Isaiah 8:5 - 8, 11 - 18, 10: 11 - 12, 24 - 25; Hebrews 2:10 - 13; Matthew 18:2 - 5, 20

I believe, dear brethren, that what God has before Him at the present time is to work, not only in His grace in ministering to us spiritually, but also in His government in disciplining us, having in view to bring about in us full correspondence with the Leader of our salvation -- Christ. If there is to be full correspondence in us with the Lord Jesus it implies that we should not only know our status and position before God as sons, but that we should be here in this world as true children. In Hebrews 2, there are three quotations brought in and attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ who is presented as the Leader of our salvation. God has appointed Him Leader to bring many sons to glory: that is the great end in view; and in the quotations which are attributed to Him, the highest thought is presented first: "I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises". That implies that the saints are brought into accord with the Lord Jesus Christ as sons with Him in the presence of God; He can speak of them as His brethren; we correspond with Him in that way, and as His brethren we are able to take up the song that He sings and to join in it, so that He leads the praise in the midst of the assembly. That is the marvellous issue that is before God in providing us with the Leader of our salvation.

But then the next quotations immediately refer to the other side, the second one being, "I will trust in him". God would have us to correspond with our

Leader in that. For many years now we have been privileged to take in and enjoy much ministry bearing on our portion before God in the assembly as associated with Christ, and we have enjoyed having our part in the service Godward; but, dear brethren, what is the real substantial value of that if we do not also correspond with Christ in connection with these other quotations? I am not saying there is no value in it, but I would raise the challenge: what is the value of a people who can come together and praise God, but who in their practical life are out of accord with Christ in their trust in God? Surely if we are to be ever with Christ before God, God has it before Him to bring us into accord with Christ in a practical, substantial way during this brief period while we are here; we cannot get this education in heaven. One is spoken of in this epistle, who "though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered", and who "in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears was heard because of his piety", because He feared God. God would have us brought into accord with Christ in that. Think what God has before Him today! He would have us in our measure trust Him like Christ did, and He would have us to be marked by piety like Christ's when here, and say, "Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust". God will bring this about. Surely this is attractive to our hearts that we should honour God by the same kind of trust as characterised His own blessed Son down here in those days when He learned obedience by the things which He suffered!

Unless we learn that lesson of trust in God we shall not answer to the third quotation, which means that there is a people on earth to whom the Lord Jesus can point: "Behold, I and the children which God has given me". It is the heart of Christ delighting

in having a people here on earth who are like Him, not only in assembly service, but like Him as He was down here in practical every day life, walking as He walked, as John says in his epistle, righteous as He is righteous, pure as He is pure, loving as He loved. That is the idea of children -- true representation. We never grow out of being children in one sense; a son is ever a child, however old he may get. There is the idea of true representation and likeness to the features of the parents continued in the children, whereas the thought of son suggests image, status and dignity. We shall be conformed to the image of God's Son; but with children it is likeness. When God made man He said "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness". The Lord Jesus Christ looks for that: His heart requires that He should have those here like Himself in the practical day-today affairs of this life. He can point to these children as signs and wonders in Israel, as Isaiah says. The Lord is looking for signs and wonders; He requires to have those in testimony here to whom He can point in this way, those who trust God in their measure as He trusted Him, and who walk here as beloved children.

I would like to say a few words as to this matter of children, for I feel that we ought to give more attention to it. The book of Isaiah has a good deal to say about children. In the first chapter Jehovah has to say, "I have nourished and brought up children; and they have rebelled against me", showing us that the affections of the heart of God require children -- "beloved children", as the apostle says: "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children", Ephesians 5:1. How God's heart longs to have beloved children down here! From the point of view of substantial formation and likeness to God it is the highest truth. Sonship is a higher truth according to position and status; but it is in Ephesians that we read this exhortation as to being beloved children,

and it is the epistle to Philippians which says, "That ye may be harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation", chapter 2. God is looking for children like that. The flesh does not like to be simple, small, meek and gentle, but that is the kind of children for whom God is looking, shining as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. It is in the character of children that we are in testimony.

Then, as you go on in the book of Isaiah, you get the thought of Jerusalem yearning for children. It is very touching. Jerusalem above is our mother; and God considers for the yearnings of Jerusalem, and sees to it that she has children. In Isaiah 49:20 - 21 we read: "The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me: make room for me, that I may dwell. And thou shalt say in thy heart, Who hath borne me these, seeing I had lost my children and was desolate, an exile, and driven about? and who hath brought up these? behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?", showing how God considers for the mother heart of Jerusalem. While Jerusalem is desolate, God secures these children for her, brings them up, as it were, and presents them to her. No doubt it has an application to the joy which the earthly Jerusalem will yet have in seeing the church as begotten by the testimony which emanated from that city; but primarily it has in mind the earthly people which God will secure. But I read that scripture to show how the heart of the assembly looks for children. Surely we long for children, and God would love to satisfy that desire.

Then in chapter 53 we have Christ Himself brought before us: "Who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living". The heart of Christ requires children. It is the way the Lord views us as down here, taking character from Himself, begotten by His own service and testimony. It says

"Who shall declare his generation?" Could any of our hearts brook the thought that there should not be a generation here like Christ? that His life should not be continued in character here? It goes on to say, "He shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand". God will see to it -- and He is seeing to it -- that Christ has a seed. So how precious is this thought of children -- God's heart desiring children, the heart of Jerusalem looking for children, and the heart of Christ requiring children! Divine affections require children, and beloved children. If we look at the New Testament we find the apostles Paul and John bringing out this side of the truth as to children, being like God and like Christ.

As I said at the outset, I believe God is working to secure this substantial formation in His people, so that we might truly be such that the Lord can point to us in our practical lives here and say, "Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me". To bring this about discipline is necessary. Two things are always necessary to achieve God's end: firstly, the ministry of grace from His own heart, and secondly His ways in government, or discipline. The two sides come out in the epistle to the Hebrews. The early part of the book is full of the provision of God's grace. It speaks of all the grace resident in the apostle and High Priest of our confession; it speaks of our place with Him within the veil, of the Minister of the sanctuary, and of our liberty of approach to God. God would minister that side to us continually; but then when we are exhorted to be here in practical faith, corresponding with Christ here, we get the thought of discipline brought in in chapter 12; in fact in chapter 10 the apostle speaks of the way the saints were going through suffering, persecution and the spoiling of their goods. In chapter 12 he exhorts them to endure discipline, reminding them that the Father of spirits

is over the whole matter; for God's government and grace work to one great end, to achieve His purpose in us, that we might correspond with Christ in every sphere: in assembly, in our place before God, and down here in testimony and in our practical lives. How patiently God works in His grace and government to bring about this great end -- correspondence with Christ!

The early part of Isaiah bears on what we are passing through at the present time. Up to chapter 39 it is the Assyrian invasion which is largely in the prophet's mind, an invasion which occurred in Hezekiah's day, although it has a future bearing, alluding to the overflowing scourge which will again pass through the land in the near future. But this early part of the book had its immediate fulfilment in Hezekiah's day, and that section of the book closes with that, dealing with Hezekiah and the coming of Sennacherib king of Assyria. The latter part of the book deals more with the return from Babylon. The going to Babylon is foretold in chapter 39, and then immediately God says, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people", and the latter part of the book speaks of the return from captivity.

So chapter 8 which speaks of the invasion has its fulfilment in Hezekiah's reign. If you read the account of this invasion in 2 Chronicles 32, you will find that it occurred at a peculiar time, as we might think. We read in the chapters preceding of the early years of his reign, and of the remarkable spiritual development in connection with the house of God and His service. It is remarkable to read how the service of God in His house was restored, the priests and the Levites set in their places, and then the song of the Lord began. They were so enjoying the restoration of the service Godward, that Hezekiah sent to the ten tribes to gather others in to keep the feast of the passover in Jerusalem; he longed for more

of the brethren to enjoy it. The people were giving so freely that great heaps accumulated, and Hezekiah asked what they were, and had to make special provision because of the way divine love was flowing in the hearts of the saints. You might say, That is a peculiar time for God to order this terrible invasion! It says in chapter 32: "After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria came and entered into Judah". You will see an analogy between that day and our own day. We have had many years of ministry dealing with the assembly and our privileges in it. Possibly brethren are enjoying their part with Christ and in service Godward as they have not done perhaps for centuries. It was so in Hezekiah's day; they enjoyed it as they had not done since the days of Solomon. And now God has allowed discipline to come upon us. You may say, Why has He allowed it at such a time of spiritual prosperity? We often think that God brings in discipline when there is a low state; well, He does in His mercy; but God is concerned to help forward a good state, to make what is good really solid, to consolidate it in the souls of the saints.

So the Assyrian comes up, and Hezekiah says, "This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of reviling"; but, thank God, Hezekiah gets to the root of the matter. It is a great thing to get to the root of the matter. If we see the reason for the discipline, we can be with God in relation to it. Hezekiah puts on sackcloth -- it would be well for us today to put on sackcloth -- and he says, "This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of reviling"; but he gives the reason: "for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth"; as much as to say, We have had wonderful assembly privileges, we have enjoyed the service of God together, but there has not been a really practical state that answered to it!

Now, beloved brethren, if I search my heart I know that is true of me, and perhaps it is true of others. We have had wonderful privileges; we have enjoyed our place in the assembly; we have enjoyed the praises of God, and God has enjoyed them too, one might reverently say; times have been good. But have we not many of us, perhaps all of us, felt that in our public lives we were hardly equal to our place in the assembly, that there was a kind of disparity, or discrepancy? Have we not often felt ashamed that we could enjoy the presence of God when together, and outside our faith in God was so small, our trust so little, not like the trust which marked the Lord Jesus Christ? Have we not enjoyed divine things in our spirits among the brethren, and outside our spirits have been so unlike the spirit of Christ, that He could hardly point to us and say, "Behold, I and the children which God has given me", for we have not really been representing Him in our spirits, ways and words outside? To represent Christ in our spirits and words and ways outside involves having that as our one aim in life, and making everything else secondary; otherwise we shall never really be children who represent Christ as He was here, acting like God, speaking God's words, doing God's works. He filled out His place in testimony perfectly, and if we are true children in the sense in which I am speaking, it implies that we are like Him in that way, marked by His spirit, His acts and His words. You remember how in John's gospel, which speaks so much of the children of God, the Lord as the great Example in testimony says, "I cannot do anything of myself", John 5:30; and, again, "I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak ... What therefore I speak, as the Father has said to me, so I speak", chapter 12: 49, 50. Perfect dependence marked the Lord. We cannot

speak of the Lord as a child in the way I am speaking of it, but what a beloved One He was in the humble dependence in which He trod His way, not speaking from Himself, but as the Father commanded Him so He spoke. What dependence, humility and lovability marked Christ before the Father's heart as He moved with one object, to represent His Father in this world! If we know our place with Christ in assembly, what a great thing it is that God has before Him that we should go out from that sphere and really represent Christ in this world, in our measure acting like Him, marked by His spirit, speaking His words, doing His works -- may be in a feeble measure, but moving in such a way that He can regard us as beloved children and God can view us in that way, and the heart of the saints -- "Jerusalem above" -- is rejoiced.

So Hezekiah touched the point; he realised that was where the weakness lay. Conception was there: the children had come to the birth. We have often found ourselves in that condition; we have conceived the idea of being here to represent Christ: all our desires are that way, but there is no strength to bring forth. When a little test comes, it is self that is seen, and not Christ. God says, I will help you as to that! The ministry of grace alone will not work it. God says, I will bring in something to help you. God moves in a way which we might think most drastic: He brings up the king of Assyria, the waters of the river overflowing all his channels and all his banks, reaching up even to the neck. I take it to mean that when the king of Assyria came up, he reached right to the walls of Jerusalem -- to the very neck. He brought home to the people of Jerusalem their helplessness, for if a man is in water up to the neck, he cannot help himself. In some measure we have seen something like it: a scourge which has reached a very long way. In coming to this point, I would like to

make clear that when God brings up an instrument of this kind He effects many things at the same time, though His foremost concern is His people walking in the truth. That is what God is doing today. He is chastising many nations at the same time, as we read in Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of what happened to many nations. God deals with matters between nation and nation, between man and man, in His perfect overruling government; He deals with persons who profess His name, represented by Samaria and Judah; but what He had mainly before Him in Hezekiah's day was to perform, "His whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem"; after that He had in mind to "punish the fruit of the stoutness of heart of the king of Assyria". So God is doing many things today; His ways in government are past finding out. We can thank Him whenever we can see what He is doing. If He is cleansing those who profess His name from the pleasure-loving spirit that has taken hold of them, and if He is cleansing the beaches from all the indecencies which marked them, we can thank God for all He is doing. But what is specially before Him is what answers to that remnant in Jerusalem.

You might say, Well, the work seemed complete before God began to bring in this discipline: Mount Zion was inhabited and the service of God was going on in Jerusalem. But there was no strength to bring forth, and God had before Him to perform His whole work, that there might be a practical answer to the truth, and strength to bring forth. Strength to bring forth lies in the knowledge of God in a practical way, and we need to get into difficult circumstances to know Him thus. I am not suggesting that the Lord Jesus needed to know God at all in the way in which we do, but it does say that He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. It is as passing through affliction that we learn God. When God

brought up this great river it affected the whole profession, but His great end was to perform His whole work on mount Zion and upon Jerusalem; after which He would punish the king of Assyria; and while this was going on He exhorts them not to be afraid. He says in chapter 10: 24: "O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian". If we are dwelling in Zion, if we are truly set for the truth of the assembly -- Zion representing the privilege and praise side of it -- we need not fear the Assyrian.

The whole work will be performed. It may be very painful, but we need not be afraid, for God says, "For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be accomplished, and mine anger, in their destruction". It is very encouraging that this kind of work on God's part, the work of discipline, is always short, it is always but for "a little while". God says of Jerusalem in chapter 54: 7: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee". Even the final tribulation is only for a little while, three-and-a-half years, or forty-two months. It is never God's way to prolong affliction of this kind. The point is to get the gain of it during the little while. So the writer in Hebrews says, "For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay", chapter 10: 37.

I wanted to show the bearing of this on the great thought of Immanuel, God with us. It is in knowing that God is with us that we find strength to bring forth. I cannot go out and face the world for Christ if I do not know that God is with me, nor can we do it collectively. So in connection with this discipline the thought of Immanuel is brought in: "The stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!". If God is with us we are under His wings. We have come to trust under the wings of Jehovah; but it is because those who profess to trust in the shadow of His wings have given up confidence in Him that He allows alien wings to come over them.

He allows these other wings to cover the land because they did not know the reality of "God with us". It was Immanuel's land, but the profession had no practical experience of it. If God was to give them to know the blessedness of Immanuel's land, they must know it as in contrast to the other wings being stretched over them. I suppose in a way we can regard Christendom as Immanuel's land. It is not heaven, of course; it is down here in the presence of the fiercest opposition. That is the idea of Immanuel, God with us. Christendom is really divine territory, like Samaria and Judah were at this time, but God would give that remnant at Jerusalem to know what Immanuel really meant -- that the Holy One of Israel was in the midst of them. How can that come about? Only as the work of the ministry goes on and we are formed by it; so it is that God is with us. We may say, Where two or three are gathered, the Lord will be in the midst! Not at all, dear friends: it is "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them", and it implies this state of which I am speaking -- that we are truly formed as children whom the Lord can own. In this actual invasion Immanuel became an immense reality to this remnant. They found strength to bring forth. In that emergency in crying to God they learnt the full meaning of, "I will trust in Him", and in that emergency they learned the reality of God with them, and the enemy was overthrown.

I alluded to Matthew 18, because it brings in the moral features of these children. We do not get in that chapter the thought exactly of children in the way I have been speaking of it, but we get the moral features of a child. If we are to be true children of Christ in the way I have been speaking of it, and true children of God, it can only come about by a moral process, by putting on the moral features that belong to a child, simple trust, and harmlessness. The Lord

says, "Unless ye are converted and become as little children, ye will not at all enter into the kingdom of the heavens"; and then He says, "Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens". When we come to the public testimony it is this that makes a person great, that he is able to humble himself as a little child. We shall never really represent Christ unless we have learned that. Think of moving among men like that -- humble, small, simple, and restful as a little child, so that men who meet us say, Well, he does not trust in himself but in God! It is only in that spirit that we can represent God. So the Lord goes on to say, "Whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receives me". That is the idea of representation: in receiving such an one you are receiving Christ. This chapter begins with the Lord Jesus taking a little child and setting it in the midst of the disciples, and the verse with which I ended says, "For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them". I think it helps to connect those two verses in our mind. I would suggest, dear brethren, that it means this: If we want to know the Lord's presence in our midst, we must put the little child in the midst first. If there is the spirit of the little child in the midst of us, we shall have the Lord in the midst. It is the kind of spirit with which He can link Himself, and that indicates how we reach this great thought of Immanuel, God with us. It is no longer a matter of alien wings being stretched over us; we do not need their protection; but we are under the wings of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a spirit now among the saints, as having been brought into practical accord with the Lord, by reason of which we can have the Lord with us.

May the Lord help us in these matters that we may have the gain of what has been before us, both individually and collectively, for His name's sake!

YOUTH IN THE TESTIMONY

Exodus 24:4 - 8; Matthew 21:12 - 16; 1 John 2:14 - 17; Revelation 21:7

I wish to speak a word especially to the youths. When I speak of the youths I refer to young men and young women because, in Christianity both men and women are called upon to take up priestly, levitical and military service. From that standpoint we have to regard the idea of the male as suggesting the energy God looks for in all of us in accepting these responsibilities. The early chapters of Numbers shows that we are all called into service. There is no exemption from military service in the divine system. Neither is there any exemption from levitical service. From a month old and upward all the Levites were numbered for it; and we are all priests, by birth, there is no age limit as regards priesthood. What a priestly boy Samuel was, lying in the temple of Jehovah where the ark of God was!

God has called us to the very greatest things. He would give us tonight a sense of the greatness of the dignity conferred upon us to be called of God. The greatest calling which the creature has ever known is ours; greater than any angelic calling, greater than the calling of Solomon and David or anyone in the Old Testament. If we understand this we shall see that our career here is to do the will of God, and everything else is incidental. He will care for you as to other matters if you seek first His kingdom.

God's kingdom is set out in the early chapters of Numbers. They are kingdom chapters. The book ends with, "the shout of a king is in his midst", Numbers 23:21. The kingdom is an ordered system where

everybody is placed in a military, levitical and priestly setting around God's habitation. God has called you for that, and that is your real business on earth. I wonder if every boy and girl here realizes what his business on earth is? Your business is to fulfil the obligations, which are also immense privileges, which God has laid upon you by His calling. That is your business. You say, I have my living to get. God knows that, He will help you in that, and, in helping you in it, He will order for you so that you have the job which will help you in the best way in relation to His interests. It may not be the job you would have chosen, but you will find, as time goes on, that God has ordered your path and given you the kind of occupation in your life here which will best fit in with those spiritual obligations which are your real business in life.

The Lord Jesus is the great model. At twelve years old He said, "did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?", Luke 2:49. Twelve years is a very important age. The Lord has shown that it is an age at which we can make it manifest that we understand what our business in life is. It is a very good age for committal because at that age you have not begun to let your own will work about your career. Committal at that age means that you have accepted God's career for you before you are called upon to decide what your ordinary occupation should be, and that is a very great advantage. Think of a boy or girl of twelve coming to it that his business in life is to do the will of God. If that is accepted you will find that God will help you in a remarkable way, although it may not be in the way that you expect.

John 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". The natural man plans his career in relation to those three things, the lust of the flesh,

and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And the word is "the world is passing, and its lust". You have to measure time against eternity.

You are surrounded by an attractive world which offers you many opportunities to gratify the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and you may say, I am going to give myself up to these things; I will be a respectable citizen, I will not offend the moral code of the United States, but at the same time I am going to make the finest earthly career I can; I would like to have everything around me and about me which will gratify the pride of life, so that my school friends will say, I wish I were like him, see how well he has done, see what a fine home he has! If that is your objective it is a very poor thing. It is an objective which will never satisfy your heart, and even if you achieve your ambitions, God may say to you, "Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee". All that you have lived for and lived in is left behind for someone else. Death is a fact which we are very slow to face. So we have to measure time against eternity. "The world is passing, and its lust, but he that does the will of God abides for eternity".

Nearly two thousand years ago, there was a great emperor reigning, Caesar Augustus, and there was a king, Herod the tetrarch, and there were other notabilities; they were filling the public eye. They all had their ambitions, and away, in a small town near Jerusalem a babe was born, and He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. He was far beneath the notice of Caesar Augustus, far beneath the notice of the other notables! What did His birth matter to them? We have the privilege of looking back. Where is Caesar Augustus? What remains of his works? He is only a name. His glory and his works are forgotten. What about the babe laid in Bethlehem's manger, who came to do the will of God?

He abides for eternity in His glorious Manhood! Wherever you go in the commercial world today, whether Japan, or elsewhere, everyone who writes a commercial letter admits the greatness of Christ. They have to date their letter, the year of our Lord. Even if they do not believe in Him they have got to date their letters from the date of His birth. That is God's overruling hand. He is determined that men, even if not in their hearts, should have to recognize tacitly that Christ is the greatest Man who ever lived. What would Caesar have thought if you had told him that in a remote town in his empire a babe was lying in a manger -- there being no room for Him in the inn -- and that in years to come the whole commercial world would be dating their letters from the date of His birth?

Later there was an emperor Nero. What is left of him but a bad name and a record of evil works? At that time a despised man, Paul, the off scouring of all things, was using Caesar's roads. God had made Caesar build them for Paul and the evangelists. Caesar was used as an instrument to help the gospel forward. The Romans who made the roads, and Caesar and his works are forgotten but Paul's work remains. "He that does the will of God abides for eternity". Paul's gospel is preached still to the uttermost parts of the earth. The assembly, which he was used to establish, is still here, and we are privileged to come into it.

Now I want to encourage you with the fact that God needs the young people. The testimony requires them. Young people are always in the forefront of the testimony, just as in war time the young men are sent into the front line. Therefore, if the testimony is to prosper, we must have young men and women committed to the will of God. It is the young who are under men's eyes, it is the young they are looking at and noticing. And so the past dispensation began

with priestly activity on the part of youths in Exodus 24. Moses built an altar with twelve pillars, but it says, "the youths of the children of Israel ... offered up burnt-offerings, and sacrificed sacrifices of peace-offering of bullocks". Think of the honour God puts upon youth, that the great priestly service, before the tabernacle was made, was inaugurated by the youths of the children of Israel. God loves to see young people functioning in a priestly way. You may say, How can young brothers and sisters have bullocks? Do they not belong to the old and mature? But the youths had them! So we would encourage young men and women to take up priestly service whether privately or in the case of the young men, publicly and vocally in the assembly, because God will help you. What will impress strangers coming to the meeting is the sight of young men moving in spiritual energy. They take account of the old men, but they are especially impressed with the young. The enemy has no answer to it. He can say of old men, Their life is nearly over, they turn to these things in their dotage. But when young people are seen to be wholly in the truth, offering up bullocks, what can the enemy say? He cannot say Christianity is a worn out theology then. He has to admit it is a living matter, that Christ still makes an appeal to the young more powerful than that of any other leader that has ever lived; that He appeals to and holds the affections of youth. And so if you young men take up priestly service God will help you to bring bullocks. You will be surprised at what you are able to do. He will help you even beyond your normal measure in the service of God.

And then if we turn to the present dispensation, how did it begin? Did it begin with a group of aged men? Not at all. Peter stood up with the eleven. Peter was probably the oldest, but they were a band of twelve men in the prime of life; twelve young men

who had overcome the wicked one and had overcome the world, were standing for God, seven weeks after Christ had been crucified, in the very city where He had suffered. They were bearing His reproach without the slightest hesitation, prepared to face the very Sanhedrim that had condemned Him to death. What could the enemy do? Nothing! In such a situation the testimony went forward in power.

In passing I would refer to one particular young man in the Old Testament. In Exodus 33, Moses pitched the tent outside the camp, and afterwards it says Moses "returned to the camp; but his attendant, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from within the tent". What an object of affection he was to God, a young man who would not leave the presence of God, God was more to him than all else. If God was to be found outside the camp in that tent, there Joshua would be; he departed not from within the tent. The word Nun means continuance. He was a young man who continued -- he went right through, and that is what God has in mind for every young person here. Your affections should be so held for Him, that you would not depart from His presence, but continue until you arrive at full growth in the apprehension of His purpose.

We could speak also of young men in the New Testament. Think of Stephen. He was not an old man, but God committed His testimony for the moment to Stephen. How gloriously he carried it on, an overcomer completely victorious in his death. When men become violent towards a witness it just proves that his witness is irrefutable. When men have to resort to violence it shows they are defeated. That is what happened to Stephen, he went out in complete triumph over all his enemies. There was another young man there. Those who stoned Stephen laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. He was a most unlikely young man for the testimony, as

men would think. Consenting to Stephen's death, he breathed out threatenings and slaughter, although he had seen Stephen breathing out nothing but the spirit of Christ. But he never forgot what he saw in Stephen. "When the blood of thy witness Stephen was shed, I also myself was standing by and consenting", Acts 22:20. How it pricked his conscience to see a man breathing out the spirit of Christ in the greatest suffering, when he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter. And the result was the Lord appeared to that young man, and, the Lord having appeared to him, he took up the torch of testimony which Stephen had laid down and carried it forward. It shows what God looks for in young men, you see. You are to carry forward the testimony.

And now I pass on to Matthew, because it speaks even of children there. At the close of the Lord's life the children were a great comfort to his heart. They were in the temple, and they were saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David". And the Lord says, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise". Now I want to apply this passage to our day.

Similar things have happened in the closing part of this dispensation in which we live. It says, "Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the I tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those I that sold the doves". He cleansed the temple, and that is what has happened in the last 150 years. The Lord Jesus raised up Mr. Darby who went through the length and breadth of Christendom and exposed every evil practice. Morally he cast out all that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers; he overthrew everything, in his ministry, that the enemy had brought in. If you had gone back to the temple in Jerusalem the day after, you would have found all the tables back, doves still being sold, and that is what has happened in

Christendom. A ministry has come in which has exposed everything, and the fact that the false official priesthood around us has continued its old practices and rejected the ministry the Lord has given will only add to the severity of their judgment.

Then the Lord says, "My house shall be called a house of prayer", and the Lord is helping us to understand this, and to understand how to pray. Following this, "blind and lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them". That has been a great feature of the revival. So called Christian countries were filled with blind and lame people when J.N.D. was raised up, people who were blind as to the purpose of God and as to the truth of Christ and the assembly, and people who had never learned to value the Spirit, so that they were not able to walk; they were lame; and yet they were pious souls. It says, He healed them, that is what has happened. Ministry had been given which has exposed all the practices of Christendom, but alongside of it there has been a ministry which has opened the eyes of the blind. Men have seen, "what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe", Ephesians 1:18, 19. And the lame have been made to walk. We have been taught to value the Spirit, and to learn what the Spirit would be to us. So that we are no longer held in legal bondage trying to keep the Ten Commandments, but have learned that "the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit", Romans 8:4. These are great results.

But then, at this point, the greatest result in testimony was the praise of the children. It shows the importance of the children being in everything. "Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast", it says in Deuteronomy 16:14, "thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy

bondman, and thy bondmaid, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow". They were all to be at the feast. It was the children who provided the particular testimony at this important time. "When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders which He wrought, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant". There was such a powerful testimony that these opposers were indignant, they did not know what to say. All they could do was to question the Lord, "Hearest thou what these say?" This is a very important matter. You can not be too young to be in this, you see. It includes the youths and the maidens and even the children. If you really know the Lord Jesus you can be in this matter. Of course, in another way, it includes us all; we should all be in the spirit of babes and sucklings, marked by simplicity and receptiveness and dependence. The Lord's remark is, "have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" Now this is a feature of the moment, the perfecting of praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. According to Psalm 8:2 from which this is quoted, it is this which silences the enemy and the avenger.

There is an internal enemy and an external one (see footnote to Psalm 8:2). Communism and Unionism are external. It is the infidel feature of opposition. The internal enemy, which will culminate in antichrist, is like the Romish system and other opposing forces within the Christian profession. Now the way God silences both enemies is by perfecting praise in the mouths of the saints, especially of the young people. Young men and women filled with praise, afford a testimony which the world is bound to take note of, and to which Satan has no effective answer. They are a living testimony to the fact that Christ is just as sufficient as He was at the

beginning of Christianity. And it says that He has "perfected praise". I believe it is an important matter that praise should be perfected out of our mouths. The praise at any given time is to be commensurate with the way God is making Himself known. The testimony at that time was that Christ was the Son of David. The rulers refused Him as such, but this gospel traces his descent from David the King. That was the testimony at this time, and praise was perfected in these children saying Hosanna to the Son of David.

As things developed the praise would take on greater fulness, and that is what has happened in the revival. The blind have begun to see, the lame have begun to walk, and as the truth has been recovered so has the answering praise been perfected. One rejoices in what is going on at the present moment, because, through God's grace, the truth as to the Godhead has been recovered, and thus the worship of God in His greatness and majesty. And a particular feature of the moment is the way God is helping young men in the service of praise. I have been to many meetings where one could say that in measure, praise has been perfected in the mouths of young men at the close of the meeting, and we older ones have been thrilled to hear young men responsive to the current of the Spirit's ministry at the present time.

Praise perfected is a great feature of the testimony. If we develop more and more in this God may be pleased to bring more and more exercised souls into the morning meetings. It is there they see the testimony in its greatest expression, God's name confessed in a sacrifice of praise -- see Hebrews 13:15. It would astound many to see the young people and children happily in this service.

Now I pass on to John's epistle, where there is a challenge to the young. The young men are those who are expected to be carrying the burdens of the testimony.

He says, "I have written to you young men, because ye are strong". How delighted we are to see young men who are strong, young men who have really committed themselves to the Lord and devoted their minds to the truth, so that the word of God abides in them. We look around upon the young men and women here with great desire that you might apply your minds to the truth. It is the most magnificent exercise for the human mind as energised by the Spirit of God. Apart from the Spirit you could not do it. But the thing is to apply your mind to divine things, not as you would study a text book, but in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Do what Paul says to Timothy, "Occupy thyself with these things", 1 Timothy 4:15. Let your mind always, when free, be in that direction, always open to receive impressions, always ready to follow up impressions. "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things", 2 Timothy 2:7.

So it says the word of God abides in you and you overcome the wicked one. Now the wicked one is a view of Satan acting through antichrist. The little children in the next section are in danger of antichrist, but if they rely on the unction they will not be deceived by the antichrist. The unction gives them the power to discern what is truth and what is error. But I love to think of young men according to God! They have overcome the wicked one, you could not overthrow them by error. If a Jehovah's Witness comes to the door he will not disturb a young man in whom the word of God is abiding, nor will a Christian Scientist, nor will a person bringing any other of the revived heresies that abound around us today. They have no power over a young man in whom the word of God abides. Now we rejoice in young men and women like that!

But there is still something else to be overcome, that is the world. "Who is he that gets the victory

over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?", 1 John 5:5. Now it is incumbent upon all of us to overcome the world. If not, we shall be lost to the testimony. You may be strong and the word of God abiding in you today, and you have overcome the wicked one. You can successfully refute false doctrines. But if you do not overcome the world you will become a casualty as far as the testimony is concerned. The Lord is the great example. In the temptation there was no question of the Lord being tested by the wicked one. He is Himself the Truth. No error could have any effect on Him. That conflict would not come in there. But the enemy brought every feature of the world, of which he is the prince and the god, to bear upon Christ. He brought every allurement, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, but the Lord Jesus overcame the world. And so it is a question as to whether we are overcomers? The world is passing. It is folly to let the things of time outweigh the things of eternity. You will be filled with regrets sooner or later if that is your course. You will have missed an opportunity never to be repeated. This little span of time should be used in relation to eternity and the will of God. So he says, "Love not the world, nor the things in the world". Satan would aim at your affection through the world. He would corrupt your affections, bringing in idolatry. Every lust is an idol, Paul tells us, because any lust comes between my soul and Christ. And so this epistle says at the close, "He is the true God and eternal life. Children, keep yourselves from idols". That is, keep yourself from every lust, everything that would draw your affections away from Christ. "If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him". The way to overcome the world is to have the love of the Father in you, that is to let your affections centre on the One in whom the Father's

affections centre. The Father loves the Son, and if the Father's love is in me, I shall love the One that He loves. The Father will not tolerate a rival to Christ. The Father is going to deal in unsparing judgment with anything that attempts to rival Christ. "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hands. He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him", John 3:35, 36. The wrath of God is going to fall on everything and everyone who sets himself up as a rival to Christ, and is not subject to Christ. And if the love of the Father is in us it means that Christ will be our object and our motive, and we shall be delivered from the world.

Now Revelation 21:7 is the final word from the one sitting on the throne. The eternal state is being depicted in all its blessedness -- finality. "And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he says to me ...". Think of the grace of the One on the throne! After the majestic declaration, "Behold, I make all things new". He turns to his bondman John, and he says, "these words are true and faithful". They must be if He says them, but think of the grace which assures the heart of His bondman. And then it says again, "And he said to me", He turns to this bondman John again. His bondman was a lover. His bondman had been a young man who had overcome. He had overcome the wicked one, overcome the world, and had become a father; and yet he himself would never take any place but that of a bondman. And the One on the throne loved him. So it says, "he said to me, It is done". Think of coming into divine confidence in such a way that, in the setting of divine majesty, the One on the throne would turn to you and tell you certain things.

And then He goes on to say, "I will give to him that thirsts of the fountain of the water of life freely".

As much as to say, If these eternal things attract your heart, and have awakened desires in your soul, I will satisfy every desire. I want desires to come into your soul about eternal things. "He that does the will of God abides for eternity". They outweigh infinitely material things; and He would say to you if those longings are in your heart, I will give you "the fountain of the water of life freely". I will satisfy every longing of your heart after that eternal scene. God will surely do it. If you are on the path of His will you are on a path of unending satisfaction. And then He says, "He that overcomes shall inherit these things". Now where are we to stand as to this? You are a young man, you have overcome the wicked one, the word of God abides in you; but have you overcome the world? There is the final word from the throne, "He that overcomes shall inherit these things". Now what are we going to do about it? Are we going to be among the overcomers, and therefore to be owned in this setting of sublime and eternal majesty? "He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". It is being owned as son in the setting of eternal majesty. You say, But we are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Certainly! Through the grace of God we are sons and know something of sonship in the family setting. But, even in a human royal family, not every son is worthy to be owned in the setting of majesty. We have experienced that. So the word here is, "He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". What a reward! In the greatest setting of majesty that could ever be conceived, he is owned as son.

May the Lord stimulate our hearts to go in for these things; to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and to be marked by one purpose: this one thing I do, Paul says, "forgetting the things behind ... I pursue, looking

towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus", Philippians 3:13, 14. What I have told you now is the prize, "I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". May the Lord help us for His Name's sake!

THE WORK OF THE LORD

Exodus 35:4 - 21, 29; Exodus 39:42 - 43; Exodus 40:33; 1 Corinthians 15:58

I wish to say a word dear brethren about work. You will notice the word is prominent in the passages we have read in connection with the heave offering that Israel brought. They brought it, we are told, for the work for the tabernacle of the congregation and having brought it for the work, they set to work upon the material under the direction of Bezaleel and Aholiab. All the wise-hearted had part in it, men and women, and at the close it says in the verse we read in chapter 39, "According to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, so had the children of Israel done all the labour. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it as Jehovah had commanded -- so had they done it". We have often been reminded that this is a working time and it was at this point in the history of the children of Israel that they were called upon to work. The Egyptians had made them work and had been task masters over them but God had said to Pharoah, "Let my people go, that they may serve me". God had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt and they had seen His work upon the Egyptians and how He had borne them on eagles wings and brought them to Himself. That was what God had done; but now the time had come when God required them to work in order to make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. It depended upon the willing-heartedness of His people and upon their willing-hearted labour, and, when it came to the question of the actual work, wisdom was needed too. The wise-hearted did the work but

at the end it was credited to the whole of the children of Israel, "Moses saw all the work and behold they had done it as Jehovah had commanded".

It is interesting that the last communication Moses received when he was on the mount receiving instructions as to the work related to the Sabbath. Just before he came down from the mountain God reminded him that "In six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed". God had set out the work He had in mind for His people to do, but He closes the instruction by reminding Moses of the Sabbath. It was not to be a legal service. If there was work to be done it was to be done in the spirit of restfulness, having also in view the completeness of it, and the rest of God. God reminds him that for six days He had worked in the creation and on the seventh day He rested and not only that but He was refreshed and even while this work was going on, they were not to forget that but were to keep the Sabbath. It is remarkable that while this is the last communication Moses received before coming down from the mount, when he is giving the instruction to the people, he begins with it. Instead of beginning as God began with him, to speak about the work of the tabernacle, he begins with the Sabbath. "And Moses collected all the assembly of the children of Israel, and said to them, these are the things which Jehovah has commanded, to do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah", Exodus 35:1 - 2.

While it is a time for work the idea of rest is never to be left out. We shall never be effective in the work of the Lord if it is not taken up restfully in christian liberty. One idea in keeping the Sabbath is that we are delivered from dead works. Good works have their place and the work that we are speaking of is included in them but we are free from dead works. In the fullest sense we

find our rest in Christ and take up this great work in a spirit of restfulness, willing-heartedness and love for God and His people, so that it is not a legal work at all.

In the course of my remarks I propose to refer to some New Testament scriptures. We read one in Corinthians about the work of the Lord in which we are all exhorted to abound. Another in Ephesians 4 speaks of the work of the ministry, the Lord Jesus having given gifts with this in view. A third, in 1 Timothy 3 refers to the work of an overseer. I wish to stress that, in each it is work, not a hobby or a pastime, but work, to be taken seriously. One has is mind particularly these three kinds of work, if I can call them three. There is the work of the ministry and the work of the overseer, which might be termed specific operations; but there is also the exhortation to all the saints to abound in the work of the Lord, showing that we are all to be in the work in a general way, as were the children of Israel. Every brother and sister at Corinth was exhorted to be "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord".

What is in mind tonight is the work of the Lord. That is the overriding title of it. It is one work. No man is left out in Christianity. It says that he delivered to his bondmen authority and to every man his work. But while there is that idea -- we each have our own work -- we delight in the fact that it is one work -- even the work of the Lord; and so while Bezaleel and Aholiab came into it and also the children of Israel as a whole, it is often regarded as the work of Moses because, in one sense, it was his. He was over the whole matter and so finally it says that Moses finished the work. We shall be glad to credit the Lord with it all at the end. In our day and generation we are privileged to have a little part in it but it is the Lord's work and when we look at the

assembly, the building, we shall be able to say that the Lord finished the work, and it was His work from the beginning to end. So that there is no question of rivalry or anything of that kind. It is the Lord's work -- one work -- and we are all exhorted to abound in it and if we are to abound in it, we must move on the same lines as the children of Israel. That is to say, if the work is to go on we must first have material. He says, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering". Everything depended on the willing-hearted bringing the material. The builder must have material, and what I have in mind is that we should all be builders in outlook, true workmen. Paul says, "A workman that has not to be ashamed", 2 Timothy 2:15, but it is a workman. He speaks of Aquila and Priscilla as his fellow workmen in Christ Jesus, which implies that they were most skilled workmen. In the construction of a building various grades of workmen are required, both skilled and unskilled; but I like to think of Aquila and Priscilla as skilled workmen. They had no part in the work of the ministry, for we do not read of Aquila being a gifted brother, and yet they were skilled workmen and could help a man who was gifted. In helping such an one they helped the saints as a whole. Aquila and Priscilla were Paul's fellow workmen in Christ Jesus. What a level of workmanship that was!

So one has in mind that we should all be builders in outlook spiritually, and the first thing a builder is interested in is the material and the second thing the plan. He cannot get on without material and so the children of Israel were to bring the heave offering for the work. In bringing the offering we are to have the work in mind. Do not let us have less. That is the reason we bring it. In Christianity the heave offering is introduced in Romans 12. The Apostle says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living

sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service", Romans 12:1. Note the word intelligent. It means that you know why you are bringing it. It is for the work and you know what the work is. It is an intelligent service. You bring your body, that is yourself and all that you are and have. That is the heave offering of Christianity. No less an offering will do. "They first gave themselves to the Lord". There is no true heave offering in Christianity apart from the believer offering himself. He puts himself on the altar and it is a wonderful privilege that he can do so. You may say, I did not think I was of any use to God, I thought I had to bring Christ for my offering. That is true in the gospel sense. As in the flesh we are not acceptable to God and can make no beginning with Him at all until we recognise it and approach Him by faith through Christ and His perfect offering. But the wonderful thing is that those who are before God on the basis of Christ and His work, and thus accepted in Christ, receive the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of sonship in the believer, but also the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which sets him free from the law of sin and death. Justification is in view of life. Sin brought in death. Justification has an end in view, life, and clears us from sin that we may live. "The soul that sinneth it shall die", but the sins are gone and we are justified in view of life. It is justification of life. The proof that a man is justified is that he has life and the evidence that a Christian has life is that he has the Spirit and is a delivered man. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free, and that becomes the verification of the truth publicly in the individual. If I say I am justified I should afford some evidence that death is removed from me and that I have life in Christ; and what is the proof of it? -- that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. I become an evidence

thus that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

But then the Spirit as thus known in the believer brings to pass a marvellous change in the position. Whereas his body was a vehicle of sin and entirely unacceptable to God, now, as walking in the Spirit, the law of sin in his members becomes inoperative so that in Romans 12 the Apostle says, "Present your bodies". They are the same bodies but God is going to accept them now as an offering. "Holy, acceptable to God". What a marvellous thing it is that the Christian's body, if he is really in the gain of the gospel, becomes holy and acceptable to God. You say, I cannot understand how it can be. Well it is true, and it is seen in type in the two wave loaves baken with leaven. They still had leaven in them but it was inoperative and they were acceptable to God; a type of believers' bodies as presented, sin still there, but inoperative through the presence of the Spirit. So that we can each bring a heave offering, we bring ourselves and, in bringing ourselves, we bring all that we are and have spiritually; and that is how all the materials become available, for every believer has some gold, silver and copper, etc. If only all believers were available for the work! How many thousands of our brethren never bring their heave offering. They are on individual lines, in evil association and the gold, silver, copper and other materials which might be serviceable for the work are not available. As we bring ourselves and all that we have spiritually we become available for the work. In going through the exercises of Romans a believer acquires gold and silver and copper. These materials refer to the outshining of God in Christ -- gold is the outshining of God in love. According to Romans 5 the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and we become vessels of love and we have some gold. The silver refers to the outshining of God in redemption, the

outshining of His grace; and as appreciating it we become vessels of grace. The copper refers to the outshining of God in relation to evil -- the way He has dealt with it without compromising one principle, and at all cost to Himself. All has been met through suffering and as believers we are to be in accord with the copper; prepared to stand for divine principles whatever the cost.

The fabrics speak of the glories of Christ's humanity. How can anyone accept the gospel and go through the exercises of Romans without getting an impression of the glories of Christ? We change our man. We have another Man before us now. Then there is the shittim wood which is typical of Christ's humanity -- the underlying character of it; as the Man who could endure everything that was brought to bear on Him. That is the great feature of the shittim wood; it can endure the wilderness. It is imperishable wood and therefore the gold can be placed upon it. That kind of Man is the believer. "Examine yourselves if ye be in the faith; prove your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you", 2 Corinthians 13:5. When suffering He threatened not, when reviled He reviled not again, but committed Himself into the hands of Him that judges righteously. He was the Man Who could endure everything and still display the character of God. Then there is the oil for the light. The believer becomes a vessel of oil. If there is to be oil available we have to bring it with us in that sense; oil for the light. We are the vessels of the Spirit. Then the spices for the anointing oil and the incense. The anointing oil was a perfume, referring to the Holy Spirit of Christ. Finally the precious stones speak of the individuality of each saint: the personality that marks each one as a subject of the work of God. I mention these things to indicate that as presenting our bodies a living sacrifice and bringing all that we are and have, all these materials become available.

The next thing is, if these things are available, and in some degree they are available in all our localities, how do we use them? That needs wisdom. It was the wise-hearted who were to set to work. And we need to have the pattern. Everything was to be made according to the pattern which Jehovah had shown Moses on the mount; and I would like to raise the question with the brethren here tonight, how far have we grasped the pattern? There is a lot of work going on which is aimless. A builder would never think even of laying the foundation until he had the whole plan of the building. He knows from the start what he is aiming at, what the corner stone is to be. Everything was to be made according to the pattern which was shown to Moses on the mount. Paul speaks of himself as a wise master builder. He had laid the foundation but he had the whole pattern in his mind. How far have we the pattern of the assembly in our minds? How far have we apprehended God's thoughts as to the assembly? Paul tells us in Ephesians 3 that he had fullest intelligence as to it. He had written to them previously and in reading it they were to understand his intelligence in the mystery of the Christ. His service was to enlighten all. "And to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery ... in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all various wisdom of God according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord", Ephesians 3:9 - 11.

The builder is to have in mind not only God's purpose as to the future but also His eternal purpose, about the present moment, that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies He would "make known in the assembly the all various wisdom of God according to His eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord". It refers to the

present time. Christ Jesus our Lord is our Moses. What the builder has in mind if he has the pattern before him -- and Paul's ministry is intended to enlighten us as to it -- is the assembly functioning now, and this must be in local settings because that is the assembly's present form. It involves the saints set together each in his place, according to the Divine mind, so that heavenly intelligences see the vessel functioning and the all various wisdom of God manifested in the way it functions. I think it is a wonderful sight for angels -- to see the assembly here on earth and to see the thoughts of God worked out now in mixed conditions in little local companies, the saints set together in divine wisdom and thus, collectively "having boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him" -- boldness to draw near to God in a way that angels will never know. That is what angels are to see now and it answers to the pattern that God showed Moses on the mount. You see Romans brings in the material but Paul's other epistles are to set the material together and what one would desire is that we might be builders in our outlook on the brethren. What have we in mind in our localities? The enemy is attacking brotherly conditions. It is a great thing to have such conditions but do not make that the end. It is only the foundation. It is from that point we can move together and work together and work with one another with a view to fitting together and functioning in our place in the assembly as the vessel of God's service and praise. "In whom" -- that is, the Lord -- "we are builded together for an habitation of God in the Spirit", Ephesians 2:22. Are we built together? Is the material properly used?

The work of the ministry comes in to help as to this. The Lord has given some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. One of our dangers is to regard ministry as the end. It is not an end; it is only a means to an

end. It is to help us as local companies to be set together assemblywise. It is first of all for the perfecting of the saints and then for the building up of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is a building in that sense; it is an organic structure but it is built. One has been impressed with the fact that in the older ministry, J.N.D. and others, the tabernacle system was applied almost exclusively to Christ. All the features of the tabernacle were spoken of as being seen in Christ personally and this, of course, is true. But the Lord has helped us to see that what was seen in Christ personally is now to be seen in His body, the assembly on earth. It is for us to arrive corporately at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. The features of the tabernacle are indeed expressed in Christ personally but as a vessel it is representative of the assembly as corresponding to Christ and it involves our being set together and built together.

Much more could be said about the pattern. It is instructive to notice the point at which Paul commences to unfold it in each of the epistles. In 1 Corinthians 10 he starts with the altar, saying "Are not, they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?", implying that those who partake of the Lord's Supper should be in communion with His death. Where things are wrong, as at Corinth, we have to begin with the altar. Joshua and Zerubbabel began with the altar -- Ezra 3:2. In Ephesians Paul begins with the ark, as God does in Exodus 25. He speaks of our being accepted in the Beloved in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. That is like the ark and the mercy seat, which were the centre of the system and typify Christ as Head and Centre. I only mention this to show that the pattern can be approached from different points of view. According to Exodus 36 the tabernacle itself -- that is, the ten coloured curtains -- was the first

item actually made. I believe that is the point at which we have to begin where things are normal. Where things are wrong we have to begin at the altar. The tabernacle involves the merging of the saints together. We are to use the material that is available, that is the saints themselves and all that they have spiritually. It involves sober assessment of one another's measure and we are to learn to fit in together unselfishly and with skill so that in a practical way we are built together for an habitation of God in the Spirit.

I now wish to say a word on the work of an overseer. It says, "if anyone aspires to exercise oversight he desires a good work". One feels there is great need for that kind of work, dear brethren. There are no official overseers just as there are no official ministers today. We just do what we can, but there is a great need for oversight to be taken up as a work. Not as a hobby, or when we feel like it, but as a work. It involves shepherd care in our localities. In all the constructive work of which we have been speaking we are dealing with persons. The material consists of persons and what they have and are spiritually, and shepherd care is essential in order that the persons may be available. The second chapter of 1 Peter, which begins with the thought of a spiritual house ends with a reference to the Lord Jesus as "the shepherd and overseer of your souls". Similarly, in the epistle which was written to Timothy while he was at Ephesus, where Paul had fully developed, as it were, the pattern of the spiritual structure, the question of oversight is introduced and commended as a good work. How much the work of shepherding is needed in every locality and one feature of a shepherd is that he knows the saints intimately. We are handicapped as builders because we do not know one another well enough. The Lord says I know my sheep and am known of mine, as the Father knows

me and I know the Father. John 10:14. He knew His own as intimately as that. Do I know the saints in my locality as intimately as I know the Lord and the Lord knows me? How skilfully we should be able to handle each other if we knew one another like that! How it would help the building! We need to know each other intimately and to know how to handle each other -- one day I need you and another day you will need me. A great deal of mutuality enters into this service. J.T. has used the expression, "working with each other" and that is a good expression. The material is "one another" and we are to help, love and serve one another and keep one another available in this great matter. The ministry alone will not suffice unless the underlying shepherd service is going on amongst us. "If anyone aspires to exercise oversight he desires a good work", 1 Timothy 3:1.

Finally I would again refer to the verse we read in Corinthians. "Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord". Let us see to it that we are all available as material, then let us see that, according to our measure of intelligence, we know the pattern, know what we are labouring at, so that we are not beating the air. We have God's thoughts of the assembly in our minds. And then let us abound in the work of the Lord and help one another, so that every brother and sister realises their part in the great vessel; so that, in a practical way we may be built together in the Lord as a habitation of God in the Spirit; and that heavenly principalities may learn, through the assembly, the all various wisdom of God -- Ephesians 2:22; Ephesians 3:10.

May the Lord help us to be in the work and abounding in it, that we may thus be able to look on with confidence to that moment when it will be said "And

so Moses finished the work". May the work be completed in all our localities before the Lord comes. May He help us for His Name's sake!

TRUE ASSEMBLY FEATURES - DIGNITY, INTELLIGENCE, AFFECTION

1 Thessalonians 1:1 - 8; 1 Corinthians 1:1 - 3; Acts 20:28 - 30

I read these passages, beloved brethren, because the importance of keeping before us God's chief interest on earth -- the assembly -- has been pressed upon me. For many centuries saints have had little conception of it, but in these last few days God has revived the light of it; and we, who have had the benefit of the ministry He has given, to see that the assembly is God's chief concern at the present time. When we think of the place it has in the counsels of God -- that it is to be finally the residence of His glory and that He Himself will dwell there -- Ephesians 3:21; Revelation 21:3 -- we can understand of what supreme importance it is to God in His ways down here. The enemy seeks to divert us from it by every means; in his power. The light of it has been recovered, but little practical expression of it has been seen. It is urgent for us to give expression to it in our locality -- to make in this place a working expression of it. Dignity, intelligence and affection are connected with the thought of the assembly. Dignity because it is composed of those called out by God. The meaning of the word implies this. Intelligence because those called should, normally, know why and for what they are called. And affection because the assembly is a corporate whole, and this can only be in the power of divine affections.

The assembly is presented in these passages in three ways:

(1) The assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) The assembly of God in Corinth.

(3) The assembly of God which He has purchased with the blood of His Own.

In the first case we might have thought that Paul would have referred to these young converts simply as Christians, but instead he brings this great idea of the assembly before them, although in an elementary way. It is true the epistle is mainly on family lines and, indeed, this underlies the truth of the assembly; for growth is needed if assembly affections and intelligence are to develop. Paul had been among them as a nursing mother and a nursing father; in his measure, showing them the Father in his care for them, so that they knew their place in divine affections. They were Thessalonians, but there were no other Thessalonians like them. They had heard the call of God and it had separated them from the Thessalonians who were idolators. They were in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we need to carry this first aspect of the assembly with us. We are of the assembly of the 'Hornchurchians'. An understanding of this would have two effects. Firstly, it would give us tender regard for one another as considering the actual local setting in which we are found, and for other local assemblies. If we think of the assembly of the 'Londoners', for instance, we think sympathetically of what it means to our brethren to carry the testimony in such a city as that. The epistles to the Thessalonians are full of such tender sympathy and affection. Secondly, it would give us a sympathetic and evangelical outlook on the townsmen around us. The Apostle says, "from you sounded out the word of the Lord" -- that is, from the assembly. Though the assembly, as such, does not preach or teach, yet all true activity works from and to the assembly; and sympathetic affection "towards one another and towards all", 1 Thessalonians 3:12, is proper to it.

In 1 Corinthians we have a more dignified appellation -- the assembly of God in Corinth. We cannot consider this expression without getting a profound impression of its dignity and of what it should mean to the place. It is the anointed vessel. It also involves what Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 2 as applied to a local setting -- the spiritual house, the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. The holy priesthood is connected with the assembly of God in its service Godward. They know how to come together as giving the Lord His place. They have the Lord's cup, the Lord's Table. They eat the Lord's Supper and show forth the Lord's death. And that Lord is the Lord of the whole earth. They are thus free to take up the great priestly service Godward. Then they are also a royal priesthood. What a thing to have persons who know the Godward side, moving here in royal apparel -- shewing forth the excellencies of the One who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light -- moving in the dignity and grace suited to members of God's household!

The Corinthian epistle has especially in mind the assembly as convened. It is said to be Temple of God and Body of Christ. It is the place where prophecy is heard and an outsider coming in is compelled to own "God is among you of a truth".

In Acts 20 no locality is mentioned, although Ephesus is particularly in mind. What is in view is the care the assembly requires down here, and it is care of a most exacting kind. Those who take up this care should have its universal character before them -- the assembly of God which He has purchased with the blood of His Own. It includes all saints on earth at any given time, in their various localities. It is on earth that the assembly needs care. Paul speaks of shepherding and oversight. A shepherd leads, feeds and loves -- and the assembly needs these activities -- while vigilant oversight is also required lest any of

those who compose it should be drawn away by those speaking perverted things, i.e. right things perverted. Satan twice hindered Paul from going to Thessalonica -- 1 Thessalonians 2:18 -- to build them up on assembly lines. He is constantly attacking the truth of the assembly. He uses men, he may use any of us, to speak the truth in a perverted way, emphasising unduly other features in order that God's main thought may be put into the background in the minds of the saints. If the assembly has its right place in our affections every other feature of the truth will find its due place. It is the core, the centre that needs attention. We need to be in the warmth, dignity and intelligence of the assembly -- held together in it by divine love -- so as to be able to go out as consciously having part in it, as saints by divine calling. If so, we shall attract others in the town in which we are placed.

How great the need for new material to be brought in! But let us keep the assembly before us, for if this is functioning properly, every other feature of the truth, including the evangelical feature, will be there in power. Let us get to the root of things, for if there is weakness in any feature, we can be sure it is due to weakness in our assembly relations.

PERSONAL HISTORY WITH GOD

Genesis 4:3 - 8; Genesis 21:8 - 11; Genesis 25:27 - 28

I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak a word on personal relations with God. I think we shall all acknowledge that personal relations with God must underlie what is collective. Genesis is a book of personal histories and family histories; these two are intimately connected. As personally adjusted with regard to God's thoughts we enjoy being of His family.

The latter part of this book, dealing with Joseph, has family relations in view. Personal history and family relations are necessary if God is to have a habitation here. The habitation is in Exodus where, in connection with the Passover, it speaks of the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel, meaning a corporate whole. Following that the tabernacle, God's habitation, is set up. It is important to keep in mind that the distinctive testimony of the present moment is collective. That is why the enemy's attack is against collective truths -- the body of Christ, and the house of God. Publicly in Christendom as a whole, features proper to the body and the house are not found. Satan's attacks on those truths are unceasing. But if we are to have our part in a practical way in the body of Christ and the house of God, it must be the result of personal relations with God.

The early part of Genesis deals with men having personal relations with God, leading up to Jacob, to whom light as to the house of God was committed; and I have in mind to shew that personal relations are in view of the house. We are brought to a point where a man is introduced to whom the light of the house was committed -- Bethel, the house of God.

It was committed to a man whom God says He loved, "I have loved Jacob", Malachi 1:3. Personal relations with God bring about people that God loves and God will dwell with those He loves. A person normally dwells with those he loves, and God does that. His house is formed of those He loves and these lovable features are brought about by personal relations with Himself. Personal relations with God must involve displacement in us of what is offensive to Him, for those that are in the flesh cannot please God; no feature of the flesh can give God any pleasure at all. All that was offensive to God was dealt with in the cross of Christ, but God works that it might be dealt with in us; that features of the flesh might be displaced and give way to features of Christ. The result is that men are secured whom God loves, 'Jacob have I loved'. It should greatly affect our hearts that God is willing to have personal relations with us. Sin came in, yet God indicated at the earliest time that although man had become sinful and alienated from Him, He was open to be approached, and prepared to enter into personal relations with man, not only on one initial occasion, but in continuity; although it must be on His terms. Personal relations with God and Christ go on throughout eternity. There is nothing greater than that God is prepared to bring me into personal relation with Himself, not only for time but for eternity.

Now these three passages I read speak of three pairs of young men, or boys as the last two are called. They illustrate the principle of displacement. The first pair represent the man of faith and the man of works, and teach us that the only principle upon which we can have relations with God is the principle of faith. It is not only the principle upon which we begin, but "The just shall live by faith"; all our personal relations are to continue on the principle on which we begin.

The second pair bring before us the man after the flesh and the man after the Spirit, another line of exercise which runs concurrently in our soul history. Things are often separated in Scripture which run along together in our soul's history.

In the first case it is a question of faith, and essentially has to do with our justification. The second is a matter of spirituality, without which we cannot enter into or lay hold of the blessing or inheritance. Sarah says, "the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son -- with Isaac". It is a question of the inheritance and the character of the blessing, which is sonship.

In the third pair we have the godly man and the man of the world, Jacob and Esau, a line of things which links with our practical life down here.

I trust we can see clearly these three lines: the line of faith which gives us justification and acceptance with God, and is the principle by which we are to live; the line of the Spirit which relates to the way we lay hold of the blessing and the inheritance; the line of godliness which is to govern our practical pathway down here and qualify us for our part in God's house, which is connected with the mystery of piety. No one can be truly in the house of God in a practical sense without godliness; there is no room for the world in the house of God.

As I say, we have to begin with the matter of faith. Most of us here, I trust, have begun our personal history with God. If there is anyone here who has not, the youngest can begin now on the line of Abel, the one who heads the list of faith in Hebrews 11. Abel has marked out the way of approach to God from the earliest times. He brought to God of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof, and you will notice it says, "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to

his offering; But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect". Notice how the offerer and the offering are identified; God had nothing to say to Cain and his offering. Not that Abel was any better than Cain. In fact if we are to begin at all on a right basis, we must begin with Romans 3:23, "for there is no difference: For all have sinned". There was no difference in this respect between Cain and Abel, everything was dependent upon the kind of offering they brought. In themselves neither could have any standing before God at all. But the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. That is the way we start our personal history with God. We bring, so to speak, the right kind of offering, and come to God by faith of Jesus Christ, on the ground of Jesus and His finished work. We believe in the God Who "raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification", Romans 4:24 - 5. That must be the beginning of personal relations with God. It is open to anyone here tonight to make a start, a most blessed thing. Coming to God in God's way and on God's terms by faith of Jesus Christ, God will have respect unto us and our offering. How could He have other than respect to the Lord Jesus and His finished work on the cross? And the offerer is identified with his offering; accepted in all the virtue of his offering. What a wonderful way in which to start our personal relations with God! in all the value of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. He glorified God at the cross in such a manner that God glorified Him, and will glorify us with Him. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew not sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him", 2 Corinthians 5:21.

All this enters typically into Abel's offering, and it is the only basis on which to begin personal relations with God. But then, if we begin in this way it involves a real work of repentance in us, and means the displacement

of that which Cain represents. His name means 'acquisition'; he represents the self-confident, self-reliant character of the flesh which will never bow to God and His rights nor to His terms. Scripture speaks of, "the way of Cain" Jude 2, a man going his own way in divine things; a man of pride and self-righteousness. That principle is in all of us, and it has to be displaced. Eve represents the subjective work in us, because Cain was completely displaced in her affections. If our start is right and we go on with God, the man that Cain represents ceases to be an object of admiration. Naturally Cain is the man we admire. When he was born Eve said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord". She was proud of her firstborn, all her hopes were centred in him. Abel means 'vanity' or 'breath', the recognition of his insufficiency. This feature will always mark a man of faith, the recognition that he has no strength in himself. The man of faith is entirely dependent upon God, and thus entirely opposite to the man of the world.

With Eve we see how this displacement took place. What she must have gone through we can little enter into, but when Seth is born she says, "God ... hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel", not another seed instead of Cain. Cain had been the object and admiration of her heart at one time, but all that had been displaced. She wants the line of Abel continued. Abel is now the man of her heart. She has judged Cain, he is a murderer. We need to come to that judgment about the man of works. He is a murderer wherever you find him. The Lord said, "Ye are of your father the devil ... He was a murderer from the beginning", John 8:44; they were descendants of Cain morally, and they crucified the Lord Jesus, the Leader and Completer of faith, just as Cain himself slew Abel. Personal relations with God will result in displacement so that the ideal before our

hearts will be the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Model, the Leader and Completer of faith -- another Seed instead of Abel. What a wonderful thing it is to have as our subjective ideal the man of faith, the dependent man. Enoch is the climax of this line of things. Cain goes out and builds the world system without God, whereas there is the line of faith by which Abel is continued, leading up to Enoch, his name meaning 'educated' or 'disciplined'. He was fitted for translation.

I pass on to Isaac and Ishmael. We are tested, as we pursue our christian path, whether, having begun in the Spirit, we are going to seek perfection in the flesh. The great tendency of nature is to put itself under law and make the principle of law the rule of life. Law never applied to the Gentile. Christ came, as far as the Jew was concerned, to redeem them from the curse of the law that we might all -- Jew and Gentile -- receive sonship. God has no thought of the principle of law being the rule of life for the christian. The character of blessing we have in Christ is sonship, and as sons with Him we inherit all things. We are exhorted to "Stand fast ... in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage", Galatians 5:1. All this implies personal history with God. Sarah says, "the son of this bondwoman shall not inherit with my son -- with Isaac". How did the bondwoman's son come into being? It is the idea of having begun in the Spirit and then seeking to be made perfect in the flesh. We receive the Spirit on the principle of faith. If we walk by faith we shall need the Spirit. If we give up faith we go back to works of law and to walking in the flesh, and all spiritual prosperity must cease. To think that a man like Abraham, and woman like Sarah should fall into this! It shews that few, if any, escape. It is a matter of soul history with God to learn these lessons. We may have set out on the path

of faith and desire to lay hold of the blessing -- Abraham has the light of it -- but we bring our own fleshly efforts to achieve the end. We put ourselves under all kinds of rules which we would not confess to anybody else. Fleshly efforts in divine things produce a mixed product -- a right father but a wrong mother. You can get fond of mixed products, as Abraham became fond of Ishmael, but it is only self in the end. You have light, and you are going to be the most earnest and devoted christian that ever lived, but you have to learn that you can never make one bit of headway spiritually or receive any spiritual impression except in the power of the Spirit. All is on the principle of pure grace, divine giving, everything of God and nothing of ourselves. One of the greatest hindrances to spiritual progress is this mixed product represented by Ishmael. For thirteen years after his birth Abraham had no divine appearing.

What a barren time for Abraham, who had been accustomed to God appearing to him and speaking to him. I have to come to it, that every bit of spiritual wealth and blessing I acquire is on the basis of grace, God's free giving. It comes by the Spirit; no amount of fleshly effort will get me a single thing, no effort of my mind, no legal rule of life. It is God, in grace, in the power of the Spirit, unfolding to me the blessedness of sonship, a free gift from Him. All that makes nothing of me. If we entered into this how humble we should be! But God loves to give. Do not let us think because we cannot acquire these things by fleshly effort that there is any danger of a shortage of supply. He is the great Giver, "how shall he not with him also freely give us all things", Romans 8:32. He is waiting to impart wealth. As we go on in personal soul history with Him He would continue to enrich, bless and communicate, continue to bring us more into the blessedness of sonship. "For ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus", Galatians 3:26.

"But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father", chapter 4: 6. The epistle to the Galatians exhorts us "if we live by the Spirit let us walk also by the Spirit"; and it speaks of being "led by the Spirit". Let us make more room for the Spirit! He who sows to the Spirit reaps life everlasting. This implies spiritual diligence in contrast to fleshly effort -- diligence to follow up every spiritual impression received.

It is a great thing to come to it that Ishmael is just self, and is a rival to Christ. It says, "He shall dwell before the face of all his brethren", Genesis 16:12, and "he settled" [i.e. died] "before the face of all his brethren", chapter 25: 18 -- the best that religious flesh can do, for it cannot live before God. The word to Abram is "I am the Almighty God: walk before my face, and be perfect". This is not being made perfect in the flesh, for flesh has no place before God. Only as we walk in the Spirit, in the liberty of sonship, can we walk before God's face. What blessed liberty is ours to walk before the face of God revealed in Christ; to walk before Him in the power of the Spirit, that Spirit that cries in our hearts Abba, Father. That is the way of perfection.

It is hard for us to give up this mixed product: of Abraham it is said, "the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son". Everyone of us has to go through this in some measure. Sarah went through it; she had suggested the mixed product, but now she is right. Think of what she had been through! Such is the deep exercise we have to go through. She says, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son". She realises that Ishmael is only a rival to Christ. We need to walk together in the light that Christ is everything and in each one. When Ishmael is about we are in bondage and Christ has not His place. He is a mocker and persecutor. How blessed to be in a sphere where "Christ is everything and in all".

Now I pass on to the last passage, Jacob and Esau -- a complementary side of the truth dealing with our practical life and conduct here. We all have practical lives to live, including home and business life; and this side of things is set out in Jacob. We have a detailed account of his home life before and after marriage and of all he went through in connection with his family. We also get a portrait of him in his business. He went through all kinds of trials, but the general trend of his life was such that God says "Jacob have I loved". God loved that man and that is what God is after in His personal relations with us -- to secure practical features which He loves, so that we become suitable material for His house, the kind of people with whom He delights to dwell now and for ever!

It says in this passage, "the boys grew", and as things developed it came to light that Jacob was a homely man dwelling in tents. He had much to go through to become a finished product, but what the man was began to shew itself early. Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field. They were twin brothers, and the principle of displacement came into evidence at their birth, and even before their birth. It says, "the children struggled together within her", and at their birth Jacob held his brother's heel; he had the name of supplanter on that account. These elements represented by Jacob and Esau are so very closely interwoven in our make-up that they could only be represented by twin brothers. Esau is the big man, the man of the world. We have had the man of works, and the man after the flesh; now we have the man of the world which the field suggests. Once again we find the father sadly astray, shewing that light alone does not help us in these matters. It says, Isaac loved Esau. Isaac loved what God hated, a most solemn thing -- yet a man with much light, and in a way, spirituality. We have to be on our guard as we get older as to what we admire in our children.

We may have rejected the world for ourselves, but look out upon the world for the young ones. Esau is the kind of man we delight in naturally -- the man who can turn his hand to anything, the man to make a fortune. We should say, A fine young man, sure to get on in the world, a man who can make his way in any society. Chapter 27 verse 15 speaks of his costly clothes -- New Translation. That man has to be displaced in practical life here. This comes very near to us.

Have we yet learnt to admire Jacob? Let us be honest as to what we do admire in practical life down here. Is it a homely man dwelling in tents? Such a one has learnt to just use the world, but not dispose of it as his own. He does not regard his house as a permanent place, but has learnt to use it as a tent. Have we learnt to admire and love that kind of man? When only instinct could have been working, he took his brother by the heel; he displaced the other man altogether. This comes home very closely to us. One notices how small features of the world, little things have affected us, not only sisters but brothers; little things that may add to our appearance amongst men of the world. How apt we are to take on these little things! God would have us to accept the complete displacement of that man. Jacob was not only a homely man and tent dweller, but the blessing of God and the birthright were his chief concern. We cannot justify the way he got it. But getting on in the world was not the object of his life, the absorbing object of his life was to be blessed by God and to get to know God. He learnt to bring God into all his circumstances, and as thus being marked by godliness, he became a man to whom God gave the light of His house. God could dwell with such a man.

I would refer to our local conditions, because we need true Jacobs in our localities if we are to get on together -- men whom God loves, and whom we love too, homely tent dwellers. If you bring in the big

man of the world -- Esau -- what disruption occurs! The epistle to the Corinthians shews that the Esau element can come into the assembly. Instead of being homely people at Corinth, delighting to have a man like Paul amongst them, they had given place to the man of the world usurping authority in the church. The professing church is full of these skilful hunters, ambitious men seeking big positions. There were no homely conditions at Corinth. How can you have the joys of the house of God in such conditions as at Corinth? If you read the genealogy of Esau later in this book, it is full of kings and dukes. This feature of the flesh -- bigness -- is always near to us. In the Lord's pathway here it repeatedly manifested itself in His disciples, "they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest". That is the Esau idea. The whole world is run on that basis, and the skilful hunter gets to the top. How easily that can come in amongst the saints! Even a mother can influence her sons wrongly in that regard, as the mother of the sons of Zebedee who asked the greatest place for her sons. When the Lord instituted the Supper, there was a murmuring among them who should be the greatest. It is so opposite to the character of Jacob. God says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. God hates the big, self-important man; God loves the homely man dwelling in tents. Our practical life, with all its trials and testings, is to help us to get rid of this big man, so that we may know what it is to have God with us in our circumstances, and thus qualify to be with Him in His circumstances, and have part in His house.

May God help us on these three lines -- to be here truly as men of faith; as men who walk after the Spirit and also as men who bring God into all the practical circumstances of their lives, so that we may have the sense of divine approval and be amongst those whom God loves, for His Name's sake!

GOD SECURING A REMNANT OF A REMNANT

Malachi 1:11 - 14; Malachi 2:1, 4 - 7, 11 - 16; Malachi 3:6 - 10, 16 - 18

G.R.C. I thought this book indicated how God, by means of the prophetic word, would secure what is due to Him in His house at the close of the dispensation, and the book actually shews, in the last verses we read, how He did secure what might be spoken of as a remnant of a remnant. That is, God secured a remnant in the day in which those who had escaped from Babylon, who were the original remnant, had fallen into cold formality. They were not willing to do anything without payment; they were not even willing to shut the doors for nothing and they were bringing what was poor -- the residue -- to God, chapter 1: 8 - 10. In that way they were failing to give Him the honour due to Him in His house. They were failing in the respect due to the One Who, although in a known relationship with them, was nevertheless a great King, Whose honour demanded that He should have the best, chapter 1: 14.

In the passages we have read, an appeal is made to the saints viewed in three aspects: first viewed as priests under the heading of Levi for, in verse 4 of chapter 3, it is the priesthood which is in mind. Then in verse 11 of chapter 2, the appeal comes to us viewed as Judah, that is, viewed as belonging to the line of royalty. The charge against Judah is that he had profaned the sanctuary of Jehovah which he loved and had married the daughter of a strange god, chapter 2: 11. Judah should always be married to the sanctuary, but he had forsaken the wife of his youth. Finally, there is an appeal to the saints viewed as sons of

Jacob, in chapter 3, an appeal to bring the whole tithe into the treasure house. Jacob is the one who vowed as to the tithes. So, at the close of the dispensation, God would bring us back to first principles, in each of these three ways -- to first principles relating to priesthood, first principles relating to kingship, and to first principles connected with the sons of Jacob, which designation covers our lives as "common persons"; not that anything is really "common" with a christian, but as sons of Jacob our circumstances are to be contributory to the house of God in the thought of the whole tithe. I wondered if we might get help together in considering these three lines of thought.

H.F.R. I think it would help us to a whole-hearted committal in these three ways, so that God might get His best.

G.R.C. The result is that at the end of the dispensation God gets His jewels. Those recovered had no status, it simply says that they feared the Lord. But undoubtedly these three features marked them, so that God singles them out as a peculiar treasure.

F.W.K. The first thought is: "I have loved you".

G.R.C. God would go back to the beginning on His side. Everything has its source in that fact that God loved them. What is presented to us as to the priesthood in chapter 1, is very stimulating: "From the rising of the sun even unto its setting My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure oblation" -- New Translation. God is putting that before us to encourage us to take up priestly service, not only on formal occasions but every day: and nothing less than that will meet the honour which is due to God. We ought to have a far greater sense of the honour which is due to the God we know as Father, for He is a great King and His name is to be revered among the nations; and what is due to Him and the only thing which will truly honour Him, is the maintenance of

continual priestly service from the rising of the sun unto its setting. If christians took this up they would never have a dull or boring day.

H.F.R. I was thinking of the days of the Lord; how perfectly He set forth this thought.

C.L. Would the first day of the week give character to this priestly service? The Lord begins there and in Him is seen in perfection the Son honouring the Father, and would He not bring us into that?

G.R.C. I am glad you bring the Lord into it. You see in Him perfection, perfection in a Son, the Son of the Father. The word in Malachi chapter 1 verse 6 is: "A son honoureth his father", and the Lord Jesus says, "I honour My Father and ye dishonour Me", John 8:49.

H.F.R. Would that enter into what John and the other apostles contemplated: "We contemplated His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father"?

G.R.C. "As an only-begotten with a father" -- How perfectly He carried out the service of the Priest, the Levite! How perfectly He, the root and offspring of David, devoted Himself to the sanctuary, as He says, in spirit. "The zeal of Thy house devours Me"; and then how perfectly He brought the whole tithe into the treasure house. The treasury had never been so filled as when the Son Himself was there -- see John 8:20.

C.L. We need to understand treasury teaching. It is an elevating kind of teaching.

G.R.C. As to this question of priesthood, we must not belittle the special occasions, and the Lord's supper is the greatest occasion; but possibly we have limited priesthood too much to the special occasions. We have thought of it in connection with the supper and the prayer meeting but scripture speaks of the rising of the sun even unto its setting.

H.W.E. There is the thought of the morning and evening lamb.

G.R.C. That is what is in mind. Incense shall be offered unto My name and a pure oblation. The oblation refers to what went up from the burnt offering altar; there was a lamb offered morning and evening with its oblation, and following that Aaron went in and offered up incense on the golden altar. It was "a continual burnt-offering" and "a continual incense".

A.F.B. In Peter you have the thought of offering up spiritual sacrifices. It is a continual thing.

G.R.C. The only two occasions when christians are called priests are in that chapter and in the first chapter of Revelation, and both refer to people who have been "evacuated". Peter is writing to strangers scattered abroad by the gentile powers, and John was in Patmos, shewing that this daily priestly service goes on in the most untoward circumstances. No one need be discouraged in the most trying circumstances -- even if alone in Patmos.

S.R. The thought of His name is very prominent in the 11th verse. It occurs three times.

G.R.C. I thought it was an important matter right through the book -- it speaks finally of those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name. The Old Testament closes with the thought of God as a great King, Whose Name is to be revered among the nations. This continual service is due to His name, before angels and men. "Incense shall be offered unto My name". His honour is connected with it.

H.F.R. Does Luke commence with these two thoughts: the incense seen in connection with Zacharias. At the time of the offering of incense he was offering it in the order of his course, and then Simeon coming into the temple at that time would shew how continually he was carrying on the priesthood; and the Babe in his arms -- what a pure oblation!

G.R.C. Those persons coming forward in Luke show how successful this prophetic word was. It

sustained a remnant about four hundred years, a remnant of those people who, having returned from the captivity, had, as a whole, become cold and, to some extent, apostate.

H.F.R. At the present day there has been a recovery from Babylon but there is a danger of settling down and not giving God His portion.

G.R.C. We should be much concerned about that danger. Ezra is thought to have edited the scriptures, putting them in order, and as a result, there was a greater knowledge of scripture than there ever had been, but things waxed colder and colder until there developed the "Scribes and Pharisees" of our Lord's day. We are in danger of that. We may be very accurate as regards the letter, but very cold; doing nothing for love, not even kindling a fire on the altar for nothing, not even shutting the doors.

W.H.C. Would the meaning of Levi's name be a preservative to us? It means 'united'. If we had a sense of being united to God in spirit it would preserve us in freshness and keep us from formality.

G.R.C. The Levites were united to the priests -- Numbers 18:2 -- there was also the principle of unity in the way they worked together, and then in the levitical cities, they unified the whole position. That is what levitical service does, it unifies the whole position.

W.H.C. That is the way it works out -- maintains links with God.

A.F.B. The Lord is testing us as to our personal links with God.

G.R.C. I am sure that is so. The thought of the congregation is a right thought if taken rightly. When God brought them out of Egypt He said first of all "Speak to the whole assembly", and then He said "The whole congregation of the assembly of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings", Exodus 12:3 and 6. The congregation refers to the persons

composing the assembly. Each person of the assembly was to take the matter up with God. The passover is thus the beginning of personal experience with God as well as assembly experience.

W.S. You could get no result for God otherwise.

H.W.E. What was your thought in regard to the table; "Ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted". Is it the idea of fellowship?

G.R.C. What is primarily in mind is what is on the altar for God. It is the incense and the oblation which has been spoken of. But if there is something for God there, there will be something for man. Every clean person could eat of the peace-offerings. What you find is that around us people regard the table of the Lord as contemptible, and it is brought about by the habit of giving God the tail end of things, the tail end of our day, the tail end of our energy, but the scriptural principle is: God first; and if that is done, there will be an abundance for men.

H.W.E. It would raise the question as to what our practical links are based on, whether it is what is social or whether it is for God.

G.R.C. In chapter 2, it says: "I also have made you contemptible". We become contemptible in other people's eyes if we are half-hearted christians. If a christian is whole-hearted he may be hated but he is not contemptible in this sense. God honours him.

W.S. A priest is a spiritual person who, in effect, lives in the thing. It is his life, it is the main thing.

G.R.C. That is what God is after. God wants the whole of our being and, first of all, in connection with this priestly service.

W.J. Is that the force of the covenant with Levi?

G.R.C. Yes, I think so. God had committed the whole charge to Levi, the whole charge of His offerings, and what was due to Him. He says: "They should teach Jacob His statutes ... burnt offering upon thine altar", Deuteronomy 33:10.

F.W.K. It is said of Levi that God is his inheritance, and God is our portion in a peculiar way as our inheritance.

G.R.C. That would enable us to move in this whole-hearted way.

F.W.K. I was thinking of the Lord Jesus. "He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned", Isaiah 50:4. That is giving God the best.

G.R.C. It is a test as to how much time we spend in prayer day by day. To present incense to His name and a pure oblation requires giving yourself up to it for a time.

S.R. What do you mean by a pure oblation? Is it that we are to give ourselves up to it?

G.R.C. The pure oblation is Christ. But there should be a practical answer. You cannot come to God and speak to Him about Christ unless, in some measure, you are like Christ; otherwise it is hypocrisy. So that the more we apprehend Christ and bring Him to God the more there will be conformity in us. God found His delight in Christ -- "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased" -- and then you have in Leviticus 23 the new oblation, the two wave loaves which represent the saints, as pleasurable to God.

S.R. There was to be salt in the oblation. Would that imply sincerity?

G.R.C. I think so, and the absence of leaven and honey would make for purity.

A.F.B. Is not the thought of the commandment a feature in this matter? It is by commandment.

G.R.C. It is handed down to us in the last days by Paul to Timothy -- "I charge thee before God", etc., 1 Timothy 6:13 and 14. I think the commandment includes the whole priestly charge which was handed down. All that is due to God in His house is to be kept spotless and unrebukeable until the appearing

of our Lord Jesus Christ. The appearing is in view in this book of Malachi.

A.F.B. It makes room for the covenant which has already been referred to. "My covenant was with him of life and peace". This is in contrast to the dead formality which marked them. And then it says: "He walked with me in peace and equity". That is the practical answer.

G.R.C. Quite so, and the result is that they can speak of Him. The priests' lips should keep knowledge. When the priest fails God brings in a prophet. Malachi means "Messenger of Jah". But if we are maintaining the incense and the pure oblation Godward our lips will keep knowledge manward. We shall be able to give a right impression of the One Who is the great King, Whose name is to be revered among the nations. We shall have a word which will inspire reverence in other people's hearts.

H.F.R. Does that come out in Philadelphia, in contrast to Laodicea: "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole habitable world to try them that dwell upon the earth". It is a true testimony. You feel Philadelphia had come to the true sense of what was due to God. "He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of My God".

G.R.C. I believe the Lord would help us to come to a sense of the supremacy of God; what is due to Him.

-- Smith "For my name shall be great among the nations". It is the outcome of these offerings. The Lord's whole pathway was to reveal God. "Preserve Me, O God".

G.R.C. If a priestly company is maintained on earth, then what is due to God's name will be maintained.

W.J. "Jehovah of Hosts" places this on the level of privilege -- to be among those who serve Him.

G.R.C. There is nothing which makes the heart so glad as this priestly service, It is a most glad occupation. You may have to speak to God about sorrowful things but you never leave His presence without a sense of gladness. People think a prayer meeting must be a dull place! But God says: "I will make them joyful in My house of prayer", Isaiah 56:7.

S.R. His name is the test of our church exercises. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity". It is the test all along.

G.R.C. We are all to understand that this priestly service is essential to the honour of His name.

W.H.C. The Lord, in teaching the disciples to pray, said: "Hallowed be Thy name".

G.R.C. That is really the burden of this book. Men are affected if this kind of service is maintained; there is a moral savour about the Lord's people which brings glory to God's name.

Rem. It is very strikingly seen in Philippi, the place where prayer was wont to be made.

G.R.C. That is how things began in Europe. I believe men are affected by the demeanour of a dependent man and if they speak to him they find his lips keep knowledge.

A.F.B. It is a very beautiful touch that it is "in every place".

Rem. "Pray without ceasing".

G.R.C. The incense was never to cease.

H.W.E. It would link up our households with assembly service and privilege. Our households would not be a separate interest, but link up with the interest of God, on earth, perhaps where we break bread.

G.R.C. It would help the special occasions, as when we break bread.

H.W.E. This thought of daily, continuous priestly service would open our eyes a good deal. There is

great scope. My impression is that "in every place" would refer to any tiny green and fertile spot.

Rem. Many of us may think ourselves outside the family of the Levites.

G.R.C. A christian who does not realise that he is a Levite loses the best of his calling. Every Levite was a first-born son, and that is what a christian is.

S.R. Would you say what you mean by being a Levite?

G.R.C. In this setting it is belonging to the priestly family. God said: "Israel is my son my firstborn. Let My son go that he may serve Me". The service took the form of priestly service. They were to serve as priests. Levi was chosen to represent the firstborn and all christians are in that class. Only in the spirit of sonship can true priestly service be carried out. A son honours his father. If we are really in the spirit of sonship we shall carry out this service.

When you come to the thought of Judah, it is viewing the saints in a different way, bringing in the thought of what is kingly, and that side is never separated from priesthood. The testimony requires that kings and priests should be together. Both features should mark the brethren. "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father". Whilst among men kingship is used for personal aggrandisement or for the aggrandisement of the nation, in God's thought the moral power and dignity of royalty is to be used for furthering His house here on earth. The king takes account of what is for God on earth and he stands by it at all costs and I think that is what comes out in David, who is the great example of this. He says: "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up" and he vowed to Jehovah that he would not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until he had found a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob -- Psalm 132. That is what is in mind in Judah being married to the

sanctuary. Whatever moral power we have acquired with God in a kingly way should not be used for our aggrandisement but should be devoted entirely to the sanctuary.

H.F.R. That is seen in David, his affection for the house.

G.R.C. I suppose, normally, a young believer begins on this line. When the children of Israel had come through the Red Sea, they immediately say "I will prepare him an habitation", Exodus 15:2; and the song goes on to refer to the "Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established", which looks on to Solomon's day. But the devotedness we begin with is apt to decline and God is challenging that point here. He says, in verse 14, "Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant". He is not going to release Judah from the vow that had been made. God will hold us to it.

A.F.B. This thought of royalty would bring in conflict; he is standing, in that way for God here.

G.R.C. You get that in David.

A.F.B. I was thinking of Gideon and his brethren. The Midianitish king said: "Each one resembled the children of a king", and the whole book of Judges is one of conflict.

G.R.C. The moment you make the sanctuary your chief concern you come into conflict. Whatever came in in David's life he was never deflected from what this scripture calls "The wife of thy youth".

C.L. Is that why, in Hebrews, it says "He sprang out of Judah". There was no diminution. He sprang out of Judah.

G.R.C. If what is for God down here on earth is to be maintained, you need kingly power and to be wholly devoted to that end.

-- Smith. Christ is son over God's house.

G.R.C. You see in Christ the One Who devoted Himself entirely. David is only a type.

H.F.R. Solomon, in contrast to David, profaned the sanctuary and married the daughter of a strange god.

G.R.C. He set up a high place to Molech and to other gods on one of the hills near Jerusalem. It is important to see that the sanctuary in this passage is regarded as a daughter, and so needing protection and support down here in this world. What you find sometimes is that many whom God has endowed with sovereign gift, use it in a way which is divorced from the sanctuary. But whatever God gives in the way of leadership, whatever is royal in character, should be married to the sanctuary; that is the end for which it is given, to care for the sanctuary down here. It seems to me a solemn thing which God holds us to. "Jehovah hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth". God remembers when His business was not our chief concern, He remembers the vow we made. "Yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant". He is not going to release us from it. What we need to see is that any kingly power we may acquire is to be used for the maintenance of the sanctuary. Kingship has that end in view in God's mind.

C.L. It is not of ourselves, it is of God. He is the great King.

G.R.C. Then you see that the result of this union is that he sought a seed of God. What brings about a continuance of the testimony is this kind of devotedness. It is when people are married to the sanctuary that they get a divine seed. You get an illustration of it in Paul himself. No one was married to the sanctuary like Paul. In this respect he is the David of the New Testament. He used his apostolic gift wholly and solely for the furtherance of the sanctuary, never for his own selfish ends at all. He speaks of three

of his children, Timothy, Titus and Onesimus. He brings forward three exemplary children. If we want to see an increase for God we need to be married to the sanctuary, for a man like that is bound to have children.

H.W.E. This would be maintaining the pure seed, no recognition of man after the flesh.

F.W.K. The Apostle was after that at Corinth, that he might secure them. The Apostle was jealous for them that they might be secured whole-heartedly for the sanctuary and the priestly service. Do you see in the way he treated them in Corinth how this principle shone in Paul?

G.R.C. If Paul had selfishly used his power at Corinth he would have come at once, with a rod and exposed the false leaders who were belittling him. They were reigning as kings in the wrong sense without any regard to the sanctuary, using their gifts to reign as kings. But Paul comes in as a real king, and he says, as it were, I will not use the power which I might use but I will deal with you in such a way that the sanctuary will be preserved in your midst.

F.W.K. In the second epistle you get those wonderful tears of affliction and affection.

G.R.C. What is in Christ Jesus never breaks down. But a true king says, God must have something on earth and I will stand for that, and he will use all his power to maintain what is for God down here. The care meeting would be an occasion for kingship.

S.R. In Peter it speaks of "A kingly priesthood".

G.R.C. Then finally He says: "Take heed to your spirit" and I think that is a great thing for every one who seeks to serve in a practical way; he has to be careful about his spirit. You can come into a situation with great light and gift and you can say the right thing and perhaps do the right thing but if you have not the right spirit you can never truly serve the sanctuary. David had the spirit of Christ in all his

affliction. If we are really married to the sanctuary we shall have that spirit.

F.W.K. Moses in a moment of crisis shone in his spirit.

G.R.C. If our spirits are wrong we are dealing unfaithfully with the wife of our youth. It says: "Take heed to your spirit".

In the last section, I thought what would come out of this kingly and priestly revival would be that we should become true sons of Jacob in the sense that we should regard our own circumstances and affairs down here wholly from the point of view of how far they contribute to the testimony. I think that is the idea of the whole tithe. We have been dealing with the divine sphere of things, but we also have our own houses and businesses to see to. If we are vitally touched on kingly and priestly lines we shall say that the only value of these things is the measure in which they contribute to the things of God and we shall be prepared to bring the whole tithe into the treasure house.

H.F.R. How this would have its bearing on the previous part! There is no priestly service unless we are devoted in this way in ordinary things.

G.R.C. In this respect God is going back to earliest impressions. If we have a real touch at the beginning, we make a start on all these lines. We give thanks to God and become priests. Then we feel that nothing matters but the assembly on earth -- the sanctuary -- and finally we are constrained to vow like Jacob. I think Jacob's prayer in one way is a fine prayer. "If God will ... give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on ... then shall the Lord be my God ... and of all that thou shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee". He was not asking great things for himself, only food and clothing, and of all that he received the first tenth was to be for God.

H.F.R. Jacob would never have been too busy

in his business to come to the meeting. It is a most important matter to put God first.

G.R.C. If you are too engrossed in business to attend to the things of God you are defeating the object for which, as a christian, you are carrying on your business.

A.F.B. All our circumstances, whatever they may be, should contribute to the wealth of the house of God.

G.R.C. Bring the whole tithe into the treasure house.

A.F.B. Whatever the ways of God may be with me, all should get the gain of it.

G.R.C. What am I wanting for myself out of it? Jacob only wanted food and clothing. He does not use his circumstances to make himself great. If God gives a man material wealth, it is useful and in principle he can bring it into the treasure house.

H.W.E. It is the same idea with Joseph. In the third year he buys their bodies and their lands and a fifth of it is for Pharaoh.

G.R.C. If we put God first, I expect we shall not limit it to a tenth. We must not think of Jacob as taking nine-tenths for himself. God's portion came first. You may say: If I take up this line my business will go to pieces; but God has said if we bring the whole tithe he will open the windows of heaven. God would like us to be sons of Jacob. Jacob supplanted the selfish man.

W.H.C. In his affections Jacob was never deflected. I was thinking of Abraham and Isaac who surrendered their wives, but Jacob never surrendered Rachel.

G.R.C. Jacob was an example of a faithful man. He was faithful because God was faithful to him. None of us is faithful on any other ground. Abraham represents the 'called', Isaac the 'chosen' and Jacob the 'faithful'.

You get a wonderful example of this whole tithe coming in, in connection with the widow, when the Lord sat over against the treasury. She cast in the whole of her living. The old dispensation closes with one person at least casting all her living into the treasury.

CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16 - 18; 1 Corinthians 13:14; Philippians 1:3 - 5; Philippians 2:17 - 22, 25 - 27, 29; Philippians 4:15 - 16, 18 - 20; 1 John 1:7

I wish to say a word, dear brethren about the Christian fellowship. The passages in Corinthians bring out the character of it, but those in Philippians show the practical working out of it in persons, and the passage in John's epistle shows that God has provided for the maintenance of it, in spite of the fact that we all often offend. But for that provision on God's part, we should all very soon be disqualified. The Christian fellowship is incomparable, it is the only fellowship existing on this earth that God recognises, every other fellowship is idolatrous in character, for it exalts the wrong man, it exalts man in place of God. We have to beware lest we link on with anything which may seem harmless in itself but which does that. It says that Israel of old, "sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play", 1 Corinthians 10:7. That is what marks human fellowships. They may give Christian names to them, but in them men are their own object. They sit down to eat and drink, that is the practical expression of fellowship, but they are not eating and drinking before God. God is not the centre. People might say, 'What harm is there in sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to play?'. There is every harm in it. It is idolatrous. "Neither be ye idolaters", it says, "as some of them", 1 Corinthians 10:7 -- and then it quotes that verse, "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play". We have to beware in practical relations not to allow social occasions amongst us which amount to that principle. We should always seek

grace that our collective occasions, whatever they be, should be preserved on the level of the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We need to be on that level in our wedding meetings, and not to copy the world in any way whatever, nor to make anyone centre but God. Other persons will have their right place if God has His place. There are other occasions which are apt to come in amongst us that are on a lower level than that, but I am only desiring to draw attention to a danger, lest we drop below the level of this glorious fellowship.

And so the first reference to it is that it is the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What an honour to be called into it. With their fellowships men seek the patronage of some great person, someone whom they can show as the head of the fellowship, but think of the greatness of this fellowship, the fellowship of God's Son. The greatest Person conceivable is at the head of this fellowship, what a dignity this gives to it! But then in chapter 10 it refers to the communion, or fellowship, "of the blood of the Christ", and the communion, or fellowship, "of the body of the Christ". This passage bears on what was before us this afternoon. The Lord Jesus, God's Son is over the fellowship, the living glorious Head of it as we might say, but He is the One Who has made abundant provision so that it is the wealthiest fellowship that could possibly be conceived; and He has made this provision by the giving of Himself. He "loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour", Ephesians 5:2. And as called into this fellowship we are called into communion with the altar. The fellowship stands related to the house of God. The altar is the place in God's house where He has provided, with such abundance, for all; He has His own portion there, it is where He has His food, if we may so say with all reverence; but there He has

provided for every one of His people, and provided in abundant measure.

And so the altar is called the table of Jehovah. What a table it is! It is there that we are privileged to sit down and to eat and drink. That is where our fellowship is. As to the apostles, John says "our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ", 1 John 1:3. Think of a fellowship on that level, God, as it were, calling us to share in that in which His heart delights -- He has His own special portion in it, but still we share in that in which His heart delights, calling us to His table, to share with Him; and at His table, as I say, there is a portion for all; there is His own portion, and He would enjoy it in our presence, just as He would have us to enjoy our portion in His presence; the whole thing is in the presence of God Himself. That is what makes it so blessed, it is all in the presence of God Himself. So it speaks here of the communion of the blood and of the body of the Christ. What a privilege it is to be in communion with the altar, to have a portion in what is brought there. From the divine side it is fully furnished, the Lord Jesus has loved us and given Himself for us, we are called to the communion of His body, and of His blood. If you remember, in Leviticus 7, it speaks of the priests who presented the blood of the peace-offering. He had the shoulder for his part, what strength it gives us, as it were, to present the blood of the peace-offering. The blood of the peace-offering would link with what the Lord says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood", Luke 22:20. It refers to what the blood has secured for us in blessing. Unspeakable blessing!

We read earlier in Leviticus of the priest presenting the blood of the burnt-offering, in presenting the blood of the burnt-offering we are thinking of what the blood means to God. In neither of those cases are we thinking exactly of the question of sins. If we

think of the blood of the peace-offering we are thinking of the unspeakable good and blessing that is flowing to us through the precious death of Christ. How precious to present that blood, appreciatively to God. How we value it -- the cup of blessing which we bless! But then, the priest, also, as I say, as to the burnt-offering, he presents the blood, but in the burnt-offering we are thinking of what it means to God, that it is a witness to God, as it were, of a work completed in which He was infinitely glorified. One has wondered lately whether we sufficiently appreciate our priestly privilege in presenting the blood. We may have thought of the blood only in connection with the sin-offering, but the blood has great meaning in connection with the peace-offering, the witness to us, of infinite blessing, that all that is in the heart of God, in love and blessing is flowing out to us, it is the living witness of that, but we can present that appreciatively to God. But then in the burnt-offering, the blood is a living witness to God, that He has been glorified in a completed work down here. I am afraid we are apt to think of the finished work of Christ simply in its bearing on the sinner, but that is not the point, "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it", John 17:4. God has been infinitely glorified in a Man, in devoting Himself even to death, wholly for God, and the blood is the witness of it, the witness of the work completed, what that means to God! For if God has been infinitely glorified in a man, on that ground God has glorified Him: "Glorify me", He says, and God's glory is shining out in that Man. And it is because of that finished work in which God was glorified, on the ground of which He has glorified the One Who glorified Him, and because His glory is now radiant in that blessed Person, and yet we stand in all the acceptance of that Person, therefore the glory in no wise repels us, it draws us, attracts us, invites

us, to come and to live in it. But I am bringing this in as to the value of the blood.

There is another aspect of the blood, the blood of the sin-offering; at the Supper we are not primarily engaged with that. The blood of the sin-offering was put on the altar, on the horns of the altar of burnt-offering, and in certain cases, on the horns of the incense altar; and on the day of atonement was taken in, and put on the mercy-seat, and seven times sprinkled before the mercy-seat; and the rest of it was poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering, it is a kind of basis poured out at the bottom. And we never forget that, that is never to be forgotten. But if the sin question had not been settled, this great system of glory and wealth and blessedness of which we are speaking could never exist. We greatly value the blood in that connection; but as to the actual enjoyment of fellowship it is these other aspects of the blood which actually engage our attention. I am not sure that it ever says that the blood of the sin-offering was presented; it was used in the way I have stated, in what the priest presents surely he is occupied with it in a particular way before God as to its value. I do not mean as effecting anything by it, but in the appreciation of what it is a witness of. So it says "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?", 1 Corinthians 10:16. What has come to us on the basis of that blood! "Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us", 1 John 3:16 -- the blood is the witness of it, and should help us to be on that line ourselves, laying down our lives for the brethren.

"The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?" The Lord says "Take, eat; this is my body", Matthew 26:26. What food! That body in which He carried out in full measure the will of God, and yet devoted to us -- My body for you. The communion of the body of the Christ would

raise the question with us as to how we are using our bodies. I believe that Romans 12 is the great fellowship chapter of Romans. Romans does not speak of fellowship in the way Corinthians does, it does not refer to the Lord's Supper, but I believe Romans 12 sets out the way of being vitally in fellowship, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Only in the measure in which that is done can we be said to be vitally in the communion of the body of the Christ. "Are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?", 1 Corinthians 10:18. How can I be in communion with the altar? By presenting my body, using my body in my measure as He used His. So that while we often look at 1 Corinthians 10 from a negative point of view, that is as stressing that we cannot go on with what is unsuited to the Lord's table, I am wanting to present it this evening from the positive point of view, which is the main point of view. Paul had to deal with negatives to the Corinthians, because they had got into sin and uncleanness; but the fellowship normally is a positive matter; it is a most blessed and rich and wealthy matter, the communion of the blood and of the body of the Lord Jesus involves untold wealth; and as we feed upon Him in this way together, we shall more and more, in all our walk and conduct, take character from the altar, and what has been placed upon it by Him. That is, we shall "walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour", Ephesians 5:2.

Now, as we were saying this afternoon, the power for all this lies in the Spirit, and how thankful we can be that the Spirit is here. So the last word of the second epistle is "the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all". The power for this wondrous fellowship, that which keeps it in continual freshness, is the blessed Spirit of God Himself. So that nothing ever

becomes stale; as the communion of the Holy Spirit is with us, we are preserved in continual freshness, and we see that kind of state set out in the epistle to the Philippians. We have a kind of galaxy of persons there, who took character from the peace-offering. The question we raised earlier today was, for each one of us: What am I contributing to the fellowship? We do not come into the fellowship in one sense for what we can get, although we get there what is most blessed; we get far more, of course, than we could ever possibly give; but at the same time we should raise the question with each one of us, What am I contributing? In a practical way, while from the Divine side everything is supplied, in a practical way, the wealth of the fellowship depends upon how much we are all putting into it. I am sure of this, if we put very little into it, we get an immense return. It is not 5 per cent, or anything like that, like human undertakings pay. You get an enormous return for anything you put into this fellowship. So we find in Philippians, those who were practically devoting themselves to the interests of God on earth. He speaks of the company as a whole, and the epistle indicates how we react upon one another, also, "I thank my God" he says, "for my whole remembrance of you", Philippians 1:3. You see, there was a peace-offering going up to God, a peace-offering of thanksgiving from Paul, at every remembrance he had of the Philippians.

Just think of the potentialities, that if my walk and ways are right, I can promote peace-offerings and thanksgivings amongst the whole of the brethren, all who know me. Think of what was going up from Paul in this respect, and how it stimulated him in his service, as he thought of the Philippians; and think of the inwards of Paul, how right they were! He says in verse 8, "For God is my witness how I long after you all in the bowels of Christ Jesus". In the peace-offering itself the inwards were for God, and we

contemplate the holy inwards of Christ, how fully and completely He was for God; but think of the bowels of Christ Jesus being in Paul; that those inward feelings and motives and affections and longings that marked the Lord Jesus, so precious to God, fully taken account of by God, were formed in Paul -- in measure, of course. "How I long after you all" he said. So you see the Philippians stimulated Paul, encouraging him to go on with his sacrifice of peace-offerings, and Paul stimulated the Corinthians; and that is how we stimulate one another in this holy fellowship. So that offerings to God are in abundance brought. According to this epistle there was no lack. And he says of them "because of your fellowship with the gospel, from the first day until now". Fellowship with the glad tidings shows that they were not in fellowship, in their minds, simply for what they could get. They were in the matter livingly, they were giving their all, as it were, to support the testimony, so that others might come into the wealth that they were enjoying.

Then as the epistle proceeds, he speaks further of himself, and then he speaks of Timothy, and then of Epaphroditus. Later in this chapter he tells us of what his own desires were, to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, but for their sakes he would remain. He would continue here, as set to add to the wealth of the fellowship. And not only so, but he says, "But if also I am poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice in common with you all", chapter 2: 17. The libation, or the drink-offering, was something in addition to what we have had before us; he was thinking of the sacrifice and ministration of their faith; that is what they were putting on the altar; how they were devoting themselves; but in order to make that more excellent, he was prepared to be poured out, in order that their contribution might be more excellent. And he would

be gladly poured out as a libation, upon the sacrifice and ministration of their faith, that what they were ministering to God might become more excellent, more vital. And then he speaks of Timothy, "no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on. For all seek their own things", chapter 2: 20. I do not think he was referring to the Philippian company when he says "all seek their own things", no doubt they were in danger, as we all are; but it was the general position, even at that time. If we think of Corinth, what a lack there was, of the sacrifice of peace offering in that company, they were seeking their own things.

According to Malachi, they said "The table of the Lord is polluted", chapter 1: 12 -- and they brought what was torn and lame. And it says, "Yea, cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing; for I am a great King", verse 14. We cannot bring anything to the altar of God. If we have an appreciation of the way the Lord Jesus has given His all to make the fellowship wealthy, then God looks to us, that on our part there should be a full committal, the male, the best. Not the best of our energies for our own things, but the best of our energies for God, and for His people. For I am a great King, he said. A great King must have the best. But at Corinth, alas, I am afraid they were regarding the table of Jehovah as contemptible, they were not concerned about it. They might not have said so in so many words; they were seeking their own things, and so they were missing the wealth of the fellowship. But how happy it is that we have in this epistle to the Philippians the practical example of a company who were committed; so that, according to this epistle there was no lack of the sacrifice of peace-offering. The table of Jehovah was being supplied.

And so he goes on to speak of Epaphroditus, who was sick, close to death; and he says of him, chapter 2: 17,

"because for the sake of the work he drew near even to death, venturing his life". What an example Epaphroditus is, he would lay down his life for the brethren. Think of the journey he undertook, the journey from Philippi to Rome, to carry the bounty of the saints, and almost died en route, and was prepared to die. But what wealth, you see, he brought into the fellowship! How it rejoiced the heart of Paul; how it stimulated his heart in thanksgiving to God, reinvigorated him in his service, and how it affected the saints from whom he came; how it invigorated them, and stimulated them! These reactions on one another are most interesting, and most important. And then there is the company itself, for Paul says at the close of the epistle, referring to what they sent, "But I have all things in full supply and abound; I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things sent from you, an odour of sweet savour, an acceptable sacrifice, agreeable to God", chapter 4: 18. I believe we must hold to the fact that the peace-offering itself refers to Christ Himself, the way He has given Himself to make the fellowship wealthy; but it is very touching that the language used here is almost the same, "an odour of sweet savour", "an acceptable sacrifice, agreeable to God". God is prepared thus, to clothe what we do with the value of the peace-offering. And this leads to a note of worship in Paul's heart. He says "But to our God and Father be glory to the ages of ages. Amen", chapter 4: 20. And that is as it should be, that in all these activities which add wealth to the fellowship, worship to God is promoted. Not only thanksgiving, which means that further offerings are brought, but the final thing is worship, "to our God and Father be glory to the ages of ages".

I just want to say a word as to the danger of feeding on the fat. Feeding on the fat is prohibited, the fat that covered the inwards, and the kidneys, and the net above the liver, the diaphragm, that is, I suppose,

that which controls the breathing; they were for God. We can contemplate, but not appropriate, we have to be careful, lest in any way we appropriate the fat, it is always for God. We have to see in our offerings, that self is excluded, any selfish motive, any selfish ends. The inwards must be for God if it is to be acceptable. But then, in what others bring we must be careful not to feed upon the fat. A brother, out of his love for God and for Christ, may serve me; he expresses his appreciation of the peace-offering in devoting himself in some way to me -- you know it is very easy for me to feed upon the fat. I can become elated, as though it is making something of me that that brother should love me so much, and be prepared to do that for me -- that is feeding on the fat. If that brother loves me, it is because he loves God; the inwards are for God. I must never assume that what is done for me simply has me as an object. What we do for one another, if it is done rightly, ever has God as the Object, and the fat is ever for Him. To take any other view spoils the whole thing; it robs God of His portion, and it tends to make the person who is the offerer, if his motives are not right, to elate him, or if he is the recipient, it may elate him. But if the fat is given to God all is well. We have everything then, in its right setting.

Perhaps before I leave the peace-offering I would just add one more impression. We have been saying a good bit of our part, as taking character from it, but I would refer back once again to Leviticus 7:13. "Besides the cakes, he shall present his offering of leavened bread". You will note how little is said about that, much is said about the unleavened cakes, all referring to Christ; but when it comes to that which refers to the offerer, there is just that brief mention, "Besides the cakes, he shall present his offering of leavened bread with the sacrifice of his peace-offering". That is where we come into the picture. We have our

appreciation of the One Who has given His all, to make the fellowship so wealthy, and we could not bring to God that appreciation with one heart, without bringing ourselves into it, but we must be in line with this, as the recognition that there is the leaven with us, but with the cakes, with our appreciation of Christ, we bring our offering of leavened bread. It is just mentioned, nothing more is said, showing in that way, how small our part is, even at the best, compared with Christ! It is just brought with the cakes, just the leavened bread, there it is, and how small it is, and it is well for us ever to keep things in that proportion. The greatest servants, if you measure their part with that of Christ, how small it is!

But now I pass on to the epistle of John to say a brief word on the maintenance of this, and that involves just a brief word on the sin-offering. I have spoken already of the blood of the sin-offering, it says "if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin", 1 John 1:7. The truth is that we all often offend. Sin-offerings are needed day by day, and in the order in which things are set out in the early chapters of Leviticus the sin-offering comes in after the 'peace-offering' because what is in view is the maintenance of things. How the fellowship is to be maintained, if there were not that great provision, the sin-offering, the fellowship would break down in one day. We would all be disqualified. And the more we realise that, the more we shall value Christ as the sin-offering. The more, too, we shall contemplate Him and feed upon Him as the sin-offering, which is a very important matter. It is the only way we can keep ourselves clean, and fit for fellowship, able, without any cloud, to walk in the light as God is in the light. So that this wondrous fellowship, so wealthy and full should function unhinderedly.

In the inauguration of things you will find in the great inaugural matters the sin-offering comes first. There is the sin-offering for the altar, seven days before it refers to the morning and evening lamb. There is the sin-offering of the consecration of the priests, in the inauguration of the service for Israel; in great inaugural matters, including the day of atonement the sin-offering comes first. But in the maintenance of things, the sin-offering is put last. It is well to get an appreciation of this wonderful offering, the sin-offering. In the inauguration of the dispensation it was the first essential, sin must be dealt with and put away from God's sight; there could be no fellowship set up if that were not so. The altar had to be cleansed from sin, a way of approach made to God free from all sin. But then in the maintenance of things, we go back to the same offering. Now at Corinth, sin had come in, and the fellowship was greatly hindered, and this leads me to make this remark, that if sin comes in, it means that one of the people, has sinned. And a priest has sinned, every time, because, not only are we one of the people, but we are each priests; and it may easily result in the whole assembly sinning if the matter is not met.

At Corinth, all three things had happened, in fact four things had happened. In Leviticus 4 you have the priest sinning, the whole assembly sinning, the prince sinning and one of the people. Now at Corinth, one of the people had sinned, the princes had sinned, the leaders; they were saying, "I of Paul, I of Apollos" and so on. The priests had sinned, for in Christianity everyone of us is a priest, and the whole assembly had sinned. Paul brought things to bear on them in such a manner that by the second epistle they were ready for the sin-offering. He said "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him", 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Now the first thing in the sin-offering is to con-

template -- the first thing I want to dwell on at the moment -- the burning. I wish we contemplated the burning more! You see if I sin, and I often do, of course, it is not only that one of the people has sinned, but a priest has sinned; and in the case of the priest the body of the victim was burnt outside the camp. It was not eaten, it was burnt outside the camp. I believe we ought to consider the horror of the burning, and you see, sin coming in so often as it does, day by day, would mean this is a continual matter. One thing that prevents us being as free as we should be in the fellowship is because this is not a continual matter. We are to contemplate the burning. It says of the red heifer that it was to be burnt before his eyes -- the horror of wrath without relief. The horror of that scene where Jesus bore the all consuming judgement of God! And one result of that is, you will find your place without the camp. The body was burnt at the place where the ashes of the burnt-offering were placed, in a clean place outside the camp. We have spoken about being clean, if we are to enjoy fellowship we must be clean, and if we contemplate that burning we shall be clean in the way of being clear of all unclean associations. That is why chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians follows chapter 5. You have got the sin-offering at the end of chapter 5, "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us", and in chapter 6: 17, "come out from among them", it is outside the camp. It is the only clean place in this world -- the place where the sin-offering was consumed, and where the ashes of the burnt-offering are, the place where Jesus suffered, outside. But then you see, the other aspect of the sin-offering is, that insofar as it was for one of the people, or a prince, it has to be eaten by the priest. So that there are those two sides. The contemplating the burning in all that that meant; and then the eating, the appropriating that to myself, in my inward parts; so that it is not only that I get right as to the clean place, but

I get right in my inward parts, as David did, in Psalm 51:6, "thou wilt have truth in the inward parts".

Now that is what is in mind in the epistle of John. The epistle of John does not dwell unduly on the sin-offering, it just touches it, in the first and second chapters. It is a question of the maintenance of the fellowship, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin", and "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". That is, we are cleared from external associations, and we are cleared inwardly. That is the effect of the sin-offering. Therefore, the rest of the epistle of John is largely occupied with the peace-offering, the normal flow of the fellowship: "Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives". There you have got the normal flow of fellowship. "Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God", 1 John 4:7.

Well may the Lord help us in these matters, to pursue them further, perhaps, in our private meditations and contemplations, the character of the fellowship in Corinthians, the vital expression of it in the personnel in Philippians, and the maintenance of it in the epistle of John.

WALKING IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD'S SON

[This seems to be a word at a marriage meeting.]

Exodus 35:26; 1 John 1:6 - 7; Ephesians 5:1; Revelation 21:10 - 11, 16 - 19, 21 - 23; Song of Songs 3:6, 9 - 11

We have come together today, dear brethren, to mark the beginning of a walk together of two of the Lord's people, and the scripture says, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?", Amos 3:3. One felt it might be profitable this evening to consider the walk together of the saints. Brothers and sisters may walk together in a special way as husband and wife, but their agreement in walking together must be based upon the general fellowship of the saints, otherwise it cannot be called a "marriage in the Lord", for our walk together as saints vitally affects our household affairs, and our household links vitally affect our walk together as saints. I desire to speak of this walk in three ways: firstly, our walk together in separation; secondly, our walk in the light, as it says, "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin"; and finally, our walk in love, for we are exhorted to "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour". The first has to do with our associations, the second with our state, and the third with positive formation in love in our souls; and all these things should enter into our walk together as Christians. I wish to show from the other scriptures how our walk together affects the formation of that which is for the heart of Christ in His assembly, both in its future aspect when the bride, the Lamb's wife,

the holy city of Jerusalem, comes down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and also in its present aspect as seen in the Song of Solomon. Our walk together has a great bearing in both connections.

Now the fundamental basis of our walk together in separation must be agreement as to principles. We must have a common judgment as to what is of God and what is not, as to what is holy and what is unholy, what is clean and what is unclean. God has called us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and He has constituted us priests with the power of discernment that we might all have the same mind and the same opinion as regards separation from evil. The enemy would seek to bring in divergence of mind and opinion, as at Corinth. Some were allowing evil, while others, such as the house of Chloe, were remaining faithful to the principles of separation. The apostle writes, "I exhort you, brethren, that ye be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same opinion". He would have them in agreement in mind and judgment.

Our households are of great importance in this matter; they should be spheres marked by complete separation from the world. That is why I read the passage in Exodus 35, in connection with the spinning of goats' hair. Goats' hair refers to the principle of separation. The tabernacle consisted of ten coloured curtains -- they are called "the tabernacle" -- which provided the immediate surroundings of the ark and the precious vessels. But over that was the "tent over the tabernacle", consisting of eleven curtains of goats' hair to protect what was underneath, and the women spun the goats' hair. I have no doubt they spun it in their tents. I do not mean to say that this exercise is limited to women; it refers to a subjective state that should mark every one of us. Nevertheless the sisters have a special part in this matter because principles of separation are tested. Worldly elements come into

the meetings because they are first allowed in the home. Generally speaking, the brethren have a regard for what is due to God in the meetings and in the way of extending fellowship, but we also need to be continually in exercise about our homes. John, in his second epistle, addresses the elect lady as to maintaining separation in her home.

The home is the sisters' sphere in a special way, as Paul says in Timothy, "I will therefore that the younger [women] marry ... rule the house", meaning the rule of a despot. If the sister is faithful, that rule must entail the maintenance of the principles of separation in the home. Goats' hair implies that there is nothing legal about the separation; the goat is a clean animal, it chews the cud and has a cloven hoof; it is agile, able to walk in high places, and is often found alone. If we are marked by these features, our separation will not be legal or pharisaical. The most unclean person is one who is separate on wrong lines, as typified by the swine which has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud. It refers to pharisaical separation which men may admire, but God regards it as a most unclean thing. The goat does not represent that at all; it has the cloven hoof but it chews the cud. If we chew the cud and are often in high places and alone with God, our separation will spring from our communion with God, and that is a great thing. To chew the cud means to take to heart what we hear, not superficially taking in ministry but taking it home to heart and conscience, allowing it to affect our inward being; so that we are drawn aside in individual intercourse with God, our sensibilities are kept alert, and we find power to exclude what is unholy and unclean.

It needs power to do this in our own homes, day by day for seven days a week. We may get a lift up when we are together, and feel we cannot tolerate worldly things; but it requires power, and power

perhaps especially among the sisters -- inward power -- to see that at all costs the home is suitable to God, that the principles of His assembly are the principles of the home. If that were maintained there would be very little difficulty in our assembly relations. It shows how important the household is. How important the house of Chloe was at Corinth! How would Paul have known of the difficulties if she had not been there? A sister is singled out, a sister and her house, who felt the allowance of evil and notified the apostle; and what results accrued! What a triumph for God to secure sisters in that way! Through the woman the enemy got in, and now women are keeping him out! It often calls for more than goats' hair. What covered the goats' hair was the rams' skins dyed red, speaking of conspicuous devotion. It is seen in Chloe herself and her house, those who would cover the goats' hair with the rams' skins dyed red, and would cover that with the badgers' skins. That is, while they were devoted, they were not displaying their devotedness; it was a secret matter, yet it makes Chloe and her house distinguished right down to the present day.

Now this line of exercise links on with the wall of the city, for what is wrought out now will help us in administration in the day to come. The wall is most attractive; it is of jasper and it is clear as crystal, and it is a man's measure. It is not measured with the golden reed that measures the city, but by a man's measure, a cubit, the length of a man's forearm. It is a great matter that the separation should be a man's measure, not a Pharisee's measure -- there should be human sympathy about it. It is 144 times a man's measure. I suppose there is no numeral in scripture that suggests perfect administration like 12 x 12 = 144. There can be no administration without separation, it is an absolute necessity; everything breaks down without it. There cannot be gates

without a wall. All administrative matters fail the moment we fail to maintain separation. What an education we are passing through now with a view to forming the wall of that city and being entrusted with the administration of the gates! In this process what is ornamental is developed among the saints, for every precious stone was in the foundation of the wall and every gate was a pearl. In maintaining divine principles according to God, personality is developed, as suggested in these stones; and in the exercises relating to administration the pearl is developed, the truth of the body according to Paul.

Now I pass on to the thought of walking in the light. This is a matter which affects our state; it comes home closer to us. It is not now our associations, what we allow from without, but it searches all our motives within. Light makes everything manifest; there is nothing more searching than to walk and to serve under divine scrutiny, in the searching light of God Himself. It searches us through and through, disclosing all our motives, all that we are. That is where Christian fellowship is -- "in the light". "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another". This particularly bears on our assembly relations. In a general way, of course, in regard of the children of Israel, God looked to them to walk in the light they had of Himself. But the priests inside the holy place walked in the very direct light of the candlestick; they served in that wonderful light. Now, dear brethren, walking in the light would free us from all self-deception, all idea of a reputation. Walking in the light would mean that we are all just what we are, and this is really the basis of Christian fellowship -- that we are what we are, with no pretensions whatever. As after the flesh we are all sinners by nature and practice, and the light shows us that truth; at the same time, through grace we are born of God. John,

in the first chapter of his epistle, says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ... If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us".

Now one feels for oneself how easily darkness comes in; how easily we can begin in the Spirit and then seek to be made perfect in flesh. I do not know of anything that mars the fellowship more than a kind of pretence to be a perfect Christian who can never do anything wrong or make a mistake. That spirit can come into assembly matters, and nothing is so deadening from an assembly point of view. I have sin in me and shall have as long as I am here. James, a prince among the saints, says, "We all often offend". To think that I do not offend is to make myself a better man than James, or Peter. We are called upon to walk together in all the blessed light of God, and the only ground on which we can be in that unstained light is that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin". It takes away all pretence, it brings us right down to rock-bottom, where we are all on one common ground, the ground of mercy. It makes us sympathetic, kind and forgiving towards one another; it is the great basis of fellowship -- walking in the light. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth". One way of walking in darkness is to deceive myself and to deceive other people as to my true state as in the flesh -- to be darkened by that most subtle notion that my very Christianity makes me perfect in the flesh. To keep up false pretences is to walk in darkness. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all".

God has held nothing back; He is what He says He is, and He would have us to be the same. In John 8 the Lord says, "I am the light of the world", and then, in answer to the question, "Who art thou?" He says, "altogether that which I also say to you".

No darkness was there; He was Himself the light, and He was altogether what He said. Such transparency with us involves the admission of what we are by nature and of our need of the blood of Christ, and also a thankful recognition of God's own work in us, that we have been born of God. We can take account of one another in that way; we walk in the light together and we have fellowship with one another. We thus become acquainted with God's glory, for if I am not prepared to admit what I am, how shall I ever learn the mercy of God? That ray of His glory will be unknown to me, and so will the glory of His grace. How shall I understand His righteousness? How shall I understand His holiness?

It is only as we get down to rock-bottom that there is room for the divine glory to flood our souls. We own the truth, the light exposes the truth, it exposes things as they really are, and as we are prepared to own the truth which the light exposes, our hearts are filled with the light of His glory -- His mercy, His grace, His righteousness and His holiness -- and we walk and serve in the light together. You can see how this bears on the heavenly city, the principle of transparency, for there is no part dark in it. I have no doubt that everyone belonging to that city will give God all the glory; they will own their blessing as the fruit of "the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus". Thus God's glory shines out through that city -- she comes down having the glory of God. She is herself a glorious vessel, but it does not say she comes down having her own glory, but the glory of God. She is a living witness to what God is and to what He has done; a witness to His grace, His kindness, His righteousness and His holiness.

Now I pass on to the third point of our subject, and that is walking in love. As we walk in the light it makes way for walking in love -- divine formation,

the divine nature formed in our hearts; something that can be measured, as it were. John has that in view in his epistle. He begins with this thought of walking in the light, but the burden of the epistle is that we should learn to walk in love. "If God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another". "Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives". He brings some 'oughts' into it. They are our obligations as in fellowship. I believe we have been too occupied with the negative obligations of the fellowship; we have thought of the communion of the body and blood of Christ, to which we put our hands and profess allegiance week by week, as a negative thing, excluding evil, connected with separation -- and so it is; but there is the positive side to it, and how can we say we are really in communion with the body and blood of Christ unless we are walking in love?

There are positive obligations. The communion of the body and blood of Christ implies that He placed His body and blood upon the altar; everything He has He put upon the altar in love. He walked in love to the extent that He laid down His life for us. If I am really in the communion of that, I shall be walking as He walked, in measure -- not simply in separation but in positive love. It raises the question as to what we are doing with our bodies; have we put our bodies on the altar? We ought to do it; we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is where real formation comes in -- formation in the divine nature. Romans tells us to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, which is our intelligent service. It is a wonderful thought; "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God" -- think of our bodies, holy and acceptable! -- "which is your intelligent service".

Some may take the ground that they have presented their bodies to God; but if you have presented your body to God, let me see you laying down your life for the brethren! Christ presented His body to God, but He gave His body for us; it was the will of God that He should lay down His life for the brethren; and it is none the less the will of God for you and for me. Christ, in devoting Himself to God, sacrificed Himself for us; similarly with believers, if we devote our bodies to God, it is in view of sacrificing them in measure for the welfare of the saints. That is the way they can be used for God. In other words, if you speak of your burnt offering, let me see your peace offering. Our devotedness to God is measured by our devotedness to the brethren, and that is what the peace offering has in mind; a sacrifice of peace offering, it is called. It refers to what we are prepared to do for one another. It is the aspect of Christ's death which is mentioned in Ephesians -- "Even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour". The burnt offering was there; but the sacrifice of peace offering was that He loved us and gave Himself for us.

Every clean person could partake of the peace offering. That is another test, as to how far we have presented our bodies. Every clean person means everyone in fellowship, thus everyone in fellowship should get some benefit from my body, some benefit in service from me, some spiritual food or sustenance. There is no doubt what sustained the Israelites gathered at Jerusalem for the feasts was the peace offerings. God's portion was prescribed in Numbers 28 and 29; they knew how many burnt offerings were to be offered; but nothing is prescribed as to the number of peace offerings; it was left to the spirit of love and sacrifice among the brethren. God, of course, is always the object. The sacrifice of peace offering

is always spoken of as a sacrifice to Jehovah, but the one who offered it has the welfare of his brethren in view, that they might be sustained before God for His pleasure. That is what is involved in walking in love. "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour".

Thus substance is developed, the divine nature developed in the saints as walking in love. The street of the city was "pure gold, as transparent glass". What a wonderful thing to tread the street of gold now, to walk in love! There is only one street because there is only one way to walk, that is gold -- love. "Walk in love, even as the Christ loved us" -- that is the measure. "Love one another, as I have loved you". That is the street of gold; it will be trodden in the day to come in glory. What a sight! The city will be composed of those walking in love in perfect harmony, but now is the formation time. Not only the street is gold, but the city is a solid cube of gold. It says of the Son in Hebrews 1 that He is the expression of God's substance; He is not only the outshining of His glory, but He is the expression of His substance. It refers to what God is in His essential Being -- God is love. In answer to this expression, love is to be formed in our hearts; so that while in the city it is finite, yet it is an immense measurable quantity, it is real substance.

Now all this bears on our present relations with Christ, so that in the Song of Solomon the walk of the saints together is suggested in the bride coming up from the wilderness. "Who is this, she that cometh up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke?". Our walk together is thus in view, as coming up from the wilderness, and the sight is so magnificent that the writer raises the question, "Who is this?" Who could it be? "Who is this, she that cometh up from

the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?". I believe that is a present view of the saints walking in love. It represents the saints walking in the true communion of the body and blood of Christ, the real vital bond of fellowship, in love. The Lord Jesus has led the way in giving Himself as a sacrifice on the altar, but now the bride is coming up on the line of sacrifice; that is what is suggested here: "like pillars of smoke".

The bride now is in conformity with the bridegroom who has led the way. Who can measure what went up from Christ -- "an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour". But now the bride is coming up marked by the same features, a company of people who have presented their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God", and who are proving what is that "good and perfect and acceptable will of God", in devoting themselves to His people here on the line of sacrifice. "Pillars of smoke" -- walking in love as Christ also loved us and has delivered Himself for us. What pillars of smoke ascend to God, a sweet-smelling odour, love's sacrifice, from a company perfumed with myrrh and frankincense! The bride is in correspondence with Christ Himself, and she is thus fitted to enter into the place that Solomon has prepared. No answer is given as to who the bride is: "Who is this?" but the writer goes on immediately to speak of Solomon; that is the answer -- she is the counterpart of Solomon, his bride.

Then it goes on to say, "Behold his bed, which is Solomon's", and in verse 9 it describes it more fully: "King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon". It speaks of what Christ Himself has prepared, His own side of things. She is coming up from the wilderness from her side of things, but formed in love in those circumstances, treading the

path of love in those circumstances. She is thus ready to pass over into the place He has prepared -- ready for the day of his espousals. How often we feel we are not ready to pass over into His circumstances, to His present place of glory! His heart will never be satisfied until we are there with Him actually; He wants us to be with Him in the surroundings which He has prepared in love for us. He would have us come up from the wilderness formed in love so that we are in no wise out of keeping with the surroundings which He has prepared. "King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon. Its pillars he made of silver, its support of gold, its seat of purple". Think of the bride coming into those surroundings, fit to enter into such a realm! How deep should be our concern in our walk together that our collective relations might be such that we can pass over in spirit unhinderedly into His own surroundings, so as to give Him a foretaste of the day of His espousals, the day of the gladness of His heart!

DISCIPLINE, ADJUSTMENT AND FORMATION, COMFORT

Nahum 1:3, 7, 15; Isaiah 37:1 - 4; Ezekiel 14:21 - 23

I desire, dear brethren, to speak of three things; first discipline, secondly adjustment and formation, thirdly comfort. I think these things are closely connected, for discipline has in view adjustment and formation, and, if God sends discipline, He has in mind to comfort His people both in the discipline and also in the results that accrue from it. At the present time we are passing through a common discipline. God's people were always the subjects of His discipline, but at the moment we are drawn together in sharing in that which is a common discipline. I think God would have us appreciate Him more than we have ever done hitherto in connection with His discipline, and to be in sympathy with Him as seeing the end He has in view. He would have us to realize that in His ways in government He is dealing with His household, and in that connection He is spoken of as the Father of spirits, dealing with those whom He regards as sons, in love and wisdom. At the same time as the blessed and only Ruler He maintains His over-ruling government amongst the nations. In His great wisdom He can make these "things work together". Whilst He has His chief interest in His assembly, and everything can only serve for the furtherance of its spiritual welfare, God does not give up His other interests. The consideration of this enlarges our thoughts as to Him. We may have thought His chief interest was His only interest. But with Israel of old, when He chastised His people He dealt with all the nations round about.

It is true He does not govern the world publicly yet, because when He does He will have to come in as Judge, but in connection with the happenings of the present time He is behind the scenes, and things will never get out of hand, we may rest assured. In Revelation it says the beast was given power to continue 42 months. Even in the darkest day nothing happens except under God's over-ruling hand. He may allow evil to come to its full head, but things are never out of control. God would have us to be intelligent as to this. He is able to deal with matters among the nations, and yet cause everything to promote His chief interest -- the assembly. He would especially have us appreciate Him in His dealings with His people. Parents know how much patience is required to discipline children. How much more so in the case of His children for whom He has so great an end in view.

Now there are two things that are put together in scripture as the means whereby God reaches His end. On the one hand there is a ministry of grace, and on the other hand there is discipline. One would not achieve the desired result without the other. I trust we have all appreciated God as the source of grace, but have we appreciated Him in His discipline? If discipline is not brought in children will go astray. Does it not touch our hearts to think of the patience of God? If He relinquished His hand, where should we be? How carefully He brings in just what is needed; if He did not do so we would be swamped by the world. We can thank God for His discipline. So God would have us to be with Him in it, for if so, it will be an easier matter for Him to reach His end.

I referred to the scripture in Isaiah because discipline had come in at that time in an overwhelming way, and at a time when he might have thought it least necessary. During the 14 years of Hezekiah's reign there had been a great recovery in Israel. The

account in 2 Chronicles is most heartening, for the whole service of the house of God was restored; the priests, Levites, and singers were in their places, and when the burnt-offering began the song of the Lord began. It was the greatest recovery since the days of Solomon. Yet in 2 Chronicles 32 we read, "After these things and this faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah". That bears out what I was saying; there had been a great ministry of grace, and at that very time this overwhelming discipline was sent so that the ministry might be formative in them.

This brings me to my second point -- adjustment and formation. They come out in Hezekiah himself: "And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent His garments". I think that represents adjustment, or at any rate preparedness for adjustment. Our garments suggest habits -- habits of life, habits of thought. How often these are borrowed from the world; the fact that we are going on with something spiritually great may not prevent that. We read in the book of Ecclesiastes, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider". So the best thing we can do is to rend our garments as Hezekiah did. And then he put on sackcloth, the sign of repentance. Was it needed? It is needed all along the way. In 5 out of 7 addresses in Revelation 2 and 3 there is a call to repent. It is meet that we should be marked by such a state. Before true adjustment can take place there needs to be a state of repentance. The happenings of the last 12 months have shown that we do need adjustment in our habits of thought, perhaps in many ways. We need to take to heart the fact that few perhaps, if any, thought that discipline of this kind is necessary. If we did not foresee that it was necessary, if we lacked prophetic vision, must there not have been with us a state that caused blindness? One cause of a state of blindness is a self-satisfied

condition. We need to beware of self-satisfaction. We can cloak ourselves with our blessings and become self-satisfied through the very goodness of God to us. One would desire to be careful as to one's remarks. But I am suggesting this need of adjustment in order that our thoughts and hearts may be brought into line with what God has before Him. Our thoughts were hardly in line with God's when we felt certain war was not coming. Did we not think we needed discipline? Did we not think christendom needed it? Had we felt the state of apostasy growing all around us, men becoming lovers of pleasure more than of God? Did we feel it enough? We need to face the question of lack of prophetic vision, and judge the state that brought it about. We need to rend our garments.

Another feature of adjustment is the need for the broader outlook to which I have already referred. The church is God's chief interest; nothing can happen which does not promote its welfare. But He still has His interests among the Jews as well as among the nations. He would have our hearts enlarged as to all His interests. He would have us to feel more with Him as to the whole course of government, to feel more the state of christendom, to feel more concerned about our own state and the way self-satisfaction so readily creeps in, so that we may be prepared to rend our garments, prepared for adjustment.

We also have to face the fact that the Lord has allowed certain of His own with whom we walk to be taken home in a way we did not expect. Why has the Lord acted in this way? Can it be that we have linked christianity too much with earth? Have we regarded it too much as an insurance for life? Have we allowed the very privileges we enjoy down here to link our hearts too much with this scene unconsciously? Were we limiting our piety to God's care of us

here instead of trusting Him as the God who raises the dead, and realising that the christian's hope is in heaven, that his inheritance is in resurrection? Let us not doubt that God will protect us down here: "We hope in a living God who is preserver of all men, specially of those that believe", 1 Timothy 4:10, N.T. He will surely keep every one of His own here until their course is finished and His work in them is done; but our hope, our home is in heaven. We spoke this afternoon about the pillar of Rachel's grave which exists concurrently with the pillar of Bethel. It is a witness to the fact that earthly hopes are buried; if there were earthly hopes, they belonged to Israel. But Israel has died and the church is built on Rachel's grave. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus said, "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel". Their cherished hopes had been earthly hopes, and they were disappointed, they needed adjustment. May there be a greater testimony to the heavenly calling!

What is in view is formation. If we are not adjusted how can formation come about? "The children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth". That was a remarkable admission on Hezekiah's part. They had great light, great privileges, great enjoyment, but there was no corresponding state, no strength to bring forth. God would help us that Christ might be formed in us in a practical way so that we are like Him on Monday as well as on Lord's day. We would covet to be like Him in measure in our trust in God, in our piety, in our testimony, and that is what God has in mind to bring to pass. The Lord Jesus says prophetically in this very book: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion", Isaiah 8:18. One feels the challenge is most urgent that our whole lives should be in accord with Him,

that our living trust in God should be in accord with Him, that our piety should be in accord with Him. The Lord Jesus was heard because of His piety -- Psalm 16 sets this out -- a piety which did not limit itself to God's preserving care here but looked beyond the grave to the right hand of God. May we become a living epistle of Christ down here, known and read of all men, so that we may no longer have a feeling of discrepancy between our practical lives and our place in the Assembly. God would use the discipline to remove discrepancies. He would deal with the hidden idols of our hearts as He did with the idols in Jerusalem. What idols in Jerusalem with the service of God going on? Yes -- hidden indeed, but God says, "As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and Samaria; shall I not as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?" So He brings up the Assyrian, "the rod of His anger", so that there might be deliverance from the idols and strength to bring forth; and that they might know the real meaning of Immanuel.

But then God would always comfort His people. He would comfort us both in the discipline and in the results that accrue from it. Nahum means "comfort", and he prophesied in Hezekiah's reign to comfort the people in the trial. He foretold the destruction of Nineveh, the stronghold of the mighty enemy of God's people. He says, "God is jealous, and the Lord revenges ... The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked". Then he goes on to say, "His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet", Nahum 1:3 - 4. This may primarily refer to His dealings in judgment, but may apply it as a word of comfort to His own discipline, for if His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, He has His end in view, an end of perfect blessing. We see it in a remarkable

way in the history of Job. Job lost everything but his life -- his property, his children, his health -- but when he had lost everything he would not give up his righteousness. He says, "Till I die I will not remove my blamelessness from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go", Job 27:6 - 7, N.T. If God's discipline had not come he would have gone down to the pit, the only place for a self-righteous man. So God deals with Job that he might give up that last thing, his self-righteousness. Elihu speaks to him of the balancing of the clouds: "Dost thou not know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous work of him that is perfect in knowledge?", Job 37:16. God has an end in view, we can take courage; when the clouds come up, they are the dust of His feet, they are the proof that He is on His way for our blessing. We can thank God for the clouds in every part of the earth at the present moment.

In Europe the storm has burst, but even in Australia and in America there are clouds. God has in mind the blessing of all His people, to bring about adjustment, to free our hearts from idols, and from self-satisfaction, and to produce formation. Then Nahum continues, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knoweth them that trust in him". Finally he says, "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publishes peace! O Judah keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows". He points us to Christ at the right hand of God. It is from that point that He has preached the glad tidings of peace: "And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh", Ephesians 2:17. So Judah is to keep her solemn feasts. Christ's position is the guarantee that the feasts will go on. We may be dispersed, reduced in numbers, but surely we can count upon God preserving our solemn feasts to us. What a word of comfort it was to the people in Hezekiah's day who had learned

to value the feasts as they had not done since the days of Solomon!

The passage in Ezekiel speaks of the comfort that flows from the results that accrue from a trial. The prophet has another trial in mind; he is referring to Nebuchadnezzar's invasion when Jerusalem was destroyed, but what he brings out, in chapter 14: 22 - 23, is the positive results that God is going to get from it. God is acting in righteous government; but He not only justifies His ways in discipline by the fact that they are merited, but also justifies them by the results that accrue. If He says, "I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, and cut off man and beast from it", verse 17, it is not done without a cause. See the results, sons and daughters that provide comfort by their way and doings! He is justified by the results. If adjustment and formation takes place at the present time, we shall find sons and daughters that will comfort our hearts, those who are truly like Christ: "Behold they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings, and ye shall be comforted ... and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord God". How encouraging to see all that God is able to bring out of discipline! What wonderful children He secured in Daniel and his friends, Joshua, Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, and those with them! What sons and daughters! Nehemiah means "comfort of Jehovah". The discipline was justified because of the state of the profession, but it was also justified by the results. Such children are a comfort to the heart of God, Ephesians 5:1, a comfort to the heart of Christ, Hebrews 2:13, and a comfort to the saints. May God comfort our hearts in this way! May we accept adjustment, may there be formation, and may we have the comfort of seeing sons and daughters according to His own heart, for His Name's sake!

WAITING FOR AND MOVING WITH GOD

Ezekiel 14:22 - 23; Daniel 2:19 - 23; Ezra 7:1, 5 - 6, 10; Ezra 8:32 - 34; Nehemiah 1:3 - 4; Nehemiah 2:11 - 20

Some here may remember that the scripture with which we commenced this afternoon is the same with which we finished last week. I had in mind today, the Lord helping me, to speak of some features of those sons and daughters referred to in that passage whom God promised to secure out of the discipline which came upon Jerusalem, and of whom He said that His people would be comforted when they saw their way and their doings. You will notice it does not limit the matter to their sayings but speaks of their way and their doings. Surely we must feel, dear brethren, that God has in mind such results at the present moment, that is, to secure sons and daughters who will be a comfort to the saints, and one may say, will be a comfort to His own heart, out of the discipline which He has allowed to come upon His people.

So I have read scriptures referring to three different men who illustrate those whose way and doings are a comfort in three different spheres. Daniel is presented to us as moving in the sphere of God's government, and that is the sphere in which, in the main, we have to render our testimony. Ezra is moving in matters relating to the house of God, and we can understand what a comfort he was to the brethren at Jerusalem; he arrived some sixty or seventy years after the original move when Joshua and Zerubbabel went, but what a comfort he must have been to those who were seeking to hold and to maintain the service of God's house -- his very name being suggestive, because the

word Ezra means 'help'. Then the instruction culminates in Nehemiah because his name means 'comfort of Jehovah'. All three would be a comfort -- their way and their doings would be a comfort -- but it culminates in Nehemiah who came to Jerusalem twelve or thirteen years after Ezra and, in away, completed the comfort of the saints. Now of course, we must not limit these features to certain persons because if you look at these three men you will find that all three features marked each of them; and we should be exercised that, in some measure, each feature should mark each one of us; yet certain features become more prominent in certain people.

So Daniel stands out as an example for all time since his day of how believers are to conduct themselves in the sphere of God's government and testimony down here. If we are to conduct ourselves so that our way and our doings are pleasing to God and a comfort to the saints in that sphere, we need to have an impression of the greatness of God. That is what marked Daniel and his companions. Daniel's name means 'God is judge', Hananiah's name means 'Jah is gracious' -- Jah is the most exalted name of God -- Michael means, 'Who is what God is', and Azariah means 'Jah is keeper'. So that you find with all four a great impression of God. Well, dear brethren, one feels, speaking for oneself, how much one needs help as to conduct in the sphere of God's government and of our testimony. How we need to be marked by courage and wisdom; and if that is to come about we need to have a very great impression of God: "God is judge". The word 'judge' is not the thought simply of a penal judge passing sentence on evil, but it is the same word as in Psalm 68:5, "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation", and in Psalm 9:8, "He will judge the world in righteousness". The thought in it is the supreme and sovereign Ruler,

the One who has the final word in everything, not only in punishing what is evil, although that is involved, but in upholding the good. So it says in Hebrews 12, "Ye are come ... to God, the judge of all".

Now Daniel, in this outburst of praise that goes up to God when the vision is revealed to him, gives us an idea of how great God was in his sight. He begins with a note of worship; he says, "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever", or "from eternity to eternity". One of the highest notes of worship in the Old Testament is involved in that expression, indicating his knowledge of God in connection with purpose and counsel. He brings this knowledge into the realm of God's government for he says, "wisdom and might are his. And it is he that changeth times and seasons; he deposeth kings, and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding". Now one feels we need to know God in this way and to be bowed in worship before Him as the supreme and sovereign Ruler; it is He who changes times and seasons, Daniel says. It links on with what the Lord says to the disciples in the beginning of Acts: "It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority". In one way, there is no more exalted view of God than this; God would keep in His own hands and knowledge the times and seasons. What a great thing to know a God like that! He has determined every dispensation, when it should begin and when it should end. As to the end of the present age the Lord says, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father", Mark 13:32. How great God is in this character, keeping times and seasons in His own hand! In the epistle to Timothy, which refers to the saints here in public testimony as the house of God, this side of the truth

is brought out in a remarkable way. It speaks of God as the "King of the ages", that is, every age is in His hand: "the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God". Then in the last chapter Paul speaks of Him as "the blessed and only Ruler ... the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship". He is speaking of God, the supreme and sovereign Ruler, the God whom Daniel knew. He also refers in the epistle to times in connection with the testimony; as to the present testimony he says, "God is one and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in its own times". God has fixed those times; we in measure, are entrusted with that testimony, but God has fixed its times. Later in the epistle he speaks of "the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall shew". God has determined when the present dispensation, that which is called "its own times" in connection with the testimony of God as Saviour, shall cease, and when another time shall begin, ushered in by the appearing of our Lord Jesus. God has it in His hands, the Father has determined it.

Then, in addition to that, Daniel says that He removes kings and sets up kings. Now dear brethren, that applies in a practical way at the present moment. He is the blessed and only Ruler and has His own way at the present time. So that whatever kind of person has power at the moment we can look behind that person and bow to the hand of God in it. We can humble ourselves under His mighty hand as to what He allows in that respect. I believe we need to be grounded in this truth if we are to be truly bold and free in testimony. We need to be on this bedrock, that the One whom we are representing holds the whole reins of government in His hands, although not publicly but behind the scenes, and they never

get out of His control. It would enable us to be restful as well as courageous in testimony. No doubt in the past many have known and held it, and it has enabled them to suffer unto death. In quietness of spirit Daniel's three friends could face the fiery furnace because they had this knowledge that "he deposeth kings and setteth up kings". To bring it down to our day, we know it is our Father who is controlling things, and even if He permits a Nebuchadnezzar to be on the throne and bring persecution on His people, it is He who sees fit to do so in perfect wisdom and love, both for the sake of the testimony and for our own sakes. It would give us a very great sense of the majesty of the Person we represent in this world. So we would be enabled to stand before authorities, if called upon to do so, in a subject yet not a servile spirit, recognising that the One whom we are representing and with whom we stand in near relationship, is the One who has entrusted that power into their hands; so that while not afraid of the men who exercise it yet we are subject to them. We see that coming out in a marked way in Daniel. He and his companions knew just how to commend their God and to carry themselves in public testimony. They had a sense of the majesty of their God, and they knew how to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's".

Much more could be said of this; the Lord Himself has marked out the path; He witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession -- a remarkable thing. He could say to Pontius Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above", John 19:11. There was the Lord Himself, the Son of the Father, recognising that the authority wielded was from God, and therefore subject to that authority even though unjustly applied, and yet at the same time witnessing to the truth before Pilate's conscience, bringing home to him that, as

having received the authority from God, he was responsible to God for the way he exercised it. It is spoken of as "the good confession". Also, in 2 Timothy Paul emphasises that it is in the realm of government we are called upon to witness for God, for he says, "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner", chapter 1: 7 - 8. Paul was imprisoned by the powers that be, but he held himself as the Lord's prisoner, looking beyond them, and was thus able to commend the testimony even in prison, and to encourage others not to be ashamed of it. So Daniel, at the close of his prayer, says, "I thank thee, and I praise thee, O God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might". If we are to represent the God to whom wisdom and might belong in His supremacy as Ruler, we need to have wisdom and might ourselves, and God is prepared to give it. Daniel says He had given it to him. In a moral way, how it shines out! Physical might belonged to Nebuchadnezzar but moral might belonged to Daniel and his friends, because they knew the One to whom belongs honour and might, 1 Timothy 6:16. Whatever feature of Gentile rule comes out, it is ordained of God; whether gold or silver, brass, iron or clay -- the whole image is, so to speak, standing today, and every feature is for our good. Silver, no doubt suggests how God can use them in our favour to give us liberty to respond to His rights in redemption; brass speaks of the way God can use them in discipline; iron indicates the strength of ordered government, affording a sphere in which His testimony can go forward; and iron mixed with clay shows that even the most degraded form of government -- democracy -- is allowed to give us liberty of conscience. You can see as to the whole thing that God's hand is in it, so that we might be free to glorify God.

Now to pass on for a moment to Ezra; I suppose all of us would like to be a help and a comfort to the saints, and Ezra shows how we can be a help -- his name means that. Well, we all have to tread our path in the realm of God's government here, and we also all stand connected with God's house. These things bear closely on one another. In the realm of God's government He has "made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father", and the book of Daniel shows how that kingdom, which saints are, is going to break the image and fill the earth. But then, we also have part in God's house and in God's city. The kingdom, the house and the city are closely connected. What gives the house its importance is that it is the dwelling-place of God, the King; and what gives the city its importance is that it is the place whence the light and administration proper to the kingdom is exercised.

We would all, surely, desire to be a help in connection with the house of God, and Ezra comes in in that connection. He was not a pioneer; Joshua and Zerubbabel and others were pioneers years before. None of us here can exactly claim to be pioneers -- others have done that kind of work, and the truth of the house has been recovered to us. But we can all come in as helps, and the Lord would encourage us to move on on this line. How can I be a help? In taking character from Ezra! First of all, he was a priest and he could trace his genealogy right back to Phinehas, Eleazar and Aaron. The way a person can prove his genealogy, spiritually today is by being marked by the features of priesthood. No doubt Ezra, in his measure, was marked by features which marked Phinehas, Eleazar and Aaron. Then it says of him in verse 6: "This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given", and again in verse 10: "For Ezra had directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it, and to teach in Israel the statutes and

the ordinances". One would seek to encourage the brethren to be marked by the features of Christ. The most distinctive feature of a priest is that he considers for God; he always puts God first and His portion in connection with His house. God would have us begin there. But He would also have us each to be "a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given". The Lord Jesus speaks in John 14 saying "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me". He would challenge our hearts as to whether we have the commandments. Are we concerned to be intelligent as to what is suitable to God in His house? If we are to have divine Persons abiding with us, we must provide conditions suited to Them, and this requires intelligence as to the commandments of the Lord, and His word. Ezra was a ready scribe; it suggests one not only intelligent but accurate in his intelligence. A scribe is an accurate man; and that is what is called for in these days -- an accurate knowledge of what is suitable to God in His house. It is all livingly set forth in the Lord Jesus Himself. His commandments are set forth in Himself: "this is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you". John's epistle refers to walking as He walked, being righteous as He is righteous, pure as He is pure, loving as He loved. The law of God is thus set forth livingly in Jesus, and the Lord would lay it upon us to be accurately acquainted with what is suitable to God. What a pleasure a study of that kind is! -- to study One who is supreme in our affections! It is a question of being occupied with Christ so as to become intelligent in the mind of God.

So Ezra went up and took his companions with him, and they brought much treasure with them. What was in Ezra's mind was to beautify the house of God. Others have done the pioneering work, but God would have each one of us add to what is there. So

they brought up gold and silver and golden vessels and two vessels of shining copper, precious as gold. They were carefully carried by the Levites and brought to Jerusalem and handed over by weight and number. One would suggest that the quantity of silver and gold brought up would convey the appreciation that Ezra and those with him had of God's rights and grace expressed in redemption; and of God revealed in love. Then the vessels would refer, no doubt, in our day to the persons themselves. The greatest addition I can bring to the house of God is myself -- myself as a person formed in love, the divine nature, owning the claims of God over me in redemption, and as a person walking in separation. The gold would suggest what we are as in the divine nature, and the vessels of shining copper precious as gold, what we are as separate from evil; and these vessels were brought to the house of God and checked in by weight and number. You feel that we need to know how to weigh as well as to number, dear brethren. If we look at the saints from the point of view of number, we are all on one level, we are those for whom Christ died. We all like to come in on the ground of number; but this challenge, as it were, comes up in Ezra's day as to the weight of the vessels brought -- what I am really worth in moral formation as formed in the divine nature. We need to be prepared to face that matter ourselves as well as to be able to regard the brethren in that way -- loving all the brethren as numbered, yet having a just estimate of weights. All this is needed if the vessels are to be in suitable perspective in the house of God, if the house of God is to be truly beautified. I am not suggesting weight with a view to belittling one another, but how apt we are to undervalue the brethren, failing to give them their true spiritual and moral value.

Before Ezra could achieve the full desires of his heart he had to await the coming of Nehemiah. You

will notice it says in chapter 7, "For Ezra had directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it", verse 10, which corresponds with having the Lord's commandments and keeping them, "and to teach in Israel the statutes and the ordinances". If you read the history of these two books you will find that it was not until Nehemiah had come and his work was done, that Ezra's opportunity came to teach Israel the statutes and ordinances; it was then that they made the pulpit of wood for Ezra, and day by day he read out of the law to the people, and it was then that the remnant, having learned the statutes and ordinances, were moved in response, and the covenant, to maintain the whole service of the house of God, was entered into and sealed. It was a wonderful recovery; there is nothing like it elsewhere in Scripture, and it was the result of Ezra's reading the law day by day in the ears of the people. Finally, it led to the two choirs that went round the wall and finished in the house of God. Ezra is the help and Nehemiah the comfort, and until the hearts of the saints are comforted and knit together in love, there will not be an atmosphere to take in spiritual ministry. Ezra had to wait for these conditions before the people could take in spiritual ministry and respond in the beautiful climax that is recorded in Nehemiah. Well, what brought about that state of comfort? I believe we need to take in this matter carefully; we may not have thought of Nehemiah as one who particularly brought comfort to the saints, but that is what his name means. He was concerned about the wall of the city, and you can be sure of this, dear brethren, that those who are most necessary for the comfort of the saints are those who are concerned about the wall, those who are concerned to maintain the principles of fellowship in integrity. As such they may not be the most attractive kind of people; sometimes they have to be rather lonely men. Ezra, bringing

wealth to the house of God had companions with him; but Nehemiah was alone and no one knew what God had put into his heart to do, but he was determined at all costs that the principles of fellowship should be maintained inviolate, and not only maintained but restored. The wall was in ruins and the gates burned with fire. There will be no comfort to the saints unless the wall is rebuilt and the gates functioning, because there will be no sense of security -- an enemy can come right through and desecrate the whole position; and Nehemiah felt it. So when the news reached him that the gates were burned with fire and the wall down, it says that he mourned and fasted and wept for days. He represents a man concerned about the public position in Christendom where the wall is down and any enemy, any feature of the flesh, is allowed in; and where, consequently, the gates are not functioning. The sheep-gate, the fish gate and the gate of the old wall are not functioning, and there is no room for the operations of the Spirit, which the fountain-gate suggests. Similarly, the deep meaning of the valley-gate, speaking of the death of Christ, is not understood and therefore the dung-gate, where everything should be judged and rejected which is not in accord with the death of Christ, is unused. Nehemiah, on hearing it, was filled with sorrow and prayed to the God of heaven and confessed his own sins and the sins of his fathers, and obtained permission to go to Jerusalem to revive out of the rubbish the stones of the wall. Men are proving today that salvage work is hard work -- and so it is. What is required today, if the wall is to be rebuilt, is salvage work to revive the stones out of the rubbish. Judah said later, "The strength of the bearers of burdens faileth and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build at the wall". The minds of many believers in Christendom are filled with rubbish, doctrines and ideas that are simply rubbish, and it is

hard work to bring them to recognise that the wall is necessary. But God in His mercy has wrought through men like Nehemiah so that there are a few walking together who recognise the principles of fellowship. There is no real spiritual comfort for the saints when the wall is down, there is a sense of insecurity and uncertainty; but once the wall is up and the gates functioning then the saints are comforted and they are ready for Ezra's ministry. "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God", Colossians 2:2. Unless the saints are comforted they will never be able to go on to full knowledge. So although Nehemiah's work may seem a rough kind of work, and you may not, at first, be attracted to that kind of man -- yet it is most essential work if the saints are to be in a condition to take in spiritual ministry.

So the passage read in Nehemiah is very fine. You may be feeling the condition of things but you do not rush into matters; Nehemiah waited three days -- that is an important point; it marks Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra twice over waited three days -- once at the river Ahava and once at Jerusalem. We are apt to hurry too much when we feel the urgency and importance of what is on hand. The flesh loves to be active and 'useful', but three days gives time for us to realise that the flesh profits nothing. I believe it is the time in Scripture which represents waiting for God: "I waited patiently for the Lord", Psalm 40:1 -- not merely 'on' Him but 'for' Him. It is the time that Christ waited for God in the grave. "I waited patiently for the Lord". "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock". However urgent the matter, it is a great thing to wait for God, so that we are moving with God in the thing. So Nehemiah moves with God and surveys

the ground, and the result is that he carries all the brethren with him. Before the end of chapter 2 he has all the brethren with him, showing how God will help those who are prepared to stand for principles. Thus he is able to face the enemy, for if you are out to maintain principles you will find plenty of enemies. So we have "Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian". Sanballat was probably a Moabite, and he and Tobiah had been allowed an honoured place in the city of God, in Jerusalem -- it is what is all around us.

Moab refers to family pride and status; the Ammonite to national pride and status, and Geshem -- the Arabian would be an Ishmaelite -- to religious pride and status, although professing the name of Christ. It is an abomination for family status, national status or mere religious status to be recognised in the assembly. Spiritual values should alone count there. In Deuteronomy 23:3 it states that an Ammonite or a Moabite should not come into the congregation of Jehovah forever. We recognise family status and national status in their proper spheres, for we are not socialists, but they have no portion nor right in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem spiritual values alone count, and it is beautiful to see the way Nehemiah can face this question. These men knew that the moment the wall is up their influence in Jerusalem will come to an end, and they therefore resist the work; but Nehemiah boldly says, "Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem". Thank God, there have been men like this! To them, under God, we owe what we enjoy today.

Well, I have covered what I had to say. I wish to leave an impression of what is open to us and what God is working for at the present moment: that is, to bring to pass sons and daughters whose way and doings please Him, and are a comfort to the saints. The scriptures we have looked at give their way and

doings, first in the realm of government and testimony, then in relation to God's house, and finally in relation to the city and the principles of fellowship. May He help us in these matters, for His Name's sake!

THE VERSATILITY OF THE ASSEMBLY

1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1 - 3; Ephesians 3:20, 21; Acts 20:25 - 28

I desire to say a word as to the assembly, and I hope that the Spirit of God may help us more fully to understand what an exceedingly great vessel the assembly is, the masterpiece of divine operations. To be occupied with the greatness of the assembly in no way detracts from the greatness of Christ; for if the assembly is great, Christ is surpassingly great. The assembly is great because it is His body, His fulness. I suppose there is not a feature attaching to His perfect and glorious manhood which does not find an answer in the assembly as His counterpart. "I will make him a helpmate, his like". The assembly is "the fulness of him who fills all in all".

God has had the assembly before Him since before time began. Paul always had the assembly before him in his service. He was the minister of the assembly and his desires for the assembly, as it were, consumed him. It was said of the Lord, "The zeal of thy house devours me". The house of God now is "the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth". Zeal for the assembly was the consuming zeal of Paul. He said: "I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly", and again, "I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved". It was his objective all the time that the saints should understand that they belonged to this august vessel, the assembly, that they should apprehend their

calling in this respect. Our calling includes the great truth that we belong to the assembly. Our calling of course involves sonship: "Out of Egypt have I called my son". No one could be in the assembly who was not among the sons of God; it is composed of such. It is only in the liberty of sonship that we can properly fill our place in the body. That is according to the order of the truth in Romans. Romans 8 brings us experimentally to the truth of sonship; Romans 12 to the truth of the body.

While sonship is a primary matter in the Christian calling, the very word 'assembly' also involves the idea of calling: it means a called out company. God has called us out to have a functional part in this great vessel, the assembly. So even in addressing the Thessalonians, who had only been converted a short time, Paul says, "the assembly of Thessalonians". He would give them an impression that they had been called out with a view to being set together assembly-wise.

I have referred to the versatility of the assembly. When God was bringing out His thoughts of old, He had to use many types to illustrate the various aspects and functions of the assembly. In addition to the types representing the wife and the bride, there was the tabernacle, the city, and the house that Solomon built. In all these things the assembly was in God's mind. That is what I mean by the versatility of the assembly. She fills out every position, for she is the city of God, the tabernacle of God, the temple of God, the habitation of God, as well as the bride, the Lamb's wife. In Revelation these things are identified: the word to John is, "I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife". But what does John see? "The holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God". Think of the versatility of such a vessel! The bride, the Lamb's wife, is the city of God, the holy Jerusalem. And in the eternal view-

point, where he saw "the holy city, new Jerusalem ... prepared as a bride adorned for her husband", he "heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men". The very same vessel is the tabernacle of God. You can understand in the light of this what a great vessel the assembly is. How worth while it is to spend and to be spent for such a vessel! God and Christ have taken a lead in that way. You can never measure what has been spent on the assembly. "Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it". And in the last passage we read, "the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own". What has been spent on the assembly surpasses human comprehension. Even what Paul spent on the assembly is beyond our measure to take in, and, in our day, how much some have spent! The assembly is worth it all, and God would bring us more and more into His appreciation of the assembly.

You may say, 'How do you link these thoughts of the assembly, the bride and the wife, with the city and the habitation?' They are essentially linked. The very versatility of the assembly lies in the fact that she is the body of Christ. If we think of the Lord Jesus, every divine thought as to man was expressed in perfection in Him. He is the perfect embodiment of the whole mind of God. The very title "the Word" means that. If we think of administration, we see it in absolute perfection in Christ. We find it now in His body, the assembly, and that is why the assembly is the city. She will perfectly represent Christ in administration in the coming day. Again, Christ spoke of the temple of His body. All the light of God was there when He was here. Where is the light of God to be found in testimony now? It is in the assembly. Because the assembly is Christ's body, the light of God is there; and thus the assembly is God's temple at the present time. The

basic constitution of the assembly lies in the fact that she is Christ's body. Because she is His body she can fill out every position to God's glory and for His pleasure.

We can understand, too, Christ loving the assembly. He loves the assembly and has delivered Himself up for it. The assembly loves Christ because she sees in Him the ideal Man, "the root and offspring of David". We see in Jesus the Man of God's purpose, the Man in whom God has found His delight, "my beloved Son", as He says, "in whom I have found my delight". And the soul of the assembly finds its delight in Christ. Our very soul is moved as we think of Him. We delight in the Man who ever considered for His God. According to Psalm 22 He went into the depths for His God; He sacrificed Himself completely in consideration for His God. The assembly loves the Lord Jesus in His perfect Manhood. She is in accord with God, who says, "My beloved in whom my soul has found its delight. I will put my Spirit upon him", Matthew 12:18. Honours rare are placed upon that blessed Man. "I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth", Psalm 89:27. The assembly says "Amen" to all that. He is "the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star". The more the assembly loves Christ, in that bridal way, the more the other features proper to the assembly develop in her. The more Christ is enshrined in our affections, the more we become in a practical way the habitation of God. What is the habitation of God? The place where Christ is enshrined, where the Ark is. You think of the tabernacle, of the house; it was the shrine for the ark; where the ark is, God is. "Arise, Jehovah Elohim, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength", 2 Chronicles 6:41. The truth is one whole. The bride, the Lamb's wife, is the city, and the vessel prepared as a bride adorned for her husband

is the tabernacle, because in that vessel Christ is enshrined. He dwells in our hearts by faith, and it is in such a vessel God finds His rest.

Paul had the assembly always before him and he addresses the youngest Christians as "the assembly of Thessalonians". He is not developing the assembly yet, but he reminds them that they are the assembly of the Thessalonians, that they are called out for a purpose. If we are to be free to take on these great thoughts of the assembly, which relate to what Christ has and what God has, we need to be satisfied as to our own portion, settled as to our own affairs, so that we are free to be engaged with God and His affairs. And so he speaks to the Thessalonians in the way of comfort because we need comforting. It is a comforting epistle. He speaks of their having received "eternal consolation and good hope by grace".

It is remarkable that, when Paul's feelings are deeply stirred, he says, "Ye, O Philippians". He says that when he was stirred by being ministered to by them twice in three weeks. When he wants to move the Corinthians, he says, "Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded ... let your heart also expand itself". And when he is feeling intensely the position in Galatia, he says, "O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you?" I suggest that we need to look more upon one another from this aspect and not be afraid of these expressions. If we are Londoners, we are Londoners; if Parisians, we are Parisians. We are to think of the brethren in that way. Those in London have things to face that no one else on earth has, and so have the brethren in Paris; God has planted them there; they are plants of the Father's planting in that setting, in divine wisdom, because of what He is going to work out in them, which will shine in the eternal day. Nevertheless, unless they are comforted and helped

in their actual setting as Thessalonians or Philippians or Corinthians, with divine resources to meet local conditions, they will not move on to God's great thoughts. And so a sympathetic outlook is called for in the way we think of, love, and pray for one another. How much do we think of one another, and pray for one another as thinking of what the saints in each locality have to face if true assembly features are to develop there? They were the assembly of Thessalonians, but what could be more comforting than that they were "in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"? We live in London, may be, but in another sense our life is not there; it is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, wherever we may be, we are in the family and in the kingdom, and they are very comforting thoughts.

When we come to Corinth, it is a question of the universal features of the assembly, the assembly of God in Corinth, not the assembly of Corinthians. If we think of the assembly of the Thessalonians, we are thinking of the personnel in connection with their local setting and peculiar exercises; but if we think of the assembly of God in a place we are thinking of the vessel that is marked by the same features everywhere -- there is no variation. As we get help on the line of comfort, as maintained in the sense that we are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, we become victorious in our local setting. We find sufficiency in the Father and in the Lord for all our matters, and we are able to take on the features of the assembly of God in a place. So now the apostle, while speaking of the assembly in a locality, in Corinth, is bringing out characteristics which are proper to the assembly universally. What is proper to the assembly of God in London, is proper to the assembly of God in Sydney or New York, because it is the assembly of God. It is therefore a question of divine order and what is suitable to God in a vessel

which represents God in a place, a vessel where the light of God is, where the word of God is spoken, where the order of God's house is seen. This does not vary from place to place. So, while the apostle is writing to a local company, he brings in the universal customs of the assembly, what is to govern those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place. The more we value the truth of the assembly, the more we shall be governed by the universal features of the assembly of God. The order of His house, the truth of His temple, the functioning of Christ's body, are brought out so clearly in this epistle. All this is to provide a place for God in the cities of men. When I think of the assembly I think of a place for God. Scripture makes it clear that the Lord Jesus has prepared a place for us. The Father's house is a wider thought than the assembly. "In my Father's house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place". God has considered for the needs of all the families. His house is great enough for them all. Our place is the best place; God has seen to that. We are well housed eternally. Even individually we are waiting for a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. God has provided for us; but when I think of the assembly, I think of a place for God. The assembly of God in Corinth meant a place for God in that unclean city. There was the heathen temple, and the Jewish synagogue, but the assembly of God was the place where God was, "God is among you of a truth", 1 Corinthians 14:25. It is an immense thing that we should have that before us, a place for God. The assembly is essentially and in the fullest degree a vessel suited to be the abode of God in testimony, whether now or in the world to come, or in the eternal state. Of course, we have to say on the other hand that no creature vessel could ever contain Him. Solomon says, "The heavens,

and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee". Yet it is the divine purpose to have a vessel in which God can dwell and place Himself in contact with the whole created sphere. He will have a vessel adequate for that, not that it could contain Him, yet God is dwelling in it. The Scripture makes clear two great thoughts. We dwell in God and God in us, and that works out in its fulness in the assembly.

But then, if God was to have His place in Corinth, it involved Christ having His place as Lord and as Head. In fact the apostle says of that local company, "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ". That is the local company. I am certain the apostle had nothing less in his mind for any local company, than to espouse them to one Man, to present them a chaste virgin to Christ. How wonderful! In a city like Corinth there was to be a company in whose hearts Christ was enshrined; and, if Christ was enshrined, God would have His place there. The bridal thought, as making way in our hearts for Christ, prepares the way for the divine habitation.

Now I pass on to Ephesians. We have spoken of the assembly of the Thessalonians, and the assembly of God in Corinth, the local assembly, but in Ephesians 3 the apostle speaks of the assembly in Christ Jesus. I suppose that is the greatest view of the assembly, the assembly viewed in its place according to eternal purpose in its full status, the assembly in Christ Jesus. As we answer to the truth of Corinthians and make way for God in a practical manner in the local setting, in the Spirit's power, we are privileged to touch the Ephesian setting. The Lord's supper is in the setting of Corinthians, but it is the doorway into the truth of Ephesians, and in the Spirit's power we are privileged to taste something of the assembly in Christ Jesus, outside time and locality, the full divine thought and conception

of the assembly in its eternal setting. What a wonderful thing it is to touch this, and in the assembly in Christ Jesus the thoughts I have sought to express are found substantially. This vessel is the object of the love of Christ, but on the other hand Christ is enshrined in it. "That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". He is enshrined in this vessel; it is the abode of the divine glory. The apostle continues, "and to know the love of the Christ, which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God", a vessel capable of being filled to all the fulness of God. Then he says, "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen". It is the eternal residence of the divine glory, the vessel through which God will put Himself in touch with men throughout the created universe throughout all eternity, the final word being, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God". As we get the gain of this prayer, the functioning of verses 9 to 12 takes place. I do not think it takes place in the full sense in any other way. There are other aspects of divine wisdom, but in its fullest sense I believe divine wisdom is seen as we touch, in the Spirit's power, the full service of God under the headship of Christ. The liberty with which the service of God proceeds in that vessel is a marvellous thing for heavenly intelligences to look upon, a vessel composed of men, creatures in a lower order of creation than those heavenly intelligences; yet having boldness and access in confidence to God in a way those heavenly intelligences will never know. Perhaps we little conceive what is going on at the present time in that respect. The heavenly hosts which celebrated the incoming of Christ, saying, "Glory to God in the highest", see that glory rendered now in the assembly

in Christ Jesus, a vessel in which Christ is enshrined and which is under His headship and impulse, deriving wisdom from Him. Just as the whole service proceeded under Solomon in wisdom, the whole service ordered under the headship of the king, so now the Christ in His active love sustains all, directs all, and gives impulse to all.

Think of the love of the Christ -- "I love my master, my wife, and my children" -- a love that flows in all directions and stimulates in all directions, and makes way for the fulness of God to fill our hearts so that there is an answering response, "glory to God". And, of course, this shines out too in the city. She comes out having the glory of God, and in a moral way there should be that reflection now in the assembly. We can speak but feebly of these things, but it may be the Spirit of God will leave on our hearts a sense of the greatness of the assembly, that it is the masterpiece of divine operations, a vessel adequate to be filled even to all the fulness of God, and to render glory to God through all eternity under the headship of Christ; His complement, His counterpart, a vessel entirely amenable to His impulse and touch. Christ is enshrined in it, the true Solomon, the true Ark. Features of the truth are presented separately in type in the scriptures, but the Spirit of God would help us to put them together in a spiritual way so that the truth as to Christ and as to the assembly may be one whole in our minds.

As we understand the greatness of this vessel, I would raise the question, How much are we prepared to spend on it? Paul is leaving -- who could measure what Paul spent? He is leaving, and he calls the elders of Ephesus, and he says, "Shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own". Think of what God has spent on the assembly! The idea of purchase is to convey the intrinsic excellence of that which is being bought.

If we think of redemption we have to think of the price needed to meet the liabilities, but if we think of purchase, we are thinking of the price the buyer is prepared to pay because of the value He puts upon the vessel. "The assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own". An extraordinary statement! There is an extraordinary statement, too, as to redemption, "Redeemed by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish". It is the same blood, of course, the blood of the Christ who "offered himself spotless to God". But "the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own" is intended to give us an idea of the preciousness of the assembly to God. And Paul is really challenging us in Acts 20 as to how much we are prepared to spend upon it. He says, as it were, 'I have spent everything'. "These hands", he said. He had laboured and spent everything, and he brings before them what God had spent, and he commits the assembly to their care and in a way it is committed to us. The assembly is still in a scene where it needs care and shepherding. "Shepherd the assembly of God" is the most exalted idea of shepherding. Those who sought a place for God in the Old Testament were shepherds. Jacob was concerned about a place for God, and Moses, and especially David. He would not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until he found out a place for Jehovah. That place now is the assembly. It is the only place for God at the present moment on the earth, and shepherding is needed. It has come down to us in our day. "Shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own".

UNITY OF THE BODY AND ONENESS

1 Corinthians 12:12 - 13, 27; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Ephesians 5:30 - 32; John 17:17 - 24

G.R.C. I trust the Lord may help us together in considering three thoughts of oneness -- first the unity of the body, secondly, union with Christ, as it says in Ephesians, "the two shall be one flesh", and thirdly, what the Lord speaks of in John 17 as being "one in us" -- our unity in the Father and in the Son.

One has felt that the Lord has been stressing the thought of union with Himself, the church's union with Him, but it seems to me if that is to be realised it raises the question first of all of unity amongst ourselves. In other words it bears in a very practical way on our local conditions and relations with each other, because unity precedes union, that is, the unity of the vessel to which Christ is united. It is true there is the individual thought of union -- "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" -- that is a blessed thing; but the full thought of union is that of Christ and the assembly, as it says, "we are members of his body; we are of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife". In the individual setting it says, "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit", but in the assembly setting it does not put it that way; it speaks of Christ being united to the assembly. The assembly is attractive to Christ and He leaves other things to be united to the assembly.

So all that raises a practical question as to unity in our localities, whether there are the features attractive to Christ which result from that unity. John 17 has persons in view, the men given to Christ

out of the world, and appears to be the highest thought of oneness. Both Ephesians 5 and John 17 indicate the importance the Lord attaches to these two sides of the truth. In Ephesians 5 it says, "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife", that is, you have the idea of the Lord leaving other interests for the sake of the assembly; and in John 17 you have a similar thought, "for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth", that is, He sets Himself apart. I suppose John 17 brings out the truth of what man is before God in Christ. That is the full thought of the truth. So manhood is in view in that chapter. One felt that Ephesians 5 and John 17, both exalted lines of truth, have a great bearing on our local relations; first in relation to the truth of the one body and then as to our personal relations as brethren in following after love, which would enable the truth of the one body to work out.

I.R. Would Psalm 133 suggest the conditions in which it would work out? "How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"

G.R.C. I think so.

W.S. The precious ointment referred to there is reflected in the Song of Solomon where the bride is attractive because of her perfumes. Throughout that Song the bridegroom is drawn by the perfumery.

G.R.C. That is, as we learn to follow after love in our localities and walk in love, the perfume goes up from the assembly.

W.S. It says that "ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel", Proverbs 27:9 -- connecting the very perfume with friendship. I think that supports your point.

G.R.C. Yes. So it seems that in our local setting there are two practical lines of exercise -- one is to be right in our relations as brethren, in our personal

relations with one another, and the other is to function in the organism, the one body. The organism exists as a great spiritual reality whether we enter into it or not. "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". We have not to work up to it, it is an existing reality; but if we are to move in the light of it and get the gain of it, we must be right in our relations with one another as brethren, both in and out of the meeting -- able to face things together in love. So that manhood comes into 1 Corinthians; the apostle ends his epistle by saying, "be vigilant; stand fast in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be strong". Also in chapter 14 he says, "in your minds be grown men". So that our personal relations with one another are intended to develop spiritual manhood, and personality as formed in love, and the more that develops the more we shall be able to function in this great organism which exists.

E.C.M. Is that why the apostle connects a brother with him in the first epistle?

G.R.C. Yes. So in John 17 it is a question of persons; the Father and the Son are presented in Their own Personalities, and the Lord prays, "that they also may be one in us". The line of exercise connected with our personal relations as brethren finds its culmination in John 17, while the line connected with the organism, the body, culminates in Ephesians 5 -- union with Christ. Both lines work out in our local setting as regards our practical enjoyment.

P.B.D. Is there any connection between this and the rings and boards in Exodus? The boards were joined together beneath and linked together by one ring at the top. Our relationship together, as joined together beneath, is to correspond with the fact that we are joined together in one ring at the top.

G.R.C. You mean there is the lower and the upper.

P.B.D. So that the tabernacle is one whole as

bound together by a golden bar going right round the whole.

G.R.C. That is helpful. So the boards would suggest how we become indispensable to one another practically, each board being a cubit and a half. But it leads on in Corinthians to the practical working out of this great truth of the body.

H.F.R. Why did you read verse 27 of chapter 12?

G.R.C. Because of the change in the pronoun. In verse 13 it is 'we', and it is emphatic: "in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body". But in verse 27 there is the emphatic pronoun 'ye': "now ye are Christ's body", the saints were that in character, "and members in particular". That is the test in working it out. Is it not important to see that the body is a great universal whole? "By one Spirit we", that is the universal 'we', all the saints on earth "have been baptised into one body". But then it has to be worked out in our local setting, so it says, "ye are Christ's body".

H.F.R. That is very suggestive, so that we work out what is local in the light of the universal, and that is a great stimulus.

G.R.C. That is a most important point to lay hold of. We do not work up from the local to the universal. God has made us members of the universal body of Christ, and we bring the light of the universal into the local. It is the opposite way to which men work; men form local branches, and then a federation of local branches; but the only membership scripture speaks of is the membership of the body of Christ -- not membership of a local church. Having the light of that we are governed in our local setting by it.

W.S. So that to be a good Corinthian you must be a good Ephesian. It must flow down from the top.

G.R.C. God starts at the top, so He makes us members of the universal organism.

C.L. The pattern was shown from the top: "see

thou make it according to the pattern shown thee in the mount".

H.F.R. So in chapter 11 the apostle says, "if anyone think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God", putting it in the light of the whole universal position.

G.R.C. Quite so. I think the thread runs through scripture. The Levites had to encamp around the tabernacle, whereas the others encamped according to their tribes. While we all have a local setting corresponding with the tribal one, from another angle we are all Levites and are all encamping around the tabernacle, that is the great universal whole. Unless we are true Levites encamping around the tabernacle we shall not be right in our tribal setting.

H.F.R. If we leave out the universal setting we get cramped and petty things come in; but having a universal outlook frees us from that.

G.R.C. The truth of the body helps us on two lines of truth: it gives a right balance between the universal and the local, and it enables us to reconcile sovereignty and mutuality. Sometimes, in seeking to work out the truth of the body, we are apt to become too local in the sense of thinking that our meetings are so much to develop what is local that we do not welcome a visitor coming in. I think the universal and the local would balance that; the body is universal and the gifts, especially ministerial gifts as set in the assembly, are in the universal setting. So the truth of the body would enable us to make room for a brother coming in, and not to be so occupied with the idea of developing what is local that we cannot make room.

H.F.N. Would the visitor on his side, however great and gifted he may be, learn in the light of what you are saying, to merge with the brethren?

G.R.C. I am sure of that, so there is the balancing in both directions.

H.F.N. The question of sovereignty and mutuality are very real tests.

P.B.D. Would you open that out a little?

G.R.C. The human body is the figure used in 1 Corinthians 12, and we could not find a better illustration of sovereignty and mutuality. "God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased him" -- that is sovereignty. It is God doing what pleased Him -- He has not consulted us, and what He does is always best. So in the human body He has put in it a member called the eye and has given that member the power of vision; but it cannot speak. He has put in the body a member called the tongue, but it cannot hear. But He has done it just as it pleased Him. On the other hand there is true mutuality because instinctively every member goes to the aid of the other. If the eye has work to do which it alone can do, the hands and the feet and every member will assist the eye; and the same with each member. All unselfishly assist each other to function -- that is mutuality.

P.B.D. So the question of sovereignty involves that we are subject.

G.R.C. That is the great point in 1 Corinthians 12; the Lord is over everything. So you have an organism in the sensitiveness of the Spirit. If we are really in the gain of the body, there may be a pause in a reading which will make room for some member to function who would not function without a pause.

P.B.D. Is that the activity of divine love working inwardly?

G.R.C. That is how it works out; love is the great motive power.

H.W.E. Would the thought of the Spirit help in regard to the universal and local aspect of which you have been speaking? The Spirit is set in direction to the body; there is one body and one Spirit. The Spirit can be taken account of universally, it always is;

but then, He comes to our aid locally in working things cut in the light of the universal position.

G.R.C. That is right. One main point in the first epistle to the Corinthians is to teach us to get the gain of the Spirit collectively, in our local companies. In Romans we learn the gain of the Spirit individually. We shall not get the gain of the Spirit collectively unless we are governed by the truth of the body.

H.F.R. Is your thought that following after love is a very practical thing? It might work out in many ways -- perhaps a pause in the reading, as you suggest, and spiritual manifestations may result from it.

G.R.C. To get the gain of the body in practice we need sensitive restfulness; our wills judged as subject to the Lord, and then the sensitiveness of the Spirit, because there is one body and one Spirit. The one Spirit knows the members through whom He would manifest Himself. Men may say, 'it is impossible, you must have someone in charge'. But the Spirit is present.

P.B.D. So this is a tremendous matter; everything hangs upon it.

G.R.C. It really underlies every meeting, and also our relations with each other in and out of the meetings. Take the ministry meeting: the truth of the body underlies it; are we able to wait in sensitive restfulness? Sometimes there is a brother with a word who, without a pause, would never get up. You have to guard against the forwardness of the flesh, always trying to 'keep the ball rolling', as we say, and backwardness on the other hand -- like Saul, who at one time was hiding behind the baggage and another time he could not wait.

H.F.R. Are these two things represented in Sihon and Og?

G.R.C. You mean, self-importance and laziness?

H.F.R. Yes, forwardness and backwardness. They are two great enemies to overcome if we are to enter into this thought of the body.

J.A.P. Is the great thing to drink into the Spirit -- the enjoyment of things together?

G.R.C. Yes, it suggests that on this line there is satisfaction; we are all in it. If we have had a reading where the truth of the body has been realised, we go away with a sense of satisfaction, we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. Then of course, it underlies the supper, which in itself is the greatest expression of unity. In the supper symbolically we show our unity: "we, being many are one loaf, one body"; and then we all drink into one cup. Without the body we cannot have collective response to Christ.

W.S. That lies at the basis of some of our exercises as to our morning meetings not being quite what we have expected.

G.R.C. So that at the supper we do not come together to bring about a kind of unity, we are there to express a unity which is always true from the divine side, and should be always true throughout the week; Christ's portion depends upon this unity being maintained.

H.F.N. In Acts 10 it says they came together on the first day of the week to break bread. Does that involve that we have been together in heart and mind and affection through the week?

G.R.C. Quite. It is a beautiful expression, "they came together".

H.F.N. In the feeding of the multitude it says they were satisfied. We cannot get any true assembly relationship or any true functioning in the assembly apart from the consciousness of that realm of divine satisfaction.

G.R.C. And does that not indicate why the cup must come in if the Lord is to have His portion? The cup suggests the satisfaction side.

H.F.N. And that is our side of it; we are baptised by one Spirit, so we have part in this great organism.

But you are challenging us as to whether we do really drink into one Spirit.

G.R.C. Do we drink into this cup really -- not merely symbolically? Then there is another point which it is good to keep in mind and that is that the truth of the body is to govern us out of the meetings as well as in. All the spontaneous services carried on by sisters as well as brothers need to be governed by the light of this. In our service to one another out of the meeting we may be governed by the self-importance of Sihon or the laziness of Og; we may think we must have a hand in everything, or things may drop into the hands of a few; but the sensitiveness of the body should govern all these matters. Then the most suitable member will do the most suitable job. One has often thought, that when someone has grown cold the most suitable person to visit them may be one newly converted, one with fresh affection for Christ; it is not necessarily the most established brother in the meeting. Our desire should be that each member should function in the most efficient way for the good of the whole.

H.W.E. Romans 12 speaks of our being members one of another; the saints in their responsible history are set in relation to one another as one body in Christ -- unity is still maintained there.

G.R.C. So the Romans side deals with practical matters. "He that gives, in simplicity ... he that shews mercy, with cheerfulness" -- that is not in the meeting, necessarily.

F.G.H. There needs to be co-operation with one another.

I.R. If we knew what it is to follow after love we would understand all this.

G.R.C. So spiritual manhood comes in. The apostle does not put activity first, or gift of service, but "follow after love", and then, "be emulous of spiritual manifestations".

P.B.D. It is a question of being of one mind in the Lord, as the apostle had to exhort Euodia and Syntyche -- Philippians 4:2.

S.S. In order to function more in this way at the right moment we need to know more of what it is to live in the Spirit, to have right discernment.

G.R.C. You feel we are often concerned about getting the gain of the Spirit individually according to Romans 8, but I think we should be more concerned as to getting the gain of the Spirit collectively, which is the burden of this epistle.

H.F.N. We have been in danger of looking at the commencement of this epistle in regard to the truth of the cross and the Spirit, taking it up on individual lines, whereas it is the exclusion of man in relation to the assembly, and the saints being in the living gain of the Spirit.

G.R.C. That is most important. It is really the brazen serpent -- the word of the cross -- but shown as standing at the doorway of the assembly. Romans 7 is the brazen serpent as applied to the individual. So chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians brings in the Spirit in its collective setting: "the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God". It is like Numbers 21"assemble the people together and I will give them water". It is what the Spirit is in the assembly. But in connection with our scripture in Ephesians, all this underlies the enjoyment of the truth of union, and that is what the apostle had before him, for he says in the second epistle, "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ".

H.F.R. Your thought is that these features will all make us attractive to Christ.

G.R.C. I thought so. "Ye are Christ's body". The Lord begins to see Himself in a practical sense in the saints. He could own the saints at the outset when He said to Saul of Tarsus, "Why persecutest thou me?" You feel how delightful the saints are to Christ, as in

the unity of the body, what precious features mark them as they move together, so that they are delightful to Christ. The assembly is so delightful to Christ that the scripture says as to Him, "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife".

H.F.R. I have often wondered why it is put that way round.

G.R.C. It stresses how precious the assembly is to Christ: He leaves other interests to be united to the assembly.

H.F.R. Do you think the two different aspects of the church are involved? While there is the Eve side, yet there are the other features of the church such as Rebecca who sets forth its attractiveness and grace and beauty.

G.R.C. I think Rebecca links with Corinthians; she represents particularly the local company moving in the truth of the body.

P.B.D. You mean she is being prepared to "follow the man".

G.R.C. It is a question of making room for the Spirit in the local company. Are we prepared to be wholly available to the Spirit? The Spirit is referred to in that chapter as typified in the well and the ten camels and the man. All has reference to the availability of the Spirit to the local company, and Rebecca as moving is made delightful to Isaac. The Spirit -- the man -- puts the ornaments on her.

C.L. So he seals the suitability which is seen in Rebecca by the tokens put upon her.

G.R.C. Rebecca is the answer in us to Christ's movements. On His side He leaves father and mother to be united to the assembly, and Rebecca on her side leaves her father's house. We do not get that in Genesis 2, where the woman is brought to the man; but Rebecca is our side; it is the way it works out in localities now. We are prepared to leave our natural setting.

H.F.N. Would it not be confirmed by what the apostle says in the second epistle, "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ"? That would be what we get in Rebecca.

G.R.C. I think so. There were other men great at Corinth, but he says, "I have espoused you unto one man", and the truth of the body brings that about. It disposes of clericalism and makes room for "one Man". One would link Rebecca with the local setting because it is provisional -- took her into his mother Sarah's tent, which could only apply to the present time when the church is in local companies.

F.G.H. You would allow for this thought following the supper? The Lord has been helping us lately to see that there is something for Him personally as following the supper. This would help us.

G.R.C. It would, and what would affect our hearts is "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife". That would profoundly affect our hearts if we let it in, and help us to forsake our kindred and father's house to be wholly available to Christ.

E.C.M. It is in line with Psalm 45, "so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty".

G.R.C. Think of the great interests which Christ has left for the time being, that which attaches to Him as Son of David, Son of Abraham and Son of Man. He has left these things for the moment to be united to the assembly.

E.C.M. How does Matthew fit in, "when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had"?

G.R.C. It seems to be a co-relative line.

E.C.M. The Lord, for the moment, laying aside all that He legitimately had.

G.R.C. Yes, it is "all that he had".

W.G.C. So in John 17 it says, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me".

G.R.C. Yes. It is a similar thought in John 17, although a different line. It indicates how much it means to the Lord that we should answer to the truth of our place before God in Him. He set Himself apart for this purpose; it is another reason why He has left other interests, He has set Himself apart that we might be set apart by the truth.

W.G.C. Is it the truth as to His place in heaven in glory?

G.R.C. I think so. The great truth of man before God as in Christ, the eternal purpose of God for man.

H.F.N. In John 17 the first reference to the thought of unity, oneness, flows out of the mutuality of divine affections which exist between the Father and the Son.

G.R.C. How does that work out?

H.F.N. The spring of the oneness in John 17 is the holy mutual relations which exist between divine Persons. When we think of the mutuality of affection existing between the Father and the Son, it is productive of unity, whether in testimony or glory.

G.R.C. Is that illustrated in what the Lord says, "All mine are thine, and thine are mine", as though They had no exclusive property?

H.F.N. You were saying in connection with Ephesians 5 that it is a great thing to see that the Lord has no other interest than the assembly. Is that seen in the thought of a man having a whole year in which to be entirely devoted to his wife?

G.R.C. You mean that the year is applied to the present time.

H.F.N. Yes. His affection is such that He is wholly devoted to the assembly today.

G.R.C. That would make us long to give Him what His heart seeks; and what a lever that would be in facing exercises amongst ourselves -- practical matters!

H.F.R. You said something earlier about it being 'persons' in John.

G.R.C. You get divine Persons Themselves, "that they also may be one in us". "All mine are thine, and thine are mine". I wondered whether it had in view the saints as persons relative to Them. It brings in the fullest thought of God's purpose, that is, His eternal purpose for men in Christ.

H.F.N. It all culminates in the heavenly -- those united. This oneness culminates in the city as coming down out of heaven from God.

G.R.C. I think so, "that they may be made perfect in one".

W.S. The idea of the family rather emphasises the individual members.

G.R.C. Yes. The assembly as a corporate body is an eternal thought. It is seen in the eternal setting prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. But there are also the persons who compose it. So there is the line of our spiritual history as persons involving our personal relations with the Father and the Son, and our personal relations with one another. It runs alongside this thought of the organism, but it seems that we begin with these personal relations and end with them. We begin our history with God by a personal touch with God and with Christ, and in our personal relations with one another we have to learn to be brethren.

E.C.M. Would chapters 1 - 9 of this gospel develop that line of truth -- the woman in chapter 4, and the man in chapter 9, having to do with Christ personally?

G.R.C. Yes. The whole of John's gospel has this personal side in mind, personal relations with Christ, with the Father and the Son, and with one another; and it all culminates in this wonderful thought "that they may be one in us".

W.S. The sheep are known by name.

G.R.C. Yes.

F.G.H. This thought of "one in us" seems to bear on the testimony, for following that the Lord

says, "that the world may know that thou hast sent me".

G.R.C. After all, the world cannot enter into the idea of the body, the organism -- it is a mystery; it is involved in the truth called "the mystery". We are initiated into it, but what the world can see is unity in practical personal relations.

F.G.H. Which makes the matter one of vital importance.

A.L. So the testimony would be from this side in John's gospel.

H.F.N. I suppose we get a wonderful exhibition of unity in testimony in the early part of Acts. We get the thought of men illustrated in Peter and John going up to the temple. Would that be a figure of manhood?

G.R.C. It would. You mean the beauty of their personal relations. All this line culminates in our being before God for His pleasure. Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren; this leads on to the highest truth. But then, in a practical way, if we are to enjoy our place with Christ as His brethren in the presence of God we must be brethren amongst ourselves. Just as on the other line, we must be in the unity of the body to enjoy union, so we must be together as brethren if we are to enjoy practically what it is for Christ to call us His brethren and to be one in the Father and the Son.

H.F.N. So John 17 is the highest thought of unity.

G.R.C. It would help us to lay hold of the greatness of the "truth" as referred to in this chapter. "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth".

H.F.N. It must be immeasurable. The Lord is the divine standard.

W.S. Is not the sanctification referring to the fact that He has gone to the Father? He has left this scene and gone into the holiness of all that is there.

G.R.C. And He has set Himself apart from other interests that we might be brought into the truth in its fulness -- "the truth as it is in Jesus". The Lord wants us to come fully into that, into the enjoyment of the place that man has now before the Father in the Son.

W.S. To come into all these heavenly relationships which are eternal in character, in time. All else will for ever pass away.

G.R.C. I believe we shall get help in meditating upon the truth -- Jesus now in the Father's presence. The truth is there in all its fulness and the Lord has set Himself apart in order that we may be brought into it.

E.C.M. Christ is found as Man now before God, and we are associated with Him in that position.

G.R.C. So He goes on to say, "I will that they ... be with me where I am". First "that they may be one in us", united, and then that we may be with Him where He is in fullest association.

W.S. I suppose there has to be education that we may apprehend Him in His place there, spiritually.

G.R.C. Ephesians implies the need of instruction: "Ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus".

W.S. "Sanctified through the truth". I take it that is subjection.

G.R.C. I think so.

J.A.P. So the Spirit is not mentioned in the chapter but lies behind it in regard to sanctification.

G.R.C. I am sure it does.