Pages 1 - 186 -- "Sonship and other Addresses and Readings". Great Britain, 1925 (Volume 78).

SONSHIP IN THREE ASPECTS

Ephesians 4:14 - 25; John 12:36; Luke 19:1 - 9; Galatians 4:6, 7

What I have before me on this occasion is the subject of growth. I am thinking of spiritual growth, assuming that this is expressed in the idea of a son as in contrast to a child or babe; and I have selected these passages which I have read in order to develop, by the Lord's help, the idea of sonship.

I wish first to enlarge a little on the idea of a son of the light. Around us we have developments of a similar nature to that which I hope to speak of, but in a bad or a worldly sense. We have, as an example, the expression from the Lord's own lips, "a son of hell". Speaking to the Jews He says, "Ye compass the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and when he is become such, ye make him twofold more the son of hell than yourselves", Matthew 23:15. Again we have from the Lord's lips, when speaking to His Father, the expression, "the son of perdition". These expressions refer to maturity in what is evil; a very serious consideration for those who are in the world, for such developments are proceeding, and young people entering into the world are exposed to the influences which are at work in maturing such persons as the Lord refers to.

But we have over against that the expression, "sons of light". John in his gospel uses the word "light" probably more frequently than any other of the evangelical writers. He contemplates darkness, darkness intensified, and so he records more of the Lord's service in Jerusalem than any of the others, having in view our own times, when the service

of God has to be carried on in the midst of intensified religious darkness. The apostles had to do with such darkness as the Lord Himself did in Jerusalem.

Now we are called upon to serve in corresponding darkness, a darkness which is augmented by religious claims, claims of apostolic succession, claims of superior intelligence and investigation, and these darkening influences are no longer confined to the few, they are permeating the masses. They are not only found in the centres of learning, they are found in the workshops, in the minds, in the homes of men and women. It is becoming fashionable to believe in a lie. We are, therefore, to serve Christ in the face of the most intensified darkness that has ever existed. Hence it behoves us, not simply to take up the truth in its initial features, and to clothe ourselves with the armour of light, but to develop in our souls in the apprehension of the light, so that we become sons of the light, and as sons of the light not deceived by any of the darkening influences that are presented to us. We can see that they are of the darkness; they emerge from their own source and author, and a son of the light is not deceived. So John prepares us, as we understand his gospel, to shine in our day and to confront the darkness as sons of the light.

It is to be noted that in this gospel we have no wholesale cures or miracles accomplished. The other evangelists speak of the Lord curing every one who came to Him, and there were many; the number is not given. In Mark the Lord cured at sunset all who came to Him from every quarter, whereas John gives us but a few instances, and those are isolated ones; they are not in groups. We can understand that, because of the sterility of the soil in which He had to sow, for darkened religionists afford the most sterile soil there is, but nevertheless He wrought, and not without results. We find Him content to speak to one, and He was successful in securing that one

(I refer to the woman of Samaria), so that she became a son of the light. She discerned by what He said to her that her body -- even a body such as hers -- could become so purified and energised by the Spirit of God that light could shine out of it in the darkness. She left her waterpot, we are told, and went into the city.

I refer to this woman in a practical way, because she illustrates the feature of the work of Christ as seen in John. She immediately moves in service and in successful service; she was in accord with John the baptist, who pointed to Jesus. The Samaritans came to Him; they did not flock about her and make her an oracle after modern fashion; they said, "We have heard him ourselves".

Again, in a man like Peter we have another son of the light. He was "one of the twelve", we read; for John never uses official titles in referring to the servants of God. We have to be content to serve without a title; he who makes least of his titles is likely to be the most successful. Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal". Would he turn to those we hear spoken of as the great leaders of modern thought? Would he listen to the man that speaks "froward things", as many of the people of God, alas! do, in reading their books? He says, "Thou hast words". How many? Think of the treasury of words, words of eternal life. A son of the light knows where these are; his soul seeks after these words, his mind craves for them, and he knows to whom to go. As the Samaritans went to Christ, so would he, for Christ alone had them. Some of us may be able to speak a word or convey a thought, but all the words of eternal life are stored up in Christ.

And so again in chapter 9 another son of the light is true to the light, and we see what it cost him. Honoured man indeed! How few of us have been so

honoured; and why? For want of being sons of the light. "That which makes all things manifest is light", and as our bodies are full of light, we are not wanted in the circles of this world. "They cast him out". One of the finest spectacles morally is seen in the Son of God and an outcast from the religious world being together; how perfectly they agreed; for He was an outcast Himself from the very outset according to this narrative.

As I think of the Son of God, I think of One who takes account of everything in relation to God, but I think of One, too, who can associate me with Himself; as He says to Peter elsewhere, "That take, and give it unto them for me and thee", Matthew 17:27. Peter was a son. How wonderful, as an outcast in this world, to hear His voice, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" A true son of the light will believe on the Son of God, and so he says, "I believe, Lord: and did him homage".

I mention these instances, but there are many such in this gospel, in whom this principle of matured spiritual apprehension is set forth, and I may say, dear brethren, that nothing else will stand by you in the presence of the darkness. A son of the light knows what to do; he is never at any disadvantage or inconvenience by the actings of the darkness; his path is plain and clear. So in chapter 12, from which I have read, you have sons of light acting for Christ in Bethany; "There they made him a supper". You see in that incident what the Lord has at the present time in the sons of light moving locally. They know what to do, and they think for Christ; they are concerned for Christ -- they made Him a supper.

I feel I cannot be too emphatic in commending to you on this occasion the importance of this gospel, not only from the standpoint of which I am speaking, but from other standpoints, but I especially commend

it to you as presenting to us sons of light. "While ye have the light", He says, "believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light".

Now in the Gospel of Luke we have a son of Abraham, and a son of Abraham is one of the most interesting personages that we can consider. His ancestry is very old, and it is very honourable. I speak of it thus because the apostle Paul says that Abraham is the father of us all, so that you can understand how the idea connects itself with every Gentile believer as well as with every Jewish or Israelitish believer. A son of Abraham takes character from his great progenitor, and perhaps it may not be amiss to be reminded of what is patriarchal in Scripture.

The patriarchal idea has a very prominent place in Scripture. You will remember that in Peter's address on the day of Pentecost he refers to David as a patriarch. You can understand the spiritual connection of David as a patriarch and his Son by whom now as exalted in the heavens all the wealth of heaven is being administered to men. Surely the blessing of Abraham had come down and the administration of David had taken effect in Him of whom Peter spoke. And so with Zacchaeus, he is here called by the Lord a son of Abraham. A son of Abraham has inherited things; the patriarchal principle is to pass on an inheritance. Let us take care of the wonderful inheritance that has come to us; let us not be like Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. No true son of Abraham will relinquish the least part of the inheritance -- he values it.

But I want to dwell for a moment on Abraham's patriarchal care and affection. He began with the glory of God. He is the first person in Scripture to whom it is said that God appeared; and He appeared to him as the God of glory. Think of what it is to be

a son of such a father, for the great principle in a patriarch is to transmit things. Much has come to ourselves in this way, hence the great importance that has to be attached to what we have received, to what has come down to us by way of inheritance. How are we to pass it on? Abraham was concerned in regard to those who should come after him. God said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? ... For I know him", Genesis 18:17, 19. How blessed it is to be conscious that God knows our hearts; He knows that we love Him, and that we love Christ, that we love the truth, and that we desire to see all the testimony transmitted into safe hands. Hence it says of Abraham that "He dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise", Hebrews 11:9. Were they not worthy sons? They were, and so was Joseph.

The book of Genesis closes with a threefold testimony to the effectiveness of Abraham's patriarchal care and affection. We have in Isaac one who transmitted the blessing; we are told that he "blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come". Abraham looked on to the future, and so did Isaac; every son of Abraham looks on to the future.

And then we have in Jacob a worthy son of a worthy progenitor. True enough he was the product of discipline, but nevertheless he was a true son of Abraham. In Jacob we have the discernment that passes by the firstborn; no son of Abraham will put his family before the saints. I say that considerately, beloved friends. Jacob crossed his hands wittingly; Genesis 48:14. What a son of Abraham he was! He discerned and recognised sovereign choice; every son of Abraham recognises the sovereignty of God. What a man he was! How he shines, beloved! When he heard that Joseph was coming he strengthened himself and sat upon his bed. He was not there a perishing Syrian; he was in the energy of

life. As he had begun at his birth to reject Esau in taking him by the heel to supplant him, so now he supplanted Manasseh, who was the firstborn. We have to learn how to supplant, how to set up what is of God in preference to what is of the flesh; that marks a son of Abraham.

And Genesis closes with Joseph, also a true son of Abraham. We see what a patriarch Joseph was; he had learnt it from his forefather. The great patriarchal principle was set up in Abraham, it was transmitted to Isaac and to Jacob, and now to Joseph. Joseph brought the children, when they were to be blessed, out from between his knees; they were not running on the streets; they were not allowed to go hither and thither as they pleased; they were kept within the bounds of affection by that patriarch. Then, again, we find those same knees occupied in nursing his posterity to the third generation. What a son of Abraham was Joseph!

So with Zacchaeus -- despised as he was by the religionists about him -- a publican, the Lord discerned in him, beneath his publican's garb, a son of Abraham. Was he not like Abraham? You say, Very little. But there was something there; it says, "he sought to see Jesus who he was". Would that every one here with our Bibles in our hands, were exercised in the same way! "Abraham rejoiced to see my day", the Lord said, "and he saw it", John 8:56. He whom Abraham saw in his prophetic vision is now under the eye of Zacchaeus and he wants to know who He is, and the Lord says to him, "Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house". It was the house of a son of Abraham, and he in whom all the light of Abraham was centred and deposited was in his house.

Zacchaeus was honoured more than Abraham, for it does not say that the Lord entered into Abraham's tent as He drew near to him. We see what is available

to us as sons of Abraham today. He says, "I must remain in thy house". How needful it is that He should come into our houses so as to impart to us the great patriarchal principle in order that our houses might be according to God. Of Abraham it is said that he "will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment". Are these things, beloved, in our houses? These are the things that mark every son of Abraham.

"Today", the Lord says, "I must abide at thy house", and he received Him gladly -- so did Abraham. Abraham received the Lord gladly at his tent door, but He did not go in; but now, the Lord Himself comes into the house of this publican and he received Him gladly. What a moment for him! Have you any doubt that he was a son of Abraham? You need not have; you have it from the Lord's own lips. Is there no other evidence? Yes, there is; He sought to see Jesus who He was, and he called Him "Lord". He says, "Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return him fourfold". See the righteousness that was there! And the Lord immediately pronounced him a son of Abraham. How He dignified him in the presence of his traducers!

Now I pass on to the last thought. I think you will see that what we have been considering is constructive, that is, if we are sons of light we shall be sons of Abraham; we shall cherish the inheritance and we shall aim to pass it on unencumbered. We shall aim at being like our great spiritual progenitor, Abraham -- the believer. There is more said of Abraham's faith in Hebrews 11 than there is said of the faith of any other. And as we lay hold of the idea of a son of Abraham, we readily enter into the idea of a son of God. One hesitates in drawing near to this great subject. It is truly wonderful that it

should be said of us, "Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father". A son of God thinks for God, and hence the great end of all ministry is that we are to arrive at the knowledge of the Son of God, for how are we to be sons save as we understand sonship as set forth in Him?

We are to be brought to speak the truth in love. What a word that is! How easily we slip into the idea of studying Scripture in order to shine in ministry, but that is not "holding the truth in love". If I hold the truth in love, I hold it in relation to every saint on earth, and I regard what I may have of it as the property of every saint on earth, for that is what it is. "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ... all are yours", 1 Corinthians 3:22. And so a son of God values his ability, values his intelligence, in the measure in which these are effective to the help of the people of God, and only that. He belongs to the people of God, and he holds the truth in relation to them, and so, as I said, a son thinks for God.

The first evidence of the consciousness of sonship is in the expression, "Abba, Father". What a great result for God as we arrive at sonship in the true bearing of it. He has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. The movements of the Spirit in our hearts as sons have reference to the Father.

It is a wonderful thing, indeed, to know the Father. The Holy Spirit, I believe, is working at the present time to bring about results for the Father, and as the Father is apprehended the Son is apprehended. John says, "We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth". It is thus that we apprehend Christ in His relation to the Father, and we see that all His affections are set on bringing about results for the Father, and hence, what an immense thought is

that of sons. "So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God". We have there the thought individualised, so that one can regard oneself as a son of God. The thought is usually in the plural, but we have it here isolated, so that each one of us may enter into the blessedness of our relationship with the Father and with the Son, and thus value, as those entering into sonship, the Lord's promise to him who keeps His word, that the Father will love him, "and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him", John 14:23.

THE HOUSE OF GOD AS REACHED THROUGH DISCIPLINE

Romans 5:1 - 10; Genesis 30:25; Genesis 33:1 - 7; Genesis 35:6

I have in mind to speak a word about the house of God, and particularly to seek to show how believers are put there suitably to God and to His house; and what occurs to me in approaching a subject so familiar to us, is that entrance into the house of God stands in relation to discipline. No one is in it according to God apart from discipline. Discipline is not incidental; it is a fixed part of the curriculum, as I may say, of God's teaching; and it is quite obvious to us all that no one can be in His house apart from His teaching, and no one teaches like Him. "Who teacheth like him?" Elihu says. The apostle reminded the Thessalonians that they were taught of God, and the Lord, speaking to the Jews, says, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me". Those who are divinely taught come to Christ. He is over the house, and He gives us our place in the house, and He is concerned that in occupying that place we should do so as divinely taught, for if we do not know how to behave ourselves now in the house of God, how should we in the future? All our education enters into the present time, and a great feature of it is discipline.

We find the house, as it comes to light in the Old Testament, stands pre-eminently connected with two men, in whom the discipline of God is also seen pre-eminently -- Jacob and David. The house of God came into view in Jacob's history as he was fleeing from the wrath of his brother; and the foundation of the house came into view in David's history as the

sword of the angel, which was stretched out over Jerusalem to destroy it, was sheathed. David had had the choice of his retributive discipline, as I may call it, for his sin in numbering the people, a sin which we are all liable to fall into, for we like numbers -- we like large meetings. David desired to know the population of his kingdom; the making of a census is very common in our day. David was not enjoined to count the people; he undertook to do it obviously in order to determine how extensive his kingdom was, so as to glorify the flesh. Large meetings tend to minister to fleshly pride; not that one would for a moment desire that the saints should be fewer in number, but that it should be left with God to number them. He knows each name, He knows what each one cost, all are enregistered in heaven, and we can well afford to leave it there; they are registered there in their dignity -- "the assembly", it says, "of the firstborn who are enregistered in heaven".

In counting after man, we would be disposed to include some whose names may not be written in heaven, and then, when the time of translation comes, we should have the shame of seeing those left behind; so it were better to leave the numbering with God. David found to his bitter cost that he had better have done so, and that he had but indulged his pride. But now he humbles himself, and thinks of the people, saying, "These sheep, what have they done?" Worthy words indeed, penitent words! He invited the stroke on himself, and on his father's house, and, in result, he is directed to go to the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and to rear up an altar there, and the Lord answered from heaven by fire, and the sword of Jehovah, stretched over the beloved city, is sheathed. Discipline has had its effect. David has learned through it, and so he says, "This is the house of the Lord God", 1 Chronicles 22:1.

He arrived at it on the line of discipline, and so did Jacob, and so does every one who is in it, if he is in it as Jacob was in it, and as David was in it.

No one can read the closing chapters of 1 Chronicles without being profoundly affected by the intelligence and affections of David, and the way they centred in the house. Even Solomon's greatness was subservient to David's, as David had had the house in view from the outset, and now arrives at it, as was said, through discipline. So Solomon was to devote all his resources, intelligence, and energy to the building of a house in keeping with Him who would dwell there. David said, We heard of the ark at Ephratah, but where did they find it? In the fields of the wood. That was no place for Jehovah; he had found it in circumstances wholly unsuitable to it. God should have something more from a people whom He had brought out of Egypt, a people whom He had enriched and taught, whom He had beautified and exalted to a kingdom, than that He should be in the fields of the wood. So David's great purpose and service of love was to find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob; an habitation in keeping with the One who was to dwell there and that was to be "exceeding magnifical". But as I remarked -- and that is why I referred to David -- he arrived at the site of it by way of discipline.

Now in the Epistle to the Romans we get the fundamental principles of everything; the germ of all that follows as superstructure is found in this letter. It begins with the Son of God, "The gospel of God concerning his Son ... and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead". He is marked out Son of God in power by resurrection of the dead. It is in the apprehension of the declaration that we lay hold of what follows. The declaration is

not simply that He is announced from heaven to be Son, it is that He raised the dead. Paul went about preaching Him, as he says, "The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea". He went into the Gentile world with his companions and preached One who was declared to be the Son of God; they preached that Person; they preached Him at Corinth -- the Son of God, Jesus Christ -- known to be that, not merely through the heavenly announcement, great as that was, but by the resurrection of the dead. He was known through Paul's preaching as One who takes things entirely out of the range of man and of his world. That is the One whom Paul preached -- the One who lifted the basis of operation out of the range of the natural man, and did so in such wise as to be completely victorious in it. He was declared to be Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead. The element of holiness predominated as the Lord lifted the sphere of His operations entirely outside the range of man's natural, polluted mind to a world of His own. What has man's mind to say to what the Son of God is doing? Nothing.

Thus we have in view the One who builds the house. As the light of the Son of God is received into our souls -- and it comes through the gospel -- we apprehend One who builds on a sure foundation, and it is thus we become stable. We learn to live as Abraham lived, by the oaks of Mamre; we learn to live in relation to what is stable.

Then in chapter 5 we have the thought of tribulation. Many of us overlook the fact that the kingdom is entered by tribulation. Everything comes through Christ, and among the things we get tribulation. He loves us too well to deny us that, for tribulation is one of the most effective workers that He deputes to

minister to us; it is divinely deputed as a minister for the education and well-being of those who are trained to be in the house. So that we get, "Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope". One speaks with a measure of fear, knowing well that he may be put to the test in relation to anything he advances, so if one presses the importance of tribulation, he has to expect to experience it. In this chapter we are told we glory in it, for tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience. Of what practical value is anyone in the house if he has not experience? Sometimes, when there is the thought of a new meeting being established, we inquire about elders; but we do not look for the elders first, they are not needed unless there is an assembly. In the Acts it was when assemblies were formed that elders were ordained. The elders are appointed for assemblies, but unless you have assemblies what need is there for elders? Elders come by experience. So we have three great workers, first tribulation, then patience, then experience. The Lord sees to that. My salvation, my tribulation, my patience, my experience, and my hope are all divinely linked together, so we may rely on the effectual working of these agencies to bring about what is needed in the way of education.

Then hope follows, for surely my experience is not in view of my adornment and exaltation in this world. If my object is to be something among the people of God, I have my reward, and I have no need of hope; but if I am living in hope I am not living in this scene; "and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". That is what I am to live in; if not living in that, I am enclosed in my own fat, so to speak, I am living in what I may be, or think I may be, here, whereas the divine

thought is that I have something to live in with God, and that is in His love.

Therefore, in order to be in the house according to God, I have to learn to live in His love, and so the first great function of the Spirit is to shed abroad the love of God in my heart. Coming into us, the Spirit does not occupy us with Himself -- wonderfully blessed Servant! He brings in the love of God. I do not know anything more interesting or more practical than this first service, ministered to us by the Spirit, that is, the shedding abroad in our hearts the love of God, and He renders it in order that I might learn to live in this love. All that preceded is to bring me up to this point. We each have a little of it, as much as the heart can contain in its present environment, as much as it can at present hold. The Spirit of God sees to it, and that in view of my learning to live in it, and it never fails.

But there is more than that. The Holy Spirit occupies us also with Christ, and that is why I read the passages in Genesis 30 and 33. You find that in Padan-aram, when Joseph is born, Jacob begins to move. No doubt he already knew something of God, for he had faith. Jacob was one of the most remarkable children ever born, indeed there was no babe like him recorded in Scripture, for even before he was born he was actuated by divine instinct, and immediately he is born, he takes his brother by the heel. The prophet Hosea comments on this later (Hosea 12:3), and he does not refer to it as anything blameworthy. The circumstance is introduced rather as a rebuke to Jacob's posterity who had turned to idols. Hosea said in effect to those of his day, Jacob did not do this. He took his brother by the heel; he had supplanted Esau, the man after the flesh whom they were indulging. Jacob was marked from the outset by spiritual instincts, and by his strength he had power with God. When he became a man he

wrestled with God; "Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him". What a man he was!

I refer to all this so that you might see what a man Jacob was, how that in the very beginning -- from the womb -- spiritual instincts were there, and how greatly they developed as he proceeded. And so we find him at Bethel (chapter 35) -- the culminating result of all his history. He had, as I said, some knowledge of God at Padan-aram, but there are those who have a measure of light as to God who do not know Christ. So it was when Joseph was born -- Christ typically -- that Jacob moves; and though he lingered, God kept him to it, and says to him in the next chapter, "Return unto the land of thy fathers". Christ in figure had come into his vision. That stage in Christians is set forth in Romans 5; the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we must know who made that love possible. Christ made it possible. Is He then to be left out? No. He is to stand out in our souls in holy dignity as dying for us; so "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly", and in dying He commends the love of God to us. So we see how the covenant is bound up with Him who is the Mediator of it. Christ died; that was His part; God gave Him, but Christ died, and so, "if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life". So that Christ makes God stand out in His blessed distinctiveness and love. In the symbol of the Lord's supper, "this cup is the new covenant in my blood", He would make God known, so that He might be in our hearts accordingly.

Hence, as I was saying, Joseph comes into Jacob's horizon, and he moved; it may be in a small way, nevertheless it caused Jacob to move.

Now in chapter 32 Jacob receives the Spirit

typically, and in chapter 33 Joseph comes definitely into view in a most striking manner, in a manner that points to his personal distinctiveness in a peculiar way. Leah with her children passed before Esau, she is first; then it says, "and after came Joseph near and Rachel" -- not Rachel and Joseph, but Joseph and Rachel. Joseph is first. The point is, we are getting nearer to the house, and it is meet that Christ should be acquiring a greater place with us. That is what is going on at the present time. What the Holy Spirit is labouring at is to establish in our souls Christ's distinctive place as the One who died in order to make the love of God known, so that in all things He might have the pre-eminence.

What we are speaking of is on the line of experience, and it is very remarkable that the facts cited in Hebrews 1 to establish the Deity and greatness of Christ are all taken from that part of scripture (the Psalms) which is full of the experience of the saints; God thus uses these scriptures to testify to the greatness of Christ. We are in a position as knowing Christ as the One who died for us, to be called in to bear witness to His greatness; that is Hebrews 1. We can understand how this leads to the house, and I would remark that the book of Psalms speaks more of the house of God than any part of the Old Testament. One can understand, too, that those who, by experience, arrive at a knowledge of Christ would value the house. To have Christ in one's heart soon dissipates nature.

And now rapid progress is made, and Jacob arrives at the house; he comes to Bethel; chapter 35. But how? As a disciplined man, for while this chapter is the crown of his glory, it is a chapter of burials, and burials mean discipline. The idols are buried, Deborah is buried, Rachel is buried, and Isaac is buried. What a chapter of discipline! All intended to dissipate the hopes and aspirations of the flesh --

all are buried from that time. But see the recompense! A man standing beside God in the house of God, and God speaking to him. There are two distinct presentations of these facts: one from the side of Jacob's experience, ending with the death and burial of Deborah (verses 6 - 8), and the other presented from the divine side -- God coming in Himself in all His majesty into His house and talking with Jacob (verses 9 - 13). Think of God speaking to us, beloved! Sometimes one hears of believers attending assembly meetings without their Bibles, taking their hymn books only. The hymn book is not the word of God. The Bible is the means by which God conveys His thoughts to us. If I am in God's house, I expect God to speak, it is His assembly; and I must take my Bible. God speaks in it, and nothing can be greater than God speaking to us. He talked with Jacob; we are told, indeed, what He said to Jacob: "Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name". God knights him, so to speak; God is in His house. He is supreme there, and confers honours there. And then after thus ennobling him, He endows him with wealth. He says, "A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins". You are to be the progenitor of kings. What a nobleman in the house of God! In Psalm 45 we read, "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth". Think of the dignity, the ennoblement conferred upon us as we are in the house according to God! We are there as disciplined, as having learned what is becoming to God, and Christ has come into our vision; we know Him as Son over God's house, and abiding in it for ever, and we are free there.

Well, beloved, that is what I had in view; my thought is that in learning to be in the house according to God and seeing the benefits and honours that are

conferred there, and as enjoying them, we may be able to look down on the world. It is a wonderful favour to be able to look down on what God has condemned. In chapter 28 God is in heaven, and Jacob on the earth, but in chapter 35 God stood beside Jacob on earth, and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God talked with him; the place was well worthy of commemoration. It was the greatest day that Jacob ever experienced when God talked to him in His house. He had surrendered all that was out of keeping with the house and with the blessed God Himself, and in the drink offering he says in principle, God is delighted with me, He loves me. Think of the experience, the consciousness of being for the pleasure of God! Like the prodigal who was clothed with the very best that there was. One would raise the question, Have we had the experience of the love of God in His house and God companying with us there? All discipline is to the end that we might be partakers of His holiness, for we cannot be in His house without holiness, "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord". Jacob in anointing the pillar with oil would say, God loves me, I know it and I mean to preserve the consciousness of it, so he set up the "pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon". What a testimony in this world -- anointed by the Spirit to witness of that love!

HEAVEN REFLECTED IN THE BELIEVER'S RECEPTION IN THE ASSEMBLY

Acts 9:10 - 19; Acts 10:19 - 27; Philemon 8 - 17

It is on my mind to seek to make clear from these scriptures that one divine thought in the assembly, as corresponding with heaven, is that it should represent heaven on earth, and particularly in the way of receiving into its bosom the results of the work of God.

The results of the work of God are extremely precious and in no way is their value higher than in heaven; even one repentant sinner occasions joy in heaven. We can judge, therefore, how valuable in heaven must one be who has run the whole course of faith. Were we to have access literally into heaven whilst here upon earth, we should understand the estimate that is held there of the work of God in saints, and would learn how to clothe each other from that point of view. Luke 15, to which I have alluded, and which is so well known to us, thank God, as a chapter presenting the gospel in a supreme way, not only indicates heaven's estimate of the results of the work of God in that there is joy there over one sinner that repenteth, but it shows us also the magnificence of the reception that is accorded to those who return to God through the gospel. The reception of the returning erring one, as seen in that chapter, is not a picture of what we shall experience when we are caught up to be for ever with the Lord; but it is a picture of heaven's reception in the house of God on earth of those who return to God through the gospel. And as God acts mediately now, what is seen there must find an answer in the house of God throughout the gospel period, otherwise those of us who have part in that house are remiss.

The reception of Christ Himself in heaven is a subject of extreme interest and importance and, indeed, of pleasure to those who love Him. Luke enlarges on it; he speaks about the time having come of His being received up (Luke 9:51), and then he tells us that He was carried up into heaven; Luke 24:51. Following upon that, and confirming it, Paul, in writing to Timothy that he might know how one ought to behave oneself in the house of God, says that He "has been received up in glory", 1 Timothy 3:16. Such was the manner of His reception. And it is an element of the mystery of piety that He who was manifested in flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, believed on in the world, was received up in glory; it belongs to the mystery of piety, and no one is in the house of God aright, or as answering to heaven, save he who is in the secret of that mystery. By it he apprehends how heaven values what is morally excellent, for that is what Luke presents.

The passage in Timothy contemplates the Lord as here revealing God, and it includes the whole course of our Lord in that service, ending in heaven's appreciation of His moral worth and excellency, so that He is received up in glory. What a lesson for us, what a lesson-book of the history of Christ on earth, culminating in that appreciation of heaven at the end in receiving Him up in glory! We learn thus how to receive according to heaven -- as we are enjoined elsewhere to receive one another "as Christ also received us to the glory of God", Romans 15:7.

I want to show from the passages read how this heavenly principle appeared in the early days, for the Lord taught those who were in the house then how to receive, and He leaves that with us now. The house of God is a heavenly institution upon earth, and, as God acts mediately, He acts through it. He acts house-wise, and so in large measure heaven's

reception of returning prodigals now, is seen in those who understand how heaven receives.

I am not overlooking the fact that the Holy Spirit is here, and is acting as a divine Person upon earth. One of the greatest facts indeed is that He is here personally, as the Lord says, "another Comforter", and we see throughout the Acts how He operated in a personal way -- never independently, of course, for God is one, nevertheless He acted in a personal way. We have Him speaking to Philip in chapter 8, saying, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot". One sat in that chariot in whom heaven was interested, and whilst the angel had to do with Philip's movements, yet the Spirit immediately directs him, and the eunuch comes into the house, as we may say, under the immediate guidance of the Spirit. But how perfectly Philip was in correspondence with the immediate promptings of the Spirit, in that he went down with the eunuch into the water when he was baptised; and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing.

May I not speak of the effect on the eunuch of the heavenly spirit in Philip? He would receive, not only an impression of Jesus from Philip's preaching, and from the wonderful scripture from which he preached, but also an impression of Jesus from Philip himself, for Philip was entirely at the bidding of the Spirit. Hence we are told that as the eunuch went on his way rejoicing, the Spirit caught away Philip. Philip did not leave the eunuch; it is not put that way, but the Spirit caught him away. If we had had to do with that remarkable conversion, that remarkable work of God, many of us at least would have thought that he should have turned about his chariot and returned to Jerusalem to the apostles to be instructed. But no; he had received the light of Jesus into his soul, it was a question of a Man, and that Man could look after the eunuch in Abyssinia as in Jerusalem. He went on his way

rejoicing. What impressions he had in his soul of Jesus!

But Philip is at the bidding of the Spirit -- a most important point for us in our service. Philip stands out as the evangelist in Scripture, one who is ready to leave an interesting field of service to go into the desert. It is a great test to the preacher to go into the desert. There is nothing for the flesh there; there may be much for the flesh in an active field where the people of a whole city with one accord gave heed to the things spoken, but there is nothing in the wilderness, and so Philip is the model for us in such a service, that is to say, the work of the evangelist is to be at the bidding of the Spirit.

I will now refer to another incident in the Acts in which we see the Spirit acting personally. While Peter was at Joppa he had a vision, and while he thought on it the Spirit told him to go to Cornelius, and then as Peter is preaching at Caesarea, the Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. Peter was not actually the one to receive the returning Gentile; he had an intimate part in the wonderful transaction, for he announced the mind of God -- the glad tidings -- a most honoured part, surely, and one in keeping with his commission, for unto him had been given the keys of the kingdom. But one may use the keys to open the door without embracing the incomer. It was God Himself, by the Spirit, who received the returning Gentile. May we not learn thus from God how to receive? As Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. It was important that they should hear the word; the mind of God was opened up to them in the word, they were enlightened by it, and as having heard it they were embraced divinely. The Holy Spirit fell, it says, upon them. "Fell" is the same word, as we have often remarked, as is used in Luke 15; the father fell on the prodigal's neck and kissed him. So here, the Holy Spirit acts

as God, for He is God. He is a divine Person, and thus capable of expressing in every way what God is in His nature. We thus learn how to receive. Peter might turn the key and open the door without there being any falling on the neck and kissing, but that is not exactly the mind of heaven. Surely it is of great importance that we should be let in, but the magnificence of the reception is what the Holy Spirit would emphasise -- what heaven is capable of in the way of reception.

Thus God would show us how to receive. We see in Ananias and in Peter a certain unreadiness for this great service; honoured disciples, indeed, honoured servants! nevertheless, wanting in ability to reflect fully the mind and spirit of heaven. Hence this disciple in Damascus is taken in hand by the Lord, for His great vessel is not to be received into the assembly unbecomingly; he is not to come in by the window or by the back door, so to speak. He is to be received into the bosom of the assembly, and that means into the bosom of heaven, for the assembly, as I remarked, is to be the reflection, and thus the representation, of heaven upon earth.

The Lord, therefore, having met this potentially great servant on the way, and having brought him down, would have him received here into the assembly according to heaven, and to this end the Lord appears to Ananias in a vision and says, "Go into the street which is called Straight". It is very touching that the Lord Jesus, the Creator, He who has gone into heaven, angels and principalities and powers being subjected to Him, should know the names of the streets. May we not be assured that He knows the limitations of the cities as well as their streets?

This street, called Straight, was doubtless humanly named and well known in Damascus, but it was known to Jesus, and He knew that a convert was there. Ananias did not know, and even being told of the

convert he was doubtful. He knew better than the Lord, forsooth, about Saul! How easily, through want of being near the Lord, we may fall into such an error as this, to have a different mind about one who is the subject of the work of God than He has! We thus see the extreme importance of being near the Lord in what He is doing, and of not being casual about what the Lord is doing. The angels in heaven are all most keenly interested in every convert; they know where he lives, they know his history, they are watching. How slothful we are! And yet the Lord is pleased to use us, not the angels, to help to further the work in His converts; they have to do with the bodies of the saints. The Lord could easily have arranged through angelic means for Saul, but He uses one of the assembly. And Ananias is put right to this end; the Lord puts him right. Thank God, he was capable of being put right, for although he was out of communion as to what the Lord was doing for the moment, he was not far away, and the Lord knew it. He says, "This man is an elect vessel to me". And that was enough; Ananias went and received him as a brother; he identified himself with him.

There is no such thought in the house of God as patronage. In the government of God there may be different stations, but when we enter the house of God we must leave out our patronage. We do not condescend to any one; we cannot. Ananias laid his hands on him, signifying identification with him, and said, "Saul!" The last time Saul had heard that name, as far as the scripture narrative indicates, it had come from the lips of the Lord. May I not suggest that the accents were similar from the lips of Ananias: "Saul, brother", he says, "the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit". You see the perfect

correlation between Jesus in heaven in His operations, and this disciple in the house of God on earth. The Lord saw to it that there was correspondence. Had Ananias been compelled to go with his previous feelings, how different; how it would have chilled the babe, as I may say, for he was but a babe! He needed warmth, and the Lord saw to it that Ananias received him with affection; that is the divine thought. And he is not to be an incubus in the house, he is to be in it as of it, and according to it, he is to be in it as filled with the Spirit. That is the thought in reception. Any other receptions are sure to be dead-weights and occasions of darkness; but those who are filled with the Spirit augment the house, they extend it, they advance it.

But I must proceed to the other scriptures, although one would fain linger longer on this fine scripture. It wears wonderfully; like other similar scriptures, the more you press it, the more it yields.

In chapter 10 we see the Gentiles were to be received, and there is therefore deliberation. Peter has to be hungry, an initial preparation, and then heaven is brought down to him, as it were, in the sheet -- the mind of heaven. It is not that he is caught up into heaven, like Paul was later, to see what is there, but heaven is brought down, the mind of heaven is brought down to him. As he said, "It came even to me"; for if he is to have part in the reception of the Gentiles, he must reflect heaven, he must move in correspondence to heaven.

This reception is a very great transaction, one of the most interesting transactions in the whole of Scripture, and Peter is privileged to have part in it; but what we learn is that if he is to have part in it, it must be as being in accordance with the mind of heaven. So the sheet comes down thrice, and there is the voice from heaven a second time, and then Peter continued pondering. It is a matter of deliberation.

First he is in doubt. It is well, if we are in doubt, to wait. "He that believeth shall not make haste" (Isaiah 28:16), and if there is anything to occasion doubt, even if it be darkness in myself, it is well to wait, but not to be negligent. In having to act in the house of God, and desiring to act in the light and in the presence of heaven, and under the scrutiny of heaven, yea, in view of the judgment-seat of Christ, it is well to ponder and to weigh things; so Peter continued pondering over the vision and then the Spirit spoke. We see thus how light comes in, how the Holy Spirit comes in as we ponder things in subjection to heaven. It may be our own fault that we are so slow in understanding what to do; nevertheless, safety is in pondering. And so the Holy Spirit spoke and said to Peter, "Behold, three men seek thee; but rise up, go down, and go with them, nothing doubting, because I have sent them". What definiteness there is in that, and definiteness is what should mark the house of God.

There are three days employed in this transaction, which fact only confirms what I have been saying. On the first day the vision comes down; on the second day they travel; and on the third day Peter preached. Need I suggest that there is a spiritual meaning in that. There was ample opportunity for assurance and confirmation in what he was doing; and, just to add one word more as to this fine vessel, it says that Cornelius worshipped Peter. How easily we become affected by flattery in the house! not indeed that anyone would assume to be a god, but how easily we bow to flattery. One knows what, the flesh is, and these things are recorded for our learning, so that we have to be on our guard when dealing with young believers, that we do not encourage flattery. Elihu says that he knew not how to flatter. "My Maker", he says, "would soon take me away", Job 32:22. "A flattering mouth

worketh ruin", Proverbs 26:28. So Peter made him rise, saying, "Rise up: I myself also am a man". Now, undoubtedly, by saying that he meant he was only a man, that he was not a god; albeit it would come home to Cornelius that Peter was a man like himself, which would establish confidence at once in the heart of Cornelius that he was dealing with an equal, for they were both men. Peter is not a Jew here, although he speaks of that later; he was really a man.

And then he walked and talked with Cornelius. How fine the sight was! The great apostle Peter, as we know him, full of the light of heaven, the representative of Christ to the Gentiles, walking side by side with a Gentile soldier, and talking with him until together they entered into the house (verses 24 - 27). He formed thus a link with Cornelius, he established confidence, too, in his heart. It was in these circumstances, as Peter preached the gospel to the company assembled in the house of Cornelius, that the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.

In Philemon we have another picture of reception, and here again this dear brother Philemon seems to be remiss on the point. He is called a beloved brother, and others with him are addressed in terms of affection by the apostle (verses 1, 2). He had an assembly in his house too. He was an honoured servant, surely, one who had a most prominent place in his locality, and yet he has to be taught how to receive the result of the work of God; and is it not, dear brethren, in order that we also may be taught this that these things are recorded? Surely it is. Is it not that we should be taught to be prepared to preach that the book of Jonah is written? Surely it is. We have to be prepared. What I may call the key-word of that prophet is the word 'prepared', and this preparing process is proceeding constantly; and happy it is for those who are the subjects of it,

for heaven is ready and waiting to take us on if we offer ourselves. It is the time of sacrifice, of offering ourselves. Heaven accepts, where there is a genuine offer, and it prepares "a vessel ... meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work". If the Lord take you on, He knows how to break down all the incongruities to make you fit to be a vessel. Look at this man Saul! The Lord says he is an "elect vessel to me". But how much preparation was needed!

Now Philemon, honoured and beloved brother as he was, was evidently remiss on this point; he had to be instructed how to receive Onesimus as a brother beloved; "That thou shouldest receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved". Evidently what stood in the way, specially in his case, was that the person in question had been his slave; that had to be overcome. How one who, in the government of God, had a station much higher, should be able to receive the one in the lower grades of society, even into his own house, as a brother beloved, is the problem no doubt in the writing of this epistle, and with the skill of heaven the beloved apostle writes.

He is a bondman of Christ Jesus, he is such an one as Paul the aged; he is a sufferer for Christ and he has gained experience in the service; he is such an one as Paul the aged -- not simply an old man. Age in itself is of no moral value, although we cannot but respect grey hairs in whomsoever we see them, if they are with God. But in such an one as Paul the aged we have a man who says, "Yet for love's sake, I rather beseech thee". He might have enjoined, had it been necessary, for he represented the Lord Jesus, as an apostle, but he preferred to exhort. One sees how considerate and how wise the great apostle was even in a service of this kind, to bring about in a beloved brother the ability to receive another beloved

brother who had been in a much lower station in society than he occupied. In the grace of Christ how finely, how sensitively and considerately the beloved apostle speaks to Philemon! And is it not instruction for those who are old, how to use their experience, to teach those who are young and less experienced this great lesson of reception? If all of one generation passeth away and another cometh, how is it to be with the one that cometh? How much depends on the one that passeth away; it is for the one that is passing away to pass on all the gain of its experience to the generation that cometh.

The testimony is to proceed, and it is thus that it proceeds. The same sun shines on every generation, as it says in Ecclesiastes 1:5, "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose", so that it should shine again, and the same sun shines on every generation; nevertheless the sun is one thing and the experience that you get under it is another thing. The experience that we get under the sun may be passed on, and should be passed on, to the coming generation. So the apostle here, being such an one as Paul the aged, has got a child, and he values him. He says, "my child Onesimus". It was his particular child that he had begotten in his bonds; he would carry on to the coming generation something of his father; but he was already a brother beloved.

But more than that, if a brother beloved, the receiver of him would have him for ever. The idea of the family is continued; we never lose our brethren. The matter of time is of no account in that respect, because we shall all join presently; and what a reception! I suppose, perhaps, the most touching of all receptions will be that accorded to us by the Lord when He says, "And if I go ... I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also". So I think the apostle

suggests here that when that happens Philemon and Onesimus would be together for ever -- brothers beloved, for they were both brothers beloved. Philemon had to be taught how to receive his runaway slave as a beloved brother.

And then Paul says further to him, Receive him if on no other account than a matter of partnership. If you regard me as a partner, receive him as myself, and if he owe anything to thee, put it to my account. There we see the great principle of taking on the obligations of others, so as to equalise things in the house of God. Onesimus would be set up in this circle of love, for such it was, as verses 1 and 2 show; he would be set up by this epistle in that circle in equality; he would be perfectly at home and without an incumbency. Paul had taken it on, and he would discharge it, for indeed Philemon owed him much more. There was an equalising principle, and the apostle desired that the beloved brother should be received in love and be at home in the circle.

POWER IN RELATION TO THE TESTIMONY OF GOD

1 Corinthians 2:3 - 5; Proverbs 30:29 - 31; Numbers 23:21; Numbers 24:7, 17 - 19

I wish to call attention to the great importance of power if we are to be effective in the testimony of God; and in speaking of power from this point of view one is reminded of the secret of it as indicated in the book of Joshua. The Israelites ere they undertook any enterprise in the testimony were to begin with Gilgal, where they were typically shorn of all that marks the flesh, reminding us that the flesh profits nothing in the service of God; and so many of us, if not all, who have been in any way effective have under the government of God had to taste death. Any one who essays to undertake the service of God apart from tasting it will prove his error sooner or later.

The apostle Paul, I believe, stands out in the New Testament as a model for us; he saw in the life and service of Christ true leadership in service; as of old, Gideon said to his three hundred men, "Look on me, ... as I do, so shall ye do", Judges 7:17. What he did was to break his pitcher, and the three hundred had to do likewise or the victory would have been jeopardised; but they did likewise, and the victory was complete. The apostle Paul, in outlining the character of his ministry, and of himself as a minister, calls attention to the discipline through which God had caused him to pass; indeed before he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians he tells them that in Asia he had despaired even of living; 2 Corinthians 1:8. God was preparing him to write the second epistle. It was a question of winning the confidence of the Corinthians.

Ministry today has to be carried on in relation to those most of whom have little or no confidence in the ministers. I am not speaking of those who walk with us in the fellowship; but ministry is not for them alone; ministry is for the whole assembly. It does not say that God has set certain in fellowship, but that He has set certain in the assembly; 1 Corinthians 12:28. He has set the gifts in the assembly and their ministry has the whole assembly in view; but most of those who form the assembly have little or no confidence in those who are walking in the truth, and who are seeking to minister it. Ministry, therefore, is extremely difficult at the present time, and we shall prove this to our sorrow if we undertake it lightly, if we undertake it in natural effort or ability. We have to learn from our great Leader, if we are to minister effectively. The Lord Jesus Christ had to carry on His ministry amongst those who had little or no confidence in Him, but He was not daunted. We find Him in John's gospel ministering in Jerusalem, for John would present to us the most sterile soil, as corresponding with that with which we have to do; so the Lord is seen in this gospel ministering in Jerusalem where there was little or no sympathy with Him. We have to learn, beloved friends, to minister after this fashion.

I need not go over the incidents in John's gospel which illustrate the ministry of Christ; they are well known; I just refer to them as bearing on Paul's ministry. He had his eye on his great Leader, and as Jesus went down into death to serve those whom He came to serve, notwithstanding their want of sympathy and interest, so every minister has to learn how to serve without sympathy, and even without interest. The apostle Paul was helped by discipline to write this second letter, by which he intended to secure the confidence of his Corinthian brethren; he had lost it to a great extent, not

through his fault surely, but through theirs, and so he says, "I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved. But be it so", 2 Corinthians 12:15. He had despaired even of living -- such were the straits into which he had come under the discipline of God in his ministry; but he says, "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver", 2 Corinthians 1:9, 10. So that he comes up out of death -- a veritable death -- to write this letter, and in it he calls attention to the breaking of the pitcher.

And so, as we serve, the Lord would have us to serve after Himself as a pattern, and after the pattern of him who came nearest to Himself, even Paul. He says: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus" -- what a mighty fact in a man's history! -- "that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body", and then he says, "We who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh". So he goes on, "We ... believe, therefore also we speak". What power would mark the speaking of one who was thus characterised as a broken pitcher, as one who bore about in his body the dying of Jesus!

Now it was on that principle that Paul ministered at Corinth from the beginning, although it was greatly accentuated in his second letter; hence he was a fit vessel to bring in the new covenant -- to bring it in in power, in the spirit of liberty, in the spirit of the Lord, as he says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty". There was the power of a king in him in that epistle, against whom there is no rising up.

I want now to show you that the book of Numbers, in the section from which I have read, is based on the

gift of the Spirit. Chapter 21 records that in their experience the people had come to Beer, to the well of which it is said, "Spring up. O well; sing ye unto it". The princes of the people digged the well with their staves, by the direction of the lawgiver. Note that; that is to say, the Spirit as received into our souls is in relation to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not given power to be exercised at our own wills; we are given power to be exercised under the direction and control of the Lord Jesus, so that it is at the direction of the lawgiver. We are to move here within those limits; there is no room for the exercise of our own wills. Simon Magus would have paid a high price in money for the Spirit. Why? It would have given him greater power than he had ever wielded, although he had wielded power. He had astonished people with his magic arts, but he sees in the Spirit a power greater than that, but he was in the bond of iniquity, and so is any one who would use the power of the Spirit at his own will. The Spirit is given in relation to the authority of the Lord Jesus, and it is to be wielded here in subjection to Him, and as thus wielded we take on the character of the king.

So I wish to connect these verses in Proverbs with the passages in Numbers. First we have three things which go well, yea, four that are comely in their going. I want to show, beloved brethren, how we arrive at the thought of power, which the thought of a king represents. It is not a question here of an official king, but of one who has moral power, and that is what God intends to be developed primarily in the assembly. He looks for the development of moral power in us, and so these four stately things culminate in the one -- that is in the king, against whom, as it is said, there is no rising up.

Now the first is a lion, and I believe that the features of the lion appear as the Holy Spirit is

recognised as received in the believer's soul. There were four things that disquieted the earth -- four odious things which are easily compared with conditions with which we have to do at the present time; and then there were four little or weak things which, as we all know, correspond with the position of God's people at the present time. We do not occupy, nor do we seek a place of conspicuousness in this world; "wise", but "weak" things surely describe the people of God in this day. But then there are the stately things, and these refer to the saints in their service in the testimony of God. It is well to accept our littleness and our weakness, but at the same time it is also well to see that the possession of the Spirit of God involves power, and power against which there is no rising up, against which all the power of the world combined cannot raise up its head.

I want to make that clear, and to make clear too how we come into this power, for without it our testimony cannot be effective. So the first feature -- the lion -- should, I believe, appear in the youngest believer who has the Spirit, and who confesses the Lord Jesus. Many are in soul difficulties because they do not confess, but in confessing the Lord you raise your standard, you are not afraid of the face of man, you have come into the light of the Lord Jesus in heaven, you have come into the light of the great fact that the Holy Spirit has been sent down by Him, and that the Holy Spirit is greater than the world power, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4), and thus you confess the Lord Jesus, and that is the act of a lion. You are not to underrate what that may involve; it will involve conflict, but no one is of any value until he faces the enemy. As you face him and confess the Lord Jesus, you realise that you have got more power than the enemy; he flees from you; he has no power against you as you confess boldly the Lord

Jesus Christ. "The righteous are bold", it says, "as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1), and so is the youngest believer as he apprehends the gospel, as he apprehends righteousness, and confesses the Lord boldly and finds he has power; he turns not away from any. I speak thus for young ones, because it is the commencement of spiritual power when you begin to realise what you are possessed of, as you openly and courageously confess the Lord Jesus in your home circle, and particularly in your business circle.

Then the next thing which has a stately step is the war-horse. He represents aggressiveness. The lion stands his ground, he turns not away from any, but the horse according to Job is aggressive: "He ... cannot contain himself at the sound of the trumpet ... and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting" (Job 39:24, 25); he is not deterred. He goes forward notwithstanding the sword and the spear; "he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted". He knows the issue, and he is present whenever a conflict is on for the truth; he is never away in the background; he discerns that the issue is the truth, and he comes forward: "He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength". It is the believer consciously possessed of the Spirit. He knows the power he has, he knows what he has received it for, and he is not afraid to use it; so he is present in power for the maintenance of the truth of God, for that is the issue -- there is no other. The world may have its issues, but for him there is no issue other than the truth; it is a question of the truth, and no one who loves Christ will fail to use every bit of power that he has for the maintenance of what belongs to Him.

The next is the he-goat. The goat is a creature that can isolate himself, and does. I have no doubt he represents the believer here as able to retire into the presence of God. Many of us began well, we made

a good confession and came out in the conflict, but if we fail to retreat into the presence of God, we fail to maintain a secret relation with God by prayer, and hence we lose our power, and thus come under the influence of men. Many have suffered thus -- living with the brethren merely, living in the presence of the brethren, living in the success of our service, eating, as it were, our own fat, and as a consequence have lost our power. Whereas the he-goat is a stately thing.

Moses, I suppose, is one of the best illustrations of what is set forth in the he-goat; he was on the mount with God; Aaron was with the people; Moses came down from the mount from being with God. What an experience was his! He was forty days with God, and he neither ate nor drank; what room there was in him for God! Down in the valley the people were eating, and drinking, and playing, and making the golden calf -- all these things go together. Moses neither ate nor drank, he lived by God. "Man shall not live by bread alone", the Lord said, "but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". And what words were proceeding out of the mouth of God as Moses was with Him there upon the mount! never had a man heard such words. There were portrayed before him by the words of God Himself all the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth; all were opened up to him; he lived upon them. And as he was with God his very being, as I may say, was saturated with the thoughts of God. How wonderful! What a man he was as he descended that mount! How he besought the Lord his God for the people! He interceded for them with God before he entered the camp; but when he did enter no one could stand before him. There were possibly two millions of people there, but there was not one that could rise up in the presence of Moses; he is the king, for the goat culminates in the king --

the man of moral power. He ground the calf into powder and strewed it upon the water, and compelled the people to drink of it as from the brook. Such was Moses; such is a king according to God; no one can rise up against him.

Now that is the beginning of what we have developed in Balaam's prophecy; from that point Moses advances and goes forward until it is said that he is king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together; Deuteronomy 33:5. It was not a question of his being made or crowned king; he was never made a king; he was a king morally by being with God, and the shout of a king was with him. How we need that, dear friends. The Holy Spirit is brought in figuratively in chapter 21, and Balaam looks at the people, and note that in his prophecies it is of the people he is speaking. As one thinks of the companies of the Lord's people, one is entitled to look at them from the standpoint of the possession of the Spirit. We can only look at them according to God as we look at them from that standpoint -- from the top of the rocks. We must dismiss from our minds for the moment what they may be according to the flesh, and look at them from the standpoint of the Spirit. And so as one thinks of the Lord's people, moving about among them, as one has the privilege to do, one thinks of what there is there.

First we have the shout of a king: "The shout of a king is among them". A shout expresses victory. We all know how it was said at Jericho, "Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city". They had only to shout, all the rest was done by God. So Balaam here sees the people from the standpoint of the Spirit and the shout of a king is among them. It is for us to consider, dear brethren, whether in our several localities there is the shout of a king among us. What I have said indicates how such a thing is

reached. It is a question of the Spirit, the Spirit being recognised. But more than that, for the first prophecy of Balaam refers to the separation of the people -- "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations". The admission of worldly influences deadens the power of the Spirit. If we are to have the shout of a king, there must be the rigid refusal of worldly principles and associations. Severe isolation from the world is the secret of this of which I speak.

So the second prophecy contemplates the power which is the result of this: The shout of a king is among them "... he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn". So as one has part in any local meeting where there is separation, where the Spirit is recognised, where the flesh is refused, you find the strength of a unicorn -- you find power; whereas where worldly principles are admitted, where separation is not maintained, where the Spirit is not recognised, you will find things limited and hampered, and no results. So that it is a question for us in our localities as to whether there are the evidences of power among us.

Then in the third prophecy we have, "His king shall be higher than Agag", that is to say, the power that is amongst us is not built up after the flesh. Agag represents the flesh. I have no doubt that the systems around us are marked by their Agags -- their men of power, for it is undeniable they have men of great power, as it is said elsewhere, "There were giants ... in those days". These mighty men, men of renown, sprang from an unholy alliance -- from the sons of God and the daughters of men. We cannot deny the power that exists around us from such alliances; but the power of the Spirit is greater. Not one of them can hold his ground in the presence of Israel's king -- "His king shall be higher than Agag". We see the superiority the Holy Spirit gives us as we recognise Him. The apostle Paul fought with

beasts at Ephesus; he fought with them, but he was not overcome by them. No one could stand in the presence of Paul; he had power by him to bring down strongholds and everything that exalted itself against Christ; he was higher than Agag. He had weapons of warfare, mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and the casting down of every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.

Then in the fourth prophecy we have a Star and Sceptre spoken of. I need not remind you of the progress thus made. As the Spirit is recognised there is the shout of a king, then there is superiority over men of this world, however great -- higher than Agag; and then there is the Star and Sceptre. "There shall come a Star out of Jacob". The Star suggests much to us. It suggests the reflection of light. There is not only power, there is the radiation of light. The light that is radiating at this present time is the light of the coming day -- a day we are on the very threshold of. This is a development that every servant, every Christian should have before him -- that there should be the radiation of light, the light of a star. It is the reflection of Christ thrown in on the present darkness, the harbinger of a day that is nearing. How important to see what God is leading up to, what great thoughts He has, and how they are worked out in the recognition of the Spirit! We see what is before us, what we may reach under the hand of God as we are content to let the flesh go. There is the Star; we see things in the light, the light of Christ is brought in on everything. It is now a question of Christ; everything must be regulated by Him. It is a question of the light of Christ being brought in in the star. That light which is about to burst on this world is already radiating in those who recognise the Spirit. It is a wonderful thing the idea of the Star, and then there is the

Sceptre. "A Sceptre shall rise out of Israel". The sceptre suggests the principle of the rule of Christ; it is not simply that we have His commandments; it is that He is influencing us, so that all is dominated by Him.

And then He disposes of the corners of Moab "shall smite the corners of Moab". It is not now a question of defence, but of aggression. He deals with the pride of this world, and again with the children of Sheth, or the sons of tumult of which the world is full; but we are in the light of Him who is to dispose of all that. He "shall destroy all the sons of tumult". As a matter of fact, this fourth prophecy is the solution of what is called the Eastern question. Taking it prophetically, it refers to what the Lord will do in the latter days. He will dispose of Moab and Edom and all these ancient enemies of Israel, until we see the ships of Chittim afflicting Asshur and Eber for their destruction. It is the solution of the Eastern question.

I do not, however, wish to speak of prophecy, but it is well to see how the Lord Himself will come in through Israel, for it is Israel's king that is in view, and the exploits of Israel as having the Spirit. Through Israel He will deal with all the ancient enemies of Israel which were in immediate proximity to them. The Western powers are dealt with otherwise, and so is the Northern power, but the Star and the Sceptre dispose of all the immediate surroundings of Israel, so that Israel will triumph.

With ourselves, the star is the light of Christ being reflected at the present time. I wish I could make this point clear. It is a Colossian suggestion. Romans and Corinthians synchronise as unfolding the authority, the commandments of Christ, but Colossians is Christ Himself; it is being in the light of Christ; "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord", it says, "so walk ye in him". It is Himself --

it involves headship. So in this fourth prophecy, I apprehend, the Star contemplates the light of Christ radiating in His people, and the Sceptre is His own direct influence; it may be through His people, nevertheless, it is Christ, and the more we advance in the truth, the more we look for the direct influence of the Lord. We come back, therefore, to the assembly as it was set up by Paul; we have come back to our Head and we His members, so that the light of Christ is reflected in His body. In the sceptre there is the rule of Christ, but I would very much prefer to be ruled by His influence, than by His commandments. I begin with His commandments, but I want to come under His influence -- the influence of Christ. "In his shadow have I rapture and sit down", Song of Songs 2:3. It is the direct influence of Christ.

How important it is to learn to be restful under that influence. Perhaps one of the greatest needs amongst us is the keeping of the Sabbath, so to speak, the coming under the influence of Christ, so that we are restful in His presence. "In his shadow have I rapture and sit down". I am not to live in my service, however successful; I am to live under the immediate influence of Christ -- His left hand under my head, and His right hand embracing me. How immediate it all is, and so there is the Star and the Sceptre, the reflection of Christ and the rule of His influence. Thus, I believe the Lord would set out what is before us, what is attainable as we proceed on the line of the Spirit and disallow the flesh. We arrive at kingly power and the light of Christ radiating as from the star in these dark days.

READING

Ezekiel 36:24 - 27; Ezekiel 37:1 - 17

J.T. The Lord may help us to see how the work of God, as indicated in this prophet, corresponds with the writings of John. Here we see that work culminating in unity -- Judah and Israel are brought together in life. John's gospel corresponds very much with this prophet, indeed the reference, I suppose, in John 3 by the Lord is to this very passage (chapter 36), and there are many other corresponding features, particularly in signs, that we get throughout Ezekiel. As we all know, John's gospel, and indeed the book of Revelation, are on the same principle -- "He sent and signified"; so that John's testimony is largely based on signs with, of course -- a spiritual import. Ezekiel, as we know doubtless, signifies the strength of God, and it opens with the prophet among the captives, sharing with his brethren their afflictions, but he sees the heavens opened and an array of power in certain symbolical features, whereby the will of God is enforced, and maintained in this world. But the government of God can only subserve His purpose, and His purpose is that His people should live, and that they should live in unity, and that that unity should mark them: "I will make them one nation in the land".

Then, as following this teaching (chapters 36 and 37), the prophet is brought in the visions of God into the land of Israel in chapter 40, and the man whose appearance was like that of brass with a flax-cord in his hand and a measuring reed, takes him to the gate by which Jehovah was to enter into His house, and the measurements all correspond -- one reed. Thus we have in John's ministry life developed, and then unity, so that conditions may exist for God to

come in and be with His people. There is, therefore, not only a very strong analogy between Ezekiel and John, but an analogy that suggests our own time, that is, times in which many of the professed people of God are fast drifting into apostasy, so that life is the only thing that stands; mere outward forms will not suffice.

E.J.McB. Then do I understand that you look on Ezekiel as answering to the ancient people in his ministry, as John would answer to the assembly?

J.T. Exactly, both having in view the end that God intends to reach, so that victory is certain. The name of the city shall be Jehovah Shammah -- Jehovah is there; there is no doubt about that; it will most surely come to pass. And so John shows us the heavenly city coming down, so that the desired end is a certainty. How we are to correspond now with the work that leads up to that is the point.

J.B. Would you say that what you have been bringing before us from Ezekiel as to the union of the two sticks in the hand of the Lord corresponds with His prayer in John 17, "That they all may be one"?

J.T. Just so, and we see in the earlier part of the gospel (up to chapter 7) how life is developed, and in chapter 10 the principle of unity is worked out in the sheep, "There shall be one flock, one shepherd".

D.L.H. You get the two things again in Psalm 133, "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"; the psalm begins with that, and concludes with the thought of life for evermore.

J.T. Well, it seems to me that that is what is proceeding now. God is working, and He is working to bring about a living state of things amongst His people to the end that there might be unity.

E.J.McB. Then is your thought that the mere revival of form is not likely to effect anything, but we have to come back to things by way of vitality?

J.T. I think that is how the matter stands. We

reach the structure, as Paul presents it, through John's ministry. To endeavour to set up a pattern of the assembly apart from living conditions is sure to end in failure, but if the living conditions are brought about, then we have something that goes through.

A.W. So the union of the two sticks cannot be accomplished without the sprinkling of the clean water first?

J.T. Just so, and then the breath entering into them, so that they live.

A.W. An entirely new principle is introduced by the sprinkling of the clean water.

J.T. In John 3 the work of God affects the whole man; chapter 36 contemplates that there should be a new heart and a new spirit. It does not say exactly a new soul, but there is a new heart and a new spirit; then He says, "I will put my spirit within you". Now I think we have in John 3 the work of God as it begins, its initial stages, and it may be very aptly illustrated in Jacob who, according to Hosea, acted on divine instinct in taking his brother by the heel; that is, the work of God in its initial features in the believer leads to the instinctive displacement of the man after the flesh. It begins that way, and Jacob began that way, and he ends that way. He began with taking hold of Esau by the heel and he ended with putting Ephraim before Manasseh; so there was perfect correspondence between the beginning of his spiritual life and the end of it. In between there was much discipline; but the great weakness amongst the people of God is largely due to the want of that instinct, the instinct that sets the natural man aside to make room for the spiritual.

Ques. Is that what you mean by taking Esau by the heel?

J.T. Yes, the supplanter. There is no babe in Scripture (except the Lord, of course) to compare

with Jacob in that respect; even before his birth he is actuated by divine instinct (Genesis 25:22, 23), and as he is born he takes his brother by the heel. Then the prophet Hosea goes on to say that he wrestled with the angel and in his strength he had power with God; all that is from the side of the work of God in the man. God setting Esau aside is another matter. The work of God in me corresponds with the sovereignty of God, it is sure to, and I believe in that way we know just where we are by an introspective examination.

E.J.McB. I am sure that is true -- that the actual work of God in any believer, the instincts and features of it, are according to God in all His operations.

A.W. So at the very beginning of that work in the soul, the sense is present that there is an order of man that will not do for God; it may not be entered into, but it is present at the very beginning.

J.T. Yes, many believers could not give you an intelligent account of that, but in observing them, one can see it.

E.J.McB. Even young believers have the instinct of it in themselves; there is a certain measure of dislike to what panders to the flesh, and what would support the Spirit appeals to them.

J.T. We see in the after history how accurate Jacob's instinct was; he knew nothing about the prophecies obviously, or that it had been foretold that the elder should serve the younger and that he should replace Esau, but his later history shows the accuracy of his instinct. All along the line Esau's conduct proves that Jacob is right. Hosea says nothing about the buying of the birthright, the purchase of the inheritance, nor about his deception, but it does speak of his wrestling with God, following upon his taking his brother by the heel.

G.W.W. We have been accustomed rather to

look on that action of Jacob with considerable disfavour. You think it was a right instinct?

J.T. I think Hosea shows that. It is quoted to show that Israel then were contrary to that; Hosea 12:3 - 5. What is said of Jacob is set over against the conduct of the people at that particular time.

G.W.W. You mean that there had been the re-admission among them of certain principles that were not in line with Jacob's action? These principles had been re-asserting themselves, and hence were destructive of unity.

J.T. Yes. Here he says, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them". We see, I think, in this passage how the work of God bears on our natural associations.

E.J.McB. It would be in that way that John would use the expression, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols", 1 John 5:21.

J.T. Quite. It is not here simply that one goes by precept. This passage deals with us inwardly -- a new heart and a new spirit given, connected with purification, for the truth is that the new birth is purifying as well as life-giving.

Ques. Why do you think it is sprinkling?

J.T. I suppose it is just the reference to the work of God in its cleansing feature.

Ques. Is the thought purifying their hearts by faith?

J.T. Yes, the new birth is according to that.

Ques. What is the force of Jacob taking hold of the heel?

J.T. It means supplanting Esau, and inasmuch as it was the act of a babe, it was instinctive. It was not an act prompted by any acquired intelligence; it was instinctive, which is an important thing to take account of in the work of God. The instincts that mark the believer at the beginning develop and enter into his intelligence in all his spiritual growth, but they are the fundamental principles that mark the work of God from the outset.

E.J.McB. Have you in mind that in coming into life in the history of our own souls spiritually with God, we become more accustomed to take account of these instincts in the people of God than in mere outward actions?

J.T. I think it is very important in dealing with the people of God to accustom oneself to discern instincts.

Ques. Are these instincts the new heart and the new spirit?

J.T. The new heart and the new spirit would be the seat of these instincts. It is more important that we should discern these instincts at the outset in souls than to look for mere intelligence in the things of God.

E.J.McB. Is that why in John many of the mere formalities are rebuked by the Lord, because there were no divine instincts behind them?

J.T. Yes, many of them believed because of the miracles, but those were not divine instincts. There is no credit to be attached to believing in a Man who can feed a multitude, or who can raise a dead man, or turn water into wine. The Lord did not attach any importance to that; what He looked for was the instincts that mark the work of God in men's souls.

Ques. Is that what He took account of in regard of Nicodemus?

J.T. Exactly. "But there was a man from among the Pharisees, his name Nicodemus". He

came to Jesus by night; he had certain right instincts, for he recognised Jesus as "a teacher come from God".

Ques. That is what He can commit Himself to; is that what you mean? At the end of the previous chapter it says, "Jesus did not commit himself unto them ... for he knew what was in man".

J.T. Yes. I may be occupied with what you say, but God is looking at your heart. Jesus knew what was in man and He knew all men, so He did not commit Himself to them, but there was a man who came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God". That is the sort of thing to look for in dealing with souls; there is a certain instinct that recognises what is of God. If they come into a meeting where the Spirit of God is active, they are affected. "If any one desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself", John 7:17.

N.L. Is it on the principle that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"?

J.T. That is the principle exactly. Do you not find that helpful in dealing with souls? If a young Christian wishes to break bread, for instance, what you look for is the instinct.

Rem. That calls for consideration with us.

J.T. It does. But instinct is the feature to go by. You can easily impart knowledge; that is a comparatively simple matter, but to give souls divine instincts you cannot; that is the work of God, and when given they are there for ever. A soul may forget many things that you say, but he will never lose the instincts. Therefore, our concern in dealing with a soul is not to find out how much he knows, but to find out if there are instincts there as the result of divine operations. You may ask questions, and he may

answer them perfectly, but that does not prove there are instincts there.

D.L.H. I remember J.N.D. used to say that the Lord did not always answer people's questions, but He always answered them, meaning that He knew the state of the people who were asking questions and dealt with that, so that if there were a divine instinct He responded to it.

J.T. So that Nicodemus, although he has the instincts, was evidently governed by Pharisaical thoughts, and there are many Christians like that. They have the instincts, but they are under a tremendous disadvantage because of bad teaching and wrong associations; hence the great labour to be expended that such might be extricated from these hindering influences. The Lord says, "Ye must be born again"; that is the first thing. He immediately brought into evidence the work of God in a man, and that was the point for the moment.

Ques. What is the difference between the instinct you are speaking of and the unction in John's "babes"?

J.T. There it is the Spirit given to us as a power of intelligence -- of understanding.

Ques. Is the extrication you are speaking of seen in detail in John 9?

J.T. Well, there you see how the work of God proceeds, not only in its initial stages, but in leading a man on until he is outside all religious associations. The work of God is true to itself. In every instance that man is true; he is able to give an account of himself. John 9 is a great advance on John 3, it is the works of God in chapter 9. There is variety in the features of the work.

E.J.McB. In the case of Nicodemus, he was extricated first of all by the injustice of the council, and lastly by the effect of the death of Christ upon him.

Ques. Would you receive a person who wants to break bread if his instincts are right, or would you wait till he has the Spirit?

J.T. He cannot be in the assembly without the Spirit; and not only that, but he has also to be adjusted in regard of the truth. The truth has to be brought to bear, but the first thing is the work of God -- that is the basis.

Ques. Was it the work of God in Nicodemus that made him come to Jesus?

J.T. Yes. He came and said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God". He was a teacher in Israel, but there was a Man there who superseded him in his own mind. He evidently recognised One who eclipsed him, though he himself was no ordinary man.

G.W.W. There was an immense deal went on in the soul of Jacob between the time when instinctively he got hold of his brother by the heel, and the moment when he wittingly crossed his hands; then his education was completed, I suppose.

J.T. His history shows the extent of the work of God in a believer -- from the outset to the end.

G.W.W. Therefore you would look for something done wittingly, not merely instinctively.

J.T. You have got one now who is intelligent; "I know it, my son, I know it", Jacob said.

G.W.W. So there is a vast difference between instinct and intelligence; but you will not get much intelligence without instinct.

J.T. You will not get any according to God.

E.J.McB. Taking account of saints in any locality, you would look on them as intelligent people, although there might be amongst them those who were very unintelligent?

J.T. Yes, you could hardly recognise them as on the ground of the assembly unless they were intelligent; the very idea of the assembly involves intelligence.

Paul writes to the Corinthians, "I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say". These are very elementary remarks, but they are extremely important now, because there is so much darkness, and men may hold the very worst things and yet have these instincts underneath. You cannot throw them overboard at once; you want to be sure they have not got the instincts before you reject them.

F.W.J. You were making a distinction between Simon and Cephas the other day.

J.T. Yes; Luke says that "the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon", whereas Paul says that He appeared unto Cephas. Now it is quite obvious that in Luke the thought is to show the exercise of grace on the Lord's part to restore an erring one, for He had just gone to Emmaus to bring back two erring ones, and Peter had also been met by Him; so it was all a question of grace for recovery. But in appearing to Cephas He had the assembly in view; the word 'Cephas' signifies material for the assembly. Peter was an erring disciple -- he had failed -- but nevertheless he was underneath a true lover of Christ.

E.J.McB. It would be evidence of the difference between Jacob and Esau.

J.T. The thing is to distinguish the work of God from what may belong to the responsible life through bad teaching, etc., for the darkness there is around is beyond description -- it is appalling.

E.J.McB. Then do I understand that in proposing these two chapters you wish to bring before us the importance of there being with us the conscious sense that there is a work of God, and if this is in its proper setting, it will bring about unity.

J.T. And to help us to deal with souls on abstract lines -- to identify them with the work of God, for all else is refuse, and how to dispose of that refuse is what brings out the skill.

Ques. What is the connection between the work of God by the Spirit in the soul and the water that came from the side of the Lord?

J.T. I think the water the Lord referred to in John 3 is the water that came from His own side "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit"; there can be no cleansing apart from that.

A.W. In that respect, would it be worthy of note that the vessels in John 2 are stone vessels to hold the water?

J.T. Yes. They were there; it was creditable that they were there. What you get in the beginning of John 2 is a set of conditions in which you may look for results. At the end of that chapter you have a set of conditions in which you may look for no results for God. In the first part of the chapter you have a wedding and Jesus and His disciples were invited; now that shows that it was not a mere matter of patronage. Simon the Pharisee invited the Lord but no one else. If I invite you and your wife and children, I am interested in you; I am not merely patronising you. But here all were invited, and the mother of Jesus was there too. It does not say she was invited, she was probably intimate with the family. So the circumstances are all favourable for a work of God; and alongside of that, you have the six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, that is to say, there were conditions that the Lord could operate in successfully, and He did. You may look for these conditions; one of them is that there is a certain sympathy and favour towards the Lord.

A.W. Is there any connection between the reference in chapter 1 to Cephas, a stone, and the stone vessels?

J.T. The material of the vessels indicates durability -- they were there. In the second part of the chapter you have the Jew. The Lord is at Jerusalem

and the Jews' passover was at hand, which is a very different matter from a marriage in Cana of Galilee where He is invited and His disciples, and where His mother is. So in Jerusalem He cleanses the temple; what effect is that going to have? If you introduce the principles of the house of God, and insist on them, what response are you going to get? You soon find out. Go out into the religious circles today and introduce the principles of the house of God; you will get a cold reception. The Lord brought the scourge in and cast them all out, but there was not an atom of sympathy. They say, "What sign shewest thou to us, that thou doest these things?" He says, "Destroy this temple" (not that temple), "and in three days I will raise it up", and not a word more. They are left to themselves to determine what He means, and there is not the slightest evidence that anybody understood it, not even His disciples. It says, "When therefore he was raised from among the dead his disciples ... believed ... the word which Jesus had spoken", but not then. Then it goes on to say, "Many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he wrought. But Jesus himself did not trust himself to them". That is a set of conditions you may labour in and there is no result, but where you find the Lord is respected and His people are respected, and there is the evidence of some sort of cleansing, there you may hope for results. So it says, "This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed on him". There were definite results there. In Scripture, water in this respect is for moral cleansing, so in John's epistle the water comes before the blood. In John's gospel the blood comes first, as meeting the claims of God.

Rem. The reference in Ezekiel is to water.

J.T. That is what corresponds to John 3.

E.J.McB. I like your reference to the first part of

John 2 -- the value of taking account of the elements which are present, for evidently there was a desire for purity there. The Lord operated in those conditions; whereas in the last part of the chapter the Lord speaks, but gives no explanation of what was in His mind.

J.T. No. He leaves the matter.

Ques. Would you say that in the opening of chapter 2 there are instincts with the Lord's mother, but they were on natural lines?

J.T. But she soon came into line. The Lord said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" but she was equal to the moment, therefore she said immediately to the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it". There was subjection. You will always find that if God is working there is immediate subjection to the word of God. So later, after He manifested forth His glory, He went to Capernaum and abode with His mother and His brethren and His disciples, but as regards Jerusalem He simply says, "Destroy this temple"; there is no explanation whatever on His part as to what He meant. What would be the use of explaining to people such as these Jews were? You cannot make anything of them.

E.J.McB. Then what was your thought in regard to the opening part of this chapter in Ezekiel in regard to prophesying to the bones?

J.T. The point is, I think, that you have to bring in the mind of God. The two things go together: the work of God, and the mind of God being made known.

E.J.McB. Will you say a little as to prophesying to the wind?

J.T. There I suppose it is the Spirit. You get the mind of God as to the bones. I would say, if it be applied to ourselves, that we bring in the mind of God in regard to the assembly and all that relates to

the saints, and that is prophecy, and God works in relation to that.

E.J.McB. Do you look at the work of God in a moral way then, as setting a person on their feet?

J.T. Quite. Then there must be the mind of God brought in; there must be intelligence; so that in John 3, after the Lord speaks of the new birth and cleansing. He says, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up", and moreover, the Son of man was in heaven, and He could speak with authority. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen", the Lord said.

Ques. Would you say a word as to the thought of the Son of man in Ezekiel?

J.T. The term is found more frequently in Ezekiel than in all the rest of Scripture combined, and that must mean something. Now in John you have it in chapter 1; after the truth of the Lord's Person is outlined. He says to Nathanael, "Thou shalt see greater things than these ... . Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man". That was something for an Israelite to think over, and it was an Israelite to whom it was said. A godly Israelite would sit down and ponder the thought, and refer to the scriptures which speak of the Son of man. He would refer to Ezekiel, he would refer to Daniel, and, as a spiritual man, he would begin to see that God was going to operate on wider lines than those He had hitherto been operating on. And Israel has to learn that now, before they come into their portion.

Ques. Is it not, too, the only title the Lord gives Himself?

J.T. Yes, just so. An "Israelite indeed" has to accept that the thoughts of God about the race take precedence now of His thoughts about Israel; that is a very serious matter. One of the signs to Ezekiel is that he is to lose his wife, the delight of his eyes,

and he is not to mourn. That is a sign, meaning that the Lord was going to suffer the loss of Israel; He was going to take things up on wider lines; and that is what He is doing now. Nathanael says, "Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel". The Lord says, "Thou shalt see greater things" -- that is, the Son of man, so in chapter 3 we have the Son of man which is in heaven.

Ques. Does that come out in chapter 17, "The men which thou gavest me"?

J.T. Yes; the men.

G.W.W. And was not that the stumbling-stone on which they stumbled, the fact that He was now moving as Son of man?

J.T. They would not have that; it was a definite stumbling-stone to them. Stephen sees Jesus in heaven and testified, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man", and Jesus announces Himself to Paul. These are the lines on which the testimony moved. Take Saul himself, an Israelite indeed, he had to learn that it was a question not of the promises to Israel first now, but the thoughts of God about the race of men.

G.W.W. So Stephen when he bore his witness says, "I see ... the Son of man standing on the right hand of God"; that finished it, they rushed on him.

J.T. Does not that open up the position immensely?

G.W.W. It does.

A.W. So the whole race comes into view after Acts 7 in chapters 8, 9, and 10.

J.T. Yes, you have the African, the Asiatic, and the European all coming in, one after the other, so that there is the further confirmation of the truth that "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus". And the Jew -- the "Israelite indeed" -- has to learn that.

Ques. Have you got the climax of the thought

of the Son of man in John 13, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him"?

J.T. Quite; that is the climax; the Lord said that when Judas went out. It is wonderful how the idea of the Son of man is woven into John.

Ques. What is the idea of the apparent reference to Genesis 25 in John 1, the angels ascending and descending?

J.T. That means, it was not on Jacob, but on the Son of man. Jacob would bring in the promises, but now God is acting through all this dispensation on a wider basis, but He has not lost sight of Israel. Israel is ever in view, so at the last the land is carefully divided amongst them all, and the tabernacle of God is there.

Ques. Is the term "Son of man" used in the gospels by any one else but the Lord Himself?

J.T. No, not as far as I remember; He uses it Himself.

Ques. Is there a principle in Ezekiel 37 that no visible person puts the bones together -- they come together?

J.T. I think it is the work of God. The prophesying brings the mind of God to bear on everything. These things do not run together in Christendom; there are numbers in whom you find divine instincts, but who find themselves in unholy associations. The thing is to identify the person with the work of God in the soul, and endeavour to remove the refuse.

E.J.McB. It brings in the great value of prophecy.

J.T. Yes. Prophecy is not a mere recitation of doctrine -- it is the mind of God brought in.

E.J.McB. And the driest bones respond to it.

J.T. Yes.

Ques. Does the proving of the spirits (1 John 4) require maturity?

J.T. Quite. Those that respect the apostles' doctrine are of God. I think the spirits that we have

to try are the teachings of men, and the world is full of these teachings now, but they are not of God.

D.L.H. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says, "Covet earnestly the best gifts", and in chapter 14, "but rather that ye may prophesy".

J.T. And just for the same reason we have here; prophesying brings in the mind of God. If a simple person comes in and there is one prophesying, he will fall down and say, "God is in you of a truth". Every brother who ministers should aim at there being some authority with what he says, not a mere recitation of doctrine, but the oracles of God; for, as I understand gift, it involves a commission, and that, as we know from military matters, involves the authority of the king. Therefore, a man's uniform represents something, so the ministry of any brother ought to have certain authority with it -- the mind of God should be there.

Ques. Would that discover the instincts?

J.T. I think the saints would recognise them. If there are the instincts, they will recognise the voice of God.

G.W.W. By the prophetic word the instincts are fed, fostered, and increased until the subject of the work of God is able to act wittingly, and that results in the people of God being found in unity; they know the principles that are of God and those that are contrary to God.

J.T. So you have the result of this in chapter 37 -- the two sticks become one -- the stick of Joseph and the stick of Judah.

G.W.W. It is very beautiful, and all this ought to go on now; we should have before us the great end that is in view -- unity.

J.T. So when you come to the house itself everything corresponds; there is no discrepancy.

Rem. Peter says, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God".

J.T. Yes, it is not merely going over things that you know, as I was saying, but a word that comes from God. It has not the weight Scripture has, otherwise we would not be called upon to judge it, but nevertheless there is a voice of God in it.

Rem. Samuel was a child who was prayed for. He very early displayed right instincts, and the result of it was that the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

Ques. Should we not be concerned to take account of the work of God and associate ourselves with that?

J.T. Yes, you find a principle that "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God", John 3:21. So right through John the principle of the work of God underlies everything.

Ques. Would you say that in the sheep in chapter 10 the knowing and following the Lord is the result of divine instinct?

J.T. Yes.

Ques. Would there be a principle of discernment in a prophet as to whether there were instincts in the company or person he was speaking to?

J.T. Quite. Here the work of God proceeds, so that the bones begin to take on life. Sinews, and flesh, and skin are brought in, and then the breath comes into them and they stand on their feet, an exceeding great army; all that is connected with the work of God.

D.L.H. Is not the thought of life connected very much with power in Scripture, and not entirely connected with instinct, important as that is?

J.T. Quite. The Spirit is life. That comes out in Jacob; in his strength he wrestled with God; evidently there was a great increase on what he was as a babe. He wrestled with God, and, it says, he prevailed.

E.J.McB. So here you have after the bones were clothed with sinews, flesh and skin, the prophecy that brings in the four winds -- the Spirit connected with what is universal. A man who has the Spirit is connected with the whole work of God in the earth; they lived, and stood up upon their feet.

J.T. Quite so; Joseph sees his sheaf standing up; there was power -- life was there. It says here He puts a new heart and spirit in them; but then He goes on to say, "I will put my spirit within you" -- that is what I understand to be the power. The new heart and spirit would be the seat of the instincts we were speaking of; His Spirit coming in involves power and intelligence. That would result in the believer doing things wittingly.

Ques. Would you say a word as to the river Chebar; Ezekiel 1:1?

J.T. Well, it seems to be morally right that the prophet should be there, far away from Jerusalem. He is identified with the captivity, with the sorrows of God's people, like the Lord Himself -- "In all their affliction he was afflicted", Isaiah 63:9. So the Lord is not working in Jerusalem now, but far away from it. I have no doubt it corresponds with our time. God is working far away from places where we might expect Him to work; the heavens are universal in their bearing. In the Acts, where Christianity is brought in, we see how heaven comes into view -- a light from heaven -- a sheet from heaven.

READING

Acts 4:23 - 37; Acts 13:1 - 3; Acts 14:23 - 28

J.T. These scriptures show us the place the assembly had in relation to the three leading servants in Christianity -- Peter, John, and Paul. I think it might help us if we consider how these servants, and the Spirit working through them, recognised the company in relation to their work. It is well to take account of this, because distinction in service or success in service naturally tends to give prominence to those who serve, and unless there be a full recognition of the place the assembly has in this connection, there is the danger of personal influence becoming unduly pronounced among the people of God. Recognition of the assembly as seen in these passages would have an equalising effect. In the first scripture read we find the company is resorted to by Peter and John, and there is an equalising process, if one may so speak, in the prayers of the company, for all the apostles come into view again, not only Peter and John who were distinguished, but they all come into evidence and are seen in active service. "With great power gave the apostles witness" (verse 33). Not Peter and John only, but the apostles. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 it says, "And God has set certain in the assembly". They are all set in the assembly, and the thought is that each should shine in his own place, and Acts 4 shows that it was so in that company. Whilst there are those who are particularly distinguished, for God in His sovereignty must have His own way, yet the other apostles, whose names are not given in this chapter, are also mentioned as working.

E.J.McB. In that way the value of the assembly as a whole would be that the servant in his activities

would keep in touch with, and hold himself in relation to all the thoughts of God in regard of the assembly.

J.T. And it would put him in his own place in the assembly. "God has set certain in the assembly", we are told, "first, apostles; secondly, prophets", etc. (1 Corinthians 12:28). Now, if He has set them there, His thought is that they are all to shine there, and they are not to overshadow one another.

E.J.McB. Was that the Corinthian difficulty? "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos".

J.T. They were setting up local leaders, one against another, and that was taking the matter out of God's hands. The equalising vessel is the assembly. So God maintains through the free action of the Spirit in the whole company the place for each gift. In the heavenly city the apostles are all seen in their own positions; there are twelve precious stones; and in this first great gathering, which we may call the Pentecostal church, they are all there, and any one coming in would see the shining of them all. They were specially fitted to shine, for being precious stones would indicate that they were the special handiwork of Christ, and He would have every ray of light reflected, each stone in his own place. So it would seem as if the Spirit of God sets things down here in such wise that we may see, that while Peter and John were distinguished in the special service committed to them, yet as coming into the company, they do not overshadow others. It does not say they led in prayer, or in anything that took place on this occasion.

P.L. Does not the word of Peter, "Look on us" (Acts 3:4), indicate how he in mind was found in relation to the assembly? Does that word 'us' correspond to the Lord's own word, 'ME', in speaking to Saul of Tarsus; Acts 9:4?

J.T. Peter and John were the best, so to speak, that God had to put forward. That is surely worthy

of God, to put forward the best He has; and they were that, specially as viewed together. "Look on us", they could say. This is probably linked on with chapter 2: 47, "The Lord added daily those that were to be saved". The word 'assembly' is not there; it is the principle of being put together. Peter and John would represent that supremely; so in chapter 3: 1 we read, "went up together". They would represent the principle of unity in a supreme measure, and they are the ones that are put forward. It is due to God that in approaching men He should have the right to ornament the testimony (though in a certain sense it needs no ornamentation) with the very best He has. Indeed, His love requires that He should commend the message -- what He has for man -- in the vessels through whom it is presented. So that what heaven was ministering for man was enhanced in these two servants. They were the very best, now that Christ was gone, and it was due to God that they should be put forward; they were the reflex of Christ here. In the presence of the beautiful gate of the temple, the very sight of which was so attractive to the religious mind, they say, "Look on us". Something was there that eclipsed that gate; great and imposing as it was, it did not come up to these two men. "Look on us".

P.L. The Lord says of Saul of Tarsus, "This man is an elect vessel to me", Acts 9:15. Is that His sovereign right to put forward the best?

J.T. Yes. There seems to be a movement forward, and if a comparison may be made, Paul, as alluded to in that scripture, was heaven's best; so that the testimony of God has come to the Gentiles in a vessel that enhanced it in every way, and it is the Lord's right that it should be so. Paul was the last, according to his own record, to whom the Lord appeared. "And last of all ... he appeared to me also", 1 Corinthians 15:8. I think Peter, John, and Paul may be taken

to be personally representative of the Lord, each in his own connection. He appeared to Peter personally, He appeared to John personally, also to Paul, and to James. It may be these personal appearings were intended to stamp those who were to represent the Lord, each in his own connection.

P.L. Would you say the Lord's appearing to Peter was in regard to the kingdom, to Paul in regard to the assembly, and to John in regard to the family?

J.T. That is how it stands, pretty much.

F.S.M. And though the apostles have passed away, the principles you have been speaking of continue in the thought of "vessels unto honour", in order to be serviceable to the Master?

J.T. I think so. It is due to God to have the very best, and you do not want to stand in the light of what God is doing. He must have His way, and He puts forward that which is most likely to enhance the testimony to men. He wishes to recommend it. He is so considerate of man that He would make it acceptable. The Lord Himself preached in such wise as to make it acceptable; it was enhanced through His lips. We read, they "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth". With us, alas! there is often something that detracts in the way we preach.

Ques. Why is that?

J.T. I think it is because the vessels are not formed. The Lord had expended great care on Peter and John; we know how these great vessels were with Him on special occasions, when others were not. He intended that they should be the best in the house, if we may use that word, and I think we may, for the Lord knows all the vessels and the value of each, for in the Master's house it is due to the Lord that nothing but the best vessels should be put forward. They all hang on the nail in a sure place; Isaiah 22:23. He supports every one, but there is a variety of

them. When He says of Saul, "This man is an elect vessel to me", you may be sure he was that. He was the first one of whom the word 'vessel' was used.

F.S.M. With reference to the vessels of the temple, they were all made according to the divine pattern; would you say that now vessels are formed by the Spirit according to the sovereignty of God?

J.T. I am sure that is right. So the idea of gift is to enhance the truth and enforce it. Any Christian might unfold the doctrine of the gospel, but that would not be preaching. We find in Acts 2 that those who received the Spirit were all heard speaking, as it says, "the great things of God" (verse 11). But it does not say there were any convictions, or conversions. There were Jews there present from all nations, and proselytes, and they heard them speak the wonderful works of God, but you will note it is "speaking". It is quite right to speak the wonderful things of God, but when Peter stood up with the eleven and preached there were three thousand converted (verse 41), showing how gift enhances the truth, and enforces it, even as it is intended for this purpose. So the lesson to be gained from that is, that while every Christian should speak about the wonderful things of God, we should be careful that those who preach are suitable and able to preach; and we should not stand in their way.

Ques. Are there more conversions amongst the systems than there are amongst us?

J.T. I do not think that throws much light on what we are speaking of. What we want to recognise is the divine thought, so that we may work things out from causes to results and not from results to causes, and that we may learn to distrust all results which are not the product of divine causation. Gift is designed of God to enhance the truth. God may use any instrumentality He wishes. We have to learn by seeing what God used to enforce the testimony at the beginning.

Ques. Would you say there is not much to be added to the assembly?

J.T. There ought to be converts, and I think there are too. Our great concern primarily should be to work out the divine thought, as I have already said.

E.J.McB. One can recognise the beauty and seemliness of every believer speaking the wonderful things of God, and can see the distinction between that and the preaching of Peter. What is gift?

J.T. Well, it is a power similar to that in which Christ rose. "Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men", Ephesians 4:8. There would thus be here a power relatively similar to that which is exercised by the Lord Himself in heaven -- the power of the world to come, in other words. It is akin to what was seen in the Lord when here. He gave power to the apostles over all the power of the enemy, so that no other power could compete with it. Gift in that way is, as another has said, "power from Christ". Anyone who has a gift has it relatively, some more and some less. The fact that I can speak or unfold the truth does not necessarily mean that I have gift. I think that full opportunity should be given for the development of gift. If a brother has a gift, he should have an opportunity to develop it; room should be made for it, because it is divinely provided to enhance the truth and to make it attractive.

P.L. Would you say it is the spoil of the ascended Man?

J.T. It is that kind of power; it is power from an ascended Man -- from a victorious Christ, and it cannot be withstood; it brings everything down. That is not mere speaking; Anna spoke of Christ; it does not say she preached Him. Jonah preached; and surely everyone should speak of the Lord, and the Lord would bless what was said, but that is not gift exactly. The best evidence of what I say is

that when those in Acts 2 spoke of the great things of God we hear of no conversions, though they had an attentive audience; the conversions were when Peter preached.

F.W. Gift would set free what is in the assembly. "They spake the word of God with boldness", Acts 4:31.

J.T. No doubt. It really affords the Lord an opportunity. "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me", 2 Corinthians 13:3. Gift is no less than that. A gift is like a commission. I only refer to that by way of illustration; a commission represents the king; it is his commission. There must be the presentation of Christ here, and gift is for that. The Lord has direct access to men through the gift.

F.G.W. What would help to bring a gift to light amongst the saints?

J.T. It is for each local company to discern what there may be, and to make room for it, not to stand in the way of it. You would put your very best forward to present the truth to souls, because that is God's way.

F.S.M. Would a readiness to bow to God's sovereign movements contribute to the development of gift?

J.T. If God is putting a man forward and you want to make room for him, it will soon become apparent; he will not give out that he is some great one. One would covet the gift, covet the power, but not for the prominence it might give one; that is not the thought at all. But if we are alive to what God is doing, we shall bow to it. The Lord has His own way of calling attention to gift; and moreover, if local gift is not evident, we can pray for it. The Lord has got abundance by Him, and He will answer.

The assembly does not teach or preach, nor should the assembly provide a preacher, nor select a preacher,

but it is its province to be sympathetic, and to pray, and to lay hands on those who are sent.

F.W. How should those matters be arranged amongst us?

J.T. Preaching is on the principle of gift, and therefore whatever responsibility is attached to it should be in the hands of those who have gift. No responsibility should be placed in the hands of those without gift. The Lord selected twelve that they might be with Him before sending them forth to preach. The apostles were all taught for their service; they were chosen and sent out; they were really furnished from on high. Having ascended He gave gifts; and that included them all. Their service was carried on in the power of the Spirit, come down from an ascended Christ, and there is no power great enough in the world to compete with it.

Ques. In Corinthians we are exhorted to earnestly desire the best gifts. What are the best gifts?

J.T. That would depend on the need, whatever it might be at any given time, but evidently the gift of prophecy is the one specially commended; that is, the power to bring in the mind of God in such wise that it carries conviction -- it is the word of God.

E.J.McB. One takes it that in a place where there is not very much gift, we are well off if we have the mind of God.

J.T. In Acts 21:9 we read of Philip, the evangelist, who had four daughters who prophesied; they did not preach, but they prophesied. The evangelist would feel the great need of bringing in the mind of God when souls were converted. What greater need for any convert than to know the mind of God about him? In regard to the exercise as to the one in whose hands the responsibility of the gospel should be, the thing is to find out if there be a preacher in the company. He is the one to be chosen, but not merely as an official to appoint preachers. He takes

the responsibility, and as a matter of fact the saints lend the room, and attend the preaching and have sympathy with him, but they are not undertaking it. It is the mind of God that the preaching should be by preachers who have gift. Peter stood up with the eleven, we read, but previous to that he had stood up in the midst of the hundred and twenty. But when it comes to preaching he stands up with the eleven, and there were results on that occasion; there were three thousand converts, and it is all recorded to impress us with how things stood at the beginning.

F.W. I fear the matter has become rather formal with us in choosing a preacher for the next Lord's day evening.

J.T. I suppose the most difficult thing amongst us is to maintain things on a living basis. There is a constant danger, and it is easy to settle down in an arranged order of things, such and such a one to do this or that, but it does not imply that such a one is in the power of the Spirit. In the beginning all service was carried on in the power of the Spirit; so that the person responsible for the preaching should be a preacher, and be in the power of the Spirit, even as at the beginning. We know how weak we all are, but it is a question of having the right ideal before us.

F.W. What is the position of the company in relation to the preaching of the gospel?

J.T. It should give sympathy and moral support; that is all, but of course it is a great deal. The assembly is "the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth", 1 Timothy 3:15.

Ques. Do you think the saints have a balancing effect in the way of judging what is said?

J.T. Yes, and that is right. The assembly being the pillar and base of the truth, the company would look after the truth. The preacher would be amenable

to the assembly if his preaching were not in accord with the truth. As the Lord says, "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not", Revelation 2:2.

E.J.McB. Aquila and Priscilla are an illustration. They would represent the interest of the assembly in looking after Apollos; they instructed him in the way of God more perfectly; Acts 18:24 - 26.

J.T. Apollos represents the Lord's sovereignty in selecting His servants. We should have thought that Paul would be the one to instruct him, but no! Aquila and Priscilla were the ones, and they do it in such wise as not to discredit what he was doing. He was a distinguished man, so they spoke to him privately; it would not be suitable that he should be corrected publicly.

Ques. Is there a gift in every gathering?

J.T. Gifts are not connected in Scripture with gatherings at all; they are not local, they are in the assembly; it is a general thought. So if there should be no brother with gift in a local company, room should be made for gift from some other locality.

P.L. Coming from heaven, gift could not be local.

F.G.W. What would answer now to Peter standing up with the eleven?

J.T. The principle is they -- that is, the eleven -- were all gifts, all specially gifted. The ascended Lord gave gifts; first apostles; they were the first-fruits of the Spirit in connection with gift. There are no apostles now; we have not that which would answer to Peter and the eleven, but the point is that the preaching is connected with gift. Then the next chapter (Acts 3) shows that there were two distinguished ones among the gifts, who were fitted to represent heaven more than others, and God puts these forward, so that Peter says, "Look on us". They were ornamental.

Ques. In what way did Aquila and Priscilla help

Apollos in the truth? Were they versed in what Paul brought out?

J.T. Yes. They had lodged with Paul at Corinth; they showed Apollos the way of God more exactly. It was an important thing, a man and his wife, a brother and a sister, doing this service, and it shows how the assembly may be used to help and equalise things.

These two servants -- Peter and John -- were distinguished, as we were saying, but when they come to the company they all pray (verse 31). The priestly side is now in evidence, and all are in the presence of God. As drawing near to Him in prayer, in the sense of need, each gets his own place, because it is not a question of gift then, but of spiritual stature and power. I do not need gift to draw near to God; in prayer we are all brought face to face with God, and that is how things are adjusted in the assembly. That is what tells, and what equalises things.

P.L. In writing to the Corinthians Paul says, "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's", 1 Corinthians 3:22, 23. Is that the thought of gifts belonging to the assembly?

J.T. That is right. They were for the assembly, and the most distinguished preacher or minister as he approaches God, as he prays with his brethren, finds his level; he finds just where he is with God, because there is no question of gift there. The priestly side embraces all the saints -- the whole company.

Rem. The tribe of Levi answers to the priestly service, Godward and manward.

J.T. Every controversy and every stroke was to be by the word of the priest, therefore one of the greatest things to know is the principle of merging in the company. The rights of God are maintained there, because it is not the assembly that is operating, though it is the sphere of His operations. These

two distinguished men, being let go, went to their own company. They were not above the company, they were of the company; they were just two of them. If the company were to be counted they would be just two, but what they were relatively came out in the power they had with God. The gifts merge in the company, before they emerge. So they all pray, not just Peter and John, and heaven answered, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now when the Holy Spirit begins to fill, it is a question of the size of the vessel. "Borrow thee vessels ... borrow not a few", 2 Kings 4:3. The Spirit indwelling saints is a question of how much they can contain; it is not a question of gift, but of capacity, of the size of the vessel. You will see therefore how this mode of procedure makes room for every one of the Lord's people, and hence a sister may have more spiritual capacity than some of us who may have ability. When you draw near to God all depends on spiritual capacity.

Ques. Philip's daughters would answer to that, I suppose?

J.T. Well, I think these four women at Caesarea are mentioned specially by the Spirit of God. If we had been there, we should doubtless have been thinking of Philip. These four daughters, we read, were virgins, and prophesied. It does not say they were prophetesses, but that they prophesied, for the point is not to bring in anything official or fixed formally, but what is active; so it says, "who prophesied"; they were active.

E.J.McB. Is not the normal effect of a true evangelical gift to bring to light soil in which the mind of God can be made known?

J.T. I think that is right.

F.S.M. I should like to ask a further question as to merging. On any given occasion on which saints come together, if all the gifts were merged, would it

give the Lord an opportunity of using His sovereign rights in making His own selection?

J.T. That would make room for the Lord and His sovereign rights in the company.

E.J.McB. Would that preserve us from arranging meetings beforehand? If a meeting is going to be held, and the subject is fixed up and everything arranged, such leaves no room for the Spirit of God.

J.T. I think the Lord would bring us back to the assembly. I am sure that He would emphasise that the assembly is the sphere of the Spirit's operations; and the gifts are set in it, so as to be available for the Spirit at any time.

E.J.McB. We should not lose anything He has set there.

J.T. It casts us upon Him to restrain the flesh, and we receive support from Him. If we are cast upon Him, there is no reason under these circumstances why we should not have meetings for edification, for the Spirit can use whom He will, and He would do so. The apostle says, "When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm", 1 Corinthians 14:26. If I have something to give, but no opportunity to give it, I can keep it till another time. Note the scripture says, "each of you has", not two of you have. It is a mistake for two to come in with something fixed; if one has a psalm, or has a teaching, and the Lord gives an opportunity, that one can give it out, but if not, he can keep it for another time.

R.R. Is being filled with the Holy Spirit something special here?

J.T. Yes, and the shaking of the building too. If the saints are cast on God, as here, there is sure to be an answer from heaven, and corresponding results; not anything like this, of course, for we are in the day of small things, but if we have the right thing before us God will act for us.

Ques. How is capacity acquired?

J.T. Capacity is produced by self-judgment. When Elisha was about to die, king Joash came to see him (2 Kings 13:14 - 19), and the prophet told him to take bow and arrows, and to open the window and shoot eastwards, and he shot. "And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance". The east suggests the resurrection power of Christ -- a power we can reckon on. But then Elisha told him to smite on the ground, and he smote three times and stayed. The man of God was wroth and said, "Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times". Smiting the three times meant he would only have three victories. The point seems to be self-judgment. I think that is where the lack is; that answers to the smiting on the ground. The one arrow shot eastward pointed to the coming in of Christ; there is no need for more on that line, but as regards myself there is a great deal to be effected. If the power of God is to be operative in me, if I am to gain the victory, then there must be deep self-judgment -- not holding anything in reserve, so that room may be made for the Spirit.

F.S.M. It is said that the capacity of a ship is measured by its displacement, so capacity with us is according to self-judgment.

J.T. The more we smite the ground, that is, judge ourselves, the more room there is for the Spirit.

F.W. Is that illustrated in the empty vessels in 2 Kings 4? Was it a question of capacity in filling them?

J.T. Every empty vessel is filled. The more self-judgment there is, the more room for the Spirit.

Now in Acts 13 and 14 we see the place the assembly had in relation to Paul. Peter was not sent out from the company, but Paul and Barnabas were. They remained in Antioch for a year, and the result is, that they with others are distinguished as ministering to the Lord and fasting. Ministering to the Lord

and fasting! Here we have two suggestions that are most important, if there is to be success in service. And so, as knowing them thus, the assembly -- the saints in Antioch -- lay their hands on these two servants and send them away. Then later we read, when their journey was completed they returned to Antioch, "Whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled", chapter 14: 26. That is to say, the work was done.

Ques. Would you say a little as to ministering to the Lord and fasting?

J.T. I think as they ministered to the Lord they were made conscious of the need for fasting. Waiting on the Lord impresses you with the sense that the flesh is in your way. I believe most of us would bear witness to the fact that we are conscious in our approach to God, in our priestly and levitical service, of the great intrusion of the flesh. How present it ever is. The thing is to starve it, because the more it is starved, the weaker it becomes, and the less trouble we shall have from it. Fasting is the habit we acquire of starving the flesh.

R.R. Is that making no provision for the flesh?

J.T. Yes, quite so; the habit has to be acquired.

E.J.McB. There is no doubt that in waiting on the Lord the flesh takes occasion to bring itself into evidence.

J.T. Yes. But now we find that these two men going forth under such circumstances were successful. "The work which they had fulfilled", it says. The question comes up as to how much one has done, or whether one is working without a purpose. If I were to ask you, what are you doing, what are you aiming at, what would you say?

E.J.McB. I would not like to say very much on that line, but one would seek to promote the interests of God, and to desire that the saints should be set more intelligently in relation to Christ.

J.T. That is it; you have something before you. The great thing is to see what God is doing and to have our part in it. Paul said he had laid the foundation. There is not a greater thing than that one should be one of God's workmen, and to be intelligent as to what one is doing in it. Paul and Barnabas set out to do something, and they fulfilled the work.

E.J.McB. It is a very good exercise for servants to view themselves as those who through grace have part in what God is doing. God has something before Him, and it should be before His servants.

J.T. Yes. Otherwise we do not finish anything, like those in Sardis. The Lord has to say, "I have not found thy works complete", Revelation 3:2. If one undertakes a piece of work it is a great thing to finish it.

E.J.McB. Have you any thought as to the apostle's second visit to a place?

J.T. In returning from their first journey it speaks of Paul exhorting the saints and encouraging them. And then they chose elders in each assembly and committed them to the Lord (chapter 14: 21 - 26), so that the work which they had effected should stand. But in regard to the second visit (chapter 15: 36). Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city where we have announced the word of the Lord, and see how they are getting on". On the occasion of revisiting the places there is not a word about preaching or teaching. That is a very remarkable thing; some of us might think. Why should I go to visit the brethren if I have not gift to help them, but there is not a word here about Paul's gift or the exercise of it with Silas in this journey; nor does the apostle propose to minister, but they went, as he said, "to see how they do". That is another piece of work! At the same time it is work that is within the range of any Christian; and it is definite service to go and see how they do. It is not

going to spend a holiday in a place, but having a definite object in view, and it might very well be to see how the saints are getting on. There are many gatherings in the world which are rarely visited by brethren, and there are many pieces of work that Christians without gift may undertake.

W.H.C. Is there any principle in the two going together, as in the case of Paul and Barnabas, and Paul and Silas?

J.T. The principle of adequate testimony. God would always present the best, to make the truth conclusive. The seventy were sent out two and two.

W.H.C. How far would that apply now; is there any answer to it?

J.T. I doubt if there is an application today, as this is not the time for sending out to new ground. There was no one associated with Timothy. In a day of declension it is a question of what one man can do, rather than what two can do. James shows that in his reference to Elijah. He says that Elijah prayed that it should not rain, and it did not rain, and again he prayed that it should rain, and heaven gave rain; James 5:17, 18.

E.J.McB. In 2 Timothy Paul says at the close of his history, "No man stood with me". He evidently was alone then.

P.L. James remarks on God's operations in individuals -- Rahab, Abraham, Job.

J.T. It is worthy of note that these two -- Barnabas and Paul -- fulfil their work, and then they call the assembly together to make known the results of their service. The results of their work would greatly enhance the assembly.

Ques. I should like to ask a question as to gift in individuals. Would service begin spontaneously, apart from any commission?

J.T. It did in Paul's case. We have that word, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy

might", Ecclesiastes 9:10. Barnabas helped Paul when he first went to Jerusalem from Damascus (Acts 9:27), and also in bringing him to Antioch (chapter 11: 26), but that was not his commission, it was the work of a sympathetic brother bringing in another. But Paul's commission was received at Antioch; chapter 13: 2.

PRIESTHOOD AS BEARING ON YOUNG BELIEVERS

Romans 1:1 - 4; Romans 5:5; Romans 8:14, 15; Romans 12:1; Deuteronomy 18:3 - 5

In what I have to say on this occasion I want to show how the epistle to the Romans lays the basis for priesthood. I wish to speak about priesthood, and to show how it applies to young believers. The Scriptures speak about the sons of Levi being priests, and they also speak more expressly about the sons of Aaron, and Aaron and his sons. The latter are more prominent in the wilderness, the former appear in connection with the land. The wilderness journey required more spiritual power, for the strain was greater, and so the priesthood, in the books that have reference to the wilderness, is generally confined to Aaron and his sons, whereas in Deuteronomy and Joshua the thought is generally extended, although not always, to the whole tribe of Levi. We can understand that special occasions and circumstances require the priestly element as expressive of what is wholly spiritual, as it is said, "Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one" (Galatians 6:1), but it was an entire mistake to restrict priesthood to those only who are spiritual. It has to be extended to all who have the Spirit, and therefore it includes every true Christian, a true Christian being one who has the Spirit.

It is to be noted how even the epistle to the Romans, which is the most elementary and fundamental of all the epistles, lays down the basis for priesthood, so that the youngest believer may apprehend how he has part in it. In that connection, it is necessary to call attention to the manner in which the Son of God is presented in the epistle, for the idea of priesthood necessarily hangs on sonship.

The epistle to the Hebrews shows us that priesthood now is in the Son, as it is said, "A Son perfected for ever" (chapter 7: 28); and so in the beginning of Romans the apostle refers to the theme of his gospel as no less than the Son of God. As moving out in his service, we find that his first preaching was that Jesus is the Son of God, and he tells us later in explaining his commission that God revealed His Son in him that he might announce Him as glad tidings among the nations; Galatians 1:16. He says to the Corinthians in his second epistle, "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea". We are not told in the Acts that he preached the Son of God in Corinth, but he tells us himself that he did so, and not only he, but two others as well who were qualified preachers, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. There was a threefold testimony in that city to the Son of God, and we learn from the body of this epistle to the Romans that the intent of the preaching was to bring believers in it into correspondence with the Son.

So you find in chapter 1 that He is declared to be the Son of God with power, not by the announcement of the Father from heaven, as the evangelists record, but by resurrection of the dead; that is to say, the testimony of the Son of God among the Gentiles was that He was "declared" to be such; not announced simply as such, but He was declared to be the Son of God. A declaration is something that is undeniable. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, it says. We are reminded in that word 'power' as to what marks Christianity; it is a system marked by power. Paul insists that his preaching was in power, and the declaration of the Son of God was in power. The announcement from heaven was not that, blessed as it was, but obviously the declaration of the Son of God must be in power, for it was by resurrection of

the dead. Most of you will know that here it is not exactly His own resurrection that is in view, although He rose Himself from the dead, but includes that of others; but whether it be others or His own. He is "declared to be the Son of God with power ... by the resurrection from [of] the dead". And then, not only so, but it is "according to the spirit of holiness". Now I want to say a word about that, because priesthood involves holiness, and so the idea of holiness is embedded in the soul of the believer from the outset, as he believes the gospel -- the idea, I repeat, not yet the thing. Things are presented to us in testimony that are to become effective in our souls by the Spirit; that is how God works in us. He presents an idea in the way of light, then He brings the soul to it by the Spirit. And so the gospel that Paul preached among the nations, polluted as they were, involved holiness. His preaching was the Son of God declared to be such by resurrection of the dead, and then it was according to the Spirit of holiness. Now, that idea received into the soul (and unless it is received, the gospel is not received) is taken up by the Spirit, and so it is said in chapter 5 that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit! In chapter 1 He is the Spirit of holiness; in chapter 5 He is the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, following on the light of the gospel. Morally the heart is prepared for such a transaction by the reception of the light of the Son of God.

But now to proceed. I want you to see how the Son of God is introduced in this epistle. We read in chapter 5: 10 that we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The element of holiness received is a fundamental thought, and the next thing is the reconciliation; that is, that the very light which has come to me in regard to the Son of God involves that I am to be made as suitable and as

acceptable in the presence of God as He is. I am reconciled by the death of His Son. Think of the light involved in that! I am brought into the presence of God in acceptability. As apprehending the death of His Son, I see that there is not one shade of distance between God and my soul.

All this is a matter of light. And then again (chapter 5: 6) the apostle says, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly", and in chapter 8: 3 he says, "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh". Now I see that by the Son coming in the likeness of flesh of sin He has dealt with that which would hamper me in the presence of God. The existence of sin is a most serious matter, and God foreseeing how it would act in the believer against the Spirit, and against the development of priesthood in him, sends His own Son. I want you to note the expression. Such was the urgency of what was in hand. God sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, and so He has effectively condemned sin in the flesh. Need I say it is in the flesh of the believer? Sin is surely condemned in every sense, but the point here is, that it is condemned in the flesh of the believer, so that it should have no place or voice there whatsoever. I am as free of it before God as Christ is; God has dealt with it effectively by the sending of His own Son, and why should I not condemn it? It is simply a matter of light. I shall come to the power in a moment, but this is a matter of light as to what God has done. He has reconciled us by the death of His Son, and condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin. One would hesitate to use the expression were it not that the Holy Spirit uses it: "in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh", so that I am entirely unhampered now. It is a matter

of light, I repeat, and it has to be maintained by the Spirit, otherwise the Spirit could not work in us. As I receive the light, then the Holy Spirit operates effectively.

Now you see how God has wrought in His Son to liberate us. We have the idea of power and of holiness, we have the idea of acceptance in the presence of God in reconciliation, and of the complete condemnation of sin in the flesh, and now parallel with that we have the operations of the Spirit. The Spirit of holiness in which Christ rose has shed abroad in the heart of the believer the love of God. What can be a greater conception than that the love of God should be brought into the believer's heart? The very first service of the Spirit in the believer in this book is to bring in the love of God, to bring into my heart the very greatest thing in the whole universe -- the love of God. That is His first service. It is not new birth. The Spirit does not come into the believer merely to reside because he is a believer; He comes in consequent upon redemption, and consequent upon the believer receiving the gospel. It says, "After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13), but in coming in, He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart. Now, see what a vessel God has! It is not now that I have light simply; I have more than light; I have the love of God placed in my heart by the Holy Spirit, and what follows upon that, in the doctrine in regard to the Spirit, is that my members begin to act in relation to God.

What I am saying is within the range of the simplest and youngest believer. As the love of God touches you, you begin to recognise His rights over every member you possess, and you yield them to God as instruments of righteousness. I am afraid we mystify that word 'righteousness' sometimes. It is simply what is right, and it is surely right, as the

love of God touches your hearts, to acknowledge that He has the right to you, that your members are all His. Then you begin to see that you are connected with the greatest possible things. God is pleased to use your members, your very feet, your eyes, your ears, your mouth; those members that have been employed in the service of sin, are now ready instruments for the expression of what is right in this world. And as you begin thus, the idea of holiness develops; and if you do not begin thus, then you are not a believer at all; you have not yet believed the gospel; but as you begin, then in the most initial way the spirit of holiness within you develops. It is difficult to define how these things work. The Spirit of God alone knows how to define accurately, but your members now begin to work; no longer as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but as servants of righteousness unto holiness. Holiness is not now merely an idea with you, it is beginning to work out by the Spirit, and then the apostle goes on to say, "Ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life". Mark, it is your fruit, not God's fruit. The believer begins to see that fruit unto holiness is a fruit to be valued, and as he begins to taste its value, he extends its cultivation. I do urge on every young believer the cultivation of holiness; it is one of the finest crops you can produce for God. You have the idea here of a production; you have your fruit -- your fruit -- unto holiness. I, as it were, come to God with something. I cannot draw near to God without it, and what can be greater in this scene than a fruit like this, by which I draw near to God?

Now in chapter 8, consequent upon the condemnation of sin in the flesh, we have room made for the Spirit to operate, so that all this that I have gathered up in my experience in the most initial way, as I said, enters into the use I make of the Spirit, in speaking to God. The believer in chapter 8 develops

into a priest; he develops into sonship, and correspondingly into priesthood; for while it is as a son that I say, "Abba, Father", I say it in the spirit of adoption, but I also say it in holiness. It must be so, and it is holiness which I have acquired by exercise in the practice of righteousness. The foundation subjectively is the love of God, that is the basis, and moving in that relation I acquire holiness. Now I see sin no longer hampers me, and I can regard myself as free from it, and I am in the Spirit, if so be that God's Spirit dwells in me; and I can say I am led by the Spirit. It is a wonderful thing to come into that -- the leading of the Spirit. It is quite right to be governed by light in any position, but to be led by the Spirit is life. It marks the Christian company; it is a living state of things; it is constant activity; "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God". Romans is a development in that way. It is not simply a privilege conferred now, but as being led by the Spirit I am greeted divinely and recognised as one of the sons of God. How great the thought to be recognised as a son of God! It corresponds, I apprehend, with the journeyings of the children of Israel after singing to the well -- after they recognised the Spirit in type. Henceforth they were not led by the light, objectively, but by the Spirit. There is little said about the tabernacle after Numbers 21, because it is not now what is objective that is in view, but what is subjective. I am led by the Spirit, I recognise I am a son of God, and so I say, "Abba, Father". I have not received the spirit of bondage; I refer back to my experience, my experience confirms the statement that I have received a spirit of adoption, whereby I cry, "Abba, Father", and that cry whilst it is the cry of a son is also a feature of priesthood, acquired by the produce of holiness.

Now in chapter 12 I have something to offer.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God". I do not know of any other language, other than typical language, that expresses priesthood more simply. I can present what no one can take from me, what is my own -- my body. It belongs to me; God accredits it to me. So that every believer, the very youngest one, can take up priestly service, can present his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. There is nothing more simple. In the secret of your closet you may present to God all that you are; you can present your body, "which is your intelligent service".

Well, that is Romans, where we get, as we have seen, the soul history in faith and by the Spirit which constitutes the basis of priesthood, but now in Deuteronomy we see how the priesthood, thus understood, is to be sustained. You will have observed that Moses here speaks to "the priests, the Levites"; the whole tribe of Levi is now in view, and so we have food provided that the young particularly should take notice of. I speak thus because one often hears expressions of dissatisfaction from the young, that they do not understand and they assume that priesthood is beyond them, and that it refers to others. There is no doubt that in a certain connection it does refer to those who are spiritual, not only those who have the Spirit, but to those who are spiritual. And priesthood, I believe, under the hand of Aaron and his sons has this largely in view; but in Deuteronomy all saints are in view; it includes the whole tribe of Levi; and so the food involves what is initial. As Peter says, leading up to the same subject, "Desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation". He has in view that the system, the constitution, should be built up by the word of God. That is the

greatest thing a young believer can start with -- the sense that he must be nourished by the word of God. "The priest's lips should keep knowledge", Malachi 2:7. There is a great obligation resting on the priesthood as seen in the types, for the priest is to be in the mind of God; and for this his mind must be cleared of all darkening influences. The reading of novels, of magazines, and of papers that convey men's thoughts, only darken and corrupt the mind, so we are reminded to be as newborn babes, desiring the pure mental milk of the word; that is to say, the word of God is great enough to minister to the mind. We are to be governed and to have our minds saturated with the word of God.

John in Revelation 10 was told to take the little book from the angel and to eat it up. Ezekiel, too, had to eat the roll. As eating that which conveyed the mind of God, they would each have in his entire being the very mind of God; his moral being would be formed by that. He would be in correspondence with the Lord, for He said, when asked as to Himself, "Altogether that which I also say to you". It is not simply that I have taken the thing into my head, but the word of God has been assimilated into my being, so that I am it, in that sense; that is the principle. So in our measure we are to correspond with the Lord; what we say, we are, and the young believer has to begin with that thought.

So the priesthood in Deuteronomy (chapter 18: 3) was furnished first with the shoulder, then the jawbones, and then the maw or stomach. These things are remarkable; they were the priest's due from those who brought a sacrifice; but I think in view of all Christians being contemplated, we can understand the bearing of them. First, we all need strength; we would all admit how weak we are, even when we started our Christian career. But when any trouble arises in any locality what is needed is the shoulder.

Saints are often governed by personal feelings; or they live on a wretched controversy; these are not priestly features at all, and what is needed is something to strengthen them. The shoulder suggests ministry that strengthens. Then the jawbones suggest the power of mastication. We have to learn how to take in the thing, and prepare it for absorption in the system; we must not compel the stomach to do what the teeth should do, so to speak; we have to learn to use our organs. Then there is the maw, reminding us that things have to be taken in. When John ate the little book, it was sweet in his mouth, but became bitter within him. The word of God is that to a believer, it is sweet to the taste, but as you assimilate it you see the full bearing of it, the consequences in a judicial way, and it is bitter. I speak of it thus because what is in your mouth may not convey just what it is. It is sweet there surely, but as you apprehend it fully you grasp the import of it, you see much greater consequences, and it may be more serious ones than you saw at the beginning. The word of God searches out, and discovers in us what has to be absolutely refused and judged.

But not only these things. The young believer is to have corn, as it says here, "The first-fruits of thy corn, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and the first-fruits of the shearing of thy sheep, shalt thou give him". Corn refers to Christ as Man. It is, as we may say, the staff of life, and we need it every day. The wine comes next, which I apprehend is stimulation. The young need that, for they often become drooping and are readily discouraged. Paul speaks often of encouragement, and the young need to be encouraged, and it comes in by one who himself has been encouraged of God. The young need careful food, ministry that will build up a good constitution according to Christ; but they do need encouragement; one knows it. One who is advanced in years has an

advantage; he can say, "I have been young, and now am old". The young cannot say that. The elder has something in correspondence with the young. Every one advanced in years knows how easily he was discouraged when he was young. So the young do need encouragement, and so the first-fruits of the new wine is for the priests.

Then there is the oil, and oil distinguishes us. Young people like to be distinguished, and oftentimes there is a desire for ability to preach, but the distinction that is from God is got from the oil, not now the Spirit working in you, but characterising you externally. You take it on by walking in the Spirit, and therefore you have the first-fruits of the oil. And then also the first-fruits of the shearing of thy sheep. Why should the priests need wool, when enjoined not to use it in the sanctuary? Linen was to be worn. What is to be used next to the skin of the priest in the sanctuary is linen, that is to say, young ones need to be kept sober. Linen is sobering, it does not excite the flesh; it keeps us from attempting to use eloquence in the presence of God, or using fine language obtained from others. Linen holds you to what you know, and to your own impressions, and to what you can bring yourself. "Five words" if uttered humbly and soberly in the presence of God are acceptable to Him; it is indeed delightful to God. Then why should they need wool? The answer is very simple. Young Christians need warmth, and they get it in the circle of the saints, when there are offerings of that kind. Where saints are together in the energy of affection there is warmth; you feel, as it says in the book of Job, your garments becoming warm. This is a great matter for young people, for it induces priestly state as viewed in a right way. True warmth is found in the circle of the saints, by the love of the saints, and that is a matter of great importance. So the

first-fruits of the shearing of the sheep were to be for the priests, the sons of Levi.

I hope what I have said will be understood as showing how priesthood is developed in the epistle to the Romans, and that the young may take it to themselves and begin simply and humbly to present their bodies to God, and then see to it that they get right food -- suitable food -- that which God provides, that it may give them character, so that priesthood may be maintained.

READING

John 12:20 - 33; John 13:31, 32

J.T. I think that this occasion⁺ calls for something suggestive of the Lord's universal rights and operations, and that we might therefore look at the subject of the Son of man in the gospel of John.

It occurred to me that the connections in which the truth of the Son of man is found in this gospel remind us that the ministry of the last days should have a universal bearing. The gospel announces at the outset that "in him" -- the One who was with God and who was God -- "was life", and that the life "was the light of men". So that as Nathanael comes to Jesus through the ministry of Philip, and owns Him as the Son of God and King of Israel, the Lord speaks about greater things, and goes on to say that henceforth he should "see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man". Nathanael was to understand that the rights of the Son of man, and the bearing of the testimony connected with Him should take precedence of the promises. The bearing of that at the present time would be that any favoured part of the earth should come to understand that the operations of God would go wider. The book of Ezekiel, which corresponds with our day, reminds us that certain areas were privileged as adjacent to the sphere in which the light was, and they eventually came specially under judgment, such as Ammon and Moab, the Philistines, and particularly Tyre. These countries had had special advantages because of their nearness to the sphere of the light; and their position in the

⁺A farewell meeting to commend to the Lord a number of brethren from South Africa who were returning to the Cape.

earth had been greatly enhanced correspondingly, hence they were to come under the immediate judgment of God.

I think that John would prepare us for enlargement, because as a matter of fact, historically the light of God had been restricted, and up to the present time is restricted, and those who thus have come into advantage through the sovereignty of God are apt to assume that it is their property, their right; whereas the very advantages that they have enjoyed become the occasion of their judgment, especially, as I say, of Tyre, which represents the great commercial system that has been built up, enhanced as it has been by the light of the gospel, for it is a well-known fact that the light of the gospel carried into the dark heathen world was simply followed by the merchant, and God does not overlook that. Things seemed to prosper and go well, but in pronouncing the judgment on Tyre in Ezekiel the king of Tyre is likened to Satan himself; chapter 28: 14. It is a very serious reminder of the danger of assuming that what comes to us through the sovereignty of God is a matter of right. It is not a right; it is God's sovereign way, and what comes to man thus sovereignly becomes in the end the occasion of judgment. I think that the Lord prepares us for this in bringing in, in connection with one who is an Israelite indeed, and who belonged to the favoured nation, the great truth that heaven would take account, not of the king of Israel, but of the Son of man. That was what I had in mind.

Ques. Does the Son of man bring before us God's interest in the whole race?

J.T. That is how the title stands in the Scriptures, and John brings it in immediately, and in a peculiar way, because the heaven should be opened and the angels ascending and descending on Him. The interest of heaven henceforth, as the Lord says, is in the Son of man and what He stands for.

D.L.H. What would you say in regard to the title Son of God which Nathanael recognises at the same time as the king of Israel in relation to the statement, "Thou shalt see greater things than these"; have you any thought upon that point?

J.T. I think it was just Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is connected with Zion, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion" (verse 6). That is not the idea of the Son of man, it is what God will do for Israel, making Zion a centre; God's King is His Son, and He gives the nations for His inheritance.

D.L.H. You think then that the title Son of God has a certain limitation?

J.T. I think so. It is presented to Nathanael in that way.

D.L.H. Because subsequently the apostle Paul was to base his testimony on the fact that Jesus was the Son of God.

J.T. That would be in a wider sense, I think; not One who is prophetically to be Son, but as in Romans 1, "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (verse 4).

P.L. Must not one go to Psalm 8 to link up with this?

J.T. The Lord went to Psalm 8. He wished to show to Nathanael that Psalm 8 would take precedence of Psalm 2; but then, in chapter 3, the Son is brought in: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son". There you have a fuller and wider suggestion, because it is a question of God making known His love. But previous to that (verse 13) you have the Son of man in heaven -- a very wonderful thing for us, viewed as connected with the race, "Even the Son of man which is in heaven". It is as if the Spirit of God would inspire confidence in men as such, that He who had taken their side (for the Son of man is on our side) is in heaven. It

is God encouraging men by bringing in His Son in this character, so that we might have confidence in Him. Hence he goes on to say, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up", showing that Numbers was not on Israelitish ground simply, but was a type of the present time. The reference is to the garden of Eden when sin came in on the race, not when it came into Israel. God takes that up and shows that the Son of man is lifted up in that way, so "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". But then, as was remarked, it does not say that God so loved the world that He sent the Son of man; it is His only-begotten Son, that is, it is the Son of God as come in from God's side to bring in God, to reveal Him, and to make His love known.

D.L.H. Does not Paul come into line with that in Romans 8 when He says, "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh"? (verse 3). That is a reference to the brazen serpent, just as John 3 speaks of the brazen serpent.

J.T. Yes; only there it is His own Son, because it is the urgency of the thing. God would deal with sin in the flesh, and hence He sends His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and for sin.

Ques. You refer to the garden of Eden; were you thinking of the serpent?

J.T. Yes; the reference is to the garden of Eden, and to the serpent. The Lord interprets Moses lifting up the serpent, and applies it to Himself. We see how One has come in on man's side to deal with the question of sin. But if it be a question of the love of God it is the only-begotten Son.

R.B. Why did the apostle so distinctly preach Jesus as the Son of God as His testimony to the nations?

J.T. Because it was a question of God coming in. God comes in in that way. He approaches man in His Son. "The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea", 2 Corinthians 1:19. I think that God approaches man in His Son; but man approaches God in the apprehension of the Son of man. We are enriched as we apprehend Him on our side.

Ques. Was it a Man that was of God, in God's nature, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God", Luke 1:35?

J.T. Just so. God claims Him in that way. But when He is brought into the temple as a babe, Simeon takes Him up in his arms. God claims Him at the outset -- "shall be called Son of God"; but Simeon claims Him for the race, as you might say: "A light for revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2:32); in spiritual intelligence he puts the Gentiles first. Simeon is, as it were, a priest in the temple, but he is on our side, he has the Son of man, he has Him representatively; he is before God in the temple. It seems to me a very wonderful position, because we can take our place behind Simeon and see how enriched we are. With this blessed Babe in his arms, he says, "For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples". He brings the Gentiles into view really for the unveiling; He takes off the veil, so to say, because He is on the side of the Gentiles; then He is the glory of God's people Israel.

Ques. Was that in the Lord's mind in Luke 22 in answering the council, when He says, "Henceforth shall the Son of man be sitting on the right hand of the power of God"? (verse 69).

J.T. Yes, no doubt; but the Lord's remark in John 1 brings Him in as an Object of help on our side; and all that enters into our position as Gentiles,

belonging to the race, takes precedence of all else. That is an immense thing, because the truth of the assembly is developed on those lines.

Ques. Would you connect Jacob's vision -- the ladder reaching up to heaven -- with this?

J.T. It is an allusion to it. Nathanael, if he understood the Scriptures, as no doubt he did in some measure, would see that the thought of God had widened, for the Son of man conveys more than Jacob conveys.

H.B. Would you mind pursuing the thought of the Lord as the Son of man in this gospel of John?

J.T. In chapter 3: 11 we see how He places Himself in heaven, saying, "We speak that which we know, and we bear witness of that which we have seen". Then He speaks of no one having ascended up into heaven, save He who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. As on our side, He is in the secrets of heaven, He knows what is there: "We speak that we do know". And then He goes on to say, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up". He deals effectively with what lay upon the whole race of men, as lifted up between the heavens and the earth. We see that the race is in view in that way here. In chapter 5 He refers to Himself as having authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. That, I think, imparts great assurance to us, for the reason that the One who is to judge is on our side. We may therefore look for justice; there will be nothing to prejudice our cause. In chapter 6 we get a further reference to the Son of man. He says, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed" (verse 27). There is now One who can give us food, and as on our side God has sealed Him. There is every

confidence inspired in our hearts in apprehending Him on this line.

A.N. Going back to chapter 5, is quickening connected with the Son of God? I had thought that that was on our side, but He quickens as Son of God.

J.T. Yes. He quickens; He is the last Adam. "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself" (verse 26). I think that is that life proceeds from God. We see that in the beginning. God breathed into Adam the breath of life. The Lord takes the place on earth as in dependence and says, "He has given to the Son also to have life in himself". That is the quickening power of Christ the Son; He is on God's side in that.

P.L. Do you connect these two thoughts -- Son of man and Son of God -- with the two trees? You referred back to the garden of Eden. As Son of man, does He solve every moral issue, all that is raised in relation to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and as Son of God, does He bring in the tree of life, all that is connected with privilege eternally?

J.T. I suppose that is right. It is the Son of God in manhood, of course. He connects judgment with Himself as Son of man, and in chapter 6 the Son of man gives us food. The work of God is to believe on Him whom He has sent; hence He says to the Jews: "Unless ye shall have eaten the flesh of the Son of man, and drunk his blood, ye have no life in yourselves" (verse 53). They have to get the thing from the outset, so to say; they have to learn that the thing commenced from the Son of man; and that was a humiliating thing for them; nevertheless, it was God's way; and He further goes on to say, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (verse 62).

D.L.H. That was the final test, was it not, in that chapter?

J.T. The words that He spoke were spirit and life; but in every step throughout John's gospel, after He introduced the subject of the Son of man, the national claims of the Jews are set aside. The Lord takes occasion to set them aside; and if they come in, it is at the end. The rights of the Son of man precede the promises.

P.L. Did not Stephen's testimony to the Son of man in that way set aside Jewish pretension?

J.T. Yes; it did. It is very helpful to see that. Stephen saw the heavens opened through, and He saw the glory of God and Jesus; that is what the Spirit says he saw; but what Stephen says is, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God". That meant that there was a change coming.

Ques. Do you think it simplifies things to remember that man was to represent God at the beginning?

J.T. I think it does, but I do not think that is the point in the Son of man in John. John would encourage us by the fact that He is on our side. He is on God's side as Son of God.

M.W.B. You mentioned at the beginning that these things coming out in John's gospel show that they have a special reference to the last time, the present time -- I take it you mean the universal bearing of things.

J.T. That is what is in my mind. The Lord had to serve in connection with an established system of things and special privileges to a special people. These privileges were not their rights, they were sovereign favours that God had accorded to them; but they arrogated to themselves what God had accorded to them. That is what God would not admit of. The result was that it was a sterile soil. He is seen labouring in Jerusalem more in John than in any of the other gospels, and His labours usually result in an individual being blessed -- not in multitudes

as in the other gospels, but in isolated cases, showing that privilege in no sense affords a soil for divine operation, but the opposite.

M.W.B. Would you make an application of that kind to a country like England?

J.T. Yes, I would; or to make it more explicit, to Europe. Europe is the area in which the gospel operations have been seen throughout the dispensation. I think that would be admitted by any student, and when I say 'student' I do not mean the student of what they call profane history, but a student of the book of Revelation, because the book of Revelation is first the history of the assembly and then generally that of Western Europe, and God's dealings with Europe.

P.L. Do you think that to set aside the pretension which the Lord knew would arise as a result of the diffusion of the light, we have the Spirit of Jesus active, forbidding them to go back to Bithynia and sending them into Europe?

J.T. It would be on that line -- "the Spirit of Jesus", Acts 16:7.

Rem. He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained; Acts 17:31.

J.T. But the question which has been raised is most important to look into. God acts sovereignly, and it has been His sovereign way to cause the light of the gospel to take root and spread in Europe, but now, are we to arrogate to ourselves any rights of that kind? That God will not admit of, and so Ezekiel not only shows how God deals with Jerusalem, Palestine, Judaea, and Samaria, but he shows that He also deals with Ammon and Moab, the Philistines, and Tyre and Sidon, and ultimately Egypt, because these were within the radius of the light and obtained immense material advantages from that light. It is a most serious outlook for Europe, and it is exactly

what Revelation is intended to convey; Europe is the area, mainly that Revelation deals with.

M.W.B. When you say Europe, what would you embrace in that -- just the actual territory, or that which has sprung from it as the colonies?

J.T. I would include all the outgoings. What is the ocean to God? In this respect He does not pay any attention to the Atlantic Ocean; He pursues those who are responsible; hence the seriousness of it.

F.W. In a way, that would correspond to the territory of the kingdom?

J.T. Just so. You mean the kingdom as the area of profession as seen in Matthew?

F.W. Yes, but I was thinking of what it was in the Old Testament. These nations were in the sphere of what was intended to be the kingdom, but they were never fully dispossessed.

J.T. Yes; Ezekiel really treats the nations surrounding Israel as in God's garden; he has a more intimate thought, meaning that they were cultured and cared for relatively.

Rem. So that in a spiritual sense Christendom would correspond with that kingdom.

J.T. I think so. It is the area in which the light has been, and that is what Revelation, rightly understood, means; it is the mind for God about all that area.

Ques. Is that why the question as to His Person is raised in the end of John 12, "Who is this, the Son of man?" (verse 34)?

J.T. Just so; quite a natural question. The Lord says in answer, "Walk while ye have the light, that darkness may not overtake you".

Ques. Why is it that Ezekiel does not make mention of the present testimony and period, and yet speaks of the Son of man some one hundred times more than any other book in the Bible?

J.T. Why do you say he does not speak of the present time?

Rem. I thought he spoke of the districts of Judaea and of the nations, and then goes on to show the glory that is coming.

J.T. But in chapter 1 he sees the heavens opened, and he sees visions of God, and an array of power having a universal bearing, and over all that, in the brightest spot in the firmament, is a Man. That points to the present time. The name or title, Son of man, came in in the Acts when the Jews rejected Christ. As we have already remarked, the Spirit says Stephen saw Jesus, but he, guided by the Spirit to testify, says, "Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man". That was the testimony, and all the power that was available at Jerusalem at that time was under Him, and that power was going to be extended out to the whole race of men. It was there for the Jews, but they did not value it.

Ques. The title that the Lord assumes when reigning over the world in millennial glory will be the Son of man?

J.T. Well, I do not know about that. I think He reigns in Zion. The nations are subordinate to Israel then, but we come in before Israel now. It is a greater thing now, "Thou shalt see greater things". There are two revelations spoken of in connection with Him; one is as to the race, "For the revelation of the Gentiles", as Simeon says; that is the first thing, and refers to the present time. The other apocalypse is to John, and it is not for the revelation of the Gentiles, but for the lifting of the veil from Europe, viewed as privileged in the government of God, and in a sense responsible in regard of the whole world. First there is the history of the assembly in its responsibility, and then the history of the European nations, culminating in the beast.

H.B. Do you think that Hebrews 2 would bear

out your thought? It speaks of the Son of man and then it says, "We see Jesus"; does not that connect it with the present moment?

J.T. I think it does; "we see Jesus".

Ques. Will you enlarge a little on the references in John's gospel to Christ as Son of man?

J.T. Chapter 6 is a most important chapter, because it shows how He, as on our side, furnishes food, and then that He ascends up to where He was before. The link with His deity is there. He was not there before as Son of man. He was not in that form, but eternally He was there before. That passage links Him in a most wonderful way, it seems to me, with Deity. He ascends up to where He was before, and the heart follows Him there. The next reference is in the passage we read from chapter 12. It is opened up there perhaps more fully because the Greeks came up. He intimates that He is not to be in relation with them as they were, so He immediately says, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit". That, I think, is to lay the basis of the assembly; the operations of the Son of man had the assembly in view. We come in for that as the first-fruits.

R.B. Would you tell us what you mean as to the results in Jerusalem, it being the most highly favoured spot? Would the results there correspond with what we should expect in the countries where the light has been?

J.T. I think that is what you find. We have to be content with individual cases now. John's believers are believers that can be trusted, they are worth while. The Lord selects certain ones.

P.L. And their full enrichment is seen in John 20; you spoke of their being enriched, being brought into relationship.

J.T. Yes.

D.L.H. Are there not, as one might say, two classes of believers in John's gospel, one a class who nominally believed, and another who really did so?

J.T. I think it is very important to see that. The first class is seen in the end of chapter 2; they believed on account of the signs, but the Lord did not trust them. In chapter 13 we come to the culmination of the truth connected with the Son of man. The Son of man is not, I think, strictly a term that refers to the assembly, but it underlies the truth of the assembly; hence when Judas went out the Lord says, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him. God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall glorify him immediately" (verses 31, 32). In chapter 12 He had said, "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified", which I apprehend is a future thing, when He will take up His place in relation to the whole race publicly, but chapter 13 says, "Now is the Son of man glorified"; it is not the hour is come that He should be, but "now is".

P.L. When you say 'now', do you refer to the cross?

J.T. That is what I understand. Morally the Lord is glorified as Son of man on the cross, and God is glorified in Him. Then God glorifies Him in Himself, which I suppose would be placing Him in heaven; and then He glorifies Him immediately, which I think would include the place He gives Him now in the assembly.

Ques. Would you say a word or two as to "Now is the Son of man glorified"; in what way is He glorified?

J.T. By His dying. There was a halo of glory there as He died in obedience to the will of God.

E.P. Has that to do with Psalm 8, "And the Son of man that thou visitest him"?

J.T. There, I think, it is simply that God visited Him; I should think this goes much beyond that. Now He is glorified morally in dying, and one wonders as to how it affects the saints, and what place the Lord has in this light in our souls. God has glorified Him immediately; it is not deferred. The sphere in which God operates now is the assembly, and it seems to me that if He glorifies the Son of man immediately, it is there now.

H.B. Is glorifying Him in Himself, glorifying Him in God, the filling out of what you were suggesting as to ascending up where He was before?

J.T. I think so, but I thought glorifying Him immediately was a little fuller than that; it would mean that the Father has opened up a sphere here for Him.

M.W.B. He was not to wait until He should be received universally; He should be received in those whom the Father gave to Him now.

J.T. It opens the door for us to afford the opportunity for the glorifying of the Son of man. The Father would bring Him in in that way, I think.

Ques. Has what you have been saying any bearing on chapter 14, "Believe also on me"?

J.T. Well, He has glory as thus in heaven. He is another Person in heaven, an Object of faith.

Ques. Connecting it with the assembly, do you mean that the assembly is the only sphere here where the true rights of the Son of man are recognised on the earth?

J.T. We cherish His rights as Son of man. We know the race has not come into them yet, but we are the first-fruits, we are of the race, and the Father would glorify Him in us.

Ques. Is the Lord in that way held in the assembly both for the race now and for Israel by-and-by?

J.T. I think so. In Revelation the Son of man is seen, only He is seen there in the midst of the

golden candlesticks. It was one like the Son of man. He would love to be there otherwise; He is going to judge; that is not work that is pleasing to Him; nevertheless He is there.

Ques. Would "Now is the Son of man glorified" mark the completion of that which He took up as Son of man; that is to say, the way is opened now. God is glorified in Him, and a present answer to it is found in the assembly universally?

J.T. That is what I thought.

D.L.H. There is a question that arises upon that, that is, "We see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus", Hebrews 2:8. There is a present result of His glory obviously from that passage and others, but I suppose that there is a future enlargement in that regard under the title of the Son of man, is there not?

J.T. Yes, there is.

D.L.H. When do you think that will take place?

J.T. I suppose it will be the fulfilment of Psalm 8 and Psalm 2; they will coalesce in the future, but the priority of the nations results in the assembly and only in the assembly, afterwards the nations come in second.

Ques. Would it be exhibited at all in Acts 2, when every one heard them speak in their own tongue?

J.T. Quite.

D.L.H. Only these people, I think, were Hellenists, they were not actually Gentiles, they were Hellenistic Jews who had come from different countries, and they spoke the language of those countries like Jews do today.

J.T. The point was that the Holy Spirit had access to men in every place; language was no barrier.

P.L. In regard of Acts 11, "Then indeed God

has to the nations also granted repentance to life", does that bring in the thought of the Son of man?

J.T. I think it does.

P.L. Israel had light, but this is life, is it not?

J.T. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men". That shows that John from the outset had men in view.

Ques. Would you say a word as to "I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me"?

J.T. "This he said signifying by what death he was about to die". It is a very solemn thing that you are drawn to One who was lifted up in the most ignominious way. That shows what a power of attraction there is, that one is drawn to Him notwithstanding that His circumstances are so ignominious -- that He is in such reproach. It means that there is some other attraction besides that of nature. It is an astronomical reference.

Ques. Does it bring another world into view?

J.T. It does. "Now is the judgment of this world ... and I, if I be lifted up ... will draw all to me".

Rem. The Lord says in this gospel, "No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him", chapter 6: 44.

J.T. That underlies John right through, and shows that there is a link between you and Him, and that the most ignominious position which marked Him does not hinder you being drawn to Him. Nathanael says, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" He saw that reproach would stand in his way, but he overcame it by Philip's solicitation. It is well to notice the combination here of Philip and Andrew; they are very fine servants; they are seen in chapter 1 and they are seen here; they unite to tell Jesus about the Greeks. I have no doubt that they prefigure the Jewish remnant. They were of different families, but from the same town --

Bethsaida. The assembly comes from that evangelical centre. Andrew finds his brother Simon, whom the Lord said should be called Cephas, meaning the material for the assembly; and Philip finds Nathanael, who represents Israel; and then both together they receive the testimony from the Lord of blessing for the race. They represent a kind of evangelical work that should go on. Bethsaida was a sort of evangelical centre, I think.

READING

Acts 3:1 - 11; Acts 4:23 - 37

J.T. I thought these scriptures might help us to see that all levitical service merges in the company. It is the divine thought, and was so even in Old Testament times, that the testimony should be connected with an ornamented vessel. Peter and John obviously represent the best men there were, but although distinguished in their service, they merged in the company. "They went to their own company", it says. The maintaining of a balance is necessary to save us from disaster, for in spiritual things, as also in physical things, there must be balance. Thus, however distinguished one may be in his service, in returning to his own company he merges in it. In the company the Holy Spirit operates, so the equalisation principle maintains a balance throughout. In chapter 4 we find that the apostles witness, not necessarily Peter and John, but the apostles. In the divine thought they were not to overshadow the others. Then again, we read that the money which Joses brought, was laid at the apostles' feet, and he is surnamed Barnabas by them. I think in these cases we have a principle which should govern the whole dispensation in regard of levitical work.

The company is the sphere of the Spirit, in which He maintains the mind of God and the necessary balance which saves us from clericalism, or the exercise of undue personal influence by any of us. On the one hand, these chapters bring out the sovereignty of God in those whom He is pleased to use and put forward, and on the other hand, His rights in the assembly, to make room for all the varied vessels. The apostle says, "But unto every one of us is given grace", Ephesians 4:7. The first chapter of the Acts

shows that after the Lord ascended, those who saw Him go up returned to Jerusalem to the upper room. Peter and John were there, and His brethren were there, and Mary the mother of Jesus also. But Peter standing up to call attention to the scriptures which governed the position, stood up in the midst of the brethren -- not in the midst of the apostles, but in the midst of the brethren. But when he stood up to preach the gospel, he stands up with the eleven, we are told. So that there are in these cases certain balancing circumstances, all involved in the sovereign rights of God, and all culminating in the company; and all is in view of the enrichment of the company in which the Spirit of God operates.

G.N. Do you think love is greater than gift in the assembly?

J.T. That is how it works out. The most distinguished servant merges in the company. The others were not overshadowed by Peter and John. Then it says, "Being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord". It is a movement of turning to God. Everything is, after all, determined by priestly state amongst the saints. There would be the sense of being brethren, and, moreover, John would specially take account of that relation. You notice that the Lord, according to Luke, sent Peter and John to prepare for the passover in view of the institution of the Lord's supper; and I think the one represents the authority of the Lord, and the other family affections.

Ques. It says the man who was healed held Peter and John. Would that bring in the thought that paying attention to the ministry of Peter and John would promote these priestly conditions?

J.T. I think so. These servants return to the company with this product of their service. They

brought the man in with them apparently. When they stood before the council the man which was healed stood with them, so they could say nothing against it; "So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed". As entering into the company with him, there would be an immense acquisition. He held Peter and John. The two things go together. The family thought comes in to regulate us generally. Fellowship is general as well as local, and I think the family thought governs the general thought of fellowship. Then Peter would come in by way of authority in the ordering of the house of God.

Ques. Would this save us from individualism and independency?

J.T. That was what I thought. You merge in the company. All the fruit of your labour is brought in there.

Ques. It says of Paul and Barnabas after they were sent out from Antioch and had gone through the cities, that "they sailed away to Antioch, whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. And having arrived, and having brought together the assembly, they related to them all that God had done with them". Does that suggest what is in your mind?

J.T. Yes, very aptly. They returned to Antioch from whence they had been committed to the grace of God, for the work which they had fulfilled. They gathered the assembly together as they returned -- not the elders in it, but the assembly. It definitely confirms this. I think Peter and John represent what is ornamental in chapter 3. They say, "Look on us". Morally they were more beautiful than the beautiful gate of the temple. They represent a fine

thought of unity in testimony; they represent the mind of heaven for that moment. So Peter says, "Look on us". The temple had been guarded as an ornament from God on the earth, but it was about to be superseded, not merely in an arbitrary way, but by what was superior. The divine way is to bring in something superior; and Peter and John were morally superior to the temple. They represented heaven, where Jesus had gone.

F.W.B. Would you say the family thought governed the universal ideal of fellowship? What would you say about the local?

J.T. The local idea is not developed in these early chapters; but Peter from his epistles and his early service unquestionably represents authority.

F.W.B. Would the family thought apply locally?

J.T. It ought to take form locally, but there is only one family. There are many assemblies. John's ministry is universal. He begins by saying, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men". "The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man". And so, right through his gospel, epistles, and the Revelation, he has in view what is universal. "God so loved the world". All is on that line. He brings in the "whosoever". In the epistle whatever or whoever is born of God you love, not necessarily because he is your neighbour, but because he has been born of God.

Rem. Peter had something superior to the silver and gold he spoke of.

J.T. Quite so. The silver and gold represent the best a man has. The combination of these two servants greatly helps to the understanding of fellowship. They bring in something. One has to disappear as a Levite, unless he can bring in something.

F.F. He would not hinder fellowship.

J.T. Not at all. It adds to it. Here is a man coming into the company, and he is holding them

both. There is no disunion in his mind. He does not favour Peter more than John; and that saves us from setting up one against another.

Rem. In that sense he would not be a charge to the company, but would contribute to it.

J.T. Quite. He is not to be carried; and he is not a partisan, because he holds them both.

G.N. What do you mean by authority?

J.T. Peter had the lead on moral ground, I think. There is not a divergence between them. They say, "Look on us". They were brought into perfect unison through the work of God. Unity is the feature here.

Rem. That would be delightful to the eye of God.

J.T. Yes. The product of their labour holds them both. He recognises them as the vessels whom God used.

Rem. So that he leaped and praised God. God gets the praise.

J.T. Yes; he was not praising Peter and John. If we do not return to the company, we stand on the dignity of our service, and then we have clericalism. They returned to the company, and merging in it saved them. The other apostles are not named, but they are all recognised there. "With great power gave the apostles witness". Each gets his own place. Every servant must have his place. God comes out with the best. He would enhance His testimony, and so He says, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ... but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued [clothed] with power from on high". They were to have proper clothes on -- heavenly clothes. In rendering that testimony it is not the "cloth" that some wear but moral qualities.

H.H. It shines out in what they say, "Look on us".

J.T. Yes; "clothed with power from on high".

W.A. Is it not significant this power being in the name?

J.T. Yes; that brings in another thought, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean", that is, that whilst heavenly dignity marked them, being clothed with power from on high, yet they were identified with what was most despised on earth, "Jesus Christ the Nazaraean".

E.F. And the One who was despised had the highest place in glory.

J.T. Yes. Peter and John while representing two features, each has his distinct shining in the foundation of the city. Each will shine -- every one a precious stone radiating a feature of Christ's glory.

E.F. And no matter what any one may have individually, all merges in the unity of the saints. You have every element of unity together in that sense.

J.T. Yes. God would see the shining of all those precious stones. Think of what we are brought into! They are all set there. "God has set certain in the assembly". They were not there before; they were set there by Him, with the greatest skill, greater than any jeweller could set a jewel. Think of the resplendent light shining upon us! Every one of these men was the handiwork of Christ, and now the light of heaven was shining and radiating in these precious stones. This man would look around and begin to see what he had come into. Caesar could not give him such a place.

E.F. There is nothing on earth like it.

J.T. Nothing.

H.H. He had reached a little bit of heavenly territory, as we read in Genesis: "The gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone".

J.T. Yes; and so it is good. The heavenly city brings out the setting of each of them. They were

all present here apparently, and each got his place in the company. Peter and John are not once mentioned; it is the apostles.

J.S. Would it suggest that each went back to his own distinctive position?

J.T. Yes. Peter would just merge and take his own position there. "God has set certain in the assembly", so he would just find his own place, and so would John. Matthew would too, and so also James. Every one of them would find his place, and one would not eclipse the other.

H.H. It is beautiful. So that you have got the unity formed now, not merely by the two, as in chapter 3, but marking the whole company.

J.T. Yes. When we have the Lord appearing, it says He appeared to over five hundred brethren at once; then He appeared to the twelve, and also to all the apostles. It seems like a repetition, but it is not so. The five hundred would include the apostles, but they are brethren there. He would, however, shine on the twelve as appearing to them. I can understand Peter saying to himself, I prefer to be here among the brethren, because it is what is going to abide.

H.H. It reminds one of what is recorded in the book of Chronicles when David was getting things ready for Solomon coming to the throne, and he gathered all the princes and mighty men of Israel, representing the universal thought, and "David the king stood up upon his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren".

J.T. Very good. In 1 Corinthians 15 we see how the apostle Paul brings into order the appearances of Christ, so as to show how He would affect the saints in every relation here. Peter is called Cephas. He would emphasise in that appearing the material of the assembly. As He appeared to Cephas He had in

mind the kind of material that would form the assembly. The next appearing is to the twelve; as if He would say, This precious material must be nurtured and cared for, and for that you must have administration. It is the bounty of heaven, and that is to be dispensed in the sense of what Christ is, and so He appears to the twelve, and then He appears to above five hundred brethren. If you have the material of the assembly nurtured and cared for, it is enlarged and you get the brethren. Then He is seen of James; because we have what one man can do at any time. He would distinguish one man; for one man can do much if he is with God. James says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not upon the earth by the space of three years and six months". So the Lord appeared to James, then He appeared to all the apostles, taking them by themselves, because with all else we must have authority; but authority wielded by those who are under the direct influence of Christ. Luke tells us that He appeared to Simon, but that was to emphasise grace. Paul says He appeared to Cephas because he is thinking about the assembly.

H.H. He speaks of Epaphras "one of you ... labouring fervently in prayer".

J.T. Yes. Possibly his account of the Colossians led the apostle to write the epistle. Then "last of all", Paul says, "he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time"; and he goes on to say, "I laboured more abundantly than they all". There is no diminution of power. We may be sure God has His reserves, and comes in often unexpectedly.

E.F. It shows that the whole thing had been formed in the divine mind beforehand. It only needs bringing out.

J.T. Yes.

J.S. The apostles going back to the company

would show that they were by no means on independent lines.

J.T. Just so; they all had the company in view. I think the swarm of bees in the carcase of the lion in Judges would be suggestive. It was naturally a most unfavourable place, but they were industrious, and there was honey in it. All the industry is for the company. We are not to consider for ourselves, but for the company.

H.H. One has often thought of the two going to Emmaus. Would you say they would be a great asset to the company when they came that night?

J.T. Yes. They were saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon". Then they relate how He was known of them in breaking of bread. And then Jesus Himself came in.

G.N. "And having been let go they came to their own company". They were free from every influence that would hinder them from getting to the company, so in every levitical service the company should be before us?

J.T. Yes. And then see the fulness of it. The company must have afforded them a retreat after all their toil and suffering, and in having the support and prayers of the company and the divine response shaking the building, how greatly encouraged the two servants must have been.

W.A. "I dwell among mine own people".

J.T. Exactly. You have to observe it says, "They having heard it, lifted up their voice with one accord to God". They had direct access to God there. Prayer through priestly access to God means the carrying on of the testimony. You see therefore the gain of coming into the company.

W.S. In that way the Lord used the pressure that the company might turn to Himself.

J.T. That is how the Lord uses pressure. They said, "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven,

and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together". It is very beautiful how everything centres round Christ. "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word". They did not ask for the apostles but for servants -- bondmen. There is a humble spirit; no pretension at all. And then it says, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness". See how a new impetus comes in! It is now a filling in answer to prayer, so that the testimony goes on in heavenly power.

F.W.J. You have every human power in verse 27.

J.T. Yes; that is interesting. And the power of the Holy Spirit is able to cope with all that. He acts in answer to prayer. That is the position. The apostles merge in the company there, and the prayers are the product of this. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all". And then further we read that "Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, ... having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet". There is great movement here, and I think we might look for that in recognising the company.

E.F. The testimony is in power, and everything fell into accord with it.

J.T. Yes. We see everything now serving the testimony; it is so great.

J.S. The laying of the money at the apostles' feet as they were all thus together would be the recognition of all that was there.

J.T. Yes. I think the apostles in that way represent the authority of the Lord; all the apostles are in view, not merely Peter and John now.

J.D. This condition of things produces a "son of consolation".

J.T. Yes. You see now how God adds. You see God adding, bringing in elements of help.

G.N. What is the son of consolation?

J.T. I think Barnabas represents the golden taches of the tabernacle -- a means by which everything is bound together. He brought Paul to Jerusalem and introduces him. Then he went after him again to Tarsus and brought him to Antioch. He has no personal interests. He is a brother who can bring brethren together. The tendency always exists of divergencies in the assembly, but Barnabas overcame all these things. The fact that he had judged his course in having possessed land, brought him into the true levitical position, that is to say, he gets his city to dwell in. The Levite belongs to the family of the first-born ones registered in heaven. I think that when Barnabas sold his land and laid the money at the apostles' feet, he became a true Levite. In the next chapter you have the attack of the enemy. Satan saw that this was a wonderful thing -- something he could not overcome, but what he would do was to corrupt it.

H.H. We see the thing set up from the divine side in all its perfection, and these principles should govern us today.

J.T. That is it.

J.S. Speaking of Barnabas as a true Levite in the spirit that marked him, I suppose it is not so much

his gift, but rather the influence for good which he had.

J.T. Yes. One sees in a man like Barnabas, how one man may stand out for good. He was a man who had means and knew how to use it; he brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet, his object being to help the testimony.

Ques. Is it the same thought as the widow casting in her all?

J.T. Just so. Think of the contrast in Solomon's day: two and twenty thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep sacrificed at one time; 1 Kings 8:63. Think of the food that was there for the people of God in all that. So here: "For neither was there any one in want among them; for as many as were owners of lands or houses, selling them, brought the price of what was sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles; and distribution was made to each according as any one might have need".

J.S. So that when you come to the assembly there is no lack.

J.T. No. I think that is the way the Lord is encouraging His people in our own times by mutual contribution; and how large a contribution becomes, as brought into the company.

F.W.B. What is the selling? Is it getting rid of the thing through exercise to produce something?

J.T. Well, that is how it works out spiritually.

G.N. You sacrifice for the testimony's sake.

THE LOVE OF GOD

Ezekiel 20:35 - 37; Romans 5:3 - 8; Jude 20, 21

I want to speak a word about the love of God. The subject is much more difficult to speak of effectively and intelligently than most of us are aware of; for it is indeed the greatest of all subjects, and one understands that the apostle had this in mind when he said that God had made him and others competent ministers of the new covenant.

The love of God has to be known, and one is reminded of the evidence of the knowledge of it in the various writers of Scripture. I do not suppose God employed any to write, save those who had some knowledge of it; and what you find with the first great Scripture writer, that is, Moses, is that at the end of his ministry, after forty years' experience of the people in the wilderness, when he was nigh one hundred and twenty years old, he says of Jehovah, "Yea, he loved the people". He had opportunities of witnessing the love of Jehovah for the people, and one of his last testimonies before his death begins with it, "Yea, he loved the people".

He himself in that same section is spoken of as king in Jeshurun. He had not been wanting in love for the people; and it moves one as one contemplates how he reflected the great Mediator of the new covenant as he came down from mount Sinai with the tables of the law in his hands. The law was written, not now exactly in his heart, but it was written on the tables, and as he drew near to the camp he is made acquainted with the solemn fact that idolatry had replaced Jehovah there. There was no evidence of love for Jehovah in the camp. He had been replaced by the work of their own hands in the golden calf; so He says to Moses, "Let me

alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation". But Moses says, "Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book". What a word for any one who seeks to serve Christ! Moses loved the people and so he is competent to speak of love.

So he was king in Jeshurun, and had acquired that place. No one acquires a place in the affections of the saints save he who loves the saints. He was king in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together, when they were all there in their responsibility and order. They were there, and Moses was king amongst them. He was king in Jeshurun, that is, amongst an upright people, as the word 'Jeshurun' signifies. Every upright person in Israel would recognise the moral worth of Moses; he had proved himself a king against whom there was no rising up, and they came to value him, so that he was king in Jeshurun. And Moses, as such, is not occupied with his love for the people, but with God's love for the people, and so he says, "Yea, he loved the people". So, throughout Scripture we get testimony to the love of God in all the writers. Jeremiah testifies to Jehovah's love to Israel, "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee". And so, in the last prophet, God says, "Yet I loved Jacob". The love of God remained; and alongside of that, the commandments of God remained; for as there was a witness to His love in chapter 1, so in the last chapter there is a witness to His rights. "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel". These two things go together; they are allied in Scripture. Where the love of God is known. His commandments are in evidence.

But when we come to the New Testament, one is humbled as we see the working of divine affections in

those who wrote; for you find in such a writer as Jude, the use of the word 'beloved'. What a place the saints had in his heart! Read down the chapter and note how he addresses them, and what they were to him. He had been revelling in the full light of the love of Christ; he had sat at the table on that last night when the light of His love shone, and he knew what the saints were to Christ, and so in writing to them he uses these terms of endearment, "But, beloved, remember ye the words"; "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves".

So with the apostle John. As you run through his epistle you will be impressed with the frequent usage of this same term of endearment. And so, too, with Paul -- our own beloved apostle -- as we say, one who stands out prominently in this respect; he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ -- the Son of God -- as having loved him personally. He says, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me". No one speaks thus save Paul. He had, I apprehend, a greater sense of love than any; for it will be noticed that the scripture does not say of John, "the disciple who loved Jesus", but, "the disciple whom Jesus loved"; because we cannot assume a prominent place with the Lord. So Paul, as having such a profound sense of that love, is the one who speaks of himself with others as the competent ministers of the new covenant. How could he be a competent minister of that which brings in the love of God, save as one who knows it? I doubt whether anything is less known amongst us than love; and I am speaking of myself as well as of others. "If a man", says Solomon, "would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned". Such is the estimate of it in the spiritual line.

And now I want to dwell on it for a moment as set forth typically in Ezekiel. Ezekiel stands out in a peculiar way among the prophets. He was one

who took his place with the people in captivity; he was among the captives by the river of Chebar. In other words, his love to the people led him to identify himself with them in their dire extremity, as they were away from their own land -- from Jerusalem and Palestine. They were away in the land of the Chaldeans. He says, "I sat where they sat". Complete identification with the people of God is one great mark of love; you go the whole length with them. And so in that position the prophet sees visions of God. The heavens are opened, for heaven deems such an one worthy of notice. He had a unique place throughout among the prophets, for he is in touch with heaven. What you find in him is, that he is entirely under the influence of Jehovah; and thus God signified in His servant His thoughts for His people. One of the greatest evidences of the prophet's entire resignation to the will of God is, that he lies for three hundred and ninety days on his side to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, in order to witness to the people. He foreshadows the great Mediator of the new covenant, who lay in death and bore the iniquity of the people so that their sins and their iniquities should be remembered no more.

Think of lying and being penned down to it, for three hundred and ninety days! What a witness of devotion to God and to His will! And then he gets all his beauty removed. His head is shaven, and his beard; the hair is subjected to the action of fire, and the knife, and the remainder is dispersed to the winds. He is entirely in the hand of God, so that God might witness to the people livingly in him what was in His mind.

And so love would lead us thus into correspondence with Christ. We see in the great apostle, before he wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians, how he had been brought down to death, insomuch that he despaired even of living! Was that an accident?

No. It was designed; it was God helping His servant to witness effectively to His love in the death of Christ -- the One who Himself had been down to death, but whom God had raised from the dead. "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver". Beautiful witness to the way God raised up Christ! We trust in God who has delivered us from so great a death. It was a great death, and undoubtedly it yielded great love. All this helps to affect us, to make us competent to speak of His love; and so the apostle can speak of his own competency. Of course God had done more than that; for He had caused the light of His glory in the face of Jesus to shine into Paul's heart for its shining forth, but the minister accepts the breaking of the vessel.

Well, Ezekiel lost all his comeliness. But then in chapter 8 we read that he is taken up by a lock of his head, by the Spirit, and lifted up between the earth and the heavens. He is now in the position to witness effectively, not only to the love of God, but to the power of God; for the locks had grown -- the hair had grown. It is as we accept the cutting off of what marks us naturally that we come into new clothes; that we are made to live in the life of Christ -- the evidence of the power of God. On the third day He was raised up, and we read, "In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight"; so we are made to live before Him by resurrection power. So that now Ezekiel in figure is in the power of the life of Christ. He has a lock of hair by which he can be lifted up. The Lord Jesus, although raised, as we read, by the glory of the Father, yet raised Himself up too. There was life inherent in Him.

I refer to these things because it brings out how

competent Ezekiel was to speak of the covenant. He had gone through, in his experience -- not in the same measure, of course -- what the great Mediator had to go through later. The fourth chapter points to the death of Christ -- the prophet was to lie on his side for three hundred and ninety days; the eighth chapter indicates the resurrection of Christ -- Ezekiel was lifted up between earth and heaven. In chapter 20 he comes to the covenant; Jehovah says, "I will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered ... and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people". It is in the wilderness that God teaches us His love, and there are times when things have to be removed from us. Indeed, Ezekiel had himself to experience the most dreadful bereavement; the desire of his eyes was taken away with a stroke, and the most bitter part was, he was forbidden to mourn! "Yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down". Think of that! The light of his eyes -- the object of his affections -- taken away with a stroke! He says, "So I spake unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died". And he did as he had been commanded. You see what excruciating exercises he was to go through, so that he was competent to speak thus.

So Jehovah says, "I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you". Note the words "face to face". It recalls what John wrote to Gaius: "I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: but I trust I shall shortly see thee and we shall speak face to face". When you come to love, it is a face to face matter; it is a personal matter; it is a question of having to do with persons. So even in our baptism, we are baptised to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit -- the three Persons of the Deity

are before us. We are introduced into the sphere of these divine Persons; it is a question of Persons -- it is a question of love. We are baptised "to the name", Matthew 28:19. We are introduced into the region where all the light of the divine nature shines, into the light of the revelation of those three blessed Persons. Think of the greatness of baptism thus! How far removed from the scriptural one is the prevalent idea of it around us! It is a question of being introduced into the light of the revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

John, I believe, represents this feature, and brings the Persons to us as none of the other writers do. It is face to face God would come near to us. So, I apprehend, the Spirit alluded to in Romans 5 has this in view. You will remember how intimate the transaction was when the Lord breathed into the disciples in John 20 -- how His very life, His very nature, as you might say -- knowing all that it meant in the way of affection -- was breathed into them. Thus we see how intimate this matter is. So in Romans 5 the first mention we have of the Spirit is as bringing in the love of God. It is like the kiss of the prodigal; the father kissed him caressingly, as I understand it is. So, as we read in Acts 10, while Peter was speaking to the Gentiles -- Cornelius and his company -- the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word. It is not simply a question of falling; the word 'fell' signifies an energetic action of the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word. It was an energetic action of the Spirit laying hold of them with affection. It is the same word as used -- as many know -- of the father and the prodigal. It means that God is embracing the Gentiles. It is a personal matter; He did not leave it with Peter to receive the Gentiles; it was not a matter of administration there; it was a question of affection that God would embrace the Gentiles.

It is a wonderful thing, really, to know the love of God in that way. Paul in Romans refers to the Spirit as bringing in the love of God; and, mark you, it is no less than the Holy Spirit who brings the love of God into our hearts and sheds it abroad there. He brings it in personally. And He would not leave a crevice in our hearts unfilled by the love of God. We may have reserved chambers, but the Holy Spirit, coming into the heart, claims it. "My son, give me thine heart". He claims it, and fills it with the love of God. Think of that! His function is to fill the heart of the believer with the love of God.

Referring again to Ezekiel's prophecy, God says, "There will I plead with you face to face". Then it goes on to say, "I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant". Love is what God Himself is, beloved, not a mere attribute of His character. Love is His nature, it is what He is; and He wants us to know it, and so He passes His people under the rod. Now I believe that rod refers to discipline, involving also that account is taken of us as restored. Discipline is one of the things designed by God for our blessing. It is part of His education for us, so He causes us to pass under the rod. What rod is it? What can it be but the rod of the covenant? In Exodus 17 we read of Moses being charged of God to take his rod in his hand and go. "Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock". That is another matter; the smiting of the rock with the rod of Moses has reference to Jesus having died, when all that God was against sin was there. There was the rod of Moses, but there was too the rod of Aaron.

There was needed priestly grace to lead the people into the consciousness of what was available to them, and Christ has taken up that place too as Priest to lead us into the reality of that which is in the heart of

God for us, and to which we are called. As "having a great priest over the house of God", we are exhorted to "draw near". He gives us assurance and confidence to draw near to God. And I have no doubt that as called to pass under the rod, it is to remove, to break down the will, but withal to assure us that we are recognised as in relationship with God. It is love, "for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth". Do we understand it, dear brethren? May the Lord give us to understand it!

Discipline is designed, and in the passage in Ezekiel the being brought under the rod precedes our being brought into the bond of the covenant. I doubt whether any one of us ever comes permanently into the enjoyment of the love of God without passing under the rod. It is one thing to apprehend the love of God in the death of Christ -- that is a question of light -- it is quite another thing to be permanently in that, in the sense in which John speaks: "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him". God will not be content until we dwell in it; and in order to bring us to that, we pass under the rod; none are exempt. It is all to the end that we might be qualified to live in the love of God; and we do not live in the love of God, save as in holiness. Thus discipline has the effect of producing a holy state in us, and it is in that holiness that we live in the love of God. In Hebrews 12 the chastening has in view that we might be partakers of His holiness. Nothing can be greater for us than that we should live in the love of God. Paul says God commends it to us. Think of the condescension on the part of God. He who is so great, so blessed, condescending to commend His love to our hearts; and He does! He commends it to us. Stop to think of it! Think of God condescending to commend what is transcendingly blessed, and what is going to abide for ever. As taking account of our weakness, God gives us

promises, and He commends His love in order to encourage us. So He says, "I will bring you into the bond of the covenant". As in the sense of how great it is, we leave all to go in for it; we are content to relinquish every hindrance in committing ourselves to it.

Jude contemplates believers as already in the enjoyment of the love of God, and exhorts us to keep ourselves in it. We are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, and, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep ourselves in the love of God. How forceful is this word at the present time, as we are surrounded by the darkness of the apostasy and the chilling influences of the world! May God give it weight in our hearts, and may we apprehend His love more and more and be preserved in it!

RESPONSE FROM KNOWN RELATIONSHIPS

Revelation 3:9; Revelation 19:7, 8; Ezekiel 16:6 - 14; Hosea 2:14 - 23

These passages of scripture remind us that God intends us to be in a present known relationship with Him, and that there should be affections in keeping with this relationship. I refer to these scriptures because there is so much indefiniteness amongst us as the Lord's people; there is so little understanding and realisation of the relationship or relationships into which we are brought.

I have read from Revelation first before I come to the types, because it bears directly upon us. It is light for us, especially in these days. It enlightens us in regard to the history of the assembly, so that we need not go outside of Scripture for that history; and, moreover, it enlightens us in regard to the history of the world in which we are called to move. We get instruction as to the history of Europe and its outgoings, and incidentally, too, as regards the heathen world, so that the believer understanding Revelation is instructed in everything. He has understanding of the times and he knows what Israel ought to do. What Israel ought to do is disclosed in the message to the assembly. There we have outlined the history of the assembly as it is under the eye of Christ, and we cannot have anything more accurately presented than what is presented thus. It is presented as under the eye of Christ, not as at a distance in heaven, but as walking "in the midst of the seven golden lamps". He is not indeed seen in heaven; for John turns round to see the voice, as he says, and he sees the Lord in the midst of the seven golden lamps.

The Lord in His seven messages to the assemblies conveys His thought of them. The Holy Spirit, being the One whose word we are especially called upon to hear, is also here upon earth, and is active, amplifying, and, as I may say, particularising, and applying what the Lord says authoritatively. So the attentive reader and listener is not at a loss as to the history of the assembly, nor is he at a loss as to the particular period in which his lot is cast. He knows where to begin his dates; like Ezekiel of old, he dates from the captivity; he humbly accepts the captivity, a solemn fact! and dates from it.

And so when we come to the church in Philadelphia we are able to see that certain assembly affections, as I may call them, have been brought about. You may say, It does not say that Philadelphia loves Christ, but it does say that Christ loves Philadelphia, and that surely is a greater thing; and although we are not told in so many words that Philadelphia loves Christ, yet it says so in unmistakable facts, and thus He says to her, "and hast kept my word". It is a stronger way, indeed, to put the fact that she loves Him, because the Lord says, or said to the disciples before He left them, "If any one love me, he will keep my word". So that the fact is undeniable that she loves Him. She has come back to a knowledge of known relationship, and to the affections that belong to it. And so the wife -- another important feature of this book -- "His wife has made herself ready". Is not that a proof of known relationship? Thus we see that the book of Revelation takes account of recovery, not only of the light in Romans -- the light of the gospel as in earlier days -- but also of the light of Ephesians.

It is that epistle that brings out the known assembly relationship. Romans lays the basis for it, as it does of everything -- as the apostle says, "That ye should be married to another, even to him who is

raised from the dead". And so in Corinthians, the second letter, Paul says, "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ". These epistles lay the basis for the relationship, but Ephesians gives it to us in its fulness. He loved the assembly, we are told there, and gave Himself for it. He prepares it by "the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing". That was said to Christians who not only knew the love of Christ, but who loved Christ. The Lord, referring to that later, says, "Thou hast left thy first love", not My first love. The most wonderful work of God appeared in that company. The testimony was presented in such power in their midst that the saints collectively were brought into direct relation to Christ. They loved Him with first or fresh love. If you were to ask me for the proof of it, I know of no better evidence than what is recorded in Acts 20, for Scripture loves to illustrate. We have direct statements in Scripture upon which we may hang our faith with certainty, but we also have the most perfect illustrations, and so that chapter in the Acts brings out that the Ephesians loved Paul. They wept when he left them. "They all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him". He was the representative of Christ to them; he had brought the testimony of Christ to them; he was, as I may say, the personal representative of Christ. He represented Christ personally in regard to the assembly. He had the greatest possible trust committed to him, and that was the administration of the assembly. He brought the assembly to Christ by his ministry, and the saints loved him. The Ephesians loved him. The chapter abounds with expressions and evidences of love.

Now Revelation shows that there has been a return to that, not in quantity, surely, but as I may

say, in quality. I want to show from the types in the prophets how this has come about, for, as I said, the prophets of the Old Testament illustrate things for us; they bring in details that we do not get in the New. If we read them in the light of the New Testament they amplify the New, and bring them out, but if we approach the New from the Old, we shall subvert the New, and that is what Christendom has done. If you take up any thought in the Old Testament and carry it through into the New, it will subvert in the New what it typifies. If you take up the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament, you have details of what is definitely intended for our instruction in righteousness. So I refer to Ezekiel. I take him to represent in the Old Testament what corresponds to John in the New.

As I have already said, Ezekiel almost habitually gives dates from the captivity. He in no wise sought to hide the shame of the captivity; and so it is our wisdom to recognise at every turn the captivity of the assembly, so to speak. Ezekiel throughout his book, as you may see if you look into it, gives date after date from the captivity. The last date referred to is the twenty-fifth year of the captivity (see chapter 40: 1), and in that year the prophet is brought by the Spirit in the visions of God into the land of Israel, and set upon a very high mountain. He is brought into the full light of divine thoughts. How very fitting that he should connect the captivity with that! It is as we humbly bow to the discipline of God in His governmental dealings that we are in a position to get light as to the purposes of His love.

I refer now to chapter 16 of this prophet, and wish to show how he speaks of the beginnings of Jehovah's relations with His people; how that He entered into a definite relation with them, but He did so on His own terms. "Yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee ... and thou becamest

mine". Let us never forget that He entered into covenant with her. He made her to live, He beautified and ornamented her, and it was the time of love; like Ephesians, there was affection, as He says in Jeremiah, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals". There was love there, and so He took her up and entered into covenant with her and she became His. How precious is that! For I need not say that it was written for us, to remind us of what the assembly was to Christ at the beginning; how she was made to live, how she was decked with ornaments and was "exceeding beautiful", so that she was suitable to be united to Him.

It is well to be reminded that the Lord is not satisfied with any appearances that we may put on. One is humbled at times in contemplating what is presented to Christ. The Lord's supper is that which is specially designed to lead us to take up these covenant relations. The Lord is not prepared to be satisfied with anything. We see in this passage in Ezekiel how particular Jehovah was. If He entered into a covenant with her, it was as having a beauty which was perfect, through His comeliness which He had put upon her. The Lord looks for that in us, and so one desires to sit down and partake of the Lord's supper as being of the assembly -- of that which He has made to live, which He has washed, and anointed, and clothed, and decked with every ornament of beauty, so that it is befitting, and moreover that it should be the time of love, for that is what He looks for. That is what marked the beginning when the Lord appeared to above five hundred brethren at once. What a moment it was for Him as for them! They were brethren. They were brethren in His account. They were brethren in Paul's account, for it is Paul who tells us of that appearing. What a moment, I repeat, it was for Him and for them! May I not say that it is the time of love?

What response He gets! for they were brethren, not in name only, but in reality. They were those who understood Mary's message. That is who they were.

Now I want to show you for a moment how recovery is brought about. Hosea contemplates recovery. Jehovah says, "Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart", and Israel shall say, "I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now". How many of the Lord's dear people on earth at the present time, if they only had the light of the assembly's pristine relation with Christ, would truthfully be able to say this? One feels for the poverty that marks many of the people of God, and so the ministry of the moment is, I believe, outlined in these verses. He says, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness ... . And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope". That is His proposal. The ministry that is proceeding, dear brethren, is on this line. God is leading His beloved people into the light of known relationship with Him, and into the light of the assembly in relation to Christ. That is what the ministry is leading us to, if we have not yet arrived at it. "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness"; that is to say, we are separated from the world. It is not geographically so, as of old; it refers to the change in our souls. The things that interested us in the world interest us no more. The testimony of Christ has come to us, and the allurement of Christ, and the compelling power of God, would bring us outside the world as to the state of our souls so as to be brought consciously into a known relationship with Christ -- a present, known relationship. She is united to Him -- union is known as a present reality. And so He says, "I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth".

Abroad in Christendom terms are being used by

people referring to God and referring to Christ that might with equal force be used in heathendom; corresponding terms, indeed, are employed in heathendom for their deities. It is simply that the world has changed its deity, carrying over the same terms without any real understanding or knowledge of God or Christ, and that is truly nauseous to Him. So He says, I do not want that, I want terms indicating a known relationship. The Lord looks for that, for expressions disclosing what is in our hearts, not borrowed ones, not terms that can be used in the current legal systems around, but expressions which are from the heart. Hence He says, "Thou shalt call me Ishi", meaning my husband!

In the address to Philadelphia you will note how the overcomer is promised things that belong to Christ. The terms, "the temple of my God", "the name of my God", "the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God", are all a question of what belongs to Christ, and the Lord looks for expressions that come from the heart that express a known relationship with Him. Any others are objectionable to Him. Take an expression like 'The Lord Jesus'; the apostle says, "No man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit". It is not, of course, that the words may not be employed, but it cannot be said in the sense in which the Lord accepts it, except by the Spirit. How often do we speak to Him consciously by the Spirit?

Now what we find in Romans is the action of the Spirit to bring the love of God into the heart. That is the first great service of the Spirit in Romans, and that is the basis of all further operations. The love of God is brought into the heart, because God intends to be in known relationship with us on His own terms. So the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit and in chapter 8 we cry, "Abba, Father",

by the Spirit. We thus see that God would have us in conscious relationship to Himself, and that the terms expressing the responsive affections that belong to it are by the Spirit. How living, therefore, everything is! Christ's relation to the assembly, and as between the Father and us. We say "Lord Jesus" by the Spirit, and we say "Abba, Father", by the Spirit. So He says; I will remove all else, "I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth". You are to say Ishi, my husband. Then He says that the relationship is to be fixed, that is, it is to be unassailable. The passage shows that the relationship is to be unassailable in the sense that a marriage bond is celebrated and no one present is to forbid it. He says, "I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies", even also in faithfulness; He says, "I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness". You see how impregnable the position is. Do we not need to be purified in our souls by these unassailable things? God Himself has done it. He has betrothed us to Himself, as He says, in righteousness and in judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercy and in faithfulness. Can any one forbid it? No! Just as in Romans 8 no one can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, so no one can forbid the holy bonds into which we are brought.

I think you will thus see that what God is aiming at is to give assurance of soul in the relations in which we are set, and that in these relations the Holy Spirit is the power so that there may be response in intelligent expressions, respectful surely, reverent surely, but terms that express affection and loving response to the Father and to the Son. In order to fortify us still further God makes a covenant for them, as He says, "with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things

of the ground", so that He might make them lie down safely. Such is the way in which God would encourage us and fortify us in recovery, so that we may proceed unharassed in the enjoyment of our relationship with Him.

Then it says, "I will sow her unto me in the earth". I apprehend that by sowing He desires that there should be multiplication. For unless there be sowing, there will be a drying up and dying out. Nothing can save from natural death unless there be sowing, and so the Lord says, "I will sow her unto me in the earth". There will also be in that day a line of communications; He says, "I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel". He provides everything for our nourishment in this way. Have we not proved it? He is looking for the maintenance in our souls of these direct communications. We need no indirect ones. The saints have direct access to God. "I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel". Thus there are communications; so we are not dependent upon anything in this world. We are set up in complete independence of it, in the corn and the wine. "I will sow her unto me in the earth". The Lord is looking for multiplication, for fruit, as He said to His disciples, "That ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain". The Lord is helping His people to increase on the line of sowing; and this involves death. That is the principle.

Although God is looking on to the day of public recognition, yet He would not give us to understand that He recognises us publicly now, because we have to accept the shame of the departure, and to reckon our dates from the captivity, but He is looking on to

it. The Lord says, "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee". What a prospect! When He says, "that I have loved thee", He means the assembly. Nothing less than that is in His mind. Thus here He says, "Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God".

The Lord give us the sense of it now. We know that He loves us, but He is going to make it public, and those who are of the synagogue of Satan (a terrible word!) shall come and worship before our feet (when I say 'our' I mean the assembly). Thus He proves that what He was to her at the beginning He is to her at the end. It is coming to light now, and so we read, "His wife hath made herself ready", and further we read, "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of saints".

GOSPEL ADDRESS

Ezekiel 4:4 - 12; Ezekiel 8:2 - 4; Ezekiel 9:1 - 5

It is very suitable to turn to the book of Ezekiel at this juncture in the history of God's testimony, because it contemplates pending judgment -- a feature equally true now -- but the judgment is associated with One called throughout Son of man. As Son of man Christ is on the side of men, so that no judgment will come upon men save what is unavoidable. The Son of man will do all possible for men, and so God would impress upon us that in resorting to judgment He places it in the hands of One who is on our side. We can look for the utmost fairness, we are to expect nothing but what is entirely right and just. We are told that all judgment is committed into the hands of Christ because He is Son of man.

The occasion of judgment is now only too apparent after so many centuries of the most wonderful testimony that has ever been presented to men. It is suitable that Ezekiel should be allowed to witness to us, as he represents Christ as the Son of man, and at the outset he speaks about the opened heavens, a suggestion that has immense importance, for it is what characterises our dispensation -- the heavens are opened. He begins with the opened heavens (chapter 1), and he ends with Jehovah-shammah (chapter 48: 35); meaning that the instrumentality employed by the opened heavens, although it may involve the severest judgment, will culminate in a place obtained here for God, for as you know Jehovah-shammah means "the Lord is there". That is what the service of the gospel has in view, that there should be a place for God in the hearts of men, and this book shows that God has the means by Him of effecting this; and so the object of the present testimony of the gospel is that God

through that testimony should find a place in the hearts of men. He is not content with anything less, and so whilst this book abounds with judgment and references to judgment, the great end is reached -- that God dwells here.

Now you will understand what I wish to speak on; it is a word in relation to the Son of man. I would, as it were, stand before you like Simeon. I love to think of Simeon as coming into the temple by the Spirit and taking up the Child in his arms; no one can rightly hold Christ, so to speak, and present Christ, save as by the Spirit. Simeon took Him in his arms, and as having Him in his arms, he represents, as I may say, the whole race of man. Wrapped up in that precious Babe was the mind of God and the grace of God for men; and wrapped up in that precious Babe in the arms of Simeon, was the love of God for men; and He was the One who was about to become the Mediator of God and men, giving Himself a ransom for all. And thus you see that the preacher is entitled to hold, as it were, before men, Him in whom everything is for the blessing of men. So there is remarkable correspondence between, not only John, but Luke and this prophet.

Whilst John, in the opening chapter of his gospel, enlarges on the Person -- He it is indeed that is to be preached, the Son of God -- yet at the end of that chapter we find the Lord saying to Nathanael, "Thou shalt see greater things than these" -- greater things! Nathanael had been sitting under his fig tree, quite indisposed to believe the testimony that was then available. Philip had said to him, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph", but Nathanael said, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" How his remark reflects our unbelieving hearts! Philip had spoken about Moses;

he did not say, 'Can anything good come out of Moses?' Why not? Why not say that equally with saying, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" What did it matter that He was brought up in Nazareth if Moses spoke about Him? If Moses spoke about Him in the law, and the prophets spoke about Him, He must be worthy of attention, and yet Nathanael says, ignoring all that Moses and the prophets had written, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" How our unbelieving hearts may pick out what is despicable, and fix everything there. But God is not going to alter His way for your unbelieving heart or mine; it pleased Him that His Son should be called a Nazarene, and why should your unbelieving heart rest in what you regard as despicable? God does not.

And so Philip says to Nathanael, "Come and see"; and that is the principle today. The one who comes and sees indicates that God is working with him. If you do not come and see, and if there is no disposition to come and see, then I am very doubtful about your Christianity. That is the principle with John, and so later the Samaritans came and saw. Nathanael came, and when the Lord saw him coming, He said of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"

It may be as I am speaking to you, the Lord, looking into your heart, sees a movement (one great feature of the preaching is to make Christ attractive); it may be He sees you moving a little bit towards Christ. He sees the movement, I do not; for God alone reads the hearts, but one always reckons on the reading of the hearts as the word is preached. I may think I see something in the countenance, but, as I said, God only knows the thoughts; He goes below the countenance and He reads the heart. So when the Lord saw Nathanael coming to Him. He said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"

He said nothing about his unbelief, nothing about that reference to Nazareth; the Lord passes over all that. He is occupied with the evidence of the work of God in him -- that is the thing. He can afford to disregard all disparagements from our unbelieving hearts as He sees the work of God -- He rests in that.

So He says, "An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathanael replied, "Whence knowest thou me?" Ah, the Lord knows every one; He has been watching you from the very beginning; and He says to Nathanael, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee". He saw you before you began to move. He takes account of your need from the beginning; He saw Nathanael before Philip spoke to him, and Nathanael answered, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God". Have you ever made a confession? The secret of much misery in souls is in not having made a confession. Now have you ever made a confession of Christ? I urge that you do. I press the great importance of confessing. He says, "Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel". What a wonderful confession at the first meeting with Christ! What light there was for that "Israelite indeed" as he came into contact with the Son of God! He could never have made that confession under the fig tree. It is as you come into contact with the Lord in your soul that everything becomes clear -- that you apprehend Him. "Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel".

Well, the Lord says, "Thou shalt see greater things than these". You say, Can there be greater things? A principle with John is that greater things are always ahead. There is no possibility of any finite person compassing what is of God, it is infinite, and so the Lord says, "Thou shalt see greater things than these ... . Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon

the Son of man". It was as if the Lord said, Nathanael, you have got to widen the vision of your horizon; and so it is, as you come into contact with Christ, light fills your soul, and you make a confession. I would urge again, especially upon the young, that you confess Christ. And then you will get more light, greater things, and the greater things are connected, remarkable to say, with the Son of man. The Son of man embraces the whole of humanity; He stands in relation to every man and woman and child in the whole universe -- He knows every one. He has undertaken to remove what lay upon us. How wonderful that as a Man He is on our side; and God would impress us with His interest in Him in that His angels -- the angels of God -- ascend and descend upon Him. Are you interested in Him? He is interested in you.

And so I read in chapter 4, because I think it is the foundation of the book, for if the Son of man is to relieve us, remove our guilt and give us the Spirit, He must undergo the judgment; there is no escape. Simeon said of Him, "A light for revelation of the Gentiles"; He was to bring the Gentiles in under God's eye so that God should be favourable -- a wonderful thought! As Simeon had Him in his arms He represented the whole race of man, but how could He bring up men and present them to God unless He removed what lay on them -- death and judgment? So we have Him here portrayed in Ezekiel lying three hundred and ninety days on one side. Now picture that from a physical point of view! It speaks of the Lord Jesus held in death, for He only could bear the iniquity. Ezekiel was bound down with bands so that he could not move from one side to the other.

How real was the death of Jesus! It was no ordinary death. Elihu, in speaking to Job, says, "By the breath of God frost is given: and the

breadth of the waters is straitened", Job 37:10. The death of Jesus stands alone; He was straitened in it: it was the Prince of life who lay there. "The sorrows of death", we read, "compassed me, and the pains of hell [Sheol] gat hold upon me"; He was straitened. Such is the figure the Spirit of God employs to convey to us what Jesus endured in order that the blessing of God might come to man. He "gave himself", we are told, "a ransom for all", 1 Timothy 2:6. He gave Himself unto death; not death of the ordinary kind, but death involving the bearing of judgment. The blast of God was there; by the breath of God the frost comes, it says, and the waters are frozen. The north wind of divine wrath beat upon Him and the waters of death were, as it were, straitened, and there He was -- and why? That I should never come into it. You see the baptism of a person now, but there is no straitening of the waters. Baptism is but a symbol of the awfulness of the death of Jesus; so here God laid bands upon the prophet so that he should not turn from one side to the other; he is held and he could not move, and, mark you, every year of Israel's guilt is taken into account, for He says, "each day for a year". And so it is in regard of us, all our guilt was taken account of in the death of Jesus; not one sin was omitted. The Lord uses the figure of His hair in counting up our sins, "they are more than the hairs of mine head", Psalm 40:12. He takes them all upon Him, one after the other, so to speak, as bearing the judgment of God on account of them. As He went down God hid His face from Him. He said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. The abandonment of Jesus on the cross exceeds in awfulness all other events. And so, as I said, Ezekiel has to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety days. Some may question it from a physical point of view; we, however, cannot question

the word of God. We are to take our eye off the prophet and think of Him who endured the cross, of whom it is written, "the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all".

Then you see his food; the fruit of the earth is taken and put into one vessel with what comes from man -- what man is in all his hideousness under the eye of God. There is presented here the perfection of Christ in the wheat and the barley and the other cereals -- they speak of the perfection of manhood in Him, but in order to be a sacrifice to God for us He had to be a Man, a perfect one, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26), and yet be made sin; He was made what I am. Think of that! Not only did He bear our sins in His own body on the tree, but He was made sin. The prophet is to eat all together; so that, on the one hand, we think of the perfection of man in Christ under God's eye, and, on the other hand, of what He became. He was made "in likeness of flesh of sin", we are told, "and for sin [and God] has condemned sin in the flesh", Romans 8:3. "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him", 2 Corinthians 5:21. There was no mitigation in His case; there was in the prophet's case, showing how far short mere man comes. But the Lord took the cup from His Father's hand without any alleviation; He knew what was in it, and He never asked for a modification of it. He asked if the Father willed it, that it should be removed from Him altogether, but no modification. If it is to be drunk. He would drink it in toto, and He has done it, so that not only all I have done, but all I am, is dealt with in the death of Jesus. Such is the gospel God presents a complete settlement in the death of Christ, not only of my guilt, but of my state; all I am as offensive to God is disposed of vicariously in the death of Christ.

Now in chapter 8 the prophet is taken by a lock of his hair -- a very remarkable figure and lifted up between the earth and the heaven, no doubt typifying for us the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Judgment is immediately in view here, but not entirely so. The resurrection of Christ places Him in a position whence He can deal with everything on the earth; He is between the earth and the heaven; what can men do with Him now? Nothing. But what can He do with them? Ah, He can dispose of everything here. He says to John, "I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades", Revelation 1:18. Moreover, He has the key of David. As risen He is in possession of all these keys. He has got hades under His hand; He has got death under His hand. "For to this end", says the apostle, "Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living", Romans 14:9. I often think of the brazenness of those men who pretend to have communications with hades; they are liars! they lie! Are we to believe that the Lord Jesus, as risen from the dead having the keys of hades, allows them in? Never. How can they get in without the keys? He has got the keys of hades; the departed ones are all under His hand; He rules, we are told, over the dead. He has got absolute right over the domain of hades and of death. Presently those that are in their graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth. There will be no invasion of hades until He speaks. He alone has a right there. He "died and rose and revived" that he might rule over both dead and living, so that when He speaks they will come forth, and not till then. But He is ruling over the living, and I am here tonight to tell you that He as risen has got blessing by Him for you.

The prophet is lifted up by a lock of his head. I have no doubt a lock of hair is a symbol of inherent

strength. When Samson's hair began to grow, that was the portent of the downfall of the world. It began to grow and there was recovery of his strength, but there is inherent power in Christ. It is true that He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, but He rose. He died and arose Himself, for it was not possible that He should be holden of death; Acts 2:24. "I lay down my life ... and I have power to take it again", John 10:17, 18. He is the Prince of life, and so Joseph sees his sheaf standing up, the symbol of inherent life, the symbol of Christ coming up in His own mighty power out of the grave. Thus I have no doubt we have here combined divine power in the raising of Christ, and whilst He has title to rule over the dead. He is now ruling over the living. But how ruling? Ruling in grace, of which every Christian here can witness. We have come under the rule of Christ, and we find that He supplies us with everything. Every need of my soul has been met by Christ risen from the dead, and He proposes to meet the need of every soul. Are you ready tonight to commit yourself to Christ? "Lord, I believe", says one; are you prepared for that? I commend the Lord to you; as risen He rules over the living at the present time; it is a rule of grace; it is a benign rule. It is not merely the administration of law, for He brings in food, He brings in drink; He satisfies your hunger and your thirst; He removes your guilt and sets you up in life -- that is what He does. And so here the prophet is taken by a lock of his hair and carried between the earth and the heaven to Jerusalem. I do not dwell on the side of judgment.

I come now to those who sigh and cry for the abominations; chapter 9. Is not that a touching thing? You say, I have never taken part in testimony, I have never witnessed for Christ. But have you ever sighed or cried for the abominations that exist in

this world? It may be that you have listened to indignities that are offered to Christ by men around, to the blasphemy and the filth, and the darkening thoughts, and writings that exist; it may be that only in a little way you have felt these things, but you have sighed about them. Well, the Lord has His man clothed in linen with a writer's ink-horn by his side and he is moving about and is taking account of men that sigh and that cry for the abominations that be done. Is that not an encouragement to you? That sigh of yours saves you from these instrumentalities of wrath. You belong to the Lord; do not be discouraged. It may be you have not come into salvation yet; as I said, you may not have confessed the Lord. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10), but a sigh is enough to save you from those six men with weapons of slaughter in their hands. Take home to your heart such a word of encouragement.

But then there must be more than sighs. To be sighing is not to be living. You want to come into the light of victory in Christ; you want to see that as believing on Him you will not come into judgment, but have passed out of death into life; John 5:24. That is what some of us here know. We have heard the word of Christ, and we have believed on Him who sent Him; we know we shall not come into judgment; we know that we have passed out of death into life, and we invite you tonight to commit yourself wholeheartedly to Christ. He is risen, and He is glorified. Wrath is impending; the occasion of it is evident on every hand; it is only a moment till it be executed on Christendom, and it is for you to flee from the wrath to come; as it says elsewhere, "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself", Proverbs 22:3. But if you have sighed in regard of these things, it is for you to believe definitely on Christ, and on Him who sent Christ -- the Father. No one

can preach the gospel fully without bringing in the Father. "We have seen and do testify", says John, "that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world", 1 John 4:14. And so you believe on Him that sent Him by having heard the word of Christ.

Now let me entreat you to join us here in believing in Christ, hearing His word (you hear it tonight) and believing on Him who sent Him. It is one great feature of John's gospel that the Son is the sent One; the Father sent Him and He is here so as to be available to you, and as you believe you will know with us that you do not come into judgment, but have passed from death into life. How complete it is! Later on you too will know consciously with us that you have passed from death into life because you love the brethren.

But here we have the man with the ink-horn by his side. I want you to take note of him; he represents that divine vigilance at the present time that takes note of every movement in your heart; the least sigh on account of the evils that exist is noted, and you are divinely marked, so that you cannot be touched by judgment. It seems to me that there may be those here who have been sighing and crying on account of existing conditions, but they have not come into the blessed knowledge that belongs to the Christian that they will never come into judgment, that Jesus, as in the figure here, has borne it all. The three hundred and ninety days represent three hundred and ninety years of Israel's guilt, representing, from our point of view, six thousand years and more. All these years and their guilt, far beyond the computation of any man, entered into those three hours of darkness in which God hid His face from His beloved Son. Think of the compression, beloved friends, of all time in which men have sinned into those three hours of darkness in which God hid His

face from Christ! Every minute of the time is dealt with, every minute of those six thousand years and more, and all the guilt in every minute was dealt with vicariously, so that God can offer forgiveness to the whole race of men now. A wonderful thing! "Who gave himself", it says, "a ransom for all, to be testified in due time". That testimony is being rendered now; for hundreds of years it has been rendered, and it is still being rendered, and it is rendered to you tonight.

READING

John 12:1 - 3; John 20:18 - 23

J.T. I thought we might look at John's gospel in view of the thought of the house of God. There are many indications that this gospel is written as having our own time in view. Things are assumed to exist without being formally named, without being designated, and one of these is the house of God. The house is not visible today, but we know and have proved its existence. We have it suggested in John 8, "The servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever". Then in this chapter (12) we have the thought of the house, and in chapter 20 we have "doors", which suggest a house. So the Spirit of God may help us to dwell on these passages with these thoughts before us. I think the Son abiding in the house for ever would fit in with what we have in chapter 12 -- that it should be filled with a sweet odour.

Ques. Would the thought of the odour have reference particularly to the affections?

J.T. Yes, I think it has. Chapter 9 brings in the Son of God as introduced to an outcast, and he worships Him. Chapter 10 being based on that emphasises the idea of life and unity -- one flock and one Shepherd -- and the sheep know Him as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father. Then you have the idea of a family in chapter 11 (and each member known personally) in connection with whom God is to be glorified and the Son of God glorified; so that there seems to be a building up, a constructive line of thought, leading up to the house as the sphere in which affections are expressed in a family way.

Rem. The service of Christ would free us to understand the place He fills for God.

J.T. Yes, the service of the Son sets us free, and then we are really free. The man in chapter 9 is the man who is really free.

Rem. You get the thought of the Son over God's house in Hebrews.

J.T. Yes, I think that through John we are let into all that we have in the apostolic epistles. We take our place in the acceptance of the ruin, but we see that notwithstanding the ruin everything is intact; and so coming into any given thing, you can treat it according to what it is in the apostolic epistles; you see it in all its bearings. It seems to me to be most attractive, that one may emerge from the religious world through adhering to the light as it comes to one, and find oneself introduced into a system of affections. This is illustrated for us from chapters 9 - 12. What we get is, "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me". As you adhere to the light, your connections with the religious world will gradually loosen. You will not fit, and you will be gradually edged out. You will leave, or be cast out, and so find yourself outside. So when they cast the man out the Lord finds him. The Lord is scanning Christendom today for such; He is outcast too.

Ques. Would "The son abides for ever" be the relationship of those in the house?

J.T. Quite; you feel that John lets you into what abides. There is no "if" attached to it, as in Hebrews, "If ye continue".

Rem. We get "the Son shall set you free", and "the truth shall set you free".

J.T. Truth comes first, I think. Light sheds its beams not only on you, but on everything around you. It may be that things hold you authoritatively. There are many in the systems of men who think they are rightly there and who think it is of God to be there. Hence the truth applied soon discloses the

many details that are not right. Truth takes account of every detail, and it delivers from the authority of darkness. There are things that may have authority in our consciences, and we have to be shown that these things are not scriptural. That is the effect of the truth. But the Son delivers in a positive way. The man in chapter 9 was set free by being cast out, but there was nothing positive in that. But when the Lord finds him and asks him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" the man is set free positively. The light and the truth work negatively. They set me free from what is wrong, but the Son brings me into what is positive.

Think of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, just waiting there to take you up. That is what He is occupied with; to take up the outcasts, and to take them on to what is positive -- to the system of affection. The teaching of chapter 10 is to encourage us in the care of the Lord. The figures used, the Shepherd and the sheep, suggest that. Then we get, "and shall go in and out, and find pasture"; we are set free. Then there is the unity: "There shall be one flock, one shepherd"; and intimacy follows "I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father". We are brought into a kind of knowledge that has existed eternally. It is that kind of knowledge.

Ques. Does the character of it come before us in the incident where the two ask, "Where dwellest thou?" and the Lord says, "Come and see"?

J.T. That stands at the beginning of it. The Lord is contemplated as in the bosom of the Father in chapter 1. Then on the inquiry of the two, "Where abidest thou?" we have the suggestion that they want to know where He abides. It does not say where, but as you proceed in the gospel there are indications. The Lord says, "Come and see".

Rem. As things are now it is a question of coming and seeing.

J.T. Exactly; it is a question of getting souls in movement.

Rem. We are set in motion by the light.

J.T. That is it. I believe popular evangelisation leaves people where they are; there is no thought of moving them at all.

Ques. Do you suggest that "The truth shall set you free" involves that you are disentangled from things here?

J.T. Yes; so that the family comes into view after chapter 10. In that chapter you are made to feel that you are cared for, as if you did not need to care for yourself. You are impressed with the sense of infinite care. That is a great thought to get into the soul -- that there is infinite care for me. The man in chapter 9 is a typical sheep, and he becomes a subject of infinite care; and it is the care that leads him into liberty in affections. So when you come to chapter 11 you have a family all loved by Christ. With the sheep it is knowing and caring for them, but when you come to the family He loved them.

I have no doubt chapter 8 is the covenant. It brings in God, because the Lord comes in there from the mount of Olives, as if He came in in the sense of what is in heaven, and He exhibits all the grace of heaven toward the woman. In coming in to meet this situation He stoops down. I think the suggestion in the chapter is really the house of God. The way in is paved; it is paved with grace in humiliation. He stoops down twice and makes effective the grace of God in the poor woman and at the same time drives out her accusers -- hypocritical religionists are effectively driven out. The woman is retained. She is retained in the light of the writing through the application of the light and the truth, and then the Son setting her free. Stooping down is an example

for us in relation to the people of God; you can help them by stooping down.

Ques. What do the two writings refer to?

J.T. The first writing refers to the law; who could say he was without sin in the presence of the law? For it is "By the law is the knowledge of sin" -- not in another, but in myself. I discover what I am by law, and this they did. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her". He lifts Himself up and they go out one by one. Then He says to the woman, "Woman, where are those thine accusers?" They need not have gone out; they might have stayed and got the benefit of the second writing. The benefit of the first writing is that you discover sin in yourself, and then you see how that sin has been dealt with; "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh".

Ques. Is the second writing connected with the new covenant?

J.T. Yes, I think it is. The way into the house is there; now what part have I in this house? In Acts 2 the sound from heaven fills the house where they were sitting; that is more definite and formal; here the odour of the ointment fills the house.

Ques. Is your thought that the house of God develops to "my Father's house"?

J.T. The two statements are contrasted. In the second chapter you have, "my Father's house". "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise". That is past now. Then you have the same expression in chapter 14, "In my Father's house are many mansions". That is future. We have these two formal references, but what is present is not formal, because He does not want to set us up in what is formal now; He wants us to be in the good and enjoyment of the thing itself. The Lord knew the family at Bethany by being with them, so I

think they represent the thought of a family, without introducing it formally -- and a family, too, loved by Christ. That family is present in chapter 12. There are others, but Lazarus was there. While some are mentioned by name, they are all on the same footing.

Ques. You have a family without a head. Is there anything in that?

J.T. I think they had not yet come to recognise the Lord's place. They had learnt He could do things. "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died". They did not seem to know that He could act at a distance. We know that He can act at a distance. They did not apprehend Him then as head of the family, but they were going to; and in chapter 12 they have come to that. "This sickness is not unto death"; whatever happens is under the direction of infinite love and wisdom. John will never have it that any accident happens. The glory of God shone in that family, so He comes in in that light. The glory of God and the glory of the Son of God shone there; and as the result of that, instead of being occupied with Lazarus they are occupied with Him. They made Him a supper. It takes you off the natural line. He "came to Bethany where Lazarus was ... there they made him a supper". It is a question of what is done locally, but whilst it is done locally it suggests the house. Chapter 12 shows that He had acquired the place of Head. If He comes back to Bethany, it is to give occasion for the expression of what has already been effected. He knew what was there. "There they made him a supper". It is very informal. We do not know how many there were, but there were more than one we know, and thus the matter stands. If you have two, they can make Him a supper. You arrive at the thing without any pretension to having it.

Ques. How do you distinguish between making Him a supper, and the odour filling the house?

J.T. The odour brings out one who is more spiritual than the others. They are all included in the 'they' that made the Supper. There was a state of unity amongst them to make Him a supper. As the occasion proceeds there is opportunity for the display of spiritual power. What you have is there to show itself. Therefore you would be concerned to have your box, to have something.

Ques. How does making Him a supper take form now?

J.T. It is having things that He can enjoy, that He can partake of. We are not told what was on the table. Things are left very indefinite; we are not told what they ate. The supper is a time of freedom. It is not the Lord's supper, because that is what He provides. This is what is available for Him. In Luke 24 He ate before them, but that is not mutual; here, they made Him a supper and sat at table with Him. The glory had shone, and now they are put to the test as to what effect it has had on them.

Ques. If this is not the Supper, when would you expect it to take place?

J.T. Any time when the saints are together. I have no doubt that the occasion of the Lord's supper would synchronise with this in a special way, only we must not say this is the Lord's supper, because that is what He prepares in a special way.

You want to have something. Mary is signalised here in that she had kept the ointment against the day of His burial. You have something that is costly and its fragrance is felt. What I had in mind was that we might see that the house is filled. The fragrance pervades everywhere -- a very great suggestion, yet in connection with what is very unpretentious!

Ques. Is your thought that it would be an expression of holy love to the Lord?

J.T. Yes, I think it is. She anointed His feet.

She recognised that He Himself was going to die; His own feet were carrying Him to the grave.

Ques. What is your special thought as to the ointment?

J.T. The supper and the ointment are distinct. The supper they made for Him has to do with local unity centred on Christ. Mary has got something that the others have no part in until she breaks the box. That represents something that is special to one and that is excess. There is that in which we can have common part, "Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing", Philippians 3:16. We cannot by that statement exclude individual progress. There must be scope for individual power and spirituality. How serious it would be if we were to say that there must be only certain elements on the table; these are the only things that we are to provide for this special occasion. That would be serious; you would just stay where you are. So when Mary broke the box there was something special. The effect of it would be an incentive to others to have something like it on another occasion.

Ques. Where did she get it?

J.T. Well, you can have it. I think one great element in securing this box is quietness: "Mary sat still in the house". Many of us live in activity, in meetings; but the acquiring of this box is by knowing how to sit still and appreciate the Lord as He is.

Rem. The spirit of quietness marked Mary.

J.T. Yes, but as soon as He calls for her she moves. It was restfulness in sorrow, but it nevertheless indicated a certain state. Martha comes out to meet the Lord, whereas Mary sat still. Martha looked as if she were more interested than Mary, but she was not.

Ques. Was it the appreciation of His death that Mary had?

J.T. I think she saw that it was not now Lazarus' death but His death. Before it was, "My brother had not died", but now it is the Lord. She is a person who can contemplate; and that is one of the words that help us in John. How can you do that unless you stop, and look, and sit? She was one who could contemplate.

Ques. Would the excess fit in here with the spiritual manifestations in 1 Corinthians 14?

J.T. Yes, I think that is right. It may be the five words only, spoken with the understanding. Something comes in that is wholly spiritual and it pervades all -- the house is filled with the odour. In chapter 20 the doors are shut; it is the exclusive side of the house. Chapter 12 enlarges on the affections -- the devotedness of those who are in it. It is what they did. When you come to chapter 20 you have a precious thing added to that; you have the light that Mary Magdalene brought -- another Mary. A message from the Lord brought into the house; and it seems that these things are to be preserved. They are very precious. The things inside must not be in any way diluted or corrupted, so the doors are shut.

We have something now in the light that has been restored, and in the saints having been revived in spiritual affections; we have something that is most precious, in fact we have heaven here upon earth. The doors being shut suggests that you want that kept. "Where the disciples were". Note where they were. They represent the preciousness of all this, so we do not let in anything that corrupts.

Ques. Do you suggest that the doors being shut is preservative?

J.T. Yes; you will observe it is not 'door', it is "doors". The house is composed of the saints, as

we see in the epistles. I think in that way every saint has got a door.

Ques. Do you see that in the first epistle of John, then would the second epistle suggest each one closing the door?

J.T. Quite so. Anything that would corrupt this precious thing, or the saints in it, must not be allowed in. I think it is for each one to take care of his own heart. "Keep thy heart with all diligence" we are told. We may easily carry in things that dilute. The thing must be preserved; it is most precious. We may easily bring in things that, even if they do not corrupt, may dilute the precious thing. Each believer is really a door, as in Canticles (chapter 8: 9), and it is a question of keeping the door shut.

Ques. What would be the thought in that verse of inclosing her with boards of cedar?

J.T. That would be to dignify her. We must shut out things of the world, especially of the religious side; it is a question of every one keeping his own heart. "The doors shut where the disciples were".

Ques. "For fear of the Jews" would bring in the religious element, would it not?

J.T. Yes; it supposes that we have come to see what we have got. The epistle to the Hebrews enlarges on what we have. Over and over again we get "we have". We want to keep what we have. In the Hebrews we are told, "Whose house are we". And in that house are all these things. In John 20 we have these things. "Where the disciples were"; "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples". It is so made that these things should be kept, hence the doors being shut. We reach things through John. It comes home to every one of us when we are together as to whether I have left anything in, or carried anything in, that would corrupt what we have. We must be rigid in regard to this. The Jewish spirit brings in an accredited religion of the

day. It will always seek to find a place where the people of God are.

You can see thus how John brings out the thing in its spiritual character, but he goes on, as if to say, It is not that I am making little of what is official or outward, and so he brings in the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. There we get all that could be desired in regard to what is official and administrative; there are the twelve apostles of the Lamb, twelve gates, and so on. But that is not now, it is future. Meantime we have to be set to go in for the thing spiritually. The same things that we are occupied with today are the things that will come out in the heavenly city, only there they will have official names.

Ques. Would John 20 be the answer to what the Lord died for, to "gather together in one the children of God"? They are brought into unison one with another as to Him.

J.T. Yes, that is chapter 12, and then we have the increased light in chapter 20: "Go to my brethren" -- the precious relationship He gives us as with His God and our God, with His Father and our Father, and we do not want to lose it.

BEHAVIOUR IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

1 Timothy 3:14, 15; Ezekiel 40:1 - 8; Ezekiel 43:1 - 7; Ezekiel 46:9, 10

In writing to Timothy, as you will observe, the apostle contemplated possible delay in going to him. As elsewhere, the apostle represents the Lord, and he has, therefore, a right to delay. "If I delay", he says. It is in the time of the delay that we are put to the test as to whether we love Him or not. Our behaviour in the house of God will disclose whether we love the Lord or otherwise. As He says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me", John 14:21. We are thus being put to the test at the present time, and our behaviour amongst the saints bears witness to our love for the Lord, or the opposite. Paul says, "These things write I unto thee ... but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth".

Now I wish to enlarge on this, and in proceeding I would remark on the difference between the house as it is suggested to us in John, and as it is formally presented in Luke; we have to apprehend both evangelists in this respect, but we arrive at Luke through John.

We have in these chapters in Ezekiel eight steps in certain inner gates (see chapter 40: 28, 31, 34, 37), and seven in certain outer gates (see chapter 40: 20, 22). I have no doubt that John's presentation involves eight steps, whereas Luke presents it, or the entrance into it, as having seven steps; and his presentation of the house is in relation to the public testimony of God. It stands in relation to the proclamation of the glad tidings, and one entering in has to take the

lowest place. He is not to select the most honourable position, but to sit down in the lowest room, so that the good man of the house may have the opportunity of saying to him, according to his pleasure, "Friend, go up higher". It is not a question there of my progress spiritually, but of the will and pleasure of him who is the master of the house. The parable which follows has in view a festive occasion -- the great supper -- to which all are invited. It is therefore an institution that belongs peculiarly to the dispensation in which we are, in which God sets out the bounteousness of His grace; in which, indeed, He celebrates righteousness, and where He delights in the point reached in Christ risen and exalted to heaven. As exalted into heaven, Luke would present to us all the wealth of heaven poured out so as to be available to men, who are invited through the gospel. That is Luke, and the house is to be filled.

But John contemplates what is wholly spiritual. With Luke, the elder brother of the prodigal hears what is going on inside; but not so with John. He contemplates the house as the sphere of the family, as that in which the family of God is found, not in the way of protection, but where the Father's affections are known, and the Son's affection, and the Son abiding in it for ever. There, where we know our immediate relation with the Father as the brethren of Christ, we can readily understand how that instead of seven steps, we have eight. I have no doubt that the scene in Bethany is a picture of millennial blessing, but when we come to chapter 20 we have something beyond, and it is possible that many of us never take the eighth step. The idea of the eighth step is that we begin anew, without limitations. Think of a beginning to which there are no limitations We think of Him who is said to be "the hind of the morning", and we cannot impose limits on Christ as risen and exalted into heaven. Who can indicate to

us what will be developed from the standpoint of Christ ascended? Mark you, it is not a question in John of His being received up, or carried up. These terms have reference to the will and pleasure of heaven in Him, upon earth; but as we think of Him ascending up, it is not now a question of heaven receiving Him, or honouring Him; it is He Himself entering His own domain: "I ascend". Who can undertake to measure what He establishes there? So that as we take the eighth step, which refers to the inner gate according to Ezekiel, we have begun that to which there is no limit. The Lord would encourage us to take that step.

Now there is remarkable correspondence between Ezekiel and John. Ezekiel, as you will observe, dates this occurrence of being shown the house in the visions of God from the captivity, and it is John who gives us an account of our captivity -- the captivity of the assembly. One need not go outside the writings of John for assembly history. If we understand his Apocalypse aright, we have opened up to us all assembly history; and not only assembly history, but also the history of Western Europe. We have first of all given to us in that remarkable unveiling, the history of the assembly from its decline and fall to its end on this earth.

We have had no part in the pristine history of the assembly; we have had to do only with the captivity. We shall never emerge into the full light of Ezekiel, as in these chapters, until we definitely accept that we have had to do with the captivity; indeed, the prophet begins his prophecy by telling us that he was among the captives. It is humiliating to be among the captives, far away from the land; but then it is worth while to take one's place humbly among the captives to have the heavens opened to us. That was his experience; he had the heavens opened to him and he saw visions of God. What a

contrast were the conditions in Jerusalem in his day to the heavens opened and visions of God! John not only had the heavens opened to him, but he was invited to come up into them. Nevertheless, there is a remarkable correspondence between the prophet Ezekiel and the prophet John. They both had to do with the captivity, and if we understand our prophet (that is, John), and we understand the history of the assembly, we begin to make our dates accordingly.

It is most humiliating to have to learn spiritually how to date our years from the captivity; not from the year of our Lord from this point of view, but from the given year of our captivity. In order to arrive at the dates spiritually, we have to analyse carefully chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, and as we do so, we definitely arrive at the year. We shall then know the light that governs the position. There is a certain light governing every period of the history, and that light is conveyed in what the Lord Jesus Himself says to every assembly. Notwithstanding the captivity, He graciously speaks a word to every assembly, and the word to any given assembly is the light for the moment. If we are to enter into the understanding of the house, we must know the year, and then return in the light that governs that year. As we understand the light, then we see a way out. There is a way out. The Lord's word to every assembly is virtually, "This is the way, walk ye in it", Isaiah 30:21.

Then the Spirit takes that up and enlarges it, and applies it so that it becomes intelligible, not only to those walking in the light of the assembly, but to every Christian; it is, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies". So that I get all the good, you may say, of what the Spirit says, and it is by the Spirit I am led out; and being led out of the captivity is to be led into the house

practically. Ezekiel says here: "In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me thither. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel", Ezekiel 40:1, 2. He is brought out of the land of captivity, into the land of Israel. He is now in the midst of the sphere of divine thoughts. I wonder if we understand what it is to be brought out of the darkness and misery of the captivity into the very sphere of divine thoughts and purposes -- the land of Israel.

Then he says he saw the frame of a city on the south. The prophet was on a very high mountain. Many of us are content with partaking in an outward way of the symbols of fellowship, and we thus become very formal. As a matter of fact, the constant tendency with us is to drop to the level of ordinary religious custom. The name 'Brethren' and the outward form of fellowship in no wise guarantee that we are out of the captivity, for the captivity for us is spiritual. Ezekiel is not dealing with what is external, he is dealing with what is spiritual, what can be understood only by the Spirit. He is in the land of Israel on a mountain, and he sees the frame of a city. What relief of soul there is, what an atmosphere one can breathe on the altitude of a mountain in the midst of the land of Israel, and beholding the frame of a city towards the south! What thoughts enter the soul as one by the Spirit apprehends the sphere of divine thoughts and purposes and sees in the distance the city!

John lets us see the city; it comes down from God out of heaven. What a city! Well now, that is all spiritual, and it is a question of apprehension. It is well to seek, in dealing with souls, to find out by questioning whether there is any light as to another

sphere, a sphere in which God's thoughts, God's purposes are developed, and whether the soul is on an altitude above what is merely religious. It is well to search into things to see where souls are.

Now I want you to note that there is a man there: "Behold, there was a man ... with a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate". Whilst, in the apprehension of your soul, you are brought into an immense sphere, yet you are immediately brought down to measure it, and there is a man there who is not careless. There is a great deal of looseness and want of discernment and judgment in regard of those who are admitted amongst us. What you find here is, "a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a flax-cord in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate". He represents certain features that are essential to be at the gate so that nothing extraneous should be admitted. His appearance is like brass. There is the symbol of righteous judgment of sin, and he has got a flax-cord in his hand. He would require, not only the judgment of sin, but an element of holiness. No one can be in the house rightly without holiness. This is not merely flax spread out on the roof (Joshua 2:6), it is spun into a thread. It reminds one of the end of certain exercises, under the discipline of God, by which alone we reach holiness.

Then we find the man has a measuring reed; not that he is going to measure the one who enters, but he is to measure the entrance, "the gate that looketh toward the east": and it is worthy of note that everything at the outset has the same measure. I know of no part of scripture that gives us such a variety of measurement as these chapters in Ezekiel, and yet the first entrance we are introduced to is marked by everything having the same measure. There is to be no independency of thought or way. What the brethren are, you are to be. The brethren

are the subject and the product of the work of God, and you are to be that, otherwise you are not fit for the house. The threshold one reed; the porch one reed; each chamber one reed; what you are impressed with is this, that you must correspond with what is there. Much variety is found later, for there are differences and distinctions; but you must begin with the definite acceptance of uniformity. As the apostle says: "So ordain I in all churches [assemblies]", 1 Corinthians 7:17.

Well now, having said so much about the east gate, I add one other remark, that it is the gate through which Jehovah was to come; chapter 44: 1, 2. We cannot look for God to come in amongst us apart from uniformity, apart from "all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace", Ephesians 4:2, 3. God looks for that; so, as I said, there is the uniformity of measure.

In chapter 43: 4 we have God Himself coming in. How different this is from anything we know of religiously in this world! There is no concern at all in the religious establishments in this world that there should be a door for God to come in, that there should be a divine gate. Think of a religious building being employed as a burying ground! Jehovah here abhors the idea of the carcases of their kings defiling His holy name; Ezekiel 43:7 - 9. What is called a sanctuary being employed for the carcases of their kings is entirely opposed to God and to the house of God. The house of God is a living thing, replete with life, so even the carcases of the kings are refused. Thus there is no concern in these establishments for a door by which God can come in, by which Christ can come in; whereas Ezekiel shows that there is a gate exclusively for Jehovah and for the prince. How much do we consider for this, dear brethren?

It seems to me that we are in danger of thinking that we have reached the full idea of the assembly that we have it in all its various compartments, but we cannot compass the assembly in that way. What do we understand by the eighth step? If we think we understand the Lord's day morning meeting, what do we understand by the eighth step? How many steps are there after the eighth? We are pulled up by these chapters. Here we have a wonderful establishment, opened up to us with inner courts and outer courts, with inner gates and outer gates, and cells and chambers and galleries. What do we know about all these things?

This passage, it seems to me, is intended to call a halt. In having to do with spiritual things, we cannot undertake to compass, and measure, and divide them up into chambers to suit ourselves. We have to do with what is holy and spiritual, and we have to learn to deal with these things in a humble way and say we know little about them. Here I have to stand alongside the man whose appearance was like brass, and with a measuring reed in his hand, and I have to listen to him. I go through chapter after chapter and say nothing. What could Ezekiel say about all these measurements? It was for him to listen attentively, and then he might say something. I venture to say there is not an architect that could draw this pattern correctly. It is beyond the range of the natural man, and it is intended to be beyond his range. We feel it as we stand beside him. Things are serious. What we have to do with is God's house. Nevertheless there is to be no fear. If we are Christians, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts casts out fear. There is to be nothing light or trivial about us; we have to be sober, for we have to do with God and we have everything to learn.

The passage in Ezekiel shows that the prophet is first of all brought to the gate by which God comes in,

but he does not go in first; God comes in first. So in chapter 43 we read, "The glory of Jehovah came into the house by the way of the gate whose front was toward the east" (verse 4). Thus we have Jehovah coming in. It is a wonderful scene. He comes by the way of the east, and the earth shines with His glory. Wonderful vision, beloved, to get an apprehension of God coming into the house!

Now we have an additional feature as God is there. He says, "The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court". The Spirit lifted me up! It is not now the man with the measuring line, although he is still there, but the Spirit. If I am to be in the inner court it is by the Spirit. It is the gate that leads to the inner court, whose ascent is by eight steps. I get in there by the Spirit; it is the Spirit that opens the heavenly door, and what is beyond that, no one can tell, nor could anyone undertake to tell. I know something about the love of Christ, thank God! but it passes knowledge; I know something about the fulness of God, but it is as a thimble in the ocean; I know something about the love of God, but to be filled even to all the fulness of God leads to eternity. I could not take in even the physical creation, neither could any man; one is lost in thinking of what is beyond that, and beyond that. We come back to the fact that the physical creation is bounded on the south and on the east, on the west and on the north by God, and we rest there, but what the Spirit conducts into in the inner court where the glory is, is boundless and eternal. What a wonderful thing to be where the glory is!

Then Ezekiel says, "I heard one speaking unto me out of the house; and a man was standing by me", not now to cause me to fear, but to sustain my heart. I have heard of people going to the assembly without their Bibles, as if God were not to speak in the assembly. "I heard one speaking unto me out of

the house". Are we not to look for these things? Yes. God speaks in the house. Then a man stands by; he sustains you. I have no doubt the man typifies the Lord in His priestly grace supporting us so that we should listen, that we should be able to stand and listen as the voice is heard. These are great things, beloved, for when God speaks they are great things, not ordinary things.

Now in conclusion I want to say a word about the north gate. If I know that God is in His house, then I am to be concerned as to how I am to go in. I see that in the east gate He requires unity. The people could come in by the north gate or by the south gate; chapter 46: 9. In its application to ourselves, we must go in by both. The south gate represents the favour of God and the north gate represents the discipline of God, and we can never be in the house without these two features. I enter into the house in the shining of God; all that God is is favourable to me. How that quickens the pace, so to speak, as I enter the south gate. I have no fear, "Perfect love casts out fear". But then as I think of the flesh in me, as I think of what I am capable of, I know the necessity for the north gate. The north gate represents the discipline of God. The discipline of God is all for my good and I cannot be in the house unless I understand the hand of God in discipline in view of promoting holiness. I can come in by the north and go out by the south, or I can come in by the south, and go out by the north. The going in means that I have had an experience of the presence of the glory, and of the speaking. These two features have wrought in my soul and I go out not as I came in, for in the house one's exercises are confirmed. What I have taken in of the light of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and what I have taken in through His discipline, all are confirmed there, and thus I have gained, and I go out different from what I went in.

So with these things in view, I think we can understand how we are to behave ourselves in the house of God. As the Lord is pleased to delay His coming, we are to be exercised so that we may know how to conduct ourselves rightly in God's house, which is the assembly of the living God.

THE PREACHING AND THE PREACHERS

2 Timothy 4:1, 2, 5; Acts 2:14, 32 - 36; Acts 8:4 - 8, 29 - 35; Acts 9:20

It is on my mind to call attention to the need of activity in service and testimony for Christ. No one has more moral title to address us in this respect than the apostle Paul. His service for Christ was unremitting; he says that he "laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me"; and as having finished his course he addresses Timothy, whom we may regard as a representative servant now, and he charges him before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge the quick and the dead, to preach the word, to be instant in season and out of season, and furthermore to watch in all things to do the work of an evangelist, and to make full proof of his ministry. It will be readily seen, therefore, that there was not to be much holiday-time for this servant. The need of service was urgent, and it is urgent, and as the word came to Timothy so it comes to us. The Lord would lay it upon us, dear brethren, that the need is great, and I want to show from the Scriptures, in the Acts, just what it is that is to be preached. If we see that the preaching is to go on, it is obvious that we should understand what the preaching is.

The idea of preaching is not peculiar to our time, to our dispensation; indeed, we may say that the preacher is Christ, and whatever preaching according to God there may be, it is really His. And so His service in this respect has a backward bearing as well as a forward bearing, and in the backward bearing we have three outstanding preachers employed. Peter says, referring to this, "He [Christ] went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime

were disobedient ... in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing". The first preacher, therefore, is a vessel for Christ. Noah is the first one who is said to have preached, then we have Solomon, and then Jonah. These are vessels which were employed by Christ in Old Testament times, and they may be taken as representative, and if we take the characters of these men and blend them, we shall find what is becoming in those who preach.

Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and he was personally in accord with his preaching. He was a man approved of God, he found favour with God. He was not the seventh from Adam, like Enoch. Enoch is the end of an exercise -- the seventh. He represents the development of life beginning with Adam as restored. The restoration of Adam was the outcome really of the light that Seth had, for he called his son Enos, meaning that he was weak, mortal.

Through Seth and Enoch we have a development not of death, but of life, for Seth anticipated the longevity of the race as outlined in Genesis 5, but he knew that however long a man lived, he died, and so anticipating that he called his son's name Enos. Light had broken in, for the divine sentence was accepted, and men began to "call upon the name of the Lord", Genesis 4:25, 26. Thus we have Adam set up afresh in Seth, and Enoch is the seventh from him through Seth.

It is in the acceptance of death that life is realised, and so Enoch before his translation had the testimony that he pleased God. He was at the end of a dispensation, he was the seventh from Adam. He had the precious sense in his soul, conveyed to him by God, that he pleased Him: "And he was not; for God took him", Genesis 5:24.

Now Noah is not that; he is the beginning of another period, and he carries forward what marked Enoch, for he walked with God and found favour

with God. He was righteous in his generations and thus qualified to preach. Hence it says he was a preacher of righteousness; he was a vessel available to Christ in his day -- a vessel in which Christ had preached to the spirits that were in prison in Peter's time, sometime disobedient. The preaching expressed God's longsuffering, a suggestion that should weigh with us, that however little the result through this there was a testimony to the longsuffering of God. There were few that went into the ark and were saved through water. We learn from the first preacher, therefore, that we must not look for great results; we must take account of things as they are, and accept them, and not be deterred because of the smallness of the results.

Now the next great preacher is Solomon. I do not say there were not others, for there were; but these stand out prominently. What we find in Solomon is that he is a son. No one can rightly present Christ except as a son. Solomon was a preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. There was with him conscious relationship and conscious affection, for he was the son of his father, and tender and only beloved in the sight of his mother, and there was withal moral power in his preaching, for he was a king. We may be assured that if we preach in the consciousness of sonship, there will be moral power, and that is what is needed.

When we come to Jonah we have a man that has gone through death. Let no one undertake to preach otherwise. These three men set out indeed the features of a preacher. There must be practical righteousness, a walk with God; there must be consciousness of sonship and moral power; and there must be the experience of death and resurrection; not the doctrine -- the doctrine surely -- but the experience of the doctrine. Hence you believe as having gone through things; as the great preacher of the New

Testament says, "I believed, and therefore have I spoken", 2 Corinthians 4:13.

With Jonah we have a vow, but, like many of us, he was not true to it, for he fled to Tarshish when he should have gone to Nineveh. But he is brought to it and that brings in another consideration, that if you take up an attitude of soul before God -- and it is right to do so, for I doubt if anyone is effective in service who has not a secret understanding with the Lord -- the Lord gives you to understand what you are efficient in, what you are qualified for, and in the understanding of that you take up your work. There is often with us great indefiniteness. Many of us go about the work of the Lord in a most casual manner, far different from our ordinary employment; but the idea of a vow is that I have got a definite obligation resting on me. "For necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" Paul said, Does the Lord regard lightly any obligation that He gives to you? No; He holds you to it. If you think lightly of the obligation and the great privilege of ministry, He does not; it has cost Him much. And so the apostle says again, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels". It was a treasure that he had in his soul, and he valued it. So, having received this ministry -- what ministry? The one he had, not the one Peter had. It was the ministry indeed of the love of God in Christ, the new covenant, but to him it was "this ministry", and he adds, "We preach not ourselves"; he was not giving out, like Simon Magus, that he was some great one, he was giving out that Christ was a great One, and so he says, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake".

And so Jonah, as he comes up out of the fish's belly, says, "I will pay that that I have vowed". God brought him to it, and you may depend upon it that if we have accepted an obligation from the

Lord, the discipline will be sure to come. So I think these three preachers of the Old Testament furnish us in their blended characteristics with the divine idea of a preacher.

Now I turn to speak about what is preached, and first of all from Acts 2, to show that the preaching is light as to the wealth of heaven. The chapter sets before us what I may call administrative preaching. It is said that Peter stood up with the eleven, meaning that there were twelve -- one was about to speak, and the others were standing by.

I want for a moment to enlarge upon this feature of the preaching, because one is conscious in oneself, and in what one sees, that in the preaching there is often a great sense of poverty; whereas the twelve represented an administration of infinite wealth. It was not a mere sermon of doctrine that Peter preached. He stood up with the eleven; you will observe that it does not say with the eleven apostles. Lower down in the chapter we have the apostles' doctrine, not the doctrine of the twelve. When you have the term 'apostles', the idea of authority and rule is emphasised. Paul tells us that after the Lord appeared to Cephas, and to the twelve, that He appeared to all the apostles, a seeming repetition, but in no sense such. The first has reference to administration, the second has reference to authority, to rule. When I speak of administration it is not simply the administering of laws; what is referred to is the wealth of heaven. Think of that, dear brethren! Peter is dealing in his address with what was present and obvious to every one there; the Holy Spirit had come down, and He had come upon the disciples and had filled them. He came in as the sound of a rushing mighty wind, and that sound filled the house, and so we read those in Jerusalem said, "We hear them speaking ... the great things of God".

But Peter stands up with the eleven, and now it is

not exactly speaking, as every one can speak -- sisters can do that -- but every one cannot preach. It does not require gift to speak; but it requires gift to preach, and gift is available. If God has been pleased, beloved brethren, to give us the Holy Spirit -- the greatest possible gift -- do you not think He would give us sufficient gift or ability to speak of Him, and to speak of Christ rightly? The speaking by the disciples generally does not bring about conviction, but the preaching of Peter did. "The people said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" There is that power given of God by which the truth is enforced so as to carry conviction. It is wonderful that gift is available; as it is said, "Covet earnestly the best gifts".

When Peter stood up with the eleven, what you find in the administrative preaching is that the Scriptures are opened up with spiritual intelligence, so as to enforce what is immediately on hand. The Holy Spirit was present, poured out from heaven, representing the wealth of heaven; but in order to bring out the truth relative to the Spirit Peter cites Joel, and to establish the truth of the resurrection and ascension of Christ he cites David. We have, therefore, the prophets and the psalms linked together with spiritual intelligence so as to establish on the one hand that God would pour out the Spirit, and on the other that Christ should rise from the dead and sit at God's right hand in heaven. So we see how Peter -- the first preacher in our dispensation -- by the Spirit links up Scripture and sets out in the clearest possible manner Christ risen and exalted and the Holy Spirit on the earth. "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear ... therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have

crucified, both Lord and Christ", Acts 2:33, 36. I do not know anything more important than to make it known that the Holy Spirit, consequent on a risen and exalted Christ, is available for man.

Now I want to go on to Philip for a moment. He is the second preacher, and what we observe is that he is not primarily commissioned, and yet he preached in the most effective way, being one of those who were scattered, and what I may remark is that the Spirit of God always acts in accord with the governmental dealings of God. We are labouring at a great disadvantage unless we take into account that the government of God is favourable to the testimony, so that the very scattering here furthered the spread of the gospel. It is not now to set out the position, not to call attention to the Spirit exactly; it is to show that God has a Man who can do everything. What an immense thing it is to stand up with the knowledge of Christ in my soul and know that I am presenting a Man who can do everything. That is the idea of a commissioned preacher, for although nothing is said of this in his case, Philip was undoubtedly serving under the Lord's direction; later he was sent by the Spirit to the eunuch. Every naval and military man knows what a commission is. A commission represents authority. The preacher stands up as commissioned; he is consciously representative of Christ, and he knows that he is presenting One who can do everything.

Now in Acts 2 there are no miracles recorded; Peter makes no reference to them, nor does he perform any in that chapter; the point was to call attention to the greatness of the position. When we come to the preaching of Christ we have miracles wrought, and so as Philip preaches, he performs works of power. There was the evidence there of the Christ -- the Christ risen from the dead; He can cast out demons, He can relieve souls, He can meet any

condition of soul; hence it says, "there was great joy in that city". You may say that there are no miracles performed today. I am not so sure; there certainly are works of power at the present time. There is not one present here who loves Christ who is not the subject of the work of Christ. Philip had the evidence by him in the performing of the miracles of the power of Christ.

In the next evangelical work of Philip we have not the preaching of the Christ, but the preaching of Jesus -- a preaching that must touch every heart. You will observe I am going over the great features of the subject -- matter of the preaching and incidentally calling attention to the importance of being in accord with these features if we are to be preachers. And so he preached Jesus. If I preach Jesus, I preach a Man who has won my heart. "When we shall see him", unbelief says, "there is no beauty that we should desire him". Not so with Stephen; not so with Philip. How important it is that Jesus should be known personally, and a knowledge of Him in this light means that I am no respecter of persons; I recognise that He is Head of every man and I appropriate Him in relation to every man: "A light", said Simeon, "to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel". What a position; to stand up with Jesus, as it were, appropriated in my soul in relation to the whole race of men, for that is what the preaching of Philip involved.

Hence we have the coloured man here, the African, for if I have Jesus in my soul, I am not a respecter of persons. He does not respect persons; He is as much the Head of the African or the Asiatic as He is of the European -- He is Head of every man. It is a wonderful thing to appropriate Christ in relation to the whole race, and that is what the preaching of Jesus entails. And so Philip does not say anything to the eunuch about the apostles at Jerusalem. Possibly

we should have said how advantageous it would be to go there and get some help from the apostles. Not so; we are now occupied with Jesus -- with the Man. You say, What became of the eunuch? Jesus had His eye on him; the influence of Jesus flows out to Africa as it did to Palestine; knowing Jesus, I know he was taken care of; Jesus would stand by His convert; He would maintain him rejoicing. What He is ministering now is for the whole race of men, for "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all". We may say assuredly that the testimony that has reached us is universal in its bearing; it is for every man, we may be sure of that. But it is in appropriating Him in relation to the whole race, like Simeon, that I can preach Jesus. Philip went down into the water with the eunuch; he did not stand on the bank and look at him, going down into death in figure; he was with him -- a white man and a black man in the water together. How becoming in the light of Jesus!

In conclusion, just one word more, and that is the preaching of the Son of God. Paul is the third great preacher in the Acts. Peter, we may say, preached the Lord; that is, he emphasised administration -- the wealth of heaven; Philip preached the Christ, and Jesus; and Paul preached the Son of God. The Son of God brings in another world. It is not now simply a question of meeting need in souls, but of apprehending One who can establish another world, a world for God; for the Son of God is on God's side, as the Son of man is on man's side. The Son of God is on God's side, and He establishes an order of things for God. Is not that an important feature, beloved brethren, of the preaching? How shall we take our converts out of the world save as we point out another world for them? The Son of God introduces another sphere of things -- a world for

God; and so Paul says elsewhere, "When it pleased God ... to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me", Galatians 1:16, 17. So the Son of God is connected with heaven, bringing in an order of things for God, so that he says again: "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us ... was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us", 2 Corinthians 1:19, 20. It is all for the glory of God, you see. The preaching of the Son of God brings in an order of things for the glory of God, and that takes you entirely out of the world.

Now, having said that much, I go back again to the appeal. I believe the Lord is expecting much at the present time. To whom much is given, of the same much is required, and much has been given. We have much, and the principle of Scripture is, "Such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk", Acts 3:6. That is the principle; that is to say, we share with men by testimony what we have got. It is for men, not simply for us; what we have is to be shared with men. The principle of Christianity is giving. "If thou knewest", says the Lord, "the gift of God". If we have something, the principle is to share it with others, and that is by testimony, by preaching and by speaking of it. I feel it laid upon me to make this appeal, dear brethren, for the thing is urgent. We should face things and seek to share with our fellow-men that which God has so bountifully administered to us through Christ.

Pages 187 - 307 -- "Readings on Ezekiel", New York, 1925 - 1926. (Volume 79).

READINGS ON EZEKIEL (1)

Ezekiel 1:1 - 12, 26 - 28; Ezekiel 3:16 - 21

F.L. I would suggest, as the line is quite unusual, that it would help us all, if you give a little outline of this book, so that we may follow along in the unfolding of it a little more intelligently.

J.T. Well, there are many thoughts which, I hope, by the Lord's help, may come before us. One is that the writer is identified with the people of God in their different circumstances. He says, "I was among the captives", and in the body of the book he dates from the captivity (see chapter 40). In that way, he accepts the governmental dealings of God. Another thought is that "the heavens were opened", and another, that he is addressed as "son of man", the term, indeed, appearing more frequently in the book of Ezekiel than in all the rest of Scripture: reminding us that the race of man is in view, rather than a favoured part of it. A further thought is, that it is based on signs, most of which appear in the prophet himself, and, generally speaking, involving much suffering. Another thought is, that in chapter 1 we have for the support of all these things, an array of power here, having a universal bearing, the number four governing it, and all under, or subservient to "a man above upon it", i.e., the throne. These thoughts, I believe, are seen running through the book, and they culminate in the whole house of Israel being seen in life, and the house of God set up in relation to God's own purpose, as it says, in "the land of Israel" (chapter 40: 2); and then blessing flowing out from the house, in the river; the river flowing out from under the threshold and south of

the altar. The book ends with the title of the city being given: Jehovah-Shammah, meaning that Jehovah is there. These subjects are fully developed, and have an important bearing on the present time, as corresponding with the ministry of John. The captivity is accepted, and the light given is identified with the captivity; so that victory is in view from the outset; for as John sees the heavenly city coming down, so Ezekiel sees the city and the house of God there.

F.L. Would you say that Ezekiel, in that way, is suggestive of John? "I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus", Revelation 1:9. Does the presentation of John correspond with Ezekiel?

J.T. I thought so. It gives the geographical position of the captivity as by the river Chebar, far away from the earlier centre, as John gives the island of Patmos.

F.L. From what you have been saying, there is a considerable analogy between Ezekiel and the book of Revelation.

J.T. There is. John's ministry is based on signs, excepting the epistles; his gospel and the Revelation certainly are based on signs. In Revelation 1:1 we read, "He signified it, sending by his angel, to his bondman John", meaning that it was by signs, and Ezekiel is the same in character.

W.M. It is remarkable that both of these books begin with the servant in captivity, and end with living water.

J.T. That is very suggestive. In Ezekiel, a river issued out of the house, and came down south of the altar; in Revelation, it is out of the throne.

F.L. In Ezekiel the climax is in the glory of the Lord; would not that convey the blessing of the

millennial day; whilst, in the Revelation, we get a higher touch in the introduction of the eternal state "the tabernacle of God is with men" (chapter 21: 3); would not that suggest blessing on a higher plane?

J.T. I have no doubt that is right. Ezekiel touches John in a most remarkable way, as illustrated by the number of steps in the approach to the house. First, there is a series of seven steps, and then a series of eight steps; as if Ezekiel wants to set up the earthly system according to complete exercise, seven being the number that denotes such exercise, according to the light governing the position. Eight, I think, goes beyond, leading as it says, "into the inner court", which would mean immediate proximity to the house, where God Himself dwells; chapter 40: 20, 22, 28, 31. Now John, I think, in the Revelation, has the same thought, viz., the eternal state of things, which corresponds with the eight steps.

F.L. So that Ezekiel indicates there is another step, in the second series, without unfolding the nature of it, whilst in the Revelation we get light as to what that eighth step is.

J.T. Yes, it is beyond the millennial blessing. The tabernacle of God with men, is certainly beyond the millennial day. John saw a new heaven and a new earth; Revelation 21:1.

D.M.R. Is there anything significant in the fact that the throne is no longer connected with Jerusalem?

J.T. It is the point that is made. Israel had forfeited their privilege; not only was the throne lost but the Shekinah, or divine presence, was about to be lost. Although with the greatest reluctance, yet the glory eventually departed.

J.S. So in John's gospel, it says, "He came to his own, and his own received him not", chapter 1: 11.

J.T. There was in the person of Jesus here, the embodiment of every divine thought. The gospel of John shows that He came unto His own and His

own received Him not. They lost, therefore, all their advantages, as the body of that gospel shows, but in the Person of Jesus is worked out, according to that gospel, every divine thought. I think that in the array of power in these symbols in chapter 1, we have a means whereby every divine thought is secured, and all is under the control of a Man in heaven; so that there is, at the present time, preservation, maintenance and power for the security of every divine thought.

A.F.M. Would Ezekiel's name indicate that he was in correspondence with that power?

J.T. That is it, it means "strength of God".

W.B-w. Is there no thought of setting up things officially again in connection with Jerusalem here?

J.T. The term "son of man" would be a reminder to faith that something wider was in view.

D.M.R. Do you think that we get a suggestion of the glory departing in Acts 7? Stephen "saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (verse 55). The Jews filled up the measure of their sin, in stoning Stephen which gave the Lord a free hand to select another vessel.

J.T. Stephen saw the glory of God. That is contemplated in Ezekiel: it departed first from over the threshold of the house, and then it stood upon a mountain beyond Jerusalem, so that it finally left, and Stephen sees it in heaven. He sees the Son of man and the glory; and then after that, you have worked out the thought seen here, that all the power of God on earth was subservient to a Man in heaven; so that He speaks in power out of heaven to Saul, as Jesus. Then the term 'Lord' is emphasised in Acts 9, to remind us that He has authority to repress and restrain all that would lift up its head against the testimony of God. These elements ought to have been in Jerusalem; they were no longer there, but in heaven, in His hands, so that the opposing elements

are dealt with, and then Ananias is brought into service, and although refractory, the Lord uses him, and brings him into accord with heavenly light. I think Ananias may be taken to represent these symbols here, of power and spiritual movement by which God is carrying on His government.

F.L. Do you think the Lord before the high priest would have a reference to this in Ezekiel? They say, "Tell us if thou art the Christ the Son of God". He says, "Thou hast said. Moreover, I say to you, From henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven", Matthew 26:63, 64. It was this largely that produced the accusation of blasphemy, when the Lord turns the question from "Son of God" to "Son of man".

J.T. And so in answer to Nathaniel, the Lord says to him, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee"; and Nathaniel answers, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel", which was quite in keeping with an Israelite's expectation, that is, any pious Israelite would, as reading the Psalms, know that the Son of God was the King of Israel; but the Lord says, "Thou shalt see greater things than these ... . Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man", John 1:48 - 51. That was for "one truly an Israelite"; an instruction to him that there were greater things to come, in relation to the Son of man, that is, the whole race of man is to be brought into view.

J.S. Is that answered in Stephen?

J.T. He evidently, by the Spirit, was guided to refer to the Son of man; as an Israelite, he would have the Messiah in his mind, but referring to the Son of man, he was in keeping with the character of the moment.

W.M. I suppose that Nathaniel would hardly know Him as the Son of God as we do, but in connection with Psalm 2.

J.T. It would be in a more limited way.

W.M. The Son of man would be more in relation to the race of men.

J.T. So that John develops the truth of the Son of man in a constructive way. It is more definite in John than in the other evangelists. He gives you first the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on Him; then he gives you the Son of man lifted up: "As Moses lifted up the serpent" refers to Genesis 3 as well as to Numbers 21; it was a question of the source whence sin came, so that the Son of man deals with the thing at its source; and the result is, the whole race is to come into the good of His being lifted up.

W.M. Satan came in as a serpent and is cast into the abyss as the ancient serpent.

J.T. In John 3:14, it says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that everyone who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal". The onus of the thing was on the Son of man, and He dealt with it at its source. In verse 16 we get the source whence love springs: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal". Here it is not the Son of man but the Son of God. God has found a means, in His Son, of opening up His heart; but verses 14 and 15 deal with the onus that lay on Christ as becoming Man to do the will of God; so that the present result is, eternal life for anyone that believes on Him. There is a very beautiful combination in verses 14 and 16: the former is from our side, the uplifted Son of man; the latter from God's side. He gave His only-begotten Son.

R.S.S. You refer to the seed of the woman in Genesis 3?

J.T. To the serpent. Chapter 3 begins with the serpent; he "was more crafty than any animal of the field" (verse 1), that is, he takes the initiative, it is a question of the source of the evil; man was not the source of it. Satan was.

W.M. That is, Satan is the source of evil, God the source of good. Man was not the first to sin.

J.T. Then the Seed of the woman is the Son of man, and therefore, God says to the serpent. "On thy belly shalt thou go, and eat dust all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt crush his heel" (verses 14, 15). The Son of man deals a death blow to the serpent, in His being lifted up.

W.M. Why do you think that God says, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman", as well as between both seeds?

J.T. The woman represents humanity subjectively. It contemplates the work of God; John's epistle, I think, shows how the two lines work out. In Revelation 12 we see that the dragon persecuted the woman that bore the man-child.

A.R. Is that the reason why Satan is dealt with typically, later on in this book?

J.T. Quite. He is in view in Ezekiel in the King of Tyre, and John in the Revelation identifies him as the ancient serpent, the devil. There is no doubt as to who he is, the Spirit of God pursues him from the very outset right to the end.

W.M. In the latter scripture you referred to, he is called a great red dragon; as the dragon, he gives impetus to the head of the Roman Empire, and then he is called the devil and Satan.

A.F.M. It is in that book you have his final consignment to the lake of fire.

J.T. Referring again to John 3, the Lord says, "And no one has gone up into heaven save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven" (verse 13); so that He is in the position as Son of man to know everything, as He says in verse 11, "We speak that which we know, and we bear witness of that which we have seen".

A.F.M. What you were remarking about the Son of man being lifted up in John 3 is most important. We have generally connected it with the condemnation of man's sinful state, but it is most helpful to see that it goes further back than that.

J.T. I think that is the thing: to see things here dealt with at their source, and thus effectively.

B.T.F. Do you distinguish between the work of the Son of man and the work of Son of God?

J.T. The Son of man is on the side of the human race, whereas the Son of God is on God's side. The best illustration of the former is in Simeon. He receives the Child Jesus in his arms. He is on the side of man. Simeon has Him in his arms; and as having Him there he says, "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles". You see the Gentiles come in before the Jews in that passage, meaning that Simeon spoke by the Spirit, and as he held the Child in his arms, he was enriched; and the whole race is enriched by it. It is the appropriation of the Child, in the presence of God, in that He would be a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, meaning the unveiling of the Gentiles, and then, "the glory of thy people Israel", Luke 2:27 - 32.

A.F.M. That is clearly the order. What would you say about the title "Son of God"?

J.T. John presents the Son of God as in the bosom of the Father -- not in Simeon's arms. He is from God's side to bring God before men. God approaches us, in that way, in His Son.

B.T.F. Would you say that Ezekiel sets forth the

life-giving power of the Son of God, as John's gospel does?

J.T. I think so. Resurrection is the great testimony to the Son of God. He is "marked out Son of God in power, ... by resurrection" (Romans 1:4); and that is developed in this book.

A.F.M. Would the Son of man be first in the way of our appropriation and then the Son of God?

J.T. From our side, the Son of man is first, but then you come into the light of the Son of God, which involves an entirely new order of things.

W.M. That was the revelation of the glory of Christ which came unto Paul.

J.T. The Lord says, in answer to his inquiry, "I am Jesus", but when he preached, it says, "he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God", Acts 9:5, 20.

D.M.R. What have you to say about the four living creatures?

J.T. I think what dominates the symbols is the thought of man, that is the general appearance of them; and then their feet are straight, like the sole of a calf's foot, meaning, I suppose, firmness. In the further description, "the likeness of their faces was the face of a man", and further, the four had the face of a lion on the right-side, and the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle, but we are not told where that face was. These symbols mean respectively: intelligence, strength, firmness and rapidity with which the government of God is carried on at the present time.

R.S.S. Corresponding, to a considerable extent, with Revelation 4.

J.T. Quite so.

R.S.S. Which is another link between the writings of Ezekiel and John.

J.E.H. Is it the thought that these features of the living creatures were found in perfection in Christ?

J.T. Yes, and they are also found in every divine agent at the present time. You would look for these features: intelligence, strength, firmness, patience and rapidity in the work and service of God. That is often the difficulty with us: many of us are apt to hold back; but if there is intelligence, and strength, and patience in regard to what you propose doing, do it -- without delay.

A.P. Are those four features seen in the four gospels?

J.T. I should not like to fit them in, in that pronounced way, although, no doubt, they forcibly appear in the Lord's ministry on earth.

A.F.M. Would you connect all this with the opened heavens? The book begins with the statement that the heavens were opened. You might say a word about that.

J.T. That feature dominates the whole book: we are governed from heaven; it is heaven asserting itself, and when heaven is acting directly, no earthly centre is recognised. That is what is meant by the light, and the voice, from heaven in Acts 9; and the sheet from heaven in Acts 10; all is to call attention to where the seat of God's government is now, and to its activities.

N.L. Would not Acts 8, 9 and 10 confirm that as to the race, the government of God, and the like? I mean the activities that are seen there.

J.T. I am sure it would. What you see in chapter 8, is that Philip went down to Samaria and preached the Christ. There is action. We are not told that he was sent to do it, but, on the face of it, he did the thing in the light of these symbols: he was intelligent, strong, and careful, and energetic too, for the thing was done, and Philip did it.

And then the first part of the race that comes into evidence in this new movement, is the African, that is, the Ethiopian; the second part is the Asiatic, that

is, Saul; and the third is the European, that is the Roman centurion, so that practically the whole race of man is representatively brought in in this new movement, after Stephen sees the Son of man in heaven.

Ques. You have just given a striking illustration in Philip of the four living creatures. Would the four have any bearing upon the gathering of the elect from the four winds of heaven?

J.T. You see unity in the wings being joined together. Of course, it is well to see that these are symbols, and in order to understand them we must have the thing they symbolise. If we are not in possession of that, then they will not be understood, but if we are in the apprehension of Christ in heaven and the Spirit of God upon earth, we then have the thing symbolised, and having the thing we can see the application of the details.

A.R.S. The fact that the glory departed, would show that the earthly centre was discontinued and now everything is being directed from heaven; there is no earthly centre today. Is that correct?

J.T. Exactly.

F.L. Would you say that whilst the thought of the Son of God brings in sonship, the Son of man is more universal, including every dealing of God with man, governmentally and in adjustment, and as bringing to pass in man a sphere of pleasure according to God?

J.T. One can refer to one's experience in moving about, and observing the different races into which the human family has been subdivided, and one is impressed with the force of the term, "Son of man". You see the most degraded subdivision of the race, and yet this term applies to it. Take any of the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, or of Australia and New Zealand, the question arises. How did they get there? It seems physically impossible in some

instances; but I think that the reference in Genesis 11 explains it: "Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth" (verse 8). It seems to me that that explains the universal position of the race, and this beautiful term applies wherever you see a man, and however degraded he may be.

R.S.S. This beautiful term, "Son of man".

A.F.M. So that in the government of God, He scatters, but in the Son of man, in grace, He gathers.

J.T. And He brings His Son into manhood so as to inspire hope and confidence in every human heart.

G.W.H. And in the gospel, He presents blessing to them. It was God making available to men the blessing of the gospel for them.

F.L. It is doubtless the point of Luke: The genealogy of the Lord there reaching back to God "of Adam, of God", Luke 3:38. The grace of God, in Luke, carries man right back to God; so that, as you say, however degraded the creature, he has to be regarded as possessing a divinely given spirit, and God never relinquishes His title.

J.T. It is very beautiful; God has given man a spirit. Take the aboriginal of Australasia, if God has given that man a spirit, and He has, according to Scripture, will He not take account of him in every other detail?

D.M.R. Would you say of man universally that that is what is implied in Psalm 8?

J.T. The question is raised as to who the Son of man is, and the coming of the Son of God into manhood explains it.

A.N.W. Referring to the firmament, the appearance of the man is above it. It is separated from the appearance of the wings and wheels. Why is that? They are found connected with the four faces but separated in the firmament.

J.T. Do you not think that is quite in keeping with the truth? The Lord is to be regarded in His

own personal distinction; He says, "The Son of man who is in heaven" (John 3:13), and yet He was on the earth. And then again, "If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before", John 6:62. There seems to be room made for His personal distinctness, and the appearance of fire and brightness are said to be from His loins upward, and from His loins downward; that is to say, as I understand, He is great enough to reach up to God, and yet condescending enough to reach down to man, indeed, to the uttermost extremities of the race of man.

A.N.W. And what is below the firmament is visible to man, but the Son of man is not visible.

J.T. So that all is actuated now from heaven, and is under the control of the Lord in heaven.

W.M. Do you think there might be an allusion in the hands being under the wings to "the Lord's hand was with them", Acts 11:21?

J.T. Yes, indeed.

A.F.M. The wings are the last things mentioned in connection with these living creatures. Do they suggest swift movement?

J.T. I think so, and a means by which we express our humility. I think the more power you have, the more you will express it in humility, "they let down their wings".

F.L. "Bind on humility", 1 Peter 5:5.

J.T. The more conscious, I think, one is of power, the more one hides oneself.

W.M. What do you say is meant by "they turned not when they went"?

J.T. It is the way we should move onward; you have no second thoughts, but are thinking entirely of the will of God.

W.B-w. "The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels". What does that refer to?

J.T. All is actuated by the same spirit. The term

"living creature", is to suggest life in sympathy with God, and the wheels, the means of carrying out the will of God. The living creatures are identified with the wheels, and do not turn back. When in the service, carrying out the will of God in its varied forms, we must not be discouraged and turn back. Of the Father of lights it is said, "with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning", James 1:17. Take Mark, and others, they turned back, but these do not, they go straight forward. The service of God is carried on now, in a universal way, under the direction of Christ in heaven. The thing for us is to go straight on, and to be marked by no "shadow of turning".

READINGS ON EZEKIEL (2)

Ezekiel 4:1 - 8; Ezekiel 5:1 - 4; Ezekiel 8:1 - 4

A.F.M. I think you said at the last reading that this book was a book of signs; chapter 4 would confirm that; the prophet himself being the sign.

J.T. Yes, in a very striking way, for his position foreshadows the death of the Lord Jesus. It says, "Thou, lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: the number of the days that thou liest upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity".

B.T.F. I was going to ask about the commencement of the chapter regarding Jerusalem. Would it be in the same light, as when the Lord was weeping over Jerusalem when on the mount of Olives?

J.T. Well, here the city is besieged. The Lord wept over it, as you say, and following that bore its iniquity.

A.R.S. Is there an analogy between this and John in Revelation, where he ate the little book? The prophet bore the iniquity of the people, and entered into it at the same time.

J.T. You have that in chapters 2 and 3. "And I looked, and behold, a hand was put forth toward me; and behold, a roll of a book therein. And he spread it out before me; and it was written within and without; and there was written in it lamentations, and mourning, and woe. And he said unto me, Son of man eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll which I give thee. And I ate, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness". The roll contained the mind of God as to what was about to happen, and therefore Ezekiel, as eating

and assimilating it, would himself be the thing subjectively. Not only would he speak the mind of God, but would be the expression of it, as having assimilated the thing. As the Lord in His testimony, when asked who He was, said: "Altogether that which I also say to you", John 8:25. One might say the ends of chapters 2 and 3 are intended to qualify the prophet for his testimony, and for the signs he was about to render.

A.P. Why is he always addressed as "Son of man"?

J.T. Because God was intimating that he was going beyond the limits of Israel in His operations. That title is found more in this book than in the whole of Scripture; and Ezekiel eating the roll containing God's mind would represent the Lord in the sense that he was altogether what he said he was; like "the Word" in John's gospel, meaning that He was the very expression of the mind of God. Not simply that He spoke it, but He was it, being personally "the Word". It is a very strong expression.

A.F.M. Would the meaning of Ezekiel's name, "strength of God" be applicable here, in view of his service? He had to speak against great opposition, according to chapter 2: 7: "And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear; for they are rebellious".

J.T. I think so. It typifies the Lord as seen in John particularly. He was "the Word", meaning that He was the expression of the mind of God, and He was also the power of God. He stands out in John's gospel peculiarly as superior to all evil, and connected with that He was the expression of the mind of God; but then chapter 4 shows that Ezekiel further represented the Lord, as bearing the iniquity of the children of Israel for 390 days, lying on his left side.

A.F.M. What does this number of days mean?

J.T. It denoted the history of the nation in its responsibility. Each day was for a year, so that Ezekiel, typically, underwent the judgment of God from day to day, as corresponding with the guilt. In the Lord's case, it was all compressed, of course, into the short period of three hours, but nevertheless, these 390 days were all contained in those three hours. He died for the nation; John 11:50 - 52.

D.M.R. Would the 390 days represent the time from the dividing of the kingdom in the time of Rehoboam until the destruction of the temple?

J.T. Just so. Then the forty days that followed were for Judah.

A.A.T. Were the ten tribes in captivity at this time?

J.T. Yes, they were.

A.F.M. Well, if the 390 days refer to the responsibility of Israel, what about the forty days for Judah?

J.T. They would have reference to Judah as taken account of separately. The house of Judah had a separate guilt; Judah was, as the later record showed, especially responsible for the betrayal and murder of the Lord.

A.F.M. Would Manasseh's reign be typical of the house of Judah; he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood?

J.T. Yes.

D.M.R. Would the scriptures we have read typify what the Lord said about Himself to the disciples, "The Son of man must suffer many things" (Luke 9:22); the mind of God would be expressed, but it involved suffering.

J.T. Quite. He did not intend that the light He brought into the world should become public property, nor that His followers should be a part of the world system. Things were to be kept private: Israel had a position in the ways of God, but if they rejected

Him, then the disciples were not to tell the things that He disclosed. There were "greater things", as He says to Nathaniel (John 1:50), and these stood related to the Son of man. He had these things in mind, and they are now involved in the world-wide proclamation of the glad tidings. Stephen saw, and witnessed to, the Son of man, meaning that he saw the Lord's operations were widening; but the position of Ezekiel in this fourth chapter is, I think, the most important sign of the signs in the book, because it foreshadows the death of the Lord Jesus; as He said to them, when they asked for a sign, "a sign shall not be given to it save the sign of Jonas the prophet", Matthew 12:39. The Son of man was to be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. This reference to being a certain length of time in a certain position, is what you get here; in which position, and time, he was to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, and of Judah, and not only bear it as laid upon him, but he became the thing which he ate; typifying the Lord, who was made sin for us.

A.F.M. Would the thought you refer to be found in verse 8 of chapter 4? "And behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege". Would that answer to the whale's belly?

J.T. Well, I think it refers to the bands of death. We read in Acts 2 that the pains of death were loosed; a very remarkable expression. He was held there; it was impossible that He could be holden of death, but nevertheless, the bands were there. The Lord was in death, really. He was in the grip of death, He entered fully into it, but He came out of it. Here we have a striking type of the thing: a man lying on one side for 390 days, day after day, and bound down, and in that position bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel; and forty days on the other side for Judah, and eating this extraordinary food.

W.L.P. Did not the Lord Himself give up His own life, it was not taken from Him?

J.T. In John He did, but Peter says, on the other hand: "the originator of life ye slew" (Acts 3:15); the men of Israel were responsible. Ezekiel is a type of the Lord as in the grip of death. He was really in it, and in it every day, so to speak.

A.N.W. But are you carrying the bearing of iniquity into the grave?

J.T. Only in the way of time. Here you have a period of time and position.

A.N.W. The thought of bearing iniquity there that is my difficulty. Peter says in his first epistle, "who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree", chapter 2: 24.

J.T. I was speaking of His being in death: the time and position of the Son of man was, three days and nights in the heart of the earth. The actual judgment that He bore was in the three hours, I apprehend, when He was forsaken of God, but, nevertheless, the burial of the Lord was a part of all that; it was in the mind of God that, as dying sacrificially. He should be buried, because man had to be buried, "dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return", Genesis 3:19. That had to be gone through.

A.F.M. Was there not an element of suffering through which the Lord passed in His Spirit even while in the disembodied state, would you not say? Because "He also descended into the lower parts of the earth", Ephesians 4:9. That was not for nothing.

J.T. He went down. The descending there refers to His burial, I think; I do not think we can speak of suffering save of what He endured as in His body. He was in the heart of the earth; this is how Scripture speaks of it.

B.T.F. Would you say that while the thing primarily refers to Israel and Judah, yet it applies

to the Lord as dealing with the whole question of sin?

J.T. Yes. It was dealt with at once. The food here would mean that what man is in his unfaithfulness to God was taken up by the Lord and dealt with.

B.T.F. The Lord bore all the degradation of sin on the cross.

W.B-w. Would the early chapters refer to what the Lord was personally while down here; and chapter 4 to His work?

J.T. Exactly. Ezekiel represents Him, I think, in chapters 2 and 3, according to what He was here on earth. He was altogether that which He said.

W.B-w. Would the prophet shutting himself within his house refer to the Lord personally upon earth?

J.T. You see, there is complete identification with the people. He says in verse 22 of chapter 3, "And the hand of Jehovah was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the valley, and there I will talk with thee". It is the valley, as you see. Later, I think the whole house of Israel is there, and will be raised up there; but the Lord had first to enter into that personally. He entered into their position as before God.

A.F.M. You refer to the valley of dry bones?

W.B-w. In verse 25 it says, "They shall put bands upon thee", showing that he was figuratively to go into death. It refers to Christ's death.

J.T. The bands there refer, I think, to the rejection of the Lord by the nation; in chapter 4: 8, to the actual position of the Lord in death. We read in Job 37 of the waters being straitened; meaning that death was peculiar in the Lord's case; it was not only death, but there were bands, by which He was held, it was so real.

W.L.P. Is that the same as "taste death for every thing", Hebrews 2:9?

J.T. Yes.

J.M'D. Showing the infinite merit of His work.

J.T. Quite so.

Ques. What was meant by the prophet laying siege?

J.T. It meant that Jerusalem was the occasion of all this judgment; the siege was what was due to Jerusalem, and what indeed came upon it, but you see, Ezekiel himself bears the thing. That is the marvellous testimony that comes out here. The Lord, whilst making plain that the judgment of God was falling upon Jerusalem, said to the women, "do not weep over me, but weep over yourselves" (Luke 23:28); the judgment of God was coming on them; but at the same time. He was entering into it sacrificially, and that is presented in chapter 4.

Rem. In order that Israel might be eventually saved.

J.T. It was the only way; He became a Victim in their stead; but notwithstanding, the siege went on.

Rem. I was thinking of verse 8, "till thou hast ended the days of thy siege".

J.T. It refers to the judgment of God, whether in its corrective or punitive form. Jerusalem has undergone it; and will undergo it again; but only to the end that they should be saved, and that could only be on the ground of the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. He died for the nation.

Ques. Does that go on to the present time as applying to the Lord?

J.T. The whole question of sin was settled then, but what is before us here is the kingdom of Israel and that of Judah. What you find in chapter 5, is that in the light of the death of Christ the hair is shaved off. "Son of man, take thee a sharp knife; a barber's razor shalt thou take; and cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard: and thou shalt take balances to weigh, and divide the hair". This

means that if we are to be in the good of the death of Christ, we cannot retain our natural distinctiveness: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6); it must not continue now. There is to be the shaving off of the hair of the head and the beard. These refer to appearance and dignity, you know.

B.T.F. Would that be the same thought as walking in newness of life?

J.T. Yes. Newness in the way in which the gospel has been received, and connected with man as he is; it indicates that this has added to him; but he must no longer retain his hair and beard.

A.F.M. Is this shaving connected with chapter 4; or does it follow it? It looks to be subsequent to it.

J.T. Oh, I think it is the teaching that follows the death of Christ; we are all born anew. One's natural distinctiveness has to go. We cannot retain it, nor any position in this world, and be in accord with the teaching of the death of Christ.

W.L.P. Is that what is seen in connection with the Nazarite?

J.T. Quite. You get it there in an opposite way: Here it is a question of your appearance. With the Nazarite, the hair had to grow long, and was not to be cut, for that would be a reproach to him; but here the hair is to be cut off, which means I have got to give up my natural features and distinctiveness, and take character from Christ.

J.M'D. The features of the new man.

J.T. What we find in chapter 5, is the shaving off, and the discipline of God following on that; but then we get another growth of hair in chapter 8; the prophet is taken by a lock of his head.

D.M.R. Would chapter 5 imply what was said as to the leper communicating with the priest?

J.T. Yes, because the sin would have occurred in that connection; it really does occur in connection

with what we are naturally, therefore the hair has to go.

W.B-w. It is not a question of the glory of the hair?

J.T. It is the removal of the hair and beard; and it has to be done effectively therefore with a barber's razor.

A.F.M. That is an interesting connection between chapters 5 and 8; the hair has grown.

J.T. I thought we might see in that the figure of resurrection. He is lifted up by a lock of his head between the earth and the heavens. That is another position; no longer lying on his side. He is lifted up by a lock of his head, meaning that there is innate power. If we apply it to Christ, He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; but He could raise Himself up, because in Him was life: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up", John 2:19. He spoke of the temple of His body; so that the hair in chapter 8 is evidently a symbol of the power of resurrection in Him; whereas the hair in chapter 5, is that I am reminded of what I am naturally; and there is nothing of value in that!

B.T.F. Would you say that this is the 'water' aspect of the death of Christ? that is to say, we have the blood, but there is also the water.

J.T. The water applies to what I am, but the blood to what I have done; so that the removal of the hair would remind one what the action of the word leads me to renounce, even all that I am naturally; there is to be a new beginning; the bearing of iniquity is finished in the 390 days; but I want to be in correspondence with Christ now as risen; because He has relinquished His relations with Israel as after the flesh.

J.M'D. There is no power except in resurrection.

J.T. You see that the power that lifts us up between the heavens and the earth is connected with a different growth.

A.F.M. No power can be connected with the hair of chapter 5, hence it must be shaved off but now a new lock comes to light in chapter 8, suggestive of resurrection power in Christ, and applied to a new order of man.

J.T. You see, in chapter 8 he is sitting before the elders. We have a date in that chapter. We have two dates also in chapter 1. Dates really, I think, indicate the divisions of this book; and I have no doubt that they likewise indicate the beginning of certain spiritual histories; evidently resurrection is the date we begin from.

J.T.Jr. Would that apply to what the apostle refers to in Philippians 3:7, 8?

J.T. Yes, it is an excellent illustration.

J.S. That is, all that marked Paul personally is surrendered.

Ques. In Joshua 5 the Lord told Joshua to make sharp knives, in view of circumcision. Does that have any application here?

J.T. Yes, only there the power of the flesh is dealt with; but Paul, who as usual, is the model for us, relinquishes all that attached to him, and was of gain to him; indeed, whatever he could pride himself in; and then he says, "If by any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead". The lock of hair in chapter 8 involves resurrection; it is the power by which I am lifted up from the earth.

D.M.R. Does one's personal identity remain in resurrection?

J.T. I think it does; the third part of the hair in chapter 5 is bound in the skirts. It says in verse 3, "Thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts; and thou shalt take of these again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it shall a fire come forth against all the house of Israel". "From it", means the last "third part". That is, I apprehend, judgment

will come forth from the disciplined remnant, for the whole house of Israel. The identity that remains and all that distinguishes them is not lost, they are bound in the skirts, meaning that they are taken care of. I am taken care of by this process. God's hand is on me, the discipline goes on, the fire goes on, and yet my identity remains.

B.T.F. Would you say that this sets forth what Israel will yet pass through; but also sets forth what the soul passes through at the present day?

J.T. So that these dry bones are "the whole house of Israel". They come into life, the identity of the nation remains.

D.M.R. What do you say about the glory which is again mentioned in this eighth chapter?

J.T. We have a date, first of all, which it is important to notice, because I think it refers to the Captivity. It is as you accept the Captivity that you come into the good of the ministry. We must accept the Captivity. Christians around us in the systems do not. They take no notice of it, and so do not date from it; whereas the man who is humbled, and is with God recognises the Captivity. In chapter 1 it says, "It was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity". In this chapter it is the sixth. In the recognition of the government of God in the Captivity, we come into the good of resurrection; "And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, that as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell there upon me". Now you see, Ezekiel is in the recognition of the Captivity, he is in his house, and the elders of Judah are before him. In other words, they are the responsible persons at the present time. They are taken into account, and this is where the great testimony of the resurrection comes in; "the hand of the Lord Jehovah was upon me".

A.F.M. If we date from the Captivity, all we say and do will be characterised by 2 Timothy and John's gospel.

J.T. Quite so. There is the idea of dates throughout this book. They afford a sort of key to the understanding of it. If we accept the Captivity as before God, we come into the light and good of the truth. Ezekiel gives a date here. He was sitting in his house, and the elders of Judah were before him, and it was a great opportunity for them.

J.S. Why "the elders of Judah"?

J.T. Israel was gone. These elders represented Judah; which was to be judged.

A.F.M. So the judgment fell on them in the next chapter.

J.T. Just so.

A.R. In chapter 1. Ezekiel speaks of sitting amongst the captives. Is there any distinction in that?

J.T. Quite. He accepts the captivity, and identifies himself with the captives. These elders of Judah represent responsible Judah; and it was for them to see that they got this light. God takes account of the position, and the prophet says, "he stretched forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens". In other words, what is now before us is the great testimony of the resurrection; and it is resurrection that brings us out of pollution.

Ques. The next book, that of Daniel, begins with a date. Daniel speaks largely of dates; is it a parallel idea?

J.T. Quite. It is most important to take account of the dates of Scripture.

A.F.M. One is thankful for the explanation as to dates; they have great moral value and give the divisions of the book.

A.R. In the light of this new date would it involve a call to separate from all that which is corrupt?

J.T. The testimony was to be taken account of: "He said unto me. Son of man, seest thou what they do? the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, to cause me to go far off from my sanctuary? and yet again thou shalt see great abominations". Now, this testimony is to deliver me from these abominations; they exist, but: "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity", 2 Timothy 2:19. The prophet is led to see the iniquity; God also exposes for us the iniquity that is going on in professing Christianity around.

J.M'D. But there is no corporate testimony now.

J.T. What we are dealing with here is the abominations which Israel committed. If we follow the scripture, we shall get help. The prophet is brought to Jerusalem in the power of resurrection; it is in that power we have to do with these things. It says, "He stretched forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entry of the inner gate that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy". You see, I am brought to see these things in the power of resurrection, otherwise I shall be engulfed in them.

A.F.M. In 2 Timothy 2:8, the apostle says, "Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead". In verses 17 and 18 of that chapter we have those who said the resurrection was already past. We must be on our guard.

J.T. Yes, in chapter 1 of 2 Timothy it says, "Our Saviour Jesus Christ ... has annulled death". That is the power in which we face these things. In the next chapter there were those who said the resurrection had taken place, that is, they would do

away with the glory of it, that it might lose its power, whereas that is what I am to be in the power of.

A.M'N. Does the being lifted up by a lock of hair connect with that?

J.T. You have the light of God, and are in power in dealing with these things.

W.B-w. In the power of resurrection, we can face these things now.

J.T. Yes, and effectively. Then, in the next chapter, you see the power that comes in to effectively deal with the thing.

Rem. As stated in 2 Timothy 1:7, "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice; but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion".

J.T. Yes. That is the power in which you deal with these matters.

D.M.R. And is it not important to see that we cannot deal with these things successfully except in the house where the mind of God is?

J.T. Quite.

A.F.M. What would you say about verse 3 of chapter 9, "The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub", etc.?

J.T. Well, I think that would be as testimony to His patience; God was still there; we know that His glory was there. John says that he was a fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus. The patience of God is a wonderful thing.

A.F.M. Like, "The word that I covenanted with you ... and my Spirit, remain among you", Haggai 2:5. Do you mean that His glory shines in His patience?

J.T. Yes. It is part of His glory. John sees seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like unto the Son of man; that was a wonderful thing. The Son of man, in all His power and glory, is there, notwithstanding the evil existing; and in the last assembly He is standing at the door

and knocking; a wonderful testimony to His patience. The Lord of glory was there knocking.

W.B-w. Is the point, not so much how we get delivered but, that we should fully recognise that the thing exists?

J.T. We recognise that it exists. We find later another sign is, he has a captive's baggage. Now, there is a great deal of that kind of baggage to be seen.

B.T.F. Would you say a word regarding the image of jealousy?

J.T. It is that which disputes the rights of God, it is idolatry; the Lord, as presented to our affections in 1 Corinthians 10:14 - 22, would prevent this, but in Thyatira idolatry existed; so that it is wonderful to see how the patience of God continues to testify to man; the glory was still there. Later, we see it had departed.

There is a thought as to the captive's baggage in verse 4 of chapter 12, it refers to people going into captivity and having all the baggage that belongs to it, the paraphernalia that goes with current religion.

B.T.F. The thought being that that sort of thing should not characterise us as having light from God.

J.T. I think a captive's baggage is a most humbling thing to have.

A.F.M. Daniel did not carry any.

A.N.W. The baggage would hamper us.

J.T. We do not enter into the position in which God has placed us with captive's baggage, it does not fit in there.

READINGS ON EZEKIEL (3)

Ezekiel 9; Ezekiel 10:18 - 22; Ezekiel 11:14 - 25

J.T. I hope the Lord will help us to see in these scriptures the recognition of a remnant, which appears as the judgment is about to be executed. Those who form it are marked off as those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done". The remnant appears in this way, and corresponds with the present time. The truth of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is fully set out, as already dwelt upon, and then the abominations are exposed, upon which the remnant comes into evidence as sighing and crying on account of these abominations.

A.F.M. Who is typified in this man clothed with linen, who marks them off?

J.T. I think he would refer to the element of discriminating holiness in the sphere of profession. He is in the midst of those who come from the way of the upper gate, with the slaughter weapons. It says, "And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which is turned toward the north, and every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and in the midst of them one man clothed with linen, with a writer's ink-horn by his side; and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar". The brazen altar is taken account of as the place where sin is dealt with according to God. It is typical of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ; and God is not going to suffer anything inconsistent with that; so that if He is about to execute judgment in the profession of Christianity, it is not anything different from what He executed in the death of Christ. Christ bore the judgment on the cross, as we had it in chapter 4, and God is not going to allow that which brought Christ into death to prevail in the sphere of the profession

of His name; therefore attention is called to the judgment of God in that the men with the slaughter weapons, and the man with the inkhorn stand beside the brazen altar.

A.F.M. They are identified with it; there were seven men; I think you referred to the numeral seven as denoting complete exercise.

J.T. It is a spiritual exercise, and would comport with what has come about in our times; judgment of the abominable conditions, and the announcement that God is about to deal with them. But before they are dealt with, a remnant is marked off, but in relation to the brazen altar. If some are to be judged summarily, others are marked off as immune, because their sighing and crying on account of the abominations renders them immune. They are morally clear.

A.R.S. Would you say that this remnant, not only discerns the abominations, but had the mind of God for the time as to what should be done? They must know what God would do.

J.T. The six men represent, I think, the intelligence as to what God is about to do. They have the slaughter weapons, and the seventh who is amongst them clothed with linen, being a priest, has the writer's ink-horn, i.e., the means of putting down the names of those who should escape. A writer's ink-horn, I think, would mean that the mind of God is fixed, the names are written down without alteration.

A.F.M. "A mark upon the foreheads" -- is that something public?

J.T. Just so.

D.M.R. Would it imply that there are those to be found today with whom we can walk?

J.T. That is the idea of the brazen altar. The six men, and the man with the ink-horn, are taking account of that. The judgment of Christendom is revealed, teaching us what separation to His Name

means, that is, all that is not in accord with the brazen altar. God would see that what I am doing is in keeping with what was done in the death of Christ.

A.P. Here it is men who execute judgment; in Revelation it is angels, why?

J.T. Well, I think it denotes a certain consideration on the part of God that it should be men. All judgment, it says, is given into the hands of the Son of man, and this inspires confidence, inasmuch as it is in the hands of One who would be the very last to execute judgment because He is a man; so that if judgment is executed, we may be assured the utmost limit of patience has been reached; and so these six, or rather seven men, comport with the book, for in it Christ is seen as the Son of man.

A.R.S. Does the judgment here correspond with what Peter says: "For the time of having the judgment begin from the house of God is come", 1 Peter 5:17?

J.T. Yes, it does, as it says here, "begin at my sanctuary".

A.F.M. In Revelation 20 the Lord Jesus is on the great white throne. Having borne the judgment Himself, He is the most suited One to judge?

J.T. Quite.

A.F.M. You would say that all who judge the evil existent stand related to the brazen altar?

J.T. The sighing and crying are of a piece with the brazen altar. I am judging evil as God judges it, you might say. So that the word is, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity", 2 Timothy 2:19. Now, the name of the Lord involves that he has dealt with evil, and if naming it, I am in accordance with His mind, in separating from evil associations. It is taking sides with God, that is to say, being like one of the men at the brazen

altar; announcing that I am in agreement with the judgment of sin, as seen in the death of Christ.

W.L.P. Would the presence of evil associations call for a complete cleansing on our part?

J.T. In principle, as cleansed, it really means that His will is ruling instead of ours.

A.R. Would that imply coming into fellowship?

J.T. We cannot come into fellowship unless we are in accordance with the brazen altar. It is the testimony to His death and blood-shedding; so that the position of the brazen altar is most important because it is the witness to the judgment of God on sin borne in the Person of Christ; and God has not changed His mind at all, so that if conditions exist that are contrary to that, I have to withdraw.

A.F.M. Or stay where the judgment is to be executed.

J.T. Yes.

A.A.T. Is that a parallel with the judgment announced now?

J.T. Yes, so that the book of Revelation is the opening up of the mind of God in regard to the sphere in which the gospel is being announced. The assembly itself is first addressed, then we have the sphere in which the gospel is being announced and formally received. The book of Revelation announces the judgment of God on all that; but the One who announces it is the One who said, "I am ... the living one: and I became dead", Revelation 1:18. He became dead, that is the idea of the brazen altar. He is seen in Revelation 5 as the Lamb slain in the midst of the throne.

D.M.R. Would you say that what is emphasised in this chapter is association as based on what you have just said?

J.T. Yes, and that the executors of the judgment came by way of the upper gate, that is to say, it is the judgment of God formally executed. Jude speaks

specially of this. The mind of God had been foretold of these ungodly men, even as early as Enoch. It is not a late thing; the mind of God is fixed in regard to these conditions, and these six men are the executors of the judgment, coming down by way of the upper, or north gate; that is to say, the point of the compass which throughout Scripture denotes judgment.

W.B-w. And the glory is in accord with the brazen altar.

J.T. That is to say. God is here in the midst of all this, according to all that He is in Christ. He is still waiting, at the present time, so that it becomes a most interesting time; you have all these things grouped together at the present time. The announcement of coming judgment and its executors, and then discriminating holiness, taking careful account of every one who sighs and cries for the abominations, and withal, the glory of God in Christ is waiting upon man. These things appear in this ninth chapter.

A.F.M. The glory lingers as if loath to go.

J.T. It is the patience of God at the present time; the glory is about to leave but it has not left just yet.

B.T.F. Would you say that the remnant mentioned here would be the same as the remnant mentioned in the end of Malachi?

J.T. The same in character but earlier, in chapter 11, they are more distinctive, as we shall see, but here they begin to show themselves in sighing and crying; and God alone could tell who did this; sighing and crying would denote how they felt things.

A.N.W. That is not a mark in the forehead.

J.T. I think that the Lord led the way in this. He sighed, and He cried, that is to say, He felt things; we too should feel things, and God takes account of this. The Lord wept over Jerusalem, and at the grave of Lazarus, He groaned; on another occasion He was angry, being distressed at the hardening of

their heart. There was feeling in all that! The idea here is similar, we also are to feel things.

A.J.D. Is that more for God than for man?

J.T. Yes. He reads the heart and hears the groans.

A.R.S. The glory departing -- would that correspond with the reproach in our day?

J.T. It corresponds with the Spirit ceasing to identity Himself with the public body of the profession; but the testimony remains, and is maintained by the remnant; it involves the presence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly; the glory will re-appear and be displayed when Christ and the saints return.

W.B-w. It has moved from the cherub, an indication that God has moved out.

D.M.R. The display of the glory will be in accordance with the prophecy of Enoch.

J.T. Quite. You see how early the mind of God was disclosed in regard of evil. Enoch prophesied of these men of chapters 8 and 11; they were destined for this judgment. He saw the Lord coming with the holy myriads to execute judgment. We have here in these six men those who execute it; but then the patience of God is seen in the seventh, he had the ink-horn and was clothed with the linen.

A.F.M. As well as sighing and crying for the abominations done, we find that Ezekiel was marked by intercession.

J.T. I think we may see in the saints that there is a right feeling; we do not wish the judgment hastened. We wish the coming of the Lord hastened, but we have no pleasure in the judgment. So Ezekiel says: "Ah, Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the remnant of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?" Now, here is a man with right feelings; he was immune from judgment, he had consideration and desire for the preservation of others. One cannot be with God unless one is sympathetic with those who are the objects of the judgment.

A.R.S. I suppose Moses was an example of that, he said, "Blot me ... out of thy book", Exodus 32:32.

J.M'D. Would these feelings be seen in those that are gathered to the name of the Lord?

J.T. What you see is that God takes account of those who sigh and who cry, and then after Ezekiel intercedes, God graciously explains that judgment was imperative: the exigencies of the thing required that He should act thus; and so in chapter 10 we have the throne but God is not seen on it. The throne is there, and things must be in accordance with it; that is to say, I am attuned to the mind of God in the midst of all these things. In verse 2 it says, "He spoke unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Come in between the wheels", not go in but come in; which means that God Himself has come down, and is in the midst of all these things, in His own consideration, even as He came down at the building of Babel. He would see the thing firsthand. In this instance he invites the man clothed with linen to come in between the wheels. What the prophet John saw in Revelation 1 was seven golden lamps, and in the midst of them, One like the Son of man. He is in the midst of them, so that He knows exactly and first-hand, what is going on.

Ques. Would you kindly explain verse 6 of chapter 9? It says the ancient men were before the house.

J.T. It says, "Slay utterly the old man, the young man, and the maiden, and little children, and women". That is to say, there is no discrimination, everybody is exposed; age is no barrier, and sex is no shelter; only one class was exempted, those "that sigh and that cry".

A.A.T. Jeremiah himself was characterised by sighing and crying.

J.T. He is called "the weeping prophet", so that he represents the Lord in the depth of His feelings:

a great feature for the saints to be exercised about; what is needed is depth of feeling; we are so very superficial.

A.R.S. The Lord Himself expressed it, when He said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets", Matthew 23:27. We find a depth of feeling on His part, there.

J.T. That is it.

A.F.M. Your thought about chapter 10 is most striking, that God is not said to be on the throne, but down here in consideration of these operations. His interests are bound up in what we speak of as the wheels of His government; He Himself is operating them, and invites the man to come in between them.

J.T. That is, I think, a revelation, because the Lord, although in judicial garb, is down here with us; we have no throne in relation to the assembly, but He is in the midst of the seven golden lamps; it is a testimony to His condescension that He is amongst us. He is moving about in the sphere of profession, therefore nothing escapes His eye, and the evidence He has is first-hand.

D.M.R. Is that prophetic?

J.T. Yes. Revelation 1 contemplates the assembly on earth. In chapter 4 it is a new subject, and we have the throne, and One sitting on it. Not yet One from whom the earth and heavens flee away, for it is yet the day of grace. The throne is surrounded by a rainbow like an emerald, that is, green, meaning that it is God in His everlasting covenant with the creation, and that betokens blessing.

A.F.M. Life!

J.T. The colour of the rainbow is a suggestion of life; the throne in Revelation 4 is not the throne of judgment, but one pertaining to life. Life is brought into the creation; and then in chapter 5 we have the throne again, but the Lamb is in the midst of it as a slain one; so that the throne is favourable. If it

has to act against sin, it is because there is no other remedy, but the meaning of the throne there is blessing.

A.R. So that the testimony in relation to the Seven Churches is not yet completed.

J.T. No. The Lord is still here moving in relation to them.

A.F.M. Even when refused, as in Laodicea, He in grace, is on the outside knocking for entrance.

J.T. Yes, and the glory is still here. The point is to be in accordance with the glory, but at the same time we know that the judgment is imminent, it is about to be executed.

W.L.P. Did you say that Christendom was still in the testimony?

J.T. The Lord is still here and walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps; that is. He is in the sphere of profession yet. That is what Revelation 3 teaches us.

J.S. In chapter 10 we have a sapphire stone, what do you say about that?

J.T. It says, "And I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone". What has come to me lately is that precious stones are seen in the creation, and are divinely in it, being intended for the reflection of the Creator; they have not light in themselves, but are designed to reflect light, so that it says of Satan, "Every precious stone was thy covering" (chapter 28: 13); meaning that he, being in such an exalted position, was to reflect completely the Creator. The blessed light of the Creator was to radiate from that being. Now, the same thing comes out in the heavenly city; the foundations of the wall were adorned with every precious stone; Revelation 21:19.

A.F.M. There is secured in the assembly that which fully reflects the light of God. Would you

mind going back to the stones in the breastplate in Exodus? What do they represent?

J.T. Well, I think the Lord has the saints on His heart. It is like John 13, the light was in Him, it was a moment of wonderful light, as He moved at the supper table, and I think they were to reflect that: they were to reflect the light that shone there. Judas did not reflect it. It says, after the morsel Satan entered into him; there could be no reflection of the blessed light, that shone in Jesus, from him; but those that remained, in the measure in which they laid hold of what was there, reflected it. John leaned on His bosom, and correspondingly there was the radiating of the light of Christ in him. I think we have in the city of jasper, the assembly's appearance as she comes down from heaven; whatever that may mean in itself, it is possibly the reflection of Christ, who came to do the will of God. As He came out, it was to do the will of God; "Behold, I come" (Psalm 40:7); there would be in that Vessel One in whom every divine thought would appear; One who was entirely subject, and I have no doubt that the city corresponds, in the jasper, to that. Whatever the sapphire of our chapter may mean, it is distinctive, it is not judgment, but rather to reflect something of God.

Going on to verse 2, it is very touching that the Lord Himself is, as it were, in the midst of the wheels and He invites us into that position.

A.J.D. What has He in mind in inviting us?

J.T. I think He meant that the wheels should influence us; they suggest movement.

A.N.W. Paul told the Athenians, "He is not far from each one of us", Acts 17:27.

J.T. I think in 2 Timothy the believer is impressed with the power available as he is brought into things. You see in the wheels that which moves on to do the will of God; there is a power to effect the will of

God; as you come into the midst of it, you understand it. In this tenth chapter the remnant is now in evidence, and the invitation follows to come into the midst of the wheels. You realise the power and that it is heavenly. The hand of the cherub dominates this chapter, there is nothing said about the ox in it. In the first chapter, we have the foot of a calf, because it has to do with the earth, whereas now we are in the presence of what is heavenly.

A.F.M. As well as the face of a man, you have the face of a cherub.

J.T. It precedes the face of a man; and the face of the ox is not there. It is to bring out that the remnant is in evidence, and the power of God is moving, and in relation to what is heavenly.

A.N.W. Still, they go straight.

J.T. The glory of Jehovah was gradually going up. In Stephen, it had gone up, meaning there is a heavenly order of things now. The glory had left Jerusalem and was in heaven.

A.F.M. Is it an order of things in Christ Jesus?

J.T. Yes.

D.M.R. A wheel in the midst of a wheel? What is the thought?

J.T. It means, I think, that various thoughts are worked out together, but all is in strict accord with the mind of God.

A.M'N. They all go straight forward.

J.T. Yes, they do. The whole of Christendom now is affected by the heavenly testimony. Chapter 11 brings out the heavenly. One sees the conditions in verses 1 - 13; a great thing to see, but in what follows the remnant comes to light; and what a heavenly touch there is to it.

A.F.M. Would 2 Timothy 4 be suggestive of the wheels?

J.T. I think it would bring us into them, "Be urgent in season and out of season, convict, rebuke,

encourage, with all longsuffering and doctrine". All that is to bring the servant into the system that God is using. Paul says, "I have finished the race"; he says later in that chapter, "The Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made". Paul would preach, whatever the opposition; and was delivered from the lion's mouth. You see there what God was doing.

A.F.M. What does the fire in the man's hands suggest?

J.T. Sympathy with God in His operations, I think.

A.R. Would that be brought to light in the remnant?

J.T. That is the thing. In the book of Revelation, the Lord, in speaking to Philadelphia, formally owns the remnant; He owns it too in Thyatira, but in Philadelphia it has taken on assembly character. In chapter 9 you have the sighing and the crying, but in chapter 11: 15. He says, "Son of man, it is thy brethren, thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel, the whole of it, unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, Get you far from Jehovah: unto us is this land given for a possession. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Although I have removed them far off from among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries whither they shall come". Now, you see how the word 'brethren' comes in, and is repeated here: "Son of man, it is thy brethren, thy brethren".

A.A.T. How do you link that with the sanctuary?

J.T. You see, that is the idea, we are coming back to the beginning. The Lord says to Mary, in John 20, "Go to my brethren"; God desires, in the reviving of the truth, that we should lay hold of

the family thought; so here, the word 'brethren' is repeated to emphasise it.

A.R. Does not it greatly add to our position that they come to light in this world in government?

J.T. Well, I think it is a most precious thought -- that of "thy brethren", which has come into evidence; the term has been connected with current principles in the world, but it directs the mind of the true believer back to John 20, and is of spiritual origin.

There are those, you see, in the end of that verse, that say, "Unto us is this land given for a possession". There are those today who say that, the Hierarchy of Rome; they claim everything. But the Lord says, "Although I have removed them far off from among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come". That is most precious.

A.N.W. 'Little' is another word in the letter to Philadelphia.

A.F.M. "A little power", Revelation 3:8.

J.T. Yes, the word 'little' is called attention to; it suggests that there is no pretension at all. Those that claim power and rule are the ecclesiastical dignitaries; but God says, of the remnant here, "I will be to them as a little sanctuary".

B.T.F. Is it like, "Where two or three are gathered together"?

J.T. That would be a contrast to those who claim apostolic succession!

A.F.M. One of them professes to personally represent Christ.

J.T. The pretension of these men! They claim everything.

A.M'N. There is not anything little about pretension.

J.T. No, indeed. Yet the Lord spoke of the disciples as a "little flock", Luke 12:32. Then He

says, "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel". Now we are coming into big thoughts, you see. "A little sanctuary" in the countries, is one thing; but it is another thing to be assembled. The light of the assembly takes us out of the little things of the public position, into the greatness of divine thoughts, so that while certain in Christendom claim everything now, God says, "Let no one boast in men; for all things are yours", 1 Corinthians 3:21.

A.J.D. So that the activities and operations of God are set against these men?

J.T. Yes. He says, "I will even gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye were scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel"; that is, typically we are coming into it all.

A.F.M. That is Ephesians.

J.T. Yes.

Ques. Is there any suggestion in connection with Ezekiel's office or position about the invitation? He was invited to come in. In chapter 1 he is spoken of as priest; I suppose he is in sympathy with God's operations, as such.

J.T. Quite.

B.T.F. Would you say a word or so to help us on what the land of Israel represents for us now?

J.T. The epistle to the Ephesians, that is not little, but great.

A.N.W. And that is coupled with a new heart.

J.T. What follows is, "And they shall come thither, and they shall take away from thence all its detestable things and all its abominations". It is not separation, but taking things away. The Lord also says, "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take

away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God". Can anything exceed that, as applied to our own position? We are changed inwardly and given a new heart.

J.S. That is the new covenant.

J.T. Quite so, and cannot be changed.

Ques. Would you say a word in connection with the being in sympathy with God, and His relations towards us?

J.T. The prophet shows that he was in sympathy with God, but it is very beautiful to see how, whilst we accept the little things of God as scattered in the nations, we are gathered out of them in a spiritual way and assembled, and then brought into purpose.

A.N.W. Were there not seven seals? I was thinking of the blessedness of these seven "I wills".

J.T. It reminds you of the Lord; the leper says, "If thou wilt", He says, "I will", Luke 5:12, 13.

A.F.M. There is the "one heart"; what about that?

J.T. So that we are brought into the unity of the Spirit and the unity of affection. The unity of the Spirit, and of the faith are seen in Ephesians 4, these two things go together.

Ques. I wanted to ask if the "little things" do not stand for unpretension.

J.T. God will not support us in any pretension at all, but we are led into Ephesians, and that is outside of this world, and the more we have part with Christ, the more we shall be in accord with these things.

A.F.M. Do you think there is any reference in verse 18 to what we get in Ephesians 6 in regard to our struggle dealing with principalities and spiritual power of wickedness?

J.T. I think it emphasises that they are brought

into accord with the testimony of God in regard to these abominations. He had spoken of what He would do, but now it is what they do; they shall come hither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. It is a very fine tribute to the work of God, if we do it now.

W.B-w. The twenty-five men in the first verse, do they refer to the pretension of the present time?

J.T. Yes, just so.

W.B-w. They take a place at the east gate, the east being where the light comes from.

J.T. There are those who claim very great light now. Apostasy is making such rapid strides, that men are pretending to all kinds of things. I believe that what they call light is really the darkness of Asia creeping in.

A.F.M. What about these two men in the midst of them?

J.T. They would be some notably wicked men.

A.N.W. Why is the one heart and the unity given priority over the tender heart?

J.T. I think God works the thing from effect to cause, rather than from cause to effect.

A.N.W. God's object is unity.

J.T. Just so.

READINGS ON EZEKIEL (4)

Ezekiel 16:60 - 63; Ezekiel 20:34 - 44

J.T. These chapters, I thought, call attention to the covenant. I think that the Lord will help us in seeing the applicability of this prophecy to our own times, both in regard to its scathing denunciations of what marks the apostasy around us, and then its appeal to the remnant, especially in regard to what belongs to the whole assembly, for chapter 16 goes back to the beginning of Jerusalem's history. In verse 6 it says, "And I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live! yea, I said unto thee in thy blood, Live! I caused thee to multiply, as the bud of the field; and thou didst increase and grow great". Then verse 60 reverts to the covenant made; so that it would apply to our own times. We have come into what the early saints had, that is, we have come into the good of the covenant.

F.L. We were saying the last time that the introduction of the remnant helps greatly all through, and what is before us here. A remnant is not the fag-end of something, but in the divine ways, it is the depositary of the original, as in the mind of God, it cherishes, secures and preserves that which is precious to God, and carries it through. In regard to what you are saying now, it helps, do you not think, to see the introduction of the remnant in that way? The thought of the new covenant is taken up and made good at the end; although it had disappeared for the greater part of the period of the assembly's history.

J.T. That, I think, is how these chapters take account of the situation. You discern the importance of the covenant at this juncture, because it leads up to the great end that God has before Him. We have

in this prophet a city at the end, and a house. The house is to be filled with the glory of God. If the heavenly city is to come down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, it must be invested with the glory, and I think that is the place that the covenant holds; the remnant is to be invested with the glory morally, that is, by divine teaching the saints come to know the heart of God and the heart of Christ.

A.R.S. Is this covenant the same as the new covenant?

J.T. In verse 60 it says, "I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth", etc. Literally, it refers to what was made at mount Horeb, but spiritually it refers -- for us -- to the covenant that the early saints of the present dispensation entered into. It is the same covenant; we have to do with no other; 2 Corinthians 3.

A.R.S. It is the new covenant in His blood.

J.T. The Lord's supper reminds us of it. In chapter 16: 8 it says, "And I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou becamest mine". There you see the thing -- how God entered into covenant relationship with His people at the outset. It was the time of love. It was when love existed and operated that the covenant was made.

F.L. The Lord never forgot that period to which He refers in these verses; there doubtless had been a response; so He says, "I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth". The interval had been full of corruption, rebellion, and repudiation of all the infinite grace of God, but He comes back to it, "I will remember my covenant". They had proved false, but God remains true.

B.T.F. Would you say that this scripture recalls the saints to the force of the new covenant as given and responded to in the early days?

J.T. That, I think, is what has come about. In reading a scripture like this, our concern is to make a present application of it. The Lord gives us a lead in reading the scripture in the synagogue of Nazareth. It was not to unfold the prophetic word but to make a present application of it; and so he says, having read it, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears", Luke 4:21. It is in that way the value of the Scriptures becomes apparent; a present application of them may be made; the Lord says, "Today". Therefore, the value of this scripture to us is, that we can make a present application of it. "No prophecy of scripture is had from its own particular interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20); therefore to make an application of this scripture to our own times enables us to see that God has come back to the covenant, that is to say, He has brought the saints to see that He loves them, to the end that they should love Him. Unless God brings about love for Himself in our hearts He has no dwelling-place; He dwells only in love.

C.A.M. You refer to the covenant in connection with the city; there seems to be a direct connection, is that right?

J.T. I think that is right. Really the city is the subject of this chapter; the address is to Jerusalem, not to Israel.

C.A.M. The idea of the city being "a mother" for instance, would show that covenant is connected with the city.

J.T. Quite. It has been remarked that the city according to God is the product of the covenant; and that is perfectly obvious in the heavenly city, because in order to have the glory with which she comes down, she must first be invested with it; and

it lies in the understanding of the covenant, or of the love of God. The Gentiles were brought into relationship with God collectively. It is to be noted that they were not brought in severally. Primarily the thought was they were to be brought in collectively, as seen in Cornelius and his company. Like the prodigal, they were greeted with the expression of love; as Peter yet spoke to them, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, corresponding with the embrace of the prodigal. The Holy Spirit held them, so that they were builded together; as it says in Ephesians 3, "In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit". So that the city, including the Gentiles, is invested with the glory, in the knowledge of the love of God.

D.M.R. Would it be right to say the Lord revives His love?

J.T. Well, that is what is in view, because the espousal is, I think, with Jerusalem. She was deposed but the truth of the assembly's relation with Christ from the Gentile standpoint, is revived, and God is embracing us, as it were, with the covenant.

A.P. Are we recovered to the covenant, or by it?

J.T. Both are true.

A.R.S. Was not the first covenant made in connection with the deluge? Then God makes a covenant with Israel, and they break it; then there is the new covenant, so that there are three covenants.

J.T. Well, there was one made with Adam.

F.L. And one with Abraham and his family, and another with the house of David.