances in which it was found. Divine love adapts itself to the circumstances in which it is found -- it is suitable to heaven, but when it comes down here it is suitable to earth: "Meek and lowly in heart". The principle of love comes out in 1 Corinthians 13 you get there the adaptability of love to any and every circumstance; it bears all things -- believes all things, hopes all things, endures

all things -- that is how love behaves itself in the circumstances in which it is found; it is suitable anywhere -- to the life of pressure, and the burdens under which man is found down here upon earth. You do not suppose that the Lord inherited the principles of meekness and lowliness from His mother; it was just the natural fruit of divine love.

The Lord marks out a path for us here, a blessed path in which we can find rest to our souls. It is not the same thought as in the preceding verse, there He gives us rest as making known the working of the Father, but here we get rest as walking the path appointed for us. It is not adapting ourselves to the world, but adapting ourselves in love to the necessities of men, and to the pressure under which man is found down here. You are to come under the burdens of others. I do not think that I ought ever to propose to another a path I have not followed myself; but Christ was in this path Himself, and He proposes to us to walk in His path. No one can have pleasure in legal services, but what a man carries out as the fruit and effect of love, he has pleasure in, and therefore Christ can say, "My yoke is easy and my burden light" -- it is the pleasure of love. The Lord Jesus had sorrows down here such as we can never know, and, as far as I can understand them, they were in large measure due to the terrible perversity of man; but His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work. He had pleasure down here too; and I think we too shall find pleasure in His service. All that He did in bearing the burdens of others, being the outcome and expression of love, could never be burdensome, it was always His pleasure. We first get rid of our own burden, for we have a burden of our own, but Christ gives rest from it, and then we put ourselves under the burdens of others. In the one case it was the burden of legality, and in the other it is of love. The great thing is to come down to

Christ; we often want to maintain a certain status and degree in the world; there is a great deal of pride with us; we do not find rest to our souls in this. There is a path in which Christ has led the way, and in regard of which He invites us to follow Him. When the Lord Jesus was here He was the most approachable Person on earth; no one but He could have said I am meek and lowly in heart; but He was so -- and from that fact He was the most accessible of men. No one hesitated to come to Him -- where people were wicked they took care not to come to Him, because they knew they would be exposed; but wherever people were conscious of their burdens, even sinful people, like the woman in Luke 7, they came to Him that they might be relieved from the pressure of their own sin and sorrow -- and He gave them rest. Then it was their pleasure to put themselves under the burdens of others, and they found His yoke easy and His burden light. They were affected by the love of Christ, and so were prepared to fulfil the law of Christ. And in fulfilling that law you will find, not trial and trouble, but rest to your souls.

I think you will be able to distinguish between the rest that Christ gives, in making known to you the activities of the Father, and that rest which you will find in treading the path that He has marked out for you. The Galatians were biting and devouring each other, though they were legal; and in contrast to that, the apostle admonishes them to bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. He goes on to say, "If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself". The great point is to "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" -- if you follow that, you will find the yoke of Christ easy and His burden light.

(7) THE GLORY OF GOD AND JESUS

Acts 7:44 - 60

The greater part of us have no doubt often heard this scripture read and commented upon -- so that one cannot expect to present anything new in connection with it; but incidents of this kind are so full of character, that each time they come before us they present some fresh feature; and it is that which has encouraged me to read this passage at the present time. This particular chapter is a point of transition, and a point of transition is pretty sure to be a point of contrast. Now we learn most things by contrast. The Epistle to the Hebrews has often been said to be an epistle of contrasts; the Spirit of God uses the contrast between what has been, and what is, to convey to us the truth. The contrast is between what had been, and what is -- not between what will be, and what is. Stephen might have presented the contrast between what existed, and what would be, but that was not the mind of the Spirit; the mind of the Spirit was that he should present what he himself saw, and that was the transition from what had been to what is.

All know the circumstances of his witness and death; he passes off the scene as the first martyr; and the man at whose feet the witnesses laid down their clothes, comes in and takes up from where Stephen left off. The Jews crushed out the life of Stephen by stoning him, but God raised up the most unlikely man to continue where, in a certain sense, Stephen had left off.

I will say a little now upon the point of contrast of which I spoke, the contrast between what has been, and what is. The impression I want to convey is of what IS; it is so extremely important that all should be encouraged to be taken up with what is. I quite

admit it is with unseen things, but unseen things are present things, and eternal things. You want to be looking at the unseen things -- it seems like a paradox to speak of looking at things that are not seen, but that is the way in which the apostle speaks and he says, "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal". Stephen looked at things which are not seen, and he learned that the unseen things are eternal. Stephen was taken up with things not apprehended by the natural eye. Most will be familiar with the detail of the chapter: he begins by passing in review the ways of God from the times of the patriarchs down to the then present moment. The first section of the chapter takes up the patriarchs, the next the nation, and the third the temple. These are three landmarks in the chapter. The point in connection with the patriarchs is that God gave them the promises, but they died. They never had the fulfilment of the promises made to them. Of course, Abraham had Isaac, who had been promised to him; but in general the patriarchs did not have the fulfilment of the promises made to them; they embraced them, and the promises had a great effect upon them, but they never had the fulfilment. It is marked in the chapter that they died, they passed off the scene, and to all appearance the promises were left unfulfilled.

Then the next point is that the nation had been as perverse as ever a nation could be -- they turned idolatrous, they rejected their deliverers: first his brethren cast out Joseph; then, later on, the people refused Moses and thrust him from them; and in result they became idolatrous, and were to be carried away into captivity beyond Babylon.

Then in regard of the temple -- the tabernacle was brought into the land, but Solomon built God a house; but God afterwards repudiates the house, for the time had come when the people were resting in the fact of

God's house being among them, no matter what their condition, and hence God says, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me?"

I speak of these things, because in a sense they make up the sum of what had been; everything which God had proposed down here; all had broken down, all was marred, and was coming to an end. Who at the present moment thinks anything at all about the patriarchs who had the promises, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Infidels possibly doubt even their existence. But they are the men who had the promises, and you could not conceive that God should fulfil the promises apart from them -- they must get the promises. They have died in regard to men, but they live to God; God is the "God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" -- that is what the Lord said to the Sadducees, He appeals to that as a witness to resurrection. But for the moment all had ended in weakness, the men to whom God had been pleased to give the promises were dead. As to the nation, God went on with it for a certain time, but it became idolatrous, and so went into captivity, and there was an end of it, and indeed of the temple too. God refused the temple, and it was trodden underfoot by the Gentiles -- there was an end of everything, all was virtually past, and Stephen reviews all in the early part of his address. It is wonderful to think that all that had been of God in the world should have come to an end; it is a strange thing outwardly, it would almost appear as though God were weak; to think that all those things which had been set up of God should end in utter weakness. The Jews in captivity beyond Babylon, at the same time the house of God repudiated, and the city trodden down of the Gentiles. If you take up these things in a natural way, you cannot understand them; but if God allowed these things to come to an end, He meant it; and He did not mean that they should be revived.

Christendom has tried to take things up again on the old footing, to revive the ritual that belonged to the Jewish system. And this country has assumed to be a kind of favoured nation, much as Israel was, and cathedrals and so on are called houses of God. You get in all this an attempt to revive what has been, and to take up things in a natural way out of their proper connection with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. The promises will assuredly be brought to pass, but not in connection with man after the flesh; the bond between God and Israel after the flesh is completely broken. The millennium will come in for Israel, but God will never renew His relations with them on the old footing. The latter glory of the house will be of a special character when everything is set up on an entirely different footing to anything that has been.

Now I speak of these things as things which have been; but we see represented in Stephen the things which are, and the things which should occupy the attention of Christians. Whatever Stephen had in the way of intelligence, he had a large acquaintance with the scriptures, but what he speaks of is also what he apprehended at the moment; he was "full of the Holy Spirit", and announced what he realised, what came within his apprehension, in the power of the Holy Spirit, at that moment. Now I think that God gave to Stephen a kind of answer to all that had come in. Stephen had been permitted to pass in review the weakness that had marked everything which had been set up here upon earth. Everything in which the Jew would have rejoiced had failed utterly, and Stephen was permitted to see the termination of all. The patriarchs, the nation, the temple -- everything had failed; all hope on that ground was completely cut away, and God gave to Stephen, as far as I understand it, the great answer to it all. And the answer is the "Glory of God, and Jesus"; God had in reserve an answer to every bit of failure. So that although we

see on the one hand the entire failure of everything down here, yet, on the other, we see God's reserve, the glory of God and Jesus.

Now the glory of God is a great point to begin with -- the glory of God is moral; Stephen did not behold it with his natural vision, he was full of the Holy Spirit. It was in Holy Spirit power, and by Holy Spirit vision, that Stephen saw the glory of God. The glory of God is what is distinctive of God, what is peculiar to Him. Glory is always distinctive, and the glory of God is glory that is God's, and in which no one can participate. If you ask me to go a little more into detail, I would say it is the displayed harmony of His attributes with His nature; and I think the Spirit of God gave Stephen an apprehension of it here. When sin came in God's attributes were not in harmony with His nature in regard to man; His love might be towards man as ever, but man had become removed from the righteousness of God by reason of sin. But now comes to light the truth that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". What has been brought to pass is that God has been glorified, and in such a way that His attributes might be in complete harmony with His nature, in regard of sinful man. God's attributes must ever be in harmony with His nature, if you speak of absolute Godhead, but if you bring in the thought of sinful man, then God's attributes need to be brought into harmony with His nature. In Christ God's righteousness is declared, His love manifested, and in the resurrection you get the testimony to the establishment of righteousness for man. God has been glorified, His righteousness declared, and God has a free hand, if one might so speak, to carry out the dictates of His love. God so loved the world, but in order that the love of God might be effective, the Son of man had to be lifted

up, and in that God was free to express the greatness of His love. The universe of bliss will be the fruit as it is the conception, of divine love. We see the great answer which God was pleased to give to Stephen, He saw the "glory of God".

Another point comes out in connection with the glory, Stephen saw "Jesus", Man was there, and, mark you, Man crowned with glory and honour. He said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God", Man had gone up to that height -- Man, born of a woman, had gone to the right hand of God, the proof and expression of the divine acceptance of man in Jesus. You have to put these two things together, God's glory secured, and Man in the place of highest acceptance and honour with God. That is what Stephen was permitted to see. He looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus on the right hand of God; then he bears witness to it, his testimony is to the Son of man. There are two lines in Scripture connected with the Lord Jesus, one is as the Son, and the other as the Son of man. As Son, He comes out to express God; and as Son of man He takes everything up on behalf of man. You will find these two lines pretty well marked in Scripture. In the fourth book of Psalms the burden is "Jehovah reigneth", but in the fifth book Christ comes in on behalf of man, and is welcomed in the very city from which He was rejected; that gives you the two sides of what is connected with Christ; He expresses God, and on the other hand, as the Son of man, He has secured everything for man. Man is in the highest place of acceptance and honour with God -- Jesus is there, the Son of man on the behalf of man. This is what came into view to Stephen, and if to him, to us too. Every hope as connected with earth is over, we have no hope for earth, and we have to take that into account; the natural desire of the human heart is to make something

of the earth, but we have to learn that there is no nation, no temple -- these things have been on the earth, but they have come to an end in weakness, and what, I ask, is the worth of the earth without them? No temple, and no people of God, strictly speaking; and the Patriarchs dead; the very temple of God a desolation and a ruin; you may depend upon it God never intended to give to the Gentile the Jews' portion -- at least, not in any material way; it would be to give to the younger brother, the elder son's portion. The Father says to the elder son, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine". He did not give that to the younger son, the younger son got another portion, the best robe, and the ring, and the shoes. The truth is the Gentile gets, in a spiritual way, what the Jew has lost in a material way.

Well, Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus. The greater the apprehension of the glory of Jesus, the greater sense we have of the place of grace for man; if we see the glory of Jesus, we have a sense of the acceptance and favour in which man stands. The greater the glory, the greater the grace. Stephen said he saw the heavens opened; he had an apprehension of what is in heaven. It was the first time that the heavens were opened to man; they had been opened upon Christ when He was here upon earth, but now they are opened to man, so that man by the Spirit may have an apprehension of the glory of God and Jesus.

I come now to what is upon earth. At the present time, Jesus is in heaven, and the testimony of God comes from heaven, but what is there on earth for God? The fathers are dead, there is no nation, and no temple, what is there for God? Well, there is one thing, there is the work of God. The Holy Spirit is here, and the work of God is the effect and fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Now that comes out in Stephen. The Holy Spirit is the mighty power down

here, acting on the behalf of God in order to produce in men complete conformity to the Man in heaven, so that man might bear the image of the heavenly as he is in the acceptance of the heavenly -- "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly", and the glory of Jesus is presented to man in order that he may know his acceptance. The work of the Holy Spirit down here is to conform the believer morally to the glory of that Man.

Now there are two things which come out in Stephen -- superiority to the power of evil, he triumphed over that; and then there was likeness to Christ; those are the two effects produced by the power of the Holy Spirit; and as to apprehension, it was the glory of God and Jesus; he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit", then he could say, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" -- that was triumph over the evil. I think one might venture to speak of this as the proof of conformity morally to Jesus in glory. And that is the effect and fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Now in regard of ourselves -- Stephen is a beautiful picture of what the power of God can effect; but we need to remember that for us, too, the platform has been cleared, everything, so far as the earth is concerned, has completely failed, and Christians have to learn that they must not indulge hopes in regard to this earth; the hopes of a Christian are concerned with heaven, and things moral. That is a great point. God has not given to us a temporal or natural portion, but our portion is a spiritual portion, and it is of all importance that our attention should be taken up with what is moral. There is first the apprehension that the Holy Spirit gives you, and then also His work down here. The Holy Spirit carries out His own blessed work down here, that you might be in conformity to the glory of God, and to the One who is in heaven. That work was carried out in Stephen, and

the Spirit is bent upon carrying it out in regard of you and me down here.

One question I would ask -- how far is it true of us that we are superior to the power of evil? How far are we proof against the god and prince of this world? so that we are not affected by the glory of the world. Satan does not come to us as a roaring lion in the present day, but with the glitter and tinsel of the world. How far are we superior in the power of the Holy Spirit to his allurements? Then there is another question, how far are we conformed to the One in the glory? There is a mighty power down here upon earth which can effect this. It came out in Stephen, He called upon God, and on the Lord Jesus, as the effect of the Spirit's teaching; all sprung from love in him, and where did that come from? From the sense of divine love; he had the blessed sense of divine love, and at the same time, he was in the knowledge of acceptance; and this came out in the way of conformity to the One in heaven. It is a great thing to apprehend the presence of the Spirit, and not only that, but the work of the Spirit, His actual positive work in conforming the saints to the One who is in the highest place of acceptance on high. These are great things to be occupied with, things which are unseen on earth, and yet are the very substance of Christianity. We have not the house, nor the nation, and if we have not the unseen things we have nothing; it is a great thing to be in the light of the glory of God, and Jesus, and in the knowledge, too, of the work of the Holy Spirit down here.

ADDRESSES ON THE PSALMS

RESURRECTION, THE BASIS

Psalms 21:1 - 13; Psalms 22:22 - 31

It is on my mind to touch on the series of Psalms beginning with Psalm 19 and including the three succeeding ones. What led me to this is the thought that the Lord is the spirit of scripture: and that the platform of God's ways is that of resurrection. It is wonderful how this comes out in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have the fact; but in the Old, prophetically, everything depended upon this; and it is, indeed, very plain that resurrection must be the platform on which God displays Himself, man being under death. This comes out in these psalms as plainly as can be. When Christ was risen from the dead He was found in the midst of the disciples, and we read of Him, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself". That was Himself risen.

All things that were spoken of Him had to be fulfilled, as He said, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem". God addresses Himself to man in the light of resurrection. I think, in writing Psalm 19, the psalmist was looking away from the confusion which is in the world, to heaven, and there is no confusion there. Sin brought in the confusion. As a matter of fact, sin has been the occasion of all the confusion on earth. No one can fail to see the confusion, it is before you every day. The politics of the world, partition of countries, and the like, witness to the confusion, but the psalmist looks away from the confusion

to the heavens, where order prevails. There is one thing upon earth in which there is no confusion. "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul".

Now, the psalmist puts together in this psalm two thoughts: (1) the heavens declare God's glory, (2) His law is upon earth. The heavens declare God's glory to the earth, and the law of God is to rule upon earth. When you get these two things brought together there is an end to all confusion.

I quite admit that the psalmist was here speaking of the material heavens, but I do not think that the Spirit of God was limited to that. I take up the idea in a moral sense, as foreshadowing that which has been brought to pass in the resurrection and glory of Christ.

If we look up to the heavens we see there the glory of God, the perfect satisfaction of every attribute of God in harmony with His nature. That is what I understand by the glory of God: righteousness and love harmonise, and the heavens thus declare the glory of God. Stephen looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God.

It is not the glory of God in creation when sin had not been in question, but the glory of God when sin has been in question; every attribute of God in perfect harmony with His love. All has been effected as is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".

Another point comes out in the psalm in connection with the heavens. "In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun". This is, I believe, a hidden allusion to Christ. The sun represents the kingdom of heaven in the Person of the Lord. Man upon earth walks naturally in the light of the sun, so Christians walk in the light of heaven. Faith walks now in the light of the Lord. Thus the heavens declare the glory of God,

and God has set a great moral light in heaven in order that man may walk on earth in that light. No one walks in light but he who is in the light of Christ. The light of the Lord is that in which the Christian walks. He is not doubtful about the way, he does not stumble, but knows where the way leads.

It is a great thing to see the heavens declaring God's glory; but there is also the law of God on the earth. "The law of the Lord is perfect". The law is God's rule for man upon earth. Christ is the light in heaven, but the Spirit is down here; and the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit; so that you thus get clear of the confusion here, and instead of confusion have life and peace. All looks on to the time when the kingdom will be displayed, when the heavens will declare the glory of God publicly.

When the heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven it has the glory of God. The glory of God will be set forth from the heavens and the law of God established on earth, but all is true in principle to us now. Faith apprehends the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we see the glory of the Lord, and walk in the light of it. In Ephesians we read, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light". The law of God is our rule for earth, the Spirit leads us in the path of God's will, and there everything is perfect. It is a blessed thing to turn away from the confusion to the Lord, where there is no confusion at all. If we apprehend Jesus in the heavens, and the character of God's law upon earth, we do not look at the confusion, but rejoice in that which is perfect. It is important to remember, that all that which we apprehend now will come out publicly in a later day. The glory of God will be displayed from the heavens in the heavenly city, and the law and testimony of God will be established here on earth. The time will come when it

will be said even in Jerusalem, "Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord".

Psalm 119 shews the effect of the law written in the heart: the law of God becomes the rule of man; and so with us, as we have seen, the righteous require-merits of the law are fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Now, just a word about Psalm 20 and Psalm 21. Here we see faith recognising and following the interests of the king. In Psalm 20 we get the determination of trouble, and in Psalm 21 the end of enemies: both one and the other are true in resurrection, for there may be trouble up to the point of death, and enemies, too, but neither trouble nor enemies can go beyond death. So it was with Christ. He entered into the experience of trouble here; He had part in it, and was exposed to enemies, too, but neither trouble nor enemies could pass beyond death: they are powerless there.

You get the figure of this in Israel. The Egyptian was swallowed up in the Red Sea. Israel had both trouble and enemies up to the Red Sea, but at the other side of the Red Sea there were neither; and so if you can carry your thought on to Christ in resurrection there are neither trouble nor enemies to be seen.

Christ had sorrow: He could say, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death"; but in John 20 He speaks to the disciples beyond sorrow and enemies. He is risen from the dead and is outside of trouble and enemies; so far as we are concerned, in the world we have tribulation and enemies; the Lord predicted that, "In the world ye shall have tribulation", but if we apprehend what it is to be risen with Christ we are in a scene outside of trouble and enemies. They do not invade there.

It is a wonderful thing that it is possible for saints to reach such a point. It is a point which faith is

privileged to reach now. When death has been swallowed up in victory, and God has established things on earth on the platform of resurrection, there will be neither trouble nor enemies occurrent; but Christ is outside them now.

The first thing is to recognise the King, and then to be identified with the interests of the King. We are in association with Christ, and in association with Him we reach the scene where there is neither trouble nor enemies. "Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead". That is the place:

"In Him we stand a heavenly band;
Where He Himself is gone". (Hymn 12)

That is, we are brought into the worshipping company, associated with Christ, and pass outside the reach of trouble and enemies, though we may have to encounter them in our individual path here.

The apostle exhorted the saints in his day that they must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. It is not God's way that we should escape tribulation in the world. The world is a scene for faith, where we have to meet enemies, those who will not admit the rights and claims of Christ; but where Christ is, in resurrection, and in our recognition of Him there, you pass outside the world. May God lead us into the consciousness of association with the One to whom He has given life for evermore. "He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever".

Now I pass on to Psalm 22, and its character is, I may say, entirely different from the preceding ones of which I have spoken. In verse 22 it says, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee"; then in verse 25: "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him".

In Psalm 20 and Psalm 21 you do not find the Lord

Himself speaking: it is faith that recognises the King. "Jehovah answer thee in the day of trouble". That is what faith says: it is the Spirit of God in the saints. "The king shall joy in thy strength, Jehovah; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips". The Psalm speaks about the glory and honour of the King, but it is not the King that is speaking. In Psalm 22 Christ is the speaker. The first twenty-one verses are the rehearsal of His sufferings, but afterwards we get what He announces in resurrection; the place which He Himself takes. He first records His experience in the sufferings, and then announces the place which He could take only in resurrection. Everything depends upon the platform of resurrection: otherwise it is impossible to get outside of trouble and enemies. As I said the first twenty-one verses are the rehearsal of sufferings, but afterwards all is in the light of resurrection.

Now it is remarkable that this should have been predicted. These psalms were written hundreds of years before Christ came, but they present such marvellous detail, and give us the place which Christ is pleased to take in resurrection. We get largely fulfilled in the New Testament what was spoken of prophetically in the Old, and the platform on which everything of the Old Testament was to rest is resurrection. All God's ways looked on to it. Satan has power up to the point of death, but when death is swallowed up in victory Satan will be bound; there will be an end of trouble. We pass out of death into life as quickened together with Christ, associated with Him, joined to Him who is raised up from the dead.

A point of importance in this psalm is, that the seed of Jacob and of Israel are not mentioned until after the assembly. "Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear

him, all ye the seed of Israel", that verse brings in the seed of Jacob and of Israel, but in the statement in verse 22 there is no allusion to them. I have no doubt whatever that the first part of verse 22 was fulfilled in John 20 when the Lord sent the message by Mary to the disciples, "Go to my brethren and say unto them: I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". The Father's name was declared. Jesus had said previously "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them" (chapter 17: 26); but in chapter 20 the Name is declared in resurrection, and Jesus sends Mary with the announcement to His brethren.

The Father's name was declared in order that the disciples might come under the Father's love, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". Christ Himself was to have a place in that company. If the Father's love was not there, Christ could not be there. It would be impossible for Christ to be in any circle in which the Father's love was not, but the Father's love being in that company, He can be there.

In the midst of His own the Lord declared the Father's name, and there was no Gentile there; but the Spirit of God in the psalm leaves room for the Gentile. In Hebrews 2, where this verse 22 of Psalm 22 is quoted, we are told that God is bringing many sons to glory. Had it been Jews only, it would have been few, not many; therefore I judge that room is left for the Gentile. We see this also in John 10. Jesus says, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold".

It is very interesting to see in John 10 the successive designations under which the Lord speaks of Himself: the Shepherd of the sheep; the door of the sheep; the good Shepherd; then the one Shepherd. He was

the Shepherd and had entrance into the fold; He is the door, that the sheep may enter in and be saved, may go in and out and find pasture. He is the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, and then He is the one Shepherd when the Gentile is brought in. In Psalm 22:22, as we have seen, room is left for the Gentile, "God is bringing many sons to glory". And now nothing can be more affecting than to think that Christ should identify Himself with our praises.

Faith identifies itself with the King in the midst of trouble and of enemies, but in Psalm 22 the Lord identifies Himself with the praises of the church. "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee", Hebrews 2:12.

You see the same thing in principle when the Lord was on earth; we read that they sang a hymn, and so He took His part in their praises. Thus it is in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee. It is His pleasure to identify Himself with the praises of His people. He has declared the Father's name, that the Father's love may be in the saints, and now He identifies Himself with their praises. He is in the midst, and must be in the midst, being what He is. You may say that He is Leader of the praises, but my point is, that in the midst of the church He will sing praise. It is His place. In the assembly there is not only the Father's love, but I in them. He will have His place. It shews the place which the church has in the mind of Christ.

The church is the first thing that comes out on the platform of resurrection. This passage does not carry your mind on to heaven. The Psalm brings into view Christ's sufferings and resurrection, which is the true ground of the church. "Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead". This is God's mind for every saint.

It is not a question of attainment. Resurrection will come to pass by the power of God; but with us now it is a question of the apprehension of the mind of God in regard of saints. If you apprehend His mind, you are risen together with Christ, and why? In order that in the midst of the church He may sing praise unto God: that we might form the worshipping company around Himself.

Now we get an appeal to the house of Jacob and Israel. They are called upon to praise and fear the Lord. In verse 24 you get the statement in regard to Christ. "For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard". This is followed by: "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation", etc.

When Christ was here He declared God's righteousness in the great congregation and His faithfulness. He did not conceal God's righteousness and His faithfulness within His heart. Alas! we often do; though we know something of the righteousness and faithfulness of God, it is very much shut up within us; but not so with the Lord: He declared it in the great congregation; that was the ministry of the Lord here; but the great congregation was not concerned to know the righteousness and faithfulness of God. The Jews were disposed to go on with their own puerilities, and had no concern for the knowledge of God.

I cannot conceive a greater proof of the ruin of man than his carelessness in regard of the knowledge of God. What can be such profound blessing as the knowledge of God? If anybody were to question me as to the greatest blessing I possess, I should answer, It is the knowledge of God. Though my knowledge of Him may be very limited, yet it is the one thing in which I can boast.

Christ on earth declared the righteousness and faithfulness of God in the great congregation. The Epistle to the Romans is the declaration to us of God's righteousness and faithfulness. In time to come will be fulfilled, "I will praise thee in the great congregation". Christ has never done so yet, because the time has not come for it; but when God works in the house of Jacob and Israel, when their interests are bound up with the King, then will be fulfilled: "I will pay my vows before them that fear him". We find the Lord in this psalm speaking of all that would come to pass on this blessed platform of resurrection, where neither trouble, enemies, nor evil would have place. The Lord is free to declare the place He would take, first in the church, and afterwards in the great congregation: that is what you find here.

Now, I ask, have we apprehended that in our coming together in assembly? On the one hand, we are risen with Christ, quickened with Him; and on the other, it pleases Christ to identify Himself with the company. The Father's love is there because His name is declared, and Christ's love is there.

I wish we could get hold of the thought of what the assembly is to Christ, what it is in His eye and in the eye of the Father. It is really of the Father. Everything that is enduring is of the Father. Christ was of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and the church is of the Father. The church has come forth in that way, built up of those drawn of the Father to Christ.

To understand these things needs divine teaching, for it is only God who can instruct us in His love, and He brings us under the new covenant that we may be thus instructed, that we may know the love of God.

Christ will, in time to come, join us with Himself in the kingdom. If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him, but now He joins Himself with us in praises to God. May God give us to understand

better the wonderful grace of the Lord Jesus, and His satisfaction and pleasure in identifying Himself with His people here, that in the midst of them He may sing praise unto God. If you do not understand that, you do not understand the privilege of the assembly.

JERUSALEM -- THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH

Psalm 48:1 - 14

There are two leading thoughts which predominate in this psalm: one is of the city, and the other, of the temple. We have a description of the city of the great King. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King". What is before me is the idea of a city. I do not propose to take up the second thought that we have in the psalm. "We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple", etc.

The city and the temple are, I may say, associated, and come together under our notice; but I purpose to speak of the city, and that in connection with what has already come before us.

I was attempting to maintain that everything for God must of necessity be on the principle of resurrection. It does not want much argument to prove that, for the reason, simply, that death lies upon all. It is entirely impossible for God to ignore His own judgment. Death is His judgment upon man by reason of sin, and whatever God establishes in connection with man must be on the principle of resurrection. If you invalidate the truth of resurrection, you cut away the whole fabric of scripture. Scripture from beginning to end depends upon the truth of resurrection.

We have the fact of resurrection now in Christ. He is risen by the power of God; but the principle pervades Scripture from beginning to end, not simply the New Testament, but also the Old. Whatever God has established with man -- and there is a great deal which He has established -- is on the immutable

foundation of righteousness, and, consequently, on the principle of resurrection, which is life out of death. That is true in regard of the millennium, and of the city spoken of here. Jerusalem becomes the joy of the whole earth in virtue of the setting aside of death, and that is, in a sense, the equivalent of resurrection. If we die we must be raised, but it is in the power of God so to set death aside, as that men do not die. When Christ appears the second time it is apart from sin altogether; He appears for salvation, that is, He comes in to set death and every enemy aside. In 1 Corinthians 15 we learn that after resurrection is brought to pass, death will be swallowed up of victory. It is on that principle, the setting aside of death, that we get the re-establishment of the earthly city, the joy of the whole earth.

Now I am not going to speak of the earthly city, but of what belongs to us, the Jerusalem above. I want, if possible, to shew you the moral connection of a city: what it implies in the eye of God. When you apprehend what a city is in God's eye, it is a great matter for you. God does not care for the material beauty of a city, it is the moral elements which make it an object for God. In the future, Jerusalem will be fully for God because of the moral elements which will be found in it. Hagar, to which Jerusalem of the past answered, had to be cast out and her son. Hagar is what Jerusalem represented in the eye of God. Jerusalem has to be re-constituted, to have a different moral character in the eye of God; and it will be re-established, when death is swallowed up in victory, on the principle of resurrection, that is, morally of life out of death.

I would like to refer for a moment to the psalms preceding Psalm 48. First, in Psalm 45:6 we have: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God,

thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows". I do not think these verses need any kind of explanation. We get them quoted in Hebrews 1, and the reference is evidently to Christ, and that in resurrection. In Hebrews 1 we have Christ as become Man, and He has loved righteousness and hated wickedness, that is to say, there has been perfect discrimination between wickedness and righteousness, and God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows. It evidently speaks of Christ in incarnation and resurrection because He is said to be anointed above His fellows. The anointing with the oil of gladness, of necessity, points to resurrection and not only incarnation. The Lord had companions here in the twelve that companied with Him; but, strictly speaking, there was a great barrier between Him and them. They were under death, and Christ was the Prince of life. There was thus a barrier, though all looked on to the time when that barrier would be removed and they would be established as His companions, and we find that in John 20. In chapter 17 the Lord had said: "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". Christ is anointed above His fellows, and it is thus plain that the psalm depends, not simply on incarnation, but on resurrection.

Psalm 46 speaks of the experience gained by those who, in a sense, are the companions of Christ. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble", etc. If you remember, the Lord referred to this psalm in saying to the disciples that if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, they should say to this mountain, "Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea", and it should be done. Here we have the experience, that is, the knowledge of God, gained in the time of trouble.

Psalm 47 is an appeal to the nations. It says, "O

clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph", etc.

In Psalm 48 you find the celebration of Jerusalem, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth"; it is the city of the great king; "God is known in her palaces for a refuge". In Psalm 46 they had said, "God is our refuge". Here it is, "God is known in her palaces for a refuge". Now that brings us to the city. The psalm depicts what it will be in the future, a testimony to the whole earth; that will be a great joy, but the heavenly Jerusalem will be a still greater joy. The heavenly Jerusalem, the bride, the Lamb's wife, comes down from God, out of heaven; it is not the city of the great King, but of the living God, and that is a greater idea than the city of the great King. Jerusalem upon earth is the city of the great King, and what marks it in the future is that God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Now, it appears to me that, for God, a city is constituted by a covenant. The real value of a city in the eye of God is that is has been constituted by a covenant, and it is of no moral value beyond that. That principle is seen clearly in Galatians. It is said there, "Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother". That expression alludes really to the covenant, answering to Sarah. The city is dependent upon the covenant for its character, as Ishmael was dependent upon Hagar. He could not escape being a bondman, because his mother was a bond-woman. He was not on the line of promise, and the free woman was not his mother. He had no part -- looked at typically -- in the promise, and describes the position of the Jew in the past. The children of the flesh were not the children of promise -- they were the children of a legal covenant.

Jerusalem in the past was connected with the old covenant, and hence was in bondage with her children. It was constituted under the old covenant: that of

works, and God had not yet set the power of death aside. What was seen was God taking up a people in the flesh, and putting them under a covenant which suited man in the flesh, the terms of which were spoken forth from Mount Sinai, to which man dared not draw near. The people were made to feel their distance. God gave them this covenant, which impressed its character on Jerusalem, just as Hagar did her position on Ishmael; and the child of the bond-woman could not be heir with the child of the free-woman. There was not then the setting aside of death, because God was dealing with man after the flesh, and that was not on the basis of resurrection. God had certain things to bring about, and it was essential that the true condition of man should be first demonstrated in the presence of the universe; and until there was the basis of righteousness, through resurrection, there could not be the establishment of what was of God. All that waited for Christ. It is important to see that the Jerusalem of the future is the same, not a different one. There is the identity of Jerusalem as there is of the temple. In Haggai it says, "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former", chapter 2: 9. Jerusalem is Jerusalem, although it is trodden underfoot of the Gentiles; but the principle on which God re-establishes Jerusalem is that death is swallowed up in victory. Righteousness has come in, and God has been glorified in the removal of the judgment that lay upon man. Sin having been removed, God is able to dispossess death and to re-establish His relations with Jerusalem. She has got for the time a bill of divorce, but she will be brought back to Jehovah on the principle of resurrection. What will re-establish her morally in the future is the new covenant written in the hearts of God's people, so that the city becomes a free city. It never has been free, but will be in the future, because her children will have real and experimental acquaintance

with God; that is what I understand to be effected by the new covenant. "They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more".

It will be given to Israel to know God in the greatness of His mercy and in His love. I quite admit the difference between them and the church, but still I am inclined to think that God will be known of them in His loving-kindness and in His nature; in mercy and love. You get in the Old Testament the idea of God's love to His people, and the love of God, in that day, will be known by His people. They will know in measure two blessed qualities of God which we know now, that God is rich in mercy, and that He loves His people; and because He loves them He has brought them into the inheritance prepared for them.

Jerusalem that is to be, will be the delight of God. "Beautiful for situation" is the language of the Spirit of God, and "it is the joy of the whole earth", and why? Because of its moral character. The city is brought into freedom, the children of the city are in spiritual liberty, the new covenant is established, and God is known among her children; the city is the joy of God, and at the same time, the joy of the whole earth. God is declared to be the God of the whole earth, and Jerusalem is the testimony down here of His faithfulness, love and mercy. That will be known by the children of Jerusalem, and they will, in that day, be brought, in blessed liberty, into the knowledge of God. "All shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them". They will have individual knowledge of God.

I pass on to the heavenly city, and will read a verse or two in Galatians 4:22, "For it is written that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the

other by a free woman.... So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free".

What I want to make plain is this, that you have a double connection with Christ. A Christian has promise for father and a free woman for mother. That is the idea here, and you want both connections. It will be so too with the Jew in the future. The two principles are bound to go together, but my point for the moment is that you take your character from the mother, from the covenant, "Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother". In this the apostle had in mind the idea of the covenant, though he does not speak expressly of it. Just as the old covenant was represented in the then Jerusalem, so the new covenant is represented in the Jerusalem above.

It is at the same time a great thing to apprehend that we have promise for father. Saints have to learn that they are the children of promise: the children of God's purpose: that has to be accepted. You could not talk about this to unconverted people, it would be entirely out of place; but to Christians you are bound to speak in regard of the promise and purpose of God. If you are not the children of promise you are not the children of God. Every Christian would be prepared to admit that it was the Father that drew him to Christ in the sovereignty of love.

"Thou gav'st us, in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee". (Hymn 88)

We have to accept that in our souls.

But then, as the children of promise, we are begotten morally of the free-woman, that is, of the covenant. The covenant is the means of God's teaching. Covenant is of the nature of a will: it is the indication of God's disposition toward us. If I make a will I make a disposition of my property; but the disposition indicates my thought and feeling toward those to whom I leave my property. That is pretty much the idea of covenant, and, in order to make the covenant

effective, there must be the death of the Testator. Death has come in in Christ, and God has been pleased in the covenant to make known His disposition toward us; and it is not simply that an inheritance is given to us, but that the inheritance makes plain the mind of God toward us, and therefore the covenant is the means of divine teaching in the ways of God.

The first thing with God, is to bring us into the kingdom, under His moral sway, and then to teach us. He teaches us by Christ and the nature of the teaching is described in the new covenant. I have been greatly interested in considering what the Lord said to His disciples, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood". The teaching of the covenant comes to us in the death of Christ.

As far as I understand it, the one thing in which God has to instruct His people is the knowledge of Himself, that is, in the knowledge and reality of His love. God commends His love to us. The Holy Spirit sheds God's love abroad in the heart of the believer, but that is not the commendation of God's love. God has commended His love in the death of Christ.

There are two things which are prominent in the death of Christ, namely, the declaration of righteousness and the commendation of love. That we learn from the Epistle to the Romans.

God is teaching His people, and Christ is the teacher. Mary sat at His feet hearing His word, conscious that He was the Revealer of God. He was declaring God, and, afterwards, He taught the disciples to pray; and that is what Christ is to us. He brings home to us in divine power, through His death, the reality of the love of God, and then, He teaches us to address God in holy liberty. No one has access to God except by the Spirit, who is the Spirit of God's Son, "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father". Christ is the teacher.

There are three things in regard to Christ that come out in the tenth and eleventh chapters of Luke.

(1) He is the Neighbour. (2) He is the Revealer. (3) He is the Teacher; and every one of us needs to have acquaintance with Christ in all three characters. He does not become the Revealer until He is known as the Neighbour; when our needs are met, then He leads us into the knowledge of God, and teaches us to approach in the power of the Holy Spirit. The effect of it is that you have come under the teaching of the new covenant and learnt God's disposition towards you -- the great principles in it being mercy and love. God will not be content until we are in heaven, for we are not going there simply for our own joy and delight, but for the satisfaction of God's love; that is the disposition of God toward us.

There is the inheritance, for we inherit the kingdom, but that is inferior to the knowledge of love. Christ is bringing that home to the hearts of God's people so that, being introduced into holy liberty they may "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free". That is the privilege of the heavenly Jerusalem.

The two things, the covenant and the city, are so intimately connected that you can scarcely distinguish between them. The new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven, and it has the glory of God and the light of God; it is the expression of God Himself in the presence of the universe. We are the children of that city, because we are the children of the covenant, instructed by Christ Himself into the knowledge of divine love and mercy.

You get the idea of this witness to the universe in Ephesians 2:7. What we ourselves have experience of is love and mercy; but what will God make the heavenly city to be to the universe? It will be the witness and expression of the exceeding riches of His grace in the ages to come.

The heavenly city comes down from God out of heaven. "From God" is a moral idea. It comes down from God because it is of God; it is morally worthy of God and sets forth what God has intended to set forth in Christ. If the earthly city is the joy of the whole earth, the heavenly city is the joy of the universe. Meantime we have come under the blessing of the new covenant, under divine teaching, and Christ is our teacher.

It would be a wonderful thing if saints were really so informed and instructed as to enable them to meditate upon the great reality of God's disposition toward them. Love which works for its own end will not be content until it can rest in the full and eternal blessing of its objects, God's people: that is what love is. There is love and mercy; I delight to keep the two thoughts together; and God will have us in His own habitation, so that we may come out from it to be the witness of His exceeding riches of grace in the presence of the universe.

Now this is intended to have its own effect on us now. As you get the knowledge of love you get liberty, and if you are not in liberty you are not in the full light of love. My child is not in bondage with me. It may be shy in the presence of others, but it is not shy in my presence, for it has the confidence of love. So with us. We have love and the liberty of love, and have to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

I delight in the thought of divine teaching. Christ is the teacher by the Spirit. He makes known to us God's love without alloy, and, at the same time, teaches us to approach God in the blessed liberty of sonship. This is the teaching of Christ. I can understand the disciples saying, "Lord, teach us to pray", and one can echo the thought. Christ teaches us to pray, for it is by the spirit of God's Son that we are able to cry, "Abba, Father".

If you want to be useful in the testimony there is one way to it: that is to be in the blessed liberty of love. We are a testimony for God in that way. The first essentiality is the liberty of love: standing fast in liberty. The Galatians were biting and devouring one another. They were not in love, nor in the liberty of it, and were a poor testimony.

May God lead us to understand the greatness of our place -- the children of promise and of the free-woman. But there is the solemn statement in regard of the legalist -- and there are plenty of them in the world today -- "Cast out the bond-woman and her son". God will reject the legalist because He will have nothing except the liberty of love.

GOD'S KINGDOM, AND MAN'S CONFIDENCE

Psalm 118:21 to Psalm 119:8; Psalm 99:1 - 5

I desire to draw attention to two lines of truth, which meet in Christ, and are connected with the ways of God toward man; they present two things which God has found the means of conciliating. The one is the establishment of His authority in man's soul, that is what the kingdom means. The other is the gaining of the confidence of man's heart. The two things go together in our experience.

If God saw fit to establish His kingdom -- and no one can for a moment deny the propriety of His doing so -- there would not have been much in it if He had not been able to gain the confidence of man. The wisdom of God is manifested in the way in which He has brought about these two results. They will come out most distinctly when the kingdom is displayed: then the ways of God will have their issue.

On the one hand, the authority of God will be publicly established in the world, and will be the guarantee to man of liberty from the power of the enemy; and, on the other, the result achieved for God is the confidence of His people upon earth.

We can appreciate the wisdom in which God has been able to accomplish these two purposes when we take into account that man is in will departed from God and has wandered into the tortuous paths of self-will. The presumption and self-assertion of man are something amazing. You may see this all around. Man has set himself up as the rival of God, in fact, he displaces God altogether; that is the line of development of evil; yet the end and issue of God's ways is that He has established His authority in the kingdom, and has gained the confidence of man.

This will be verified in the case of Israel, and these two thoughts will explain a great deal in the psalms, where the two lines are pursued.

Now Christ is the wisdom of God. What I understand by wisdom is resource. Christ is the resource by which God has been enabled to work out the purpose of His will: to establish the kingdom and to gain the confidence of man's heart.

The passages I have read are from two books of the psalms. The first two passages are found in the fifth book, and the last in the fourth book; both books celebrate the coming of the Lord, though in different connections.

I might put it in this way: in the fourth book the coming of the Lord is celebrated as the establishment of the throne of Jehovah; in the fifth book the same coming is celebrated, but on the behalf of man. You can look at it in both lights. Christ comes on the part of God and on the part of man. The two lines are treated distinctly in the psalms, and are easy to apprehend in connection with the Lord.

In Psalm 99 we read, "Jehovah reigneth: let the peoples tremble. He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved", etc. The burden of these psalms is, Jehovah reigneth. The subject begins really in Psalm 93; in Psalm 97 Jehovah has made known His judgments; then in Psalm 99, "Jehovah reigneth; let the peoples tremble", etc. Nothing can be simpler than the burden of these psalms celebrating the coming in of Jehovah. It is Jehovah coming in, in Christ, to establish the kingdom, and the throne of David. Jehovah is exalted. Now, so far, the truth is all on that side. It is Jehovah coming in to establish His rights in the world, and no one could deny the suitability of this. Christ comes in, in that way, as Jehovah. When, however, you come to the fifth book of psalms, it is not exactly the establishment of

Jehovah's rights that is in question, but the establishment of man's heart in confidence in God, and that is a very great point. The two things come to pass by Christ. He represents the authority of Jehovah, but at the same time He comes in in such a way as to establish the confidence of man's heart in God. What good could there be in the kingdom otherwise?

I will read a verse or two in Psalm 110"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.... The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec". In this particular psalm Christ is not viewed as Jehovah; but Jehovah speaks to Him. "Jehovah said unto my Lord". It is Jehovah speaking to David's Lord. The burden is not, "Jehovah reigneth", but Jehovah saying, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool"; and again, "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec".

Now the idea of a priest is, that he is for men. He is ordained on man's behalf in things pertaining to God. The thought stands in contrast to that of mediator. The mediator is of God toward man, and the priest for man toward God; hence in Psalm 110 Jehovah sware, and will not repent, "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec". Melchisedec, you remember, brought forth bread and wine and blessed Abraham. He was on the behalf of Abraham, and so is Christ for us. We have a throne of grace to which we can come boldly to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need; that is the effect and fruit of priesthood.

In Psalm 118:22 we read: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner". Then again, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord". That is not exactly the idea of Jehovah's throne, but of one coming in the name of

Jehovah, confirming the confidence of the people in Jehovah. When the Lord came to Jerusalem in the past, He said: "Behold your house is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". It is to that point that this psalm refers. It is Christ come in, in the name of Jehovah, on behalf of the people, in order that the confidence of the people may be established in Jehovah. The beginning of this is by priesthood. We get the benefit of this now, and so will Israel hereafter. He comes again; and when He comes again into the city from which He was cast out, the confidence of the people in Jehovah is fully established.

Thus we have the two things brought together, the establishment of God's kingdom, and of the confidence of the hearts of the people in Jehovah; and the secret of this lies in Christ, who has suffered on their behalf. He came here and tasted death for everything, and they will recognise in Christ their Saviour and Priest. He will come forth to bless Israel, as Melchisedec blessed Abraham. He will bring forth bread and wine.

You get the idea of this in Moses and Aaron coming out of the tabernacle to bless the people. Moses represented the authority of God, and Aaron was the priest.

I do not know anything much more important in connection with the kingdom than that in it authority and priesthood are combined. Christ has been received with acclamation in heaven. The children sang on His entering Jerusalem, "Hosanna". That was in view of Christ entering heaven, but He is going to enter the city with acclamation, and they will then say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". He will be welcomed, and the confidence of the people established in Jehovah.

Now, if you follow me I think you will apprehend the perfect wisdom of God's ways: how He brings to pass two things which never could be if man had his way. If God had to deal with righteous people there would be no need to bring in the kingdom; but He has had to deal with sinful man, and in this it has been possible for God to conciliate the two things of which I have spoken; and the secret of all is that Christ has come in as Saviour and Priest. "He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death", etc. That is, having established righteousness, He has taken up the position of priest. He is Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

These two thoughts stand good in regard of Christians, and we get the gain of them. We rejoice in the authority of God, and delight to give God His place. One can see the terrible sin of the world in virtually ignoring the authority of God. God's name is used, but His authority is not admitted in the world. Do you think that politicians concern themselves about the authority of God? Do you think that people do generally? The principle which rules in this world is the will of man, and no one who knows the world can deny it. The worst form of it is in religious things, in which the will of man is rampant. Where do you think such things as Ritualism and Rationalism come from? From man's will. And infidelity, too, is an expression of that will.

It is remarkable that there is nothing, in principle, working in the world of which you do not get a type in Scripture. One can see in the early books of the Bible the type of every principle of evil now prevalent. Take, for instance, apostasy from Christian privilege. Esau is a very apt type of a great deal which is going on today, men giving up their Christianity for some worldly advantage. This is the secret of much of the infidelity, and opposition to Christianity in the present day. Men, like Esau, barter their birthright for a mess

of pottage. In Ishmael you have the man after the flesh, who scoffs at the idea of God's sovereignty; and in Cain, a man that would claim the earth for man and give God acknowledgement. Christianity is properly the birthright of everybody born in this country: by that I mean the light and gain of it, and if a man gives it up he, like Esau, sells his birthright for present gain.

On the other hand, a true Christian delights in recognising the authority of God, and has confidence in the One who is presented to him in the Saviour and Priest; Christ has passed through the heavens to the throne of God, and sympathises with His people here in their infirmities; and the practical result is that we have a throne of grace to which we can come, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I pass on now to the next point. In Psalm 119 we read, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord". And again, "I will keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly". I read also a verse or two in John's first epistle, chapter 4: 9: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him ... Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit". Also verse 16: "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love". At first sight you might hardly see the connection here, but both scriptures really hang on the new covenant. The covenant follows upon the kingdom. God has established the kingdom, and in connection with it you have the priest, who is also the Mediator of the covenant. That will be the case when Christ takes the kingdom. The people come under the teaching of the new covenant, and that we get expressed in Psalm 119;

in other words, the psalm presents the effect of the law being written in the heart, which is the meaning and power of the new covenant. God will write His laws in their hearts, and their sins and iniquities will He remember no more. It is God's law, and no remembrance of sins.

The result of that is that Israel hereafter will become the expression of the law of God upon earth. They will love God with all their hearts, and their neighbours as themselves. They derive that from Christ, for they come under Him as the second Man; and what marks Him as Man is, "Thy law is within my heart". Israel will see the perfection of God's law as a rule for man upon the earth, and it will find its expression in them as a people. You get the accomplishment of this in Psalm 119.

Now, we have in Christ the authority of God on the one hand, and confidence in God inspired on the other; we know Christ as Saviour and Priest, sitting at the right hand of God, giving us confidence of heart in God. In the midst of trouble we are not afraid, for we are supported. We get mercy, and grace to help in time of need. We are represented at the right hand of God and thus get confidence in God. If there were one thing which I would desire to do, it is to establish the heart of every saint in full confidence in God which nothing could shake, so that in coming into trials and difficulties there might be unwavering confidence. That is a service which Christ Himself alone can effect.

As Christians we come under the spirit of the new covenant, and that is represented to us, I think, in the passage in John's epistle. The chapter looks upon the saints, not as in the sanctuary, but as in the place of testimony and responsibility. I will read verse 17. "Herein has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; that even as he is, we also are in this world". Here the day of judgment is contemplated; that is not the thought of heaven,

neither is it of the sanctuary. This is not the idea here; it refers to Christian responsibility. The day of judgment closes up for ever one chapter of a Christian's history. Everything that we do here has reference to the day of judgment, for then we receive the estimate of Christ; but we have boldness in regard of that day, because we are as Christ is. Love is made perfect with us so that we may be without fear.

Verse 9 carries us back to the beginning of our apprehension, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins". You see that the love of God was there before we loved God. It was manifested toward us. All began with the love of God. Then in verse 16, "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us". That is in regard of our pathway here. This is not the love of God as expressed in the past, but the love He hath to us. And finally in verse 17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world". This fulfils the Lord's prayer in John 17, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them". That is what I understand by the covenant. Our hearts are established in the love of God. The point here is that the love of God is our testimony. We are not the expression here of the law of God. If we walk in the Spirit the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us; but that is hardly our testimony; our testimony is of the love of God, as expressed in Christ.

We read in verse 12, "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us". That is the testimony of Christians: the continuation of that testimony which came out in Christ. His testimony here was the

love of God. He was the Son of God who came out from God to express His nature. He was here not only making known divine counsels; but the divine nature. It is a great comfort to know what God is in nature, because you can then judge of everything by the nature of God. Anything which is unsuitable to the nature of God you can reject very simply. The love of God is thus the real standard of judgment. If any one were to come to me with doctrine which is incompatible with love, I would reject it, God cannot act contrary to His nature. His acting is the fruit of His nature. You cannot ever set light against love. Light is the revelation of love. Love can be indignant. The Lord Himself was indignant when here. He was angry and it was the anger of love. God is angry with the wicked every day, but that does not really conflict with the thought that God is love. Christ was the expression of the love of God and the very substance of it. He came out from God and has declared Him, and you get in a sense the continuation of that in Christians. We are left on earth to be the expression of divine love, and how? Simply in love one toward another. It is perfectly vain to talk about my love to God if I do not love the saints. I can only prove love to God by my love to the saints. "If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us". But how has this come about? It is by divine teaching; in the way in which the apostle brings it out in this chapter.

Love began, and love is at the end. It never fails. The love of God was toward us when we were in our sins. Our history began with the love of God; it abides with us in our pathway here, and is made perfect with us in regard of the day of judgment, so that we may have no fear.

The purpose of God in bringing us into the joy and security of the kingdom is that we may come under the teaching of divine love. The great teacher on the

part of God is the Spirit of God. No man can teach us. I can only show you that the love of God is there, but the Spirit of God brings it home. The great witness of God's love is in the death of Christ, and the Spirit is the teacher. He makes good in the saints that which is witnessed in the death of Christ. "God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". The love was there before we loved God. He sent His Son when we were dead that we might live through Him.

When our eyes were opened to divine truth it was to apprehend the love of God, and the end is that we may be a testimony in love one toward another.

I compare the saints to a transparent vessel through which the love of God shines out. God would have that there should be the expression of Himself in the saints. The nature of God shines through them. Divine love rises above distinctions of flesh. We love one another, not because we are of the same nationality, or anything of the kind; but because we recognise one another as begotten of God. Love is the bond of perfectness, and the purpose of God is that there should be in the saints the expression of Himself.

The more sense you get of divine love the more you advance in spiritual intelligence and in holiness. Holiness does not come by faith; it is the blessed fruit and effect of love.

Now, I have tried to show you that the principles of God abide. When Christ comes the throne is established and the law written in the hearts of God's people. But the kingdom is true to us now, Christ is Saviour and Priest, and our confidence is established by Him in God. We get the teaching of the new covenant by the Spirit of God; our hearts are established in the knowledge of God, so that divine love should find its expression in us.

If our hearts were in the light of divine love half the difficulties that we meet with here would not affect

us at all. And if you are established in love you will make very great progress in spiritual intelligence, "Being rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God".

How blessed it is to think that all this will come out in the future. Think of the heavenly city. It has the glory of God, and its light is most precious, the nations walk in the light of it. God's nature is expressed in it. God gives witness too in it of the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus.

UNITY AND ETERNAL LIFE

Psalm 132, Psalm 133 and Psalm 134

In looking at some earlier psalms I drew attention to the great importance of apprehending the principle of resurrection as pervading the whole collection. It is only through resurrection, that is, on the principle of life out of death, that God could bring to pass the world to come. Every purpose of God as regards man, whether for heaven or for earth, must be fulfilled on that principle, for the obvious reason that death is universally upon man down here in this world. There is nothing in this world that is not under the shadow of death -- the best things are as much under the shadow of death as the worst. Human relationships and ties are continually being broken in upon by death. Every one becomes familiar with it, at least in the bearing of it. All the ties with which human happiness is bound up are continually loosened by death, and the enjoyment of the best things is spoiled by it.

Now, this being the case with regard to the best things, it is still more striking in reference to what is artificial. Whatever a man may have gathered by labour and thrift in this world he has to leave behind him, and he knows not whether what he has accumulated will do good or evil. All under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit; if a man could follow out the effect of all that he has done and gathered in this world, I suppose that he would be sorely disappointed. However, I don't pursue that subject, but desire you to see how God has been at work in the behalf of man.

God has been working from the beginning. You will no doubt recall an expression of the Lord Jesus in John's gospel, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work". God has been working from the beginning,

laboriously and patiently, but in view of the world to come. The work of God has not had for its ultimate object the amelioration of the condition of man in this world, but the establishment of the world to come. On the principle of resurrection He has proposed to establish an order of things which will be according to His mind, in which God may rest, and blessing be secured for man according to His mind.

Every intervention of God in the Old Testament was really in view of the world to come. Whether it be what was promised to Abraham or to David, all had reference to the world to come, though there may have been already a provisional fulfilment; and, further, every dealing of God with man had in view the world to come. Faith ever had reference to the world to come, whether in Abraham, Moses or David. That is brought out in Hebrews 11. God was looking on to the time when He would dispossess death, the time of redemption. Redemption results in deliverance from all the power of evil. Death is God's judgment consequent on the coming in of sin, and God will dispossess death in virtue of redemption. In the Revelation the Lord Jesus says to John, "I am he that liveth and was dead and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death". He is able to dispossess death; for that is the power of resurrection. God has acquired that power through redemption, and that is the first principle of the world to come, and that principle comes out very abundantly in the psalms.

In the psalms we have great detail of Christ's sufferings, and we find Him taking a new place in resurrection, and identifying others with Him in that place. That is also brought out in Hebrews, "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I

sing praise unto thee". That is, in resurrection, He identifies those of Himself with Himself. We see that especially in the early part of the psalms.

In connection with the later psalms we see the city and the covenant. Last time I spoke of the coming of the Lord. He is now seated provisionally at the right hand of God, but He is coming again, to be welcomed in the very place from which He has been rejected, and He comes, in the power of resurrection, to dispossess death, death will be swallowed up in victory.

Now, the psalms I have read at this time furnish a climax to the whole. Properly speaking, the psalms close with 119 -- the law being written in the heart, that psalm is morally the close. Then we get the songs of degrees, which close with the three I have now read. They show how, in result, every divine thought is brought into accomplishment, and that is what I want to open out. If you get the rest of God, it can only be when He is glorified. It is impossible that God's rest could be until His purpose is brought into effect. He will rest in His love because He is glorified, and every purpose accomplished, and His promises fulfilled; then He rests. We have in Hebrews 4 the rest of God, and we who believe enter into rest.

I have often said that the three great thoughts presented on the part of God in the Old Testament are blessing, dwelling, and ruling. Blessing, as I understand it, means eternal life in the victory over death. Dwelling is in the idea of God's house; and ruling is God's kingdom. These are the three great thoughts prominent in the Old Testament. When we get the climax according to God we have these three thoughts brought together. I will shew you how they are brought together in these three psalms.

There are certain things connected with the future which are made known to us. What is spoken of here will literally be fulfilled hereafter. But while many

people are greatly concerned about the future, for myself I am more concerned about the present. Future things are not exactly things which are described as unseen. Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, and hope does not connect itself so much with future things as with unseen things. You do not hope for what you see. "For what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for: but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it". Hope connects itself with unseen things, and faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It is a mistake to suppose that unseen things do not yet exist: they do exist, they are present, not future. The point is, that there is a power come in to make them good to us, and faith is the substantiation of things hoped for: that means the things made good to us in the present time.

But the continual effort on the part of man is to put the world right. Men see certain blots on humanity, and they set to work to remove them. For instance, in movements to abolish slavery: it is agreed that it is a blot upon humanity, but the abolition of slavery meets with a very great deal of difficulty. In the abolition of slavery in America and Russia very many people both slaves and masters, were not willing for it, and it was not done without a very great deal of inconvenience and difficulty, and against the disposition of many concerned. The object of man is not to set man right, but to set the world right; and, in contrast to that, I see that God's way is not to put the world right but to put man right.

When man is put right God will easily put everything else right. If you could conceive such a state of things brought to pass as that man should love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself, what would be the result? Man would want God brought in; and if he loved his neighbour as himself, he would not be able to bear the thought of inequality. You

could hardly have distinctions between rich and poor, masters and slaves, if a man loved his neighbour as himself.

I think the distinction is very intelligible between man setting the world right, and God working to put man right. It is when man is put right that God displays the world to come, and in doing so answers right desires of man. He comes in when right desires on the part of man have been awakened. Every change in the world will entail great inconvenience and suffering when man works; but when God works to set man right, every change which takes place is the answer to right desires on man's part.

Now turning to Psalm 132, I want you to follow the appeal made here. "Jehovah remember for David, all his afflictions", etc. That is a right desire awakened on the part of man, and then he appeals to Jehovah. "Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength". That is another appeal on the part of man. God has awakened in man right desires; man loves God, and the expression of those desires is the appeal to Jehovah. "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy".

I read now verses 11 - 18: "Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne ... His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish".

The first part of the psalm is the expression of godly, right desires on man's part, and the latter part is the answer which Jehovah is pleased to give in His grace. He fulfils the desire, and not only fulfils it, but He surpasses it. There are two points connected with the answer. (1) He establishes the throne of David; and (2) God comes in to dwell in Zion. The burden of the prophets is, that Jehovah dwelleth in Zion. If you were to go through Scripture and find

out the number of times those two thoughts are spoken of, you would be surprised. We thus get two great thoughts fulfilled, Jehovah reigning and Jehovah dwelling. That comes out in the psalm, and when God comes the throne of David is established, it is in the Person of Christ.

Christ is not only the Offspring but the Root of David. He occupies the throne of David, because He is the Offspring, but He is at the same time the Root of David; and hence the throne of David is identified with the throne of Jehovah. That, to me, is a wonderful thing. It is Jehovah who sits on the throne of David and dwells in Zion. When Jehovah dwells in Zion it is a time of prosperity and blessing. There will not be any marked distinctions in that day between rich and poor, master and slave, but satisfaction and abundance for all. "I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread".

God answers the desire of every living thing. He Himself comes in, and men find their portion and blessing in His goodness. The world then will not be full of men with unsatisfied desires, for they will be satisfied with the goodness of God.

To pursue the psalm. It says, "There will I make the horn of David to bud". This is what will mark that day, because God has come in to take up His dwelling in Zion in answer to the desires in man which His Spirit has awakened. He dwells in Zion, and reigns in the city of the great king. He is the God of the whole earth. He takes up the throne of David; and in the next psalm we come to the thought of blessing.

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ... As the dew of Herman, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore". I suppose this

may refer to the blessing to Abraham, and the promise of blessing to Abraham probably meant life for evermore, that is, that God would dispossess death. It would be blessing beyond the power of death. The proof of this is, that the blessing was confirmed to the seed of Abraham when there was a figure of resurrection. God promised the blessing to Abraham, and confirmed it to his seed, after the seed had, figuratively, been offered in sacrifice.

I want you to mark the point at which the blessing is brought to pass, it is when there is dwelling in unity. When you have the unity of Israel and Judah, bound together in one stick, in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, then it is that God commands the blessing, even life for evermore. Now I think this shews how much importance God attaches to unity. The blessing is spoken of as commanded when Israel and Judah come under the influence of the Spirit, the law being written in the heart. They are in the light of Christ, and death is dispossessed.

God will have under His eye what is according to His mind, and then He will dispossess death. It was a sad moment before God when Israel and Judah became divided, for it was a mark of defection and sin, and therefore a trouble to God; what followed was that Israel soon fell away from God; but the prophets look on to the reunion of Israel and Judah in Christ.

On the table of shewbread in the holy place of the tabernacle there were twelve loaves, not two, nor ten, but twelve. God could not possibly recognise, in connection with Christ, two tribes or ten tribes. You get the same principle coming out in Elijah. There was the recognition with him of twelve tribes. When Christ came it was in connection with the twelve tribes. In the future, when Israel is connected with Christ, there will be twelve tribes, as prefigured in the twelve loaves; and when you get this union, in

Christ, of Judah and Israel God brings about the blessing promised to Abraham.

Now in the next psalm (Psalm 134) we get the worship of God, and God blesses out of Zion. That is the completion.

In Psalm 133 you get a kind of figure of the assembly in the union of the twelve tribes; it presents, figuratively, the church in the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit of God came down to effect unity. The mind of the Spirit was unity then, and in the future, in regard of Israel, it will be unity: "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and ... made to drink into one Spirit". And in Ephesians 4 we have the exhortation: "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". The unity of the Spirit is very important to us, and has determined the path of most of us with regard to Christendom. We could not have any kind of satisfaction in its present order, for it denies practically what the Spirit of God is bent upon, namely, unity; and we are endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The truth of the "one body" does not consist in agreement to differ, nor in alliance, nor ecclesiastical arrangement, but in the fact that Jew and Gentile are one in the life of Christ, in virtue of the anointing, and directed by one Head. It is Jew and Gentile in the blessing of sonship, quickened together with Christ in His life, and directed by Him as Head. You get the idea in John 10. "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring ... and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd". There we have one flock in the divine nature, and one Shepherd. There are not two flocks.

Previously, the Lord had said, "I am come that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly". I connect that in a sense with the oil poured on the head of Aaron. In the anointing the sheep are in the life of Christ. He has come that they might

have life, and have it very abundantly. In Romans 8 we find that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Christ has come that we might have life abundantly, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of life is in saints, and hence Christ is in them; and the obligation that hangs upon that is unity. Unity is really because God is dwelling here. In the presence of God in Zion it is impossible that there could be a divided Israel; and, in the present time, if we recognised God dwelling here by the Spirit -- Jew and Gentile being builded together for His habitation -- we should recognise the obligation to unity, which is in Christ, because unity cannot be possible otherwise in saints. You must be apart from the flesh and its tendencies, and in the life of Christ, to be in unity.

Supposing you recognise the unity which depends on the presence of the Spirit, you then realise the presence of Christ, and the truth of one flock, one Shepherd. You realise the assembly, and that you are brought into association with Christ outside of everything here; you come thus to eternal life. It is one thing to have life in you, which every Christian has, it is another to enter into eternal life. I refer to a type in the Old Testament to confirm this, namely, the brazen serpent. The people were bitten, but he who looked at the brazen serpent "lived", and afterwards there was the springing up of the Spirit. In the brazen serpent, those who looked are regarded as having life typically, but they never entered, figuratively, into eternal life until they were on the other side of Jordan, and ate the old corn of the land. Then they were beyond death.

We have the Holy Spirit for the wilderness, but everything connected with a pious life here will come to an end; what we have in association with Christ will never come to an end. There it is that we realise that God has commanded the blessing. This depends

upon the acceptance of the unity of the Spirit, and recognising the obligation to maintain it. The practical working of it brings you into the reality of the assembly, where you are directed by the One Head, and thus into association with Christ, as having passed over Jordan and come into the land: an association which death cannot touch. Nothing connected with Christ can be touched by death. What is connected with our responsible life cannot go beyond death. If I die God will raise me again, and I shall come into a new order of life entirely with Christ: thus everything connected with pious Christian life down here upon earth, in the wilderness, must in itself end. What is connected with the assembly and the calling of God, our being quickened with Christ and so on, is all on the other side of Jordan and eternal: death cannot touch it.

You enter into that which in its very nature is on the other side of death, because God has planted it there in the resurrection of Christ. Turn for a moment to John 20:17, "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her". Here we find the Lord risen. He is outside of death, and sends the message to the disciples which gathers them together, and He comes into their midst, and the blessed result is that they find themselves in association with Him on the other side of death, and there it is that God has ordained the blessing, even life for evermore.

The doctrine of this we find in Colossians. We are risen together with Him and quickened together with Him: that is, brought into living association with Him. You live in His life. You have to distinguish between your life as a saint here, and life in Christ. If you live with Christ it is on the other side of death;

if you think of your life here it comes to an end in death. When God has under His eye that which is agreeable to Him, Israel and Judah brought together in unity, then you get the statement, "There he commanded the blessing, even life for evermore".

May God in His grace give each of us a deeper apprehension of these things, and to enter into them for our present blessing and enjoyment.

"JESUS OUR LORD"

Romans 5:1 - 21

Ques. Jesus our Lord?

F.E.R. The Christian claims Jesus as Lord. It is the appropriation of Jesus as Lord, "our Lord". At the present time there is no assertion of the Lordship of Christ, and so the believer claims it. We come under His Lordship by claiming it. If there were any assertion of the Lordship of Christ it would be the day of the Lord. Christ is not Lord to the world, He is Lord to us. "To us ... there is one Lord, Jesus Christ", that is, to Christians.

Ques. What is involved in coming under His Lordship?

F.E.R. We get the good of the kingdom, that is, the reign of grace through righteousness which is effectual for us. It is a place of security, and you get that place by the Lord. Christ is Lord over all, that is, He has title, and that will be asserted, and then all will be put under His feet. Now He is hid. Christ is Lord, otherwise we could not confess Him as such. He is Lord and we claim Him as such. He is Lord to us. It is Christ Jesus our Lord. We have not got the day of the Lord yet. The Thessalonians thought the day of the Lord was present. If there were the assertion of His Lordship it would be the day of the Lord. I could not go to an unconverted man and say he was responsible to own Christ as Lord. He is responsible to bow to Christ as Head. A man believes with the heart unto righteousness. No one could confess until there was faith in the heart. "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" You must believe before you call upon the Lord, and "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". Man's soul is in bondage, and God comes to

deliver a man from all that to which his soul is in bondage. No one could call on the Lord unless they had believed. How could they call on Him on whom they have not believed?

Rem. Saul of Tarsus said, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

F.E.R. Saul of Tarsus was not converted in an ordinary way. The Lord Himself took him in hand. He never heard. He was a kind of exception. The Lordship of Christ is connected with strength and grace, authority and power, in which we can stand down here so that we are not afraid of evil. The Lord should be a much greater reality to us than the evil. The Lordship of Christ brings in the thought of fellowship. Our common bond is the Lord. The bond of our fellowship is Christ as Lord. It is (to use a common expression) the articles of our partnership. We only know about His Lordship by the Holy Spirit. The testimony that goes out world-wide is the Head, the Christ, repentance and remission of sins in the name of Christ. The subject of the testimony is "the Christ". We know nothing about Jesus as Lord save by the Holy Spirit. We may repeat it, but no one can know the reality of the glory of Christ except by the Holy Spirit. This will not be the case in the millennium, for the day of the Lord will be asserted. It is a great privilege to us to confess Christ as Lord. He is hid now, but His Lordship will yet be asserted. Joseph in a way was a type of the Lord. He had authority and power given to him, but he was hid from his brethren. All authority belongs to Christ now, but He is hid. Israel in the future will have to confess Christ as Lord. The supper is called the Lord's supper because of the state of the Corinthians. It is not the Lord's supper really, according to the original, it is the "dominical" supper. It is a characteristic idea. It is the lordly supper. It is the character of it. It was in contrast with everyone eating his own

supper, and the apostle brings it forward as the dominical supper in contrast to that. Christ is not Lord to the assembly, but to the individual. Christ is Head in the assembly. He is pre-eminent there. If the assembly acted in discipline it would act in the name of the Lord. The Lord's day is the dominical day, it is not a common day, it has a special character in that way. The disposition to do our own will is probably what hinders our appropriating Christ as Lord. The presence of the Lord is realised through the supper. That is the reason why it is important that the supper should come to us early in the meeting. In the supper it is Himself who is presented, and if we want the enjoyment of Christ's presence, it is through the supper we realise His presence. The principle is "He was known of them in the breaking of bread". We get 1 Corinthians 10 before chapter 11. We have to be in the fellowship of Christ's death first. The supper is the collective and outward expression of fellowship, but then the fellowship is there, and chapter 10 supposes we are in that fellowship of which the supper is the outward expression. We come together in assembly. The supper tests us, and if we answer to the test then we get the privilege. We are put into touch with the Lord and with one another. All privilege in Christianity is in the power of the Spirit. I used to wonder that we should get formal things in Christianity like the supper, baptism and the scriptures. They are a test in that way. If the bread and wine are taken up in what they are simply, that is, according to what they represent, they become a test: these formal things test us as to whether the mind is in accord with them. If we eat the bread the question is, Is the mind in accord with what it represents? So baptism is the test to a Jew, his conversion would not be the test. Baptism would test a Jew, because if he answered to the test of baptism he would be cut off from his Judaism and his friends. If you

answer to the test of the supper, you get the consciousness of His presence. It is in the act of breaking bread that you get the sense of His presence. Having been baptised by one Spirit into one body, it is natural for Christians to come together. We cannot get at 1 Corinthians 11 save through chapter 10. The great point in chapter 10 is separation, and chapter 11 is seclusion, but you could not get seclusion without separation. The blood comes first in chapter 10 because God is in view, and it is by the blood that we get separation.

In Romans 5 you get two thoughts: first, our Lord Jesus Christ, and secondly, the one Man, and yet the one depends upon the other. To make the Lordship of Christ available there must be the Man. You get the benefit of His Lordship in the beginning of the chapter, but then you get the Man. "By one man" is quite distinct from the thought of our Lord. If you had Christ as Lord alone you would have had all swept away in judgment. You would have had all swept away, a silent earth, and the Lordship would not mean anything. Christ's Lordship in regard of this world is that He will judge. No man would be left if His Lordship were asserted, but the condition of things is not yet ripe. It will not be ripe until the whole state of things is developed in connection with Antichrist. You get into righteousness by the one Man, and then you pass into the good of the Lord. "So by the obedience of one [man] shall many be made righteous". Christ is the righteous Man, and the effect is we get righteousness. Practically the "many" is the "all" in the chapter. It is the "many" in contrast to the "few". Every tongue will have to confess He is the Lord, but that will be when He asserts His Lordship. I do not believe in people preaching hell, but I do believe that you should press that man is amenable to the judgment of God and that judgment will be enforced by Christ. The

great mistake is people preaching all that they know. People preach now more than the apostles preached. I think the glad tidings of the Son of God is what should be preached. If God is to judge I should preach that, but that is moral. I do not believe in terrorising people. We are not entitled to preach all that Christ preached. He could draw aside the veil and shew the ultimate end, the rich man in hell; but I would not be justified to preach all that He preached. The great point is to press upon men that Christ is Head of every man by divine appointment and man has no option; he is called upon to accept Christ as Head, and then he will get the benefit of coming under Him as Head. Christ is Head of every man because He has borne the liabilities of every man, and He is a life-giving Spirit and can impart to men living water.

In preaching you must have a moral foundation in man. Man naturally has no idea of God, nor of his right relation to God. Man has to learn that God is God, and that man is man and responsible to God, and hence amenable to judgment. God is Judge, and He will judge by Christ. I want to affect men morally, not to terrorise by working on man's imagination. What will affect man is to know that God is Judge and that He will judge by Christ. The great thing is to preach the preaching given to you. A man's authority for preaching is that he has a gift to preach. The preacher has to be sent. A man has to be sent from the Lord. He may not have a commission like an apostle, but a preacher ought to feel he is sent to preach. A man cannot serve without a gift. The little captive maid had in principle a gift. Her spirit was regularly stirred that there was a prophet in Israel.

The gifts are all here. Christ is not giving gifts now. The gifts are here, and the Spirit distributes severally to every man as He will. The gifts were given by Christ, and they are in the administration of the Spirit. Mr. Darby said, "If there were more

devotedness there would be more gift". If a man were devoted he would get what gift really is, and that is, as Mr. Stoney has said, an "impression of Christ".

The meeting that people are in gives tone to them. If a meeting is slack in a general way, people will get slack. The meeting has a profound effect upon people.

It can be preached in a general way that Christ bore every liability under which man lay. One could hardly say that He bore every man's liabilities, but He did bear every liability under which man lay -- death, curse, and judgment -- and hence His death is available for every man. It is the grace of God to all men. It is ample for all. Then there is another side, that is, the appropriation of it. He bore my sins. That means that Christ had my sins in view in His death. Isaiah 53 is Israel's appropriation. We cannot deny that Christ's death had the elect in view, still it is equally true that Christ has died for all, and that He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. God's mind for man can thus be proclaimed. If Christ is owned as Head, men get righteousness and living water. As Head He is on our side. He is the pre-eminent Man. But as Lord He is on God's side. He is Lord, but He is the one Man, otherwise we should have an empty earth.

NOTES OF READINGS AND ADDRESSES

"IN CHRIST" -- A NEW STATE

Romans 8:1 - 17

The brother who proposed this chapter said what was before him was God's work in man, and the corresponding responsibility.

Ques. What is "In Christ Jesus"?

F.E.R. It represents the work of God in us. "If any one be in Christ there is a new creation". Up to chapter 5 we have the work of God for us, but here, in chapter 8, it is the corresponding work of God in us which becomes the foundation of Christian walk. My walk is according to my state, and my state is according to what God has effected in me. State does not affect the light of God's purpose in Christ. The object of God's work in us is that we might answer to God's purpose in Christ. "In Adam" represents man's natural state. "In Christ" represents a new state. If it be new creation it must be new state. There are two distinct springs in a Christian, either the flesh, that is himself, or the Spirit of God. We never could answer to what has been done for us save by the work done in us. Condemnation, in verse 1, is taken up from the end of chapter 7. There is condemnation there, a sense of knowing what is right and admitting it, and yet not being able to carry it out, and this brings a sense of condemnation. In human things people admit what is right and do not carry it out, and in that way they condemn themselves. What we get in chapter 8 is the effect of an indwelling Spirit: the Spirit is life. Chapter 7 is the utmost that can be reached by man as man, and that even as being born again. Then in contrast to that, we get in the beginning of chapter 8, "There is ... no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". The statement, "There is ... no condemnation to them which are in

Christ Jesus", must be taken in an absolute way without any condition of walk, and therefore the latter part of verse 1 is better omitted. It is spurious. We are in Christ by the Spirit. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death". The condemnation spoken of in verse 1 is in the sense of self-condemnation. Light (which is what we get up to chapter 7) tends to condemn, but there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. What forms Christian state is the Spirit. Every one who has the Spirit is in Christ. The Galatians had the Spirit and so were in Christ, but Christ was not formed in them. The mischief has been that "in Christ" has been made a question of standing. I think it is a mistake. If you come to Headship Christ is the Head of every man. He is not Head of a race. Christ is Head of every man, but there are those distinguished among these who have received the Spirit of Christ. Christ is the Head of every man, and I cannot see where the thought of standing can come in. Christ is also looked at as Head of the body, and also Head of all principality and power, Christ became Head of every man when He had accomplished redemption, and He has taken up that place with the object of imparting living water to those who believe. He does not impart living water to every one, only to those who believe, and what we get in this chapter is the effect of having received living water.

Ques. Is there no such thing as standing then?

F.E.R. Well, I do not understand what it means, that is all I would say. In verse 2 it is "hath set me free". In verse 1, "no condemnation to them". Why? When it is a question of being delivered you must individualise it, "hath set me free".

Ques. How is life looked at here?

F.E.R. Well, the Spirit is life. We cannot get actual quickening until Christ comes, and meanwhile the Spirit is life. John 20 is the communication of the

Spirit of life. "He breathed into them". We cannot speak of life until Christ came, and life could not be except by the Spirit of life. "I am come that they might have life". The beginning of the communication of life was in John 20.

Ques. What is the difference between the Spirit of life and the Holy Spirit?

F.E.R. It is only a difference of idea, it is the same Spirit. He is sometimes called the Spirit of God, and "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus". The "Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead" is also called the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between the Spirit of life and the law of it. The sun is one thing and the law of the sun is another. There is the law of gravitation, but that is distinct from the sun itself. Many Christians have received the Spirit of life and do not come under the rule of it. The well in them does not spring up. The rule, the principle of it is that you appreciate Christ, you have done with flesh. You prefer Christ to self-gratification. It is a great point to come under the law of the Spirit of life, then you get the "springing up". The divine way of putting things right here is the introduction of a new Head. Adam died, man became lawless. He was left without a Head, and then God sets to work to put things right by bringing in a new Head who takes up the liabilities under which man lies. When we appreciate Him we come under the rule of the Spirit of life. We have to condemn what God has condemned. The whole state of man has been condemned in the cross, and we have come to that mind too. John never speaks of the flesh in a moral sense as Paul does in this chapter. The flesh is used here in a technical way, in a moral way. Here we get "The mind of the flesh ... is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be". That last statement is one of the most terrible in Scripture. The "law" does not refer to the ten commandments, but is law in the sense of rule or principle of God.

Man was left without a Head when Adam died, and they were lawless for that reason.

Ques. Are there not two Heads in Romans 5?

F.E.R. Yes, but they are Heads to the same people. Adam was head, and now Christ has come in as Head to the same race to which Adam was head. This chapter (Romans 8) is contrasting flesh and Spirit. In chapter 5 Adam and Christ are contrasted. Now we have a Head (a better Head than Adam) for He has accomplished redemption, and can impart living water. There is a new race as a question of state. The difference between a Christian and an unconverted man is that the Christian has bowed to the Head. Christ is Head to you both, but the Christian who has accepted the Head has received His Spirit. Christ will eventually be the Head of a race which will derive from Him, but meanwhile the race is sifted by the new Head being presented. In 1 Corinthians 15 it is not Headship at all, it is state; "in Christ shall all be made alive". The first thing the Spirit of life brings in is liberty. Then you get ability to walk according to God. There is a new generation morally, but a new generation is not in virtue of standing and a Head, but a question of having received the Spirit and state. Christ is the Head of every man. When we accept that we receive the Spirit, and the reception of the Spirit puts you in God's house and the body of Christ. The new generation is all dependent upon the Spirit. Faith recognises Christ as Head, and then we receive the Spirit, and it is the reception of the Spirit which makes all the difference. We accept Christ as Head for righteousness, and then we receive living water.

The living water springs up to bring about what is according to God, that you should be the servant of righteousness unto holiness, that you may reach God's end which is eternal life. Depend upon it, the Spirit makes all the difference. That is what comes out in the ten virgins; Matthew 25.

A.P. There is nothing between the flesh and the Spirit.

F.E.R. "Springing up" is an energy on the part of the Spirit, but the Spirit may be overlaid. Timothy was exhorted to lay hold on eternal life. He needed a little stirring up to spiritual energy.

A.P. Our part is to give the Spirit a free hand.

F.E.R. Up to verse 11 the Spirit is spoken of as life, after that it is as witness. The flesh and the Spirit cannot go together, and it is consequent upon the condemnation of sin in the flesh that the Spirit is imparted.

Ques. What is the substance of the truth in the world?

F.E.R. I believe it is the work of the Spirit. It is what is effectuated in saints, and Christianity in its proper character is limited by the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is spoken of in two ways in the chapter: first, as the Spirit of life, and then, secondly, as the Spirit of sonship, and in the latter sense the Spirit is more witness. "Sons" and "children" are almost used interchangeably. If they are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. The Spirit witnesses they are the children of God. The Spirit indwells that He may lead. The idea is, if we are indwelt by the Spirit we are led by the Spirit. From verse 11 the great point is the Spirit of sonship. The Spirit of God has come down to identify us with God's Son. He is the Spirit of God's Son. The witness identifies those who are the sons of God with the Son of God. Children is more the idea of a new generation here. The generation is really "born of God". God has no less a thought for us than that of children, sons of God. "Ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus". The apostle in that way could put it before the Galatians, although they did not understand much about it. Here we get the Spirit of sonship; in Ephesians we get the reality of sonship; in Galatians

we get the light of sonship. People who have received the Spirit must have some sense of being sealed. The epistle to the Galatians introduces a very large thought -- that it is the thought of God to associate the saints with an entirely new system of which Christ is the Head and Centre. It would help people greatly to see that God has opened the door out of the present system that we might be attached to Christ who is the beginning of another system. We can only find out what Christ is by the Spirit of God. The Christianity around is not Christianity at all; all sorts of worldly ways are incorporated into it, there is nothing of the Spirit about it.

It is a very wonderful thing to think that the Spirit is life. The Spirit has taken that place in regard to Christians. He is life in view of righteousness. Think what poor things we are! but we have the Spirit as life in view of righteousness. We thus love God and love Christ and love one another. The body is held as "dead because of sin". The Spirit is life in the believer. It is "not I, but Christ liveth in me". It is in view of righteousness in a practical way. The Spirit is in you in order that the body may be dead, that is, that it is not held as the vehicle for lust, etc. It is a very wonderful thing that poor and feeble as I am and liable to death, yet the Spirit in me is life because of righteousness.

The Spirit is our life, and we are waiting for the coming of the Lord when our mortal bodies will be quickened. When Christ is manifested as the life-giving Spirit then we shall be quickened. The outward man perishes, but it is wonderful that the Spirit is life, and that at any moment our mortal bodies may be quickened, and then the body will not be held dead, but it will be very much alive. The body will then in no wise hinder, but will be capable. Meanwhile we are to be capable in affection and to know the Spirit as life.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION

Genesis 15:1 - 17; Exodus 14:26 - 31; Romans 10:1 - 13

I have two points which I want to touch upon tonight. They are two subjects which have a great place in regard of us. No truth is available to us unless we understand it. People may take up a passage of Scripture and rest upon it, and say Scripture says so and so, but that is not the divine idea of it. The divine idea is to understand it. The seed sown did not become fruitful unless the word was understood. The good ground represented where the truth was received and understood. There are many parts of truth, and they are available to us when they are understood. The Spirit of God alone can fit in the various parts of truth into the system of truth in the mind. The apostle prayed and had conflict that the saints might have the "full assurance of understanding".

I want to speak of two points tonight, that is, Righteousness and Salvation. They are simple, but many do not understand the place they have in the system of truth. Take salvation, it is not enough to believe that there are certain things, salvation and the like. We want to be in the good of them, and to understand them. It is only then that we can by the Spirit of God contend for them. Now righteousness is connected with Christ as Head, and salvation with Christ as Lord. Christ is the Head of every man: "who gave himself a ransom for all", and there is righteousness in no one but as there is faith in that Man. Now salvation is connected with confession. The apostle desired that he might have the righteousness of God, which is by faith. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". If "thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus". When Christ

comes again He will come "without sin unto salvation". We want to know the power and value of Christ as Lord. Many say, "Lord, Lord", all Christendom does that, but we want to know the power and authority connected with it. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe". There is this strong tower, and the righteous run in and are safe.

This will suffice to shew the distinction between righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is connected with faith and with Christ as Head, and salvation with confession and Christ as Lord. These passages I read in the Old Testament will illustrate the two thoughts. The prominent idea in connection with Abraham is righteousness. The principle of righteousness is what God settled in Abraham. The law was a way of righteousness for man if man could have loved God with all his heart. But long, long before the law was given God had settled the question of righteousness, and that it was by faith. Abraham was accounted righteous in the eye of God because he stood in relation to Christ. Christ was righteousness to Abraham. So with us, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth". Righteousness refers to another world, and salvation to this world. Righteousness never refers to this world. Salvation does refer to the world that is. Righteousness is prominent in the case of Abraham, and salvation in the case of Israel. Salvation does not come out prominently in connection with Abraham. He was a stranger, but he was not in bondage as Israel were in Egypt. Abraham had promises, and he needed righteousness to enjoy these. In the case of Israel the prominent idea was salvation. They were the seed of Abraham, they were in Egypt and oppressed by the world power and held in bondage by the Egyptians, and God effected salvation for them. Thus God saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians.

The people were in bondage to the god and prince of this world, which Pharaoh represented. God interfered for them in salvation to bring them out of the bondage to the world power. Righteousness is standing in relation to Christ. Now Christ has nothing to do with this world. He came into the world and accomplished redemption, but He never had any place here. He came into the world as a helpless Babe, and He passed out of it by the cross. He was "crucified through weakness". He was not of the world. But now Christ is the Sun of righteousness to another world. He does not shine in regard of this world. He shines on the believer. "Wake up, thou that sleepest ... and the Christ shall shine upon thee", but that is the believer. Christ will judge this world, but there is a world begun of which Christ is the Centre and Sun.

"Of the vast universe of bliss
The Centre, Thou, and Sun". (Hymn 11)

In Genesis 3 you get man turned out of the place which God frequented, and in Malachi you read of another Man arising with healing in His wings. The Sun of righteousness will arise and shine upon another world. Now righteousness depends upon standing in relation to Christ. Whoever does not bow to Christ is lawless. All who do not stand in relation to Christ are lawless. The earth is righteous in the sense that it stands in relation to the Sun, and that is righteousness. Christ is the Sun of righteousness. Righteousness for us is in being held in relation to Him. We were lawless in regard of God, wandering stars, but now we have accepted Christ as Head, and He is our righteousness. Christ the Sun of righteousness refers to another world. He will arise with healing in His wings. He is out of sight just now, but as Head He stands in relation to another world, and He is our righteousness, and if so then our righteousness has reference to another world where all God's promises will be fulfilled. The land has not been given to

Abraham's seed yet as promised, although he received a pledge of it in that the smoking furnace came down and passed between the pieces. Our righteousness refers to another world of which Christ is the Centre and Sun. Christians believe in Christ, but do not sufficiently apprehend Christ as the Head and Centre of another world. They believe in Him personally without believing in Him officially.

Now a word as to salvation. Salvation refers to this world and to man's deliverance from the pressure and bondage under which he is to the world system. The children of Israel were under oppression by the great world power, and God took in hand to save the people. All was typical. Now Egypt is the great world power, and the people of God now who have come into righteousness begin to feel the oppression. For a long time we may not feel it, but a time comes when people awake to the oppression of the great world system, and people want then to be delivered. This proves that salvation has to do with the deliverance of the people of God from the great world power, which is governed by the god and prince of this world. The prince of this world would hold people in bondage, but when the light of God comes in then the oppression begins to be felt, and people sigh by reason of their bondage, and then it is that they get salvation, and it is a great moment when we feel we can dare to stand here against the world power because we are conscious of the support and authority of the Lord. Thus we have had the two points before us, righteousness and salvation.

Now turn to Romans 10 for a moment. These scriptures (verses 11 and 13) refer to the future, that is, to the time of trouble which is coming upon Israel. What has come in at the present time is what will come in at the time of Jacob's trouble. God will appoint salvation, and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The passages quoted from

Deuteronomy 30:8 refer to the time when God will again take up His dealings with Israel. The point of the chapter is that the prophetic scriptures are true now in principle although not in literal application. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness". The lawless man has been removed, and the righteous Man has taken his place and abides. To remove the lawless man Christ took his place and became the victim. The victim is not revived, but He who took his place -- the righteous One -- is. The victim is man after the flesh -- the lawless man -- and Christ accepted that place, "He was made sin". Now the lawless man is removed, and it was within the right of God to remove that man. God did it in the righteous Man, and the righteous Man is revived. Christ is no longer living after the flesh. The righteous Man abides, and He is the Sun of righteousness. Redemption is accomplished in the righteous One, and He is the Sun of righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of the whole system of the world to come. The whole system depends upon the Sun of righteousness. He is the righteousness of the whole system as much for Israel as for the church. The Lord will be the righteousness of Israel. We have been placed in relation to the Sun of righteousness, and our righteousness refers to the world to come. This is most important, for if apprehended it will have the effect of connecting you in thought with the world to come. We belong to that world as being placed in relation to the One who is Centre and Sun of that universe. But if we are placed in relation to that world we need deliverance from the system of this world, so that we may stand in the liberty wherewith Christ makes free.

There are two great principles which work in the great world power, that is, lust and glory. The present world could not subsist apart from lust and pride. People like the world. There are those who would like all brought down to a dead level, but the majority

of people admire it and like it. But when the soul begins to find pleasure in moral principles like righteousness, then people begin to feel the oppression and bondage of the world system very keenly, and then they are very glad to run into the name of the Lord as a strong tower, and in His grace and strength we can withstand what is opposed to us. The whole world system is against the Christian. It came against the Lord at the beginning and also at the end. The prince of this world will come perhaps with blandishments and perhaps with persecution, or with both, but you can stand here in the grace and strength of the Lord whatever the strength of the world or Satan. We can find the name of the Lord as a strong tower. The people were obliged to own that with authority and power He commanded the unclean spirits and they obey Him. The great thing is to stand against the power of evil here. If you put on armour and shew fight, let it be felt that you are not going in the current of the world. This you could not do in your own strength, but in the strength of the Lord who will cast Satan into the abyss. He is vested with all power and authority. We appropriate Him as Lord, and we confess Him as Lord as against all the forces and power of evil. The Lord will subdue all the power of evil, Satan and sin, and death will be swallowed up in victory. Christ has authority to do so in order to make way for the world to come where God will be glorified and where Christ will arise with healing in His wings. In our understanding we should anticipate the world to come. We are exhorted to awake from a dead world so that Christ may shine upon us, so that we may be delivered from the influences of this world. When we stand in relation to Him, we stand in relation to One who is the Head of another world. We have to stand (not to sit, you do not sit down to put on armour, you stand, putting on the helmet of salvation), and to shew fight.

I am glad, as I am getting near to the end of my course (and I think I have had before me the service of the saints, and one could not render them better service than in bringing before them their connection with the great system of the world to come), that I am not much endowed with this world's goods, for then the tendency is to sit down. We are called upon to stand and to shew fight, to make it evident that we do not settle down to complacency with what is the course of this world. People speak of going to heaven, but the great point of going to heaven is that you may come out of it with the glory of God. People's thoughts have terminated too much with the thought of going to heaven. The thought of God is to go to heaven, to come out of it with the glory of God.

"GOD'S PRESENT PURPOSE FOR US; HOW HE BRINGS US TO IT"

Hebrews 3:1 - 19

What I desire to do is to endeavour to trace the course of divine ways with us from the beginning to the present end which God has purposed for Himself.

That purpose is stated in Romans 8:39: nothing shall "separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". That is God's purpose for us, and is the end that God has in view. Now so far as I understand, the purpose of God is to bring us to that confidence. It is not His purpose to take us to heaven yet: that awaits us; we shall be taken to the Father's house, but the point God has before Him to bring us to is to that persuasion that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Everything is measured, height and depth, etc., but the persuasion is, that nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God". The passage involves our association with Christ.

The thought is contemplated of love resting in perfect complacency in Christ Jesus, and we are there. We are in association with Him. God and saints meet in Christ. The fulness of God is in Him, and we are complete in Him. We are there. The apostle, having measured everything, had come to the persuasion that nothing could separate from the love of God. It is the grace of God to bring us to that point now.

I would trace now the course which God takes with us to bring us to that point. The beginning of God's ways is Christ, and the course which God was taking was "reconciling the world unto himself". The way that God took to recover man for Himself was the introduction of a Head. But the introduction of a Head involves the setting aside of the Jew for the time

being. "This child", Simeon said, "is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel". The introduction of Christ as the Head of every man involved the casting off of the Jew for the moment, but that involved the "reconciling of the world". What an immense difference the introduction of Christ meant. The mass of the nations was idolatrous, the Jew was almost as bad, but God's way was to introduce a new Head. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself". The casting off of the Jew was the reconciling of the world. All the world in that way came near to righteousness by the very fact of God being near to men in the new Head raised up. Now that is the beginning of God's way. The next step is, Christ entered into all the liabilities which lay upon man. Death lay upon man; man was under wrath; the Jew was under curse. Well, Christ entered into all. He entered into death, into wrath, into every liability under which man lay, in order to lay the ground upon which God could bring in reconciliation. In Christ it is in the power of God to approach every man, even the reprobate Jew. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself", and the effect is -- righteousness lies very close to man. "The word is nigh thee". He does not need to go up to heaven or to go down to the deep. Righteousness lies quite close to every man. Repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in the name of the One who had suffered and was risen again. He was the light for the revelation of the Gentiles and for the glory of His people Israel. If you do not apprehend that, you could not see how God could go on with the world. Christ is the Head of every man. The "grace of God, and the free gift in grace ... abounded by one man unto the many". Thus the effect of Christ being set as Head of every man is to sift men. The man who does not accept Christ as Head proclaims himself lawless. He is not prepared to submit to the new Head, and therefore

there can be nothing for such but the judgment of God, and that is what will come to pass. The Head is a test of men, and if men do not answer to the Head, judgment will become a necessity, because they prove themselves lawless.

Now there is another point. All that state of things must lead up to Antichrist. Antichrist is the fittest man in that state of things, in a lawless world, and that will bring in the judgment of God. When Antichrist comes to the top the moment has come for the judgment of God. Now there is a testing process going on at the present time. Men are tested by the new Head. There are those who have believed in Christ; all do not believe in Him. God does not expect all. Faith is not the portion of all. God does not work in sovereignty in all. You must not expect it. If you have believed in Christ you are bound to own that it is through mercy you did believe in Him. The effect of believing is that the Spirit of God is given to those who believe. Those who believe receive from the Head the gift of living water. Now two things are true of those who have received the living water. They are: first, God's house, and, secondly, they are companions of Christ. "Whose house are we", and "we are become companions of the Christ if indeed we hold .the beginning of the assurance firm to the end". We have come to that point where we have received the Spirit of God, and we have become God's house. Christ is the builder of God's house, and we are God's house and we are also companions of Christ if we hold fast; it is subject to conditions, but I assume that all here have answered to these conditions. "If ye hold", etc. I want to dwell on these two points now, for it is that to which God has been pleased to bring us for certain purposes.

Now the house of God is composed of persons, of living stones. God's house is God's household. It is a spiritual house composed of living stones. There

are two things which mark those who compose God's house, one is divine teaching and the other is discipline. We are brought to God's house that we may know God in His nature and become partakers of His holiness. We are brought to the abode of His holiness. It is the place too where we come under discipline. Christ attends to the ways of all those who compose God's house. He is Son over God's house, and we come under His inspection. He intercedes for us, too, and perhaps that we may not come under discipline; but in God's house we do come under discipline. No father disregards the discipline of his children, so God corrects His people, and all to one end, that we may be partakers of His holiness. We come under love to beget confidence, and we come under discipline to promote holiness. Love begets confidence, and chastening promotes holiness. There is confidence in children towards their parents in a well-regulated household, because they know there is love there.

Then there is another point. Priesthood helps to that end. You do not suppose that your ways are not inspected. All our ways are inspected, and Christ is extremely vigilant and has our good and blessing in view, and that because He is Son over God's house. He intercedes for us. It would be a very defective sort of love on the part of the parent if he disregarded the discipline of his children. At the same tune He is careful in regard to their ways that they may be according to God.

Now there is another thing. It is equally true that it is God's way that we should be "companions of Christ". It was in the mind of God that there should be a company of which Christ is the pre-eminent One. Aaron's sons were companions of Aaron. Christ is the Firstborn among many brethren. There is a fitting company in which Christ could sing praise unto God. "In the midst of the church will I sing

praise unto thee". The disciples were the companions of Christ here, and He sang a hymn with them. The Lord had great delight in their company. Now what marks the moment is that there is a company which Christ leads, and of which He is the pre-eminent One. We are God's house. Do you believe God is dwelling here? That is the great truth of the moment. Christ has built God's house in order that God might abide here. Redemption was accomplished that God might dwell here. We have to recognise that God is dwelling here by the Spirit, and our conduct is to be ordered in reference to the presence of God. How far are we regulated by the truth of God abiding here? It is important that the presence of God should be that which is before us as that which regulates our conduct, that we carry ourselves in all lowliness and meekness. We are Christ's companions, too. God has brought us to both things by the possession of the Spirit.

Now what I want to come to is this, to refer again to Romans 8:37 - 39. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Nothing shall separate us from the love of God. We get the thought that Christ makes intercession for us. "We have such an High Priest", and "such an High Priest became us". He ever liveth to make intercession for us. We have One who intercedes for us, but we are the companions of the One who intercedes for us. He intercedes for us because He loves us. He bears the judgment of His people upon His heart, as the high priest in Israel bore their names on his breast. Now who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Persecution could not separate you from His love. We are more than conquerors through Him that loves us. He loves us because we are His companions. So, too, God loves His household. The love of God rests on the One who is Son over God's house. There is nothing to disturb the complacency which rests on the One who is Son there. We have found our home here. What

is it? What is the home of the Christian? We are not yet in heaven. Your home is in the love of God, and the apostle says nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ lives in the love of God, and if we are companions of Christ we are entitled to live in the love of God. God has brought things so to pass that we can live in the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of God has been declared in Christ towards us. It is shed abroad in our hearts too by the Holy Spirit that we might find the home of our hearts now in the love of God. If you have found your home there you have found eternal life. Nothing has power over you there, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Now that is the great end to which God seeks to bring us. Our course with God began with recognising Christ as Head, and the end is that we are companions of Christ, and brought there that we may be made acquainted with the love of Christ and the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The effect of abiding there is that I find others abiding there too. We get the great reality of unity there, and the effect is that we have love one to another. We are all one in the abode of divine love, toward God, and toward Christ, and toward one another, and then divine love shines out in us and thus you get an effective witness to God down here. "If we love one another God dwelleth in us". We cannot go further than that. I want you to ponder these things so that you may get an understanding of the course which God takes to lead us from the beginning to His present great end, that is, to abide in His love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is a great thing to reach our true home and to abide in it, and to let it have its proper effect upon us, which is confidence in Him without fear, and the proper result of that is that there is a witness for God here. The gospel cannot have much power unless there is a

witness. I should be taken up with the building up of the witness. If you speak to people about a Man in glory, and people challenge it, how would you answer? My answer would be that the Spirit is here, and the proof of that is that God abides in the saints, and that is evident because the saints love one another. Hence the witness is of all-importance that God may abide in us and His love be perfected in us.

THE BODY

1 Corinthians 12

This chapter gives the thought of the manifestations of the Spirit as leading up to the truth of the body. The truth of the body is that no one can claim pre-eminence; all the members are dependent one upon the other. It completely excludes the whole idea of the clergy and ministers.

The body exists so that Christ may be here. He is rejected here, and yet His body is here. The house is God's house, and the body is Christ's body. In Corinthians the apostle challenges them: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" and here it is, "Ye are the body of Christ".

Every member has its place. The human body is taken up as a figure, and every member has its function, but no member claims pre-eminence; every member serves every other one.

Ques. "So also is the Christ"?

F.E.R. The next verse explains it: "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body", etc. In this epistle Christ is not brought in as Head in this connection. The apostle is speaking of the body, not of the Head. It is the body. Christ puts His own name on the body. "The Christ" is the anointed body in this passage. It is characteristic in that way.

What is the name by which Israel is called? "The Lord our righteousness", and the same expression is applied to Christ Himself, Jehovah our righteousness; so Christ has put His name upon the church just as Jehovah puts His name on Israel. "I will put my name upon the children of Israel" -- that is what Christ has done, He has put His name upon the church. The church is the anointed company. Christ Himself was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and

consequent upon redemption being accomplished the church is anointed, and hence bears the name of Christ characteristically, so we get "so also is the Christ". Then the next verse is explanatory: "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body".

On the day of Pentecost that did not take place, for there was no Gentile there. You cannot say any moment when it took place; here it is merely stated as having taken place. The church is complete and there is no member lacking. We may find it difficult to apprehend that the church is complete, but there is no deficiency before God.

The object of this chapter is to meet the tendency on the part of some in Corinth who claimed pre-eminence. This chapter is brought in to regulate what is in assembly. There is to be no pre-eminence. In Colossians and Ephesians you get the body, but there the Head is brought in, and here He is not brought in as Head, save as "Head of every man". Every member has to find out its own proper function, and not to claim pre-eminence. A minister claiming pre-eminence is inadmissible. "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee".

The section beginning with chapter 11 and ending with chapter 14 is brought in to regulate the saints when in assembly. In the beginning of the chapter we get the relative places of divine Persons, but the object is to maintain unity. Gifts come out in the body, but the administration is by one Lord.

The body here is a positive, real body. It is a body the reality of which may be known. The truth of it is brought in to correct the saints at Corinth. A great deal that we get in the epistles is corrective.

All spiritual manifestations are traced back to the same Spirit; there are not different spirits. There can be no unity so long as any one claims any kind of pre-eminence.

Ques. Please explain verse 3.

F.E.R. He brings up a test of spirits. No one could call Jesus accursed if speaking by the Spirit of God, and no one can say Lord Jesus but by the Holy Spirit. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and confession is by the Holy Spirit. The common bond of fellowship is the confession of Christ as Lord. The body is not quite a witness to the world. If the church were regulated according to what we get in this chapter there would be a great deal of profit in the body. The idea of the body is that every member of the body works for the benefit of the whole. The foot moves for the benefit of the whole. We want every member of the body. The ordinary arrangements in Christendom forbid our getting the good of all that is amongst us. A great many people come into our fellowship just as they would go into a church or chapel. They do not feel responsible to fulfil their own proper function. You cannot hinder people coming into fellowship, but there is great weakness through those who do come not fulfilling their part. We suffer from brothers not praying in the prayer meeting. Praying in the meeting is a question of liberty, not of being led to pray. I would like people to be burdened with the things of Christ in coming to the prayer meeting. It is a great thing to be free to take part. It is liberty that is wanted. My disposition is not to criticise the young who pray. The way of liberty is beholding the Lord's glory. People want a spiritual constitution -- they want to be fed. Those who come into fellowship come into responsibility. If young people come into fellowship they come into responsibility. They have to bear the burdens there. If you were to bring souls into attachment to Christ you would put everything right. In bringing up children the great thing is to build up their constitutions, and so it is spiritually. When people come into fellowship they have to bear the burden of the Lord's things.

People want "living bread" and "living bread" is within their reach, it is there for people to appropriate. The truth of this chapter (1 Corinthians 12) would bring in order according to God. In the assembly everything is to be the result of exercise; a hymn should not be given out without exercise.

We are Christ's body, Christ is in you; but then comes another thing, you want to be built up in Christ. The great need with all of us is to be built up in Christ, and I cannot see any way for that save by "living bread", and that is put within our reach so that all the good of heaven may be available to us. If children have not appetite the likelihood is they have had something to vitiate their appetite.

Living water is the Spirit. Living bread is Christ. The tendency of the Corinthians was to show off; but the point is that all the manifestations of the Spirit are given to profit.

The manifestations at the beginning of the chapter in the main are permanent. We may get the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge. The gifts mentioned at the end may not be permanent. Prophecy is a gift which tends to profit. "He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort". We have gifts which continue. Evangelists and pastors and teachers. We do not need healing and tongues as they once were needed. We do not get the evangelist brought in here, because what is brought in here is what is needed to regulate the saints when in assembly. In Ephesians the church is looked at from a different point of view. The gifts are given for the building up the assembly, and the evangelist is needed to build up the assembly (not in the meeting), but as in the sense of bringing material in. The work of the evangelist is to preach, but all in view of the body. In early days when the church was in order, the evangelist was to occupy himself in preaching, but when things lapsed into disorder, then you get

Timothy exhorted to do all kinds of things -- preach the word, be instant in season, etc.

The evangelist must have his own proper place in the assembly. He cannot forfeit his own place in the assembly for the sake of preaching. The assembly is the witness, the assembly is to be at his back, but he has regard to the well-being of the assembly, and also to go on with his work. If the assembly is not the witness there is no witness to the truth. You are telling people to believe what there is no witness to. If the evangelist is not identified with the assembly he has no witness.

If you go and tell people something about astronomy, they want no witness because the facts are patent and you can prove things. But when you come to speak of Christ in heaven you want a witness, because no man can verify it. No one can go into heaven. You have the word by the Holy Spirit, but you want the witness of it, and the saints are the witness to it, and the Spirit in them. In early days the apostle said that the Jesus whom they had crucified was at the right hand of God, but the witness was the Spirit. We want a man built up in a Man (Christ) and that is what we call spiritual constitution. What builds up a man is the knowledge of love. It is the soul coming under the influence of God. The teacher may enlighten and unfold the mind of God, but the Spirit of God alone can form us spiritually. God Himself is witnessing. "If we love one another God abides in us", and then it goes on to say, "We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Saviour of the world".

The evangelist goes out and he must not expect any support from the world, and therefore he needs the support of the assembly as witness. The evangelist himself, too, has his own part in the witness. An evangelist is not worth much if he has not constitution.

Chapter 13 is the building up of constitution.

THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRIST

Colossians 1:24 - 29; Colossians 2:1,2; Colossians 3:1 - 17

I want to touch at this time upon the mystery of the Christ. It is evidently something great, for Scripture speaks of the riches of the glory of this mystery. Christ is in the saints, the hope of glory. Thus the glory is brought near to us. Glory is the consummation of everything which God has purposed to set forth. It is the climax and perfection. God is bringing many sons to glory, that is, to the consummation.

I see a certain line and progress of truth in Scripture. I refer to the principles of establishment, maintenance and display. Everything of God is established in Christ, maintained in the church, and is to be displayed in glory. Every divine thought has been established in Christ and is maintained in the way of testimony and hope in the church. The church is the connecting link between the coming of Christ in the past and the future glory. What remains is that all should be set forth in glory -- seeing that all is established in Christ. In the meantime the truth of all is maintained in the church, but all is in mystery till the time of display in glory -- there can be no mystery then because every purpose of God is manifest.

Now I take up the first point -- the establishment of everything in Christ -- and then pass on to shew how that all is perpetuated in the church, for the church is the body of Christ. There is a company here that bears the character of Christ, and has intelligence of all that is established in Him, for the word of Christ is to dwell in us richly.

Now we get from the gospels an idea of all that is established in Christ. In the gospel of Matthew we see Israel taken up afresh in Christ. When Christ

came, Israel was nationally deceased, the ten tribes were lost, and there was a mere remnant of the Jews in the land, and they had virtually given up the hope of Israel. The practical result was that, when Christ of Israel came, His own received Him not, but in spite of that the truth of Israel was revived in Christ, and Israel in the future will come forth morally from Christ. A great point of interest in the Gospel of Matthew is this revival of Israel in Christ, and in that connection we get Christ taken down to Egypt, so that it might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt have I called my son". On the same principle in John 15 we have Christ saying, "I am the true vine". The truth of Israel is taken up again in Christ. The idea in the Lord's charge to the disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel is that they as a remnant of Israel should be the channel of blessing to all the nations. This is the true place of Israel.

In Mark's gospel we get "the sower soweth the word". There had been a dearth for many centuries of the word of God. Now we have the word of God revived in the glad tidings of Jesus Christ. In Him every detail of prophecy was centred. He was the reality of all. He was the Word, the consummation of all the prophetic testimony. Prophecy was a light shining in a dark place until the day dawned and the day star arose in the heart, that is, Christ, as the day star is the embodiment of all that is spoken of in prophecy. If I wanted to get light on prophetic testimony I should not go to a Jew, but to an intelligent Christian, because to him the day has dawned -- he apprehends Christ as the spirit of every prophetic testimony, so the prophetic word was revived, not in detail, but in One who was the climax of all.

Now in Luke, in the song of Simeon, Christ is said to be a light for the revelation of the Gentiles as well as the glory of God's people Israel. He is God's salvation to the ends of the earth, that repentance and

forgiveness might be preached in His name among all nations. Thus the nations are brought into view. The casting off of the Jews is the reconciliation of the world.

In John's gospel we have another thing revived. Ezekiel had seen the glory depart from the temple, and by the fact of Christ becoming man He superseded the temple. He could say to the Jews in John 2, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up ... But he spake of the temple of his body". Therefore in the presence of Christ here there was the true temple. In Solomon's temple there was a cloud of glory, but in Christ all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. And now in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

I hope you will put all these things together. You get in Christ the true Israel, and the Word in whom all prophetic testimony was centred. Then the ends of the earth find salvation in Him, and in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Christ came in order that in Him every divine thought and purpose might be established, He is the Sun of righteousness, the Centre and Head of the universe of bliss. If I think of Israel, I look at Christ -- not at a few scattered Jews. If I think of prophetic testimony, again I look at Christ, who is the Word. If I think of the nations I see that He is set for salvation to the ends of the earth, and in Him the temple is established on eternal foundations. I wish I could impress upon all the enormous importance of these things, and convey some sense of the greatness of what is established in Christ.

Now all these things are maintained in the church, and the church in its true character is the body of Christ, and if it were not so I do not see how all that is established in Christ could be maintained there. The body of Christ fills up the interval between Christ and the glory. The hope of Israel is maintained in the church. The Jew does not maintain it -- he does

not care anything for it -- he is set upon present worldly gain. The true Jew is found in the church -- He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, and not in letter. And in the church the hope of Israel is cherished. Again, where is the word of God maintained? It is in the church. The glad tidings are there. So, too, in the church is realised God's salvation to the ends of the earth. The Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree. In Acts 13, when the apostle turned to the Gentiles, he quotes, "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth". All these things are maintained in the church, because the church is God's temple and the body of Christ.

But now to go a point further, all will be displayed in glory, Israel will be displayed as a nation and will come forth glorious by Christ. So too the Word of God (Christ) will come forth, the nations will be revived as life from the dead, and the heavenly city will be the temple. There is thus eventually the setting forth of every divine thought in glory. Christ came forth from God and every divine thought was established in Him, and now is maintained in the church, which is Christ in the Gentiles, the hope of glory, and all will be displayed in glory. The church is now the depository of every thought of God. The church was left here as a faithful wife in the absence of her husband, to maintain every interest belonging to Him: that is the true place of the church. If I have my proper place in the heart of my wife, she regards as her own every interest of mine in my absence. The Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith. Now if what I have said be true it is most essential that the church should bear the character of Christ. If the interests of Christ are maintained in the church, then it is of all-importance that the church should bear His character. We find this thought in Colossians 3:10 - 17.

The first thing (in verse 3) is you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God, but when Christ who is our life is manifested, we also shall be manifest with Him in glory. You have put off the old man with his deeds. You are said to have died, which means that the minds of the saints are in accord with the death of Christ. Christ died once unto sin and to the world. He had no part in sin, but His path was a continual conflict with sin, but now He has died to the whole scene -- has passed out of it. In His death there was the condemnation of the old man for God. Now you are dead. If Christ can never have again to say to that to which He has died, so this is to be true to us; our mind is in accord with His death. We have put off the old man, and are thus separated morally from the scene of sin. The mind is the crucial point. We are all liable to be tempted and perhaps overcome, but if our minds are in accord with the death of Christ we quickly judge ourselves. And having put off the old man we have put on the new. Now the new man has no existence substantively, and therefore is really a divinely formed conception in the mind of the Christian, and that conception governs the whole course of his life. The new man will govern your practice. The new man is renewed unto full knowledge after the image of Him that created him -- after Christ -- then it goes on to say, Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. The distinctions in the flesh have to give way to the force of spiritual affections. If you were to ask me to tell you what the new man is, I should say Christ in the saints formed there by divine power -- there is thus the conception of the new man in the mind. Then it is that you get to the reality of the one body, that it is the vessel of Christ. Now look at the detail of the chapter. Contrast verse 12 with verse 8. The latter is what is characteristic of the old man: anger, wrath, malice; then see the marks of the new man: bowels

of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, etc. A wonderful contrast. That is, you get all the heavenly graces of Christ coming out in the saints down here. The constitution of saints has been built up by living bread, and as a result you get the grace of heaven coming out in them. In verse 15 you get the true bond. The baptism of the Spirit does not necessarily bind saints together in practice, but the bond of perfectness will, and that is love. You get the reality of the one body. And then let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and it adds "to the which also ye are called in one body". You will let no fleshly sentiment which is inconsistent with Christ abide in the heart -- sentiments of envy or jealousy can have no place in the heart because the peace of Christ is what determines all there. Further, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It is the word of Christ because it is that in which Christ is expressed. When you come to the word of Christ you read Scripture in the light of Christ, and thus your knowledge of Christ is increased. The heart of the Christian is to be full of every interest of Christ. It says "in all wisdom" -- that is what is to characterise the body. It would be poor to talk of the church being the depository of every divine thought of God if it were not characterised by Christ. We are down here that the character of Christ may find its expression in us. The peace of Christ resting in the heart, and the word of Christ dwelling in us -- that is intelligence according to God -- every divine thought as established in Christ. When He comes all will be displayed. There will be a world then in which God alone will be glorified. There never can be general happiness for man in the scene of man's ambition and glory, but there is happiness and blessing for man unlimited in the scene in which God will be glorified.

Meanwhile Christ is in us the hope of glory.

ETERNAL LIFE AND CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

1 John 1

"From the beginning" is the outset of the particular thing in hand. "The devil sinned from the beginning". It is from the departure, from the start of the particular thing in hand. In the latter passage it is the "sinning"; in the former, it is the life. "From the beginning" is thus not a question of time, but of the outset of the particular thing in hand. Here it is the outset "Christ come in the flesh", the incarnation is the point of departure of the particular subject.

The matter in hand here is the "Word of life". That is the subject of which John is treating.

The "Word" in the Gospel of John is the declaration of God. In the epistle it is more the question of life, hence we get the "Word of life". In the gospel it is what is true in the Father and the Son; in the epistle it is in Christ and in us. "Which thing is true in him and in you". This life is in His Son. The scope of the Gospel of John is much greater than that of the epistle. It is the Father revealed in the Son and the Comforter sent, that is, God fully declared. In the epistle it is God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is the consciousness of what we are brought to. The darkness is passing and the true light is now shining, which thing is true in Him and in you.

Ques. What is eternal life?

F.E.R. Practically it is the life of love, life in the love of God. Eternal life is extremely difficult to define, in fact, you cannot define it. One may give an idea of it. It is what will rule in the coming age in contrast to the rule of sin and death. The seat of eternal life is God, and the power of life became manifest in Christ here. All was subdued in the

presence of Christ when He was here. The evil which oppressed man was set aside in His presence. Devils were cast out and the dead were raised, and all that by reason of the energy of divine life in Him. All that Christ did was not simply miraculous power, but it was the energy of divine life in Him, dispossessing death and subduing the power of evil. So it will be in the coming age. Satan will be bound, death will be swallowed up in victory and evil set aside, and all that by the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. "He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil". We come within the range of that life; the disciples did. They came under the influence of it, and they had seen it, and it was made manifest to them. They saw the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. It was the life of God in a Man, dispossessing death. "Handled" (verse 1) refers to Him after His resurrection, evidencing the fact of His being really Man. Eternal life had been manifested; God had been declared. The apostles declared "that eternal life which was with the Father". The mighty energy of the life of God will come into the world when Christ comes, and all the power of evil will be set aside. Israel will come within the range of it in the world to come. But it is all dependent in that way upon the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. In the millennium all will be actual. God Himself will be here. With us now it is a question of knowledge. The person who has it, is one who hears the word of Christ and believes on Him who sent Him. (See John 5:24).

Rem. That is a Christian.

F.E.R. It is an advanced Christian. I do not find many who hear the word of Christ and believe on Him who sent Him in the sense in which it is stated here, though many believe on Him as Saviour. What we get in John's epistle is what leads up to eternal life. We do not reach the climax until we come to

chapter 5. It is only as we are formed in the divine nature that we can enter on eternal life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life", John 5:24. It is a wonderful thing to see one who hears the word of the Son of God and is characterised by that. To such an one the world is viewed as all dead and no life anywhere. If you hear the voice of the Son of God you are cut off from the world, and you hear no word but the word of the Son. The chapter contemplates a scene of death; all are dead, and the distinction marked in verse 24 is one who hears the voice of the Son of God; such an one has "passed out of death into life", he is passed into another order of things.

"In him was life" is chapter 1 of John's gospel. It was "given to the Son to have life in himself" in chapter 5.

If people have not passed out of the world morally they are still in death; the world is all in death. A person is not in life unless he has entered into it consciously. Eternal life is not merely a question of faith, but of consciousness. I do not see how a person can have eternal life unless he has the consciousness of it. We pass out of death into life by the work of God in us. We pass into life as we are prepared for it, and that is being formed in the divine nature. The bulk of people in Christendom regard Christianity as a something for this world. How do they pass out of death into life? They remain in death, they remain in the world system.

Ques. How far does the gospel bring people?

F.E.R. It brings them to the faith of Christ. In the history of Israel the question of eternal life is connected with the land, not with Egypt nor the wilderness. Eternal life to us consists in the knowledge of the Father and the Son; no one can know the Father

and the Son save in the divine nature. You enter on eternal life by reason of formation in the divine nature. Every Christian has life in the Spirit, but eternal life is another thought altogether. Eternal life is the thought of God for us, and the Spirit of God is here to form us in the divine nature that we may be led into the reality of it. The question is, what are we prepared for? If a child is left a vast estate, he has title to it, but he has to be trained and educated to enter into it. Every believer has title to eternal life, because it is God's thought for us. Are we prepared to be led on to it? We have to begin as babes, but we cannot be full-fledged Christians all at once. There must be growth, otherwise there would not be reality. We have to be formed in the divine nature, and that cannot be done in a moment. Take John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". Eternal life is God's thought for you. Whosoever believeth on Him shall have it. It does not tell you there what it is. In chapter 4 it is how you get it -- it is by the well of water, springing up to eternal life. But in chapters 5 and 6 we get what eternal life is. In chapter 5 you come into the presence of One who is capable of dealing with the entire domain of death; it is the power of life in Christ dealing with the entire domain of death. In chapter 6 you come into the presence of One who comes down to give life to the world, that the world might be filled with the goodness and fatness of heaven. We do not get things actually, but we get eternal life in the knowledge of the Person who can deal on the part of God with the whole domain of death, and can fill the world with the good of heaven. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life". We appropriate now what is coming into the world by and by. The world is now a scene of death and destitution, but it will be filled with the

good of heaven. All that is in the world will take its character from Christ. The world that is, is tending in the direction of Antichrist. There is a struggle going on for existence, and the survival of the fittest will bring the fittest man to the top, and thus you get Antichrist, and he will come under the judgment of God. But there will be a new start in the world. Eternal life now lies in the knowledge of the Person who is able to bring it in. The Gospel of John is written to shew what it is, and the epistle is how we may come to it. I do not think people are prepared for it. I see them reading all sorts of things, as if they found life in the world, whereas in the eye of God it is a scene of moral famine; there is no satisfaction in the world, it is a scene of moral destitution, and as much so to the greatest as to the least. There is no bread, no food -- there is nothing to eat. John 6 is living bread, so that you may have food: "He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever".

Ques. Fellowship?

F.E.R. Verses 1 - 4 are introductory; the subject matter begins at verse 5. The first eighteen verses in the gospel are introductory. People may be in Christian fellowship, and yet not be very instructed in the knowledge of divine Persons. The bond of fellowship is the recognition of Christ as Lord. The fellowship spoken of in the beginning of chapter 1: 1 - 4 is what is peculiar to the apostles. The declaration of God came to us through the apostles. They promulgated it. Grace and apostleship were given to the disciples that they might promulgate. We must give the apostles their place. The original declaration of all truth was through the apostles. We have the declaration of God's mind to us through the apostles. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles were to be the promulgators -- they were those originally appointed of God with the testimony. Each apostle states things in a

particular way as given to each, but they all coincide. The apostle John gives us here in the first four verses his qualification to address us. John always speaks of things morally.

The fellowship in verse 7 is Christian fellowship; the early Christians were in the apostles' fellowship, we have fellowship one with the other, the conditions of it being that we "walk in the light as God is in the light". We walk in the light of revelation. God was hid, but has now come out in the light, and "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another". In receiving Christ we come into the light, for He is the revelation of God. Then we have fellowship one with another, and that is Christian fellowship. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie". The apostle had in his mind probably an apostate Jew: it was a pretension. John has always the Jew in view. The epistle is our side, and the gospel is the light of the revelation of God. In chapter 5 we come consciously into the light. 1 John 5:18 - 20: "We know that the Son of God is come". Verse 18 is clear of the wicked one, verse 19 is clear of the world, and in verse 20 we have an understanding and know Him that is true. I cannot understand Christians going on with the world. Such an one as is spoken of in verse 18, "He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not". Verse 20: "That we may know him that is true". In John 17:3 we get the knowledge in which eternal life lies, but in the epistle the climax is reached in the consciousness of the saints; we have a divinely given understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true. He is the true God and eternal life. We have gone into Him, and in that character we shall come out from Him. Saints are not prepared to judge the world system. The whole world lieth in the wicked one, and one who reaches

eternal life has come to that consciousness. The moment we move outside the love of God, which is our divinely appointed habitation, we expose ourselves to the chilling influence of death. If we abide in the love of God, the wicked one toucheth us not. Eternal life had to come into the world, and therefore Christ became Man, and when He comes in again He will bring in eternal life. "That eternal life which was with the Father". "With the Father" is not a point of time; it is a moral idea.

THE STEPS OF FAITH

Exodus 15:1 - 19; Romans 6:15 - 23

I want with the Lord's help to indicate the line on which souls are led on. God has not two ways with His people. The details may differ and our experiences may differ, but there can be but one way of God with His people. We have one starting-point and there is but one terminus, but there are several steps between. These steps I shall indicate in Romans 6. (1) They were the servants of sin, but they had obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to them. Then the next step (2) "servants to righteousness"; then (3) "fruit to holiness"; and then (4) eternal life. I want to touch on these steps, because you get them illustrated in Exodus 15. It is wonderful that we can have these steps illustrated in the history of Israel. Israel were conducted personally and outwardly, but the course of God's dealings with them was figurative and they are "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come". While God was dealing with man the end of the world had not come. Now I will take you up these three steps. (1) We have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to us. I believe that refers to baptism. Baptism is not doctrine, but it is the form of doctrine. Until a Christian apprehends the spiritual significance of it (and it must be apprehended) you cannot say that his real history with God has begun. We are baptised unto His death, and there our history with God begins. In early days no one would have been recognised as a Christian if he refused to submit to baptism. But in Romans 6 the apostle says, "Ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine". They were delivered to it -- to baptism -- just as Israel was baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Baptism is a kind of setting

forth of salvation. You can see this in Israel. They were free of the Egyptians as they were baptised in the cloud and in the sea. It indicated that they were free of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Where baptism is apprehended it has a saving character. It delivers from an ungodly world and an untoward generation. Through baptism you are thus saved. God has saved us by "the washing of regeneration", which is an allusion to baptism. Peter, too, speaks of it: "the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us". It was a kind of indication of deliverance from an ungodly world. Baptism in a corrupted Christianity has lost its import. They connect it with life instead of its being an indication of being delivered from an ungodly world. The Lord says, "I have a baptism to be baptised with". It meant His dissociation from an ungodly Judaism. With the believing Jew it had this significance. I hope it is true of all of us that we have begun there, that we have realised the import of our baptism. Children may be baptised, but a moment comes when we come to the moral import of it. We have been separated from an ungodly world with Christ in view. It is of extreme importance that we get a beginning of our course according to God. The real course of Israel began with being baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now the next step, when we obey the form of doctrine into which we have been delivered, is we get our freedom from sin. Sin is the principle which dominates in this world. Lawlessness dominates. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but for the time being sin dominates; but we have got our freedom from sin, from the power which dominates, and thus we become the servants of righteousness. We are brought to a great many things before we understand them. We do not understand anything unless we are brought to it by divine leading. Many here, perhaps, could not give me a very clear idea of what becoming

servants of righteousness means, and yet they are so, that is, they are the servants of righteousness. I shall try and give you an idea of it. It means that you stand in relation to the Sun of righteousness. Every planet is a servant to the law of the universe and revolves in its appointed orbit in relation to the sun. The sun of our system (I speak of the moral system) is the righteous One, Christ. He is the Sun of righteousness, because He is the righteous One and He has accomplished righteousness, that is, He has removed in death the lawless one. He has entered into all that which the lawless man was liable to, but He has terminated the lawless man in the eye of God, and hence it is -- Christ is the Sun of righteousness. Christ is the law (I speak of law in the sense in which I spoke of it in connection with the solar system) of the moral universe. Scripture leads us to see a new heaven and new earth in which righteousness resides, and for this reason that it is the rule of the moral universe. We are placed in relation to Christ and to one another and that in grace. What is the practical effect of that? Just as the earth is held in its place by the principle of attraction to the sun, we are placed in relation to Christ, and the effect is we maintain fidelity in every relationship in which we are set. We are the servants of righteousness, and we stand in relation to the Sun of righteousness and then we get our direction from the Sun; the effect is we maintain fidelity in every divinely appointed relationship. There is obligation in the Christian economy. We ought to love God and to love Christ, and we ought to love one another. We are bound to love God. But we are bound to Christ by the Spirit of Christ, and thus we have the ability to maintain fidelity in every appointed relationship. If you come under the influence of divine revelation, and under the influence of the love of Christ, you will make it evident that you have become the servant of righteousness. The Sun

of righteousness will yet arise with healing in His wings. These things will yet become public. Israel will yet become the servants of righteousness. They will love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves. But we are placed now in relation to the Sun of righteousness, and so we give their rights to every one to whom we owe them. "Love is the fulfilling of the law", and the whole secret is Christ shining upon us. We are under the influence of His love, and thus we become servants of righteousness. Each one here is placed in relation to the Sun of righteousness, and we have delight in maintaining faithfulness in every relationship in which God has set us, and thus anticipate and form a little picture of the display of the great "universe of bliss".

Now one word more, what is the hindrance with people? They have not obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine, they are not separated from the world. The only rule for the Christian here is "This world is a wilderness wide. I have nothing to seek or to choose". My comfort has been that God can provide for me and make a way for me through the wilderness. God could provide for people numbering six hundred thousand, besides women and children. If you accept the wilderness, He will care for you. If you try to make the wilderness blossom, God may say, "Since you care for yourself, I do not need to care for you". If the wilderness is accepted, it will be a great means of becoming servants of righteousness, carrying out and eager to carry out every obligation under which we are placed. When Christ was here He maintained fidelity to God in every relationship in which He was set as Man here.

Now come to the third step. Having become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness. The expression is changed. It is servants to God now, not to righteousness merely. It means you have come under the law of God. I do not speak of the ten

commandments. It is law in the sense of the principle which has its source in God, and that is love. Now we have come under that principle. The Christian is now a tree; fruit suggests that thought. He is a "tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ... and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper". It is the righteous man; Psalm 1. You are instructed in the knowledge of God; you have come under the influence of the love of God, under the law of God, and that is love, and we become servants to God. The great point for a tree is to be rooted in good soil. A tree may be put in an inclement atmosphere. A Christian is a tree and intended to bring forth fruit. What is the ground in which the Christian is rooted? It is in the revelation of God. There is no lack of earth -- it can strike down deep in the earth. Christ has accomplished redemption, but more has come to light than that, and that is, God has been declared, and you can strike your roots deeper and deeper in the revelation of God, which has been given to us in Christ. As the roots strike down, it springs and grows upward and the leaf does not wither, and "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper". He maintains his appearance -- his leaf does not wither and he has spiritual prosperity. Fruit comes from a tree taking up the goodness of the earth. The Christian is to take up the good of the revelation of God; so you get vigour and energy of life in the tree. Now we are planted in the very best soil -- the revelation of God, and you get the fruits of righteousness which are to the praise and glory of God. All the fruit is the effect of the revelation of God; God is love, and there is nothing in God contrary to love, and in that revelation of God I trust we have struck our roots deep, and thus you get a tree vigorous and bringing forth fruit. The fruit is "love, joy, peace", etc. You get fruit in its season, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. I do not look for God to prosper a man in a wicked world, but God knows how

to prosper a man. I knew a man in the world -- a Christian, too -- and everything he touched turned to gold; he made a fortune and invested his money, and a crisis came and he was reduced to penury. That is not prosperity. When God prospers a man he is renewed in the inner man. He is vigorous and bright and refreshes and encourages those with whom he comes in contact. The fruit is love, joy, peace -- what characterised Christ when He was Himself here. The roots have to be nourished and fed by the revelation of God, and thus you would bring forth fruit in your season. If you are not faithful in divinely appointed relationships how can you bring forth fruit?

Now I come to the next point. The practical outcome of all that is that your fruit is unto holiness -- you come to holiness -- the end of all God's ways is to make us partakers of His holiness. The man who has come to holiness is very well acquainted with God's love. I refer to Exodus 15 to illustrate it -- see verse 13. "Thou hast guided them ... to the abode of thy holiness". Then verse 17, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in ... thy Sanctuary, Lord", etc. The purpose of God's dealing with us is to bring us in -- to bring us to Himself. His ways are addressed to that end, that we might be brought to God, but if you are brought to God you must be brought according to His glory, and you cannot be that until you are conformed to Him in holiness. Now holiness is quite different to righteousness. Holiness is that we are apart from the contamination of this world of evil. There was everything in the Lord to repel defilement and contamination. Now all God's ways are to this end -- He brings us under the influence of His love and He disciplines to this end, that we may be conformed to His glory. We are to be "holy and without blame" before Him (not in Christ), but practically. That was to be fulfilled in Israel typically and He brought them to the abode of His holiness that they

might be conformed to God. When that is true of them they will be brought into the land. In regard of us where are we brought to? To courts above -- where God Himself is, but He intends to bring us there in accord with His glory. We are to be holy and without blame before Him in love. God has taken us up for Himself to bring us to Himself, and there it is that Christ is the Firstborn among many brethren. It is a great thing that we are brought to God according to His glory, so that His love may be able to rest eternally and in complacency. It is a circle of which Christ is the Firstborn. We may be brought to that morally. We ought to be earnest that we might thus be brought to the end which God intends. Righteousness is important, it leads to fruit, and fruit is unto holiness -- all leads in that direction, and God sees that we get the discipline and the schooling so that we may be conformed to His glory, so that He may have a point where His love can rest with complacency. If there were not a circle conformed to His glory, where His love can rest, I cannot see what pledge there would be for the "universe of bliss". May God give us to understand these things and the end that God has in view in leading us on. God's end is to bring us to Himself according to Himself, and to be at home with God as much as the prodigal was at home with his father. May God give us to know it in His grace.

THE HOUSE OF GOD

Ephesians 2:19 - 22; Ephesians 4:1 - 3

[Translation]

These scriptures direct our attention to a very important subject, namely, the house of God. No material building can now claim to be the house of God, for we read that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. We will first refer to a few scriptures which, as I believe, will not only serve to bring before us the fact that God dwells here, but will indicate to us the importance of that fact. The last verse of Ephesians 2 reads, "In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit", that is, God dwells amongst us in the Spirit; and in the beginning of chapter 4 we have brought before us the conduct which is proper to the house of God:

"I ... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace".

The first passage to which I would call attention is in John 1:35 - 39. We see there how the two disciples of John followed the Lord with the desire to know where He dwelt. The Lord put the question to them, "What seek ye?" They said, "Master, where dwellest thou?" and He answered, "Come and see". He encouraged them to come and see where He dwelt. We cannot believe that the disciples wanted to see the bare house in which He dwelt. That was nothing in their eyes, but the important thing was that He dwelt among a few disciples, and it was there that the disciples of John desired to be. I may live in a house of four walls, but, if you visited me with a view to know me better, walls, furniture and the like would not

so much interest you as my family, and the order of my household. So it was with the two disciples. They wanted to know Him better where He, if I may so say, was at home, and the Lord gratified their desire. That certainly was not without effect upon them. They came under the influence of His presence and, as we read, "abode with him that day". God dwells amongst His own, and the scripture which we are now looking at furnishes us with a beautiful picture of this truth. The two disciples came under the influence of God, for God was revealed in Jesus. It is wonderful to think of it, that God dwelt here in flesh, so that men, as these two disciples, could abide in nearness to Him without fear. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". When Jesus said to them, "Come and see", "they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day". One could say that this was, in a certain sense, the beginning of what we find in Ephesians 2.

We will now pass on to chapter 14: 15 - 20. All that we have seen in chapter 1 is past. If I may so say, it was for one day. "They abode with him that day". He could not remain with them; He had to go away, as we see in chapter 14. He was on the point of going back to the Father, in whose house He would prepare a place for His own. We stand in the period of time between the going away of Jesus out of this world and His return to take His own to be with Himself. The passage in John 14 has relation to the present time, which is characterised by the presence of the other Comforter among the saints on earth. The Lord referring to it said that the Comforter would come to abide with His own for ever. "The world ... seeth him not", He said, "neither knoweth him: but ye know him". The Lord Jesus could only remain with them for a time, and the two disciples, as we have already seen, only remained one day with Him, but the

Comforter would abide with them for ever. It is so wonderful that the Comforter should come in order to remain with them for ever. Let us give it due consideration. The Comforter is God -- God dwells down here now through the Spirit.

Then the Lord spoke of the effect which this would have upon the disciples. One consequence of the presence of the Holy Spirit on the earth is that we see Jesus. "The world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also". This verse shews us that so far as life is concerned we are not dependent upon this world. We live because He lives, and He lives for ever; death cannot touch His life and therefore it cannot touch ours.

A second effect of the presence of the Spirit is that we know. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". That is indeed a wonderful knowledge! The Holy Spirit gives us to know that Jesus dwells in the affections of the Father, and that we also have a place in His affections; and more than that, He is in us, He is the object of our affections. So we see how much better and greater is our situation than that of the disciples at the time in which the Lord uttered these things. He shewed the disciples plainly in this chapter that they would enjoy a much greater advantage by the coming of the Comforter than if He Himself were to remain with them. They knew that He had to leave them, but the Comforter was to abide with them for ever. Through Him we also see Jesus, and we live because Jesus lives.

The passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians to which we will next turn, shews us the range or the extent of the house of God. In John 14 we read of the dwelling of the Comforter among the disciples, but the point here is that believers from amongst the nations, as well as from amongst the Jews, are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit, and this shews us the

extent of the house of God. If we only had the passage in John 14 we could well suppose that the dwelling of the Comforter would be limited to the disciples, but this scripture teaches us that the house of God -- the habitation of God through the Spirit -- embraces the believers out of all nations of the earth. Verse 21 looks on to the glory, but in the meantime, as we see in verse 22, believers out of the nations are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

We have now considered two points. First, that the Holy Spirit is down here and abides with us for ever; and secondly, that the house of God, which depends upon the presence of the Holy Spirit here on earth, is no material building, but is composed of persons. It is very important that we form a right conception of the house of God, and although it is no longer to be seen as it was before the failure came in, nevertheless the truth of it as well as the fact remains unchanged, that God dwells down here. The house of God is not brought before us in the scripture in the form of a local assembly; it includes, as we have already noticed, the believers out of all nations of the earth. We should manifest the same zeal for the house of God as the two disciples who could only be satisfied with knowing where the Lord dwelt. If we only resembled them in this respect the house of God would soon become a great reality to us.

Now I should like to refer to the advantage which accrues to us in the fact that God dwells down here. In the book of Exodus we get the first mention in the scriptures of the dwelling-place of God on earth. God saved Israel out of Egypt in order that He might dwell among them and bless them. He did not want to dwell among them to judge them, but to bless them, and that is very wonderful. Then He said, "I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that

healeth thee", Exodus 15:26. And God was also light among them; He entrusted to them His statutes, and all nations were to have the witness before their eyes that God dwelt among Israel. But the children of Israel did not yet realise the fact that God dwelt among them, and turned to idols; hence the severity of the judgment which He brought upon them.

An important point in connection with the dwelling of God amongst us is that we learn to know His attitude toward us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and God dwells among us in order to bring us to the consciousness of His goodness. If God is present it is only to bless us. When Adam was driven out of the garden he found himself in a certain sense in a God-forsaken scene, but God has brought us into His house in order to lead us into the consciousness of His goodness. He has come near to us, so that we might, as His children, be in the consciousness of His favour and live in nearness to Himself. In the house of God we enjoy His favour. How else could we be happy as His children except in the consciousness of His favour?

Moreover, God dwells among His own to "heal" them. He heals us from the diseases of Egypt -- brings us spiritual healing from the corruption of the world. The world is full of moral sickness, but God brings us into His house and under His influence so that we might live in the consciousness of His love and His favour, and in this way be delivered from the moral diseases of the world. Then we are conscious that God dwells among us, because we are conscious of His blessing and His favour and His power which heals us, and instead of living in the confusion of the world, we enjoy the peace of God. The light of His love and of His will, as well as the knowledge of His favour, makes us perfectly happy.

Then as members of the household of God we enjoy still another favour, namely, His education.

We come under the discipline of God. God really allowed the rest of the nations to go their own way; He gave up those who served idols so that they sank and perished, given up to uncleanness; but Israel was the house of God, and on this account He could say, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth". And further, "therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities", Amos 3:2. By his chastisement God would hinder them from going down into the pit; Job 33:24. But Israel did not pay heed to the discipline of God, and as a nation have rushed to destruction. If we then dwell where God dwells He takes notice of our ways. If we were not righteous before Him we could not be in His house at all; we are righteous, however, and we know that God does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous. He pays attention to our ways, tries our hearts, and disciplines us. He does not overlook our sins and we have to receive His chastening. In Hebrews 12we find this all confirmed. The Lord chastens us because He loves us, and if He did not chasten we should certainly go down into the pit; none of us would continue in the faith. We are "kept by the power of God through faith", that is, we are exercised and disciplined so that we are preserved and do not get away from the path of faith. In this way God exercises His power unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If God drew His hand away from us it would be the greatest calamity that could happen to us. We cannot let our children go their own way, neither can God. That explains much of what happens to us down here. The discipline of God has in view our being kept in the faith.

It is not difficult to understand these thoughts in connection with the house of God, because each one of us has a picture of this before his eyes in his own house. In my house my personal influence asserts itself; I have not to trouble myself so much about

the house or the family of my neighbour, but I would be a very bad father if I did not exercise any discipline with my own children. Well, God is a Father -- perfectly good -- and He lets us feel that it is He who disciplines us. He does it, so that we may not be disobedient but walk in His ways. Peter gives expression to the same thought when be speaks of judgment beginning at the house of God. Let us consider this fact more, that God dwells among us. In His house we come under the influence of what He is. We rejoice in His love and care, and are conscious that He heals us. His desire is that our souls should be healthy. As far as I can I take care of the health of my children, and God cares for the health of our souls so that we do not suffer the diseases of the Egyptian -- the moral evil of the world.

Now a word in connection with the first part of chapter 4. We find here a touching exhortation of Paul, the prisoner of the Lord. He beseeches us to walk worthy of the calling. And what is the calling? It consists in this: that God dwells among us, that we constitute His house through the Spirit. It is the fulfilment of the word of the Lord in John 14 that the Comforter would abide with us for ever. Could God have given us a greater privilege? My children could not have a greater privilege than that I dwell in their midst. Now God has given us the wonderful privilege that He dwells among us. What then is to characterise us in His presence? Lowliness to Him, and then meekness with one another. In the world we see little of this; one seeks to supplant the other; but in the presence of God, in His house, lowliness becomes us towards Him and meekness towards one another. We are not to sit in judgment upon one another, nor seek occasion against one another, but to forbear one another in love, and endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is what we are to be concerned about; for we come together in

assembly to give expression to the truth that we are one; as the apostle says in another place, "For we, being many, are one bread and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread". All that we read here, proves that God does not intend that each should stand alone by himself. The Lord said, "By this shall all men know ... if ye have love one to another". This is the testimony of God before the world. The Lord prayed, "that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me". The unity of believers through the Spirit should be the testimony of God in the presence of the world. The diseases of Egypt are pride, lust and the like; but here we see portrayed, in a certain sense, the healthy soul, characterised by lowliness, meekness, longsuffering and forbearance in love. God grant that we may abide down here in the consciousness of His blessing and under His influence, and so walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called.

THE PUTTING ON OF THE NEW MAN

Ephesians 4:20; Ephesians 5:1, 2

F.E.R. The idea of "new man" is a man of a new order; it is a short term to express a new order of man.

Ques. As "the truth is in Jesus" -- is it not putting off the old man and putting on the new?

F.E.R. Yes, the having done so.

Ques. Where is the putting off in Jesus?

F.E.R. The real putting off the old man was vicariously in the death of Christ, and only there. We have been pretty much accustomed to speak of the end of the old man in the cross, and I suppose justly. The defect has been in failing to see that the principle that brings in the new man comes out in the cross.

Ques. How is that so?

F.E.R. The new man is what is formed by the expression of divine love in the cross. The source and spring of the new man is the love revealed in the death of Christ. The old man was brought to an end in righteousness in the cross. Then the love of God revealed there was the principle from which the new man sprang. The new man is created after God, after God as revealed in love.

Ques. What is the difference between having put off and putting off?

F.E.R. In the former the truth is accepted; being renewed in the spirit of your mind, the truth as in Jesus is accepted. It is not exactly practical, but the foundation of practice; the mind has accepted it, you have been taught it.

T.H.R. It is looked at in an experimental way.

Ques. Is the "old man" a collective thought?

F.E.R. Well, the "old man" is one order of

man, and the new man is another order of man, a different order of man. You may get the idea of what is collective or corporate in the expression: "To make in himself of twain one new man".

Ques. Then it is a new kind of man?

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. Do you limit the new man in that way to the cross? Does it not come out in His Person, though fully demonstrated at the cross?

F.E.R. We only get at the heavenly through the cross. "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly", but this is only through what is revealed in the cross. It was not enough for God to close up the one man in death. The point was, what was to be formed after the ending of that man; and in the very place where the old man was ended, there the formative principle of the new appears.

Ques. Do you look at the perfect devotedness in the cross of Christ as bringing out the new man?

F.E.R. I meant rather that the divine love brought out at the cross is the formative principle of the new man.

Ques. That forms the new man?

Ques. Does the new man come out in the death of Christ, or in resurrection?

F.E.R. The new man must be formed on the ground of resurrection.

Ques. You see at the cross the elements which make up the new man?

F.E.R. Yes, the love of God; and then the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. That is the first allusion to the love of God in Romans. Then the apostle puts the two men in contrast, Adam and Christ.

Ques. Would you say the new man is begotten by the testimony to the love of God which we get in the cross?

F.E.R. Yes, you are rooted and founded in love.

Ques. Does it not come out in Philippians 2?

F.E.R. That is personal to Christ. I should not take up the new man in that way. The point of that passage is Christ's perfect obedience.

Ques. Is the new man a different thought from the second man?

F.E.R. I think the one is moral and the other historical. The second man is out of heaven, that is, the new man morally.

Ques. Would you apply the term 'new man' to Christ? Should it not be the second man?

F.E.R. No, I should not; it should be the second man.

Ques. Is the thought of the new man that the life of God is expressed in man?

F.E.R. Yes, in a moral sense.

Rem. You could not rightly speak of the new man in Christ, because there was no old man there.

F.E.R. There was the revelation of what would form the new man, the love of God.

Ques. We are formed in the new man in the measure in which we apprehend the love of God?

F.E.R. Yes, I think so. Do you not find it so in yourself?

Ques. When we have the word 'in Jesus' is He not alone?

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. I suppose you would say the moral traits of the new man came out in Christ personally?

F.E.R. Yes, but more. All the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him. He was not merely after God, but He was God. Now the new man is after God. You would hardly speak of Christ as being after God because He was God.

Ques. Is "which is renewed in knowledge after the image", etc., the putting on of the new man?

F.E.R. The point in Colossians in regard to the new man is knowledge. The new man is said to be

renewed unto clear knowledge "after the image of him that created him".

Ques. What is the difference between the use of the term 'new man' in Colossians and in Ephesians?

F.E.R. You do not get the full idea of the new man in Colossians; you must, I think, go to Ephesians for that. In Ephesians it is "created in righteousness and true holiness". In Colossians it is "Renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him".

Rem. You said some time ago, the new man comes out down here.

F.E.R. It must be so. The expression 'new man' would have no force in regard to heaven.

Ques. You would say it came out in Christ down here?

F.E.R. The point is rather that it comes out in the saints.

Rem. It would not exclude the fact that all that was morally perfect in man came out in Him.

F.E.R. He is the beginning.

Ques. Do I understand that in the death of Jesus the old man was ended, and that what was revealed of God there is the formative power of the new man?

F.E.R. Yes; that presentation of God is the formative power of the new man.

Ques. What do you mean by the formative power of the new man?

F.E.R. The new man is formed by the revelation of God's love.

Ques. In that way the new man becomes the image of God?

F.E.R. Yes; you could not get a stronger expression than we get here. It is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Ques. What is the force of having put on?

F.E.R. The truth of it is accepted in mind. Thus you have put it on. It becomes the foundation of

practice, but all is learned in the cross. I think we have hardly paid enough attention to the cross. You learn every divine lesson in the cross. You can never get to the end of what is seen there; and the more you consider it the more profound you see it to be, and the more the practical power of it. The cross is increasingly wonderful to me.

Rem. The more what flows from the cross is apprehended the more your soul is deepened and formed on the foundation of the cross.

F.E.R. When people come to the cross in the first instance it is the question of their responsibility that affects them, and how that has been met. We did not come to it at first to learn the great moral lessons revealed there, nor could we learn these until we receive the Holy Spirit.

Rem. The first was relief and the second revelation.

Ques. Then the putting off the old man and the putting on of the new is the result of divine teaching?

F.E.R. I think so. It is essentially teaching in love. You get as you go on a deeper sense of the love of God. The more you become acquainted with that love the more you respond to it. The wonderful thing is that by it you get everything that is given in the way of holiness and intelligence.

Ques. In what way do we get holiness?

F.E.R. If you become acquainted with the love you are conscious that it is a holy love, you find there is nothing in the flesh to answer to the holiness of God, and indeed the holiness of God is repugnant to the flesh. Then, if you learn that, you see the necessity of being free from the flesh.

Rem. You get in Thessalonians, "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another ... to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints".

F.E.R. Yes, that establishes the connection between love and holiness. Every Christian would admit God's love is a holy love, the cross is the proof of that; and as you become acquainted with a holy love, that must promote holiness; and the more holiness is promoted in you the more you shun unholiness.

Ques. Would you say it is thus formed?

F.E.R. Yes, the new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. That is, you are in the full light of God's love and being in that light you get a judgment of things which is really after God; that is, in righteousness and holiness.

Ques. Is the discipline of the Father in love in Hebrews 12 to this end?

F.E.R. It is all confirming it. He speaks to you as to children, that is, in the language of affectionate interest. He promotes holiness by chastening.

Ques. What is "quickened together with Christ"?

F.E.R. It is that we are made to live together with Christ in the presence of divine love. The secret and spring of it in God is, "His great love wherewith he loved us". The source is divine love, and the object of the quickening is the satisfaction of that love. I do not understand how love can be satisfied if we do not answer to it; we should be perfectly responsive to the love. The source of all God's dealings with us is His love, and the end that we may be perfectly responsive to it in His own habitation.

Ques. Are we to take it that this instruction is not given to the saints in general? Could what is here said to the Ephesians be said of the saints generally?

F.E.R. I think a great many saints would not be prepared for it. The apostle does not address this to others because they were not prepared for it. I do not think he would throw it broadcast before everybody. He could not speak wisdom to the Corinthians.

Ques. That divine teaching had not gone on with all?

F.E.R. No. The apostle addressed saints according to their capacity for receiving the truth. They were able to receive the teaching. He was divinely instructed in his teaching.

Ques. We can hardly suppose that the apostle would have addressed that to the Galatians?

F.E.R. It would have been no use except to content them with their bad state.

Ques. But it was there for them if they were prepared for it?

F.E.R. But the great bulk of Christians in Christendom are not prepared for it.

Ques. You would say he was here speaking wisdom to them?

F.E.R. Yes; he said to the Corinthians in contrast to that, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual".

Rem. You said the other day that the great bulk of Christians do not know even the forgiveness of sins.

F.E.R. I do not think I said that.

Rem. I think what was said was misunderstood. What was spoken of was the consciousness of forgiveness rather in contrast to the knowledge of forgiveness by faith. It was said the bulk are not in the consciousness of forgiveness.

F.E.R. I know there are those who have forgiveness of sins by faith. They accept Scripture as the word of God and rest their faith on that, but the consciousness of forgiveness is another thing. You get the consciousness of forgiveness in the presence of divine love.

Rem. "Perfect love casteth out fear". There is a great difference between believing things because they are written in the Bible and believing them as coming from the mouth of God.

F.E.R. Yes; but I am supposing genuine faith which brings justification; but besides that, we should

have the consciousness of forgiveness in divine love. We should have the consciousness that it is absolutely impossible that God who loves us perfectly and is forming us by His love can impute sin to us. He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. In Ephesians 1, after speaking of predestination and acceptance in the Beloved, it says, "In whom we have redemption ... the forgiveness of sins", that is, the consciousness of it.

Ques. Would the reception of the prodigal be an instance?

F.E.R. Yes, I think so.

Rem. I often say in preaching, do you enjoy the forgiveness of sins?

Ques. Is learning Christ a progressive thing?

F.E.R. I do not think it is put in that way here. You are supposed to have done it. "If so be ye have". The teaching is supposed to have been accepted.

Ques. What is being renewed in the spirit of your mind?

F.E.R. That is a point of the greatest importance because it is through the mind you take in everything of God. But to enter into things entirely outside the range of thought of the natural man, you must have the renewing of the mind, else you would have no faculty.

Ques. Is it done once or is it continuous?

F.E.R. I could not tell you. It is characteristic.

Ques. Is it not that your mind is introduced into a wholly new order of things?

F.E.R. I think you have the mind of Christ, a complete and radical change in the power of apprehension, in the thinking part of your being. I think the faculty is there, but the faculty is renewed.

Ques. Does that mean the faculty is the mind taught by the Spirit?

F.E.R. No; it is more than that. The mind of man even subject to the Spirit could not take in divine things.

Ques. Is it in contrast to the natural man in Corinthians?

F.E.R. Yes; he that is spiritual, not he that has the Spirit, discerns all things. For discernment you want the man characteristically spiritual. Then we have the mind of Christ.

Rem. That would be progressive. You go on learning from Him.

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. How is the new mind connected with the new moral being?

F.E.R. I think the mind is the eye of the heart. The mind is the eye by which all is taken in. There must be the faculty that understands to take things in, so that you can appropriate and assimilate them, or they could not form a part of yourself. For this you must have the mind.

Ques. How does the conscience stand in relation to that?

F.E.R. Conscience is not mind, but conscience would keep you consistent according to your intelligence. Conscience will always keep pace with divinely-given intelligence, otherwise you would fail to be consistent with it.

Ques. Why do you think that expression, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind", comes in between the putting off the old man and the putting on of the new?

F.E.R. Because you cannot take in the new things except by the renewed mind.

Ques. Is the new mind the new moral being?

F.E.R. Hardly. By the new mind the new moral being is illuminated. The moral elements of the new being are really of God -- love, holiness and righteousness.

Ques. What do you understand by having put on the new man?

F.E.R. It is stated abstractly, "as the truth is in Jesus".

Ques. Is the truth as in Jesus what God has effected in Jesus for Himself?

Rem. What has been effected in Jesus is the putting off the old and putting on the new. It is objective in Him, but in you it is subjective. What is so beautiful to me in the renewing of the mind, is that it produces perpetual juvenescence -- it never grows old. It is the word 'new' that signifies what is always in freshness and bloom.

F.E.R. I have no doubt it is the outcome of new birth. New man and old man are objective terms. The renewing of the mind is subjective, and follows on new birth.

Ques. Would verse 23 be a kind of parenthesis explaining how we take it in?

Ques. You must have the capacity to take it in. You would say here, would you not, that it supposes one beyond the new birth, and having the Holy Spirit?

F.E.R. Yes, quite so.

Rem. It goes on the line of the new birth or subjective work.

Ques. Would you say the foundation of the new man in the saints is new birth?

F.E.R. I do not apprehend it that way. I think the foundation of apprehension is the new birth, but as to the new man you must entertain the thought as an abstract idea. I cannot find the idea in the concrete shape. You cannot speak of Christ as created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Ques. Are not the Gentiles brought in here in contrast, "in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God ..".?

F.E.R. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind. You have, in regard to the new man, to entertain a new idea.

Ques. You cannot actually point to the man?

F.E.R. No; you have to apprehend the thought abstractly.

Ques. Then, being renewed enables you to entertain it?

F.E.R. You must have the new birth to get at the apprehension.

Ques. Would you say it is what the Lord did when He "opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures", Luke 24?

F.E.R. I think the Lord began the work of the Spirit, but there had been a good deal effected in the disciples before the Lord gave them understanding. In that chapter the Lord, to a great extent, takes the place of the Holy Spirit.

Ques. Why does it not say "new men", and not "a new man"?

F.E.R. Because it is a new order of man; new men would be an entirely different thought, and then the difficulty would be to find them.

Ques. Would the new man be the same as the life of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 4?

F.E.R. That is what came out in Christ down here.

Ques. What is the difference between the having put on the new man, and putting on the characteristics of the new man?

F.E.R. The having put on is an act of mind. You have reached that point. There are a great many points which God has reached in fact, which we have to reach in mind; for instance, "crucified with Christ". We are not actually crucified with Christ, but we have in mind to accept it. The same in regard to the new man. As a matter of fact, the new

man has no absolute existence; it is an abstract idea, but you have to reach it in mind, to put it on, before you can carry it out in practice.

Ques. You mean to carry it out in practice in detail?

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. Therefore, having put off is a subjective thought?

F.E.R. The having put off is a subjective thought -- but the new man is objective. If the new man is not seen as an objective thought you would confound it with the flesh.

Rem. You look at it abstractly, but subjectively as to what has become new in you. It is always fresh.

Ques. Our "having put off" -- what is that?

F.E.R. That is the mental apprehension -- you have reached it in your mind.

Ques. Is that the result of having learned Christ?

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. You see the truth exemplified in the death of Christ, and then you grasp that in your own soul. That is putting on the new, is it not?

F.E.R. What is true in the cross is true for every Christian, but not always true to him.

Ques. That is, that every Christian has not come to it in the spirit of his mind?

F.E.R. Just so.

Ques. Then when he has come to it, it is the effect of divine teaching, not something learned in Scripture?

F.E.R. All depends upon the subjective state. It is only thus you can understand it. An unconverted man could not understand it at all. It is only in virtue of the subjective work of God in the soul that you could understand the thought of the new man. It is outside the whole range of human experience, that is certain.

Ques. Would it be right to say you get the exemplification of the new man in Christ?

F.E.R. No; it is making too little of Christ. He

was more than man. All the fulness of the Godhead was there in the complete setting forth of God. All the qualities of the new man came out in Him. Morally, everything in Christ was new; but I do not like applying the term 'new man' in any sense to Him. It tends to obscure the great truth of what He was here. I could not say He was "after God", for He was God.

Ques. But if I want the exemplification I find it in Christ?

F.E.R. Why say it? There was a great deal more in Christ. There was the exemplification of God in Him. The new man does not come out until the old man is ended. You must see all connected with the flesh gone judicially.

Ques. In what way do we learn Christ, where it says, "If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus"?

F.E.R. I think it is the Christ. I suppose He has His own way of teaching. What is learnt is the basis of practice. As regards Christian walk, neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but new creation. New creation is the rule to govern practice down here.

Ques. You said our apprehension of the love of God is the start of everything?

F.E.R. Yes; but I do not say there is not something in us antecedent to that. New birth is so. But I am certain that the first real breath of life is the heart's response to the love of God.

Ques. You are not now speaking of new birth when you speak of life?

F.E.R. No. New birth is not identical in Scripture with life. If it were you would connect life with the subjective state of the believer instead of with Christ.

Ques. It is necessary to make this clear, because people speak of a person when he is just born again as having life.

F.E.R. The mischief in that case is, you are more or less connecting the thought of life with the subjective state and losing the sense of its being in another Man. Every blessing characteristic of Christianity is connected with another Man, and you have to pass over in experience to that Man if you are to enjoy anything of real Christianity. That was the difficulty four or five years ago. Many never apprehended the idea of eternal life being objective. They took it to be subjective, and hence they never got away from the first man at all; and if they had carried their point as to eternal life being a state in the soul, all would have been gone. We should have lost the truth of eternal life altogether.

Ques. Will you please explain that again?

F.E.R. I say, the thought of eternal life was taken up as a subjective idea -- something in you. J.B.S. said the question raised was whether we were in eternal life, or eternal life was in us. The statement of Scripture is, "God has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son". Thus we see eternal life is in another Man, and if you enter into it and what is properly Christian, it is because you have passed over to that Man. If you talk of its being in you, you have lost the whole thing, for it is not so presented.

Rem. It was putting life into a man not yet out of death.

F.E.R. Yes, quite so.

Ques. Does the apostle take up the special characteristics of the old man here (verse 25)?

F.E.R. He takes up two or three features -- lying, for instance. In this country we are free to a certain extent of this vice, but in other places, eastern countries especially, lying is as natural as truth is to us. It is perfectly natural to the old man.

Rem. The old man is a lie.

F.E.R. Yes; but speaking truth is more than "putting away lying". When it says, "Speak every

man truth with his neighbour", it does not refer simply to speaking true things, but speaking "truth".

Rem. Let us say a little about the positive side. Truth is really the setting forth of God.

F.E.R. We are bound to profit one another. We are rather guilty, I think, in failing to speak truth to one another.

Ques. Is that the "good to the use of edifying"?

F.E.R. Yes; I see my responsibility to speak truth, but often fail to carry it out. To speak truth one to another, that is for edification.

Ques. Would not that limit conversation a good deal?

F.E.R. Yes; but there would not be much harm in that.

Rem. It would quiet unholy talking.

F.E.R. But you feel that you cannot suddenly break into it, you are often not enough in the truth yourself. If your soul were in the good of the truth, it would not be so difficult to speak of it to another.

Rem. "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another".

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. When it says, "Speak every man truth with his neighbour", to whom does it refer?

F.E.R. Your neighbour is the person next to you.

Ques. Is it the thought that there you expose yourself most?

F.E.R. It may be so. It is the person you come in contact with.

Ques. Must it be necessarily a saint?

F.E.R. Yes, you are neighbours, members one of another.

Ques. It is not merely responsibility that would do it, but love?

F.E.R. Yes; there again I feel it brings you back to the death and resurrection of Christ. I know no truth that is not expressed there.

Rem. Please explain that a little.

F.E.R. All truth is set forth there. The death and resurrection of Christ is the full revelation of God, and the expression of His will in regard to man. You get the full light of God in the cross, and in the resurrection the full expression of His pleasure is found in regard to man.

Rem. I was thinking of Zechariah 8 in reference to the neighbour. It says in verse 16, "Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates". And then he changes their fast days into feast days.

F.E.R. The expression in Ephesians is evidently a quotation from that.

Ques. Do not we often accept as truth what we are not in a position to say we are in?

F.E.R. Very often, I think. Ephesians is a wonderful epistle from beginning to end, and the prominent feature is the setting forth of God in the saints down here; that is the great thought in it. To illustrate this, you will find the great point in the prayer in chapter 3 is that we might be filled unto all the fulness of God. The idea of the church is that it is particularly the vessel for the setting forth of God in intelligence and love. Then there is the same thought of the setting forth of the life of God in the new man. The new man is after God, and for God, that the life of God may come out in him. Then in chapter 6 the saints come out against the powers of evil, in the armour of God, in the characteristics of Christ, when He comes out as the Word, and in the power of God to deal with the forces of evil. He comes forth with the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of His mouth. Now the saints come out in the armour of God to deal with what is hostile to God down here. Thus the point of the epistle all through is the presentation of God in the saints.

Rem. That is, all is to be to His pleasure.

F.E.R. It all shews the greatness of the place the church would have had if it had kept its first estate.

Ques. "The ages to come" -- is that down here?

F.E.R. No; the truth reaches on to that. A point in the epistle is, that you cannot come out to be for God here unless you have first gone in to God. It is thus in regard to the heavenly city. The saints have first gone into heaven and then come out as the city.

Ques. Does not the assembly meet the conflict in heavenly places?

Rem. It is the influences down here of the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

Ques. With regard to "image", what is the difference between Adam created in the image of God and what we have in Colossians, "after the image of him that created him"?

Rem. Christ is the image there, I take it. In Genesis it is, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness". It does not say He made Christ so. But it says, "Who is the image of the invisible God". Then we have the new man which is created "after the image of him that created him", which is Christ.

Ques. But in man being made in the image and likeness of God, what is the difference of signification between the two words?

F.E.R. I think there is a double meaning in the word 'image'. It conveys the idea of what is representative in the way of authority, and what is representative morally. Adam was not made in God's likeness merely, but was set here the centre of reverence and authority.

Ques. Thus God was represented in that man down here?

F.E.R. Yes. All creation had to look up to Adam as the representative of God down here, but the thought of image in the New Testament is more moral.

Rem. If it is a true image it must be a likeness;

though it may not be so. Take, for instance, the image of the Queen on a sovereign.

F.E.R. Image is sometimes, however, a stronger word than likeness when used morally.

Rem. Then it is because it is like the thing. In Ephesians it is "likeness" and in Colossians "image".

F.E.R. Adam was not made after God in righteousness and holiness of truth, he knew little or nothing about the love of God. He knew a gracious beneficent Creator, but God did not come out in the revelation of His love. For us it is, "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly". You are so like Christ, you bear His image.

Rem. Image, I think, means very exactly alike.

F.E.R. I think so sometimes. It is the intensification of likeness. J.N.D. used to refer to the saying in regard of a picture "that is the very image of my mother".

RECONCILIATION

Colossians 1:15 - 29

F.E.R. What was your point in reading this scripture?

Rem. I thought we might look at reconciliation and what it leads on to. It would be helpful to say a word as to the difference between justification and reconciliation; both are spoken of in Romans 5.

F.E.R. There is a good deal of difference in the two. Things are said to be reconciled, which do not need to be justified. Reconciliation applies to a good deal to which justification hardly applies.

Ques. What things are to be reconciled?

F.E.R. Thrones, dominions, principalities, etc.

Rem. But persons are reconciled also.

F.E.R. Reconciliation takes in the whole universe -- everything that has been affected by sin needs to be reconciled. "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven".

Ques. Are the things mentioned in verse 20 the same as in verse 16?

F.E.R. I should think so. It says, "all things" in both. In verse 16 all things were created by Him, and for Him. In verse 20 He takes up all these things created for Him on the ground of reconciliation.

Rem. It is a sort of double title to Headship. All are to be reconciled by Him, and in that sense it amplifies the title of Christ.

Ques. What is the difference in the effect on the soul between justification and reconciliation?

F.E.R. Justification is on my side, reconciliation is on God's side.

Ques. What do you mean by reconciliation being on God's side; is it to make me suitable to God?

F.E.R. Yes, the moment you touch it you touch what is for God. Justification clears me. A man must have forgiveness, but forgiveness is on my side, reconciliation is for God. All things are to be reconciled for God, for Himself. In reconciliation you really reach the other side -- what is for God.

Ques. In what sense do things need to be reconciled?

F.E.R. For God. That they may be suitable for God to have His pleasure in them. All have to be taken up in Christ. Christ takes up every throne, dominion, and principality and power for the pleasure of God.

Ques. I suppose government in the world is altogether dissociated from righteousness?

F.E.R. Yes; but judgment will return to righteousness.

Ques. Are the things spoken of things moral or material?

F.E.R. Moral in a sense, or moral ideas are connected with them.

Rem. In the type (Leviticus 16) we see Aaron reconciled all the vessels for service.

F.E.R. The blood was carried into the holiest, and then the high priest came out to reconcile.

Rem. Reconciliation was made because sin was there, that God may have pleasure in them.

F.E.R. Yes; everything has through sin become alienated from God. Alienated from the state in which God had His pleasure in it when He created it.

Ques. Is tasting death for everything co-extensive with the atonement?

F.E.R. I think so. Aaron carried the blood into the holiest to make an atonement first for himself and his house, and afterwards for the people, then for the holy places, etc.

Rem. It is interesting to see in the New Testament that only Paul touches that line. He always begins with God. For instance, "God sent forth his Son", "God commendeth his love toward us", "He hath made him to be sin for us". Paul takes that line very much. Peter does not, but takes our side. He says, "Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree". Paul brings God out every way. In the day of atonement we get reconciliation, and that in view of the eternal state.

F.E.R. Yes, and that is of great importance.

Ques. Then, is the idea that everywhere where the creature has been, there Christ has to be?

F.E.R. I think so.

Ques. Why does it take in things in heaven?

F.E.R. Because everything is taken up in Christ.

Ques. Would you say everything has been defiled by the sin which came in in Adam and had to be reconciled through Christ?

F.E.R. You must go further back than Adam, for sin has affected things in heaven as well as things on earth. It is said, "By one man sin entered into the world"; but the devil sinned from the outset.

Ques. In what sense can we think of the angelic beings, or things connected with angels, and thrones, and principalities, etc., in what sense can we conceive of these being reconciled?

F.E.R. I cannot say much about it. They come in subordinately to Christ. For instance, in Hebrews 12 you get mount Zion, and then every part of that system of things which is connected with mount Zion, and among them myriads of angels.

Rem. It says the heavens are not clean in His sight, and even the angels He charges with folly.

F.E.R. The word says we are to judge angels.

Rem. Then He gathers together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.

F.E.R. God never divorces heaven from earth. It is Satan who seeks to do so. It is the special effort of Antichrist. From beginning to end in Scripture you get the connection of heaven and earth, and in the Revelation John says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth". In Genesis God begins with the sphere of the heavens and the earth.

Rem. Seeing that sin has affected both, it is clear reconciliation must be for both.

F.E.R. I think so. The break-out of evil has affected the universe. Man does not understand it, but the whole is compromised. Angels fell as well as men, but man only is redeemed.

Rem. After all, angels come in under man -- superior beings, but they come in under man.

F.E.R. Hebrews 2 is conclusive as to that.

Rem. John 1 shews us angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man. The moment the Son was here He was the object of angelic hosts.

F.E.R. Angels have to take their place as attendant on the heavenly city in connection with the system of grace.

Rem. In Hosea 2 it says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth".

F.E.R. Yes, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil. Reconciliation will be complete in the millennium.

Ques. What is the difference between reconciliation as in Romans and as in Colossians?

F.E.R. I see no difference between the two. Reconciliation is alluded to in Romans in connection with the change of Headship; it is more fully presented in Colossians. In Romans it merely says, "By whom we have received the reconciliation". It is simply a statement of a fact, but the apostle does not enlarge on it there.

Ques. Why is it by the blood of His cross in regard

to things, and in the body of His flesh through death as applied to believers?

F.E.R. The first is an allusion to the day of atonement. "Having made peace by the blood of his cross". The blood is carried into the holiest in witness of the removal of all that disturbed. Hence it comes out in Hebrews 9"Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". By His own blood He has entered once into heaven. The blood has been carried in as witness, and then the High Priest comes forth to bring reconciliation into effect.

Ques. Then there would be a difference between reconciliation of things and of persons -- what is that difference?

F.E.R. The reconciliation of things is remarkably simple. Everything is taken up in Christ. The reconciliation of persons refers to individuals and has to be individually accepted. "Through whom now we have received the reconciliation". In Corinthians it is, "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God". Reconciliation has to be accepted when it is a question of persons, therefore there was the ministry of reconciliation.

Ques. Is there any thought of the enmity being brought to an end in reconciliation?

F.E.R. The enmity is only brought in to show that the one marked by it must go. You cannot improve with reference to enmity. You cannot reconcile what is at enmity. It is the purest folly to think of reconciling what is hostile.

Ques. Then the way in which we are reconciled before God is the way we have to take through death?

F.E.R. Yes; "You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death". That in which was the enmity has gone in

death, you have to accept this; now it is the "word of reconciliation".

Rem. You must distinguish between the enmity and the person who had the enmity.

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. In the millennium there will still be persons unreconciled?

F.E.R. Everything is taken up then under the eye of God in Christ. Reconciliation raises the question of how things are presented under the eye of God.

Rem. Reconciliation is by death, but in Christ.

F.E.R. Yes; what was at enmity is ended in Christ. All is made suitable to God, and that can be only in Christ.

Ques. It says, "When we were enemies, we were reconciled".

F.E.R. Yes; but it was by learning that what was at enmity had been removed by the death of Christ. That is the way of it. I do not think the apostle refers to a change of feeling on the part of people, but to acceptance of the truth that what was at enmity has been removed. They had received the word of reconciliation -- "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son". They had accepted that as their death. This is the truth on God's side -- on the experimental side it is somewhat different.

Ques. I thought we had to distinguish between reconciliation on God's side and the reconciliation of Christians in regard to responsibility?

F.E.R. Responsibility hardly comes in in connection with reconciliation. Justification is connected with responsibility. I am helped by recollecting that justification is on our side and reconciliation is on God's side. Justification is for man, reconciliation is what is effected for God. God was in Christ carrying this out for His own satisfaction.

Ques. Is propitiation for God, and the basis of reconciliation?

F.E.R. That is connected more with man's responsibility. It is for sins.

Ques. Is reconciliation for bringing to pass the purpose of God?

F.E.R. Yes; God's purpose of reconciliation is outside the question of man's responsibility.

Ques. Is it for bringing God's purpose into effect in connection with the "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man"?

F.E.R. Yes, based on the atonement, on the putting away of sin. "Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself".

Ques. Would you say the blood is the witness that reconciliation has been effected for God?

F.E.R. I would say rather that blood is the witness of peace, that peace is made by the blood of the cross.

Ques. Is there any difference between the ordinary use of the term reconciliation, and the scriptural use of it?

F.E.R. You must find out from Scripture what is the force of the word. It is one of the terms the force of which you must find from its use in Scripture. The dictionary would not give you the scriptural use of it.

Rem. In the ordinary use of the word the sense is that two persons estranged have been brought together.

F.E.R. That is not the Scripture idea. It is not minds that are reconciled.

Rem. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them".

F.E.R. But how was God reconciling the world unto Himself? There was no enmity on the part of God towards the world; and certainly the mission of

Christ was not to make people more pleasant. Yet in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.

Rem. I thought it came out in the Lord's ministry of grace here on earth.

F.E.R. Then you will be bound to admit this, that His ministry was ineffective.

Rem. I know the world was not reconciled, but I thought that that ministry began with the Lord, and was afterwards committed to the disciples.

F.E.R. I do not think it is exactly that. The apostles came out with the word of reconciliation which altered the whole position of things.

Ques. You distinguish between the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation?

F.E.R. Yes; the ministry of reconciliation began with Christ Himself, and meant that in the presence of Christ here everything was under the eye of God on a wholly new footing in connection with Him. That was the effect of the presence of Christ.

Ques. Was that before His death?

F.E.R. Yes, it was a foretaste of what is yet to come. In the presence of Christ God was not dealing with man on the ground of law or prophets, everything was on an entirely new footing.

Ques. What was the new footing?

F.E.R. Grace and favour. God was in a new light toward man. He saw what was perfectly suitable to Himself on earth in Christ.

Ques. Did that take place when the Lord was born into this world?

F.E.R. Yes; but there was a presentation in connection with His being here of what was perfectly agreeable to God. It was as though God was as favourable to man as possible.

Ques. Has not the song "Good pleasure in men" that signification?

F.E.R. Yes, and Christ's presence formed the

crucial test so long as He was here. The eye of God rested on Him. It was a ministry of reconciliation. Supposing that not one single person on the face of the earth had been affected by the ministry, yet it would not for a moment have altered the fact. I do not think the fact depends upon persons being affected by it. The fact remained whether people were affected or not.

Rem. It was not the presence of Christ here that was to put the world to rights.

F.E.R. No; He presented Himself to man entirely independent of man in that which was perfectly agreeable in the eye of God. That is the wonderful thing.

Ques. But death was necessary for the effect?

F.E.R. Yes, of course; it all had His death in view, but it was so far independent of results.

Ques. What is the difference between the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation?

F.E.R. The ministry of reconciliation was effected in Christ in His life. God approached the world outside of it. He was favourable to the world, in Christ, not hostile; but when you come to the word of reconciliation it is the testimony that reconciliation has been effected in death. It is not now simply that God has approached the world in another Man, in Christ being here, but the man hostile to God has been removed. So you have both things now, God's approach to man, and the man antagonistic to God removed in death. That is what I understand by the word of reconciliation, and we have to accept it.

Rem. I fear but very few know anything about it.

F.E.R. Do you believe the bulk of Christians could give you any idea of what the new covenant is?

Rem. I fear they could not.

Ques. Have we both the word and the ministry of reconciliation?

F.E.R. I think so. The disciples and others accepted the attitude of God.

Ques. In receiving forgiveness of sins?

F.E.R. Yes. Take the case of the woman who was a sinner; Luke 7.

Ques. Do you say that God reconciling the world unto Himself includes the death of Christ?

F.E.R. No. I don't think so, though it led up to it. It is beautiful to see that God had a way of approaching man entirely independent of man, and yet entirely favourable towards man, in spite of his state, because He was approaching men in a man entirely agreeable to Himself.

Ques. Though the attitude of God in the presentation of Himself in Christ effected nothing, did not that bring judgment on the world, as the Lord says in John, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin", and further He says, "Now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father". Had not this brought out the enmity?

F.E.R. Yes, it had that effect.

Ques. What is the effect of reconciliation?

F.E.R. The effect is very profound; it changes a man's thoughts entirely. I do not suppose that many of us here this afternoon are in it. The profound effect it produces is this: you are here for God's pleasure, and not for your own. It changes everything. If I am only in the good of justification I may be here, cleared of sin, but still in a way for myself; but when reconciliation is understood it is no longer a question of what I like. "I have nothing to seek nor to choose". I am wholly and entirely for God's pleasure and satisfaction.

Ques. Do we not grow in the apprehension of that?

F.E.R. Yes; but the point is first to accept it.

Rem. One effect of it would be, we could be with God to take in and enjoy what is God's good pleasure.

F.E.R. What pleasure or joy in God could there be without it? People joy in other things. When a person changes his residence for the bettering of himself, it does not indicate to me that he is here for the pleasure of God. If it were so, it would be immaterial to me whether I live in the worst place or the best.

Ques. Do you not think that the full effect of reconciliation in the eternal state will be that everything is brought into the blessedness of God Himself?

F.E.R. Yes, and God will be reflected in everything.

Rem. Nothing will be in the slightest dissonance with Himself.

Ques. When the apostle says, "Be ye reconciled to God", had they touched it?

F.E.R. I do not think the Corinthians had touched it.

Ques. Then the Romans would be an advance on them in that way, for to them he says, "Through whom now we have received the reconciliation". Where does the receiving of the reconciliation in the case of the prodigal come in?

F.E.R. When he accepted the father's embrace he was conscious that the father was favourable.

Ques. Where does the best robe come in?

F.E.R. That goes further than reconciliation. It really is new creation, Christ formed in the Christian.

Ques. Then reconciliation goes on to new creation?

F.E.R. Reconciliation could not be complete without it. In fact it involves new creation.

Ques. Were they effected historically in the prodigal at the same time? Do they go together?

F.E.R. You cannot get things clearly in a parable. No parable goes on all fours.

Ques. What does the best robe indicate?

F.E.R. The embrace presents the father's side, and the best robe the prodigal's side. You see that though the prodigal might be perfectly suitable for the father's eye, he needed the best robe to enjoy what was the father's pleasure.

Ques. What is the basis of the reconciliation spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5?

F.E.R. The removal of sin is the basis. It carries you back to the day of atonement.

Ques. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him". That would be reconciliation?

F.E.R. Yes. Christ has appeared "once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". That is the basis.

Ques. No one could have accepted it apart from that?

F.E.R. No, it would not have been possible apart from that. The removal of sin judicially was necessary to carry out reconciliation.

Rem. He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death.

F.E.R. That is how it is effected subjectively for us.

Ques. Is reconciliation for a Christian or for a sinner?

F.E.R. I do not think a sinner as such is conscious of wanting reconciliation, but forgiveness; he wants justification.

Ques. Would you preach the ministry of reconciliation to sinners?

F.E.R. It would not be much good to them. What is announced to sinners is forgiveness of sins. "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name".

Ques. Where is the ministry of reconciliation to be exercised?

F.E.R. I think very much amongst those who believe.

Rem. When we preach the gospel we preach to many of the converted, and in that way we could preach reconciliation.

Ques. But do they need to be reconciled?

F.E.R. I think so, if they are to be for the satisfaction of God. To be to His satisfaction, they must not only be justified, but reconciled. It is all a question of where you are going to stop.

Rem. If reconciled, one would be entirely for God's pleasure.

F.E.R. Yes, and it is important to see that it is in another man that holiness comes in. It is the new man that is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Rem. Holiness is for God's pleasure.

F.E.R. Yes, that you may be according to Himself; but you cannot touch holiness apart from love, it is by being in the presence of holy love, and the subject of holy love, that holiness is promoted in us. "That we should be holy and without blame before him in love".

Ques. Then reconciliation is with a view to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight?

F.E.R. Do you think a man, an enemy to God by wicked works, could ever be changed into unblameable and unreproveable in His sight? It could not be. That person could be, but not that man.

Ques. What are the ministries?

F.E.R. The ministry of the gospel, the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of reconciliation, and the ministry of the mystery.

Ques. Why do we get the ministry of the gospel, and the ministry of the mystery here?

F.E.R. One takes in the new covenant ministry, and the other is connected with the ministry of

reconciliation -- the new covenant ministry is all on the line of what God is towards you.

Rem. The ministry in 2 Corinthians is the highest form of the gospel ministry.

Ques. How is reconciliation connected with the body?

F.E.R. Because when you come to what is for God you necessarily come to new creation. You cannot stop short of this when you come to what is for God, and really enjoy Christ. Then it is, "If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new: and all things are of the God ..". Then you come to the scene of God's purpose in what is in Christ. You come to the truth of the body, for Christ is not fully expressed in any one saint.

Rem. New covenant ministry is more in connection with the kingdom, but reconciliation carries you to the purpose of God.

F.E.R. Yes, and you come into the light of the body.

Rem. New covenant ministry is more in connection with righteousness, reconciliation more with holiness. Reconciliation takes you into the holiest.

Rem. We could not enter into the holiest without reconciliation.

F.E.R. No; you are not suitable else. But when you come to that line of things, into the truth of association with Christ, the point is, you cease to be simply an individual, you become one of a company. I do not believe you really reach the idea of the body until you reach the Head, except as a dogma.

Ques. Do you come to that through the ministry of reconciliation?

F.E.R. Yes, reconciliation is connected with the body.

Ques. How so?

F.E.R. If you are associated with Christ you are

in Christ, you are of His order. But then of necessity He is the Head of that order. The moment you come to the expression "in Christ" you come to another side of things; you could not be said to be created in "the Lord", but "in Christ", the Head. You are now created in Christ, you apprehend Him in a new state, and this brings in the body.

Ques. Then reconciliation is connected with headship here?

F.E.R. Yes.

Rem. Say a word on "If ye continue in the faith ... and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel".

F.E.R. It is brought in on account of the apostle writing to a company, every member of which he could not know; their responsibility was maintained.

Rem. There was danger of their slipping away.

F.E.R. Yes, quite so.

Ques. Is sanctification at all in line with reconciliation?

F.E.R. Hardly, I think. Sanctification comes in from the very outset. It is on the line of God's sovereignty. It is scarcely the idea of reconciliation.

Ques. Is "the new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us", in connection with reconciliation?

F.E.R. Yes, and it is the sanctified company who go in by that way. That is the effect of reconciliation. In chapter 9 you get reconciliation established, and the effect of it comes out in chapter 10. There you have the sanctified company with boldness to enter.

Ques. When it is forgiveness, it is the death of Christ, but when reconciliation it is by the death of His Son. Why?

F.E.R. Because reconciliation brings in the full light of divine purpose. God sent His Son. It brings you into the full light of God.

Ques. Would you say that in reconciliation all moral distance is removed?

F.E.R. Distance was removed in the death of Christ, but in reconciliation there is more than that, you are entirely according to God. You are in the presence of the fulness of God, conscious of His perfect complacency in you, you are before Him, according to Him.

Rem. All moral distance must be removed for that?

F.E.R. Yes, but reconciliation tells you it has been removed; and you are conscious of being before God in love -- suitable to His eye. It is made good to you when you have accepted His love and are formed in it. All our difficulty about reconciliation is because we are so little acquainted with the love of God. It would be very simple to us if we were.

Rem. It would be a sort of natural conclusion.

F.E.R. Yes, exactly so.

Ques. Was not all that set forth in Christ, the good pleasure of God in Him?

F.E.R. He was the beginning of it, "Who is the beginning".

Ques. Is the sanctified company and the reconciled company the same?

F.E.R. Yes; but sanctified brings in another idea. Sanctification is on the line of the sovereignty of God's will, which has set you apart for Himself, according to Hebrews 10.

Ques. What brings us into the effect of reconciliation?

F.E.R. I do not think anything will but acquaintance with the love of God. You are drawn into it in that way.

Ques. Would you say once more what is the scriptural thought of reconciliation?

F.E.R. I think the idea of the term is the bringing things into conscious complacency with the divine mind and pleasure.

Ques. Would you say suitability gives the thought?

F.E.R. It is more than that. It is God's complacency; that God may have satisfaction in all. You must bring Christ in for this.

Ques. While it is the present state necessarily, will it not go on to the millennium?

F.E.R. Yes. The eternal state is necessary for its full display because the eternal state brings you to the full blessedness of God. It is then not merely rule and government, but God all in all.

Rem. Take eternal life: you do not like to connect that idea with God. To my mind it does not reach up to the blessedness of God. It is something that belongs to God, only we are brought into it, and that must be eternal.

Ques. You would say the new man would not be satisfied with the millennium?

Rem. No. Everything must be brought into the blessedness of God Himself. There is the necessity of love which brings into its own blessedness.

F.E.R. "We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth".

Ques. I was thinking this morning, in reference to the Jew being satisfied in the millennium, will not he too look forward to the eternal state?

F.E.R. I think so. The blessings of the kingdom and all the happiness that pertains to it would be incomplete without that; for the full expanse of blessing, you must have the eternal state when "the tabernacle of God is with men".

Ques. Who are the "men"? Are they those living on the earth?

Rem. I thought so.

Ques. Will not the church too have to wait through the millennium for full blessedness?

Rem. No. J.B.S. used to say their blessedness was complete because they were with Christ, that the New Jerusalem is not a new thing but a new scene.

Ques. Is not the eternal state what God is?

Rem. God is, and He exists in blessedness. That is the eternal state as we speak. We connect it with the eternal life, and we connect a thought of time with the eternal state, but it is God is -- that is eternal, when we speak of eternal it is difficult to eliminate time from our thoughts.

F.E.R. It is impossible to do so, it is due to the limitation of our minds. It is an impossibility for a finite mind to grasp the idea of eternity.

Ques. "God to be all in all", is that the effect of reconciliation?

F.E.R. Yes; I think so. Reconciliation has done its work; it has been effected then.

Rem. In the day of atonement we get reconciliation, also the putting away of sins on that day, so that both come in there. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment". That is government, and government is satisfied every way in righteousness by the putting away of sins, and that enables man to be brought into holiness.

Ques. Then reconciliation is for God's good pleasure?

F.E.R. Yes; justification is on man's side, reconciliation on God's side.

Rem. A person receiving the reconciliation and approaching God thinks of what God is.

F.E.R. Then he has the consciousness of being according to God, he is before Him holy and without blame, not conscious of unsuitability, he has the best robe on.

Rem. I think our Lord's day morning meetings would be of a different character if we understood the meaning of reconciliation.

F.E.R. We should know that we were not only a justified company, but a reconciled company. The bulk of people are as to their sense of things a company of believers justified.

Ques. How is that state to be promoted?

F.E.R. We have to begin with ourselves.

Ques. We might ask ourselves one simple question, Do I know the love of God?

F.E.R. It is no use seeking what to do with others, and thinking how we are going to affect others. I have asked myself, supposing it were possible that I could affect others, how should I like to affect them?

Rem. You can only do that, I suppose, as you are affected yourself.

F.E.R. No; but supposing it were possible to affect others -- I know one cannot affect others -- but supposing one could, how would I like them to be affected?

Rem. But you may influence another.

F.E.R. It is only God who affects you for good. He does all the work Himself; but supposing I could affect you, how should I like to affect you?

Ques. Well, what is the answer?

F.E.R. It makes me seriously question what my object would be; I ought to be wishing everybody to be like myself; and I do not know that I am prepared for that.

Ques. Is that what Paul meant when he said, "Brethren, be followers together of me"?

F.E.R. I do not think I am prepared to say that.

Ques. "Present every man perfect in Christ Jesus", is that the effect of ministry?

F.E.R. That is a question of intelligence. "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus". That is full-grown in point of intelligence.

Ques. You look that from the scriptures ministered, souls may be led into God's things.

F.E.R. I have not any confidence in anything effected by man.

Ques. Would not God affect them through your ministry?

F.E.R. It is a great thing to bring before people what is the divine mind, to enlighten them, that they may know the mind of God. Then the next thing to come to pass is the subjective effect. We are to be exercised by what we hear, and if we are, then through that God will work; but He will do the work Himself. I might shew you how you ought to be affected, but it is only God who can affect you.

Ques. Why does the apostle put "warning every man" first in the passage you quoted?

F.E.R. Because you can do that; a wise man can warn against snares and such like.

Ques. What is the bearing of the expression the apostle uses in 1 Corinthians 4:15: "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel"?

F.E.R. I think they were all accounted his children in that way. They were converted through him. All whose eyes were opened through him he looked at as his children.

Ques. Do you not in saying "through him" admit the point contended for?

F.E.R. No; for although they were converted through him, and so begotten by his gospel, he was used only to enlighten them.

Ques. So that when you said yesterday the Lord alone can teach you, that is what you mean?

F.E.R. Yes. For my part, I think it is too serious a responsibility to affect one another. I could not bear the responsibility. It would be too much man's work.

Ques. "He worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do" -- what of that?

F.E.R. I think that was in the way of testimony, we may learn a great deal from one another. We may get intelligence of the mind of God, but that is not a work wrought in you. It is a great thing to get this, but intelligence in the mind of God must lead to exercise on your part, or nothing is wrought in you. Through the exercise God works in you.

Ques. Do you make any difference between the apostles and ministers in the present day in this respect?

F.E.R. The apostle did not, as it appears to me, accept the responsibility as to the work in the soul. He looks at what had taken place in the saints as God's work from beginning to end.

Rem. For instance, at Corinth the Lord says, "I have much people in this place".

F.E.R. The point with the apostle was to bring these to light.

Ques. Then you think that the only way in which we can influence one another is to bring light to the conscience to lead them to exercise?

F.E.R. Yes.

Rem. The apostle says, "That they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God".

Ques. Has the evangelist any more power to open people's eyes than he has to turn them from darkness to light?

F.E.R. Yes, he has power to open people's eyes, he can enlighten them. Suppose I have been grossly deceived all my life by somebody, and you know that somebody perfectly, and expose him to me, you would open my eyes, and you would in all probability produce a profound impression on me.

Rem. It is a very common expression, a person says, "You have opened my eyes".

F.E.R. Yes. The devil had grossly deceived the Gentiles, and the apostle was sent to enlighten them,

to undeceive them. Then they turned to God, for they saw that they had been deluded by Satan; when the light was brought to them they could see what God was, and they turned to Him.

Ques. Does to open the eyes involve a work of God?

F.E.R. No person would appreciate the light which you bring, except there was a previous work of God in him. New birth is the previous work of God.

Rem. You must have the honest and good ground. It is only there the seed springs up and brings forth fruit. The ground must be divinely prepared.

Rem. A person must have been born again to accept the truth.

Rem. Just as with the men of Samaria, they say, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves".

F.E.R. Yes, she simply drew attention to Christ.

Ques. Would you preach only to those born again?

Rem. I said no one could accept the truth without being born again.

Ques. Have you not seen people very much unconverted brought under the sound of the gospel, and then converted?

Rem. But God did it.

Rem. I know it is all God's work, and I would like to speak to five hundred people desperately unconverted, and if any of them were converted, I know it would be all His work from first to last.

Rem. And the hand of the Lord be with you.

Rem. Yes, or nothing would be done.

Rem. "A man can receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven".

F.E.R. The point is of vital importance. If you take B.'s company of five hundred, and suppose four hundred and ninety-nine converted, in these there would have been a previous work of God independent of B.

Rem. If four hundred and ninety-nine of that company were converted, all of them would owe that to God's work and not yours.

Rem. Every shred of it, but the Lord might use the word which falls from His servant's lips. While one is preaching God may work.

F.E.R. But while He uses you to enlighten He works independently of you. If they are going to receive your testimony He must have wrought a work in them before. It is not your preaching that does that work. The point is whether the beginning is God's work or man's work. It may have taken place only a few seconds previously, but it is not man's work but God's work, and that is vitally important.

THE CAUSE OF DEFECTION IN THE CHURCH

Exodus 32:1 - 6; 1 Corinthians 10:1 - 12

We get in the passage in Exodus the point of departure in the case of Israel. There had been the lusting after evil things; but this was the great defection, on account of which they were carried away into Babylon. Although Israel entered the land of promise they did so only provisionally; they never entered it according to the pleasure of God. From the making of the golden calf God intended that they should be carried away captive into Babylon. The same defection is seen in the history of the church. That is my meaning in connecting these two scriptures.

What Israel did actually after the flesh, the church has done in a spiritual sense. Israel began first by lusting after evil things, and this was followed by idolatry. There were in Israel what answered to sacraments; they did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink -- it is what the Lord's supper is to us -- but there was unjudged flesh amongst them. Now I want you to see that the same character of departure has taken place in the church of God.

On the occasion referred to Moses was absent. Moses was apostle in connection with Israel, Aaron was priest. Moses represented to the people the light and authority of God. In divine things rule and authority are connected with light. We see this even in nature. God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. God constituted light to rule, and so it is today -- light rules. I do not doubt that in putting things in this way in Genesis 1 the Spirit of God had Christ in view. He is the great Light set in heaven,

and it is very important to see that God intended light to rule.

Now light is connected with the apostle. In regard to Israel, Moses was apostle and brought the light, and light was to rule. Authority was connected with light. In this passage in Exodus we learn that Moses was absent, he was up in the mount with God. During his absence the people separated priesthood from true authority, and connected a false authority with the priest, and by doing so they practically degraded the priesthood. They separated the light and authority, which were vested in Moses, and connected them in their mind in a false way with Aaron, the priest. He was to be their leader, and to accommodate things to their taste.

This act resulted in the bringing in of idolatry. They said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods", and Aaron said, "Break off the golden ear-rings, which are in the ears of your wives" (verses 2 - 6).

We have in this an epitome of the history of the professing church. Christ is absent; He, the Apostle, is lost sight of in the present day in Christendom because He has delayed to return, and the leaders have separated priesthood from true authority. They have degraded the priesthood by connecting authority with it; idolatry has been sanctioned, and the people under the influence of idolatry have become completely worldly. "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play".

It is remarkable that at the beginning of the history of the church God should have warned saints by this defection of Israel. We see the defection today, both in Romanism and in Protestantism. And it will be in the case of Christendom as with Israel, that because of this defection destruction will come upon it. It is of all importance to apprehend the course defection has taken in Christianity. It is easily seen that during the absence of the Apostle -- Christ, heavenly light and

authority have been disregarded. A spurious priesthood has been introduced, the priest has sanctioned idolatry, and thus priesthood has become degraded.

We have been given to see this defection, and it is a great favour to have had our eyes opened to it. Now God's corrective I believe to be in the apprehension that what man separated God has brought together. Apostle and Priest go together in the one Person, and that makes Christianity, in its true power, perfection. As we accept the authority we get the gain of priesthood, and that is the point I want to bring before you.

I may turn to Romans 4:23 to chapter 5: 11 to illustrate this. All this passage is connected with the Lord Jesus Christ; He is the Apostle, the One in whom is brought in the light of God. The Priest does not bring in the light, the Apostle does. If you turn to Romans 8:33 - 39, you find the priest. We get thus the distinction between the Apostle and the Priest. There is distinction in function, but the two are combined now in one Person, so that the Priest is as good as the Apostle, which was hardly the case in Moses and Aaron. At the outset Aaron went wrong, but of Moses God said that he was faithful in all His house. It was an imperfect system. Now the system is perfect, for the two offices are combined in one Person -- the Priest is equal to the Apostle. The Apostle brings the light of God which is to rule; the Priest carries us in to God. Therefore the function of the Priest is more limited than that of the Apostle. Light, when it comes in, is world-wide testimony. God could not limit His light, it shines for all. You could not conceive God limiting the value of the sun. "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof". And God could no more limit the light of the gospel than that of the sun. Priesthood is more limited in its application, for its exercise is connected with those drawing nigh to God; the Priest brings us in. Many to whom the light has come are never exercised about

going in to God, and so they never get fully the good of the priesthood.

Now the light is to rule, and I understand the light to be the glory of God. We read in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".

I understand the glory of God to indicate the completeness of moral perfection in display. Circumstances have come to pass which have brought the moral perfections of God into display, and they are all proportionate and harmonious. Righteousness, love, holiness, mercy, faithfulness, truth -- all that goes to make up the moral perfection of God -- all are harmonious. That is the simple idea to my mind of the glory of God, and it is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. It is what Stephen saw, and where Stephen left off Paul begins. The glad tidings of the glory of God have come into this world; it is a wonderful light, and that light is to rule. God intends us to be ruled by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Every attribute of God has come into display -- righteousness and faithfulness, all is set forth in His face, and in that light I am to walk. I am as much affected in my soul by the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as I am naturally by the light of the sun in the heavens. Under the influence and rule of the light I walk down here in the will of God in the midst of imperfection. I see all moral imperfection in man. If I come across a man good in one point he has imperfection in another. I see every moral perfection in the face of Jesus Christ, and I walk in that light down here for God's will. Light is in the Apostle, we are affected by it, and it is in the light of that glory that the Christian is enabled to walk in the knowledge of God's will.

At the close of Romans 11 we read, "For of him,

and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen". Then in chapter 12 the apostle beseeches the saints through the mercies of God. Mercy is part of God's perfection and glory. "That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God". You have got the light of the glory of God: that is, "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever". The apostle has assured us in the epistle of God's righteousness and faithfulness, and in the light of that we prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. The more you are affected by the light the more you are down here in this world, not for man's will, but for God's will. It is a great thing to be here in the light of God's glory, for we shall come out in it by-and-by in the heavenly city.

Till things are morally according to God's glory, He cannot display His glory. God does not display His glory now. If He were to display it there would be an end of man. But He gives us the light of it in Christ that we may not be ruled by our own perverse wills, but by God's will. And it works out down to the most minute and meanest things in our daily lives. The light of God's glory is to illuminate us completely; we are to be affected by that light in the details of our daily life. I would seek to carry out everything down here -- any little bit of ministry, my business, my responsibilities in my family, etc. -- according to my knowledge of the righteousness, faithfulness, love, and mercy of God. It is a great thing to walk down here in the light. The light is the authority to the Christian, all the details of his conduct are affected by it.

I turn to one more passage. Titus 2:10 - 14.

Grace is the predominant element in the light of God. We are taught by it, and are awaiting "the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works". This passage concludes my point in that connection; that rule is connected with light, and light is by the Apostle, and as we are walking in it, we are here for God's will. The moral effect is that we live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. It is thus a great thing to apprehend the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God has made known to us the completeness of moral perfection, and we can regard it because we stand in a grace which imputes nothing. The great point is rule, and the rule is the rule of light. The rule of light comes into the corners and dark places of our hearts and affects us in every detail of life. We seek to answer to the character of God. We are exhorted, "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children".

Now we have seen that light is connected with the Apostle, but we have also to apprehend that the Apostle is Priest. Not only is there light, but there is life. The thought of life is connected with the Priest, light, with the Apostle. Through the Apostle light comes to us where we are; the Priest takes us in to where God is. If you turn to Romans 8:28 - 34 you get the Priest, "Who also maketh intercession for us". As in chapter 5 you get in principle Christ as Apostle, so here you get Him as Priest. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" that is as Priest.

The first knowledge we have of God's love comes to us as light, not in connection with the Priest, but by the Spirit. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. The love comes out in testimony as light, and the Spirit diffuses it in our hearts, and the effect of that is that

we live. The first real breath of life is our response to the love of God. The response to it is in affection. The moment you can say that you love God you know you are the called according to God's purpose. And the love of God will never fail us down here; it is light to us, and God will keep us in that light. But now the Priest comes into view, and Christ stands in another light. He is going to lead you into the sanctuary, but in order to do that He must have you attached to Himself, for till He has got you attached to Himself you are not in a position to enter the holiest. In the wilderness Christians have the Spirit, and are in the light of the love of God, but it is a poor thing to have the light of such great love and not respond to it. You are bound to respond, and when you respond that proves there is life in you, and the moment has come in your history when you find that you are the called according to purpose. Some object to the truth of election, but, do what you may, you cannot get away from the fact of the sovereign mercy of God.

Now the love of God is so known in your heart that He has got your affections, and you are ready for Christ as Minister of the sanctuary -- that is, you are prepared to go in with Him to the heart of God. You go from the cross, where the love was expressed, to its source in the heart of God. The way in which the Priest attaches our hearts to Himself is by making intercession for us, and by succouring us in our difficulties and trials along the road. We learn His tenderness, His sympathy, His unfailing interest in each one of us personally. He appears in the presence of God for us, helping us in the exercises through which we pass down here, and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. But there is an end in view in this; namely, to attach our hearts to Himself so firmly that He can lead us in with Himself to where He is at home -- to where the love of God is at rest.

The twelve apostles were three and a half years in the Lord's company, but it had not much effect in enlightening their intelligence. It is said after Christ rose, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures", but He had first rebuked them, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken". It has been said that the disciples did not really understand a single thing the Lord said to them while He was down here with them. But His presence had the effect of deeply attaching their hearts to Himself. Though Peter did deny Him, he could say to Him afterwards, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee". After His resurrection the Lord came into the midst of the disciples and shewed them His hands and His side. Do you not think their hearts were attached to Him? They were prepared then to be led in.

I am sure that our qualification for being led into that divine scene is our attachment to Christ Himself. Many Christians have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts who are not sufficiently attached to Christ to care earnestly to be with Him where He is.

The next question that is raised is, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Read Romans 8:35 - 39; 1 John 5:20.) The apostle passes in review a number of things, and says, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". You are in that circle. "In him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life". You are in the scene of divine complacency, and the service of the priest is to bring us into that scene. He so attaches us to Himself that He can lead us in to where God's love rests. The high priest in Israel bore the names of the twelve tribes on his heart and on his shoulders. So with Christ. He intercedes for us individually and supports us in our trials and exercises because He loves us; and He thus

so attaches us to Himself that we must go in with Him to where He would lead us -- to where He is at home. He never leaves that scene of divine complacency in which He is when He serves us down here, but He serves and succours us here in this scene so that we cannot consent to be separated from Him, and thus He leads us into association with Himself in that scene of rest and joy. He is the Firstborn among many brethren. That is, He is Firstborn in our estimation. I used to think of Him as Firstborn in a very cold way, that is, officially. I see now that it is we that accord to Him the place of Firstborn; He is Firstborn in our affection. We give Him that place of pre-eminence because He has so effectually attached us to Himself.

You see thus how the idea of Priest is connected with life, and that is connected with the love of God.

It is very important for our souls to be in the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, so that in every detail of daily life we intelligently do the will of God. If I were asked why I do not thieve or lie, I should answer, because I am in the light of the glory of God. But there is another thing, and that is, We go in to God. We learn His purpose. I was born again before I knew it, but now I know myself as called according to purpose. I get not only the Priest now, but the Priest and the Apostle united in one Person, and perfection has come in.

In saving us to the uttermost, and in ever living to make intercession for us, He, as Priest, is assuring us of the attachment He bears towards us, to the end that He may lead us into the place where He Himself is, where love has found its satisfaction and is at rest. All this is eternal. All that which is connected with our responsibility, as being in the light here, will come to an end. That which is connected with God's purpose, our association with Christ in that scene of holy love, is eternal, and it is there that you

touch eternal life. All connected with our responsible life here will come to an end. All connected with the purpose of God and life beyond death is eternal.

In Christendom men have become idolatrous; and they have degraded the priesthood by separating the Priest from the Apostle. God has opened our eyes to see that in the Antitype we get the Apostle and Priest in one Person, so that there can be no more divergence. We can walk now in the light of the Apostle -- in the light of the glory of God -- and can go in with the Priest into that scene where the love of God rests in divine complacency. And we can look forward to the time when we shall be completely according to God's glory, having entered in with Him for ever.

THE ASSEMBLY COME TOGETHER

1 Corinthians 12

There are one or two expressions in the previous chapter of this epistle to which I will refer. "For first of all, when ye come together in the church ..". (verse 18). Then verse 20: "When ye come together therefore into one place ..". So again in chapter 14: "If therefore the whole assembly come together". I want to bring before you two or three thoughts in connection with the coming together of the assembly. I may say they are elementary, but it is not always a very easy thing to present the elements, because so few of us understand the science. All the world comes together for worship; that is, at all events, the idea in Christendom. It is only the ungodly who do not come together. Churches and chapels are filled, and people have the idea of coming together for divine service. Now if we come together in assembly, we do not come together in accord with all that is around us. With very many there is probably the thought that they come together as others do, but in a more scriptural way. We come together at the same time, on the same day, and it looks as if we were in accord with all around, but we are not in spirit in accord with anything around us. The saints at the beginning certainly did not come together in accord with heathenism. Judaism was immediately around, but they did not come together in accord with Judaism. The coming together of Christians was in most distinct separation from all around. Now we have got Christianism (if I might coin a word), but we do not come together in accord with Christianism. Just as Judaism was then the established order, so Christianity has become the same thing. There can be no real Christianity outside of the Spirit of God, and the world cannot receive the

Spirit; so if Christianity has become bound up with the world, there is something very wrong, and the mind of God is not met. In coming together in assembly, we cannot make it apparent to others that we are in separation from what is going on around; but in our own sense of things we come together in separation from all. People may come to us, but we cannot go to them; there can be no reciprocity, for it is not according to the Spirit of God. We are maintained by the Spirit in the fellowship of Christ's death, and we come together in the fellowship of that death. Christ is not in honour in the world, and until He comes again He will not touch the world. He has died to it, and we have died with Him, and are in separation from that to which we have died. The apostle challenges the Colossians (chapter 2: 20): "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" We are risen with Christ "through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead".

Now to come to chapter 12, see verse 13. We come together in assembly in the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit has no regard to the distinctions of the world; the Jew is no better than the Gentile, the free man is no better than the slave. What distinction can hold in Christ's presence? The Spirit pays no regard to the distinctions of men, and in coming together in assembly the distinctions which exist in the world disappear. If we do not come together rightly in our feelings and thoughts with regard to one another, it is impossible to gain the presence of the Lord. The Spirit maintains what is according to Christ, not what is according to man, and so in coming together it will not do for us to maintain distinctions which the Spirit of God has disregarded. "We have all been made to drink into one Spirit". I am putting before you matters which are extremely

important with regard to the things of the assembly down here. We have to regard the unity of the Spirit, and to look to it that we are right in our relations one to another.

Now I pass on to another point. It says in verse 27, "You are Christ's body". I refer you in connection with this to a verse in John 14. Read verse 20; that verse helps us to understand the statement which we get here -- "Ye are the body of Christ". The body is where the heart of Christ is. He says, "I am in my Father", that is, in the Father's heart. "Ye in me", that is, in the heart of Christ. "I in you", that is, the affections of Christ are here. Christ's affections are in His saints down here. It is difficult to realise this on account of the confusion around, but we have to regard the true character of things, as presented by the Spirit of God.

The first thing is, we do not come together in accord with things around. Secondly, we come together in the unity of the Spirit. Thirdly, we are conscious of being Christ's body. Christ is present there in affection. The Lord says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you". It is very important that we should come together aright. We may so readily fall into what is prevailing in Christendom, only with a more correct form.

Now I want to call your attention to chapter 13: 1 - 13. We will suppose that the points that I have referred to are accepted, and that we are come together. In the assembly come together, love is the principle which regulates everything and puts everything in its place. There is no real corrective to what is unsuitable but love. It is love in regard to one another. Christ puts love in activity, and the working of love is to put all in order in the assembly come together. We have to follow after love. These things are all excessively important if the assembly is to have its character according to God down here. We have to take account

of its being Christ's assembly, and that our conduct has reference to Christ, and love corrects all that is unseemly or uncomely. The points I have touched on are: first, separation; secondly, the unity of the Spirit; and thirdly, the body of Christ -- His affections being there -- and then love as being the regulating principle.

Now I pass on to what transpires in the assembly. Each one certainly brings there the best he has got. We come there as believers or as priests. All are believers, but the priests are practically a more limited class. We all bring the best we have. How is the service to be ordered? I think by the priests. In a church the service is conducted by the priest -- the principle is in a way right; but all depends on the ordination of the priest. We want to find priests properly qualified, not priests ordained by a bishop, and we should look for it in ourselves, not in clericalism. Each one has to look to it as to what he has to bring to the assembly. Not something to give out, but as to the knowledge he brings. Every Christian is necessarily a believer, and every believer is entitled to be a priest, but I am not sure that every one is so. The qualification for a priest is the consciousness of being kindred to Christ. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. Your genealogy is attested in the consciousness that you are one with Christ. Then we want perfect assurance and liberty with God. There is nothing in God which is hidden from us. In the holiest you enter into the depths of God's nature -- His holy love. There is nothing beyond the holiest. The depth and resources of that nature are laid open to you, and you can draw nigh. God invited the confidence of Abraham; when, too, Christ was on earth He invited the confidence of the disciples. Now God invites our confidence, and we have boldness to approach Him in all liberty of access. We draw near, not with reserve, but with the sense that

we are encouraged to drink into the depths of all that God has revealed Himself to be.

When we come together in assembly, though the ordering of the worship is properly by the priests, yet each one must be simple, and all must be from the heart. There is not much good in any one setting up a kind of ideal. We have to take things as they are. When we come together there are really the two classes of which I have spoken. Very few among the Corinthians had entered into the qualification for priests, and yet when we come together in assembly the conduct of divine service ought clearly to be on the part of the priests. It is not simply a believers' meeting. We should not be content without having the qualification of priests -- in the consciousness that we are one with Christ. I do not belong to any body of Christians on earth; I am of Christ's body, and one with the Sanctifier. I have confidence thus to avail myself of the privilege which God has laid open to me in making Himself known in the depths of His love. So few of us are prepared to surrender the world, and if we will retain the world we cannot enter into the qualification of the priests.

I have no doubt that many would say, Does not Christ regulate the worship? Yes; but He does it through His members -- through the priests -- through those who are in the sense of being kindred with Christ. You do not gain the qualification for priest when you come together, for each brings the best he has got. God invites us to enter into the holiest, and if we have answered to it, we know how to accept our part as priests in the assembly. We know how to draw nigh to the holiest things. I want that we should not take these things up in a formal way. The assembly is a very great thing rightly understood. We come together in separation from the world in the unity of the Spirit; we are the body of Christ, and everything is regulated by love. You must not suppose that the

obligation in coming together rests only with the priests. Every believer brings the best he has got If all were in the consciousness of being priests there would be a very great effect. In any case, we have to take care that all that takes place is done from the heart. Every one there is properly in sympathy with Christ and dwelling in the holy love of God.

THE TREE AND THE TREASURE

Matthew 13:31, 32, 44

I think, as things go on, many of us become more and more impressed with the difficulties of the path. We have all accepted a certain path, and there can be no doubt that in that path we encounter increasing difficulties. What I feel painfully is that a great many may have entered on the path, but have not faith for it. It is one thing to enter on the path, and those who are in it would not seek to put unnecessary difficulties before those desiring to enter it; but the point is, have all faith for the path? The position is difficult; the path is trying, and will undoubtedly expose people to reproach. Those who are in the path are encumbered by many who have not faith for it, and on the other hand, those who have not faith are not really helped. It is a day of great weakness, and it is extremely difficult to afford help to those who have not faith for themselves.

These things come home to one, because we do not get stronger and stronger, but weaker and weaker. Energy declines; everything in this world tends to degenerate. The path in that way becomes more difficult, and the difficulties are increased if we are encumbered by many who, though perhaps Christians, have not faith for the path. I wish everybody had, that there might be a stirring up in the path; that we might not be content simply with the fact that we are Christians, and brought more or less into the light, but that we might have faith for the path into which we profess to have been led.

I think we must maintain the idea of testimony. It is a word that has been very much in use amongst us; I do not care much about the word, but the point is, what is meant by it? If the testimony is not maintained

I do not see what the value of our path is. It is good to walk in divine light, but as you cannot get the church restored, the thought of testimony must have a certain place. It has been said that if we are a testimony to anything, we are a testimony to the ruin. I think that to be a point of great moment. You will say, it is a poor thing to be a testimony to the ruin. I admit it; but I do not understand how, in the present state of things, we can be a testimony to anything else, and it involves a good deal more than we think. Some would say, What do you mean by the ruin? I mean that the church has assumed a form, here upon the earth, which was never according to the thought of God. The great mass of people have no idea of ruin: they are not ashamed of the present state of things; they would rather glory in it, and not think it a shame or reproach. If our eyes have been opened, we apprehend that the church has assumed a form upon the earth which is not according to the mind of God; and it is in that sense we speak of ruin. If Christianity in the world presented the form and character which God intended, there would be no question of ruin; but when things have assumed a form which God never intended, I can only look upon everything around as being morally ruined. If our eyes have been opened, our position is that we are more or less a testimony to the ruin. We do not accept the form which things have taken in the world, we do not appreciate the great worldly organisations into which Christianity has dropped: we stand in a way outside of them, and are thereby a testimony to the ruin.

But if that is the case, every one in the path needs to be there in faith. You want your eyes opened to the character of the moment, so that you should be intelligently in the path in which you are found. If we are there in faith, we are there intelligently; if we are not there intelligently, we are not really there in

faith. Faith always indicates intelligence. It is a great point, not simply to be in the path, but to be in it intelligently. The great organisations are not of God, and hence, so far as we can, we take a path outside these things, and by that fact we are in witness to the ruin. Now I think every one of us must apprehend that this demands faith; not simply that people should be really converted and have the Spirit, but should have intelligence. If they continue in the path without it, they will simply be a hindrance and an obstruction in it. We should all seek to walk in the path in all possible grace, ready to help those who are in it, and who may have entered it without faith; but one fears there are many in the path who hardly want to be enlightened: they have come into it providentially, in connection with others, and have thus entered upon a path for which they have not faith.

Now I have made certain assertions, but I want to shew you that these things were foreseen of the Lord; they have not come in fortuitously. The Lord anticipated the state of things which has come to pass. It has often been to me a great comfort to apprehend in Scripture that everything was anticipated. It is one great principle which prevails in the word of God; that from the beginning God foretells what the end will be. When Israel came out of Egypt, God foretold the Babylonish captivity, and before they went into captivity God foretold the rejection of Christ. In the New Testament, so soon as the church was established upon earth, the Spirit of God speaks about the last times. So here: before the kingdom was established, the Lord tells us what would come to pass in the end of it, about the net being cast into the sea, and so on.

But I want to say a word in regard to the first parable I have read in verses 31, 32. I will refer you to the Book of Daniel for a moment, chapter 4: 10 - 12, 25, 26. I turn to these passages partly because they

give us the idea referred to in the parable of Matthew 13, that is, of the tree, and partly because we get a remarkable expression there, that Nebuchadnezzar was to know that the heavens ruled. I want to touch on these two points for a moment. A tree is a conspicuous figure. The Babylonish kingdom was a conspicuous figure in the world; God allowed it to become that, and it sheltered the fowls of heaven. Now according to Matthew 13 the kingdom of heaven has taken that shape: it has become conspicuous, a thing of renown in the world, and has afforded shelter to the fowls of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has become a great earthly organisation. That is not what God intended, but it has come to pass. The kingdom of heaven really came in by testimony, hence the Lord speaks about its having its origin in a seed which is the least of all seeds. It must have been so, because there was no kingdom set up in power; it sprang up as the fruit and result of seed-sowing.

Now as to the meaning of the kingdom of heaven, I do not connect it with the expression I read in Daniel that "the heavens do rule". I think that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that in spite of all he thought of himself, the heavens ruled, and so they do. You get great dynastic changes taking place in the world; and they appear to be the workings of men; but what is behind all that is that the heavens rule. The Most High gives the kingdoms of men to whom He will. To our observation it would appear as though all these things were the fruit and result of human forces, but God makes men to feel that the heavens rule. But that is not to my mind the idea of the kingdom of heaven. What I understand by it is the moral sway of that which God has been pleased to set in heaven, and that is, a Man. The kingdom of heaven is the reign of grace, and that reign is brought about by the setting of a Man in heaven. God has been pleased, on the ground of redemption, to set a