John 4:11 - 14; John 7:37 - 39

I thought it might help us to have our attention called to the Spirit's activities in the saints as adjusting our souls, so that we might know relief and satisfaction culminating in eternal life. That is what comes out in chapter 4. And then, further, to see how the Spirit acts from the heavenly side in order to bring in the influence of heaven here. That is chapter 7. These two sides present the Spirit's work at the present moment. We have to notice that what we get in chapter 4 is the result of an administration committed to the Son. "The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand". Then chapter 7 is the result of Christ being glorified. He goes up to heaven and sends the Spirit here so that there might be the influence of heaven here. Thus the superiority of the heavenly is seen; it is to influence all. This is indicated in chapter 3 in the remarks of John the baptist.

Chapter 7 brings in the levitical idea as developed in the book of Joshua, whereas chapter 4 is more connected with Numbers. Joshua gives you the privileged family, the heavenly family in type, and you see them distributed throughout all the tribes of Israel. They have cities allotted to them in all the tribes; they are distributed throughout the whole inheritance, and in that way a heavenly influence is secured and diffused through all. I think that is the idea connected with John 7. What the Lord proposes in chapter 4 meets all our need, and is the result of an administration between divine Persons; the Father commits all things into the hand of the Son, and the Son proposes to give living water to any one who asks of Him, so that he may never thirst for ever. It is a final solution of the whole question of man's need in mind and affection. Hence chapter 4 runs pretty

much with the epistle to the Romans, whereas chapter 7 runs more with Ephesians.

In John 20:22, where we have "Receive the Holy Spirit", it is no question of our need; it is the Spirit of the heavenly Man that is breathed. It is a most intimate transaction to be breathed into, and conveys quite a different thought to drinking of living water. His breathing into them in John 20 was to give them an income equal to their dignity. Chapter 4 is like Romans 6:22; "having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life". As away from God, one's affections have been scattered hither and thither with a view to corrupt gratification, just as with the poor woman in this chapter, but the Lord proposes to give her living water so that her affections may be gathered up and directed upward. One must first be satisfied in mind and affection before one can know eternal life.

I think one ought to make it clear that eternal life is enjoyed over Jordan, but before one can know eternal life one must be satisfied and at rest in mind and affections. This woman had been grossly irregular; her affections had gone out with a view to corrupt gratification, but the Lord shows that His proposal of living water would bring in a solution of her case which should be permanent.

When we speak of over Jordan we speak of what lies outside human relationships; we are entitled to be there because of the death of Christ. We are apt to live in nature, but the Lord would lift us outside of nature. John's way of presenting eternal life is by showing that certain things have to be overcome in the mind and affections, and by that means you are placed over Jordan; you are lifted above natural things and relationships.

John's presentation of Christ corresponds to the position of the sun set in the physical heavens; it

is set there to control things, and to regulate things, and to set things in movement. So Christ is the One who sets things in movement divinely; it is in the way of impulse; He gives impulse. If Christ moves, others move, but they move under His influence. You get it set forth in John 1; the two disciples are first attracted to Christ, and they follow Him; they are set in movement; and then in their turn they affect others. Andrew finds his brother Simon, and he follows, and then others, too, are drawn after Christ. The point was "Come and see". So here in John 4, when the woman is set free herself, she is set in movement and attracts others to Christ; "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?" It is intrinsic to the living water that it gives satisfaction; the mind is satisfied; the affections are satisfied. It is a great thing to have permanent satisfaction for your affections. The Lord proposes to give what will bring deliverance from sin and give permanent satisfaction to the affections. Then another great gain is that one is relieved from the pressure of death. Before the gain of eternal life can be known we must know what it is not to thirst. Most of us live in nature; we are ruled by nature and are content with natural relationships; but God brings in a new rule which is outside nature; He brings us under a new control, and that is proposed in the gift of living water; it springs up to eternal life. Natural relationships are right, but they must be held and regulated by the law of new creation; there is no other law for the Christian. A man who is over Jordan will be a better husband and father than one who is not, for you fulfil every right relation here, whilst living in your affections outside of them; you are not detained by them, and you are set free from the fear of death as to them. Whilst there is the fear of death you are not free for new creation. The great defect with

most of us is that we live in nature, and the more cattle we have the more we are detained.

What the Lord proposes is to give living water which should spring up to eternal life, so that the soul should be brought into the knowledge of the only true God, and of the true Man, a Man here who was entirely for His pleasure; to live in that knowledge is eternal life. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Eternal life is consequent on the adjustment of everything on the earthly side; you are set free from the trammels of earth, and you live in the knowledge of the only true God and of a Man who was entirely free from earth. Think of living in company with such a Man as that! A Man who was entirely for the pleasure of God. But along with the knowledge there is subjective energy, and that is by the springing up of the water within. It "shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life".

The Lord shows in John 4 that He is going to set up the woman with something permanently within her; a source of satisfaction. A man rules his own family, and maintains every relationship rightly, but he has satisfaction outside of it. He is not afraid of death though it lies on his family relationships, he is lifted above it. I think that is a very great testimony; and a man who does not want things here, who is satisfied in mind and affections, is a testimony to God. Eternal life lifts us outside every natural relationship and outside of earth morally. The earth is the sphere where the flesh lives, but the Lord proposes to lift a man above it. He brings in resurrection, and eternal life is enjoyed in resurrection. Resurrection takes place here, but it lifts us morally outside of earth. The Lord was not available to us as eternal life till He was raised and glorified. So, though eternal life is known and enjoyed while we are still down here, it is as we are over Jordan;

that is the type, and the types refer to Christianity. You see, God is not developing any order of things in regard to the earth just now; we take up the ground, so to speak, but you cannot define as clearly today as we shall in the millennium just where the earthly line ceases and the heavenly line begins.

When we speak of the knowledge of Jesus Christ as sent here, it is the knowledge of that Man, the true Man as we say; we cannot omit what He was down here on earth from what He is up there. All that He is up there in the glory was seen in Him down here. How am I to know that blessed Man up there save as studying the gospels which show me what He was down here? "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" is the Man who carried out the will of God here, and who was entirely for His pleasure. He was not a man driven out of Eden, but One living to God and wholly for His delight. I think we have to see that it is no question of heavenly relationships here; but it is God and man brought together. The thought of the Father and the Son brings in family relationships, and leads us to heaven, but where it is a question of eternal life it is God and man.

John 17:1 speaks of the glory which was His personally from the Father; it is the Father and the Son in connection with what they were doing. Verse 5 refers to another glory, "the glory which I had with thee before the world was". He prays to His Father in verse 1, saying, "glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee", and then He says, "as thou hast given him power over all flesh". What we have to know for eternal life is the Father as "the only true God", it is a question of revelation, not relationship. For eternal life you must have God and man brought together. Man had gone away from God and become idolatrous, and man must be recovered to God. He learns that God is the only true God in contrast to all that is false.

Here in John 4 the point is, that there is no possibility of eternal life being known in the soul except as one is delivered from need and is satisfied in mind and affections; and then what is prominent is that they should know the only true God. The Lord does not say, that they might know Thee, the Father, but Thee, the only true God. He is addressing His Father, but it is not the Father in relationship as regards us. Here it is a question of man knowing the only true God. Very often people are covetous, that is really idolatry, and they have to be brought out from all that to know the only true God. While such things are in question it is really too early to bring in the thought of relationships, for they are proper to heaven, but man has to be satisfied here first. On the one hand there is the entire overthrow of idolatry in the knowledge of the only true God; you are satisfied with God, and then, on the other hand, there is the appreciation of Christ as the Man of God's pleasure, the One who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. It is in this way that God and men are brought together in relationships which are perfectly adjusted. You see it first in regard to God and Christ, but the thing is to be perpetuated in men here.

I think we may see eternal life coming out in the Lord's pathway here wherever He is in direct relation to the Father, especially in prayer. He lived on account of the Father. There was the bringing together of God and man in Christ down here, and now He gives the gift of living water to whosoever will ask for it, so that it may spring up and withdraw a man from every natural influence and from all that is of nature.

During the forty days in which the Lord remained on earth after His resurrection we see what is entirely spiritual; the apostles saw it; it was that out-of-the-world, heavenly condition and order of things in which eternal life consists. You have a Man there

who is entirely outside the reach and sphere of nature, One upon whom death had no more dominion. Even when here, He had His own blessed life with the Father, outside the path of dependence and subjection and responsibility which He had assumed here, so the apostles can speak of "that eternal life which was with the Father"; they had seen it. In the world to come, man will be under the influence of the Man of God's pleasure: he will be freed from idolatry and lawlessness.

As to John 7, I think it suggests the heavenly side of things, and the Spirit coming in from heaven, with the result that there is a heavenly influence down here, rivers of living water. Chapter 7 supposes an Ephesian saint, for there is excess, a flowing out. You do not come to the divine thought of giving until you take heavenly ground. God would follow up His people with a heavenly influence. That is most beautiful. Though certain of the tribes of Israel elected to stay on the further side of Jordan, yet God gave certain cities among them to the Levites to dwell in, so that the influence of heaven might be secured to them. It is interesting that half the tribe of Manasseh broke away from the other half of the tribe, showing that there was special spiritual energy with them. The daughters of Zelophehad were of Manasseh, and they came to Moses, and demanded an inheritance among their brethren, the sons of their father. It all shows a spiritual energy that will not stop short of an inheritance in the land. It shows the energy of faith that breaks loose from nature.

HOUSE OF GOD AS PRESENTED IN MARK'S GOSPEL

Mark 1:29 - 31; Mark 2:1 - 5,15

I had thought that the early passages in the gospel of Mark would seem to illustrate the truth of the house of God. There are three houses mentioned here. The idea of a house includes a system of affection, and this is connected with the testimony. In this gospel it is the "glad tidings" as preached by Christ, and He is referred to more often as in the house than in other positions, and the thoughts connected with this work out ultimately in the idea of the house of God. Even if in Christendom the conditions are wanting for the house of God, one's own house can be right, like Joshua's. He said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).

The first house mentioned here was Peter's. His wife's mother was there. The Lord Jesus entered this house, and the mother-in-law was in a fever, but He touched her, and she arose and ministered unto them. It is noticeable that on her recovery she was impartial. She ministered where there was need. Her case represents a Christian in an awkward position. Her position was a difficult one for any woman, for she was living in another person's house. Our position in the world is an awkward one.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum it says "he was in the house". This is the second house mentioned. It was no small liberty on the part of the four men to intrude through the roof of another person's house, but in this case it is evident there was sympathy on behalf of the person brought in, the palsied man, the four who brought him, and also the owner of the house. If one is not a preacher one can be in sympathy with the testimony through one's house. In an ordinary household, the youngest in the house can contribute to the general welfare.

In reference to the Lord's ministry, Luke magnifies what was done, but Mark how it was done. The house is a divine institution. Adam, Seth and others had their families, but it is formally stated with reference to Noah, that he prepared an ark for the saving of his house. This is the first mention in Scripture of the house. Jacob said when he awoke from his dream, "this is none other than the house of God". That is to say he recognised that God had a sphere which He dominated. The believer in the Lord Jesus begins his lessons in his own father's house. God has so ordered it that there is affection there. We cannot expect to be right in the house of God unless we are right in our own. In Job's case things were not right when his sons were feasting in their elder brother's house and their father was absent. The result of this was that the house was smitten at the four corners. It would appear that the secret of the matter was that Job's wife was not in true sympathy. It was she who said "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). The Lord Jesus met the kind of people in Levi's house, when he was called, whom He was glad to see, the publicans and sinners. The house of God is composed of such who have been reached and set right. The introduction of the gospel into Europe was through the household. I refer to Lydia's house and the jailor's house. This is very encouraging, for we all have our own households. It is remarkable that after finding communion in Lydia's house, in addressing the jailor Paul says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). The apostle later received comfort in the jailor's house for he was washed and fed, and his wounds were cared for there.

In considering this we see how rapidly the Lord extended His territory, and in one way it all depended on the character of Lydia's house. The state of our households has a great deal to do with the meeting.

Of Philemon's house it was said, "the assembly in thine house" (verse 2). Of course, in the house of God we are not fathers and mothers. Natural relationships and distinctions do not appear. God takes account of a man's house, that is, what his desires are, although he may fail. It is an immense support to have all in one's house saved. The demoniac was sent back to his house to testify there. It was an unbelieving house. Our houses are the first place where our testimony ought to be heard.

Noah failed in government because he could not govern himself; hence the failure in his house. Government is by example. It was said of Abraham, "he will command his children and his household after him" (Genesis 18:19). Moses began well, his mother was marked by faith. It was a good household. Isaac was governed by his appetite a terrible thing to be governed by and to set before one's children. He had only two children. Jacob had twelve children, he was a family man, and a man of prayer. He gathered his family together and told them what was going to happen. Set right principles before your children and present them before God in prayer and supplication; then leave them to God, He will make it good. The children may take a wide detour, but you can have confidence that God will bring them back.

If the Lord has His place in the house all will be right. This is seen in a striking way in Mark's gospel. Notice how even little children are considered, and such ought not to be overlooked by any of us. If you return to your home from a good meeting you will have to show yourself a better father in your household. The house of God is the place of prayer, and it is also evangelical. There should be sympathy there for all those who are around. The woman in the city, who was a sinner, found no sympathy in Simon's house, but the Lord

being there she found sympathy from Him. He called her "Daughter"!

We want all the affection that we can find. It is invaluable in our own house and equally so in God's house. In the household there is not only the child, but also the son. He has affections as a child, and intelligence in the thoughts of his father, being a son. In the house of God we have our place as children, where mutual affections between the Father and the children are known, and we have our place also as sons. As such we are intelligent in the Father's thoughts, and consequently we can serve acceptably.

At the end of Mark's gospel the servants are sent out to serve. They had been in the house with Him; hence they were qualified to serve.

THE RESULT OF DEPARTURE FROM DIVINE PRINCIPLES

Judges 6

J.T. It is important in understanding the book of Judges to read the two opening chapters and the closing chapters. The closing chapters disclose the underlying moral state, and what one is forced to believe is that the difficulty lay largely with the Levites. Morals became extremely low. I refer to the chapters following upon the eighteenth. You have there the underlying moral conditions in Israel, and it is to be noted that they appear in connection with the Levites. There were two. The first hired himself to a common person to be a priest in a man's house (chapter 17:7 - 13); the second Levite took a concubine (chapter 19:1). In connection with these two men you have a remarkable disclosure of the underlying conditions in Israel. The responsibility of the people as a whole is seen in the opening chapters. Judah and Joseph were faithful in taking hold of their inheritance. The others, generally, did not take possession. Of one tribe after another it is said, "Neither did he dispossess". There was failure to dispossess the Canaanites; they were allowed to continue alongside Israel, hence the corrupt state of things that ensued. If the Levite and the priest had done right they would have saved the situation.

I thought it would be profitable if we looked at the history of Gideon, because he, above all others, represents the manner of the divine interventions that occurred in the days described in this book. What marked the state of affairs at this juncture was that the people were impoverished. The attack of the Midianites was to deprive the Israelites of their food, of their means of sustenance. It will always be found that where there is departure from

divine principles a scarcity of spiritual food will ensue.

The house of God was still in Shiloh; it was a serious thing for the people that the house was there and under the influence of Phinehas, the faithful priest: one who is typical of the Lord Himself, in a sense. The house was there, and the priest was there but the Levite was not under the control of the priest. The Levite had hired himself out to Micah, who had a houseful of gods, and ultimately became priest to the tribe of Dan, which had set up idolatry. The levitical class had dissociated themselves from the priesthood: they were, in other words lawless. The man went from mount Ephraim wherever he might, because he was doing what he pleased, and ultimately hired himself to these men, in that way setting up what was typically the clerical principle. Then along with that there is a licentious state, all of which is connected with a general low moral condition. There are certain outstanding traits, but that is the underlying condition you get at the end of the book. Inasmuch as we have to mourn the same conditions in our own day, nothing can be more interesting, or more important, than to see how God intervenes in such circumstances.

The clerical order has sprung up in that connection. Those who had the place of servants, ministers, Levites, hired themselves out to the common people, and that has resulted in the establishment of an idolatrous state of things. It is very important to see how God intervenes, and in what sort of a man He intervenes, and how He prepares His man. For it will be observed that in the opening chapters it is said that God, in His consideration for the people, while in a general way giving them over to discipline and the will of their great enemies, intervened from time to time in judges. But it does not say that He was with the people. He was with the judge.

They get the benefit of God being with the judge. God gives deliverance, and then He gives protection to the people during the days of any given judge; yet you will observe there is still departure. One feature of departure from divine principles is that there is poverty, deprivation; the people are wanting in right food, there is no spiritual ministry. The nature of the Midianite attack is to destroy all right food intended by God in His goodness as support for the people. Verses 3 - 5: "And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up ... And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth ... and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with the cattle and their tents ... as grasshoppers for multitude". Verse 6: "And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites". That which God in His goodness provided for the maintenance of His people, the Midianite would take away. We cannot live spiritually, any more than we can live physically, without food. What you will observe is that where divine principles are departed from, there is really no spiritual food, and that becomes a guide as to how things are. The Galatians, for instance, were misled by Jewish leaders, and the effect was to vitiate the pure ministry of the apostle by mixing it with something else, and in that way nullifying it.

Rem. The Midianites are referred to previously as being a wily people.

J.T. It was through the Midianites that Satan sought to ensnare Israel in the wilderness. He taught Balaam to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. They are a people socially related to the people of God, they were descended from Abraham through Keturah. There was an outward relation with Israel, and it is in that that the greatest

danger really lies, to have relation with people who are not spiritual. Amalek is a descendant of Esau, and the spirit of that is seen in Amalek seeking to prevent the weak from getting into the land to enjoy it. Amalek himself represents the pure worldling, the Egyptian.

Rem. I suppose the children of Israel doing evil in the sight of the Lord would throw them open to attack by the Midianites?

J.T. God allowed it in the way of discipline. The result of it was that they cried to the Lord, and there was a deliverer brought forward. The Lord sends a prophet; He does not send Gideon first. Before you can feed the people their consciences must be put in relation to God. If there is departure, before you can set right food before a person you must put his conscience in relation to God, there must be a return to God. Where has God been in all this? How have His rights been regarded? "And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians ... but ye have not obeyed my voice". That is to say, God has His rights over the people. He was their Redeemer, their Saviour, and on these grounds He has His rights over our souls. When difficulties arise, it is a question of where God is. What about His rights? That is what a prophet is sent for. It is to appeal to the conscience, to renew the link between the conscience and God, so that God should have His place in the conscience. The word brings God into the conscience. But you need more than that. The saints need to be ministered to, and Gideon is the man that God is pleased to bring forward to minister to the people.

So you find in connection with Gideon that food has a great place. In fact, he is symbolised by a cake of barley bread, tumbling into the host of Midian, and he destroys the camp of the Midianites. He comes in in an irregular sort of way. According to the vision it tumbled into the host of the Midianites, but it did the work. It is remarkable that it is a cake of barley bread; it is not wheaten bread. It shows that Gideon had Christ before him. The barley is Christ, the wheat is the saints. He began with the wheat: he threshed wheat, but he was himself symbolised by the cake of barley bread.

Ques. Do you think in that way the ministry of Christ helps the saints to dispossess the enemy?

J.T. That is the thought in it, evil principles have to be judged, and the prophet brings that about. Now, if this is done and the people brought back to God, then you get the ministry.

Rem. So that the point of recovery would be that they did not take so much account of Midian as they took account of their condition and relation to God.

J.T. Yes; that is the point. Midian was only a rod in God's hand which God can break into fragments and throw away, but the point was to bring Israel back to the recognition of God's rights over them. In 1 Corinthians 14 the prophet brings God in, so that, if there is an unbeliever there, he falls down and acknowledges that God is in you of a truth. We want to see people falling down in recognition that God is present. God will come in publicly. But He is in His house now. The prophet is indispensable in that way to the house, because the spirit of prophecy amongst the saints keeps God and His rights before us. A man coming in recognises that God is there, and he falls down. That is the wonderful effect.

Rem. The preservation of the people was in the

hands of the prophet. "By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved" (Hosea 12:13).

J.T. Yes, a prophet always thinks for God. The idea really is that he comes from God. The prophet's name is not given here. It is not a question of who the prophet was, but that there was prophecy. There was a ministry that asserted the rights of God over the people. We do have, however, a great deal recorded about the man who brings deliverance and food in, and who destroys the destroyer of the food. The ministry of the prophet is light, but there is power with it. It is not ministry in the way of food it is rather to awaken the conscience as to the rights of God. It is noticeable that it was after the people cried to the Lord that He came in, as in Psalm 107. You find yourself in a straight place, then you cry to God, and God intervenes when you cry. It is the beginning of deliverance. It opens the door for God to come in. It is the way you arrive at the sense in the history of your soul that there has been departure; you arrive at a point where you feel there is no help anywhere except in God. "Vain is the help of man" (Psalm 60:11). Directly you cry God sends His messenger, and he touches the spot where the difficulty really lies, because the difficulty is always moral.

Rem. When the Lord touched the woman's conscience, in John 4, she said, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet".

J.T. Yes. He brought her soul into direct touch with God, but then, He went further. He told her that He was the Christ. Gideon is typical of the Lord as "the Christ", the One whom God has anointed for the carrying out of His purposes. The woman looked on for "the Christ;" "when he is come, he will tell us all things". But the Lord says, "I that speak unto thee am be". He was the Christ.

His work as prophet made room for His person. So she went to the Samaritans and told them, "Is not this the Christ?" That was a step in advance of the prophet.

I think the thought of Gideon threshing wheat by the wine-press showed that he was qualified personally. He was hiding it from the Midianites; he valued the food. You may get a brother who is very obscure, but he values what is of God, and God owns that. Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites. The wine-press is usually the place of judgment. I think it refers to judgment here, but his hiding it shows that he valued it. The Lord hid the treasure. He valued the treasure, and He hid it until the time would come that He could bring it forward to display it. When the Lord was here He was food for His people; He was the standing corn. The question of right food is most important for us. He was engaged with the wheat. The Lord was not with the people as such, neither did the angel say that. Gideon had a good bit to learn. "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour". That is in keeping with the dispensation. The Lord was with the judge.

It is very beautiful how tenderly the Lord deals with Gideon. "And the Lord looked upon him", it says in verse 14. How beautiful to think of the Lord looking on one! Gideon was figuratively Christ. Who would God look upon except Christ? At His baptism God was engaged with that Man as the One in whom all things were centred; everything is made to depend upon Him. As I was saying, the question of food is most vital, because the saints are weakening and succumbing for want of good food. If the food supply is cut off all is hopelessly lost. The Midianitish attack was to cut off the food supply, and it was necessary for Gideon to master the enemies who were preventing the people from getting food.

You get the Lord taking account of the secret exercises of Gideon. That is what is so beautiful about it. The Lord gives him credit. He is called a man of might and valour. It says, the Lord looked upon him, and said, "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" He does not say, "Go in this my might", but "Go in this thy might", showing that God took account of Gideon according to the Spirit he was to receive. It says the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. It is not what Gideon was then literally, but God speaks from His own standpoint and takes account of what was to come to pass. The Spirit was to come upon him. So that the work would be Gideon's work; in that way the power of the Spirit is attributed to the individual. The source of his strength lay in the place he took as a man; his was a small house in Israel, and he was a small man. That qualified him for the reception of the Spirit. He was morally suited to become a vessel for God. It was encouraging for Gideon that the Lord should call him a man of might. "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" God's principle is, "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit", (Zechariah 4:6). God graciously attributes the power of the Spirit to the individual. Gideon was specially attractive to the Lord. The Lord looked upon Gideon; there must have been that which was morally attractive: and think of God adding to that, "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel". But the might was by the Spirit; it would be divine power. The soul may be faltering, as, for instance, Timothy, who was a timid man. The apostle says to him, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

I think it was praiseworthy that Gideon should

think of the people. But it is right to be in keeping with the light that governs the position, and the light that governed the position was that God is with the judge. The Lord was not really with the people. We are very apt to connect God with a state with which He cannot be connected. It was quite out of keeping with the conditions and with what God is, to assume that He could be with the people, but He was going to be with Gideon. It would be quite right to think of the people, but God is careful about what is due to Himself, and He could not be with the people as they were, but He could be with a man like Gideon to bless the people. That is what comes out here.

Now, this question of food is most important. If the supply is cut off all is hopelessly lost in the way of testimony. People may get to heaven, but the question is whether we are sustained here in our souls now. When the Lord raised up Jairus' daughter He desired that something should be given her to eat. She was to be supported by good food. Our being raised with Christ, according to Colossians, is not in itself sufficient. It is wonderful light surely which entitles us to take the position, but we are only supported in that position by food.

Ques. What would you call food now?

J.T. We have to go to John 6 for the general principle as to food, but you may have a variety of food. In the case of Jairus' daughter the Lord said that something should be given her to eat. It was for the parents to select some wholesome food for her. There is no doubt that there is variety in spiritual food. The Lord is like the parent of the house now; He apportions and He provides food; He sees to it that everything is provided for the household. If you have the prophetic ministry the next thing is to bring in the positive thing in the way of food. The faithful and wise servant is the one who

ministers the portion of meat. If you have not such you do not get the meat. If you have a man who smites his fellow-servants, and eats and drinks with the ungodly, there is no good food in the house; there is no portion of meat in the house. So that it is for the saints to see to it that they are not allowing persons in the place of ministers of food who have not any to minister. We must disallow the clerical principle. The underlying condition in the days of the judges was largely attributable to the levitical unfaithfulness.

Ques. What is indicated in Gideon having a desire to give a present to the angel of the Lord?

J.T. That is very fine. You have a picture of what takes place in the assembly there. It says, "And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present" -- I understand it may be rendered "meat-offering" -- "and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again". Then you have a beautiful picture of assembly activities. You have what Gideon does and what the angel does. There is what we do before the Lord out of the willing desires of our hearts to present something, and, on the other hand, what He does with what we present. It all ascends in perfection, and He goes up, He departs with it. Gideon now is in the full light of what God is, and he rears up an altar to the Lord. It says, "And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die". Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord. There is a man now who has committed himself; he has built an altar. A man's measure is always his altar.

Rem. That would be answering to his light.

J.T. Yes; answering to the light he had in his

soul, the way in which God revealed Himself to him. Before a man ministers I want to see his altar. You want to see the measure of the man's altar. That is, what he is with God. He cannot be anything more with the people than he is with God.

The Lord said "peace". That is the meaning of his altar, and that was his measure, for, if a man ministers, and undertakes to serve the Lord's people, they are quite entitled to go and see the size of his altar, that which he has reared up Godward. You see that in his house. You do not build your altar in the house of God; God prescribes the altar that is to be built in His own house, the length, breadth and height of it. But if you are going to build one He will let you prescribe, and what you do indicates just what you are; that is your measure.

Ques. Do I gather that it is the measure of surrender or sacrifice we have made?

J.T. Yes. It is the place that God has in your heart: that is what your altar shows; anyone can see your altar.

Rem. Lot did not have an altar.

J.T. You could not have an altar in Sodom. Before you can have an altar you must be separate. Altars are reared by people who are separate. After Gideon has built his own altar, he has to go and throw down the altar in his father's house. He has set his own house right, now he has moral power to set his father's house right, which shows a man increasing in power, and ultimately he has to set Israel right. He began with himself first, then his father's house, then the camp of Midian. But before he goes to the camp of Midian he has to train his soldiers. They have all to become imitators of Gideon. That is to say, the Lord Jesus is the great model for us. We have all to do likewise, that is the idea.

When you come to the end of the chapter, the

signs are evidences of weakness on Gideon's part, but the Lord, I think, only uses our weakness to increase the light. They are typical, I think, of the two dispensations. The fleece is the Jews specially favoured on earth, but when the water is wrung out it is measurable, it is only a bowlful; whereas when the dew falls on the ground around it is immeasurable, unlimited, it falls all around. That is Paul's ministry. The one is Judaism, a limited sphere; the other is Paul's ministry, which is extended and unlimited.

THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL

Job 42:1 - 17

I wish to show you from this scripture, as the Lord may help me, how recovery comes about, and how man is recovered for God through the Lord Jesus Christ in a spiritual, not in a natural way. We all need to be led on to spiritual lines. This book shows that one may be genuinely converted and have the fear of God before his eyes and yet may be still on natural lines. The first chapter of Job presents to us Job and his household as set up on natural lines, although he was a godly man himself, one whom God had taken account of among all the race, a perfect man, one who eschewed evil, one whom indeed God calls His servant. Now before the Spirit of God proceeds to give us this wonderful course of instruction He sets before us the spiritual pattern. After Job and his family are presented we are told that there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves to God. Now that is a spiritual pattern. It does not go beyond the fact that there was a spiritual pattern. God had sons, and His sons were not lawless; they were not selfish; they thought of Him.

Now that is a spiritual pattern. On the other hand Job's sons and daughters, although they had a godly father, were not affected by his godliness; they were on natural lines. They were feasting in their elder brother's house; that is a natural pattern. That is a pattern of things as they are here in this world, formed under the influence of evil; for, remember, that what is natural now in humanity is under the influence of evil. So that is what you have in chapter 1 -- a spiritual pattern and a natural pattern. It is for you to determine for yourself as to whether you are on the line of the spiritual pattern presented; whether it is your habit to come up before

God, or whether your habit is to frequent the elder brother's house in a natural way. What marks the sons of God is that they come before God, they present themselves; they give an account of themselves, so to speak. God does not challenge any of them except one. So that it is not the sons of God as they are in heaven, it is what is down here. Satan came amongst them; he always comes to the meetings. But the fact does not prevent the sons being there. It does not say that he went to the elder brother's house, they were attended to from his point of view. He was not active in that connection. If you leave God out of your calculations Satan is not much concerned about you, for you are cared for from his point of view. Satan frequents the meeting-places of God's people much more than he does the meeting-places of the wicked.

Well, now, in a word the elder brother's house represents the natural line. It was a natural precedence to which the elder brother was entitled in the first place. But then what about Job? Where was he? What about your father? Disregard of your parents is disregard of God. God has been pleased to set His authority in those who love you. It makes it easy for you. "Obey your parents in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1). The sons and daughters of Job did not do that, they were on natural lines. They left God out. They left their father out. And what happened to them? If you proceed on natural lines Satan will visit you, not to support you, but as an emissary of God in the way of judgment. Now that is terrible. The house in which they feasted was smitten at the four corners by satanic power. Satan is but an emissary of God, a servant of God, but he can only touch you as God permits. It was his power that brought down that house of the elder brother. You may feast today and tomorrow, but down the house will come and the inmates be destroyed. It is a terrible picture,

beloved friends. If you are on the line of the natural it is disregard of divine order and authority, and from God's point of view that is sin; a terrible sin. It is a sin that as I said leads to that terrible end.

Now God had His eye on Job. There was one man God had His eye on. God never withdraws His eyes from the earth. Men would be thankful if He did. In fact, they persuade themselves at times that He does not look on. Ofttimes we show that we have much greater fear of the eye of our neighbour than we have of the eye of God, but God looks on. It is not that He is looking for sin. God never looks for sin. He finds it, alas, without looking for it, and it pains Him to find it. The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. He found one man good before the flood, that was Noah. His eye rested on that man. He found another man in Job after the flood. The Lord is kind in calling you; would to God that it were accepted. If you are converted His eye is upon you; if you are unconverted His eye is upon you. He appeals to you. He marks your steps from the moment of your birth until He touches your conscience. We are told that His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth.

Satan was walking up and down in it like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour. Are you aware of that? Think of him coming up along with the sons of God! How he would have destroyed them! He had taken notice of Job, and he says to God, 'There is a hedge about him; I cannot touch him'. Thank God for that hedge. 'Where do you come from?' God says to him. 'Give an account of yourself'. Satan had to give an account of himself. God says, "Hast Thou considered my servant Job?" (chapter 1:8). God had His sons there, but He is not numbering Job amongst His sons, He numbered Job amongst His servants. Hast thou considered -- not

"my son", but "my servant?" You may well be in dread of Satan. He is a roaring lion, we are told by Peter, seeking whom he may devour. Thank God he cannot devour all, otherwise we should not be here. He is seeking whom he may. Are you exposing yourself to him? Beware! The snare is all about you. Satan had taken an account of Job; he had not been up and down through the earth for nothing. There was one man with the fear of God before him. Satan knew about the hedge. Thank God for that hedge. It may for you be the protection of a parent. That is for salvation. The young man that is followed by the prayers of his mother and of his father is protected. God has placed the hedge there, but the hedge is not sufficient.

I cannot enlarge on chapter 1, but I thought it worth while to show you how you have the pattern of what is spiritual and the pattern of what is natural. God sets out at the beginning what He is going to end with. He gives you the pattern. Now, He says, I am going to work out that pattern. And He works out that pattern in Job. He brings Job to that pattern. God will never give you up; He will bring you to correspond with the pattern that He sets before you at the beginning. What is the pattern? Why it is Christ. Paul's gospel presents the pattern. Paul presents both parents, the father and the mother, in order to bring in a spiritual family; that is what he is aiming at, and he wants you to get on to the spiritual line, that you derive from spiritual parentage; and belong to a spiritual family. The moment you get into that circle you will cease to respect the elder brother. You will always find that the elder brother brings trouble. Cain brought it; Ishmael brought it; Esau brought it; Reuben brought it. When the elder brother sees the younger brother feasting in the father's house he says, "Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my

friends" -- not your friends (Luke 15:29). Look at the grace of God entreating him to come in! But he did not come in; he was utterly unfit for the house in the state in which he was.

Man knows something about the natural dignity of the elder brother deserving precedence, and he holds to it. It is the stock-in-trade of the worldling. But it is vanity, nothing more; there is nothing in it. Now Paul brings in in his gospel the father and the mother. We have the pattern of the heavenly presented to us in Paul's gospel. "God", he says, "who called me by his grace". Paul did not come; he did not pretend to come. God called him, and he says it was "to reveal his Son in me" (Galatians 1:15,16). It is a spiritual pattern. Jerusalem had no place in it at all; that is Hagar. It was "to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the nations". The grace of God never gives up any one of us until He brings us back to that glorious pattern that we all should be conformed to the image of God's Son. Think of the design God has in His mind! The moment you see it you give up the natural.

As I said, God proposed to set out the pattern before Job in chapter 1 in His sons coming up before Him. Now, He says, I am going to work out on that line; your house is not in order; your sons do not regard you; but the difficulty is with yourself. Well, there are long chapters in which Job has a great deal to say. What can he speak about? There is no reference to the sons of God on his part. If they are referred to it is God himself who refers to them. In chapter 38:4,7 He appeals to Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? ... When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" God refers to the sons. Job had a great deal to say; every one in Job's condition has a good bit to say, but it is counsel darkened by words without understanding, without knowledge. It is a

wonderful moment when Job ended them himself. "The words of Job are ended". He thought he had said enough. It was not that he had laid his hand upon his mouth; his mouth was not stopped yet. No; he was his own judge of what he had said, a man of wisdom on his own account, who would say just so much and no more. A man's mouth has to be stopped not by himself, but by God. Job's three friends were not able to do it. Even Elihu was not able to do it. A man in Job's state has great pretensions and a great estimate of himself.

Now God is not going to leave it that way. He is not going to allow you to decide when you should stop speaking. He undertakes to shut your mouth. God is not only going to convict a man. The three friends of Job condemned him and they could not convict him. That was why Elihu's anger was kindled against his friends. You may see one of the Lord's people turning aside for a moment, and you condemn him, but you cannot convict him. To condemn him, without convicting him is sin. Convict him first and then condemn him. "Those that sin convict before all" (1 Timothy 5:20). Do not condemn without convicting. That was the reason why Elihu was enraged with the three friends of Job. They condemned him, he says, but they did not convict him. Job said, 'My words are ended'. They saw that he had the last word; they could not answer him. If any mouth is to be stopped God will stop it. "That every mouth might be stopped". He has arranged for that, even Job's, in spite of his oratory. He was a wonderful speaker; his speeches contain very wonderful things, that are recognised by the Spirit of God as right, but his mouth had to be stopped, and it was effectively stopped. How? By the Lord Himself. The Lord takes him in hand. Your parents cannot help you; your best friend cannot help you. God alone can do it, and He does it effectively. So Job turns round to

God at the end and says, "thou canst do everything". That is a wonderful discovery, and yet it is obvious. There are miracles being performed every day. If I understand what a miracle means, it is something done outside human power. A miracle has surely been performed on me and on you. Every convert is a testimony to what the power of God is. God can convert; He can do anything. It is as if Job said, You brought this to pass in me, you can do anything. How persistent Job was in his self-righteousness. He said, You have brought me down; you have succeeded; I know now that you can do anything.

The greatest thing was to raise up the Lord Jesus, and God has done that. He had been calling Job's attention to the heavens and to the earth, the works of His hands. Job says, I see that you can do everything. Well, we may say much more than that as Christians. We see more than Job could have seen. We see what God has done in Christ. We see the exceeding greatness of His power. The visible things are all witnesses to the things that are unseen, even His eternal power and divinity, but they are not the witnesses to the exceeding greatness of His power, that refers to the resurrection of Christ. We say with much more force, Thou canst do everything. He has taken Christ out of the stronghold of death and He has set Him down at His right hand in heaven. There is the witness to the exceeding greatness of His power.

Do you think there is a brother who cannot be recovered? The Lord can do it. "Who then can be saved?" (Matthew 19:25). Do not say that; do not give him up. The disciples said to the Lord, "Who then can be saved?" Let us not say that a brother cannot be saved. Job says to God: You can do everything. That is his answer. God can do everything. Hence the Lord says, "All things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27). The rich man might as well try to get into the kingdom

as a camel to go through the needle's eye. Who can be saved? All things are possible with God. God can reduce the size of that camel. He knows how to do it. Conversion brings down the size. The difficulty with the man is that he is too big. You cannot reduce his size, but God can.

Well, Job says, You can do everything. My thought was to show you how that God sets up Job on spiritual lines, and the first thing after his mouth is stopped he abhors himself. Now, he is to be a benefactor. Do not spurn those people even although their speeches were against you, pray for them. Pray for your persecutors. The first thing is that Job prays for his friends, and God accepts the face of Job. That is the reading of it. God loves a praying face. Job never looked so well as when he was praying; neither does any one else. You never look so well in God's account as when you are praying. He accepts the face of a praying man. Is it your habit to pray? "Let me see thy countenance", He says (Song of Songs 2:14). He loves to see a sinner look up. The woman who was bent for eighteen years was always looking down. To look up is that you change your countenance. God looked at the Lord Jesus praying, and it drew from His heart the expression, "my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight" (Matthew 17:5) He transfigured Him while He was praying on the mount of transfiguration. It is said that God accepted the face of Job, as I understand the reading of chapter 42:9.

Now, after Job is accepted, after he is recognised, for to accept his face means that he is adopted, to put it into Christian language; after he is adopted, he is no longer a servant, but a son. His countenance God accepts, and then he has a spiritual income. He has twice as much as he had before. Now, what would that be put into New Testament language? What would it be for the Christian? Think of the gift of the Spirit. Can you measure it? It is not

anywhere measured by fourteen thousand sheep, as we get here. That does not measure it. Fourteen thousand is just a suggestion as to the wealth with which the believer whose face is accepted of God as a praying man is endowed. The gift of the Spirit in Scripture is connected with prayer. The Lord received it while He was praying, and after He went to heaven He asked for the Spirit in order to shed it forth. Think of the wealth, think of the blessedness of coming to the living God!

You can look up into the face of God. God loves to look into the countenance of a praying man. See the effect! His friends are really restored instead of being judged. And now Job is on spiritual lines. All his friends come. As to his sisters, we do not hear anything of them in chapter 1 but in chapter 42 it says, that his brethren and his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, were accepted of God and set on spiritual lines. What you have on these lines is brothers and sisters, all sympathisers; the sphere of your acquaintance is now spiritual it is a family connection, so it widens out your acquaintances. How well off you are! How well off Job was!

I am simply endeavouring to describe to you what God brings about for any one believer through the glad tidings. It is a wonderful result. You are set up down here; your face is accepted; and you are surrounded by family relations, by sympathisers, and by those who bring presents to you; you are an object of affection on every hand. It is a reality. These are the actual effects of the gospel down here.

Then there is just one other thought, and that is, Job has another family. He now has twice as much wealth, yet he has not any more children, but they are of a different order. There is not a word said about the elder brother. There is no elder brother amongst the brethren in this sense, the Lord Jesus is

supreme but He is not an elder brother. There is no reference to an elder brother in the last chapter; that order of things has been wiped out. It was wiped out in the first chapter, and we can thank God for it. Room is now made for the new family, and we get their names. There is not a name of any of the sons or daughters given in the first chapter. Here we have the names of the daughters; they are signalised in that way. I have no doubt each name has its own meaning, because names are never given for nothing. The more one reads Scripture the more one is convinced that every word is there for a purpose, every letter, so that the names have meanings. What I would like to say further is this, that the three daughters of Job are given an inheritance, not in their elder brother's house, but among their brethren. Is not that where you want it? If you love the brethren you do. You do not want your inheritance anywhere else; you want it amongst the brethren. Job is on spiritual lines now, and the inheritance is amongst the brethren; you could not get a more spiritual idea than that.

God is endeavouring to bring us on to spiritual lines, that things should be spiritual. We have to touch the natural, just touch it lightly, and press on to the spiritual. The spiritual is what is to abide eternally. So we find that the spiritual man lives on. Job lived for one hundred and forty years after that, and he saw four generations. It was not generations after the flesh; it was generations after the Spirit, and it rejoiced his heart.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Mark 3:31 - 35; Luke 8:19 - 21; John 20:16,17

I want to say a word about education, and I venture to select these scriptures as indicating the course of instruction which is available. I desire especially to dwell on the last scripture. Mary indicates by the term she uses in addressing the Lord that she was among those who had taken up the course of instruction and had progressed in it. She designates the Lord as He had been known to her; she says to Him, "Rabboni"; He was her Teacher, her Master. Nothing can be more important for us than to come under His instruction. The sun shines, there is a great deal of light: but there is much need for instruction. We get such a term as this, "instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Timothy was amongst those who had been learners; the apostle says to him, "Abide in those things which thou hast learned ... knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (chapter 3:14). In the prophets we have a suggestion that is very solemn. God's people were "destroyed by lack of knowledge", (Hosea 4:6). Hosea tells us "we shall know". Having spoken of the Lord and of returning to Him, the prophet says, "After two days he shall revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight". He says we shall know God, but there was something more than that: "then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord" (chapter 6:2,3). The secret of this knowledge is in the following.

At the outset of the Scriptures one is greatly struck with the intelligence displayed. Adam gave proof of very great intelligence; every creature of God is brought to him that he might name them. We are not told where he acquired his intelligence, or where he was instructed, but every creature of God was brought to him and he pronounced the name of each, and the name which Adam pronounced upon them

has remained; that was its name then, and that name remains. We have not a list given of the names which he assigned, but we are given an example in the naming of Eve which would indicate that Adam had a reason for naming each as he did. If he gave each a name, he would assign a reason for that name. One observes that much is said today, and much assumed, and yet no reason is given for it. We want to be able to assign a reason for things.

I refer for a moment to Eve; Adam assigns a reason for the name he gives her. It is a wonderful incident; a most attractive incident, the first marriage ceremony. Jehovah presents her to Adam, it was a test to the intelligence of the man, but Adam was equal to it; "This time", he says, "it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a Man" (Genesis 2:23). That is what it is to be intelligent according to God; he can assign a reason for what he says. Adam was a figure of Him that was to come; he displayed very great intelligence, but he was only a figure of Him that was to come. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave names, and in the giving of them He displays not only His sovereign right, but His divine intelligence. He gave names when here, and He never gave them haphazard; there was always a reason.

When we come on to the end, we find the assembly in heaven, and the elders surrounding the throne of God, and what remarkable intelligence they display! These elders refer to ourselves, beloved brethren; putting it very simply, they refer to Christians. They are the result of the divine thought in taking us up; they are the outcome of God's thought for us in saving us. What does the Lord Jesus think when He takes any of us up, when He calls us by name? He thinks of the possibilities; He gives us a name according to the possibilities, according to the certainties, we might say; for every possibility is a

divine certainty with the Lord. He is thinking of these twenty-four elders. He has no lower thought for any of us than that we should be among them. He has twenty-four thrones, and they are to be occupied by men called elders, and what marks them is that in everything they do, and for everything they say, they are able to give a reason. They explain things; if they worship, they tell you why.

How humbling are the occurrences often when we come together to break bread. Why do we say things, why do we do things? Participation there ought to be grounded on wisdom. If you cannot give a reason you are put to shame, you are short of an elder. God measures you; every word is taken account of divinely. God measures the temple and the worshippers. There is that which He will not measure, the court which is without the temple. What a terrible thing to be formally omitted from God's measuring! I would rather be measured by God, even though it brings out my failure, than be left out as unworthy of measurement. The temple, the altar, the worshippers, all are divinely measured. God has His own standard; the Lord Jesus is the standard, He is the model. These elders were in the good of divine instruction; every one of them had learnt of Christ; they were full-grown; they were not afraid of being measured.

If we speak of the course of instruction, I think it begins with this chapter in Mark. The word "crowds" is used there, it is not disciples. Earlier in the chapter His relatives had, in a patronising sort of way, assumed that He was out of His mind. They were not His enemies, He had enemies, those who said that He cast out demons by Beelzebub, but these were not His enemies, they were His distant relatives evidently. His mother and His brethren would belong to a nearer circle no doubt, but here they were standing without, and they called to Him to

come out. How wanting in divine instincts they were! According to nature His mother had a right to call her son, but she lacked in divine intelligence; she was outside His interests. They were standing without; not opposers, but content to be outside.

Well, His mother and His brethren stood without and desired Him to come to them, but He will never join them on these lines. He disowns the relationship, and the crowds are respected. There are those who are around Him inside. I would call your attention to the word "crowd" in verse 32. The multitude encircling Him; there is no natural link between Him and them, but He looks round about upon them. He does not look on those outside. They desired to see Him on natural grounds, but they stood outside. Flesh is incapable of divine culture; nature is incapable of divine culture; but if you come inside you will be where you may be divinely instructed. I want to show you how the education begins. While you stand you are not a learner; you must sit to be a disciple, a learner. John the baptist stood: dispensationally he was right in standing, but he did not come into the Christian instruction, inside. He said, "the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly" (John 3:29); but a disciple sits.

Well, in this scripture we find a crowd sitting; these sitters had begun to take the course of instruction. They are not called brethren, nor even disciples, but a "crowd", yet see how the Lord honours them! It is a circle you see, a circle around the Lord. Everything for God is on the principle of a circle. Well, the Lord looked round on the circle, He looked upon those sitting around Him. What an attitude that was! They were sitting around Him, and He looked round in a circuit on them, and He says, "Behold my mother and my brethren!" They had come to see that here was teaching from God; they desired to be instructed. They knew very little

perhaps, but they were where they would acquire divine intelligence; they were sitting around Him. That is the beginning of the course of Christian education.

Then the Lord says at the end of the chapter, "whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother". He put the brother first; it is the brother He has in His mind; the Lord was thinking of the brother. What kind of brethren were they? The course of instruction begins in sitting around the Lord, and you are recognised as a brother because you are doing the will of God; it is in that way you recognise the brother. They were using not their hands, that would come later, but they were using their ears, and that is how you do the will of God; it is in listening to Christ. Your hands will come in later and your feet too, but the will of God begins with sitting around the Lord Jesus. It is wonderful to arrive at this position, to be sitting around the Lord listening to His word, doing the will of God; of such the Lord will say, "The same is my brother, and my sister, and mother". Well, that is how Christian education begins; it shows the will of God carried out by the believer.

Now in Luke 8 the Lord does not look around on any one. What He says there is, "My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it". He did not point to them; I fear they were not there. It is a very great thing to say that any company hear the word of God, and do it. It is not a crowd in Matthew, but His disciples, His learners; they were learning from the Lord. In Luke He simply says of such persons as hear the will of God, and do it, 'They are my mother, and my brethren'. Who? Is there any one on earth today to whom the Lord can call attention in this way? "Those who hear the word of God". I desire to be

simple. God has been pleased to raise up those who have spoken to us the word of God; it has been opened up to us, unfolded to us; God for His own wise ends has removed them from us; it is very solemn. Are there those today to whom the Lord can appeal as having heard the word of God? God is looking for results. He has given to us to hear His word, and He never does anything without a purpose; He is looking for the result in us who have heard. The word has come to us, clearly, simply, but what has been the result? Are there those who not only hear the word of God, but who do it? It is a very serious moment for us. God raises the question with us, What about the doing? As we have received, even so will it be required of us again. So the Lord shows here, that those who hear and those who do, are the recognised brethren of Christ.

In John 20 we reach the highest point of the instruction. In John's gospel the Lord is more often referred to as Teacher than in any other. He is the great Teacher sent from God. John's line implies more teaching than any other. All are to be taught of God. Think of God instructing us! What does He speak to us about? The great lesson is how to love. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 the apostle says, "ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another". The gospel and epistles of John are all to the same end that we might be taught how to love. First, love itself is known; we are shown what love is, and then further, we are to love. If God takes in hand to teach us, the great lesson is love; and as we learn what love is, we also learn how to love on our part. It is all in Christ; He has shown us what love is. "He laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16), and that becomes instruction to us that we may love. If that is the great lesson we are to be instructed in, we can see that to enter into the truth unfolded in John's gospel requires more teaching than for any other. Nicodemus

in chapter 3:2 says to Him, "We know thou art a teacher come from God". That is the character of the whole gospel.

Now Mary, in chapter 20, uses the word Teacher, indicating what He was to her; she speaks according to what the Lord Jesus had been to her. If you are a true man you speak to Him according to the measure in which He has been known to your soul. The Samaritan woman, in chapter 4, said He was a prophet; she recognised the prophet in Him; He touched her conscience. She did not even known Him as the Christ; for the Lord's telling her that He was such did not prove that she knew Him in that way, but she was on the road to it, and He says, "I that speak unto thee am he". So again in chapter 9 the man is led along until finally he recognises Him as the Son of God. In the house in Bethany He was known as the Teacher; He had taught them love. So when Mary spoke to the Lord she called Him by the name by which she knew Him. Beloved brethren, I would say, Let us call Him by the name by which we know Him, in the assembly; do not be unreal; speak to Him as you know Him. Seek to convey what you have in your soul when speaking to the Lord. Mary did that; she called Him Rabboni, Teacher; He had been her Teacher, her Instructor, and she called Him by that name.

We have the finishing touches of the education in this scripture, and these finishing touches came from the Lord as ascended in principle; He was on His way to ascend. There are things, proper to the new position He is bringing to us; we need to acquire manners suited to the new position. He will make us spiritually refined and fit for heavenly relationships. Psalm 22 is headed, "according to the hind of the morning"; it suggests a hind let loose. The Lord is seen in three positions in it; we have His death and resurrection, and He is perfected; heard from

the horns of the unicorns and let go? Where does He go as set free? He thinks of His brethren "I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (Hebrews 2:12). He will give the finishing touches to their education. They are to be His companions in heavenly glory, and they will need those finishing touches.

So in John 20 He comes into the midst of His own in all the dignity and glory of His person as the One who ascends to the Father; "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father". The message had been sent by Mary, the instructed one; she had the thing in her heart; she could convey it faithfully. She had been instructed in the garden, and He had said to her, "Touch me not"; do not connect the earthly with the heavenly; "I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend". Was it like a note written? Was it something put on paper? No, she received it into her heart; she could convey it because she knew it; she understood the spirit of it. I have no doubt she conveyed the spirit of it to the disciples as they were gathered together. We want to give out the spirit of things, beloved brethren, it is not just doctrine that will help us, but we want to give out the spirit of the truth. Mary had gathered up the spirit of things in her soul. There had been the interchange of names between herself and the Lord, and then there was the instruction in order that she should understand the new relationships He had brought about in heaven: the new position and the new relationships connected with it. Do you not think she was in the spirit of the thing? I am sure she was.

Then when the Lord Jesus comes into the midst, all that occurred in the upper room was instruction for the new place; His coming in and speaking peace, His breathing upon them, His words, all was instruction

for them, that they should take their place as His companions in the presence of the Father. The name of the Father is the completion of the instruction He would give them; they are brought in before the Father in association with Him, and He sings the Father's praises, the praises of God. In Psalm 22:3 He spoke of God as "inhabiting the praises of Israel", but now He brings in the praise of the assembly. David's greatest work was to inaugurate the praise of Jehovah; he arranged the singing of the priests, and God delighted in the praises of Israel. David was the leader of Israel's choir; he was the sweet psalmist of Israel; his psalms were the outcome of his experience with God. But now the Lord brings His brethren in before His Father and theirs, and in the midst of them He sings praises; He becomes the leader of the choir of His brethren, and He sings praises to His Father.

One hopes that the word spoken may not be fruitless to any of us, that it may not be without profit. The assembly ought not to be just a religious meeting to be got through, it ought to be something for God. It should be the expression of our intelligent appreciation of the instruction of Christ, the expression of our love, for the Father seeks worshippers, and if you get the worshippers you will get the worship.

THE WORKS OF GOD

John 9l-38

I wish to say a word about the works of God, a subject that Scripture begins with. "In the beginning God created". God began to work, and Scripture ends with the great result of His working. I want also to show that what God regards as His works are presented in man. It is true that "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:20). These are seen in the material system, but what He regards as His peculiar work is that which is seen in man. We have no such statement as we find in this chapter in Genesis 1; it is not said there that the chaotic state of things was there in order that the works of God should be manifested, and yet the whole of Genesis 1 is engaged with the divine works, and God says at the end of each day that "it was good".

It is very interesting in a simple way to think of oneself and to inquire whether God could say, "It is very good"; whether it is a success. I have no doubt that with many of us, as reviewing our experience and our history as Christians, we think things might be better. It is quite right to review your history as a Christian, as to what the result has been; but bear this in mind, that God reviews things. He reviews His own work. We get the sum total of it in chapter 1, and in the last verse we are told that He saw everything that He had made and it was "very good"; and He saw everything in detail. I mention this to show that everything comes under review with God. Before God takes you up as a stone to build you into the structure He passes you in review. He reviews His own work in each individual. If you look at the parts of the tabernacle, each of which

has some reference typically to the Christian, you will see each part was brought to Moses.

I do not know how long you have been converted, but I think the work in you ought to be brought before the Lord. If you bring it to the Lord He will tell you all about it and how much of it is really according to God. Each part of the tabernacle was brought to Moses. I have no doubt that in the end, when the structure is completed, when every item of the tabernacle, so to speak, every believer is brought in, it will be brought to Christ. It is very serious to think that we shall be presented, indeed I am only stating in another way what the judgment seat of Christ will be. But the actual work, not only what you may have done, but God's work in you, all is presented at the end. Each item of the tabernacle was brought to Moses, and Moses' judgment was that all was made accurately according to the pattern; that was his decision and he blessed it. If it had not been according to the pattern doubtless he would have pointed it out; so that we need not hesitate to come to the Lord as regards our progress. Judgment must be passed upon the work.

I would speak to young people and ask them, Did you ever come to the Lord as to the little bit of experience that you have gone through? Have you ever taken it to Him to let it pass through His hands? It will pass through His hands. Now think of this one thing, that in you the works of God are to be manifested, not hidden. Alas! they are often hidden, and so we often speak of the new birth, that such and such an one has long since been born again, but then it seems to have been hidden. If the Lord has taken you up at all it is that the works of God should be manifested in you.

The new birth is a work of God, it is not a work of man. It is a great comfort to faith that God has limiting powers. The greatest potentate on earth

cannot do as he pleases, even the very sun in the heavens can be stayed by God. But here the Lord says "the wind bloweth where it listeth ... so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). You may shut the wind out of your house, but the Spirit acts sovereignly, and you are not wise in barring up your doors and windows; let Him come in, let the Spirit of God have to say to you. God says, "my Spirit shall not always strive" (Genesis 6:3). Think of that! It is a solemn thing. He is striving now, and the wind, the Spirit, is sovereign in its activity, and it brings down, the wind throws down trees; with the idea that the works of God are to be manifested. The first great effect of the work of God is to bring down. I have often thought of Job after God's dealings with him; he says to God, I know that Thou canst do everything. It is a wonderful thing to come to that, that God can do everything. It seems an impossibility to bring down a man who is so difficult that you cannot reach him or affect him, but God knows how to bring him down, how to reduce him. The disciples said, "Who then can be saved?" How often we say that in principle. The Lord says, "with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:25,26). He pulls down before He builds up.

If you are exercised about becoming converted, you may depend upon it that God will not add to you as you are in this world. He will reduce you as to this world, but He will add to you with regard to another world. The feast of unleavened bread referred to so much in Scripture, prepared for the feast of Pentecost. The feast of unleavened bread is to reduce, and the feast of Pentecost is to enlarge. The gift of the Spirit enlarges. When the wind blows where it lists it brings down. On the day of Pentecost it was not like that. It was not then the "wind bloweth where it listeth": the wind blows in a certain direction. We can tell where the wind came

from on the day of Pentecost and we can tell where it was going. It came from Christ in heaven. They heard, it is said, from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind; not blowing this way or that, but blowing down from heaven. The wind that brings down is a horizontal wind; that is the first work of God in you, but the Spirit indwelling you enlarges you and builds you up as to what is of God. I venture to speak in that way so that we may have clearly before us the means by which God effects His work, but the whole point is, as the Lord says here, "that the work of God should be manifested".

Now the first thing is that one should have one's eyes opened. In Mark 8 you have a man similarly found by the Lord, as the one referred to in the chapter before us. The gospel of Mark is a remarkable gospel in this way, that you find sympathy around where there is need; you do not find that in John's gospel. There is not an atom of sympathy around this man in John 9. In Mark 2, for instance, there is a paralytic, who is borne of four; he is not only borne by a friend of his, but there is general sympathy for that man. That is how Mark presents things. You might say two would have done, but four gives the idea that it is not only one or two who are sympathetic with the man, but the surroundings of the man were sympathetic. It is a wonderful thing to have a number of people praying for you! I have no doubt that that is what is going on at the present time; there is a great deal of pressure, a great deal of exposure to death, and there is prayer, the spirit of prayer is all around. That is how God works. The man was borne of four; and the house in which the Lord Jesus was carrying on the service of God was entirely sympathetic; they let the man down through the roof and there was not a word of protest. But when it is a question of showing what the work of God is by itself, it is seen where there is no sympathy

at all; and that we find in John 9, there is no sympathy in the surroundings of this blind man. The neighbours knew that he sat and begged. They ask, Did he sin? Did his parents sin? No! Why then was he born blind? His is an extreme case. In Mark 2 it is not an extreme case; the man there was not entirely friendless, he had at least four friends, and the number four is universal. But if it be a question of showing what the work of God is we have an extreme case. This man was blind from his birth.

Well, no converted person would admit that his own case is not extreme; if you have not come to that you have not judged yourself. "God be merciful to me the sinner" (Luke 18:13); "the sinner" is the extreme case. Then the Lord states, that "as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world", and He spits on the ground and makes clay of the spittle and puts it on the man's eyes. It was a very remarkable thing to do to prove what He had just said, that "as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world". The man's eyes are covered with the clay; a thick layer, as we might say, of the clay is spread over the man's eyes. Were we to pass a mere human judgment upon that piece of the Lord's work we might say that He was increasing the darkness of the world. We cannot judge by nature. You may say, How could a man see through a layer of clay even if his eyes were open?

In this type the Spirit of God would detain us with the consideration of the humanity of Christ! Do you inquire about the clay? It was a type of the humanity of Christ. The divine glory was all veiled there. All the light of God was veiled behind the "clay". In order that the light of God should burst forth He became man, and when He comes here He says, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:9). He was the "sent one". Behind all is the activity of the heart

of Christ as having come from God in obedience. It is Christ as the "sent one", the sent One from God with all the light veiled behind His humanity. If it were possible to make the man more blind the layer of clay would have done it, but if relief is to come there must be, in some measure, correspondence with Christ. Apart from the principle of obedience in your heart your salvation is impossible. That will of yours is in the way; it is the will that works in shutting the door of your heart against the Spirit of God and against the light.

The Lord says to the man, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam". The man was already a subject of divine work or he would not have gone, but he went. We are told the interpretation of the name lest we should not understand it. The pool of Siloam was not a pool that was troubled occasionally as the pool in chapter 5, it was not stagnant; the pool of Bethesda was. Sometimes the meetings are like that; they are stagnant, and the "angel" comes; there is a stirring up, and then things lapse back to where they were. The impotent man at the pool of Bethesda got no benefit from the disturbance of the water. Siloam was not that; it went "softly". It was the principle of obedience. This man did not question, he obeyed Jesus; he went and washed and "he came seeing".

Now the Lord took the man in Mark 8 outside the village in order to open his eyes; and after He had opened them He says, "Neither enter into the village, nor tell it to anyone in the village". But it is not so here in John 9. There is no danger of this man going back to the village. John's converts are typical ones. For instance, of Lazarus in chapter 11, the Lord says, "Loose him, and let him go". Now in Luke 7 the man that is raised is not "let go", he is given back to his mother. The examples that John gives take care of themselves as it were; they are

the subjects of the work of God, and the work of God gives an account of itself. Look into your heart and see whether there is anything like that there. Do not always be referring to the date of your conversion. The question is, What has happened since? Have you been able to take care of yourself? "he that has been begotten of God keeps himself", (1 John 5:18). Must you be always under servants? That is a poor thing! Luke gives the young man back to his mother. Lazarus is not put in anybody's charge, but the word is, "Loose him" (John 11:44); as much as to say, give him an opportunity of showing the effect of the work of God in him. How he justified the Lord! for he was found in the Lord's company, he "sat at table with him", (chapter 12:2).

Some young people would go to the theatre if they were "let go", but if the work of God is in you you will not go to the theatre nor read a novel. Nothing but the work of God can be trusted. No professions can be trusted, but the work of God can be trusted. This man was not told not to go into the village; the Lord knew he would not go. Whereas in Mark the man, is carefully warned not to go to the village, and told, "Go to your house"; go where you will be under control, under good influence. That is a very important warning for young converts: keep near your parents, keep near the brethren.

Look at the glorious history of this man. I have not time to go into it. "He came seeing", and then one class of people after another have to say to him, the neighbours first, and he gives an account of himself to them. The work of God never fails; it manifests itself. The neighbours are not opposed, but the Pharisees are opposed. Be careful of the leaders of worldly religion!

Many persons put forward their inquiries about this man; they could not believe that it was he

that was born blind; but it was he. Then, finally, his parents come into evidence. They are not opposed to him, but they are not prepared to answer for him. He did not need them however. They say, "he is of age", and so he was: nobody else can speak for him. He can give an account of himself, the man was of age spiritually. There are very few Christians now who are "of age". See to it that your exercises are keeping pace with the work of God, because otherwise they are of no account. Make sure they are exercises of the light. This man began with seeing things.

Now he makes a confession. He is formally asked as to what his judgment is of Christ. I do not know of any question so important as that. Sometimes the Lord Himself asks it: at other times, it may be, that one of the saints asks you, or it may be an enemy, as it was in this case. The Lord asked the question, "What think ye of Christ?" There was no answer to that. But when He asked His disciples, "Whom do ye say that I am", there was an answer: "Thou art the Christ". The answer of this man is, "He is a prophet". A Christian should always speak of Christ according to his own apprehension of Him, because we are now so supplied with terms and expressions that really we are stunted in using them. Speaking to the Lord in language that is not your own is offensive, and damaging to yourself. This man says, "He is a prophet"; he did not pretend to say a word more than that. That was all he knew, and his belief was based on evidence that brought conviction to his heart. He says: "If this man were not of God he could do nothing". He must be of God.

Well, before I close, I should like to say a further word to show how the works of God are manifested in one becoming suited, not only for testimony, but suited for God. This man became a worshipper. Solomon tells us, "Prepare thy work without ...

afterwards build thine house" (Proverbs 25:27). This man in John 9 was gradually led on until the works of God were manifest in him, in this sense, that he became a worshipper. Firstly, he speaks of the Lord as "a man called Jesus"; then he speaks about Him as a "prophet"; and then there is in him the idea of "the Christ", for the Jews had agreed that if any one acknowledged He was Christ he should be put out of the synagogue, and as the sequel shows he virtually confessed that Jesus was "the Christ", and he was put out of the synagogue. They said, "Dost thou teach us?" But he could well teach, for he was "of age". Such is the effect of the work of God. It makes you a teacher. It is not a question of how long a man has been converted, but what moral and spiritual power has he; what convictions has he? Instead of listening to him the Pharisees cast him out.

When the world rejects you, they help you. If you are offensive to the company you keep they will not keep your company very long. Enoch walked with God and he pleased God, otherwise he could not have walked with Him. At length we read of this man, that they "cast him out". Now look! "When Jesus heard that". He watched over the man's soul. He is the Overseer of our souls. He knew all that was going on, and when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, He finds him and virtually acknowledges him; He justifies him; the works of God were justified in him. It was a red-letter day for the man, and the Lord takes special account of it. When He finds him he puts the finishing touch to the work. He would lead him on to perfection. That is a real difficulty with many of us, and there are so few perfected. We have not full perfection yet, but every Christian should be perfected. Paul said, "to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).

Well, the Lord was going to perfect this man, so He makes him a worshipper. You are never perfected until you are a worshipper. He had been a believer before. The question is, what is it that he believed? The Lord says to him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" That was a very great question! The man says, "Who is he?" If you ask a question like that the Lord will put you back on your previous exercise. He says to the man, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee". What a moment! If the Lord is going to give you fresh light He gives it to you in relation to the light you have had before; He throws you back on your previous exercise. This man had seen the Lord before. Now he says, "Lord, I believe". Believe on whom? the Son of God! He not only said it, he proved it by worshipping. There is no greater evidence of the work of God in souls than that they worship. The Father seeketh worshippers.

We are taken up by grace that the works of God should be manifested in us. I believe that at the present time the great failure is the lack of completeness. The Lord says to Sardis, "I have not found thy works complete before my God" (Revelation 3:2). What I would urge upon you, and what I would take home to my own soul, is that we should see to it that we "go on to perfection". Do not become stunted; go on to perfection. No work is complete in the soul until it is in the assembly, intelligently answering to God. The Father is seeking worshippers, and the work of God is to bring about that, to bring in the worshipping company. Let us go on to perfection.

BEHAVIOUR IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

1 Timothy 3:14,15; Hebrews 11:21

I desire to say a word about our behaviour. Taking up this verse from Timothy we see that the apostle is desirous that things should be orderly in his absence, that there might be right behaviour in the house of God. We all have to own, beloved brethren, that our ways in the house are defective, and I venture to connect Jacob with the subject, since it is with him that we first get the house of God introduced in Scripture.

I shall refer to Genesis firstly, as affording us examples of divine training through discipline, so that the believer might be enabled not only to recognise the house as being in existence, but that it might be his place of abode; then, secondly, that he should learn what is befitting in the house. Hebrews 11 refers to Jacob when he was dying; it speaks of his faith at that moment. If the Spirit of God could have so spoken of him earlier, doubtless it would have been done, but one is thankful that we have the record of his faith when dying, amplifying what is stated by Moses in Genesis, showing us too that he reached the end God intended for him when he was dying, for he "worshipped, leaning upon ... his staff". That was the end of his course.

Now I desire to trace the history of Jacob from the beginning. I want to show you the roots of his history, for if you have the roots rightly set, you are sure to get the fruits in their time. The first thing stated of Jacob is that he was "a plain man", (Genesis 25:27) and he dwelt in tents; that is what is said of him at the beginning of his history. Esau was a man of the field, doubtless a good athlete, a good sportsman, as we say, but Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents; he had no fixed abode. He had acquired the habit of dwelling in a tent from his grandfather; Abraham

had been his model. Hebrews 11 tells us that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the promise. In that way he had taught Jacob how to live; he had, by his good example, preserved Jacob from building a house; he had shown him what it was to be here a pilgrim and a stranger, though heir of the promises. So we read of Jacob, that he was a plain man dwelling in tents; that is the key to all that is developed later in the history of Jacob. He profited by the example of his grandfather. The thought of a model is seen in our day in Timothy, who was exhorted by Paul to be a model of the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. All believers are the descendants of Abraham, for he is the father of the believing ones, so Timothy is exhorted to be a model for believers in the same way that Abraham was. Personally, one has not had much opportunity of living in contact with those who have opened up the truth to us, but one can see the very great advantage, especially for the young, of having those one can follow, of having a model, and of profiting by the model. Abraham was the father of all believers; he is our father in that sense, and he has shown us the way to live.

Well, Jacob profited by the example set before him by his parents; his roots are rightly set, and thus there is bound to be development in the right direction. I have often thought of the saints at Philippi, and they remind one of a tree planted by rivers of water, they brought forth their fruit in its season. The first movement of Paul there was to go outside the gate, that is a significant action to begin with; he goes alongside the river to a place where prayer was wont to be made. That is where the roots were set which ultimately grew into a tree. What they were at the beginning they continued to be. So Jacob

began in tents, a plain man, content to be that. A man with none of the attractiveness of the world about him; be considered not for that. He said, as it were; Abraham lived in tents, and I am going to live in tents. Abraham sojourned in the land as a pilgrim and a stranger, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the promises. Jacob began there. I am speaking of what is very elementary, but I feel it to be essential in this day. See to it, young brother, though we all need it, that you are living in a tent, that you are profiting by the example God has set before you in your elders. Consider those that have taught you the word of God, those who have gone before.

Well, the tent and the house of God go together; if you are faithful in the one you will be faithful in the other. We read of Moses that he was faithful in all God's house. That does not necessarily mean a fixed abode; it is used in reference to what was moved from point to point in the wilderness. Moses was like a nursing father in the wilderness; he was not like Paul, perhaps, for he did not beget sons like Timothy, but he was faithful in all God's house, and that is a wide conception, but in every department of the administration of that house Moses was faithful. But it was not a fixed abode, it was a tent. And we, today, are living in a tent period; there is no fixed structure, but nevertheless the house of God is here. That which the wilderness saw in the way of testimony was a very plain structure, composed of byssus, acacia wood, skins of rams, skins of badgers, and so forth; it was a plain structure, just as Jacob was a plain man; the two were in keeping. Of course, on the other hand, every man that has the Spirit is stately; he is like a cedar tree to faith, but the more he is like a cedar tree to faith, the more he is like the hyssop to men; the day of the cedar wood is coming. There was a day when Solomon reared up a fixed

abode for God, he lined it with cedar wood and covered it with gold; it shone in all the dignity and glory and beauty of the Spirit, but at present we should be content with our plainness, as Jacob was. We all know the history. Jacob fled from Esau, his brother, and in Genesis 28 we get the introduction of the house of God. It is the plain man who gets the blessing, not the man of the field; the plain man secures it and he goes forth an exile from the land of promise. We find him on his way to Padan-aram, and there he sojourned for twenty years.

I want to show how we arrive at right behaviour in the house, how Jacob was led on to that. In Genesis 28 he lay down on the ground with a stone for his pillow, and he dreamed that he saw heaven opened. That plain man, a lonely fugitive, fleeing from the heart of a murderer, but the light of God was in his heart, the blessing of God rested upon him, and what could he need more? Heaven was occupied with him, and what are the dignities of earth compared with the dignities of heaven? The angels of God were ascending and descending upon him. What a moment that was in the history of Jacob! God Himself expressing His interest in him. Jacob awakes and he says, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven". He arrives at a just conclusion, for God was there, heaven was brought near to him. But he says, "How dreadful is this place!" (chapter 28:17). He knew nothing of right behaviour in the house then, he was wholly untaught as to behaviour, and sentiments, and language suited to that place, and he breaks out, "How dreadful is this place!" That may not be our case, beloved brethren, but, on the other hand, do we not often appear in the house of God in clothes which are too big for us, clothes which are far too great for us. I am not complaining, beloved brethren, but God is looking for right behaviour in His house. Do not let us borrow

clothing for that place, let it be our own clothing. The clothes Samuel wore in the house of God were made for him by his mother every year; they were suited clothes, made to fit him each fresh year. You know what I mean, do not let us borrow other people's language, let us approach with our own language.

Well, Jacob called it a dreadful place, but one thing he does in keeping with his intelligence is, that, he rises early in the morning, and rears up the stone on which he had slept and pours oil upon it. In chapter 35 he pours wine on first and then the oil, but here he simply pours oil. He avowed in that act that at the moment he was not pleasurable to God. How sad a confession that is, beloved brethren. To have the Spirit and yet to have to avow that one is not pleasurable to God. Let us pour the drink offering first; that is for the pleasure of God. You will remember when David longed for the water of the well of Bethlehem, how the mighty men procured it for him at the cost of their lives, but he would not drink it, he poured it out to God as a drink offering.

Now just think for a moment of a young man setting out to get a place for himself in the world; is he considering for God in that? Is he desiring to be for the pleasure of God? May be he has the Spirit, and sufficient intelligence to know it, but he is not pleasurable to God in that which he is doing. Jacob says, There is the pillar, and there is the anointing, and if God will take care of me and prosper me, then this shall be His house, and I will give Him a tenth of all that He gives me. I do not enlarge upon that. It is a good thing to make resolutions. I believe in making resolutions, because if you are conscientious you will be brought back to your resolution; God will bring you back to it.

So Jacob makes this resolution and then he went off to the land of Padan, and there he remained for

twenty years. But in the end, after many exercises, he returns, and then we read the Lord met him. He is on the way to his father, but he has to go to the house of God, and God meets with him. He wrestles all night to the breaking of the day. I touch on this for one reason; he asks the Lord for His name. It was a right desire on the part of Jacob, for if you have it in your heart to worship God, you must have a name by which to address Him. It is not a question of what others might say, but it is a question of the measure of light that has come into your own soul. So God says to Jacob, Why do you ask after My name? I have given you a name; you shall be Israel, a prince, for you have power with God and have prevailed.

One loves to hear people pray; our prayers disclose just where we are; that is, if we pray in our own language. To pray intelligently we must know what we are with God; we must know our power with God. God takes account of all the wrestlings of heart that go on within, however unintelligent they may be. We do not know what we should ask for as we ought, but God knows. He searches the heart, and He says, 'You have prevailed; you shall be Israel'. The power we have with God is exactly the power we have with men. We see that in Jacob's journey up to Bethel; the terror of God falls on all the cities round about, and he arrives at Bethel. It was a moment of great activity with Jacob; God had said to him, "Arise, go up to Bethel". A man is never so interesting as when he is exercised as to the house of God. Jacob was exercised.

With us no doubt the ministry of the Spirit is always to encourage us to go up to Bethel; we all need the exhortation, the old as well as the young. God says to us, "Go up to Bethel, and dwell there". We should take an example from those who have gone before. It is a time for models, a time for

examples; the word has come; Let us go up to Bethel. Beloved brethren, the exercise of the moment is not as to our path here, but as to our going up to the house of God. Let us go up to the house today. That is what Jacob said to his household, and he hid the idols away under an oak, and they started forth, and the terror upon the cities kept the inhabitants from pursuing after them. Our exercise today should be as to the house of God. God will never allow an evil to come to us, but what He comes with it, beloved brethren. He will cause His terror to be on our enemies. The house of God is the point today, and what goes with that is, dwelling in a tent. Now see how the sense of protection enters into the heart. Jacob says, "let us arise, and go up to Bethel". He is not afraid of the cities round about, though they had righteous cause for their anger, as Jacob recognised in chapter 34:30. It is an indication to us that as we take care of the house of God, all our enemies will be terrified. God will take care of His house and of every one in it.

Now, getting into the house, we have the opening up of the name of the Lord to Jacob. It is as if God said, I have a name which belongs to this place. I could not tell it to you before, for it belongs to this place. "I am God Almighty" (Genesis 35:11). It is as if He said, I have a name, and I can tell you of it now, for it belongs to this place. If it meant so much to Jacob to have the name of the Almighty God revealed to him, how much more, beloved, have we today. We have had the name of the Father revealed to us; Christ has declared to us the Father's name. His first service, as heard from the horns of the unicorns, was to declare the Father's name. He said, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren". He would have us to know by what name to address Him. He comes to His brethren, and instructs them, so that all the members, all those of the company,

should know how to address the Father. We have been given the "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father"; that is the beginning of the house language; we cry "Abba", by the Spirit of adoption. I daresay you have noticed that it is the Spirit Himself who cries in Galatians. That has reference to the state of the Galatians, I should suppose, but in Romans 8 we are given the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father". But with Jacob it does not go as far; he learns Him as God Almighty, not yet as Father.

Then a further thought in chapter 35:14 is, that Jacob sets up a pillar in the place where God talked with him; it was the place of divine communications, and there he sets up the pillar; he stands by it there; he will hold the ground there. The pillar stands upright, and you take your stand by the communications of God to your soul; you support the light of God just there. I am a great believer in local responsibility, and I would say, If the light of God comes to you in your locality, stand by it; take your stand there; support it. It was in the place where God talked to him that Jacob set up his pillar. One has to stand upright and support the light that has come to you, publicly in your life, and words and ways. The drink offering is the man's appreciation of the communications made to him. He treasures them in his heart; he values them. He is like those the Lord spoke of in the gospels who hear the word and do it; there is a testimony to how we value the communications granted to us. That is the meaning of the drink offering. The assembly is spoken of as the "pillar and base of the truth"; it is something by which you take your stand. You stand up in the power of the Spirit where the light of God has come to you, and you seek to support the testimony; and as you do that you have the sense that God can look on you with pleasure; you pour

out your drink offering. There can be no greater joy and blessedness than to know that you are pleasurable to God. Then Jacob pours the oil on that. Jesus Himself was anointed, when He came up out of the waters of Jordan; as He prayed the Holy Spirit of God descended upon Him and abode there. He knew the Father's will; He was in the secret of it, but He was praying that it might become effective; that is the Man that is anointed, beloved.

Well, Jacob had come back to the house of God. He stood up in his place there, and the pleasure of God was in him, and he is anointed; dignity according to God is put upon him for witness. Now the more Jacob proceeds on his path the more honest he becomes, the more he admits his failures; he does not hide them or deny them. Though he blessed Pharaoh in all the dignity of his position as heir of God's blessing, yet he confessed that "few and evil have the days of the years of my life been". "Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage". My pilgrimage; how one loves that thought; his life was a pilgrimage; he was passing on to the end of his course. He had to say that his years "have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my father in the days of their pilgrimage", but for all that those few and evil days had been a pilgrimage. In Hebrews 11 we learn that as dying he blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped; he did that when he died. It is not a question of dying with us, beloved brethren, but of living; we worship while we are living. "The living, the living, he shall praise thee" (Isaiah 38:19). I need not remind you of that. The Spirit of life from God has come into our souls. What for? That our lips should praise Him; that our

hearts should worship Him. So the apostle says, "We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God".

Well, I took up the history of Jacob as representing spiritual education, and if God takes in hand to educate a man He never gives up till He has brought him to the point He had before Him; He brings him to worship. Jacob becomes a worshipper. I would say one word as to worship. The Father seeks worshippers, not just worship. You may say that is a distinction without a difference, but there is a great difference. God is seeking persons; He is seeking hearts, intelligences, worshippers. His house is to be filled with them. We might as well have a form of worship unless the thing is the result of His work in our souls. God measures the worshippers, do not let us forget that. And why does He measure them? Nothing is said as to the measure they attain; it does not say how far they reach, but simply that they are measured. It is the kind or character of the worship that God is occupied with. What God looks for is that the thing should be there in character. He never alters that, "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24); it is that He looks for. So the language in His house in addressing God should be the language of our experience, it must be in truth. Do not let us use borrowed language, or we might as well go back to ceremonial religion, for both are ready made. But worship, to be acceptable to God, must be in spirit and in truth; that is not ready made, but is the result of the knowledge of the Father in the heart; it is the outgoings of one s experience of God from the heart.

I believe that you will agree with me, beloved brethren, that Jacob gives the outline of how one is to behave oneself in the house of God. He goes through certain experiences with God, and the result

is that he worshipped, leaning on his staff. That is, he began as a pilgrim and he finishes as one, and he worships God. God grant, beloved brethren, that we may be fitted more and more to be worshippers, that we may be before God according to the wonderful light in which He has been pleased to make Himself known to us. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come" (Isaiah 60:1) is the word for us. It is for us to answer to it, that we may finish our course, as Jacob did, with worship.

LIFE POTENTIALLY AND LIFE AS ENJOYMENT

Redemption is that in which the soul apprehends Christ first, and the Lord is to have a place in our affections as Redeemer. But redemption is not all that is necessary; we require to live. The Lord is to be known to our souls as the Life-giver, which I think is the point of view in John's gospel. There is a state of impotency in man, there is no vitality, no energy there. Christ makes us to live so that we have power to walk and praise God. Man's state not only involves the need of redemption but the vital principle of life has to be introduced. This is needed not only because the sentence of death was upon man, but because of man's weakness; he is incapable of any movement toward God.

There are two thoughts in connection with life: first it is potential; secondly it is a sphere and order of things. The introduction of life by the life-giving Spirit is potential, and the vital principle is infused. Death is entire inability to answer to God. On the ground of redemption the Lord infuses life into His disciples. He says, "Receive ye Holy Spirit" (John 20:22).

What each individual has to receive from Christ is the vital principle, not exactly the Holy Spirit as given to the assembly, but the Holy Spirit as given to the individual believer. When we say potentially, we speak of life as a matter of power. Life as a matter of enjoyment is a different thing; it is not a question of power only, but that you are at ease in the calm enjoyment of God's favour. But what precedes that is the getting of power. Apart from life in a potential sense, eternal life could not be touched by us. "The law of the Spirit of life" in Romans 8 can be connected with it. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets free from the law of sin and death.

In John 20 Christ had accomplished redemption and now He is free, and so He breathes into the disciples that which will pervade all in the future, the breath of life. John 20 is pattern. The Lord is seen as the One who infuses life into the creation; what is to become universal takes place in that upper room. Thus life is introduced into the believer, a vital element or principle, but eternal life is that into which he may be said to be introduced. Eternal life is an order of blessing which depends on certain conditions, and these conditions are established in Christ as risen from the dead. But it is not only that Christ is risen, but by His quickening power He brings men into life here on earth, and puts them together so as to form a moral sphere where life for evermore is, so to say, commanded. According to Matthew 25 the nations shall go into eternal life. That into which they go must be there before they can go into it. My understanding of the subject is that Israel as made to live according to Ezekiel 37 will be the sphere of it. Eternal life now implies a sphere for us. If we could get a company of people, such as Acts 2 presents, we should have the conditions in which eternal life, as it is to be known at the present time, is realised. The conditions are found amongst those who are made to live by the quickening power of Christ. Difficulties which exist are largely attributable to the fact that the conditions we have been speaking of are not manifest at the present time. My own exercise has been, not only that souls do not seem desirous of entering into eternal life, but that the conditions necessary to it are not apparent. If we were more acquainted with conditions which existed at the outset we should not have so much difficulty.

Eternal life is seen, as it will be, in Psalm 133. First you must have brethren. These are brought into being by Christ; that is, He has breathed into them. The Spirit being here we may presume there

are those among us who live, there are brethren; if so, it should be a matter of profound exercise to each one as to whether we are dwelling together in unity. The conditions of life are found where such unity is. If you are part of that you do not miss the blessing yourself, but you help to form a sphere to bring blessing to others.

LIFE AND ETERNAL LIFE

Although "life" and "eternal life" are used interchangeably, especially by the apostle John, yet in Romans they present different ideas. Eternal life is an end in view, whereas life in chapter 8 is connected with the Spirit, "the Spirit is life", and so present. Life in this sense is power, it involves ability to be free from the flesh, so as to fulfil righteousness here.

There is also the springing up into everlasting life (John 4). The latter is clearly objective and outside (above morally) the present conditions. I do not think it is right to connect eternal life with our present mortal condition, and therefore I regard it as wrong to place it in the wilderness. It is the life of God's purpose for man, and is necessarily the other side of death. The fact that it is said to consist in the knowledge of God and of Christ as the sent One only shows that the moral element is possessed by those who have it; that is, they know God as the supreme Object of veneration, and a Man tested in every way, and, in contrast to Adam, found to be infinitely obedient. All that entered into the cross was essential to this obedience being fully expressed; to apprehend rightly what sent involved we have to ponder Gethsemane and the cross. The light thus acquired has a great effect upon us, both as regards God and Christ, and negatively as regards the world, so that clearly eternal life belongs to another order of things; as it is said, "in the coming age life eternal" (Mark 10:30).

THE FOUR POINTS OF THE COMPASS

Job 37:9,17,22

I wish to connect what I have to say with the four points of the compass, and, in referring to them, not to occupy you with what is physical but with what is spiritual. There is such a thing as spiritual geography; indeed, it is said as to God that "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Romans 1:20). He made everything on His own account, having in view a race of creatures who should not only be physical but spiritual.

The physical part of our being is said to have been made by God out of dust or clay (very humiliating!), but the spiritual part of our being came from God. God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We do not, therefore, receive our spiritual being from our parents, we receive it from God, as it is said, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). That does not simply refer to what Adam received personally, but to what each one of us has received. We receive our spirits from God, and thus we are in direct relation with God and in direct responsibility to God. Let us not forget this. When dissolution happens, the spirit returns to God who gave it. It is that part of us in which we have direct responsibility to God, and God claims the spirit. Where we are to be, as identified with our spirits, is determined in the time of responsibility, which is the present time. In that light I refer to what is material -- the north, south, east, and west -- in the hope of our apprehending the invisible things God would disclose. These being there, they have their own voice as the other things have that are made; they have a spiritual significance.

Those of us who have believed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit from God, and thus are in the house of God, have an outlook towards the east, which means that our hearts are always full of hope. How is it with your heart? Paul preached that those who believed might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). How much hope is in your heart? If you look at the world as it is -- suppose you are a politician -- what is your hope as to the future of this world? What is to be the outcome of the wisdom of the governors and legislators of this world? It is a western outlook, that is, the sun is going down on all that system of things for ever. Whatever it is you are associated with, your hopes and aspirations, all have an outlook westward, and there is only "the blackness of darkness for ever" there (Jude 13). I am not here to decry politics, but for the deliverance of souls from all that keeps them away from God and from Christ. It is said of those that are lost: "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not" (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). If your hopes are built up in connection with this world, its ultimate end is "the blackness of darkness for ever". The politicians of this world are at their wits' end. Some of the leading ones admit that civilisation was well nigh destroyed through the Great War. What shall it be the next time? What will happen to this world if another such war occur? Let no one be deceived; it is a dark outlook, so to speak, a western outlook. That point of the compass refers to disappointed, unrealised, unsatisfied hopes!

The believer in Christ has light in his soul. His outlook is in another direction. He knows Jesus, who lives by the power of God in heaven as having accomplished redemption. The believer knows that just as the sun rises, so will Jesus arise as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2). In other words, we believers have something in our

souls. We have the light of the glad tidings which have been declared by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, and we have believed them. That is the one great thing -- to believe; to repent, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9). The Holy Spirit has come down from heaven to proclaim it. It is presented on the principle of faith to faith. Have you, dear hearers, believed the gospel? I press it home. If you have, a bright or eastern outlook is yours, you have a hope that "maketh not ashamed", for the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

I want particularly to speak about the north and the south. The east and west refer to the future as the north and south refer to the present time. The east points to the coming of the Lord Jesus. Every time I see the sun rising I am reminded that Jesus is coming. The sun setting is the dissipation of all earthly hopes. It indicates darkness, which for the unbeliever or Christ-rejecter is the gloom of darkness for eternity. But there is the north, and also the south. These God made for Himself, and Elihu, in speaking to Job says, cold cometh out of the north. We all know it well; we know what the north means. God made it as a sign that judgment awaited guilt. Jeremiah in his day, as he began to serve, sees a vision, a seething pot, "and the face thereof is toward the north". God's explanation is, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth" (Jeremiah 1:13,14).

But Elihu says again, "Fair weather", or as it correctly reads, "Gold cometh out of the north". That is why I say the north refers to the present time, as the south does, for if gold comes

out of the north it is because Jesus has borne the judgment of God. Jesus has faced the bitter cold winds of God's judgment, so that gold, or righteousness, is there for us. In order that we might be covered with divine righteousness -- the righteousness of God -- Jesus faced all that the north signifies. Think of Him in that hour! He says, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:36). We think lightly of sin, but Jesus did not think lightly of it. As He took the cup of judgment from God, He knew what was in it. He knew men had sinned from Adam onward; all had sinned. Does any one think otherwise? Let God be true and every man a liar. Admit the truth in God, the lie in yourself. If any think otherwise than that all have sinned, they think a lie.

"All have sinned"; you, dear hearer, have sinned. As the light of God comes into your soul, you say, I have sinned; "O God, have compassion on me, the sinner" (Luke 18:13). There is no hope for any one unless he repent. God has opened a door of repentance for you: God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). We should face these things. As the light of God enters a man's soul, he acknowledges his guilt: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). When Jesus took that cup from the Father's hand, He knew what was in it -- the judgment of God against sin. Jesus bore that. Becoming Man He took upon Him all that lay upon man and glorified God in respect of it in His death.

This applies to the Chinese and to the negroes as it does to us in the west, for the simple reason that we are all men. As Man, Jesus stands in relation to all men; He is the one Mediator between God and

men, who "gave himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6). Luke gives us His genealogy back to Adam. As in death He was on our side to take up the liabilities which lay on man. The judgment of God on us was in the cup, and He drank it. Is that light to your soul? It is to mine, thank God. Jesus has suffered in my stead; I shall never come into judgment. Gold comes out of the north. The Authorised Version reads "fair weather". It is fair weather surely. What could be fairer than the morning of the resurrection when Jesus rose from the dead -- not a cloud to be seen in the sky.

There is, however, more than fair weather; there is clothing for men, the righteousness of God, for gold comes out of the north, and that speaks of divine righteousness. When Eve sinned and Adam sinned, both were irretrievable, as left to themselves, but God clothed them with skins. His righteousness is now the clothing which fits every believer for the presence of God; it makes us "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12).

What do you, my hearer, know of the gold out of the north? What has come out for you? The gospel deals with individuals; it was never intended to civilise the nations, but to take a people out of them -- a people sanctified by the Holy Spirit; it contemplates that each one has to do with God separately. What has come out of death for me? The best robe. In the story of the prodigal son, which never grows old, the prodigal is clothed with the best robe that God has. That has come out of the death of Jesus. We are not told what creature was slain to provide skins for Adam and Eve, but we read that God clothed them. Now God brings the clothing for us out of the death of Jesus -- He who entered into the judgment that lay upon us and exhausted it. The fierce blasts of the north wind bring cold. When Jesus was

forsaken of God on the cross there was darkness over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour. The bearing of that is present; it is for us; hence the gold.

The reference may be to the Aurora Borealis, the wonderful lights that shine in the north; but the great moral truth is that God was glorified in the death of Jesus. Out of that death has come the gold by which God covers us, "the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:9). "Now the righteousness of God ... is manifested ... unto all and upon all them that believe" (Romans 3:21,22). Many here tonight have it on. Would you like to be robed with God's righteousness? He will never quarrel with that robe; it will stand in His presence. We believers know what it is to be in the presence of God perfectly restful; we are there in the full value of the death of Christ. We are before God clothed in His own righteousness.

Some do not submit to the righteousness of God, but this is the height of folly, for without it we must be shut out from God for ever. The righteousness of God is manifested "unto all and upon all them that believe". It may be yours now on the principle of believing. It is not on the principle of works. God has undertaken to save man; it is His own work. "He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work" -- that is, that He might have a free hand (Job 37:7). He has undertaken this in the death of Jesus. He seals man's hand; the law effected that. The gospel announces the work of God in the resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is all the work of God. The benefits of the work of God are presented in the gospel. Every man is to see to it.

The south is just a continuation of what I have been saying. From the standpoint of Scripture writers the sun as it shone in the heavens was always

in the south. It speaks of the attitude of God towards man; we are in a south aspect. The place Christ occupies in heaven now indicates God's favour to man. He is on the Father's throne, It is a favourable aspect, and so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The present is a moment of wonderful favour for all -- the Chinaman, the European, and the African. It is, as it were, the same sun in the heavens that shines for all. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). God is looking towards you in mercy to fill your heart with hope by the Holy Spirit as you believe. This blessed Sun remains in heaven and shines on all at the present time. The south is the present aspect. Elihu says to Job, "Dost thou know ... how thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?" (verses 16,17). Many have felt this warmth even before they were converted; I certainly did. I found the world bitterly cold and indifferent, but among the people of God there were those interested and sympathetic who cared for my soul. It is an external heat at the beginning. Your garments get warm when He quietens the earth by the south wind, but when you receive Christ the warmth enters your heart; the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, who is given to you.

God is holding and restraining things in this world; it is the time of the south wind. If the north wind comes to believers, it is in discipline. It comes in love. The death of Jesus has changed the north wind for us. All discipline is in love. We are not afraid of the north wind, but God has quietened the earth by a south wind. It may be your garments are getting warm today. The favour of God is brought

to you now; He would save you now. Embrace the opportunity, beloved friends. You will get cold again if you go out without Christ. Now is the time to decide for Christ, while the atmosphere is warm, while the Holy Spirit is striving with you and the people of God are round about you -- all earnestly desiring your salvation. Many have ignored the word, and gone out into the cold, and never come back! "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Pages 75 - 152 -- "Notes of Conference in Bristol", November, 1915 (Volume 31).

READING (1)

Philippians 1

J.T. It is in mind to see the mutuality that existed at the beginning between the ministers and the saints to whom they ministered. The apostle, as you will observe, omits to introduce himself as an apostle here. Where it is a matter of doctrine or order his authority was necessary, as in most of the epistles, but he omits it here. It is simply a bondman, "bondmen of Jesus Christ", and the epistle is based rather on what he was morally than what he was officially. In that way there is, I think, a suggestion as to how things are maintained amongst the saints. What is moral in the minister is emphasised so that he becomes a model to the saints.

F.H.B. He is seen more as a living exponent of the truth rather than as a teacher. It is very useful in that way to see that God has given us a man in whom the truth is exemplified.

W.H.B. Is that why he takes up Timothy as a man like-minded?

J.T. Yes, he was a son; a son just like his father. It is remarkable how the truth took form in family relations; we are the household of God. In relation to that Philippians suggests affections, in connection with which the word of God has free course, as having their beginning in a remarkable way in connection with the households of the saints.

W.J. You refer to the Acts?

J.T. Yes, Acts 16. The chapter begins with hereditary faith. Timothy is there as replacing Barnabas. He alludes to the beginning here, what they were from the first day until now. The testimony opened at Philippi in that way. The chapter

begins with Timothy, who became Paul's son, and then we find him in the houses of the saints there. I think it will be found, the more we look into Scripture, that the testimony has run in connection with affections in that way. You will find it in Mark, which is closely allied to this letter because it is a question of the glad tidings; the Lord is seen in houses there more than anywhere else. I thought we might be helped to see, that if the young are to be led on it is to be in the way of example.

W.J. He was always glad to drop the apostleship, and to speak of himself as a Christian, what is proper to us all.

J.T. I think that in this epistle, as well as in Thessalonians and Philemon, the apostle is seen according to what he was morally. He drops the apostleship in this epistle. There can be no doubt that the ministers can be a greater help in that way by example.

F.H.B. He could speak of the things which they had seen in him, not only what they had heard.

J.T. There are many walking, he says in chapter 3:18, who are enemies of the cross. The difficulty with the young is, that they see men as trees walking; they are unable to distinguish. But they were to remember his walk; to have him as a model.

E.R. To fix their eyes on him.

W.J. If we look back we can remember that we have been more helped by what we have seen in some of our elder brethren even than by what they have said.

F.H.B. And is it not that which has given weight to what they have said?

J.T. It is not only by his word, but you get the idea from his manner of life. Abraham is commended because he would command his household and children after him. The Spirit's comment is that he dwelt with Isaac and Jacob in tents; in that way

they would get the idea of a heavenly man. Abraham is the father of the faithful; a father has in view what is to follow. Therefore he took care with regard to Isaac and Jacob where they lived. And Joseph was the fourth generation of the spiritual family. I think the preacher has in view what remains. He considers what is to follow; and if things are to be maintained, we must see to it that we set a right thought and example before the young.

W.H.B. Is that what the apostle means here by fruit, that he stayed behind in order that there might be fruit in them?

J.T. I have no doubt that there would be a continuance of that which was seen in him, but I only said that to make clear what I had in mind in suggesting the epistle.

T.H.R. I think it is a great thing to see in this epistle that the apostle's public service was over, and that he was not preaching the gospel, but he was standing for it. He was set for the defence of, to answer for, the gospel; and Satan got no advantage over him. His head is covered in the day of battle. Suppose he had got irritated by the circumstances he was in, Satan would have got an advantage; instead of that Christ came out, and Satan was entirely defeated.

H.D'A.C. It does not matter where the witness to Christ may be, his testimony is bound to have an effect on all around, as in the case of Paul in prison.

T.H.R. And Christ was greater than Satan. Satan would have liked to get an advantage, but everything turned out to salvation. Christ was covering Paul's head in his conflict with Satan: Satan was defeated. "According to my earnest expectation and hope, that ... Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death".

E.J.McB. Is not that rather the idea in the

epistle that when a person gets beyond active service, the light that has been there all the time is shown in living testimony?

T.H.R. Yes, apparently Satan had secured an advantage in shutting him up in prison, but all the way through we see that Paul is the conqueror; and I think that in this chapter Christ is more mentioned than in any of his other epistles.

J.T. Things had had a good start; the gospel was not only a benefit to the Philippians, they laid hold of the thing, and were sympathetic with it. Paul was simply a bondman of Jesus Christ with others; and it is very touching that he addresses along with the saints, the overseers and ministers; account is taken of all that the Lord had given; there is mutuality.

T.H.R. There were people who preached Christ of contention; but "Christ was preached", in that he rejoiced. It is a man who is superior in every difficulty; Satan gets no advantage over the gospel of Christ which Paul stood for.

J.T. It would be helpful for us to see the perfection of sympathy in which the word goes forth; the gospel flourishes in connection with sympathy. It is not only dependent on the preaching, but on the sympathy of the saints.

T.H.R. I think it is beautiful, the Philippians had sent him a little money, and he says, "ye all are partakers of my grace".

J.T. He speaks of their fellowship with the gospel. It is remarkable that though he speaks of their having him in their hearts it is a question of the glad tidings. In Mark it is the beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as though the Spirit would emphasise the importance of the glad tidings. Paul would pass away, but the gospel would remain. They had had fellowship with the gospel from the first day, and that remains.

J.S.G. Do you read the epistle in two lights? In this way that if you think of the Philippians you think of what is collective; but if you think of the bondmen you think of what was presented in Paul and others; and Paul is counting on the Lord that what was true in him should be formed in the Philippians.

J.T. He looked for them to work out their own salvation. The gospel remains, and the saints remain. The great thing to see is that there is a model.

J.S.G. He is a model in every chapter.

T.H.R. And I think you get those who do answer to it. The Philippians were answering to it in sending the money, and then of Timothy he says, "I have no man likeminded". Then with Epaphroditus, there is the total absence of self; he would not have the Philippians troubled about him.

J.T. They were in sympathy with the glad tidings in consequence of its having taken root in their hearts. One would desire that the saints should see that the glad tidings remain here, and consequently inquire as to how it is to be supported. A Philippian Christian would be greatly pleased with Mark's account of the glad tidings, because it is the beginning of the glad tidings.

W.J. I think there is a very striking link between Mark's gospel and this epistle. In the third chapter we get the blind man seeing all things clearly. The line Mark takes goes with this epistle; you see the blind man of chapter 8 in the third of Philippians.

E.J.McB. Would you expect to find the remarkable features that were there at the beginning?

J.T. The Philippians had come to the end of Mark 8. The man is led outside the town if his eyes are to be opened. Young people have to be led outside the town. Then the Lord touches him with both His hands, and spits on his eyes, but the young

man does not see clearly; then the Lord put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up, and he saw everything clearly. After that the Lord says, "Whom do men say that I am?" Peter says, "the Christ"! In this epistle Christ is everything.

W.J. Does not that mark the gospel? There is one blind man peculiar to Mark, and another to John.

J.T. In John it is that the works of God may be manifested.

W.J. The thought of sympathy comes out very strongly in Mark's gospel. His feelings are expressed there.

J.T. You find the Lord goes into a synagogue, and there is a man there with a demon. He casts out the demon, but there is no sympathy in the synagogue. But He goes into Peter's house, and Peter's wife's mother is sick; He heals her, and then immediately there is sympathy; she ministers unto them. Then when He returns to Capernaum He enters into the house, and the paralytic is let down through the roof before the Lord, showing that the house is completely won for Christ. Then in the second chapter you get another house, Levi's house, in which the area of sympathy is enlarged.

F.H.B. When He came to the ruler's daughter He cast out all who were not in sympathy.

S.H. Acts begins and ends with the house; and so in Acts 16:15 Lydia said, "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide".

J.T. I have no doubt it was Lydia's house that put it into Paul's mind.

S.H. Both sympathy and the opposition come out in the chapter.

J.T. He said, I do not only want to have this man, I will have his house.

W.J. And in Philippians that had been maintained.

J.T. Yes, that is the point, what marked them at the beginning continued there.

S.H. I suppose your thought is that the house is the circle where it is nourished and goes forth.

J.T. It leads up to the house of God.

S.H. There is a difference between the house and the household, though the latter is often spoken of as the house.

J.T. You can control your house, "As for me and my house", (Joshua 24:15) so that to that extent you are sympathetic with the gospel, but then it leads into the house of God. If a child grows up under the influence of the parents, that is divine authority; well, that eventually leads into the house of God. Hannah is a figure; if a child is begotten for the Lord, you bring it into the house. The influence of a parent over a child is to prepare for the house of God. If Lydia had children, how they would be prepared for the idea of the testimony.

W.J. And this epistle is written that they might be maintained and developed. There was a dead fly that would spoil it (chapter 4:2).

A.S.L. You just made a remark, Mr. H., as to the difference between the house and the household.

S.H. A house is where a man lives; the household is those who are in it. Acts begins and ends with the house; Paul preached the kingdom of God in his own hired house; he disappears in his house.

E.B. Would you say that is how the gospel goes on now?

S.H. That is how it ought to get its support.

J.T. You sometimes get one within the other, "the assembly which is in thine house".

Rem. In our houses we express what we are.

S.H. Here in this epistle Christ comes out in all His excellency.

J.T. The altar you rear up in your house is an indication of what you have in your heart; that

is the measure of your surrender, you give up your natural rights, you cannot maintain them. In the house in Mark 2 they did not protest, it was quite clear that the Lord was the Master of that house.

S.H. It comes out also in Matthew 9, they took possession of the house without invitation; they knew it was a sphere of blessing, and they all came.

J.T. If one is right with the Lord in one's house, one's influence increases. In Gideon's case he reared up an altar for himself; then he had to throw down the altar of Baal in his father's house his influence increased.

F.H.B. The effect of the gospel is to come out first in ourselves, and then in our own house.

J.T. So that one's altar becomes one's tell-tale.

Ques. What do you mean by the altar?

J.T. It is a question of surrender and sacrifice. You are marked by readiness to suffer, not by ease and comfort.

S.H. At the beginning of the third chapter you worship by the Spirit of God.

J.T. The thought of Christ is prominent throughout. The young woman in Acts 16 announced that these were the servants of the Most High God, but that was not true, they were the servants of Christ.

J.S.G. Will not the development of all you have been speaking of be seen when the day of Christ will be brought in?

J.T. They were not the servants of the Most High God but the bondmen of Jesus Christ, and that involves suffering.

J.S.G. And is it not a fact that suffering brings us into sympathy one with another?

J.T. Well, it has a binding influence. The Lord called attention to the saints as sufferers, "Why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4). It seems to be a central

thought of their position, they are always in suffering, they are always in reproach. It is in one's house that one must have an altar; both Lydia and the jailer exemplified it.

H.D'A.C. I suppose that is why the Lamb is so very prominent in the millennium; all that have suffered will have a very great place there.

J.T. The Lamb's wife; she is qualified through suffering.

G.W.W. Is it not in this that the privilege of the present moment lies?

J.T. That is what it says here, "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake".

G.W.W. In that way the bride is made sympathetic for her association with the Lamb.

J.T. I think she is qualified. We have a peculiar line of suffering, and it begins with one's altar.

F.H.B. The gospel was the testimony of the Christ, and forms the saints according to Christ. Paul was formed by it.

G.W.W. I would like to hear a little more as to your thought of the altar in connection with your house.

J.T. In Genesis you have no special instructions for the altar; but it is a book that presents to us altar builders, and I gather from that, that they were left to act according to the light they had in their souls, so that each altar indicated the measure of the light of its builder. Now, when you come to God's house, He is very careful as to the dimensions of the altar. You are the ruler of your house, so it is left to you to build your altar, and the saints find out where you are thereby. One is disclosed publicly through one's altar; it is a question of what you are prepared to give up. It is in your house that whatever may have come upon you through nature is sure to show itself. Now the question is whether you are

going to value these things or Christ; whether you value any nobility that comes to you through nature more than that which comes to you through Christ. Then you throw down the altar to Baal and think of Christ. "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord" (Acts 16:15); she did not think for a moment that she was patronising Paul by inviting him to her house; but it was he that was patronising her. You must have your altar at the door if you want the servants of the Lord to come into your house.

One of the most baneful things that has marked Christians has been the recognition of what is according to nature. I have noticed it in regard of Job; in the first chapter you have Job's family, the number of them, and how Job regarded them; but they were feasting in their elder brother's house; that tells the tale; things were on the basis of nature. Alongside of that you have the spiritual family. What were they doing? They all came to present themselves before God; that is, God is in the hearts of the spiritual family. Well, Job's family were feasting in the elder brother's house, and the wind smites the four corners of it: there is an end of all that. Mind, Job was not feasting. Now, in the end of the book you get the spiritual family, the same number of sons and daughters, but not a word about the elder brother. Job gives the daughters an inheritance "among their brethren". The spiritual recognises the saints as brethren; there is no one pre-eminent except the Lord. That is what the Lord would bring us to, the recognition of spiritual principles, not natural ones, and if not, there is no room for the testimony; you may support it, but your house does not.

T.H.R. I think another thing that one wants to bear in mind is, that we ought to know God's altar, and the pattern and meaning of it, then our altar will be all right.

J.T. Quite; but there it is in Genesis, the altars are left to the builders.

G.W.W. So that as one's appreciation of the testimony of the Christ was raised, the character of one's altar would change.

J.T. In the first chapter we see how things began at Philippi; sympathy began in their houses.

W.J. The first chapter is a kind of index.

G.W.W. A man regulates things in his household in connection with the glad tidings.

J.T. So that a good Philippian Christian would admire the presentation of the gospel as it came out in Mark; he would say, I would like to have my house like that. With Luke, he presents the things the Lord did; but Mark emphasises how He did them. It is the "beginning of the glad tidings" (chapter 1:1) so that the course of the glad tidings is detailed. It is very striking how many times the Lord is found in houses.

Ques. Would Zacchaeus illustrate it, "To-day I must abide at thy house" (Luke 19:5)?

J.T. Quite; he received Him that day.

F.H.B. So the first effect is to put matters right in your own house.

J.T. Then he refers to the overseers and ministers; you cannot have overseers and ministers unless houses are in order.

D.L.H. Might it not be well to say something about the gospel itself?

T.H.R. I think the gospel is largely connected with the truth of the altar, but when you come to the third chapter you are set for heavenly places.

J.T. It seems as if the gospel is synonymous with the testimony. We have often said that in Mark we get the perfect Servant; but the point in Mark is to show how that Servant introduced the gospel and maintained it. In that way I understand that the gospel is equivalent to the testimony as we speak

of it. That is what is in the heart of God for recovery and the reinstatement of things according to His counsels the question of how comes in. There is a great deal going on in Christendom in the Lord's name; but Mark would help us to judge things, not so much what things are done, but how they are done. Wisdom is skilful. One may see the thing done and admire it, but a skilled workman admires the manner in which a thing is done, not only the spirit but the skill. A thing may be done in a right spirit but be clumsy. "He hath done all things well" (Mark 7:37) is said of the Lord.

T.H.R. It never wanted a finishing touch.

J.T. What the Lord alludes to in Sardis is that things are not complete, nothing finished. So the great thing is the completion. There was nothing ever wanted to be touched up after Christ, it was done perfectly.

E.B. Do we not get the gospel presented here very much in view of Christ's day, not simply for present blessing?

J.T. I do not think one is formed by the gospel until one is anointed. The tabernacle was all anointed after the parts were put together. First you have the pattern, then the workmen, and each piece is made as if it were to be passed judgment upon; and Moses put every piece in its place, but they are not yet anointed. You may have many converts, and so on; but are they anointed? The last chapter of Exodus gives the anointing, and it is when anointed that the glory fills the scene. God is complacent with things anointed. It was all like Christ, because He was the pattern. Paul was very like Christ; he had not quite arrived at complete conformity, but that was what he was after. I believe that is the idea, that the gospel brings in what is suitable for the anointing.

G.W.W. You mean not simply what we may call soul salvation.

J.T. No, it is what a man is outwardly, he is marked by grace, he is dignified. Take the Lord Himself, "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me" (Luke 4:18). They marvelled at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth.

Rem. Oil to make the face to shine.

J.T. That is the idea.

Ques. Does the thought come out in verse 20, "Christ magnified ... in my body"?

J.T. I think so, very aptly.

Ques. How do you mean coming out in the face?

J.T. As our brother remarks, oil makes the face to shine. The natural boldness of the man disappears. Look at Stephen, he was full of the Holy Spirit, and his face shone as the face of an angel; that is a suggestion of it, I think. But it is a very striking thing that in Christendom you get nothing completed; in fact, they do not pretend to complete their cathedrals even.

J.R.K. Is it not an interesting thing that in Mark power comes out, and that links with Romans, so that we can understand what He has purposed to do?

J.T. Peter, in referring to himself with the others as witnesses, says, "we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:16). They were affected by it.

J.R.K. And in Mark 9:1 there were some standing there who did not taste death until they had "seen the kingdom of God come in power". In Luke 9:27 it is, "until they shall have seen the kingdom of God"; and in Matthew 16:28, "the Son of man coming in his kingdom".

E.B. Does verse 6 give us responsibility towards one another?

F.H.B. I thought we have in that verse what was underlying all we have spoken of as the expression of Christ in Paul and the saints; that is the work of God in the saints.

J.T. And that it will be completed.

F.H.B. Until it comes out in perfection for display in the day of Jesus Christ.

W.J. I think his prayer is the key to all that he says, he first prays about it.

E.J.McB. The apostle had confidence that God would bring the work to completion.

J.T. I think that is very important; and he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Take a convert, it is not what he is now, but the possibilities that are in him. The preaching has in view what a man is going to be. The apostle laboured that every man should be presented perfect in Christ Jesus.

E.J.McB. What encourages me is that you get a man like Abraham, and he looked to see Christ's day; but the gospel brings in the possibility of that day.

J.T. He "rejoiced to see my day", the Lord said (John 8:56). It is a Man; faith always looked for a man; not a babe but a man. Now he "rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad". Now Paul is looking to bring everything up to that day.

G.W.W. Does it look on to the future?

J.T. The question is what you have in your mind; you want to have an ideal.

S.H. You must have nothing less than the mystery.

J.T. Quite, and you do not want anything to be short of that.

E.B. You were speaking of Abraham dwelling with Isaac and Jacob; the responsibility really goes right on.

E.J.McB. Almost his last act was a very touching

one; he sends all the others away, but he gives all that he has to Isaac.

J.T. I have no doubt he saw Christ's day when Isaac was weaned; he saw the idea; he had to come to it. It takes us a long while to come to it. He had said, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" (Genesis 17:18). But that man would not do. Abraham saw Christ's day, and was glad: that is the Spirit's beautiful comment.

P.R.M. He made a great feast.

D.L.H. And he received him from the dead.

J.T. You have the child, and the young man, and the married man in Isaac. The married man is the complete thought. A new institution is established, and Abraham can disappear in the light of that. The marriage of the woman is on the sixth day.

S.H. Do you not think that the apostle is speaking from the height of union? He has come from that side, and I suppose all is embodied when you see that the evangelist goes forward in the light of union if he is to be effective for God. So the wilderness is not taken up as passing through, but as coming back from over Jordan.

F.H.B. That agrees with what Mr. Darby used to say, that for us Numbers comes after Joshua.

S.H. We must have the light of the land to carry us through the wilderness. I suppose we get here the pathway of Joshua and Caleb.

J.T. Pretty much; they had been in the land, and it was ever in their hearts.

T.H.R. Not exactly the heavenly calling, but the heavenly position. Then I think it is a very wonderful moment in any Christian's soul when he realises that he belongs to heaven by the grace of God; and you will find a thousand things drop off the moment you realise that, through God's grace, you are a heavenly man.

W.J. What strikes me is that it is brought forward

in connection with the circumstances in which we are found; but it is far reaching, and would touch us in a thousand ways.

J.T. I think we are apt to magnify the difficulties of our position; they are not nearly so difficult as the early Christians had to encounter.

T.H.R. I think it is interesting to see in Mark that the walking on the water is presented in a different way; in Matthew, Peter walks on the water to go to Jesus; but in Mark, Christ is seen walking on the water, coming to them. It is a pattern to my mind of John 14:18, "I will come to you". They learn Himself as One who is superior to everything.

J.T. Yes. They had come to Him flushed with victory, the demons were subject to them; but He did not make any comment on that, but He says, "Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31) and He sends the crowd away, all to the end, that they may discover what resources they had found in Him.

E.A.P. And while the epistle looks on to the completion of the work in the day of Jesus Christ, he has a present evidence as a basis.

J.T. You mean "even as it is meet for me to think this of you all".

E.A.P. And then he greatly longed after them.

J.T. He had good grounds for believing that God would complete His work, they had continued so long in sympathy with the gospel.

E.A.P. I was thinking of the Lord Jesus as a pattern of all that: He had surrendered everything, He had laid all aside to bring us the glad tidings.

J.T. And then they had Paul in their hearts. It is a remarkable thing in Mark 4:36, "they took him even as he was in the ship". It is a great test whether we are just content to have the Lord without any conditions.

T.H.R. It is a great thing in this epistle that Paul tells them what they are, not what they ought to be.

J.T. What we are by the work of God. Some are very pious, and say, I am nothing: that is not true. Paul says, "by the grace of God I am what I am", (1 Corinthians 15:10).

T.H.R. It is a great point, What kind of a Man am I linked to? If it is a heavenly Man, then I must be a heavenly man also.

J.T. It is not only what God has done in Christ, but what He has done in us. God has begun in you, and He will complete it. "According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!" (Numbers 23:23).

T.H.R. And yet it was all wrought at the Red Sea.

F.H.B. That was more what He had wrought for them; but, according to Balaam's prophecy, the people are seen according to what God had wrought in them.

J.T. It speaks of what God wrought at the Red Sea, but what you did at the brooks of Arnon. "According to this time it shall be said, What hath God wrought!" He had wrought silently all the time of the wilderness, and ultimately they are made suitable for the land according to that work. I think it is most important here that what God has wrought in you He will complete.

W.H.B. You were saying, this work was not completed in Paul; at what point was it completed?

J.T. According to this epistle he does not say it is completed. I think we may infer from 2 Timothy that he had finished his course.

F.H.B. I think the work is not completed until the Lord comes and changes the body, and fashions it according to His body of glory.

W.H.B. I meant in regard to his soul's history.

T.H.R. I think a full-grown man is one who has Christ before him as his one object.

J.T. Paul was not yet perfected. All his desires and energies were after Christ, but he was not yet perfected.

S.H. What you have said about the Red Sea, and what they had done at the brooks of Arnon, ought to help us very practically: what have we done?

J.T. And there is another thing: I think it will be found that Mount Nebo and Mount Pisgah correspond. One looks towards the wilderness, and the other towards the land; so that you look and see what God has done in you, and thus you are suitable for the land. I am quite sure we shall never be heavenly without the work of God in us.

READING (2)

Philippians 2

J.T. We did not get far into chapter 1, and I think on referring to it again, that in no section do we find the apostle so great an example as in the way he speaks of Christ.

J.S.G. What do you consider the great point of chapter 1?

J.T. I think what I mentioned, the great regard of the apostle for the Lord Jesus, and in that way I think he sets out the idea of an altar, the sufferings which accompanied his regard for Christ, and his superiority to the circumstances. The idea of the altar is, I think, that one suffers, one is not oppressed by the sufferings, but rather superior to them.

J.S.G. Do you think he is seeking to lead the saints on, so that the day of Christ might be morally present with them?

J.T. It would be morally present in that way where there is superiority to circumstances; therefore his desire is for the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

F.H.B. I suppose the superiority to circumstances is a mark of his being under the influence of Christ.

J.T. I think there is correspondence to where Christ was as typified in the altar; the death which He suffered, but in the sufferings He was superior. Often with us, we are inferior to the sufferings, the Lord Jesus was never that, whilst feeling the sufferings He was superior.

J.L. Does Paul's singing in the prison illustrate that?

J.T. I think that is a marked illustration. The epistle suggests to us what Paul saw at the beginning at Philippi, and, through grace, they had gone on in it.

F.H.B. So that there was great sympathy between the apostle and the saints at Philippi.

W.J. I have often thought that the jailer could say to his wife in regard to the apostle, 'He is the same man as when we first knew him'. He could say, "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4).

J.T. One of the features connected with his being taken up was that he was to be shown how much he was to suffer. What we have here answers to that, and shows how in suffering he was superior.

W.J. It is very comforting that the Lord is above our failures.

T.H.R. He takes it all from the hand of the Lord, and the Lord honours him by putting him in the same path in which He was Himself, and he got sufferings such as no other apostle had.

F.H.B. He speaks of himself here as being set for the defence of the gospel.

J.T. In spite of being ill-treated at Jerusalem he was still defending the gospel.

G.W.W. Is not the last verse of the chapter very interesting as showing that the apostle was in the same moral elevation that he had been in Philippi?

J.T. That is very good. If he had failed, he had never failed from want of love to Christ. In fact it was the spirit of Christ in a way that acted in him in his great regard for the Jews.

T.H.R. If I may add a word, it was all love for Christ which took him to Jerusalem. "I say the truth in Christ" (Romans 9:1). It was not merely a national affection, but he spoke the truth in Christ.

J.T. His going to Jerusalem was really a witness to the Jews of the spirit of Christ in Paul. The Lord stood by him.

E.J.McB. I think anyone with intelligence would see that the Jews should be Christ's. He ought to have them. But the wonderful thing is that there

was something dearer to Christ than Israel, and Paul learnt that in a path of suffering.

J.T. John the baptist represents a true spirit he says, "he that standeth and heareth him", there was the true spirit of the friend of the Bridegroom, but he did not proceed to bring in the bride: the time for that had not arrived. He rejoices that he hears the Bridegroom's voice, and disappears at that juncture. So that the voice of Christ is heard, but not yet effective. Now Paul hears the voice of the Bridegroom at his conversion, a voice from heaven; it was the same voice that John heard but it was not the voice of the Bridegroom of the Jew. Paul should have held to the original, but the sufferings he endured at Jerusalem and all the way to Rome only brought out the sympathies of the Lord, and the Lord only became the more dear to his heart.

W.H.B. Is not that the way the Lord does endear Himself to the hearts of His people?

J.T. In the sufferings; quite so. The Lord sympathises with us, even in the results of our failure. I think it is especially helpful to see how it is possible for a man to be completely engaged with Christ, yet governed by intelligence, so that though wanting to be with Christ, yet electing to be here for the sake of the Philippians.

H.D'A.C. What he brought before them at Philippi was the Lord Jesus, it does not say the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he has much to say as to Christ; there seems to be something much deeper, it is more the inner side of things, not the power of the Lord, but more what was set forth in Christ; love and all the grace that was expressed in Him, and which was to come out in the saints.

J.R.K. Would you say that he speaks here of love and suffering in order that he may impress those to whom he was writing with the same spirit?

J.T. He would bring himself forward as a model; there was the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

J.R.K. He speaks of them all as having been partakers in his grace, and yet he prays that they may abound in love and in full knowledge and all intelligence, and presents himself so that they may be led to the same level.

J.T. The spirit of Jesus Christ is not exactly the anointing; it is the spirit of the Man. You are affected more by the spirit of a man than by what he says. A man who is anointed is a man whose bearing in public is dignified; when you admire the spirit of a man you would like to live with that man. The thought corresponds to "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23) to which we are come. We shall come out in the future as the Christ, "So also is the Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12), we shall come out dignified.

J.R.K. You referred to dignity, which, I suppose, is being superior to the suffering.

J.T. There is a dignity about the anointing. The anointing is for the face, it affects the countenance; but the spirit is that which you would like to be near, to live with.

J.R.K. Unless you are established with the Spirit inwardly your face will not shine; the face is an indication of what you are.

J.T. Yes, but they are two different ideas. Nor what is next Thy heart can we forget. (Hymn 160) We shall "live together with him" (1 Thessalonians 5:10). That is, we all have that spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ, but we come out in the dignity of the anointing.

Ques. How do you characterise that dignity?

J.T. I would not define it. One would be exercised that one might have it. There is a dignity which is of God. For instance the Lord said, I am altogether that which I said unto you; His manner was always superior. I think it comes out through the work of God in our souls in freedom from the

pettiness of the flesh. I think we ought to cultivate the spirit in which we can live together, the Spirit of Jesus Christ; it is a lovely spirit, it is the spirit which pervades the house. That was really the oil which anointed the tabernacle; it was the spirit of a suffering Christ; the myrrh and the different ingredients suggest that.

F.H.B. We can see how the spirit of Jesus Christ comes out in chapter 2.

J.T. He went down for the good of others.

F.H.B. A contrast to the spirit of the natural man.

J.T. It really corresponds to John 13, we are to love one another as He loved us. John 13 was to enable them to live together.

E.B. "The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit" is the last word to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:22).

J.T. I think the opening verses of chapter 2 are suggestive, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ".

W.J. That gives you the consequence, there had been this seen in them.

F.H.B. He wanted to see it completed.

J.S.G. Do you think he has before him in chapter 2 the manifestation of unity?

J.T. It is not that you agree to differ. "Thinking one thing", that one thing is Christ. That is what should be uppermost in the minds of saints.

J.S.G. Do you not think it is very important to see a company manifesting unity, because of the one spirit marking them? In chapter 2 the word mind is very prominent, whereas in chapter 3 the word knowledge is prominent? I thought the manifestation of unity depended on our having the mind which was manifested in Christ Jesus, a mind which was manifested in a downward path.

T.H.R. You do not take a step by trying to follow Christ in your own strength, but you take it

with the mind of Christ in you. He said, "Lo, I come to do thy will" (Hebrews 10:9); it was not merely that He obeyed, but His whole mind was in that obedience. Then we want that our minds should be entirely subject, so that the obedience that comes out in this chapter is not merely in that way compulsory with us, but the result of having the mind of Christ.

J.T. You would say, the descending mind.

F.H.B. There will be no practical unity unless there is that mind with us. Would you not think that to have that mind we must first of all come under the influence of the love of Christ?

J.S.G. I think that was the object of the first part of the chapter, to present the mind of the Man who took the downward path.

T.H.R. I do not think that anything touches the affections like the down-stooping of Christ; that touches us more than the thoughts of glory. If I look up into the glory, it is all very great and wonderful, but it does not touch my heart like the down-stooping of Christ. We shall go into heaven, having known Him in humiliation.

W.J. He wins our hearts in His humiliation, and satisfies them with His glory.

J.T. He becomes the bread. If you eat leavened bread you become inflated, but unleavened bread is to reduce the size; there is a reducing principle in unleavened bread. In John 6 the bread of God comes down: it is that sort of bread. The old corn of the land does not reduce you; that builds you up for the land.

T.H.R. There is great attraction for the saint in the down-stooping of Jesus, we feel the depth of the love of Christ.

J.T. I believe the thought in the feast, as it is kept now, is that we may be kept small, it is the feast of unleavened bread. The best way to help a brother is to feed him with unleavened bread,

otherwise inflation takes place. The bread of God builds up the constitution here where inflation is all round us, it tends to humble; it is the humbled Man here, Christ coming down. The old corn of the land is Christ going up to where He was before; there you do not need to be reduced, you can grow there, and you do grow there.

W.J. You must know the humiliation side to reach the glory side; you cannot divorce them, can you?

J.T. Chapter 2 is in principle unleavened bread, it is descending love, it reduces; whereas chapter 3 is expanding.

T.H.R. We may get very correct views of glory, and unless you eat the unleavened bread you may get very inflated views of your position. The hymn says, "And spotless in that heavenly light, Of all thy sufferings talk" (Hymn 270).

J.T. But the feast of the passover is really to bring us down to our true level. The passover is on the fourteenth day, then the feast of unleavened bread lasted seven days. The passover, of course, is what Christ was as sacrificed for us, but our side is to supply the unleavened bread, and it is to be done every day. The passover is reduction; the feast of Pentecost is enlargement. The feast of Pentecost is not limited by time at all, it is an eternal thing.

T.H.R. It is only one day, but it does not cease.

J.T. In Deuteronomy 16 it is not divided by time like the other feasts, it is an eternal idea. We have already come by the Spirit to what is eternal, it goes beyond the millennium. But who comes into that? The Lord says, it is difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, but the camel has to go through, and the Lord says, "With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). But the apostle says, "Be ye also enlarged" (2 Corinthians 6:13).

G.W.W. In that way we may say that the passover and the unleavened bread were in view of Pentecost.

J.T. They were absolutely essential. From the divine side there was no need for the feast of unleavened bread at all; it is necessary on account of what we are, on account of our size. It is really the overthrow of Og, which is one of the greatest achievements in the history of God's people; that is, it is the bringing down that big, inflated man, the only man the dimensions of whose bed are given. So there is to be reduction before we can go into Canaan.

H.D'A.C. It is remarkable that Paul speaks of the down-stooping of Christ as he does; he had never been with Christ in humiliation, and yet he tells us more about His coming down than any. He had so seen Him in glory that he can trace back from that glory His whole pathway here, right back to the spot from whence He came.

J.T. The light that a brother gives you indicates how far he has travelled. Paul had gone on, and his experience went further than any of the apostles.

H.D'A.C. But he gathered it all from Christ in glory.

G.W.W. So that there is a process which goes on in the soul of a believer which really puts you through the eye of the needle.

J.T. Everyone of us is large in his own account, and all that has to be reduced.

G.W.W. Mr. Raven used to say, there must come a collapse of the inflated man.

J.T. As Job said: the end of his experience was, "I know that thou canst do everything" (chapter 42:2). He knows how to reduce as well as to enlarge.

F.H.B. Nobody can do it but God; we cannot do it for ourselves, or for one another.

W.J. "Christ our passover ... sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7) is a most blessed appeal to the affections.

J.T. Yes, undergoing the fire. There is nothing legal about it.

H.D'A.C. It was not only Christ's mind, but the mind of the apostle, or he could not have told it to us.

J.T. That was what I meant: he had it, he had gone that way.

G.W.W. You have a connection in your mind between the unleavened bread, and John 6 and this.

J.T. Yes, only in the sense of the going down; it affords in that way food to the soul, you cannot but delight in a food like this.

G.W.W. If there is a desire in the soul to reach the divine end, this is the sort of food that the Spirit of God will minister in order that we may reach it.

J.T. It sustains the soul.

T.H.R. It has often been said, that it is as you really feed on Christ in death, which brings you to an end of yourself, that you value the manna, the grace of Christ in His lowly life.

J.T. The manna is support for a heavenly man here in daily circumstances. John 6, of course, is for life.

A.S.L. Not exactly the manna.

J.T. Not exactly, but for life; what Christ was as a Man here.

T.H.R. But in order to have that you must know His dying.

J.T. Quite so, He is the food of your soul.

D.L.H. There is nothing typical that sets forth John 6 exactly.

J.T. Not that I know of.

A.S.L. It is not exactly the old corn, nor exactly the manna, connected with the wilderness.

J.T. This is a world of death, and therefore it is the food of life.

P.R.M. It is blessed to distinguish between He "made himself of no reputation" and the further thought, "being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself".

T.H.R. He went down really lower than the creature, He went down to death.

F.H.B. Does not one refer to what took place before He became incarnate, and the other after He was found in fashion as a Man?

J.T. It is what we may call an act of mind, it was His mind to empty Himself in that way; but, being found in fashion as a Man, there is another step, He humbled Himself.

P.R.M. I think the gospels trace it out, the deep reality of His manhood, and that He took up things in manhood in that blessed way.

A.S.L. And is it not to emphasise the difference between Him and the other man who was in creature position and exalted himself.

E.J.McB. With other men there is no humbling themselves for them to die; but with this Man, He had the title to live.

J.T. It is a divine Person that is in view. That He should become obedient unto death, that that One, who had been in the form of God, should go into death, is the excess of humiliation as undertaken voluntarily in obedience to God; yet He was superior to death, He had power over it.

W.J. Where the great reality of His manhood came into view, there His deity is asserted.

J.T. In the presence of death He had shown He was master of it, so the act of humiliation is the more wonderful.

P.R.M. "Being found in fashion as a man".

J.T. It is an historical statement. The allusion is to Adam; Adam was only a man, but he exalted himself. No other man could say, he was obedient unto death, he had no power over it; but this One

had power over it, and He became obedient unto death.

H.D'A.C. But His humbling Himself is seen not only in His being obedient unto death, but in all His pathway here. He was the greatest Man that ever was here, but He did not go about as some great one, but was meek and lowly.

D.L.H. Could it be said of any mere man that he was found in fashion as a man? It seems to me that the expression could only apply to One who was a divine Person, and had previous existence.

J.T. I suppose that is right.

E.J.McB. I think it must suppose a previous existence.

J.T. But we can say, they were both in the same position.

J.S.G. It is the place He took; but now being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself.

J.T. He had taken that place.

T.H.R. He took the place of a servant, and was found in fashion as a Man, He was not found in fashion as an angel.

P.W. Is there a hint of it in the Old Testament, "There was found in it (that is, in the city) a poor wise man" (Ecclesiastes 9:15)?

J.T. He certainly was there. He emptied Himself, taking the bondman's form. "Taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself", but the bondman's form is first, showing that the will of God was before Him in doing it.

S.H. Is not all this typified in the Ark of the covenant? He had the will of God in His heart.

J.T. I should say so.

F.H.B. Do you not think it is a great question with us how far we appreciate that Man?

J.T. I think that is the great point.

G.W.W. But the appreciation of this kind of man is going to establish mutuality among the saints.

J.T. It is evident the apostle writes to give us a perfect standard in Christ, and then to show how a man who had come under His influence would be likeminded.

F.H.B. God has expressed His appreciation of Him. He has highly exalted Him.

J.T. How a Man like this makes place for God! "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him".

E.A.P. Does not all centre in His being obedient unto death, not simply that He went into death?

W.J. Do you not get that in "as ye have always obeyed"?

Ques. With regard to God working in you, what does that mean? What does He work in you, and how?

J.T. Well, in leaving the elders at Ephesus the apostle commended them to God and the word of His grace. Christianity was inaugurated with this, that they spoke all the wonderful works of God, and these wonderful works take form now in ourselves, and it is for the willing and doing of His good pleasure, so that the saints at Philippi and ourselves should be for the pleasure of God.

F.H.B. And that pleasure is that we are formed according to Christ.

J.T. God could not anoint anything else.

J.S.G. Do you think that in chapter 1 it is working in them, and now it is their working out? I thought that what characterised the saints at Philippi was that they had been brought into sympathy with the gospel, and that God would continue that and perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ; but now comes their working out; and I thought that salvation came in because the great work of Satan was to bring in discord.

J.T. I think the apostle's joy would be to see the work completed.

T.H.R. He had joy in them, now he says, I want you to fill it up, you be of one mind.

F.H.B. Well, what we see here in Christ was a pathway of divine love, it was love that led Christ to take that pathway (John 14:31), and only as built up in divine love could we take it.

J.T. John 13 fits in with this chapter. You have a man with genuine care as to how the saints get on: that is descending love, that kind of man could wash the saints' feet. It is remarkable that in Ephesians 4 you have descending and ascending, so that if He is elevated it is to carry out the designs of love.

H.D'A.C. And while self-abnegation and lowliness mark a man his thought is to bring God to others. It is God that fills him, he has no thought of himself.

J.T. I do not know of any man in Scripture that comes nearer to us than Timothy. He is Paul's son, to begin with, and as Paul's son, or child, he cares with genuine feeling how the saints get on, and he is the kind of man that Paul hands things over to. Ordinarily a son is the one most to be trusted, and he is the kind of man Paul is at liberty to hand things to, and so it seems as if he is nearest to us. Things have come to us through him.

F.H.B. And that is interesting as showing the kind of man that would be begotten of Paul's gospel.

A.S.L. Is there not the greatest encouragement in that expression, "It is God that worketh in you"?

W.J. "Thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8); that was the spring, the law of love was there. Would you attach that to this epistle?

J.T. Well, I think so.

D.L.H. Is it not important to notice that the reception of the gospel must involve suffering; that is, if we rightly apprehend the gospel?

A.S.L. Would not that be the encouragement for the present time?

J.T. As you suggest, Mr. H., the gospel comes to us as the gospel of Christ; it comes to conform us to Christ, and that involves the sacrifice of one's natural manhood. I think, perhaps, what we are very slow to give up is our natural manhood. I think it comes about that you, like the Nazarite, have to wear long hair, you give up your natural glory, and that is how one may come under great reproach; it is the reproach of Christ in connection with the gospel of Christ. The thought in the gospel is that you are to become like that Man.

A.S.L. I take it that it is part of the reproach of Christ.

J.T. Because of the affection you have in your soul for Christ you accept it. You wear long hair here.

D.L.H. But then these things are quite elementary, in the very nature of the gospel itself; there is nothing profound in what we are talking about.

A.S.L. Well, if the younger saints find it difficult, how do you account for that?

D.L.H. Well, it means that the older ones have been very little up to the truth of the gospel.

J.T. The popular gospel has in view that Christians should become good citizens.

E.J.McB. I think we must admit that Timothy was very greatly affected by Paul.

D.L.H. I am thinking of the apostles who departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name.

J.T. Popular evangelistic work tends to qualify men to be good citizens in this world, and that is a bad beginning. The Philippians had a good beginning, and they were true to it (Philippians 3:20). Christ is presented in the gospel, and the possibility is that we are to be like Christ. If a gospel like Paul's is accepted it is sure to bring us into reproach.

T.H.R. If I look back, I knew when I came out that it involved reproach; now I feel that people can come into fellowship very easily without any reproach.

W.J. The reason is that you were in contact with men who accepted that position.

T.H.R. What struck me was that there were men who would not go on with evil; the holiness of the place I had come to impressed me.

F.H.B. The character of the men impressed you.

S.H. The outcome of all this is to produce irreproachable children of God, and they realise that they are in midst of a crooked and perverted generation.

G.W.W. Is it not interesting that in chapter 1:29, it is connected with salvation? If you stop short of suffering, you stop short of salvation.

T.H.R. I have no doubt that the salvation in Philippians is the complete overthrow of every adverse power; Christ has done it, and we are to be in the good of it.

E.R. Is there not the other side in regard of suffering, that God has not given us the spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of wise discretion.

J.T. One is superior to the sufferings in that way.

Ques. What would you look for in those seeking to come amongst us?

T.H.R. I think I would look to see whether they had faith to leave the ship, and walk on the water.

READING (3)

Philippians 3

J.T. Attention was called yesterday to the down line in chapter 2 and how it leads to the reduction of our size, preparing for expansion on the other side. And although the unleavened bread is not really the subject of the passage, in a way nothing could be more important than that the feast should be kept during the seven days. That is, that in having to say directly to what pertains to Christ in the heavenlies, there is room for expansion, God looks for expansion, because it is a very large place and requires great largeness of mind and affection; but in regard to things here, and what one is or may be in regard of the world, there is a standing necessity to feed on unleavened bread. As remarked in prayer, without the reducing process there is no possibility of apprehending the point of view of this chapter, because it is expansion. And there seems great advantage in that we have given to us in this chapter the exercises of a man like the apostle, not as an apostle, but as a Christian, his inward exercises in regard to Christ and in regard to the calling. He had other exercises which are also a model for us, such as levitical exercises. He is compelled in the epistle to the Corinthians to record his levitical exercises because of their envy and folly, though he would have preferred to have left those for the day of Christ to bring to light. But he is not compelled here, he delights to express his exercises in regard to Christ and the calling.

F.H.B. What you speak of as the reduction had already taken place in the case of the apostle: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ".

J.T. The Lord gave him a good start in that way. From Jerusalem he set out as a very great man

according to man's estimate, and would have had a very fine reception in Damascus as the emissary of the high priest, but instead of that he was led in blind, but he opens his eyes, as someone has said, on a brother, a brother in whom the Lord had confidence. And finally he is let down from the wall in a basket, that is reduction. But in order to maintain that reduction we have to keep the feast, and that is by the food we eat. He further went into Arabia, which had a very reducing effect on him.

S.H. You were referring to the Bridegroom yesterday. It is very interesting that when the Bridegroom is taken from them they fast. We see here a man who in the absence of the Bridegroom is fasting.

J.T. Quite, while the Bridegroom is present you can eat and drink.

S.H. Now he is taken from them, then shall they fast.

W.H.B. Is it not important to keep before us the immensity of the revelation which leads one to enter into the assembly?

J.T. The reduction of the man is a necessity; you cannot stand the reduction without the revelation; the revelation becomes a leverage in the soul.

S.H. It began with the first word of this chapter; he rejoices in the Lord.

W.H.B. And that is maintained in the soul.

J.T. I think that the impressions we get of Christ ought to be expanded at the Lord's supper. There is room for it there, the effect and the intention of it is to expand the heart, but that involves that you feel the littleness of the flesh. It is as they entered Canaan that they had to make sharp knives. It is in the light of the glory of Christ. It is not so easy; it requires severe handling. They had to sharpen the knives; it was the urgency of the thing

in the light of the glory; it is urgent that flesh be got rid of, so the Lord told them to make sharp knives, for He knew better than they how difficult the thing was.

F.H.B. The fasting would serve to keep up the reduction.

J.T. I was going to add that the first day of the week ought to be a sort of beginning with us, and after the Supper the unleavened bread ought to be kept up. As you return to things here there are things which give you a status, and there the unleavened bread is a necessity.

F.H.B. That is practically fasting.

E.A.P. Can you have a fast of unleavened bread?

F.H.B. Well, from a natural point of view it would be fasting, you would not think you had much of a feast if you had only unleavened bread.

J.T. The difficulty, I think, with most of us is that we do not keep a supply of this bread. It is a very noticeable word with regard to Lot that he had it even in such circumstances as his.

P.R.M. "That righteous man vexed his soul".

J.T. That shows that he had it.

Ques. Would you say a little as to what unleavened bread is?

J.T. Sincerity and truth; you are transparent and sincere with everybody. It is food for the soul, a thing man naturally does not feast on; he feasts on insincerity and lust.

J.S.G. Must we not remember that in the feast of unleavened bread, it says, Ye are unleavened? Now fasting is more on the other line in regard to what is legitimate.

J.T. In fasting you deny yourself what is lawful.

E.B. In Corinthians is it not more in contrast to leaven; whilst in Philippians it is more what is positive?

J.T. I did not suggest that the thought was in

Philippians exactly, but I suggested it in connection with the down-stooping of Christ.

W.J. Did you say that the Lord's supper helps you to keep up the feast of unleavened bread?

J.T. I think the Supper is expansion to draw you into Christ's things. We can all lay aside our personal dignity when we come together; but when you return to your individual position in the world, there the necessity of unleavened bread comes in.

W.J. Does the Supper help you thus to take it up?

J.T. Well, it enlarges your heart, and gives you power to eat the unleavened bread.

E.J.McB. Would it not be the case that if one is in the good of the unleavened bread you would be ready for enlargement when we come together?

J.T. It is what you are when the brethren are not looking at you.

T.H.R. I think it is very interesting and a most important point that we do not get the circumcision until you have had the positive things; that is, you worship God in the Spirit, the whole man is, so to speak, prostrated before God, and then you have no confidence in the flesh. It does not say that we have no confidence in the flesh and then worship; and I believe it is thoroughly true, that we cannot accept the putting to death of the flesh except in the power of life.

J.T. It is the "second time" (Joshua 5:2). They were circumcised the second time. In the light of the glory and of the new position, it is not now simply the legal requirement, it is an urgent necessity. The more you are in the light of the new position the more you see the urgency of circumcision.

S.H. It is the only way the position is maintained, if we have once touched it.

J.T. The idea of healing comes in, circumcision required healing, they could do nothing till they

were made whole. The process is necessarily a trying one; now in the healing you are conformed to the new place; it really is in the apprehension of the resurrection of Christ one is whole, as one has it in one's soul. He says here, "we are the circumcision", there is not another. Christianity is really the circumcision.

W.H.B. Besides "the circumcision" there were only dogs and concision.

J.T. Yes, now.

F.H.B. I suppose that is what he refers to in Colossians 2:11.

J.T. It is more positive here, because he proceeds to show that there is activity Godward. We "who worship by God's Spirit". It is not a ceremonial system of worship. A spiritually circumcised man would utterly repudiate a ceremonial system of worship, it is a worship by the Spirit of God, it shows that the flesh is utterly repudiated as regards our activities Godward.

S.H. It is very interesting that the circumcision and the covenant are put together in the institution of it; it was the token of the covenant. I suppose if we have not that token in the soul, we do not enter into the truth of the covenant.

H.D'A.C. It is spoken of as the work of Joshua and of Jehovah. It says, "Joshua ... circumcised the children of Israel" (chapter 5:3); and "Jehovah said to Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt" (verse 9).

J.T. Anything of the flesh that attaches to a man in the assembly is a reproach.

H.D'A.C. I think it is noteworthy that it was Joshua who circumcised them.

T.H.R. When circumcision is first brought in, God puts Abraham on a new platform; he is lifted on to a new platform before God, and then he fell on his face at once and worshipped. Then he gets

circumcision which separates him from all the nations around.

J.T. And another point there, which I think is very essential, is, "I am the Almighty God" (Genesis 17:1). It is the Almighty God which stands over against circumcision. It comes in after the contrivance to bring in something on the line of flesh. Ishmael was a product of the flesh but now the almightiness of God is to be regarded.

T.H.R. It is important what we are looking at; they were on new ground in God's land, and God brought them in by Joshua, and the Ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth had gone before them.

J.T. In that way circumcision makes room for the almightiness of God, so that instead of the flesh, here they worship by the Spirit of God. In the activities of one's affections Godward the flesh is utterly disregarded. But then it is a question of what you might boast in when you return to what we may call your position in the world.

W.J. In that connection you would get "Walk before me, and be thou perfect".

J.T. It is perfection that is in view here, and a perfect man in Christianity is one who boasts in Christ Jesus; he has all his five senses in exercise, and he appraises things aright.

T.H.R. A perfect man is one who has one object, that is, Christ.

J.T. If a man is defective in his hearing or any of the other senses he is not perfect. It is by the exercise of our senses that things become manifest, so that if a thing is presented, you appraise it rightly. I think it is in returning to one's circumstances in the world that the test comes. The two and a half tribes go over the Jordan, and pass for good brethren, good fighters, in the land; but their affections and all their interests were the other side of Jordan.

W.J. Does not the Supper teach us on both sides? On the one there is expansion, but if true to the Supper we accept the reduction.

J.T. I think so. You cannot think of Paul whilst in the third heavens becoming inflated: it was when he came back to his natural position on the earth that the danger would arise.

W.J. Do you not think that is where we are tested -- in the expansion and all that is so blessed, and then coming out we are taken unawares?

J.T. So that you make post haste for Gilgal.

W.H.B. It is a great thing that the heart should be prepared to take the sharp knives.

J.T. It is after the wilderness the tenacity of the flesh comes out; how tenacious it is in clinging to its own rights, how it sticks up for itself.

P.R.M. "Knives of flints" flint is inexorable.

E.A.P. The apostle's prayer for these saints is that they might judge of, and approve of things that were excellent; not good or better.

J.T. That is a very fine suggestion.

E.A.P. And you get his idea of excellence, Christ Jesus.

J.T. You have a good judge here, a man's senses all exercised; he says, Now if ever there was a man that had a title to confidence in the flesh I am that man, and the sweepingness of the thing; all these things put on to the dunghill. One has to feel how very far away one is. He speaks of things we never had; but here is a man who did have them, everything that a man could have to boast in, and he puts them all on the dungheap. He is speaking of what he had. It is easy for us to apply this to what others had, but here was a man who had these things.

P.R.M. Why does he not include his Roman citizenship?

J.T. "What things were gain to me", it was

included there: but a spiritual man talks about what is excellent.

T.H.R. No one will ever give up things without they are in the truth of the calling. If you have not Christ bringing you into the new ground, you will never mortify the flesh, you must do it in the power of life.

J.T. Whatever gave Paul an advantage in the world, all was cast on the dungheap.

W.J. The apostle had these sensibilities they made him feel what these things were.

J.T. And then he begins with Christ; it is what Christ is to the heart. He is the beginning of things.

A.S.L. Is not that a very important point? Christ is presented in Colossians as the beginning; Christ Himself, and Christ in resurrection; and that involves removal. We have not begun at all unless we have begun in resurrection.

T.H.R. Then again in Colossians 3:3 you have "your life is hid with Christ in God". You realise where your life is.

J.T. In beginning with Paul the Lord spoke to him out of heaven. It was such a revelation that he got the idea into his soul, there is a Man in whom all moral worth is. So that he counts these things loss and filth on account of Christ.

T.H.R. If you had not Christ, it would be mere monkishness.

J.T. The thing is to be happy in the denial; you do not want any regrets to follow it.

W.H.B. It is a wonderful thing to see that Man in resurrection. God has a Man in whom all that God wanted was complete and full, all the love of God, all the holiness and majesty, and Paul's eyes were opened on One in whom God was glorified.

J.T. Paul's light of Christ is in heaven. It was out of heaven the light shone, and the end of his aim is, "that I may know him, and the power of

his resurrection"; that is, his desire is not simply to know that Christ is in resurrection, but to know the power of His resurrection, to arrive at it from his own side; because you must arrive at it in your soul before you can ascend.

W.J. There was an increasing apprehension of the light he had seen.

J.R.K. Would you say that the first five verses give the position, and then what follows how Paul reached it?

J.T. Yes, but he had not reached it yet. He states definitely that they were the circumcision, they were that. They worshipped by the Spirit of God. The worship of the Father is in spirit and in truth. To be classified as a worshipper is not saying you are a circumcised worshipper. It is a question of the kind of worship; circumcised worshippers worship by the Spirit of God. But later on the apostle speaks of what he had not reached.

J.R.K. But when he says, "not as though I had already attained", was he not on the road?

J.T. Yes, on the road surely; but the chapter shows to us what were the exercises of the most spiritual man who had ever been on the earth besides the Lord Jesus, and he had not reached perfection; he was on the road to it. It keeps you constantly on the qui vive. A brother used the expression in prayer, not that there might be an increased appreciation of Christ but an increasing one. If it is increased you have stopped, but it is increasing.

W.J. Paul is perfect as to object, but not perfect as to attainment.

J.T. Quite; perfect as to exercise, but not as to attainment.

W.J. You cannot turn away from your glory here until you see your glory there.

T.H.R. The glory laid hold of him from the first

moment, a glory shining in the face of Jesus. Then the great thought is to reach it in resurrection.

J.T. The Lord took possession of him.

T.H.R. And he coins a word, the out-resurrection; which immediately shows that it was the resurrection of Christ he wanted to attain unto.

D.L.H. I should like to ask, particularly in view of present difficulties, what is to be said as to Paul's having three times fallen back on his Roman citizenship? One was at Philippi, "Let them come themselves" (Acts 16:37), another on the steps of the castle at Jerusalem; and the third when he appealed to Caesar.

J.T. Well, there is what may be called in the language of Scripture "the present necessity". At Corinth there were necessities, certain difficulties confronted the saints; and undoubtedly there is at this moment a great deal of concern as to our course in view of conditions that have arisen, which believers that have gone before have not had to deal with. The antichristian tide has flowed, has risen, and especially in this country; and certainly there is a present necessity arising out of it, and it is a question as to what citizenship one is to take up.

W.J. Is it not a question of what measure of light you have? Paul started from this point, but practically we may not have reached it.

D.L.H. But the apostle reached it. Now then the question is, how it comes to pass that a man who had reached it in an exceptional way three times over in the course of his history fell back upon his Roman citizenship. What I have in my mind is the young people who are taken a certain stand, and they are confronted with what Paul did. How is it to be viewed? Was it defective in any sense in the apostle?

J.T. I would say unhesitatingly, without in any degree saying anything uncomely as to the apostle, that he had undoubtedly dropped.

H.D'A.C. But in this epistle he puts everything right as to the question of citizenship.

J.T. One of the most damaging things one knows of is to lower the standard, because you cannot maintain yourself equal to it. Now, though you cannot maintain yourself up to it you must not lower the standard.

T.H.R. It is important in every way to see that you belong to another country.

J.T. Quite. I believe nationalism has almost entirely obliterated the testimony on the Continent. They are so national. The house of God is a wider idea; it is universal.

H.D'A.C. That was a good word from saints abroad, saying though the nations are at war brethren are at peace.

J.T. Very happy if it is so.

Rem. As a natural man Paul was born a Roman citizen, and he was that when he wrote.

F.H.B. But do you take account of yourself as a natural man or a spiritual man?

E.J.McB. You pay your taxes because you desire to conform to the laws of the country where you reside.

H.D'A.C. The Lord said to Paul at the time of his conversion, "taking thee out from among the people, and the nations" (Acts 26:17). That was never to be forgotten by him.

J.S.G. Unless in my own soul I have apprehended that the Lord has taken me out, so that I do not belong to the system that I am surrounded with, I am sure to make a mistake right through.

T.H.R. Yours is only a tent, you are not a dweller here.

H.D'A.C. It ought not to surprise the world when the saints go up on high, they ought to say, "Well, they never did belong to us".

J.S.G. When you pay your taxes you do it as serving God.

J.T. It is very striking as regards the young. Take Hebrews 11, Abraham is the father of all the believers, and he shows us in his manner of life what a believer should be. It says, he was a stranger in the land, and dwelt in tents, with Isaac and Jacob; in that way he brought before them the idea of a stranger and a pilgrim.

S.H. We have had the altar, and now we are coming to the tent. It is a question how deep are the tent pegs. In starting from the standpoint of circumcision, on the negative side of it the reproach of Egypt is rolled away; have we felt it a reproach? And are we going to take it up again?

A.S.L. One has heard you say, Mr. C., that the reproach of Egypt is all that I ever was as a man in the flesh.

G.W.W. Abraham would not receive a place to bury his dead, he would buy it.

J.T. What I was remarking about lowering the standard is, I think, of supreme importance. We are apt to accommodate the standard to our state, and that is a most serious thing. It is very like the teaching of the doctrine of Balaam, it leads to that. Christendom is really the product of accommodating the standard to the state, so that it becomes ultimately the legalising of evil.

E.R. You hear the expression used, it is a question of the light you have.

J.T. Well, there is something in this, that one has to act according to one's own faith.

H.D'A.C. Jeremiah sought the protection of Zedekiah; it helped him for a moment, but the king soon failed him, and he got into a worse condition, into the dungeon and the mire; and but for Ebedmelech, a black man, he would have perished.

J.T. Now the end of the chapter shows us what our citizenship is, but how advantageous to have the exercises of a spiritual man! And then he turns back to call attention to the kind of walk that marked him, because he is a model, so that it would be well for a Christian to ask what would Paul do now, not what he did at Jerusalem, or at Philippi, but what would he do now.

E.R. What is the standard?

J.T. You have it here: "Fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model". This suggests that we act as he did. Paul had the light of the assembly and the calling long before this, but it had to be wrought out in him. This chapter supposes that all that process had been gone through, and he has the light in his soul, so that in that way he is a model for us.

F.H.B. As he says to Timothy, "thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life".

J.S.G. I suppose we must bear in mind that the standard is not my apprehension of the light, but the will of God.

J.T. Ignorance of the laws of a country does not excuse you for breaking them.

J.S.G. I think many are hindered because they, say, Have I faith? Have I love? But the question is, What is the will of God?

J.T. The Jewish remnant put us to shame, because they will not have the beast's name, they will only have the Father's name.

E.R. But what would you say is our light?

J.T. Our light is Paul's doctrine and example. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come"

(Isaiah 60:1). It would be a poor thing in the future if we do not afford some light to the remnant; if we have not set them an example.

T.H.R. There is another thing besides faith and light, do not lag behind your conscience.

F.H.B. It is important that the conscience should be an enlightened conscience.

S.T. It all comes back to what Mr. T. started with, where have we been, which side of Jordan, and what have you seen, and what have you heard?

H.D'A.C. It does not appear that there will be any mercy shown to anyone who receives the mark of the beast; he is to drink the wrath of God (Revelation 14:10). We are getting rather near to that line of things.

J.T. I think God is giving us a taste of it. No doubt Israel's light will come through the assembly; and it is a very poor thing as in similar circumstances now, only in a modified degree, if we cannot set them some example.

W.J. Do you not think that the position applies to us in many ways?

J.T. I was only thinking of the apostle's expression, "the present necessity"; only we ought to be occupied with the general scope of the truth. There is particular pressure at the moment.

W.J. The difficulty lies in this, that there are so few models. Mr. R. spoke about his young days this morning, that there were models; they were not holding truth in the abstract.

J.T. That is coming to the point, I am sure.

W.J. We have to look at things all round.

J.T. We have it here, "Ye have us for a model". But where are the others who walked thus?

S.H. Then, I suppose, we have to look at the thing in principle, how it applies to the whole company.

H.D'A.C. How far does "Render to Caesar" go?

J.T. The question now is whether you are Caesar's. I think it is very simple that I am not Caesar's, I am Christ's. Caesar may take my property, but he cannot take me.

P.R.M. Romans 13:7 shows how far it goes. "Render therefore to all their dues", tribute, custom, fear, honour.

J.T. In chapter 12 it is, what have you done with your body? You cannot give it away, it is God's; you have given it to God.

S.H. I think that distinction will help us. He can take my property; and the Lord admitted that claim when He was here.

H.D'A.C. Is there not a passage where the Jews speak of their bodies as under the dominion of kings?

S.H. That is in Nehemiah 9:37, but they were captives.

E.A.P. But on the other hand, Joseph went to Pilate to beg the body of Jesus.

Ques. In what way are we to obey the powers that be?

P.R.M. Tribute, custom, fear, honour.

J.T. Government is good in itself, and you respect it.

S.H. Would not the attitude of a sojourner help us?

J.S.G. Does it not make it very simple if we take Scripture? We are brought into God's kingdom, and I cannot do anything that violates the principles of that kingdom.

E.J.McB. I think if one did one's duty one would give one's body to God as a living sacrifice.

S.H. And that intelligently.

E.J.McB. And then you do not get wisdom and light from the Lord for circumstances like a judge has a book; you get light as occasion arises.

J.T. I think that is wise, because there is a good deal of attempt to meet circumstances halfway.

A.S.L. At the present moment the position is perfectly simple.

J.T. So that what we are saying now is in view of a position which we may never have to face. As

the Lord says, "Sufficient to the day is its own evil" (Matthew 6:34); you are not to prepare for difficulties which have not arisen. Still, if the Lord allows an exercise, it is important that we should get the good of it.

G.W.W. It is important that we should get the principles.

S.H. And I think that is the importance of the moment, to ascertain the principles that are to govern God's house.

E.A.P. I was thinking of the principles which are necessary to govern us. There is a kind of settled idea that I am not ready until I have more light and more power, but in obedience you get the power.

J.T. As we had it yesterday, "it is God who works in you both the willing and the working" (chapter 2:13), if the disposition is there.

D.L.H. Then it is of great importance that we should know what the divine principles are upon which we are to act.

J.T. I think that what has been remarked as regards the body is very helpful. One's body is not one's own, it is for the Lord, but it is under one's own hand. I think in this passage the body is in view, "Who shall transform our body of humiliation", so that the body becomes exceedingly important as to how you hold it.

P.R.M. And God will make men to acknowledge it. I do not think anything can be more encouraging that Nebuchadnezzar's testimony in Daniel 3:28. The body is for the Lord.

S.H. "Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good" (Ephesians 4:28).

J.T. To "have to give to him that needeth".

S.H. But "the thing which is good".

J.T. We are exercised that there should be a right standard.

W.H.B. And it is a great thing to have a conscience exercised under that standard.

J.T. If we were to make the standard a test of fellowship, there would hardly be anyone in fellowship. Some of us were saying today that if Caleb and Joshua had made their light a standard of fellowship they would have had to put everyone in Israel out of fellowship. It calls for patience. You must go on with people so long as they are not apostate. And when I say apostate, I have in mind that the deliberate refusal of any truth is apostasy. Well, our brethren are not apostate.

CHRISTIAN CONFLICT

Ephesians 6:10 - 24

J.T. The exercise was, that in view of the present conflict among the nations, and the tendency to be occupied with it, we may lose sight of the great conflict, the spiritual conflict for the testimony. When the great earthly conflict begins Jerusalem will be the centre of it; now it is the heavenly position that is the centre, it is in connection with that the contention is. It is when God moves to take possession of anything that Satan opposes, so that the Man Child going into heaven occasioned the conflict there.

F.H.B. So that the conflict is not to maintain anything for ourselves, it is in connection with the testimony such as Paul rendered at Ephesus, and with which he is connected here as a prisoner.

J.T. So that after the words, "For the rest, brethren", much less follows here than that which follows a similar expression in Philippians. You have two whole chapters in Philippians which follow this expression; the apostle was led on in a different strain in writing to the Philippians. The epistle to Ephesus is more formal and official as bringing out the assembly's place in the divine counsels, and the apostle does not let out his feelings. Having brought that out, the consequences would be that the testimony would be maintained in conflict; so "For the rest, brethren", is preparation for the conflict.

W.J. Hence "Be strong in the Lord"; in the other case, "Rejoice in the Lord".

J.T. Yes, in Philippians, joy in the Lord.

F.H.B. I suppose when Israel was planted in the land of Canaan, it was to be a testimony to God that He was the God of the whole earth; and their conflict was to maintain that testimony.

J.T. And the fear of them was to fall on the inhabitants of the land, the power of God being now in them. So that in Ephesians the position is answered to, the power is for conflict; whereas in Philippians the power is for worship and joy, but it is the same power. It was the Ark of the covenant that went over before them, but in the land it was power in the people. Rahab said to the spies, "The dread of you has fallen on us" (Joshua 2:9). It was not that they should be exalted, hence the necessity for circumcision in regard of the conflict. So that the armour is God's armour, but worn by the saints. In the book of Joshua they are circumcised, they eat the old corn of the land, and then the man with the drawn sword appears; it is all education for Joshua. That is, that in spite of the fact that we are on right ground, we are apt to be partisan in our feelings; Joshua said, "Art thou for us, or for our enemies?" (chapter 5:13). The conflict is not for them; the conflict is for Jehovah. It is the "captain of the host of the Lord". It is as having taken our place as circumcised, and having a reverential regard for Christ as having been our Passover, and feeding on the old corn of the land, that He becomes our Prince. And then what follows upon that is the necessity for holiness; because nothing is more apt to intrude in conflict than envy and hatred. Feelings arise, hence the great necessity that it should be recognised that it is a holy conflict; our feelings must have no place in it.

J.S.G. Do you think this is similar to our position?

J.T. Well, it is an allusion to it. It is a great mistake to think that you get everything that is in the Old Testament, in the New. God does not repeat Himself. What is put down in Joshua is Scripture, and it is written for us.

J.S.G. Is it not with us more maintaining than obtaining?

J.T. It is standing. You are supposed to be in the land, and you are to occupy the ground.

J.S.G. So that the scene of conflict is here, and it is to maintain the testimony of what is heavenly upon earth.

F.H.B. And especially the truth as to Christ and the assembly as associated with Him (Ephesians 1:19 - 22).

J.T. As you proceed in Joshua, Joshua is found with his face to the earth, and you learn that you are not only on heavenly ground but on holy ground. And the conflict begins with not only what Joshua would do, but what the priests would do. The main feature in chapter 6 is the carrying of the Ark; that is, the testimony of the Christ carried by the priests. It is "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord" (Zechariah 4:6). We can do nothing by human power; I believe that is the education of Joshua 6.

F.H.B. The truth of circumcision must be kept up.

J.T. After every conflict they had to return to Gilgal; and, if I may take the liberty of pursuing Joshua, I would say they learnt in chapter 6 how the victory was to be achieved; there was to be the clear sounding forth of testimony. They will have their fighting in due time, but it is the sounding of the trumpets by the priests which brings down the stronghold. To follow Joshua, chapters 7, 8 and 9 are chapters of failure, but in chapter 10 Joshua really comes to the truth; you have figuratively "a man in Christ" (2 Corinthians 12:2). The Lord hearkened to the voice of a man: "Is not this written in the book of Jasher (the upright)?" The "man in Christ" is the upright man, that is the man for the conflict; the heavens stand still for him.

W.J. Would you say the new man? Would that cover it?

J.T. The new man is not quite the "man in Christ". I think the new man is what is for display here, but the man in Christ is for heaven; that

man goes up. I think the new man is where the old man was.

W.J. It seems that the new man is an obedient man.

S.H. The new man is a collective thought.

J.T. You cannot see it completely in any one individual. But Joshua 10 is very fine in this way; he has learnt his lesson, and God hearkens to the voice of a man.

P.R.M. The sun and moon stand still.

J.T. A very wonderful thing to happen; but I think it should afford great confidence of heart to see that such a thing should have taken place on account of a man. I think it indicates what may be effected by a man in Christ.

P.R.M. Are the sun and moon not the ruling powers?

J.T. That ought to be a great encouragement to us in days like these. If the ruling powers are going to do damage to us, they can be held back; the issue will be largely dependent on the prayers of God's people; if the sun and moon can be held back by the voice of a man, the ruling powers can be held back. But the testimony is, that there never was a day like that, before or after, "that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man".

F.H.B. May we not gather this also from it, viz., that God can govern providentially the course of things in this world for the sake of the testimony?

J.T. Do you not think, in the light of 1 Timothy, which is closely associated with the epistle to Ephesus, that all centres in the prayers of the saints, and God hears them? He does not fail to hear them.

W.H.B. Evil is held back down here in view of God's heavenly people.

J.T. "He who now letteth will let", there is no doubt that the letting power is very largely in answer to the prayers of God's people.

E.B. Is that why prayer is so prominent in this chapter?

J.T. No doubt. I think, perhaps, this epistle is more official than any epistles of Paul, because of the great place of the assembly. It was very important that it should be presented carefully, and what is important for the maintenance of it, hence so much prayer. And the contention now is for the heavenly position; the great earthly conflict is to come later. Satan will not take much account of things on the earth politically until he is turned out of heaven. The assembly is the complement of Christ; He is given to be "head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:22,23).

T.H.R. I think what you are saying as to prayer is very important; we get it twice in Scripture as "in the Holy Ghost", here and in Jude 20, where the apostasy has come in.

J.T. The upright man's prayer is effective: we are to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

H.D'A.C. If God intervenes, like the sun and the moon standing still, His intervention in the present moment is not likely to be obvious to the world, but very clear to us; there will not be any public vindication as there will be in a future day.

J.T. Quite, you would not expect a public vindication; you could not get that after the candlestick has been removed. Faith takes account of what has been done.

P.R.M. And it is on the line of hindering, not pushing things forward.

E.A.P. There is the word "He reproved kings for their sakes" (1 Chronicles 16:21).

J.T. "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1).

F.H.B. If we had a true sense of the greatness of the powers of evil with which we have to contend, it would turn us to prayer; there is such an array of evil, all against Christ and His testimony in this world.

J.T. To use a military figure, Paul is like a good general; a good general locates his enemy, and never underrates his power.

E.J.McB. It is striking, too, in the account of the conflict that there were more killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the children of Israel.

P.R.M. The hailstones normally should come down in rain and blessing, but God makes what should be blessing to come down in judgment upon man.

J.T. I feel it is a great advantage to have the enemy located, and to know all you have to contend with, and where it is; it is not in regard to the political movements on the earth, so that we need not be concerned about them.

T.H.R. I think, too, we have to remember that we are in the days of Philadelphia, and that the Lord has set before us an open door.

J.T. I was thinking of that, and that is what faith sees. There is no outward vindication of the assembly after the failure, but there is an opened door for faith. I have no doubt everyone of us would be a witness to the fact that our way is not entirely shut up.

F.H.B. I think we have had abundant proof of that.

H.D'A.C. The ground has never been lost for God, the Holy Spirit is maintaining it.

T.H.R. I have no doubt the position of quietness in which we can meet is in answer to prayer.

J.T. "No man forbidding" (Acts 28:31) us. It would help with many Christians if they were to see where the enemy is, and that his actions against us are not in the political movements on the earth, nor the conflicts

on the earth; the position is a spiritual one, and the conflict a spiritual one, and the centre of it is in heaven.

E.J.McB. Do you mean that Satan has certain influences which he brings to bear upon the saints to destroy the testimony to the heavenly position?

S.H. What form will they take?

J.T. I think it may be learnt from the Lord's word to Smyrna; the Lord endeavoured to keep the saints alive, to keep the saints from settling down. Satan may use anything to induce us to give up the heavenly position. I believe the persecution in Smyrna was to keep the saints alive; but in Pergamos you get the statement where she was dwelling: I believe there was a settling down to earth.

F.H.B. When it speaks of the conflict being in connection with heavenly places, it means, I suppose, that while we meet these powers of evil in men here, the seat of them is in heavenly places.

P.R.M. We meet it in "this darkness".

D.L.H. But is not the opposition found very largely in the teaching and writings of men of learning?

J.T. There is no doubt about that, but what I was seeking to show was the seat of it, and the object of it to seek to induce the saints to accept a place on earth; because the moment that is accepted as a principle the ground is entirely surrendered.

F.H.B. With respect to the heavenly position; that is, that Christ is in heaven as Man, Head over all things, and the assembly united to Him there.

J.T. How Satan got into the heavenlies would be a very interesting inquiry, but that he is there is unquestionable.

D.L.H. Was he ever anywhere else?

J.T. I think so. The place he occupies in the heavenlies is a place connected with the earth.

T.H.R. Therefore he must be cast out, in order that Christ and the church may take that place.

Ques. When do you think he entered the heavenlies?

J.T. I think he got in in connection with government. The heavens are always the figure of the governing position. I think those to whom government was committed failed in it, and he got control of the governing powers.

P.R.M. Is not the conflict here a necessity from chapter 2?

J.T. That is the point, and that is what Satan contests. The Canaanites were really the descendants of Ham, the cursed descendants of Canaan. It was really that Noah did not govern himself to begin with, but the conflict arises not only because Christ is in the heavenlies, but the assembly is there. The whole point is to shut out the light of the heavenlies, leading the saints to give up the heavenly position, and of course, the heavenly witness.

T.H.R. The fact is that nothing can ever be completed in the purpose of God until the assembly is with Christ in the heavenlies. Now it is testimony, by and bye it will be reality.

E.B. And then the saints are encouraged to pray for that.

T.H.R. I think so.

Ques. What is the difference between this and 2 Corinthians 10:4?

J.T. It is the same thing in principle. What I understand by 2 Corinthians 10 is that the testimony of the apostles brought down Satan's world, not in fact, but in principle. Everything that is established in your soul is viewed as a conquest. There was the city of books, and the city of learning, different cities in Asia; all these things had to come down. How was it brought about? The fact was that the testimony of the apostles, particularly Paul, was too strong for them; it brought them down for faith.

Ques. Is that peculiar to the apostles?

J.T. There has been no advance on the apostles, they conquered the territory; we do not conquer it, we have to "stand".

Rem. It is for us to enjoy it.

J.T. Sometimes we hear of new things, but there is nothing new; no one can advance on the apostles.

G. "To bring to nought things that are" (1 Corinthians 1:28).

J.T. But our brother is referring to the weapons of our warfare. "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

T.H.R. I do not think that we think enough of it in regard to the book of Joshua, that the Lord actually took possession of that piece of land as a pledge that He is going to take possession of the whole earth. It is His, and no one can meddle with it. People talk of putting the Jews back into their land.

P.R.M. When did He take possession of it?

T.H.R. When the Ark of the covenant went over Jordan.

F.H.B. Now the proclamation is the rights of Christ.

E.J.McB. I think we need not be surprised that the enemy should use every subterfuge to prevent the people of God from occupying that land.

J.T. It is maintained if there is one man that has it in faith. What we need, I am sure, is not so much quantity but quality.

T.H.R. I do think we ought to see more God's hand in everything. Palestine is not the land of the Jews but God's land.

J.T. They have to wait for the year of jubilee. "The land is mine" (Leviticus 25:23).

E.J.McB. I think one great point in this kind of conflict is that the enemy has been defeated in regard of Christ personally, but he would use every effort to prevent those that are Christ's from joining Christ in that position.

J.T. So that the end of Philippians 3 says that our citizenship is in the heavens.

E.J.McB. It ought to give us exercise that the saints are not to be in that place in an arbitrary way, but just as Christ went up after a pathway of moral worth, so the assembly is translated as pleasurable to Christ.

H.D'A.C. I believe that is of the greatest moment.

J.T. I believe that the Lord is working at the present time to form a people pleasing to Him.

T.H.R. If we took it home to ourselves that we are heavenly, a lot of things would drop off.

J.T. I should say it is safer and surer to cut them off. The sharp knives, I think, are what is needed for these things. But I do believe the Lord will bring about a state like that which was seen in Enoch before the assembly is translated. It says, "before his translation" (Hebrews 11:5). I do not know how long before, because he had been walking for a long time with God. I believe that God had been working to produce that state. "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God".

W.J. So that we have the sense that we go there of necessity.

S.H. Could we come out in the conflict until we have been there?

J.T. I think not. All the preparation of the first nine chapters of Joshua is to prepare a man in Christ; it is when you come to that you are fit for the conflict. Then all those thirty-one kings go down.

E.J.McB. "They loved not their lives unto the death". It seems to me that practically a person gives up his manhood. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12:11).

D.L.H. I was going to ask a question as to the distinction between the heavenlies and heaven.

J.T. I think heaven, where it is used in the singular, applies to the abode and throne of God, so it is entirely holy.

D.L.H. Our citizenship is in the heavens.

J.T. But that is plural. In the creation, every day's work was pronounced upon by God, and pronounced good. But the second day's work was not pronounced good. Now the heavens that we know are the heavens with Christ in them, and I believe that Satan secured a place there. In that way it was a sphere of rule; now the assembly is to occupy that, it is really what shall be seen in the millennium. It is good now because Christ is there. The seventy disciples returned to the Lord, and rejoiced that the demons were subject to them according to the Lord's word, but He replies, "Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). They are not there yet, but they are there in principle, because their names are there; if one's name is there, one's position is secured.

D.L.H. Is that the singular or the plural?

P.R.M. "Written in the heavens"; it is plural. "I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven" (Luke 10:18) is singular.

J.T. Well, what I said as to where it is used in the singular may not be quite correct; but where it says, "into heaven itself", that is not where Satan is.

D.L.H. But where was the sphere of Satan's original creation?

J.T. We can say nothing about that, because we have to do with the heavens of Genesis 1.

D.L.H. It is clear that Satan was created with regard to a sphere that was not connected with this earth.

J.T. It says in the book of Job that Satan was walking up and down in the earth; it would appear that his activities as hostile to God were on the earth.

Job was contemporary with Abraham. But no doubt he got into that position through the failure of those who ought to have maintained government on earth.

Ques. Were his activities on the earth consequent upon his fall?

J.T. He fell long before that, but his activities ever since have been on earth.

Ques. Would the earth being without form and void be connected with Satan's fall?

J.T. Very likely, but we cannot say much about that.

A.S.L. The first verse of Genesis stands by itself.

W.J. What about Ezekiel 28:13, "thou hast been in Eden"? What does that set forth?

J.T. It shows what a wonderful place Satan had in nearness to God.

J.S.G. Does not that suggest that he had a place in reference to this earth? It is a remarkable thing, if you take the precious stones, that they are found again in the breastplate of the high priest, and in the heavenly city.

F.H.B. You were saying just now that Satan's opposition was against man, that beautiful creature created for God's pleasure; now it is still against the Man, and against those who stand here for that Man. We do not fight for our own blessing, but really for the testimony of the Christ.

J.T. Of course you have to add that every place on which your feet stand is yours, you get it by conflict.

W.J. But is not that peculiar to Ephesians, His inheritance, His calling?

J.T. But it is not now the garden of Eden. That was a very beautiful spot, and Satan envied God that beautiful spot and that beautiful creature; but it is now a Man in the heavens. The conception of it was a delight to God, and Satan's opposition is to all that.

G.W.W. What comes out is that that blessed

Man is there in the power of accomplished redemption, and that involves the carrying out of all God's purposes.

S.H. But is not the opposition here against the fulness of Christ? The attack is against the woman.

J.T. Satan is a clever and skilful general: he attacked the weakest point. I have no doubt he was envious of Adam.

S.H. Is it not rather a spiritual sphere, and the forces that Satan is bringing against that position are spiritual?

J.T. Yes, it says in Philippians they were in nothing terrified by their adversaries.

S.H. So that what we have here are moral influences, which would corrupt what God has brought about for His own pleasure.

J.T. There is "this darkness", as Mr. M. suggests, but I was thinking that if we can see the position, the location of the enemy, and the might of his power, then you have over against that the Leader, the Captain of the Lord's host, then the warriors and then the armour, because without the armour we are utterly powerless.

P.R.M. An indivisible whole.

J.T. A panoply.

F.H.B. All these parts of the armour are connected with our state.

H.D'A.C. Who would you say the Captain of the Lord's host is?

J.T. The Lord Jesus. In the conflict the first thing is, one's loins have to be taken account of, then one's breast, one's feet, and so on.

W.J. All these moral features are connected with your answer to the revelation of God.

S.H. What you have really is a new moral being.

F.H.B. Then if it is moral influences which we have to stand against, there must be a moral state in us to withstand them.

S.H. It has to be met by a new moral or spiritual being, and I think it is in that way we arrive at the constitution of the church.

J.T. So that the conflict takes form in your everyday life. The loins mean your internal affections; not so much the intelligent but the lower affections of man: these have to be girded about with truth.

S.H. These are the characteristics of the new man.

F.H.B. But we have to put these things on.

W.J. Was that your thought just now, that we have the new man here?

J.T. Yes, but you have affections, you had them before you were converted; take an unconverted man, his affections flow loose; he does not care whether he drags them in the gutter or not; but the idea of a Christian is that his loins should be girded by truth. You do not take up just any book and read it, you want to know who wrote it. Like the newspapers, you may have to read them: they are like a glass filled with dirty water; the deeper you drink the more dirty it is.

E.B. The great thing is to be kept by the truth.

S.H. Is it not that we are so formed, that every part of us is formed in regard to every other part?

J.T. As regards truth, builders understand it; you cannot build without truth.

E.J.McB. I think you see a beautiful figure in Elijah, when he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab.

J.T. I believe that we are greatly hampered by touching things so freely; they may appear to be legitimate, but the more you drink into them the more they defile you: you have to put a thing down immediately, otherwise you find yourself steeped in it and are defiled. Ephesus was the city of books; books are a most ensnaring thing for us, because they seem so legitimate.

T.H.R. And newspapers too.

J.T. I suppose the breastplate of righteousness is that you have a good conscience, a conscience maintained in the full light of the position.

W.J. It is fine the way the apostle maintained his good conscience in the presence of the high priest.

J.T. The next thing is the feet; what kind of shoes you have on.

Ques. Why is it the "preparation"?

J.T. Because if it were the preaching, no one but the evangelist could wear them, but every Christian ought to be prepared. The house of God ought to be evangelical; if you do not preach you go to the meeting in support of it. It may be a contrast to the preparation in earthly wars: our preparation is the gospel of peace.

S.H. Is it not like the rams' horns, the testimony?

J.T. You have beautiful feet. I suppose the rams' horns refer to the beauty of Christ. I suppose the horns would refer to the countenance, but who had beautiful feet? You often find a beautiful face, but poor feet.

P.R.M. Do you think that in Acts 10 you see how Peter's feet were prepared?

W.J. It is an evangelical spirit and ways.

F.H.B. If we were in the light of the gospel, it would maintain us in peace in every way.

J.T. I think that is a very excellent suggestion according to the prayer of 1 Timothy 2. The prayer has that in view; you do not want war on earth, but we do want this spiritual war maintained at its full height; you do not want war with men, you want peace with them, but not with Satan. It is remarkable that it is the God of peace that shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly.

P.R.M. "The fiery darts", what are they?

J.T. I think the shield of faith is a very fine piece of the armour, because after all we are all more or less failing; even Paul must have thought how

he had come into prison; but how the shield of faith would come in there! So if failure has occurred, and Satan has had the advantage, faith covers you; you rest in this that God has not changed toward you.

T.H.R. So in Psalm 3:3 David says, "Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me".

W.J. If we bow under His hand in failure, we can shelter in His love.

Rem. "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:32).

J.T. He does not think one whit less of me after the failure than He did before. I suppose the helmet of salvation enables you to lift up your head; you are not discouraged.

F.H.B. I think Paul in Philippians 1 had on the helmet of salvation; whatever happened he was sure of victory.

W.J. All this armour is the effect of the knowledge of God?

J.T. And how beautiful the last exhortation to prayer, "Praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me in order that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings, for which I am an ambassador bound with a chain, that I may be bold in it as I ought to speak".

E.B. That never fails.

J.T. No, it is as great a thing now as ever; things are made to depend, I am sure, on the prayers of God's people.

W.J. So we have "apprehended with all the saints", and "supplication for all saints".

J.T. Each individual has to have the armour, I should say.

REMEMBRACE OF THE LORD JESUS

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26; Genesis 40:14,23; Genesis 41:9; Exodus 32:1

It is in my mind to inquire as to how we regard the Lord Jesus Christ in the way of remembrance, whether our remembrance of Him is an historical one, or whether we hold Him in affectionate remembrance. I have read the passage from 1 Corinthians because it suggests the latter. The Lord's supper is to enable us to keep the Lord so before us, that we hold Him in affectionate remembrance. The designation used by the apostle Paul shows that it was so in his case. He says, "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread". The Lord Jesus is the designation which denotes that Christ was held in affectionate regard and remembrance by Paul. We all know that in his different epistles he speaks much of Christ. If he is presenting a certain line of truth he uses the designations which cover that. If he speaks of the Lord as the One through whom things have been effected for God, he usually refers to Him as the "Lord Jesus Christ". Indeed it becomes an inquiry to one whether the habitual use of any designation by us does not in some sense indicate our regard for Christ.

Now, as I have said, the apostle in setting out some line of truth usually employs a designation which covers that line of truth. For instance he says, "there be gods many, and lords many"; and there are, dear friends, gods many, and lords many; "but to us there is but one God, the Father". That is not necessarily our Father, it is the Father; and he goes on to say: "of whom are all things, and we for him". The Father is the Source of everything. And then he adds to that "and one Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 8:5,6),

that is to say, "to us there is ... one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him". That is, he regards the one Lord as Jesus Christ who has effected things; and oh, beloved friends, what has He effected? Well, He has brought us in; "and we (he says) by him". He has brought the saints in; the great result of His work in becoming Man is that He has us all. I do not know whether you regard yourself in that light, but I do; one regards oneself as by the Lord Jesus, brought in, as it were, as a trophy, "we by him". But all things are by Him. Think of the vastness of the scheme, every divine conception brought in by Him; all that order of things of which the tabernacle is a figure, brought in by Him. But how blessed in the meanwhile that our place is now by Him. There it is "one Lord Jesus Christ"; and then if the apostle speaks about things that have been effected he refers to them as "in Christ Jesus"; they are in the anointed Man, I do not suppose any one of us would wish them elsewhere. God has been pleased to commit Himself to Christ; that is the idea of the anointed; God has been pleased to commit Himself to the Lord Jesus, and He has placed everything there; we do not wish them elsewhere.

If it is one's own position one is entitled to reckon oneself "dead indeed unto sin". The Lord resisted unto blood, striving against sin; we are entitled to reckon ourselves dead to it, but more than that we are to reckon ourselves "alive unto God", in whom? "In Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11). One is entitled to reckon oneself as in the Man to whom God has committed Himself. And if God has given to us, in His great act of favour, that which we so often dwell upon, and yet so little understand, eternal life, if it be that, where is it? Well, beloved friends, according to Paul, it is just there, it is "in Christ Jesus our Lord"; and the more we treasure it the more we

are satisfied that it is there. If it be a question of what God is going to introduce for His own satisfaction as Father, He has revealed His Son in the apostle. He "was pleased" (Paul says) "to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him (the Son) as glad tidings among the nations" (Galatians 1:16). So that in any line or thought of truth that the apostle has in mind, he uses the designation to cover it, and there are no discrepancies. But when it comes to what the Lord Jesus Christ was to Paul's own heart he invariably refers to Him as "the Lord Jesus".

Now I would inquire as to how you regard the Lord, and as I said, it just resolves itself into this, whether your remembrance of the Lord is simply historical, or whether it is an affectionate remembrance of Him. If it be the former I think I can point out to you that somebody else will ultimately take His place in your heart. In Christendom it is simply an historical remembrance, and never goes beyond that. What would be the result of what we learn in Christendom? They only honour the Lord with the lips, but what about the heart? The word says, "Son, give me thine heart" (Proverbs 23:26). Their hearts are far away, Jehovah had to say. Well now, it is an historical remembrance of Him that is around us, and that is not the Lord's supper. If the apostle Paul were called to pronounce upon that which purports to be the Supper, what would he say? What did he say? "This is not the Lord's supper", whatever else it might be. And then he goes on to call attention to the Lord's supper, and says, that he received it of the Lord, and what he received was, "that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread". The Lord Jesus! Is that how you refer to Christ in your heart?

You will find a similar expression in Paul's charge to the elders of Ephesus. Having said much to them, and called attention to what he had been amongst

them, he says, you "remember the words of the Lord Jesus". The words; we have to remember Him affectionately, to remember Him, and then His words. Now what were these words that they were to remember? "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35); simple words to be remembered. Mark, how they are to be remembered, how they are to be treasured in the affections. You may give something as a trader; there is a good deal of that; you expect value back for what you give. Now to remember the words of the Lord Jesus would save you from that. God is comparatively little interested in your material gifts. It is not said, that He loves them, but that "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). He loves the giver. How do you become a cheerful giver? Well, I do not know a better way for that than to remember the words of the Lord Jesus. What are they? "It is more blessed to give than to receive". He shows the way; He shows the way in everything, beloved brethren.

Well now, I want to go back for a moment to Joseph, I want to show you from Joseph as a figure of Christ, how one had greatly benefited by him. I desire to be simple and elementary. It is a question of getting at the heart, for if the heart is not touched there is nothing done; we have to bear that in mind. Wisdom always gets at your heart. The chief butler had been greatly benefited by Joseph, and Joseph lays upon him the obligation, "Bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee". That is the true reading. I need not say that for us that is the supper. That request was laid upon Pharaoh's cup-bearer by Joseph, and we are told that he forgat Joseph, but that does not signify that he forgot him historically; we know he referred to him afterwards and said "I do remember my faults this day". How often is it so with the convert, with the Christian? You may refer to what

has occurred; you can give the date of your conversion. Pharaoh's cup-bearer remembered his sins; it is remarkable how people recall their sins, but that is a poor way to remember Joseph. It is quite right to have a remembrance of your faults, but it reminds one of 'God be merciful unto us, miserable sinners'. That is not the remembrance of Joseph; though he did call to mind that such an event had occurred. But what about that remembrance he was to bear with him?

Young Christian, what about that remembrance you are to bear with you? Do you bear it? Joseph says, "Bear a remembrance with thee of me". He never made any note of it, he did not even put it in his diary apparently. Have you that remembrance with you? He adds, "when it goes well with thee". It is well with us, if we are Christians; how wonderfully well! If we do not know it, we ought to know how wonderfully well it is with us if we have become so through the true Joseph, through Him into whose soul the iron went. He went down into the depths, the iron went into His soul, it was all real to Him. He bore with Him a remembrance of us there, and oh, what a remembrance! Our sins were all there, He remembered them; that was the remembrance that we placed on Him. He could say, "My sins are more than the hairs of mine head". What a remembrance of us He had in the depths! He bore it with Him. Look at Him there on the last night. Remember the apostle says, it was that night; it is not simply that it occurred some night, it was that night, the night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed. We may not all be conscious of what betrayal is, perhaps we have not endured it, but there is nothing keener in the way of suffering. He says, "the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table" (Luke 22:21). What a remembrance He had with Him of the natural heart of man and what it is capable of! It

is capable of betraying the Lord Jesus; "the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table". What a remembrance the Lord had of that!

I could speak of other things that were there besides the betrayal. But, oh beloved, He thought of us there! The Lord's supper is especially intended to show the place that the saints have in the heart of Christ. How much He loves us! And that remembrance of Him is given to you and to me to bear with us. "Bear a remembrance with thee of me". It was in that night He said, "This is my body, which is for you". Do you ever think of that? "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:9). That is what His body was for God. Think of what it is for you and me. "This is my body, which is for you". And as He journeyed from the supper table to the cross, He had them in His heart; not indeed their sins as yet, but He had them in His heart. They did not know it, they little realised the place they had, but He says, the day is coming when you will know it; the Spirit's day. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). They were in His heart; from the supper table to the cross they were in His heart; and as He hung there during those three hours of which we have often spoken, beloved, what a remembrance He had of us there! Would that these thoughts might sink into our hearts! They are very serious thoughts. He had a remembrance of us with Him. It was a most terrible time. At the table He was reminded of our traitor hearts "the hand of him that betrayeth me". That hand that took the money, the thirty pieces of silver, was there; and on the cross our sins were laid on Him in all their terribleness, as judged by his holy soul in the light of God. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ... But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:1,3). There in the depths He had a remembrance of us.

Well now, we are told that the cup-bearer forgat Joseph; but the time arrived when it seemed that it might give him an increased favour with his master, and then he remembered Joseph! Now how do you remember the Lord Jesus? Do you remember Him selfishly? Do you speak of Him only before the saints? Well, there is not much reproach in speaking of Him among the saints; the Lord Jesus is held by them in affectionate regard, they love to hear about Him. How do you speak of Him outside? What kind of designation do you use? Does it denote One whom you love, or is it just that of a benefactor, a public benefactor? The apostle spoke of Him as "my Lord". Mary Magdalene said, He is mine; "they have taken away my Lord" (John 20:13). Did you ever say that publicly? That is what I regard as affectionate remembrance. It is a designation that denotes One that has a place in your heart.

The cup-bearer, as I was noting a moment ago, called to mind his faults; that was not calling Joseph to mind. I would emphasise that, to call to mind your faults is not calling Joseph to mind. It is quite right to judge sin, but calling Joseph to mind would be the remembrance that Joseph told him to keep with him, and that he did not keep; he made not even a note of it, so that he forgot Joseph. He did not forget the event, it was an historical event that he could never have forgotten. Do you think for one moment he forgot he was in prison, and this captive Hebrew revealed to him his dream? But he forgot Joseph in the sense in which Joseph intended him to remember him, he had no remembrance of Joseph.

Now that too was the case with the Israelites. The same principle appears in Exodus 32. It was when Moses had left them. You always find it is when God leaves you to yourself it brings out just where you are. The Israelites were left to themselves for a little while, less than six weeks; it was not very

long. See what kind of memories they had! They had seen Moses go up into the mount, but they could not tell where he was. Now let me say to you that if your remembrance of the Lord Jesus is such as theirs was of Moses, simply that he had led them out of the land of Egypt, you will very soon lose all sense of where He is; you can give no account of Him. They say, "As for this Moses ... we wot not what has become of him". "This Moses", they say; it was the very opposite of affectionate regard and esteem. Yet they remembered the historical event, he had led them out of the land of Egypt. He had been their leader, they admitted it, but what account did they give of him? "We wot not what had become of him". You remember the day of your conversion, but what about every day since that? The second day of your conversion ought to be a brighter day than the first; and it would be if you had the Lord Jesus in affectionate remembrance, for things increase. The affectionate remembrance in which you hold Him as having converted you would be brighter, and so on; as the days are multiplied your remembrance increases, and your joy increases.

They said, "We wot not what has become of him". During those forty or thirty-nine days they had not taken account of the provision Moses made for them, in leaving Aaron and Hur to look after them. If I had been there with the light I have, I should have looked at Aaron as Moses' provision. They had Aaron and Hur. I should have looked at Hur and said, That is Moses' provision for me; but what did they say? "As for this Moses we wot not what has become of him". Now it is as sure as anything can be that if there is not affectionate remembrance for a person, somebody else will take his place, that is so in the history of Christendom. Presently some one else is coming in to take the place of the Man who is held in regard only in an historical

light. The Lord said, "if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43). The way is being prepared for him. The seed was sown long since that has borne the crop which is preparing for his advent. "This Moses", what did that mean? There might be another equally good if not better. Is it not so with regard to the Lord, that in the minds of men He simply ranks with other men in the present day? That is the situation. I have seen His name put up with other men, with great leaders of thought in this way; we have not got Him, we may as well have another. Now the Lord's supper saves you from all that. Do not say, you have not got Him, and that you do not know where He is. If that is the language of your heart you will look for another. John the baptist said, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3). Christendom is looking for another already. Let us take it to heart. The word has gone forth that Christianity is a failure; they are looking for someone else. The thing is simply a fact in an historical light, the Lord Jesus Christ is not in their hearts. The way is being prepared for another, for they would have another to come.

Well, I do not dwell further on that, but I turn to the Lords supper. The supper is brought to us Gentiles from heaven, by one who valued it. The apostle Paul does not use dry doctrinal language. He says. "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread". This is his own language; the structure of the sentence is his own. We must not assume that he quoted from Luke, Luke quoted from him if anything. The Supper is presented to us couched in the language of one whose affectionate regard for Christ is conveyed in it. "The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread". When Paul

was amongst them he had delivered it to them. I have no doubt that the first breaking of bread at Corinth was by him; he says, "I delivered it to you". One would have loved to have seen Paul break the bread. The Lord Jesus was in his heart; the night on which He was betrayed was in his heart. How all that scene would come in power into the heart of Paul as he broke the bread at Corinth! He says, I delivered it to you.

We must not think this is the first time they heard of the Supper; he calls attention to what he had delivered to them. And how far they had got away from it! so far that he says, that what they were doing was not the Lord's supper. The Lord's supper is what I delivered to you; your supper is sectarian, the rich eating before the poor, that is not the supper of the Lord. One would have loved to have been there when Paul spread the supper table. He would take the loaf and break it and call to mind, using the Lord's exact words. "This do for the calling me to mind". Not an historical event, it is the Person; it is "for a remembrance of me". It was as if Paul, like Joseph, had left it with the Corinthians so that they might have it by them, a remembrance of Christ. How far away they had got from it! Sectarian views, carnal jealousies and pride, all that in the holy supper of the Lord Jesus! he says, It is not the supper. He does not say what it may have been, he could have said much. He says, This is the Supper, what I delivered to you. It was delivered tangibly by his own hands in their own sight; they had moved away from it. I believe the Lord would lead us back to the simplicity of the Supper, so that it might be with us, as Joseph desired it should be with the cupbearer, a remembrance of Him. Till when? Till He comes. "In like manner also the cup". That word "manner" is very suggestive; "in like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup

is the new covenant in my blood; this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me".

Now I just want to refer for a moment to the end of the Scriptures. In Revelation 22:20 the apostle John says, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". There is the same affection that he began with, but it had become intensified, if anything. The Lord at the end of the book announces Himself to the assemblies. He says, "I Jesus"; not appearing now as the long-robed Personage of the first chapter of the book. It is "I Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches;" to you, not to the angels of the assemblies now. He speaks directly to us now, and what is the regard in which the assembly holds Him? It is triumph to dwell on this, it is the triumph of His care and attention all the way through the dark night. He is now the Morning Star; things are brightening into day. He says, "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star". What does the assembly think of Him? What do you think of Him? "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". (verses 16,17). That is the Man they have come to admire. Antichrist is not admired, antichrist is the opposite of that Man, and he is not admired in the assembly, he is admired elsewhere. The remembrance the Lord Jesus left has been effective. He has not been forgotten, thank God; the assembly has come back to the remembrance of Him, as if to say. You are the Man. It is the Person she wants.

Now just to make the point clear, you will observe in regard to Enoch, that, though he was translated, he did not speak in his prophecy about translation. Enoch was a prophet. We are told in Genesis 5:24, that he walked with God and that "God took him", and we are told in Hebrews 11, that he was translated, but he says nothing about it. What Enoch said was, "Behold, the Lord cometh" (Jude 14). Faith looks on to the

scene of testimony here that must be occupied. If Enoch goes, the Lord comes. Does He come with Enoch? No, with ten thousands of His saints, with the holy myriads. What joy and strength that would be to the heart of Enoch amid all the terrible corruption that surrounded him! Think of the Lord coming with holy myriads!

The assembly does not speak of her translation, the Lord is coming; that is her witness. Is antichrist to hold sway? Is he to prevail? No, he is not to prevail. The Lord is coming in with holy myriads, they are to occupy the ground. He is to take vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the assembly is not telling us about her translation, she is occupied with the coming in of the One she loves, the One of whom she has had the remembrance in her heart all the time. Then John, too, to add to the position after all He has said and done, says, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". It represents the affectionate regard in which the Lord is held on earth through grace.

May the Lord enable us to give Him that place. I believe He is seeking it; as I was saying elsewhere, it is before our translation that He would bring about a state in us that is pleasing to God. The Supper brings it about. "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God". Before it. So that there is the affectionate regard in which John holds the Lord. He does not say, Lord, take us; no, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". "Amen come, Lord Jesus".

Now just another word: David says, "Let all the people say, Amen" (Psalm 106:48). Well, that is what the Holy Spirit would bring about. If there is anything right and true, and surely the truth of the coming of the Lord is, it is what is needed all around us, "Let all the people say, Amen". Let us not be divided about that, "Let all the people say, Amen". So John says, "Amen"; he wishes the Lord Jesus to come.

Pages 153 - 250 -- "Readings on the Epistle to the Ephesians". New York, May, 1916 (Volume 32).

READINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS (1)

Ephesians 1

J.T. Perhaps it may be to profit if we remark first on the exercise that has led up to this epistle. What is to be observed at the present time is the great demand made upon the saints in different parts of the world by the ruling powers, and it becomes a matter of great importance as to what principles are to govern us in these circumstances. I believe a distinction has to be made between the believer's position as recovered through the gospel and his position as viewed in God's counsels. In the former he finds himself here in the sphere of God's government, in which he has to recognise the ruling powers as ordained of God. In the latter the ruling powers are all seen as subject to Christ. In Colossians and Ephesians the powers are seen in subjection to Christ, whereas in Romans they are seen as ordained of God, as God's ministers; so that on the one hand the believer is the scene of God's government, though in his soul recovered for God; but on the other hand he is taken out of the sphere of God's government, and if he comes back into it, it is to influence it. In Ephesians he comes back into it as superior, and great enough to influence it in measure for God. Of course the believer is always to be subject, as taught in Romans 13; I am speaking only of the way the truth is presented in the respective epistles.

R.S.S. How does that bear on Christians as we are in the world?

J.T. In the first instance the believer is viewed as recovered for God. Outwardly his condition and circumstances are unchanged.

R.S.S. Is that Romans?

J.T. Yes; in Romans he takes account of rulers as God's ministers, appointed for a certain purpose; whereas in Ephesians he comes out to influence what is here. He is connected with another order of things and he looks at everything as subject to Christ. He has put on the new man.

A.R.S. In what way does he influence this world?

J.T. He is a heavenly man in it, and so in that way he takes precedence of everything in it, and he moves in it as a stranger and sojourner, but, like Abraham, he is capable of influencing it for God. He has a priestly place, and so he supplicates, prays, and makes intercession for all men: for kings and all that are in dignity (1 Timothy 2:1). That is to mark the house of God, but there is nothing said about being subject to the authorities here.

J.S. The believer has no place in the world, hence has no vote.

A.N.W. These kings are not exactly the powers that one wrestles against, as referred to in the end of this epistle?

J.T. No, but whatever powers there are, they are, according to Colossians and Ephesians, subject to Christ. Ephesians 6 speaks of "the spiritual lords of this darkness", but all principalities and powers are subjected to Christ. As it is said here, God set Him "above every principality, and authority, and power and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly". So that in Colossians and Ephesians the believer looks at things from a different standpoint.

T.R. He looks at things from the top where the power is that can never give way.

J.T. Yes, whereas in Romans, as recovered the

believer takes his place in relation to the government of God as it is here. The will of God in Romans refers to the believer's path here; whereas the will of God in Ephesians refers to His counsels. You have here "the good pleasure of his will", "the mystery of his will", and "the counsel of his own will". The mystery of His will has no reference to the believer s path through the wilderness, whereas the will of God in Romans has.

R.S.S. "That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).

R.J.C. Has he an influence as a recovered man?

J.T. Undoubtedly he has; as walking after the Spirit he fulfils the righteous requirement of the law. He shows what righteousness is. In Romans it is a question of what God is. God is known in righteousness, love and power, and the believer is in accord with all this.

F.L. The righteous requirement of the law fulfilled in them that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit is all connected with the path here.

J.T. In Romans man is seen as recovered for God in righteousness, but for the "new man" and the heavenly man we must go to Colossians and Ephesians. As seen in these epistles the believer is a stranger here. He sees everything under Christ, so that he is in the faith-system. 1 Timothy 1:4 speaks of "God's dispensation, which is in faith". That refers to the Ephesians standpoint.

T.R. As regards government, Romans is more the sight-system. In connection with what we have been saying, it is important to understand the distinctions that we have been making between Romans and Ephesians. The understanding of what is in Romans would help us as to this.

F.L. I suppose Philippians is the working out in an individual of what is presented in Colossians and Ephesians, as true from the assembly viewpoint;

so that, as subject to Christ, he does things according to the spirit and mind of Christ all through. "Children of God", "holding forth the word of life", "shining as lights in the world", citizenship in heaven, all applies to the individual formed according to Colossians and Ephesians.

A.F.M. Romans 12 speaks of the body being presented. Would you say a word about that?

J.T. That raises a very interesting question. The body is the vehicle in which God's will is carried out now in the recovered man. Romans 6 really prepares for chapter 12 in that sense, only that you have the additional thought in chapter 12 of a "living sacrifice". Now the doctrine of chapter 6 is well exemplified, I believe, in Genesis 47. There Joseph is said to have secured not only the property of the Egyptians, but the persons themselves for Pharaoh. Now I apprehend that Romans 12 answers to that. The believer is entirely in accord with the rights of God. The doctrine is developed in chapter 6, the body is for God, "an instrument of righteousness unto God". In chapter 12 the believer is in accord with that, so that he presents it to God as a living sacrifice. Hence it is in that sense different from his property. If the authorities lay claim to one's property, which they do in taxes, the taxes they receive are gone without recall, but if they lay claim to a man's body, there may be similarity to a point, but it is quite obvious that they cannot do what they please with the believer, for the reason that the believer's body is a living sacrifice yielded up to God, and it cannot be recalled.

W.B-t. Psalm 105:17 - 22 would confirm this: "He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and

let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom".

J.T. Yes, he is let go free. God had rights over Joseph, and effected his liberation. The believer falls into the line of the government of God on earth, beyond that he cannot go, because he is God's, and God's will, according to Ephesians, leads beyond the sphere of His government here. The believer has to hold himself in reserve for that.

P.H.P. Is it possible for the government of the state to overstep the boundaries in that way?

J.T. It is quite clear that it may.

F.L. One of the ruling powers in Paul's day was Nero. Well, the teaching of Romans is that you should pay your taxes, fulfil all like obligations. What Nero does with your property you cannot control, but if he said to a believer, 'Go and persecute the Christians; put them to death', a point would be reached where the government of God and the government of the ruling power part company. They go so far but part company, and then the believer would have to take the stand that he would rather die himself.

J.T. He must obey God rather than man.

Ques. What is the distinction?

J.T. They are not inconsistent if we see the termination of the line up to which the government of God and the government of man are parallel. The ruling power, the authorities, may retain one's property. Indeed as to money we know that the stamp on it according to the Lord's own remark admits that it belongs to the ruling power: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21). The fact that his stamp was on it signified his claim to it, but then Caesar's stamp is not on the believer's body. It is a poor thing for a believer to have a badge, or a button, or anything that denotes an ownership in

this world, but we cannot hinder it being on the dollar bill.

Rem. On the contrary, the believer is sealed with the Spirit of God.

J.T. Therefore, it is God's image and superscription. The "seal" is that; (compare 2 Timothy 2:19, and Revelation 14:1).

W.B-t. Why is this epistle addressed "to the faithful in Christ Jesus"? I note that that expression is used here and in only one other instance, in Colossians.

J.T. I should say it refers to what they were; they were faithful. The facts presented in the narrative in the Acts would show that these Christians received wonderful light, and that they were governed by it. They had evidently been faithful to the light they had received so far. I think it is the ground on which further light is vouchsafed to us. It was a very great honour that they should have a letter such as this, which really may be viewed as the Christian charter. I say this because it is unique, as unfolding to us the place of the assembly in the counsels of God.

W.B-w. As being faithful you are given more light.

J.T. Yes, as being faithful. He that is faithful in little is faithful in much. Certainly this is much.

B.T.F. Would this bring in others besides the Ephesians?

J.T. It is addressed, "To the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus". It has been alleged it was more of a circular, referring to other assemblies, but the accepted text implying that it is a local epistle is undoubtedly correct.

A.F.M. In verse 15 he speaks of their faith.

J.T. Yes, this comes in after the incidents recorded in the Acts, including his charge to the elders. You see, having been left to themselves they had proved

faithful. It is as having received light and being left to ourselves that we prove just how faithful we are. In Ephesians you do not have baptism or the Lord's supper. Baptism is alluded to but not taught, it simply says, "There is ... one baptism" (chapter 4:5). Baptism and the Lord's supper run together in connection with what is seen here in the wilderness, whereas Ephesians is the faith system. You are connected with another system altogether, of which Christ is Head, and you look at every authority and power as subject to Christ. It is only a matter of time until all that shall be manifested, so that it is "the mystery of his will". That is the system you are in. "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him".

T.A. How is the forgiveness of sins brought in in Ephesians?

J.T. It is "in whom we have". It is not a question of the administration of it, but of what we have.

F.L. To the company breathed into in John 20 the Lord said: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father". Then He says to them, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you". That perhaps gives us the view-point of Ephesians, that it is a sent company from the ascended One.

J.T. It does exactly. John 20 corresponds with Ephesians. Mary leaves the garden with a message, the garden is figuratively what was on earth; now Mary goes to the Lord's brethren with a message. The message gave them their full standing, their place in heaven. The message came as a matter of light, and the breath of Christ gave them the spirit of heaven. It is not simply the spirit of the Man in John 20, it is the spirit of the Man that ascended, the heavenly Man, that is breathed into them, and as breathing into them He says: "As my Father hath

sent me, even so send I you". They go out into the world not only as recovered men, but as dignified by their relation to the heavenly Man and possessed of His Spirit.

J.S. So if they are in the world it is in testimony?

J.T. In testimony from heaven.

R.S.S. That is very good. The message, "Go to my brethren", gave them their position, and then the breathing gave them the spirit of the ascended Man.

J.T. Yes, the spirit of the ascended Man is the point. It is a new spirit here altogether, come in here from heaven.

R.S.S. Well now, before we leave it, why is it that in Ephesians, when the standpoint is so high, it says, "and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins", (Ephesians 2:1); and "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins".

J.T. It is "in whom". It is more to show what we have in the Person, for we are viewed still as literally on earth. I mean the fact that we have had sins is mentioned, and all that, but it is not a question of the administration of forgiveness; that is Romans. Here we read: "taken into favour in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace; which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fulness of times; to head up all things in the Christ". It is to present the subject in its clearness, to present the whole situation.

R.S.S. And in its completeness. Then as to, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins", in Ephesians it is not exactly a recovered man, but a man taken out of death. I

mean the question in Romans is how a guilty man can be justified, but in Ephesians how a dead man can live.

J.T. In Ephesians you are taken out of death and placed in heaven. There is no wilderness here. You see there is no baptism and no Lord's supper. God takes us out of death, and places us in heaven. It is all private, we may say. The public thing is that you come out of heaven.

F.L. In bringing in the light of predestination and counsel, there is a passing reference to the fact that the whole question of guilt in man has been taken up and dealt with. It has not been ignored. It is recognised as dealt with, but it is incidental; it is not the theme. There is no need to dwell on it other than to clear the record that God has dealt with that side.

R.S.S. That is helpful, and in the two scriptures that have been brought forward one speaks of what was accomplished: redemption, the forgiveness of sins; and the other speaks of our state as dead.

J.T. Referring to this history of David in 1 and 2 Samuel, recovery took place at Ziklag. No children were born to David there, yet everything was recovered there. The idea of multiplication is hardly in Romans; what is lost is recovered, but there is no increase. David recovered all, but the passage in 1 Samuel 30 does not speak of increase. Now when you come to Colossians and Ephesians you are in the line of increase, so that in David's history we are told that he remained two days at Ziklag after all was recovered, and then on the third day he heard of the overthrow of Saul; that is to say, God has cleared the way for him. Well then, he inquires of the Lord as to what he is to do, and he is told to go to Hebron. That is another point. "Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and

David had abode two days in Ziklag; it came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head", (2 Samuel 1:1,2). Well, this man brought tidings of Saul's overthrow. Then you find the beautiful spirit of David that he was not elated by the overthrow of Saul; he was the rather humbled and regretful, showing the spirit of the recovered man. Then it says, "And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron", (2 Samuel 2:1). And then it says: "So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, Nabal's wife the Carmelite. And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah", (2 Samuel 2:2,3). So that he has changed his position now. He is in Hebron, which we know signifies a great deal in Scripture. It was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. It antedated the world-city. So he is on the line of God's original purpose now, and he and his household and the households of his men are spoken of, which is in keeping with Colossians. They are on the up line.

F.L. But it is not Ephesians. The full position, Jerusalem, is seven years later.

J.T. Quite so: he remains seven years at Hebron, and there he gets children, showing figuratively that in Colossians there is increase.

F.L. The increase by the knowledge of God, (Colossians 1:10).

P.H.P. But Colossians is not universality, is it?

J.T. No, it is not universality. It is on the line

to it, but there the assembly is not seen in heavenly places. So David has to go up to Jerusalem, which is the centre of the system. It is typically the centre of light for the whole universe, and so corresponds with Ephesians; there you have further increase of family, of children. Solomon especially was born there.

Rem. David had been there before with the head of Goliath.

J.T. That was in testimony.

F.L. That was typical of Christ going up to heaven, "Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive" (Ephesians 4:8).

J.T. So that what it comes to, I think, is this, that what is to increase is the heavenly man. The man that is recovered, as in Romans, is a testimony to God's power, but the heavenly Man is to increase and fill all things.

B.T.F. Would you say a word in explanation of the counsels of God? We often refer to it, and I thought you might give us some help in understanding the meaning of the counsels of God.

J.T. That is seen in Hebron; that is, it was built before Zoan in Egypt. Therefore it was not built on the pattern of world-cities. It had reference to God, to what God does, and the fact that it had been given to Caleb makes it of all the more interest; it was Caleb's city, and withal it was one of the cities of refuge. I think one point in connection with the purpose of God is that the thoughts connected with it precede everything in this world. They are wholly of Himself.

J.S. And faith takes hold of that, just as Caleb did?

J.T. Yes, and faith does not want anything else but that.

A.F.M. You mean by that, that what is in the mind of God to bring to pass could not be improved

upon. He did not take dignity from this world. For instance, "The princes of Zoan are fools" (Isaiah 19:11). The world system is coming down.

J.T. But the princes of Hebron are not fools.

A.N.W. How are the measurements of height, and length, and breadth understood?

J.T. They are understood at Jerusalem; that is, Ephesians gives us the full divine height. From there our bearings are taken.

A.A.T. Do you wish to convey the idea that any man who had been in Jerusalem under David would be a different man if he went back to Zoan to what he had been when there before?

J.T. He would go back an entirely different man. It is easy to see that. He would go back as a man from Jerusalem.

P.H.P. And have the characteristics of Jerusalem about him.

Rem. Our earthly position is governed by our heavenly position.

J.T. That is right, but Hebron only suggests the idea of the counsels of God. But in Ephesians it is, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world's foundation". That goes back very far; it is before the world's foundation.

P.H.P. Before Hebron?

J.T. Yes, the divine choice as to us has no reference even to the foundation of the earth. Wisdom was there at the foundation, but God's choice as to us was before that.

F.L. I think the distinction between the foundation of the world and what was before it is helpful to see. Matthew 24:34, and Revelation 13:8 speak of what is from the foundation of the world; but God's counsels as to the assembly are before the

foundation of the world. Wisdom also was before the foundation of the earth (Proverbs 8:22 - 26).

B.T.F. What light does the Old Testament give on the counsels of God apart from Proverbs 8?

J.T. Proverbs 8 tells of wisdom being before the material creation, but there is nothing as to the assembly that was hidden. Of course there are certain allusions to the assembly in type; these we understand now by the Spirit. The foundations of the earth refer, I think, to the ways of God. The assembly comes into the sphere of God's ways, but its own place and calling are outside of it.

J.S. Would the world's foundation have reference to the responsible world?

J.T. That is what I was thinking. It is the theatre upon which the ways of God have been developed.

F.L. The idea of Christ and the assembly was in the divine mind, but it had to be brought to pass. The earth becomes a sphere in which all is effected, but the counsel of God precedes it, and goes on to the new heavens and the new earth.

J.T. Just as the sheet in Acts 10 came down and went up, came down and went up, and came down and went up. That is complete testimony, but then it went up and stayed. I think that suggests Ephesians.

T.R. And all that was in the sheet went up.

P.H.P. Does it suggest to you that we are thereby rendered greater than anything that could be exhibited in the world?

J.T. Yes, one has the sense of the magnitude of Ephesians. It is our charter, if we could only lay hold of it.

A.A.T. Is Ephesians the position seen in Luke 15 in connection with the house?

J.T. It corresponds, only Luke is in the presence of the elder brother, it is more before men. Ephesians is heavenly places.

R.S.S. The scripture referred to in Hebrews 1:10 - 12 is very helpful. "And, thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thy hands; they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail". It is very striking in this connection, the difference between the ways of God and the counsels of God.

READINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS (2)

Ephesians 2

J.T. According to Acts 19:1, the apostle traversed the "upper districts" in reaching Ephesus. His epistle to the Ephesians is on an elevation. I think it might be well to point out that this epistle bears the marks of the official, whereas his epistle to the Philippians is more mutual. Ephesians is a letter treating of the counsels of God, just as the letter to the Romans treats of the gospel, but it is based on their being faithful in Christ Jesus, and having love to all saints.

F.L. That is a very important point -- love to all saints, as well as faithfulness.

J.T. I think therefore that they were qualified to receive intelligently and sympathetically a letter like this. It was not beyond them. I believe the formation of the Ephesian assembly indicates that it was to occupy a representative place in the assembly. The apostle arriving at Ephesus found certain ones who had been instructed only in the ministry of John the baptist. They gave heed to Paul's teaching, and received the Spirit through the laying on of his hands. Then we are told that the number of men was twelve. Twelve men instructed at the same time by Paul and receiving the Spirit at the same time afforded a basis of unity there that is not found elsewhere.

F.L. On the same lines as the administrative thought in the Old Testament economy, there is the suggestion of administrative completeness in the assembly.

J.T. It is not said twelve disciples, or twelve Christians, but twelve men. The foundation at Philippi was rather connected with women and households,

but Ephesus begins with "twelve men" receiving at the same time Paul's ministry.

F.L. I think what you say in regard to John's ministry has its bearing, because the element of repentance was introduced through it, and this was important in the foundation. It was a foundation of repentance, and that was fitting for the work of the Spirit. We are often very lacking in that.

J.T. I think that perhaps what local companies lack is men such as are seen here. In them you get intelligence and permanence, marked by unity.

C.H.B. The light was received by twelve men, and we may receive it likewise as men.

J.T. These twelve men were promptly separated by the apostle, and they met in the school of Tyrannus, in which Paul reasoned daily for a long time, a space of two years or over, and it says, "All that were in Asia heard the word". It was not merely dogmatic statements there, but a reasoning of things, so that Christianity as established at Ephesus was enforced through reasoning; the superiority of it was enforced in power. Hence the whole fabric of human literature came to nothing. The books were all burned. That was what marked the foundation of things at Ephesus.

A.R.S. I do not quite get hold of this thought about reasoning in the school of Tyrannus. Is your idea that the truth was put before these men in an intelligent way and they took it up intelligently?

J.T. That is it. The mind and soul are convinced.

A.R.S. The mind wrought on by the Spirit. The natural man does not receive the things of God. They are foolishness to him.

J.T. Then in verse 8 we read: "And entering the synagogue, he spoke boldly during three months, reasoning and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God". And further, "But when some were hardened and disbelieved, speaking evil of the

way before the multitude, he left them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus, and this took place for two years, so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks". But they heard it through reasoning, not simply by preaching, so that the mind was convinced of it.

A.R.S. I want to get clear the difference between this reasoning and the ordinary reasoning of man. Now when Paul was preaching before Festus he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come. What did he appeal to in Festus?

J.T. I think he appealed to the intelligence of the man. He appealed also to his conscience. Surely temperance and judgment to come should appeal to his conscience, but the mind also is taken into account.

A.R.S. In Festus' case he did not get his convert, but in these twelve men the reasoning evidently did its work.

J.T. The twelve men were secured before the reasoning began. He did not have to reason with them. They were secured first as a basis. They were with him in the school. They would support him no doubt, but the effect of the reasoning daily was that all that inhabited the province, not only the city, but the province, heard the word.

F.L. Where it is a question of what we speak of as "convincing people" the apostle in his answers to contentions always includes that which pierces the conscience. We see it before Festus and Agrippa, and at Athens. The truth of the kingdom and of the assembly was unfolded and established at Ephesus through Paul's ministry.

J.T. The effect was to bring about faithfulness and love. The elders that Paul called over from Ephesus fell on his neck and kissed him. There was a distinct evidence of love, both for him and, as we

read here, for all the saints; the Ephesian Christians were universal in their affections. In this first chapter of the epistle Paul says "Wherefore, I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you and the love which ye have towards all the saints". Their affections embraced all the saints. They were not simply local. We are apt to love the local ones only. Of course it is very happy if we do love the local ones, but the nearer you get to God, and the more you enter into His thoughts, the more your heart is expanded in taking in all the saints. Hence the epistle in that way presents the assembly in its universal bearing.

B.T.F. As far as the spiritual history of the Ephesians at the beginning is concerned, it is described to us in verse 13. "Having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory".

J.T. They were sealed. God's stamp was upon them. The apostle had doubtless seen evidences of love while with them, but he is writing here in verse 15 on the basis of what he had heard, the report that followed him as to them.

F.L. This epistle suggests to me Exodus 40; that is, it is the completed tabernacle, set up in all the perfection of its detail in glory. We do not get the same fulness in Acts 2.

W.H.F. It is the general character of the assembly here. It is not confined to Ephesus.

J.T. Well, the first chapter opens up to us what was in the heart of God as to us before the foundation of the world. And then it proceeds to speak about the good pleasure of His will, the mystery of His will, and the counsel of His will. So the first chapter is largely stamped in that way by the will of God, the

good pleasure of it, and the mystery of it, and the counsel of it. Then verse 15 shows Paul's concern that the Ephesian Christians should have the eyes of their understanding opened by the Father of glory, and that they might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. That was a great point, because what he had in his heart to unfold depended on their being capable of receiving it, and that begins a section that runs on to the end of verse 10 of chapter 2. It runs on in that way uninterruptedly, firstly speaking about what had been wrought in Christ, and secondly, what He had wrought in the assembly so that the assembly was placed in heaven in correspondence with Christ. Then in verse 11 of chapter 2 he comes down to what they were historically. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, but God had wrought to bring them into the house down here. They were fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God.

Then in chapter 3 he is "the prisoner of Jesus Christ"; and in chapter 4 he is "the prisoner of the Lord". Chapter 3 is to unfold to the saints his ministry; and in chapter 4 as the Lord's prisoner, he enjoins upon the saints what would be fitting to their calling, the chapter is really built up on that. Then chapter 5 is a question of what God is. We are to be according to God's nature.

The exhortations begin in chapter 4 in that way, and chapter 5 is a continuation. They were to be imitators of God. He speaks of the danger that always threatens us, Satan's getting in at the weak point; the intimation is that Satan would get in through the woman, through the child, and through the servant. Hence you find the woman is mentioned before the husband, the child before the parent, and the servant before the master. Satan would attack the weak point. As to conflict we are to be guarded at the

vital points especially. We are to have on the whole armour of God.

A.R.S. As a result of the will of God being accepted you get faith and love. You are brought into a circle of faith, which has been the result of light from God. You are brought into a circle where divine affections are.

J.T. In chapter 1 verses 3 to 6 inclusive, you see what is in the heart of God on account of His love. We are before Him in love. That is according to the good pleasure of His will. If you take that in you are prepared for the will of God as regards what is outside. The mystery of His will refers to the dispensation of the fulness of times; it is not a question of what is before the foundation of the world. All things are to be headed up in Christ in heaven and earth. All that is according to the counsel of His will. I think the first six verses would apply expressly to ourselves. Then you are prepared for the mystery of His will, which goes beyond ourselves, because His will must prevail as regards heaven and earth. Our place is secured in the first six verses, but the mystery of His will refers to all things.

A.R.S. We are here in a scene where the will of man is paramount. That means hatred and it means lawlessness and the very opposite of what the will of God brings you into, so that when you accept this reasoning you step out of darkness into light.

J.T. You see what it is. It is not simply God's will for your path here, it is His will as regards the heavens and the earth.

F.L. The acceptance of this, and being built up in it, really makes spiritual statesmen of us.

W.H.F. The apostle had the heavenly city in view.

J.T. The assembly shall be the great centre of all administration. "The good pleasure of his will" has reference to the place the saints have as formed

in Christ before Him. "The mystery of his will" has reference to the dispensation of the fulness of times, taking in the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, to head them all up in Christ. Now being in the secret of this, we take our part in it. Our peculiar place is in the first six verses; "having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved". That is our place.

Rem. That is the highest point.

J.T. Yes; taken into favour in the Beloved for God's pleasure.

F.L. I suppose that is the highest point that is reached, and really it includes the eternal state. The highest point in respect of the ages is in the end of chapter 3; that is, glory to God in the assembly.

J.T. That is the full result.

F.L. That is "the age of ages". The first six verses really take in the eternal place with God, but the other climax is at the end of chapter 3, glory to God in the assembly throughout the ages.

Rem. In this time the answer comes to the Lord's prayer: "thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

J.T. In the mystery of God's will you have a political idea. It is a question of administration. I do not know of anything more important for us now, as showing where our politics are, than what we have here. It is a question of the mystery of God's will. It is not everyone that is initiated into it.

F.L. Here upon earth it is understood only by the initiated, but in the heavenlies all principalities and authorities see the all varying wisdom of God at this present moment in the assembly. It is not a mystery in heaven, but on earth.

J.T. The administration of the fulness of times

is already seen in the order of the assembly. The thing is there in mystery.

W.B-w. Fulness of times -- what does this refer to?

J.T. The fulness of times is the millennium, I apprehend.

W.B-w. All things are headed up in Christ in the millennium.

J.S. How things are done is seen now in the assembly.

J.T. That is it, and it is in that connection the word "mystery" stands.

Rem. The first six verses give our heavenly portion, whereas the seventh verse refers more to what we are on earth now.

J.T. Redemption is the solid footing which we need while here on earth, but our blessings are in heaven; we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. The dispensation of the fulness of times includes others; but we have our part in it too.

B.T.F. Why does the apostle distinguish in verses 12 and 13? In verse 12 he says; "we should be to the praise of his glory who have pre-trusted in the Christ", and in verse 13 he says "in whom ye also trusted".

J.T. I suppose verse 12 refers to the Jews. The "ye" in verse 13 would be the Gentiles.

F.L. I would suggest a very simple thought, that up to the end of chapter 2 the Jew and the Gentile are seen as being on parallel lines. Then at the end of chapter 2 these two lines merge into one. Their separate and parallel existence is recognised up to the end of chapter 2. Then they merge into one, to become the one new man in Christ, and together we have access by one Spirit to the Father.

W.B. Will you say a little on verse 17? Is the thought that we should now know God?

J.T. Yes, that we should have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. It is not simply that we are to have light, we are to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation. It is hard to define the spirit of wisdom and revelation, but it plainly marks those who have it. We must get it direct from God. Paul could impart knowledge, but he could not impart this. He prays for it on the behalf of the Ephesians.

W.B. In Romans 12 you are transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That is more in connection with our path on earth?

J.T. Romans is initial, and certain things are spoken of as new. You have newness of life, newness of spirit, and newness of mind. The principle of newness is introduced. That is most important, because you have to begin that way, you have to begin anew. That is a point in Romans. When you come to Ephesians it is not simply that you look at things in a new way, you have a good deal more than that. It is a question now of God and His wisdom and His counsels. Well, who is equal to that? One who has the spirit of wisdom and revelation. It is a new man in a new place.

F.L. This is connected with "the eyes of the heart", which suggests spiritual affection. Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him, is very much on the line of Romans. Then she passes through death and resurrection with Jesus. Then in John 12 the eyes of her heart are enlightened, and she does things in the spirit of wisdom and revelation. But I doubt if she could have told exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it. The Lord could interpret it. She did the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and it was because the eyes of her heart were enlightened.

J.T. The principle is seen also in Luke 24. The two disciples at Emmaus had the presentation of headship in their own house by the Lord. What are they going to do now? They go back to Jerusalem. In other words, you might say they come to Ephesians. No one will understand Ephesians unless he apprehends the Head. It is dependent upon your apprehension of Christ as the Head.

W.B. I am sure that is right. Ephesians is often taken up without much profit because headship is not understood.

J.T. Yes. The two from Emmaus come back to Jerusalem and they find the eleven and those that were with them, and they tell them what had happened, and the point emphasised was that He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. His headship was acknowledged, but they were not in the right spirit yet, so when the Lord came into their midst, "they were terrified and affrighted" (verse 37). They were not equal to it, and He calms them by saying "It is I myself". So they sit down in the presence of the Man that fills the sphere of divine counsels. The soul is set at rest in the presence of that Man, and He talks and eats before them. It was a real Man in whose presence they were, and one who was the centre of all the divine counsels. It was a great thing for them to have their hearts set at rest in the presence of that Man. To understand Ephesians the heart must be at rest in the presence of Christ. "It is I myself", He said; a real Man who is the centre of all the divine thoughts. The passage in Luke goes on to show that He opened their understandings. That is the idea of the spirit of wisdom and revelation. I believe that is the line on which we shall understand Ephesians.

W.L.P. Is the spirit of wisdom distinct from the Spirit of God?

J.T. It is. Of course it is brought about by the

Spirit of God, but the believer is to have it just as you have an ordinary faculty.

F.L. Yes. It is not the Person of the Spirit. We ought to distinguish that.

J.T. So it comes to a question of spiritual ability, but it is through the affections, as you remarked.

A.F.M. I suppose such a passage as this excludes the mind of man from entering into these things?

J.T. Yes, mere mental ability is entirely outside of it. What is spoken of here is a divine gift. God acts sovereignly in the believer in giving him his faculties.

F.L. The line of the inheritance is interesting. It is His inheritance in the saints. It is not what we have, but what He has.

J.T. I suppose it is what God has in the saints. It is His calling, His inheritance, His power.

P.H.P. These things comprise what is to be known on our part.

F.L. Then the presentation of the raising of Christ here is not the ordinary presentation of resurrection. What He wrought in Christ in raising Him from among the dead is in view of exaltation.

J.T. What you were remarking last night, that resurrection involves a new sphere, is important, but that is not the point in Ephesians. Here we have the fulness of the divine thought, so it goes right on to exaltation. "Set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:20 - 23). It does not open up the new platform of resurrection, as Romans, on which God effects things for man, but is rather to show His power in raising

Christ and placing Him up there. This power the saints are to know.

F.L. "Has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus", is the carrying out in His body what was effectuated in Christ.

J.T. Yes. What is so interesting about chapter 2 is that it is on account of God's "great love", and that in carrying out the thoughts of His great love in regard of us it is on the principle of association. While working in us He puts us in association with others, hence there is always an incentive for the activity of the affections. So "God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, we too being dead in offences, has quickened us with the Christ ... and has raised us up together and has made us sit down together". "His great love wherewith he loved us" has placed us in association with Christ and with one another. We are always together.

P.R. Is that Jew and Gentile together?

J.T. Yes, Jew and Gentile, but the thought of association with others is prominent.

F.L. The dignity of all this comes like a weight of glory on one's spirit. In the first chapter it is for the praise of His glory. In this chapter it is with the end in view that in the coming ages the surpassing riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus might be displayed. We think of things in an incidental and very haphazard way, but we get an indication here that God has ordained things. He has before ordained good works that we should walk in them.

J.T. It is very remarkable that the works should be ordained before.

A.R.S. In Revelation 2:2 it says: "I know thy works". Works were still there, but love was gone.

J.T. That is "thy works". No doubt they were

good works, but here it is the works that God has ordained before, that we should walk in them.

A.R.S. That is not the good works in saints.

J.T. Here it is from the divine height. I have no doubt it refers to certain features of the Lord's walk and ministry. "He went about doing good" (Acts 10:38).

F.L. "God was with him". I would like to get away from the spirit of restless activity, and to fall in line with what God has already arranged in connection with my day and the day of every saint. That is the thing I would covet.

J.T. Yes, it brings about a state of soul of waiting on God. "I have set before thee an open door" (Revelation 3:8). God has opened it and you go in and walk in good works.

Ques. Is that a result of new creation?

J.T. Yes, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. The word "walk" conveys the idea of deportment.

READINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS (3)

Ephesians 3

J.T. It may perhaps help to point out that in the first ten verses of chapter 2 we have detailed the work of God in taking us out of a state of death in trespasses and sins and placing us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus; and that in the remaining verses we have what has taken place here on earth historically, so that the end is not heaven but the habitation of God here. In regard to the latter, we are seen as once nations in the flesh and uncircumcised, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That is what we were. Now we are fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God. That is what has taken place here on earth; what we were previously, and what the assembly is in relation to the testimony on earth now. Our immediate calling, therefore, is our place in the house.

R.S.S. Are the first ten verses true of us now?

J.T. We were pointing out this morning that from the beginning of verse 15 of the first chapter to the end of verse 10 of the second we have the whole work of God, both as to Christ and the assembly; the full result of His work, without any reference to the time it has taken to accomplish it, whereas in the second half of the second chapter it is what has come to pass on earth -- Jews and Gentiles brought into unity, and having access to God by the one Spirit, and being made fellow citizens of the saints and of God's household.

F.L. In accord with that, it is the temple and not the tabernacle. "Being built together increases to a holy temple in the Lord". That has the earth in view.

J.T. Yes, so that in the first part of the second chapter the end in view as to position is that we should sit down together in the heavenlies; whereas in the second part the end in view is the house of God down here.

R.S.S. The question is often asked, are we set down in the heavenlies now?

J.T. We are the habitation of God now actually, but we are not in the heavenlies actually but anticipatively. The first half refers to the work of God viewed abstractly. It is viewed as God's work in its completeness, and is therefore anticipative.

R.S.S. Would it be right to say that, while not there actually, we may be there in spirit?

J.T. We may be there in spirit surely, since our place is in heaven. The fact that we have a place there gives us our dignity, qualifying us for the house on earth. I think our every association is bound up with our place there, and it lends dignity and colour to our place in the house here. Therefore, the house is in that way a heavenly institution, composed of persons whose calling and place are in the heavenlies. The first half of the chapter lends dignity and character to the second.

F.L. I think that is supported in the opening of the epistle, where we get sonship, which is connected with the heavenly position and calling; then after the mention of access to the Father and our being of the household, we get, "Be imitators of God as dear children". Our position here as children of God is influenced by the light of sonship.

R.S.S. As to having been raised together and made to sit together, it is said as though it were so now; He hath raised us, hath made us sit together.

J.T. God speaks of things in that way, as though they were; things that be not as though they are. It is, as I apprehend, the whole work of God as to the assembly.

R.S.S. You make that very clear. It is not a question of time, but you get a view of the whole work of God. It is delineated for us here.

J.T. So, as to the working out of the thing in detail, it includes every item of God's work in the assembly from the coming of the Spirit to the rapture, but it is presented as already accomplished, so as to show us the fulness of God's work on account of His great love wherewith He loved us. If God is to show what He can do, as the full result of His great love wherewith He loved us, you would expect Him to give it all. It is not a question of whether I am in it or whether you are. It is God showing the full effect of His work on account of His great love wherewith He loved us. In carrying it out He does it on the principle of association; that those who are the subjects of His work are set in relation to Christ and to each other. We are quickened together with Christ and then raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ. You have the idea of association all the way through. That is how He carries it out, and we know in our experience that it is so. The work that He accomplishes in us is on that principle.

Rem. In Ephesians it is God carrying on His work. The wilderness, and our side is ignored.

J.T. Yes. He carries out His work in us in relation to others on the principle of association. The wilderness typified the experimental side.

F.L. Unless we can really in our minds touch the assembly in that way, and see it complete, without reference to time, we must always be defective in our apprehension of it. We have to see it in its fulness in that way, and looked at as absolutely complete.

J.T. Yes, and then we come to what is taking place here on earth. We are reminded of what we were and where we were, the distance at which we were from God, and the apostle details how God has

brought about reconciliation, that the enmity has been removed, and reconciliation has taken place in one body. He has reconciled both in one body by the cross. All this has taken place here on earth.

A.R.S. Would the effect of our entering into this truth in chapter 1:1 - 10, be that we should act in the light of it as forming the house?

J.T. That is the idea; that in the house of God you act in the dignity of your heavenly position. You see you are in the house not simply as recovered, not simply on the ground of righteousness; you are in it as having a place in heaven, which gives you dignity.

A.R.S. Viewing us as seated in the heavenlies, is that the reason it is said here, "By grace ye are saved", because it is viewing the whole thing complete?

J.T. Yes, it is not only salvation from judgment, but from place. You have a new place in heaven, and so you are delivered from earth.

A.R.S. What you say makes it plain to my mind, but is not the whole assembly brought before us, those that are gone, those that are here, and perhaps those to come? It is true of the whole assembly of God. So that you can say in one way you are there in spirit already, and you act in the full light of it?

J.T. I think we are entitled to take that ground as before God. That is our place. When together in assembly we are entitled to that place, because God has given it to us. It helps in the chapter to see that the terminus, so to speak, in the first half is heaven, whereas the terminus in the second half is the house of God on earth. It is the second half of the chapter that is alluded to in the beginning of chapter 4, where he exhorts the saints to walk worthy of the calling, because he immediately goes on to say: "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit". That refers to what is here in the house.

F.L. And so in chapter 5, "Walk in love". It all flows out of that point of view.

A.A.T. Will the house come to an end in time?

J.T. I should scarcely like to say that, because the idea of the house goes on. The tabernacle of God is with men. It never ceases as viewed in that sense, but as we are now, we are the house of God on earth provisionally; that is what the Ephesian saints were; they were built together, that word is emphatic. They were built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. They were that on earth, and I think it is provisional. We do not continue to be that on earth.

A.F.M. Would the thought of the house have a wider place in the kingdom?

J.T. It will have a place in the millennium. The idea of the house runs right through from the time God introduced it to Jacob in Genesis 28:17. It is never given up, but continues. Whether we form it or others, it continues, but one can easily see that the house now is superior to what it ever has been or ever will be, on account of the dignity of those who compose it.

C.A.M. Would the thought of increase be in growing, continuing? Is it a present thing?

J.T. It "groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (chapter 2:21). The thing is growing in that way. There is growth. Growth is in the divine nature. It is growth unto a holy temple in the Lord. That, I suppose, is what we shall be in the future. All the light of God will be there. It is that in which men are to inquire in the future.

R.S.S. Will not that be complete at the rapture?

J.T. I have no doubt it will be.

A.F.M. The house is complete at the present time. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle when it was complete. And we are said to be indwelt now by the Spirit, "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (verse 22). That is complete now.

J.T. Yes. There is that here in which God can dwell, "a habitation of God in the Spirit". I think we have a broader presentation of the house in this passage than in any other. It is the full idea of the house of God, "a habitation of God in the Spirit".

F.L. That necessarily involves reconciliation and one new man, or you could not have that presentation of the house down here.

J.S. Does this correspond to mount Zion? God said, "here will I dwell" (Psalm 132:14). God chose mount Zion for a dwelling place?

J.T. I think it does. Directly David has taken Jerusalem he brings up the ark and forms a place for it in mount Zion, and this runs parallel with Psalm 132 "here will I dwell, for I have desired it". It is God's desired place.

Ques. Would you say the presentation of the house in this book is similar to that in Hebrews?

J.T. Hebrews states that the saints are God's house and Christ is Son over it, but we have a broader thought here. In Hebrews the saints are said to be God's house as a fact, and Christ is Son over it, as having built it, and Christ is a great Priest over it, so that we can come near to God; but you have fuller thoughts here. Look at the way it is presented, in verse 19; it is said, "ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God". That is one thought. Then, "being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone, in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit". I think the idea of the house of God in Hebrews is more official, but here the word "habitation" is a somewhat stronger word. God is actually dwelling there. All that God is in His attributes

rests there. There is nothing to mar or disturb the divine attributes in the house.

F.L. In Hebrews 3:6 it is conditional. It is: "If we hold fast".

C.H.B. Do we get the thought here as to the holy temple, "there will I commune with thee"?

J.T. The idea of the temple was, I think, that it was a place of light, of communications, a p]ace to be inquired at.

R.S.S. What are we taught in the Scriptures in connection with the house and the eternal state?

J.T. "The tabernacle of God is with men" (Revelation 21:3). The divine thought is that He should dwell with men. It does not seem to be mediatorial, as in the wilderness, the habitation is not surrounded by a court, and there is no veil. It is rather as seen in 1 Kings. God dwells immediately with men. In the house that Solomon reared up according to 1 Kings there is no veil. There are folding doors. It is figuratively the immediate presence of God without a veil.

F.L. You get the idea in Revelation 21; "tabernacle" expresses the idea that God dwells there immediately. That is the supreme eternal thought.

J.T. It corresponds with what the Lord was here. The tabernacle of God with men is parallel with the Word become flesh and dwelling among us. He was approachable. God was there dwelling among men; (John 1:14).

Ques. You used the word provisional in connection with God dwelling. Is that because of the evil around now?

J.T. It is because conditions in Israel do not afford Him a dwelling. The dwelling place begins with Jacob, but Israel does not now afford conditions for the house, hence God has taken it up provisionally in the assembly, but it will revert to Israel. That God

would have a house here shows what He is. He loves to be with men, hence He dwells with them.

F.L. One thought as to the temple is that the building itself has importance and attracts attention. The idea in the tent is simply that of a covering, so that the great point is who dwells there. Therefore the beauty of Revelation 21, that the final state is a tabernacle.

J.T. Quite so. The temple, I think, is mediatorial. It is here said to be "in the Lord", and it scarcely goes on to the eternal state of things, because then there is no distance, no need of holiness outside in the eternal state of things. Here it grows to a holy temple in the Lord. Therefore, you can readily see the temple looks on to the millennium; it is mediatorial. A habitation conveys nearness and accessibility.

F.L. So in the eternal state holiness is the natural atmosphere, so to speak.

J.T. You do not need to assert it.

W.B. Did the apostle have in his mind the house as presented here when he wrote to Timothy: "These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly; but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house" (1 Timothy 3:14,15)?

J.T. That epistle fits in with this passage. This is the presentation of the house in its highest form. 1 Timothy shows how you are to conduct yourself in it.

A.F.M. You said something about the house as according to the attributes of God.

J.T. The facts presented in the Acts as to the work at Ephesus would show that conditions for the house as it is presented here were there. Of course we are all in the house, but the question is whether we are equal to it; whether there is that in which God can rest. That is a feature of the dwelling place.

T.A. Declension set in at the highest point, declension of affection in Ephesus. Thus the idea of the house there ceased.

F.L. There is a distinction between the assembly, His body, at the end of the first chapter, and the house.

J.T. In the end of the first chapter He is said to be "head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all". The thought conveyed there is that the reciprocal affections between Christ and the assembly are intended to influence all below. All in the entire realm of the dispensation of the fulness of times is to be influenced from the top by the affections that are reciprocated between Christ and the assembly. So that one can understand what a great conception it is that in the future, in the fulness of times, all the different families come under that influence, just as in any household where affections are mutual between the husband and wife the children come under the influence of them.

F.L. It is interesting in that connection to see that in the passage quoted in 1 Timothy, the house of God and the assembly are linked together, and then it goes on, "God has been manifested in flesh".

R.S.S. You mention the end of the first chapter only, but our brother raised a question as to the difference between the end of the first and the end of the second.

J.T. It is quite clear that the end of the first chapter has reference to the future, that which God has in His mind to head up, placing Christ as Head over all things to the assembly. Mark that it is said, to the assembly. It is not here Head of the assembly, but Head to it. In Colossians He is Head of it, but here He is Head to it.

R.S.S. What is the distinction?

J.T. The distinction can be illustrated in the relation of the husband to the wife in regard of the

household. When they are by themselves he is head of her, but in regard of the children, of the household, he is head to her. That is, she is not under him. She has part in the headship, only subject of course; she occupies a different place from any of the children however advanced. Christ is "head over all things to the assembly". She is qualified, formed intelligently, so that there is intelligent communion between Christ and the assembly. Mark the change of word; He is Head to the assembly, which is His body. Assembly suggests the thought of counsel.

A.N.W. The assembly is complete there; she is the fulness. She is the fulness of Him.

P.H.P. Is this not the original thought in helpmate?

J.T. You go back to Genesis 2 for the primary thought.

P.H.P. She is to help, and the word "help" suggests what you say.

J.T. The idea is that Adam was to have one his like, or his counterpart. Eve was capable of entering into Adam's thoughts. She was capable, as it were, of taking counsel, entering into his counsels and thoughts. I do not know whether the word confidante is a legitimate word to use, but it conveys a thought of the assembly's relation to Christ, as seen here. No other creature could have this place.

F.L. It is a primary thought. It was not to meet conditions occasioned by sin.

R.S.S. Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23). As a brother once remarked, "This is myself over again".

J.T. Quite so. He says, "This time", referring back to the other creatures brought to him.

R.S.S. Quite so. So the end of Ephesians 1 is the body, and the end of chapter 2 is the temple. Is that your point?

J.T. Yes, the end of the second chapter is the

assembly's relation with God, what we are as regards God; whereas in the end of the first it is what we are as regards Christ. It is not the habitation of Christ, but the habitation of God by the Spirit.

F.L. When the question is of conduct in the house, the assembly is spoken of, not the body of Christ.

Rem. So God has something and Christ has something. God has the house, and Christ has the body.

A.F.M. It would encourage us to review the ways of God with us now, as being educational, in view of this wonderful position in association with Christ by-and-by.

J.T. Quite so. It is a wonderful position. Think of the influence, on all the other families, of the reciprocation of affection such as exists between Christ and the assembly!

Coming now to chapter 3, the apostle calls attention to his own place as a minister. He wishes the Ephesians to understand his knowledge of the mystery, and what I think should be observed is that the mystery comes within the bound of time. We were noting this morning that our proper calling is before the foundation of the world, but when you come to chapter 3 I think you will observe it is from the foundation of the world.

R.S.S. Yes, it is said "which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God".

J.T. Yes, it is "throughout the ages" here, or from eternity, which means the same thing.

Rem. In Romans 16:25, it reads: "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith".

J.T. The mystery has reference to time. I am

not of course denying that it was in God's mind before, but the working out of the mystery belongs to time. The third chapter runs right on to the assembly being the vessel of God's glory throughout all ages.

F.L. We reach one climax in the previous chapter, and then at the end of the third chapter we reach another, that which has its origin in counsel from before the foundation of the world and continues to eternity. It serves a purpose in the ages, and the climax of that purpose is seen at the end of the third chapter, glory to God is there.

J.T. It is the vessel in which God's glory is, a wonderful end in that way.

F.L. At this present time the principalities and powers in the heavenlies see in the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, by looking down. In the world to come the earth will see the all-various wisdom of God in the assembly by looking up.

J.T. Yes, quite so, but how great is the conception now, and how great the administration committed to Paul, that there should be brought about through his ministry that in which the all-various wisdom of God should be seen on earth! One can understand why he bowed his knees. The thing was so great, so magnificent, that he bowed his knees. He does not say he bowed his knees in the first chapter, in regard of his prayer. The weight of it is more upon him here.

W.B. What do the principalities and powers in the heavenlies refer to?

J.T. I think it refers to angelic beings, that God would work out before them something infinitely beyond anything they had previously witnessed. They had seen the foundation of the earth laid, and they had rejoiced in it. They had seen the birth of Christ, and they praised God in connection with that. They had also witnessed His wonderful work in Israel, in taking Israel out of Egypt, the formation

of the tabernacle, etc., but in the mystery they would see the all-various wisdom of God.

R.J.C. Do the principalities and powers discover things as they view the assembly?

J.T. I think they see how God will govern the universe in the future. It is to be governed through affection. They understand how the physical system is maintained, a wonderful thing it is surely! How the worlds were framed and are maintained is beyond us. The angels are witnesses of all this, but there is no affection or intelligence in the great physical bodies in the creation. These things are all inanimate, without consciences and without hearts. They are all by weight and measure, as we say. That is the principle in the physical creation, weight and measure. The angels are cognizant of all this. They could teach us astronomy, no doubt. There is wonderful wisdom seen in the material creation, but the all-various wisdom of God was reserved for the mystery. It works out in connection with family relationships and the affections that are suited to them. That is, I think, what the angels see. Therefore, they learn how things are to be accomplished in the future. The regulation of the moral system is in all-various wisdom.

F.L. Therefore the apostle bows his knees to the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named. He names according to moral worth every family in heaven and on earth. It emphasises His position as Father.

J.T. You see in the book of Job how God calls Job's attention to the physical creation. There were wonders in it, wonders far beyond Job's ken. He could not compass them. The book of Proverbs develops wisdom in connection with affections, for the speaker is a son. He was his father's son, the only one of his mother, tender and beloved. Wisdom is worked out in connection with affections flowing

from this relationship. When you come to this passage in Ephesians 3, Paul says. "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father". He has created all things. He does not bow to the Creator exactly, but to the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named; not the naming of the sun, moon and stars, but of families.

W.B. In Genesis 8 we have a certain promise that God gave Noah, that while the earth lasted, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, should not cease. There is a physical order which God has promised will be maintained, but when you come to what is before us now we have the moral side, the affection side.

F.L. Every moral being that is left in this universe is brought under God as Father, and that is a wonderful end.

A.N.W. In the physical scene a man like David was reminded of the bridegroom; (Psalm 19).

J.T. They are types. The invisible things are seen in the things made, even His eternal power and divinity, but not His love, nor the response to it. You do not get the paternal idea, the descending affection, in these things, but when you come to the Father of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named you have this.

A.F.M. Is there any connection between what you were saying and the additional words in the first chapter? In the first chapter it is "Father of glory", and here it is simply "the Father".

J.T. I think the apostle has more the paternal side in mind here. In the first chapter it is "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory". He is the Author or Source of glory, but here He is the Father of families. They are intelligent beings.

F.L. I suppose Christ dwelling in our hearts and our being rooted and grounded in love is the way in

which we are in the appreciation of the relationships in which we are set.

J.T. Christ dwelling in the heart. It is "the Christ" here, which brings in another thought, namely, that He is now in our hearts as the One by whom God effects everything. The woman of Samaria said, when the Christ is come He will tell us all things. She had discerned that He was a prophet, but did not discern that He was the Christ, but she really understood that when the Christ should come He would tell her all things. We may add to that, that He accomplishes all things. It is such an One as that, that is in the hearts of the saints.

A.A.T. Will you just distinguish between "Christ in you the hope of glory", as presented in Colossians, and what we have here?

J.T. I do not think the article is there. Colossians 1:27, reads, "to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory". It is more the Person having a place in them, but here it is "the Christ", showing that they had Him in their hearts as the accomplisher of things.

A.F.M. Officially?

J.T. More officially. That is to say, He is the Man who effects things. That is more the thought in Ephesians. That is the Man I have in my heart, the man who accomplishes things for God. In John 4 the connection is remarkable, because "the Christ" is the one who really brings in the worshippers. The Father had sought worshippers. Well, "the Christ" is the one who brings them in, and so here "the Christ", I believe, gives character to every family. They all come under His touch. You take the group that encircled Him upon earth, He placed His imprint upon them; and so at Pentecost. Through Paul's ministry, He places His imprint on the assembly

in the full idea of it; and I believe the angels receive their character from Christ.

A.F.M. To go on to the thought of Christ accomplishing things, is that what is before the soul in contemplation in the holiest according to Hebrews 10?

J.T. Pretty much. Entering the holiest you see the Man that is before God, and the Man by whom things are accomplished. That Man is dwelling in our hearts. If the work of God is to go on that Man must have a place in our hearts, and if He has a place in our hearts, He will accomplish things. Others will be affected. He carries on the work of God and accomplishes it.

W.L.P. Is it on our behalf He is accomplishing it?

J.T. If you do not make room for the Christ things are not accomplished. If Sardis had had the Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, He would not have had to say to them "I have not found thy works complete before my God" (Revelation 3:2). If you give the Christ a place you will have things accomplished.

R.J.C. And if you give Him a place your vision is enlarged.

J.T. We are to be strengthened by the Father's Spirit. That makes room for the dwelling place of the Christ. It is a question of inward ability "that the Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". There is the position. The Father strengthens inwardly by the Spirit; the Christ has His place and dwells there; the saints are rooted and grounded in love, and hence are fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. It seems

to me that the Christ having His place in the heart we are at the divine centre of operations.

W.H.F. In principle it is the heavenly city.

J.T. If you could get into the cabinet of any of those nations at war now you would understand the purpose and plans of the government. It seems to me that is the position here, that the Christ has a place in the heart and you see what He is doing.

R.J.C. All His designs are before you. What is this the measurement of?

J.T. The measurement of the divine system, just as you look into space. Take the physical system, as you look into space there you have the scene of God's physical operations. Well, who can measure it? We hear of tremendous distances which we cannot take in, but they are there undoubtedly. The same thing applies to the moral system. We are in the centre of it, in that the Christ is dwelling in our hearts. Now you get an idea of measurement. It begins with the breadth and the length, then the depth and height. Evidently you are in the centre. You look up and down and this way and that way, and you are to know it.

J.S. From this wonderful vantage point.

J.T. From the vantage point we have through the Christ dwelling in the heart by faith.

Rem. Far beyond mount Nebo.

J.T. That is simply prospective, and you look into the land from the wilderness. But here you are in the divine centre.

A.N.W. "Son, give me thine heart" (Proverbs 23:26). Do you think the end in view is that Christ might fill the heart?

J.T. Yes. In Proverbs it is: "My son give me thine heart". Here it is not only filling but dwelling in it.

J.S. And you are able to look out on all that God has before Him?

J.T. Hence you are not occupied with what men

are doing now. After the Holy Spirit came they spoke about the wonderful works of God.

W.B. Tell us why the length and breadth come first here.

J.T. I think you do not measure up to God until you love the brethren. It is a question of love. It is the horizontal first; the breadth and length first.

J.S. You must be adjusted down here before you can look up.

F.L. In Revelation 21 there are only the three dimensions. Here there is a fourth dimension given us, there is depth. It refers to the distance downward travelled by Christ, and the height is the distance upward.