THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom
VOL. X. August 1, 1927 No. 15
Table of Contents
BY
LOVE SERVE ONE ANOTHER
CONVENTION
REPORTS
OUR
MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST
THE
HERITAGE OF THEM THAT BELIEVE
GOD'S
HOUSE AND THE COMING KINGDOM
WE
SHALL BE LIKE HIM"
ENCOURAGING
LETTERS
VOL. X. August 15, 1927 No. 16
Table of Contents
"AS
THOSE THAT ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD"
WITH
BRETHREN IN GREAT BRITAIN
THE
WAYS OF WISDOM
"LOOKING
FOR THAT BLESSED HOPE"
"THE
TEMPLE GOD IS BUILDING"
TRIALS
AND TESTINGS OF THE FAITHFUL
VOL. X. August 1, 1927 No. 15
"For, brethren, ye have
been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love
serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not
consumed one of another."-- Gal. 5:13-15,
WE LIVE at a time when the love and appreciation of liberty is more
general and widespread than it. has ever been in any other period of the world's history.
Those who have carefully reflected on the subject recognize that the Bible is the
responsible factor in the matter. Wherever the Word of God has gone the result has been
an arousing and stimulation of the love of liberty in the same proportion. And it is a
well recognized fact that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This has been
demonstrated in the world's history in a most marvelous way. It may be said that it was
because God's ancient people, the Jews, had the instruction of the Law and more or less of
its spirit, that for centuries they were regarded as an unconquerable people; that is,
they were conquered time and again but were so exercised by the spirit of liberty that
they made difficulty and trouble for their conquerors and larger neighbors continually
When in the darker seasons of the past God's Word was "clothed in sackcloth,"
and gross error and false teachings of men took its place, there was little of the spirit
of liberty, and the world had a measure of peace, though it meant general serfdom and
bondage of the people. When in God's providence the time came for the breaking of the
fetters and shackles of superstition and ignorance, there followed an interesting season
of reformation I which aroused afresh the love of liberty, though it meant a period of war
and general strife.
The Results of Liberty and Truth
Nor should we gather from this that Jesus and His Apostles taught war
and discontent and strife; neither did Moses and the Law. Rather, very much to the
contrary; love, peace, brotherly kindness, gentleness, patience, meekness, were the
essence of the teachings of our Lord and His inspired representatives, the Apostles. The
results which proceeded from the Word were of two kinds: Some with the enlightenment and
liberty received also the Divine instruction in their heart and sought to cultivate the
fruits of the Spirit; others there were receiving the spirit of liberty through the
knowledge that came to them, received not the
spirit of the truth into good and honest hearts, but engrafted the knowledge upon the
selfish stalk of the fallen nature and were consequently more discontented because of
their increased intelligence. The result is as Jesus foretold, namely that there would be
the true and the false mingling together throughout the Age, otherwise known as the wheat
and the tares. There is, therefore, as all know, the professing Church, the worldly or
nominal Church represented in the masses of professing Christians, which is really part
and parcel with the world, glossed with a little knowledge of the Divine Word and Plan and
with some small endeavor to heed the Divine instruction; but the real Church includes only
those who have turned from sin and accepted Christ with a full consecration of thought
word, and deed. The question is, What effect has God's Word, the Truth, on these? The
answer is that these are the regenerated or made alive ones; and even these "New
Creatures" realize that the knowledge they receive, and the spirit of liberty which
comes to them through that knowledge, has one effect upon their flesh and another effect
upon their new minds or renewed hearts. With, their hearts they desire to and do serve the
Law of God, to live peaceably with all, to cultivate and exemplify all the fruits and
graces of the Spirit of Christ and to deal gently, lovingly, not only with the fellow
members of the Body of Christ, the Church, but also to deal gently with fallen humanity
wherever they come in contact with them. But all of these have, some more and some less,
difficulty in contending with their own imperfect flesh and in establishing there the new
mind to dominate, it in word and in deed.
An Apt
Illustration
All Christians of experience have more or less of an understanding of
the Apostle's words, "If ye bite and devour one another." If the hearts of God's
people, their new wills, their holy intentions and motives could be appealed to; separate
and distinct from the weakness and bias of their flesh, there would be no doubt at all that every one of them would agree
perfectly in his desire to live peaceably with his brethren and to glorify God by his meek
and quiet disposition, his gentleness, and brotherly kindness. But it is impossible to
have it thus, for the renewed heart or will is in the old body that is sadly warped and
twisted by selfishness and it must, as the Apostle admonishes, "War a good
warfare," "fight a good fight" against the fallen fleshly tendencies and
must conquer or overcome at least to the extent of loving, striving for the right, the
gentle, the good, however imperfectly it may attain to it.
It is often manifest that the truth seems to take hold on the
stronger characters rather than on the weaker ones. These have in their natural
temperaments and make-ups more of the firmness, grittiness, and the combativeness than
have many others who are too pliable, too weak and easy-going to be acceptable to the Lord
as members of the "Little Flock" of overcomers. It becomes then manifest that
the very quality which makes us acceptable to the Lord and which is one qualification of
the overcoming position is in another way a serious disadvantage, when a number of these
of like strong character come together in a Class or Church. Even a diamond surrounded by
mud would cut nothing, would scratch nothing; but if we place a number of diamonds
together, we find that the more we eliminate the mud element, the more gritting, scouring,
and cutting there is likely to be. So it is often manifest with the Lord's jewels -- the
more they come together, the more they get wakened up, the more opportunities there will
be for friction, and the greater necessity there will be that they all be thoroughly
embedded and covered with the Holy Spirit, which like oil is smooth and unctious and tends
to prevent friction.
Causes of Friction in the Church
From one standpoint we may reasonably suppose that as the Lord's
people progress in Christian development, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the
Lord and in the fruits and graces of the Spirit, there should be less tendency to and
danger of friction in the Church; but on the other hand, it is to be remembered that
polished diamonds do more scratching and rubbing than rough ones. It is to be recalled,
too, that in their earliest experiences in the Christian way, the Lord's people were
somewhat like babes and did not know enough to contend and dispute with each other
respecting the lessons they were learning. It is so important that as the Christian grows
in knowledge and appreciation of the Truth, he should likewise grow in the spirit, power
and love of the Truth, or else his growth in
knowledge will mean that he will be that much more of a trial, a test to his dear brethren
than when he was a babe in knowledge. Experience shows it has resulted this way with a
large number of Christians.
From this. viewpoint of the subject it need not surprise us if in the light of our day on every subject and
the general circumstances peculiar to this time, there appears to be more room and
occasion for friction, dissension year by year, and the greater and more urgent need
therefore for the Lord's people to bear ever in mind the exhortation of St. James,
"Be patient, brethren." The Apostle's message in that same connection shows us
that these words were intended to be specially applicable in the end. of this Age. The
general time of trouble is accurately described -- the conflict between the rich and the
poor which for many years now has been developing along the line of increased knowledge in
connection with the selfishness of the fallen. nature. Then comes the exhortation,
"Grudge not one against another, brethren; behold the judge standeth at the
door"; "Be patient, brethren, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
The lesson here is in full accord with the Apostle Paul's words,
quoted at the head of this article. How much all the Lord's people need patience; they
need to remember that it is not in order for them to nurse grudges or hard feelings of any
kind, especially against those who like themselves are striving to walk in the Narrow Way
and to attain joint-heirship with their Lord in the heavenly Kingdom. Rather, they should
be anxious and willing to sacrifice something of their own rights and liberties and
privileges in the interest of others. This need not mean that any should sit quietly and
hear the Truth misrepresented when he has the right and the opportunity to defend it. All
should contend earnestly for the Truth against the errors, but in the spirit of love; none
should contend against the brethren themselves. If there are those who deny the
foundations of our faith, the ransom, the Lord through the Apostles has left us no room to
doubt as to our duty in respect to the discontinuation of fellowship with such (1 Cor. 5:11), but it is well known that there are very
many occasions of friction amongst the brethren where no real principle of truth is at
stake; and these we should be not only willing but glad to waive in the interest of
harmony and peace and fellowship. This, however, need not mean that we should not present
our understanding of the Truth on proper occasions, but we need not be insistent upon
others receiving our view, nor attempt to force our understanding upon others if they
cannot see as we do.
"Lest Ye Be Consumed One of Another"
In our text St. Paul seems to teach that such a state and condition
might develop even amongst professing children of God that soiree would not only be
wounded to the extent of being "bitten" by the harshness and slander of others,
but that the tendency or disposition to retaliate more or less in kind would arise and
that it would mean a general conflict unworthy of God's children and more nearly
resembling a fight amongst lower animals. As another has remarked, "the expression
'But if ye bite' seems to be used in the sense of contending and striving -- a metaphor
not improbably taken from dogs and wild beasts." The sense then is, if you contend
with each other. etc.
"Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another," urges
the Apostle. What if in our appreciation of the liberty that is ours and of which we know
through the Gospel, we should reach the point where we would be so contentious for our
liberties, great and small, that we would consume some brother for whom Christ died! What
if in injuring another, the spirit of strife should so react upon us as to poison our own
spiritual lives and we also should be consumed -- lost as respects the gracious things to
which the Lord invited us and for, which we have been running in the race! "Thus the
idea is in their contention they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each
other; their characters would be ruined. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of
a church and to annihilate the influence of religion is to excite a spirit of
contention."
With this thought before their minds may the Lord's people more and
more put on the armor of God which will enable them to fight against their own fleshly
weaknesses and to fight for their dear brethren; assisting them by example and precept to
war a good warfare, such as will mean to them that at last they shall be crowned as
victors. Let the Apostle's words ring in our hearts, "Lest ye be consumed one of
another."
Brethren present at the Conventions mentioned below,
have submitted these reports which we believe will he read with interest.
AT ORLANDO, FLORIDA
While central Florida in the summer time might not be considered the
coolest spot to hold a convention, we found the arrangements at Orlando very comfortable
and convenient during our gathering there July 3 and 4. The attendance of 35 to 40, came
principally from Jacksonville, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. A nice hall with plenty of light
and ventilation on the third floor provided a cool meeting place. All the visiting
brethren had sleeping accommodations at the "Hotel Orlando" just across the
street, so that we had many hours of social fellowship in the hotel lobby. Restaurants
conveniently located provided wholesome food at moderate prices. The minimum personal
expense was $2.50 per day.
The convention gathering gave Brother H. S. Brooks and the other
brethren at Orlando a vote of thanks for the splendid arrangements they had made for the
entertainment and comfort of the visiting brethren. Brother Brooks replied that the
spiritual blessings of the convention were far greater than any trouble or expense
incurred and that it had been a great joy to all to render some little service to the dear
brethren of the Lord.
The program was ably carried out by the various speaking brethren.
Every session opened with a prayer and testimony service, and this was one of the best
features of the convention and one of the most appreciated, giving all an opportunity to
speak and become acquainted.
Every speaker referred to the history-making convention we were
engaged in holding; history-making for ourselves and Florida; this being, so far as we are
aware, the first convention in this State of the independent, liberty-loving brethren.
Those in attendance were such as had determined to stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ had made free, and not to become entangled in bondage to men, nor to depart from
the sound doctrine wherein we had become established by the teaching of our beloved Pastor
Russell, but to remain steadfast and free from sectarianism and divisions.
All voiced the opinion that their prayers had been answered by
receiving a greater blessing than they were able to contain and that every service and
arrangement of the convention had passed off with such graciousness and unction of the
spirit of love and toleration that not a single criticism or complaint was offered. Surely
a great season of refreshing and upbuilding in the most holy faith had been experienced by
all.
So helpful had this first experiment of holding a convention proved,
that arrangements were started to prepare for another convention to be held in Tampa,
Fla., on Labor Day, the first Sunday and Monday in September. It was decided to arrange
some similar joint meeting of the brethren in Florida quarterly throughout the year.
The "Herald" brethren and their ministry was commended by
the speakers and the convention; because of their spirit of liberty and tolerance. With
such an association of brethren we are glad to co-operate in spreading the message of
God's love and Kingdom for the blessing of all the families of the earth.
_________
AT PORT HURON, MICH.
The little company of friends at Port Huron, Mich., had been quite
enthusiastic in preparing for the three days of fellowship, and continued to energize
themselves and others by their whole-hearted, unfeigned, love and their spirit of devotion
to the Lord and His people. I enjoyed the informal character of the arrangements. Our
meeting place was out on a farm six or seven miles from town, which of itself seemed
beneficial, especially to those of us who get so little of God's great open air spaces,
where meditation and rest of mind and body seem to come more freely. No definite program
arrangement had been settled upon, since some difficulty had been experienced in securing
speakers. However a full program developed each day and the Lord's blessing realized by
all. I served them twice on Saturday and once on Sunday and enjoyed the good spirit of
fellowship shown by all. The number present Sunday afternoon ran up to thirty-five which
was about as large a number as I expected to meet. Some others were expected for Monday,
but others would; like myself, be absent so that would be about the highest attendance.
I met some new friends not seen before, more or, less recently freed
from bondage, and rejoicing in liberty and in hearing discourses free from the peculiar
themes to which they have listened so long.
"Wherefore in, all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people. For in that He Himself bath suffered being temped, He is able to succor them
that are tempted. -- Heb. 2:17, 18.
THERE IS probably no sweeter word of counsel to the people of God
than that which gives assurance that the One who. has been placed over them as their
guardian, their teacher and guide is of a most gentle, patient, and sympathetic
disposition and character; having Himself passed by the way of suffering, trial and
testing, in consequence of which He was touched with a feeling of their infirmities. This
word of comfort. gives perfect assurance that the One who is over us is able to enter into
all that we feel or experience; that He knows how much and wherein to make allowance for
weakness and imperfection.
Truly the Scriptures affirm that first and primarily the suffering
and death of our dear Redeemer was in connection with canceling the death sentence that
rested upon our race, in fulfillment of the requirements of the Divine Law "an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" -- a life for a life. We read concerning the
visitation of Jesus to some of His disciples after His resurrection when finding them
greatly distressed and perplexed concerning His death, while He was yet unknown to them,
He asked the great question, "Oh thoughtless and slow of heart to believe all that
the Prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Messiah to have suffered these
things and to enter His glory?" The sacred account goes on to say that Jesus answered
the question by referring to the Law and the Prophets, though the details of what He said
are not given. Under the illumination of the Spirit later on St. Paul explained that the
purpose and object of the sufferings of Christ were to make manifest Jehovah's
righteousness in remitting the sin of the already condemned world, showing that He is just
and yet the justifier of the condemned ones who believe in Jesus, whom God sent forth to
be a propitiation, a satisfaction, a substitute for them -- who also freely gave His life
as a man, His humanity; a ransom for many -- for the numerous posterity of Adam who had
inherited his sin and condemnation.
We Must Be Touched With a Feeling of Humanity's Weakness
But as this One who so graciously sacrificed His life was also to be
the world's Redeemer in the sense of being their High Priest and King, His sufferings were
also necessary to qualify Him to be competent and faithful in the proper administration of
mercy, patience and long-suffering with those who were to be uplifted out of sin,
degradation, and defilement. Having ourselves undertaken to walk in the way our Leader
trod, how much we feel the necessity for such a mighty Deliverer as well as such a loving
and sympathetic Redeemer. It is because we have such a faithful One that the Apostle
admonishes, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
While in this our judgment or trial day we find great comfort in this
blessed assurance of a merciful Savior, realizing as we do our own weaknesses, blemishes
and imperfections as well as manifold temptations, we wish to pursue the thought further
now and be reminded of the fact that the members of the elect Church of God who are to
constitute the Royal Priesthood of the new dispensation; like their Lord and Head, must
know experimentally the effects of suffering and temptation, must be touched with the
feeling of humanity's weaknesses and frailties else they would be utterly disqualified for
so exalted and responsible a position.
In the Royal Priesthood of that Age the world is to have the same
comfort in its priesthood that we in our present infirmities find in Christ. For this
cause, chiefly, we apprehend that the priesthood is chosen from among men -- that redeemed
men, who were once in the same plight with all the rest of humanity, being thus exalted to
the Divine nature with all its power to bless, might also, from their past experience and
observations while they were men amongst men, be qualified to be very wise and merciful
priests, knowing well how to deal with the poor sin-sick world; and that the world might,
find comfort and consolation in the realization of such sympathy.
He Suffered Infinitely More Than We
Such being the mission of the Church in the not far distant future,
all who expect to be of its approved membership in glory should now be cultivating a broad
and generous sympathy for all their fellows of the "groaning creation" -- a
sympathy which considers the weaknesses and temptations -- mental, moral, and physical --
of fallen men, and which is ready to forgive and to help the repentant erring; a sympathy
illustrated by the verse --
"A
bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake;
Nor even rudely pluck away
The error which some truth may stay,
Whose sudden loss might leave without
A shield against the shafts of doubt."
It is not enough that we know the truth and rejoice in the hope of a
future personal exaltation: we, must not forget the very object of that, exaltation -- the
blessing of all the families of the earth -- and the present duty of conformity to the
word and example of our Lord, that thus by His Word and Providence He may fit us for the
duties and honors to which He has called us. Only by so doing can we make our calling and
election sure.
If we turn our eyes to the Pattern, we see in our Lord Jesus one who
was deeply moved at the sight of human degradation, moral and physical. As another has
well remarked:
"In all our temptations and trials let us remember (1) that He
suffered more -- infinitely more -- than we can do, and, that in all our sorrows we shall
never reach what He endured. We. enter no region of trial where He has not gone beyond us;
we tread no dark and gloomy way where He has not gone before us. (2) Let us remember, that
He is to us a brother, for He 'is not ashamed to call us brethren.' He had a nature like
ours; He condescended to appear as one of our race, with all the innocent propensities and
passions of a man. What matchless condescension! And what an honor for us to be permitted
to address Him as an 'elder brother,' and to know that He feels a deep sympathy in our
woes! (3) Let us then, in all times of affliction, look to Him. Go not, suffering
Christian, to philosophy; attempt not to deaden your feelings by the art of the Stoic; but
go at once to the Savior -- the great, sympathizing High Priest, who is able to succor you
-- and rest your burdens on Him."
"His
heart is made of tenderness,
His soul is filled with love.
"Touch'd
with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame;
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For He has felt the same.
"Then let
our humble faith address
His mercy and His power;
We shall obtain delivering grace,
In every trying hour."
Our Sympathies Should Go Out to All
Let us learn the lesson more fully that we must grow to be like Him
in sympathy and longsuffering, if our ministry to the world in the future is to have the
same beneficial and uplifting effect as Christ's ministry now has toward His faithful
Church. Not only so, but we should be in sympathy with every impulse of the world which is
toward righteousness and reformation of character and life; we must rejoice at every
movement that is made in this direction; and our sympathies should go out toward all who
are laboring far the common uplifting of, as well as for all the oppressed everywhere.
With every good work and with every noble sentiment our hearts are
and should be in accord; and we rejoice with them over every victory they gain for
righteousness and truth, however small, although we are not with them on the same plane of
endeavor; for God has given us the higher commission. The priesthood may not despise the
Levites, nor even the children of the camp. We rejoice that there are Levites -- hewers of
wood and drawers of water, and that even in the world's great camp there are some who not
only incline to righteousness, but who are bravely endeavoring to stem the overwhelming
tide of evil: But we rejoice more in the fact that it will ere long be the privilege of
Christ and the saints to take hold of all these much needed reforms with energy and power,
and push them forward to glorious success, when in God's due time they shall be endued
with power from on High.
Dearly beloved of the consecrated household, let us not forget to
keep in touch with the groaning creation; to sympathize with its sorrows and: its woes; to
realize its deep degradation and misery; to remember its frailties, its awful burden of
hereditary taints and consequent weaknesses; its present environments of ignorance and
superstition; and its long established errors of public sentiment; remembering that we too
are still in the sinful flesh, and that the motions of sin are still often painfully
manifest in us, in some directions, at least, if not in many. And as the cries of the
groaning creation come up into the ears of the Lord of hosts (Jas. 5:4) with strong and
pathetic pleading to His loving heart, so let them come into our ears and gain our
sympathies, and quicken our zeal to co-operate .with our Heavenly Father's plan for the
establishment of His Kingdom of righteousness and peace.
God's People on Side of Righteousness
But let us bear in mind that a real pity for the world, a full
sympathy with every good work of reform, and an active co-operation with God in the
necessary preparation for our great future work, imply also that we have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness and that our lives be a standing rebuke to them.
"How," says the Apostle, "shall we that are dead to sin live any longer
therein? . . . Our old man [our justified human nature] is crucified with Christ, that the
body [organization] of sin might be destroyed„ that henceforth we should not serve
sin" -- nor in any sense. recognize sin as our master.-Rom. 6:2-6.
It should be our constant effort, therefore, to seek to discern the
course of righteousness on every question of moral obligation, and to see to it that our
conduct, our sympathies, and our influence„ however small, are on the side of
righteousness. In this day of searching judgment it should be observed that every
principle of moral obligation is being brought forward for searching examination. One
cannot thoughtfully. read the daily press without observing this tendency of the times in
which we live. No matter how long and firmly established have been the old ideas, nothing
can escape this scrutiny. And the principles of righteousness are being boldly set forth
-- here on one subject, and there on another; and that in defiance of the thundering
anathemas from all the old fortresses of sin, iniquity, and superstition.
But right and truth must and shall prevail when the Kingdom has been
established (Matt. 6:10; Luke 12:32; 22:29), however feeble now may be the voices lifted
in their defense. Let our sentiments and our course of action always be noble and pure,
and so far as possible on the right side of every subject that comes forward for
ventilation and investigation.
(Continued from last
issue.)
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us." -- 1 John 1 :8.
AS we review St. Paul's, able and powerful exposition of the doctrine
. of salvation, of the sinner's full release from the curse of sin, as set forth in Romans
6, let no one misunderstand the Apostle and hastily conclude that he is suggesting, that
we should practice a deception on ourselves in respect to the actual deformities. and
limitations of. our flesh, or that he is endeavoring to prove that we. can live above
failure or shortcomings. As previously stated, the Apostle was no idle theorist but
intensely practical. He is not using the kind of sophistry so frequently used by so-called
"holiness" faddists, who speak of being "able to live a minute without sin,
and if one minute why not sixty? and if one hour can be lived in holiness why not a
day?" and so on. St. Paul was much too honest and practical and too much possessed of
a true. appreciation of his standing in Christ to be caught in any such spirit of
self-sufficency and pride -- vain philosophies that would rob him of the richest joys of
his spiritual life, so inseparably associated with the realization of his own
unworthiness, and the priceless heritage he enjoyed through the unsearchable riches of
Christ.
In discussing the flesh aside from its reckoned condition through
faith, he very clearly teaches its unprofitableness, and its incompatibility with
righteousness, and the aspirations of the new mind -- facts with which we are all
personally well acquainted, and in connection with which we need the light of God's Word
to enable us to correctly distinguish between flesh and spirit; for, says the Apostle,
" Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit." "To be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Stated briefly, St. Paul's
reasoning on this matter may be clearly understood as follows: "In our flesh dwelleth
no perfect thing." "The flesh warreth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh." Its carnal tendencies, the perpetual enemy of sanctification and
holiness, necessitates its being browbeaten into subjection to the control of the new
mind. This is a daily warfare that ultimately terminates in absolute death to the one or
the other. And finally, it is not the perfection of the flesh, but the righteous
intentions and faithful endeavors that make us acceptable to God through Christ, as to us
He applies the universal rule -- "The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye
love the Lord your God with all your heart."
Understanding the matter thus we are prepared to acknowledge the
daily shortcomings of the flesh and to thankfully appropriate the assurances of His
forgiving love by faith in the atoning merit of our Lord, out of whose fullness we
receive, and to go on our way rejoicing. How sublime the thought, that even yet, despite
all these confessed imperfections, we are reckoned by God as having been separated from
them by virtue of our death to the old and our subsequent new life in Christ. If we know
positively that we love righteousness and hate iniquity, because we love God and His
holiness, and if our souls cry out for His perfections, then we may take the exalted
position that He gives us now -- a standing where even our fleshly bodies may be viewed in
a new light, weighted with holy associations, the receptacles of a Divine energy that will
ennoble and beautify the whole character until it is resplendent with those rich unctuous
qualities that overflow in benedictions upon. those with whom we mingle.
"So let
our daily lives-express
The beauties of true holiness;
So let the Christian graces shine,
That all may know the power Divine."
"Our Bodies Washed With Pure Water"
How frequently we hear children of God speak of their bodies in the
most disparaging manner, as though their fleshly body was a loathsome, grievous
encumbrance devoid of any high or worthy merits, a hindrance to the service of God,
forever blocking their pathway and shutting them off from God's immediate presence. That
this view is not consistent with God's appraisal of our bodies becomes increasingly
manifest as we continue our survey of our present inheritance through faith. Hearken to
the Word of God while He graciously informs us of our exalted standing in His sight
"For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said; I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God." "Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man
defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy; which temple ye are." "What? know ye not that your body is the
temple òf the Holy Spirit, which is in you? . . . therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
-- 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 6:19, 20.
In the light of such statements is it not manifest that our proper
course would be to heed the inspiring revelation and joyfully obey the assuring message,
"What God hath cleansed, call not thou common," or unclean; and henceforth live
our daily lives in the practical livable certainty that these bodies are the holy temples
of the living God; that He deigns to dwell in men of humble mind and to begin, continue,
and finish His work of grace in us. Such meditations of Him are sweet indeed. They produce
in the humble, responsive heart such a sense of His nearness and preciousness that the
present life. takes on a new meaning, and we live in the conscious realization of such
unhindered union
with Him that the fleshly limitations cannot interfere nor destroy.
Indeed if our spiritual growth has progressed to the point where spiritual communion and
sweet meditation have become the habit of life, if the invisible things have become to us,
through faith, unquestionable realities, can we not in holy, fearless gratitude exercise
the same faith in respect to our present privileges, and joyfully claim all God's gifts of
grace vouchsafed to us now, in the house of our pilgrimage, and evermore fill His courts
with praise,
"And
triumph now in every hour,
Through Christ, the Lord, our King."
Dwelling In Heavenly Places
Blessed unity and companionship! Jesus at the Father's right hand,
our sufficiency, our all, and yet here present with us, dwelling in our hearts, sharing in
all our joys and sorrows, walking and talking with us, intimately interested in every
detail of our daily toil, care and responsibility; and we ourselves, though yet in this
house of our pilgrimage filling the place appointed us in God's wisdom and grace, absent
from our eternal spiritual home above; and yet, oh transporting life, dwelling with Jesus
in the Father's presence, enjoying the light of Jehovah's holy countenance, communing in
intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son; feasting on those unseen but eternal
realities, which become so blessedly real, that the only remaining barrier to their full
enjoyment seems to be these fleshly eyes; which cannot in all their wonderful mechanism
catch even a glimpse of His unspeakable beauty.
Our fellowship is truly enriched by a proper understanding of God's
benevolent arrangement for us, and the stronger our faith, the greater our ability to rise
above the condition in which His love found us and from which He has delivered us, and
ascend step by step the ladder He places before us, until we know our full salvation --
"Receiving the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls." Thus we
experience the power that raised. Jesus from the dead, quickening our mortal bodies by His
Spirit that dwelleth in us, and out of a real personal consciousness of infinite grace
enjoyed, will shine the testimony of "His loving kindness, O how great!."
God knows all about us, He knows our real condition aside from Him;
all our inherited blemishes He fully understands, and our bungling patchwork service, full
of mistakes and blunders He can see. The groanings of the spirit within, yearning for
liberty of action and perfection of expression, thereby confessing present inabilities, He
is well aware of, and has so informed us; not for our discouragement, but to encourage and
strengthen our confidence in Him. It is only when we know ourselves as we actually are,
humanly speaking, that we catch the lofty view to which we have been elevated in the
goodness and power of our God; the plane on which He puts us and on which He wishes us to
live, not only in the moments of exuberant, refreshing foretastes. of heaven's atmosphere;
but in .the daily routine and amidst the besettings and afflictions and regretted failures
of the earthly life.
Let Us Have Faith That Staggers Not
Indeed it is the very fact of God's full knowledge of what we were
and are, that increases our appreciation of what He has done for us, in providing such a
complete justification from all our past condemnation -- "though our sins be as
scarlet"; and additionally, establishing us in our present heritage where even He
defends our immunity from sin, because we are in Christ. This it is that gives a depth of
meaning to the Apostle's challenge, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
Some one has sent broadcast the pleasing maxim, -- "A true friend is one who knows
all about you, and loves you just the same." Such a friend we have in Jesus, and He
is but the reflection of "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort," whose
faithfulness is our unfailing source of confidence. "What mere can He say than to you
He hath said? You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled."
Surely He has done great things for us, and our hearts are a glad,
and since He is honored by our faith taking hold of His Word with that simple confidence
that knows His promises can never fail, let us be strong in faith. Let us be worthy
associates of those whose names adorn heaven's roll of honor, whose faith was such that it
"staggered not" at the humanly impossible, but accounted God willing and able to
perform all He had promised -- yes, a faith with a vision that could span two millenniums
and yet rejoice in the certainty of realization. Do we possess such a faith? If so, our
life has been a progressive one; for such faith comes not suddenly, but step by step,
"While our faith is reaching upward, ever upward, Lord to Thee."
The thoughts of a Christian writer beautifully express the matter
thus: "Our spiritual pathway is divided into three regions, very different from one
another . . . . First, there is the region of beginnings, which is a time full of sensible
joys and delights, of fervent aspirations, of emotional experiences, and of many secret
manifestations of God. Then comes the wilderness, full of temptation, and trial, and
conflict, of the loss of sensible manifestations, of dryness, and of inward and outward
darkness and distress. And then, finally, if this desert period is faithfully traversed,
there comes on the further side of it a region of mountain heights of uninterrupted union
and communion with God, of superhuman detachment from every thing earthly, of infinite
contentment with the Divine will, and of marvelous transformation into the image of
Christ."
Foretastes of Coming Joys
Therefore. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity." He may well rejoice in 'God's forgiving grace, and again rejoice in the
heritage opened up to him in the favor and blessing of God who ever waits to be gracious,
hiding Himself from all but those whose spiritual vision can penetrate the obscuring human
limitations, and revealing Himself in proportion to the depth of our spiritual experience.
"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters ; these see
the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep." (Psa. 107:23.) But alas, so many
prefer to cruise around in the shallows, content to know the theory of the wideness of His
goodness, but fearful and slow of heart. to believe all He has said. These never grow rich
in the treasures hidden in the deep. These are precious truths, founded not upon the word
of man, but upon the infallible Word of God, which cannot be broken. Divine grace has set
before us such visions of our Father's love for us, and has drawn aside the veil to permit
little foretastes of coming joys in order that we might know Him better. And if we follow
on to know the Lord, we have the testimony of prophets and apostles that there are heights
and depths of spiritual invigoration, of contact with the invisibile powers of heaven,
yea, of separation from the tangible things of time and sense, and of the enjoyment of a
real, blessed satisfying knowledge of God, that reveals Him to our hungry hearts in all
His precious nearness, as our best and truest friend, whose love and fafthfulness we would
no longer wound by our weak, faltering faith.
Let us then, beloved, claim our heritage and lay hold of all our
exalted privileges. Henceforth let us be a people so elevated by such contemplations above
the jarring discords and trivial things that seem so ready to divert our attention and
disturb our peace and joy. Let us seek by communion with Him that outgrowth of spiritual
discernment and ability to live more in the heavenlies where we properly belong. Then we
shall understand the precious meaning of the life that is lived by "the faith of the
Son of God," and be able to read. in His every providence for us the deepest proof of
His love and care, the continued assurance that He has set His love upon us.
"What Manner of Persons Ought We to Be"
As the children of God, we are enjoying today so many advantages over
the faithful of the past, that it would seem impossible for any now to accomplish such
heroic exploits as have been recorded of the long line of faithful witnesses. from Abraham
down through the centuries to our own day, "who against hope. believed in hope"
and "staggered not .at the promise." Nevertheless; we are clearly taught in the
Scriptures that equally .great opportunity for obtaining the fulfillment of the rewards of
faith id open to us now, on condition that we emulate holy ones of old in the exercise of
faith. They overcame by faith and had this testimony that they pleased God. So let it be
with us, for "This is the victory that overcometh the world and the flesh and the
devil -- even our faith."
By virtue of our high calling privileges and the spiritual rewards
promised, us, and because of our location on the stream of time, living in the day upon
which prophets and. holy men of God focused their interested gaze, we are informed that
our trial privileges would, be correspondingly great. Jesus Himself declared such to be
the Father's arrangement, saying, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him, shall be
much required." (Luke 12 :48.) Therefore remembering that we are on the very
threshold of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, with "Only a few more
trials, only a few more tears," only a short time in which the Church is privileged
to suffer with Him, because of devotion to Him, how rich a portion is ours, and what
examples we ought to be "of suffering affliction and of patience," always
counting it a happy privilege to endure.
Oh, that all of God's dear children today could read into present
experiences that blessedness spoken of by the Apostle, James, "Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation," trial, and testing, and through faith realize the purpose
of God in every trial from whatever source it comes. Then they would know by a rich
experience the blessed truth that He does "know how to steal the bitter from life's
woes."
It is in vain that we profess faith in God; if our trials embitter
our hearts and disrupt our love and patience, for our very conduct testifies against us,
displaying an absence of confidence in God's supervision and care. If we have set to our
seal that God is true, then we must recognize that He will withhold no good thing from us
and permit no evil thing to harm us, if we keep our hearts stayed on Him. Ah yes --
"There is
a safe and secret place
Beneath the wings Divine,
Reserved for every child of grace
By faith who says 'Tis mine."
This secret place which should become our habitual retreat is
appreciated and enjoyed in proportion as we grasp the meaning. of that all comprehensive
promise, " We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28.) Hidden in this place
of security we can look out over all of our present experiences and in "quietness and
confidence" enjoy a sweet repose, while all about us is confusion and turmoil.
Quietness of conduct, submission of heart to the will of God; and ability to grasp the underlying
principles involved in our experiences, becomes in time the unmistakable evidence that
they have been making progress in the life of faith; and contrariwise, if this day of
peculiar trial finds us distracted, fretful, and. impatient, and the submissiveness we may
have had, overthrown by present experiences, or if our powers of spiritual discernment are
dwarfed, so that we are able to comprehend only the letter of the truth, but unable to
apply its principles, we are but babes in Christ -- we are not the characters we ought to
be in view of our highly privileged place on the stream of time.
After Ye Have Suffered Awhile
Who that has progressed in faith and experience and the knowledge of
God to the point of grasping the fundamental truth that the Kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and has therefore learned
the important lesson that the practical application of his knowledge to all the varied
experiences of life is the great purpose of God for him, cannot testify today, to a
largeness of heart and breadth of vision that enables him to say truthfully, "Faith
can firmly trust Him, come what may."
Do our trials come chiefly through the unsettled condition of our
lot? While others seem to live in undisturbed surroundings and settled circumstances, our
lot may seem one of frequent upheavals, financial troubles or home responsibilities,
bringing anxieties that uproot our plans and overturn our ambitions. Or perhaps our
fellowship with the brethren that for so long seemed satisfactory, bringing us spiritual
feasts, and satisfying our desire for association with others of like mind, becomes
disrupted by the introduction of false teachings and unscriptural tests, and we feel
disposed to bemoan our lot. But God has not forgotten, and His immutable promises assure
us that eventually "Looking back we'll praise the way" and rejoice in all His
leading and care.
In Jer. 48 :11, we read : "Moab hath been at ease from his
youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is
not changed." The prophecy is based upon something that would be well understood by
those directly addressed by the Prophet. In the production of their best wine we are told that amongst other
things the method employed was to place the grape juice in vessels as it came from the
wine press. A certain length of time was allowed for its remaining in this vessel during
which an accumulation of matter called "must" would gather on it. It was then
poured into another vessel and the "must" left behind. This process continued
from vessel to vessel until no more "must" gathered, and its taste and scent was
then considered satisfactory. Moab had not been poured from vessel to vessel neither
experienced captivity, and his undisturbed condition had not been beneficial of to his
advantage.
Lessons of Submission
How beautifully this harmonizes with St. Paul's words to us,
"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he. whom the
Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without, chastisement, .. . . then are ye spurious and
not sons." (Heb. 12: 6, 7, 8.) And we are reminded also of the Scriptural assurances
that the Lord must frequently stir up the nest for our good. Just to know that "He
knows and loves and cares." How great a privilege to have Him in His loving
kindness and mercy pour us "from vessel, to vessel," from one experience to
another, thus giving us the evidence that we are His. If in a loving, submissive
confidence we learn to say, "It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good,"
and leave behind a little more of the "must" of the old disposition each time,
then He who has begun the good work in us will surely complete it in our perfect
transformation, our awakening in His likeness, to His
praise and our eternal joy.
Do our special trials come from contact with the brethren, and cause
us to feel like praying with David, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would
I fly away, and be at rest, lo then would I wander far off and remain in the
wilderness" -- if we could only get away into isolation, we. would be so contented
and enjoy our fellowship with the Lord so much more. But this would not be real faith
operating in our minds, neither would it be a triumph such as we desire. Our great need
apparently is not only to love the brethren out of obedience to our Lord's special command
but to realize that we stand in need of them and they of us. Kingdom responsibilities and
many of our future qualifications will be in proportion to our deep love for our brethren
and our ability to view them in love, and to keep the future and God's purposes before our
mind.
Examples of Suffering Affliction
David we know represents the Church in many of the experiences he
underwent, and he has left us examples of submissive faith that we may well seek to
follow. Anointed king, and from God's standpoint the rightful occupant of the throne, yet
because of Saul's presence he must wait until God enthroned him. Saul's jealousy and
hatred eventually drove him into the mountains for safety; his loyalty to God cost him
persecution, suffering and distress; sympathizers were found amongst the people and some
of these became his associates in the flight -- and this was their caliber: "And
every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was
discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them." (1
Sam. 22:2. What a peculiar company with whom to associate -- this man after God's own
heart! What opportunity for complaint against God! But no murmur is recorded, no chiding
God, for His providences, but a taking hold of the experience, and as the record shows,
his influence over this army of discontents wielded them into his most loyal subjects and
faithful defenders. Being rightly exercised .by the experience, he no doubt received
lessons and gained abilities that were of great value to him subsequently when he became
king. What a beautiful type of Jesus, whose companions while in the flesh, and for that
matter throughout the Age, were and ,re far below Him in every respect; and yet it is
written, "Having loved His own he loved them to the end."
Moses also beautifully illustrates the same thought. When God's anger
was kindled against Israel and He offered Moses the privilege of becoming the father of a
great nation by destroying the rebellious Israelites, Moses displayed a love equal to the
test, preferring to die himself rather than witness the destruction of his brethren,
despite the fact that he had suffered much by their stiffnecked and rebellious conduct. He
endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
Nearness to God, dear brethren, catching the spirit of that Great
Shepherd of the sheep, living in the atmosphere of His love for His own, will root the
bitterness out of our hearts and cement our affections, until faith in God, and in our
brethren will give us victory Over the many petty trials that should never mar our
fellowship or cause factional strife. Faith coordinated with love will put into effect in
our lives the true principles of brotherhood, without which we shall never make the
Kingdom no matter how much we know of the truth or accomplish in its spread. Hereby we
know (by tests of faith and love) that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren.
Faith Tested Today
Perhaps our special trial may be the unprogressiveness of the
brethren with whom we associate. We may experience a great longing to press forward in
Bible study, believing that "still new beauties shall we see and still increasing
light," as we delve into the Word of God; but we find the majority more desirous of
traveling back over the beaten path, perhaps frequently having a preference for studies on
what has become to us the milk of the Word. What shall we do -- separate and have our way
and leave them to themselves? Not if we have the mind and spirit of the Master or follow
the example of the Apostle. Ah no; much more serious grounds for separation must first be
found ere we act thus. As further illustrating this point, without elaborating on the
details exhaustively, we might refer to Joshua and Caleb -- faithful men, returning with
favorable report, ready to enter the land and enjoy its abundant blessings, but hindered
by the unfavorable report of the others, and the rebellion of the camp, we read of no
determination on their part to go on in spite of the others, but a willingness to return
to the wanderings in the wilderness for forty years ere they entered the land. Under the
providence of God no doubt the experiences they received were of greater value to them
than forty years in Caanan would have been. They were men of faith, noble examples, head
and shoulders above the majority of us today, who will have our own way, forgetful of the
fact that there are secret underlying principles that are more important and essential
than could ever be worked out and demonstrated if there were none in our way. A little
while we have to show enduring love, faith; and patience, and all eternity to revel in
unlimited knowledge awaiting us; when our characters have been well refined. Let patience
have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Finally, perhaps our trials come chiefly through the little
irritating experiences of life that seem to rob us of our joy and fellowship with the
Lord. If so, faith will apply its balm and, transform the trial into a blessing, and
enable us to sing,
"E'en
though it be a cross
That raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer My God to Thee !''
We Glory in Tribulation
Amongst the jewels prized by us today is the pearl, the value of
which is based upon its formation and beauty. Unlike many other jewels, it is not dug from
the earth or found in the rocks, but is discovered in the oyster shell. Originally a
little grain of sand found its way into the oyster shell, and the oyster having no means
of ridding itself of this irritating substance begins the process of treatment that
transforms this irritation into a pearl. A certain substance is created by the oyster
which covers the grain of sand. This is worked upon and in time becomes crystallized into
our beautiful pearl. When we look at a pearl we see an irritation ennobled. What a lesson
from this lowly creature! If we can only view our irritations that seem destined to remain
with us and over which our faith should give us the victory, as so many opportunities for
making pearls of character that will eventually adorn the heavenly courts, what a people
of faith and contentment we would be, and what a clear-cut line of demarcation there would
be between the people of God and the world outside.
Thus the Apostle sums it up, comprehending all our trials: "We
glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience,
experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." (Rom. 5:3-5.)
Lord, lead us to a faith like this -- a faith that takes hold of the testimony of Thy
love, to us, loving us in our undone condition and providing for our deliverance at
greatest cost to Thyself, arranging for our emancipation out of death into life, out of
Adam into Christ, raising us from the human level to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
and giving us an inheritance by faith, even now, that embraces all Thy love and power.
Since through much tribulation we shall enter the. Kingdom, give us that happy, grateful
spirit that reads into every trial and every
joy a token of Thy love and care. Oh make us strong in faith, mature in understanding,
"examples of the believers in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, in faith, in
purity," -- exhibitors to men and angels of the power of love and of faith to remove
mountains -- bearing all things, enduring all things -- the never failing love,. and the
abiding unshakable faith.
"And when thy days be
fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which
shall proceed out of thy bowels, and 1 will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house
.for My name, and 1 will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever: And I will be his
father, and he shall be My son. If e commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of
men, and with the stripes of the children of men."
-- 2 Sam. 7:12-14.
THOUGH the period of man's degeneracy under the conditions of the
curse of sin has sadly marred the quality of godlikeness in humanity, termed the image of
God, yet there remains even unto this day a considerable of the reverential element of
man's nature. The evidence of this is to be noted in the many forms of worship to be
observed amongst the various peoples of the earth; additionally in the various places,
temples, altars, etc., whereby men seek the presence of God and seek to worship Him. St.
Paul recognized this in his day as he journeyed in different heathen countries and saw how
the human mind was bent on recognizing a higher power. Thus he addresses some on the
subject: "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."
God's people in ancient time, the posterity of Abraham, had the
advantage of being brought intelligently in contact with the true God and of receiving
instruction from Him as to the true and acceptable worship for that time; and in
proportion as they heeded that instruction they were favored and blessed above other
peoples of the earth. As the Apostle again says, they had special advantage in that to
them was committed the oracles of God -- the Law and the Prophets -- whereby they were
given proper conception of Jehovah and the knowledge of Him as far as the light was then
due:
David Waits Upon the Lord
A time came in Israel's history when the question was raised of
providing a building, a place of worship, a temple, to be the dwelling place of Jehovah.
This was after Israel had been established as a kingdom under the rulership of David upon
a good footing, which assured peace, and respect from the surrounding nations. Living now
in a palace in Jerusalem with the tabernacle of Divine service nearby, the king bethought
him of the inconsistency of his living in a grander house than that of his God, and of the
fact that the heathen built temples for their idols. Doubtless it was the reverential
element of his nature that noted the inconsistency of his dwelling in a palace while the
typical residence of Israel's great King, Jehovah, was but the tabernacle tent. His
reverential impulses promptly suggested the building of a temple to replace the
tabernacle, and properly enough he consulted the Prophet Nathan, who rejoiced in this
manifestation of the king's loyalty to the Lord, and indorsed the program. That same
night, however, the Lord gave the Prophet a message for the king, which, although it
showed appreciation of David's intentions, forbade their execution, explaining that the
reason that the Lord's presence was manifested in a tent, and not a permanent structure,
was not because the Lord had not thought of this, nor because others of His servants would
not have been glad to erect such a structure at His bidding, but because the Divine Plan
was otherwise. The tabernacle was for the time being preferred, for certain reasons not
explained at the time. The Lord, however, did assure David that by and by He would have a
permanent temple, and that David's successor and son should erect it.
The Lord's people may learn a valuable lesson from this incident. We
are not to conclude that, because our plans and projects are reverential and designed to
be for the glory of God, therefore they must have the Divine approval. With spiritual
Israel, as with David, it is frequently true that "My ways are not as your ways, nor
My thoughts [plans] as your thoughts [plans]; for as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways; saith the Lord." Those who are of
David's disposition -- "after God's own heart" -- will not only consult with
those whose judgment they would consider helpful, as David consulted with Nathan, but if
subsequently the Lord rejects their best judgment, and does not co-operate in the
execution of their plans, they will do as David did in this instance; they will
unmurmuringly acquiesce in the Lord's plans, and co-operate therewith, and thus further
attest that they are of the kind the Lord loves to honor and call Beloved. To these also
the Lord will grant other special blessings and favors; as He did to David.
Some Who Now attempt to Build the Temple
The spirit of David in this matter -- his desire to honor the Lord
and to build Him a great house or temple -- finds its parallel in the heart sentiments of
every true Christian, We do not refer to those who merely take pleasure in erecting grand
churches, and temples of stone, but specially to those whose ambition it would be to
organize the Church of the present time to glory in its grandeur and completeness of
organization and function and service for the Lord.
Those who have ignored the voice of the Lord, the Word of Divine
instruction, and who are confident that their own good intentions merely must be pleasing
to the Lord, have proceeded to build various structures, systems and organizations, each
claiming his to be the temple of the Lord. As they have neither sought nor received Divine
instruction on the subject but are following their own ideals, there is necessarily
considerable diversity in these organizations and systems, each seeming to its builder to
be the right, proper, and appropriate temple or church of God. These temples, systems of
human make, now number hundreds in Christendom, some larger and more imposing and others
smaller and. of less consequence. In other words, sectarianism, the dividing again and
again of the professing people of God, and the attempt to fix and. organize the Church of
Christ according to human lines of judgment, human boundaries and creeds, has brought
general disgrace upon the cause of Christ and given the appearance to the outside world
that Jehovah or the Christian's God is no greater than the gods of the heathen.
Material Now in Process of Preparation
But a small class follow the example of David and receive instruction
from the Lord to the effect that the present is not the time for temple-building; that He
could have built His temple heretofore, and found many willing to serve Him in this
respect, but that He prefers that His representation in the world in the present time
shall be extremely simple and unostentatious. Such receive of the Lord' assurances,
however that in His own time and way, under a succeeding form of the Kingdom, a much more
glorious temple shall be constituted than would be possible for us to build at the present
time -- an enduring temple which shall be filled with the. glory of the Lord. All who are
of the Davidic character, of the disposition beloved of the Father -- acceptable members
of His dear, beloved Son -- will, as soon as they learn of the Divine purpose, promptly
submit themselves, and co-operate in the Divine Plan. That plan in the type was that
David, as the man of war, battling for the right, and severely tried and disciplined,
should represent the saints of God in the present militant condition, warring with the
world, the flesh, and the devil, and becoming in their own hearts and faith strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might. According to the, same type it is the mission of the
present time to prepare the gold, silver, and precious things for the future temple --
ready for its construction. In the type these were literal things, but in the antitype, as
the Apostle shows, the Lord's saints are the gold, silver, and precious stones, which very
shortly now, in the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, will be all thoroughly
organized on the plane of glory, honor, and immortality, and filled eternally with the
life and glory of the Father. As David and his work of preparing for the temple, typifies
the Church in this present time, and our work of preparing ourselves and each other for
the glories to follow, so Solomon's kingdom which followed, represents the Kingdom of the
glorified Christ -- the real Kingdom, of which the present is but the embryo, and the
construction of Solomon's temple typifies the resurrection of the Church, in which all the
members shall come together in glorious completeness, in the morning of the Millennial
day. "Weeping may endure for a night [in connection with our fightings with foes
within and without, and suffering for righteousness' sake], but joy cometh in the morning
[when that which is perfect shall have come, and when that which is in part shall have
been done away]. (Psa. 30:5.) "God shall help her [the Church, the Bride of Christ],
and that right early" -- in the morning. -- Psa. 46:5.
Glorious Fulfillment in Future Times
In connection with this refusal of David's proposition the Lord gave
him very gracious encouragement, reminding him that every step of his onward way had been
guided from on high, and that it was because he had faithfully looked to the Lord as his
guide and counselor that he had now reached the degree of development and relationship to
the Lord and to the Kingdom occupied. So the Lord encourages all who are of this David
class in spiritual Israel today. All who are looking to the Lord, and hearkening to His
Word, are reminded that the Lord is attending to His own work in His own way, and that it
is a far superior way to anything which we could devise. We are pointed to the low estate
we occupied on the human plane, and how the Lord by His grace has advanced us step by
step, until now we are children of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our
Lord, if so be that we suffer with Him. It is for us to appreciate the lesson of past
experiences, and to trust that He who took us from the horrible pit and the miry clay, and
placed our feet upon the Rock, and put the new song into our mouths, is able to bless us
still further, and that in proportion as we hearken to His Word, through His Prophet, the
Scriptures.
The sacred record in this connection (2 Sam. 7:15-29) mingles and
commingles the natural blessings upon David and his literal posterity and upon natural
Israel, with the still greater blessings that are to uplift all who will come into
covenant relationship with God through the antitypical Son of David, the glorified Christ
and His Millennial Kingdom. Undoubtedly there was a measurable fulfillment in literal
Israel, in that for several hundred years they remained in their own land, under their own
covenant -- an experience very different from that preceding under the rule of the Judges.
But the time when the Lord will plant them, and when they shall be moved no more and
afflicted no more by the wicked, must apply to the grander restoration of the future,
when, as He has promised, He will gather them out of all nations and peoples whither they
are now scattered, and bring them into their own land. This later prophecy is in full
agreement with the one made to David by Nathan. Then, as another Scripture declares, the
Lord will restore to Israel her lawgivers as at the first, and her judges as at the
beginning. Then it will be, too, that the house of David will be firmly established in
David's greater Son, the glorified Christ. Here the promises to the natural and to the
spiritual seeds are more or less intertwined, just as they were in the Abrahamic promise.
The seed of Abraham was both an earthly seed and a heavenly, as the sand of the sea and as
the stars of heaven -- the natural seed and the spiritual -- and as the Apostle declares,
the promise is sure to both of these, its proper part to each. -- Rom. 4:16; 11:25-32.
Until He Come Whose Right It Is
David's throne was perpetual through the line of Solomon down to
Zedekiah, and when the Lord rent the kingdom from the hands of Zedekiah He did not give it
to another family, but proclaimed an interregnum -- a suspension of David's kingdom, which
might not go to another. The language of the prophecy concerning Zedekiah is, "O thou
profane and wicked prince, whose time is come that iniquity should have an end: remove the
diadem, take off the crown; this shall no more be the same. I will overturn, overturn,
overturn it, until He come whose right it is, and I will give it unto Him." (Ezek.
21:27.) There has been no king of Israel from Zedekiah's day to the present -- the
overturning of the kingdom has been very thorough. The kings who reigned over Israel at
the time of the First Advent, and previously and subsequently, were not Israelitish kings,
nor of Israelitish birth, but were appointees of Gentile governments, which, from
Zedekiah's day to the present, have trodden under foot the sacred land. The fulfillment of
this promise to David is nevertheless secure, sure as the word and oath of the Almighty;
and we who were by nature Gentiles, but who have been betrothed to Abraham's great Son and
David's great Son and Lord, are still looking forward to and praying and patiently waiting
for the fulfillment of this promise, saying, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven" -- even as our Lord taught us to do. As soon as this
anti-typical David, "Beloved," shall have assumed the reigns of government at
the time appointed of the Father, He, as the antitype also of Solomon, on the natural
plane, will build the Lord's house, and His throne shall be established forever -- for it
is the throne of the Kingdom of Jehovah; and although in its mediatorial sense it will
terminate at the close of the Millennial Age, yet in a still higher sense it will continue
to all eternity, because David's Son and Lord has been associated with the Father in His
throne, and His Bride shall be with Him where He is, and share His glory, according to His
promise.
Much of this promise was applicable to Solomon. The kingdom of David,
or rather the kingdom of the Lord, was established at the hands of Solomon. He did build a
typical house or temple in the name of the Lord. God did deal with him as with ä son,
chastening his iniquity, yet continuing His mercy with him; He did not suffer the kingly
power to depart from David's natural seed, as He took it from Saul.
The statement made of Solomon that he would be corrected and
chastised for disobedience may properly be applied to those begotten of the Spirit to be
sons of God and joint-heirs in the coming Kingdom. "For what son is he whom the
Father chasteneth not?" Even the Head of the Body, although in Him there was no sin,
needed the experiences called chastisements for His preparation, for His great position in
the coming Kingdom. Indeed, He bare the stripes of the children of men, as the Prophet
declares, and we, as members of His Body, will not be spared by the Father from the needed
correction in righteousness, which. would make us meet for the inheritance of the saints
in light -- so long as we receive them in the spirit of sonship, seeking to know and to do
the Father's will.
"We shall
be like Him, O how rich the promise!
What greater could our Father's love prepare?
Few are the words, and softly are they, spoken,
But who shall tell' the glories hidden there?
"We shall
.be like Him, for we'll have His nature,
He'll lift us up and with His glory bless;
He took our sin, Owondrous condescension!
That He might clothe us in His righteousness.
"He bore
our sickness, fainted with our weakness,
That He might give us perfect strength and health;
He walked with us in poverty and hunger,
To make us sharers of His boundless wealth.
"We shall
be like Him, raised above all weakness;
Forever past all weariness and pain;
Even death itself shall have no power to touch us.
When like our risen Lord, like Him we reign.
"While now
in gracious love He calls us brethren,
And we His spotless robe with gladness wear,
Faith grasps the promise of the glorious future
'We shall be like Him when He shall appear.'
"O, what
has earth our thirsting souls to offer,
Compared with that abundant life to come?
How poor its pleasures and how dim its splendor,
Beside the glory of the promised throne!
"Now
looking forth beyond time's misty shadows,
With seers of far-off ages we may sing,
'I shall be satisfied when, I awaken
With Thine own likeness, 0 my God and King!'
"So in the hope of bearing His dear image,
Rejoicing in His precious gift of peace,
His love shall keep our hearts in patient waiting,
Till we in righteousness behold His face."
Loving greetings in the terms of 2 Peter 1:2.
With reference to the suggested publication in book form of the
"Herald" articles on Daniel I think it would be very helpful to most brethren.
So far as my own share of financial help is concerned, I will, (D. V.) take three volumes.
I cannot promise more at present, but will do my best as the way is open.
I hope my belated reply has not in any way inconvenienced you.
Pressure of urgent things has pushed back everything not absolutely essential, during the
last few weeks; but I trust this will still help a little to "strengthen your
hands."
I want to take this opportunity to convey to you the thankfulness of
the friends here for the very nourishing "food" you have supplied in the pages
of the "Herald" lately. Whether it is the articles, or whether it is the
variation in the state of my mind, I do not know; but certainly every article lately seems
to have been better than the last. All seem specially to be based on actual experiences,
lines of thought, or states of mind, which I have personally been through. I expect the
explanation is that we are all in the same school and have all to learn the same lessons,
and to reach the same standard after the same Pattern -- our experiences even in lines of
thought must necessarily be alike in many ways for all of us to follow out our Father's
eternal principles which govern everything.
In any case, dear brethren, knowing you do not want thanks from us, I
want to convey to you our very deep appreciation of the helpful and nourishing food in the
"Herald." We thank our dear Lord for so using your loving efforts for our
edification. We know you do it all to Him, and that His thanks are the only thanks worth
anything; yet we want to give you a little refreshment by the way of telling you how much
you help us all.
Also, the articles seem specially helpful for these "latter
days," the day in which every man's faith shall be tried as by fire, and all not
built of imperishable materials on the firm, unshakable foundation of Rock, shall be
destroyed. Your articles seem specially to "bring to our remembrance" the points
that always matter, and with which all must be in line; and we pray that you will continue
in this way, still allowing His power to work through you, instead of (as had been done so
often by so many all down this Age), cutting off the Lord's power by starting to use your
own power.
Now with our united love in the Lord, and with our message to you all
in the terms of Joshua 1:9, coupled with Romans 8:35, 38, 39,
Your brethren, because the Lords,
The Lowestoft
(England) Ecclesia.
Per. J. L. L.
Dear Brethren in the One Hope:
In an effort to encourage the Lord's people everywhere we have
decided to write a few lines to inform you of the results of efforts put forth by two
sisters of the Toledo Class in visiting the people to seek out the wheat.
The feeling among the friends everywhere is that the work has ended.
Seeing so much error on every hand, would it not be wise to conclude that the necessity
for scattering the Truth is of greater, importance than ever before?
The sisters who were out in the work have consumed four half days and
covered about six blocks, having taken orders and delivered in all fourteen volumes, that
is, the First Volume of "The Scripture Studies" and the Revelation articles. We
have loaned some of the volumes. We feel by visiting these people and encouraging to a
thorough study we may be able to get into some home for Chart talks.
Our last prayer meeting text was timely: "In the time. of the
harvest I will say to the reapers . . . gather the wheat into My barn." "Pray ye
the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His field;" for if we ask we shall
receive.
When we remember the people who claim to be doing wonderful works, no
longer use the texts, have we not a right to feel that we who enjoy the Manna should
hearken! And have we not the true Message! How it gladdens our hearts as we hold it forth
to others in an effort to find those who are seeking the Truth. Would it not be pleasing
to the Lord if the Pilgrims would speak a word of encouragement as they go out among the
Lord's people, urging to an effort to find those who are longing for just what we have?
Should we not break our pitchers that the light may shine out and urge the Lord's people
to zeal in His service ?
We hope to see something of encouragement in the pages of the
"Herald." We have but to go forth in His name with a prayer in our hearts for
His help. Pray for us, dear brethren, as we pray for you and the work.
Your sister by His grace, Mrs. B. B.-Ohio.
Dear Brethren:
I have read two copies of "The Herald of Christ's Kingdom"
loaned to me by a kind brother and I found them so helpful and comforting that I sent you
my subscription. They showed a spirit of real brotherly kindness and love, a desire to
encourage confidence and trust in our loving Father's care.
I have been an Elder in the Ecclesia for several years. For a long
time I noticed a different spirit creeping in among the friends -- ambition, envy,
jealousy, petty rivalries, causing much suffering to the faithful. After much prayer and
study I did what I saw the Lord would have me do. I was at that time Class chairman. I
called for a meeting of the friends and explained to them that we had been led to trust in
salvation by works rather than faith, that while I believed very much in service, yet such
service must be prompted by love to be acceptable, that I felt convinced that many of our
leading Tower articles were not in harmony with God's written Word and that I could only
act as Class leader if I was permitted to take the Bible as final authority on all
questions. Many expressed their confidence in my sincerity and that I had prayerfully
considered this matter. Nothing further was done that night except appointing s substitute
for me as chairman. After a few days, however, orders were received from Toronto
headquarters to debar me and another brother who had expressed. himself in sympathy with
the views I had expressed, from all Class activities; whereupon a motion to disfellowship
was placed and literally forced upon the Class. When the unscripturalness of those
proceedings was shown, the answer came from the Chair, "We have an
organization."
However, "the Lord knows them that are His."' Several had
their eyes opened and we have our regular gatherings to study and testify to our Father's
goodness. "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them,"
"The entrance of Thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the
simple." -- Psa. 119:129, 130.
Please pray for us, dear brethren, that we may be found faithful.
Yours in our dear Redeemer's name, J. F:
S.-Can.
VOL. X. August 15, 1927 No. 16
"Buried with Him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who
path raised Him from the dead." -- Col. 2:12.
RISEN to walk in newness of life," is one of the terms that
express well the truth concerning those who have passed from death unto life and are
living the resurrection life. It is from one standpoint in a mystical sense that children
of God consider themselves as those that are alive from the dead; in that they have not
yet been actually raised out of or delivered from the death conditions. Yet from another
standpoint it is in a very real sense that consecrated disciples of Jesus have entered
upon the resurrection life and are daily experiencing the processes of the risen life.
It becomes evident at once that only such as have been illuminated by
the Spirit of the Lord any have really entered into fellowship with Christ could have
clear-cut, distinct appreciation of the various terms used in the New Testament to denote
the change in those who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds. The word
resurrection always presupposes death, in that it signifies the lifting or raising up out
of a prostrate and dead state or condition. Thus all humanity, as the Bible and experience
agree, are in death -- and need a resurrection. The whole world, although creatures of God
and thus in a general sense His offspring or children, ceased to be children of His favor
and became children of wrath through sin. The Apostle points out to the Church at Ephesus
that this had once been their wretched and terrible condition, in common with the rest of
mankind. How true is the picture even today! It is not a picture merely of the worst and
most degraded specimens of our race, but a picture of the world as a whole, including its
very best representatives. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Christians
alone are the exception to this rule and these are addressed as those who have escaped
this bondage, this corruption, this death state, this condition of alienation from God;
and surely these are comparatively few, even as they were at the time the Church was being
instituted in the Apostolic period.
He is Rich in Great Mercy
No study is of greater importance or moment to the follower of Christ
than this which relates to the processes by which he is to attain unto that life and that
resurrection experienced by the great Founder of the Church. The inestimable privilege of
living with Christ in heavenly glory, of being one day made partaker with Him of the
Divine nature, is made altogether dependent upon certain steps and developments on the
part of the Lord's people while they are still in the house of their pilgrimage. It is
these developments and these steps in the present experiences of the saints that are
comprehended in the terms, "risen with Christ," "walking in newness of
life," "living the new life," etc.
The experience of passing from death unto life is the same in every
instance, although the circumstances connected with the transformation may vary
considerably. Though our success in attaining the heavenly prize depends much on how we
hearken to, heed, and obey the Word of the Lord, yet our recovery and our entering into
the risen life did not begin with something in ourselves -- good resolutions, good works,
etc. We did not improve ourselves and thus commend ourselves to God. On the contrary, God
was the prime mover in our relief and recovery. It please us aid because of the
benevolence of His character -- He is rich in great mercy love. How important it is that
we fully grasp the richness of God's mercy and loving kindness and have the fact well
rooted and grounded in our hearts -- that we may never doubt His kindly interest, His
sympathy, His mercy toward all those who desire and seek to do His will. It is difficult
for us to think of God's greatness, purity, and splendor of character of our fallen
condition -- corruption, mental, moral, and physical, and the understand how the glorious
Jehovah could show such love and condescension as to call us to share His own glorious
life and nature. And yet this is just what He has done with regard to the Church of this
dispensation. He beheld our miserable condition and realized that an offer of relief from
our corruption and of return to holiness, in harmony with Himself upon the heavenly plane,
would be joyfully appreciated and accepted by some. These He purposed to assist through
the processes of the resurrection (raising up) and to enable to walk in newness of life,
so that they might attain unto His own blessed nature and even to behold His glorious
face.
Outward Man Perishing, Inward Man Renewed
So far as that phase of the Church's resurrection relating to the
present life is concerned, it is a gradual work or process in which the spirit and
providences of the Lord enter very largely. Another important consideration is that this
raising up, this making alive, this quickening of the Spirit of the Lord, goes on and
progresses in proportion as the old man or the old life is put to death, kept in
subjection; one must die and give place to the other. Thus the Apostle speaks of his own
experience as that of one who is "dying daily." He says "I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live." He refers to how the "outward man is
perishing," and how the "inward man is being renewed day by day." Thus the
two phases of the Christian's experience, clearly in evidence at the same time, are most
surely set forth in the inspired Word.
How firmly too the great Apostle brings out the truth upon this
important subject again when he declares that we are buried with Christ by baptism into
death, that is, by an immersion of our wills (by consecration) into the will of God; that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. The Apostle is surely associating the "walking in
newness of life," with. the risen state, or the resurrection life. In other words, it
is because we have by a solemn covenant become joined to Christ in His sacrificial
experience, His death, that we have been given to share in the spiritual existence by
being begotten of the Spirit and thus figuratively raised from the dead, risen with Him to
live and walk according to all the rules and requirements and in harmony with the various
proprieties of the new life. This is the Apostle's thought as further set forth: "If
ye then [or since you are then] risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above,"' etc. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is bid with Christ in God." The poet catching the
inspiration of these words, has written
"They
rise to walk in heaven's light,
Forever free from sin,
With hearts made pure and garments white,
And Christ enthroned within."
In the Holy of the Tabernacle
Oh how great is the salvation which accompanies a complete conversion
and consecration to the Lord! What a wonderful change it brings in thought, in word, and
in act! And yet this is only the beginning of the salvation, or what the Apostle elsewhere
speaks of as being "saved by hope." We are waiting for the completion of this
salvation in the First Resurrection. But all that by the Lord's grace we shall ultimately
have through the change of the First Resurrection as members of the Body of Christ -- all
the heavenly things, including full fellowship and communion with the Father and with our
Lord, are counted as having their beginning in the present life. He therefore who knows
not such a beginning of the newness of life and its Holy Spirit now; surely could have no
reason to believe that he has been begotten of the Spirit or that he is a New Creature in
Christ. The members of the New Creation are reckoned as having been raised up out of the
state of sin and death into a new condition of life and love of righteousness.
Metaphorically, they are ushered into the holy of the tabernacle, where they have the
light of the golden lampstand and partake of the spiritual shewbread and may offer the
spiritual incense to God and have fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus, as members of the
Church of the Firstborn whose names are written in heaven. This is a figurative
resurrection from death -- a figure and earnest of the real resurrection which shall come
to each of these if they prove loyal to God and faithful to their covenant to be dead with
their Lead, that they may also live with Him through participation in His resurrection.
By Grace Are Ye Saved
Again we pause to note how explicitly the Scriptures guard against
the thought that this high station, these blessings, come to us on account of our worth or
value. The Apostle reiterates, "By grace are ye saved through faith." And if by
grace no longer of works, as he elsewhere points out. (Rom. 11:6.) If of works it could
not be of grace. As members of the fallen and condemned race we were incapable of doing
any works which our holy God could accept. We were dead, corrupted, foul, under
condemnation as children of wrath, when He had mercy upon us and opened up the way of
life. Our present standing as these risen ones is, not the result of anything that we in
our old or former selves could have done. It is all a gift of grace, the gift of God.
Unless this lesson be thoroughly appreciated, we will be continually in danger of falling
into discouragement and depression. The grace is not of ourselves certainly and we may say
also that although we exercised some faith at the beginning (else we could never have come
to Him at all to accept His favors), yet the faith by which we were enabled to, accomplish
the full surrender unto death and thus become joined to Christ, was not of ourselves -- we
had no such heart of trust and faith when God laid hold upon us. He developed in us that
faith by the revelations of His love through His promises, through His Word. And it is in
view of these considerations that the Apostle vigorously affirms that there is no room for
boasting on the part of any of the Lord's children.
Inspiration From Gazing on Him
It is then the inspiration that has come from faith and from the
consciousness of God's great love that has wrought in us that surrender to Him and enabled
us to say with the great Apostle, "What things were gain to me these I counted loss
for Christ. Yea doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ my Lord . . . that I may know Him . . . being made conformable unto His
death." Truly the Apostle here touches upon the keynote of the power that enables the
Christian to live the risen life with Christ. The impelling power is the Lord Himself --
the excellency of the knowledge and acquaintance with Jesus Christ. As another has said:
"To know Him, to win Him; to be found in Him, to be made like to
Him -- this was the burning passion that made it easy to cast away all, that gave the
cross such mighty attractive power. Anything to come nearer to Jesus. All for Jesus was
his motto. It contains the twofold answer to the question, How to attain this conformity
to Christ's death? The one is, Cast out all. The other, And let Jesus come in. All for
Jesus.
"Yes, it is only knowing Jesus that can make the conformity to
His death at all possible. But let the soul win Him, and be found in Him, and know Him in
the power of the resurrection, and it becomes more than possible, a blessed reality.
Therefore, beloved follower of Jesus, look to Him, look to Him, the Crucified One. Gaze on
Him until thy soul has learnt to say: O my Lord, I must be like Thee. Gaze until thou hast
seen how He Himself, the Crucified One, in His ever present omnipotence, draws nigh to
live in thee and breathe through Thy being His crucifixion life. It was through the
Eternal Spirit that He offered Himself unto God; that Spirit brings and imparts all that
that death on the cross is, and means, and effected, to thee as thy life. By that Holy
Spirit Jesus Himself maintains in each soul, who can trust Him for it, the power of the
cross as an abiding death to sin and self, and a never ceasing source of resurrection life
and power. Therefore, once again, look to Him, the Living Crucified Jesus.
"But remember, above all, that while thou hast to seek the best
and the highest with all thy might, the full blessing comes not as the fruit of thy
efforts, but unsought, a free gift to whom it is given from above. It is as it pleases the
Lord Jesus to reveal Himself, that we are made conformable to His death. Therefore, seek
and get it from Himself."
Made to Sit Together in Heavenly Places
Progress in the knowledge of the Lord and the operation of His grace
in us confirms the Apostle's statement that the Church is God's workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
This same Apostle explains how and wherein God's workmanship is revealed, for he says that
He has "raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus." He described something that has already taken place and a process that is
still going on. Again we acknowledge that it is in a mystical sense that we are seated
with the Lord in heavenly places, in that we have not been physically transported nor in
any bodily or tangible sense lifted from the earthly plane. But on the other hand the
faithful follower of the Lord will realize in his own experience that the Apostle is
referring to a very real thing in the life, in using this poetical description. It is the
outlook of the inner man, the New Creature, that is here set forth. By faith these are
enabled to grasp mental or spiritual visions of the Lord, to realize in their inner
spirits, in their affections, what their present privileges in the Lord really are. In the
spirit of their minds, in their souls' deep longings, affections, and desires they are to
some extent enabled to anticipate coming joys when the final great deliverance shall have
taken place.
"What an amazing power is this!" exclaims another.
"Now we 'taste of the powers of the world to come,' and we are 'strengthened with all
might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and to longsuffering with
joyfulness.' Faith girds us with a Divine power, for 'all things are possible to him that
believeth,' and each believer can exclaim, without boasting, 'I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me.' Is not this a marvelous change which the spiritual
resurrection has wrought upon us? Is it riot a glorious thing, that God's strength should
be perfect in our weakness? . . .
"Aforetime we were natural men and discerned not the things that
be of the Spirit of God. Wee minded earthly things and were moved by carnal lustings after
the things which are seen; but now through Divine grace a spirit has been created in us
which feeds on spiritual bread, lives for spiritual objects, is swayed by spiritual
motives, and rejoices in spiritual truth. This change from the natural to the spiritual is
such as only God Himself could have wrought, and yet we have experienced it. To God be the
glory. So that by virtue of our rising in Christ we have received life and have become the
subjects of a wondrous change -- 'old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.'
Calls Us to Leave the Dreary Vault of Death
"In consequence of our receiving this life and undergoing this
change the things of the world and sin become a
tomb to us. To a dead man a sepulchre is as good a dwelling as he can want. You may
call it his bedchamber, if you will; for he lies within it as unconscious as if he were in
slumber. But the moment the dead man lives, he will not endure such a bedchamber; he calls
it a dreary vault, a loathsome dungeon, an unbearable charnel, and he must leave it at
once. So when you and I were natural men and had no spiritual life, the things of this
life contented us."
When we are quickened by the grace of God the things of sin and self
and of the old life become as the dreary and loathsome tomb to us wherein our souls feel
buried and out of which we must arise. For how can we that are raised out of the death of
sin live any longer therein? "In our inner man our eye is opened, our ear is
awakened, our hand is active, our foot is nimble: our every faculty is there, though as
yet immature and needing development, and having the old dead nature. to contend
with."
When the Apostle admonishes; "If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, he is most surely teaching us that our actions should
be agreeable to our new life. We should leave at once and forever the sepulchre of dead
things. "Let us also quit the vault of carnal enjoyments, wherein men seek to satisfy
themselves with provision for the flesh. Let us not life by the sight of the eye, nor by
the hearing of the ear. Let us not live for the amassing of wealth, or the gaining of
fame, for these ought to be as dead things to the man who is risen in Christ. Let us not
life for the world which we see, nor after the fashion of men to whom life is everything.
Let us live as those who have come out of the world, and who, though they are in it, are
no more of it. Let us be unmindful of the country whence we came out, and leave it, as
Abraham did, as though there were no such country, henceforth dwelling with our God,
sojourners with Him, seeking 'a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is
God.'"
Drawn Upward With Christ
It is then in our holy contemplations as by faith we engage our
thoughts and affections heavenward that we are showing forth the power of the Spirit in
the risen or resurrection life. Even though still here in a physical sense, we are to
permit the drawing power of the Lord to send us more and more upward toward our Divine
Master, even where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. "Even while our bodies
are here we are to be drawn upward with Christ; attracted to Him, so that we can say, 'He
hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.'
Our text' saith, 'Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God'; what is this but rising to heavenly pursuits? Jesus has gone up; let us go up
with Him. As to these bodies, we cannot as yet
ascend, for they are not fit to inherit the Kingdom of God; yet let our thoughts and
hearts mount up and build a happy rest on high. Let not a stray thought alone ascend like
one lone bird which sings and mounts the sky; but let our whole mind, soul, spirit, heart,
arise as when doves fly as a cloud. Let us be practical, too, and in very deed seek the
things that are above: seek them because we feel we need them; seek them because we hope
to gain them; for a man will not heartily seek that which he hath no hope of obtaining.
The things which are above, which we are even now to seek are such of these; let us seek
heavenly communion, for we are no more numbered with the congregation of the dead, but we
have fellowship in Christ's resurrection, and with all the risen ones. 'Truly out
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ,' and 'our conversation is in
heaven.' Let us seek to walk with the living God, and to know the fellowship of the
Spirit.
"Let us seek heavenly graces; for 'every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above.' Let us seek more faith, more love, more patience, more zeal:
let us labor after likeness to Christ, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren.
Seek to bear the image of the heavenly, and to wear those jewels which adorn heavenly
spirits.
"Seek also heavenly objects. Aim at the glory of God in
everything. You have to labor and toil in this world, for you are yet in the body; take
care to use worldly things to God's glory. . . .
Robe Yourselves for the Great Festival
"'Seek those things which are above,' that is, heavenly joys. Oh
seek to know on earth the peace of heaven, the rest of heaven, the victory of heaven, the
service of heaven, the communion of heaven, the holiness of heaven: you may have
foretastes of all these; seek after them. Seek, in a word, to be preparing for the heaven
which Christ is preparing for you. You are soon to dwell above; robe yourselves for the
great festival. Your treasure is above, let your hearts be with it.. All that you are to
possess in eternity is above, where Christ is; rise, then, and enjoy it. Let hope
anticipate the joys which are reserved, and so let us begin our heaven below. If ye then
be risen with Christ, live according to your risen nature, for your life is hid with
Christ in God. What a magnet to draw us towards heaven, should this fact be -- that Christ
sitteth at God's right hand. Where should the wife's thoughts be when her husband is
away but with the absent and beloved one? You know, brethren, it is not otherwise with us:
the objects of our affection are always followed by our thoughts. Let Jesus, then, be as a
great loadstone, drawing our meditations and affections towards Himself."
And do we ask what are the things upon which we .are to set our
affections -- what are the things above? Answering this question, we realize keenly the
force of the Apostle's words that now we see through a glass darkly, yet we may by the
assistance of the Lord's Spirit see sufficiently 'to know that the things above, the
heavenly treasures, are most worthy of our
seeking and laying hold of. "Lift your eyes above you clouds and this lower firmament
to the residence of God. What see you there? First, there is God Himself. Make Him the
subject of your thoughts, your desires, your emotions, your love. 'Delight thyself also in
the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart.' 'My soul, wait thou only upon
God; for my expectation is from Him.' Call Him 'God my exceeding joy.' Let nothing come
between you and your Heavenly Father. What is all the world if you have not God, and when
you once have God, what matters it though all. the world be gone? God is all things, and
when thou canst say, 'God is mine,' thou art richer than Croesus. O to say, 'Whom have I
in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.' O to love God
with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with .all our mind, and with all our
strength."
Set Your Affection Upon .Him
Next to our Father is the Lord Jesus, the well beloved of the Father.
And who is there of all those who know the value of the Savior's love, that need be
pressed upon to set their love upon this One who is altogether lovely? Truly, the love of
Christ has constrained us. "Has He not won your heart, and doth He not hold it now as
under a mighty spell? I know you love Him. Fix your 'mind on Him then. Often meditate upon
His Divine person; His perfect work, His mediatorial glory, His Second Coming, His
glorious reign, His love for you; your own security in Him, your union with Him. Oh let
these sweet thoughts possess your breasts, fill your mouths, and influence your lives. Let
the morning break with thoughts of Christ, and let your last thought at night be sweetened
with His presence. Set your affection upon Him who has set His affection upon you."
Included with the things above is also the blessed prospect, joy and
privilege of meeting the holy ones of the past when we shall all be assembled in the
presence of Jehovah and His well beloved Son. Who can tell or who can measure the joy to
be experienced on the part of the saints as the entire company of faithful footstep
followers of Jesus shall be assembled and united in the glorious perfection and power that
will be theirs as members of 'the Divine family, with all weakness, infirmity, sorrow,
trial, and testing forever in the past!
That in the Ages to Come
And now counting the new life, the resurrection life as beginning in
the present experiences from consecration onward -- counting ourselves as members of the
heavenly exalted ones which by and by are to be glorified, we ask ourselves with the
Apostle, What great thing must God work, then, in us and for us, eventually if present
foretastes of His goodness and grace are so superlatively grand? The Apostle answers such
a query assuring. us that "in the ages to come God will show forth the exceeding riches of His grace through [in] His
kindness toward us [who are] in Christ Jesus." He does not attempt to tell us what
these riches will amount to. He would have us see that God is rich in mercy, rich in
grace, and rich in every other grand and estimable quality, and he would have us trust
that so rich a Father will do for His adopted children exceeding abundantly more than we
could ask. or think.- Indeed, he assures us elsewhere that it is impossible for him to
explain or for us to comprehend "the riches of our inheritance." "Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit."1 Cor. 2:9, 10; Eph. 3:19.
By Faith We Grasp Glorious Things That Await Us
Nevertheless, the revelation by His Spirit is only an approximate
one. We cannot clearly discern those unseen things, we cannot comprehend them with our
finite natural minds. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be"; but with the
new mind we can, even though but vaguely, grasp the thought of our Heavenly Father's
riches of grace and love,, and can draw analogies from the things of this present life,
and thus gain some idea of the glorious things which await us. As we see our Heavenly
Father's provision for the natural man, a little lower than the angels, as we look at the
beautiful flowers of earth, and taste of its delicious fruits, it is but another step for
the consecrated heart to realize that the rich Father who planned so beneficently for His
human sons, and who permits so many of these blessings to come to mankind, even in its
fallen condition, is no less rich in love and mercy toward His spiritual sons, and will
make abundant provision for them also. And that as He has provided harmonies of music for
the natural ear, and pleasant odors and flavors and scenes for the senses of the natural
man, so, only on á more exalted plane, there will be gratifications for all the high
qualities of heart and of mind for the New Creation -- there will be what will correspond
to the present beauties of nature, but higher and grander, for.. those who shall gain the
new nature. There will be that which will correspond to the flowers and the birds, the
fields and the trees, the mountains and the valleys. There will be that which will
correspond to the most delightful gratifications of the eye, the ear, the nose, and the
mouth, and to the most pleasurable thrills of the heart. Thus does faith, based upon a
knowledge of the riches of grace and love in our Heavenly Father, enable the new creature
to see the things invisible and to rejoice in the wonderful things only partially
disclosed at the present time.
From this exalted position and favor and fellowship with God,
associated in the heavenlies it Christ, we are enabled by faith to rejoice in those
promises of our. Father's Word, which assure us that we shall be permitted to co-operate
with Him in that blessed work of. those future glorious times, in showing forth His
praises, in lifting up so many as will of the children of men back into glorious harmony
with God, where they too may enjoy His precious fellowship and the fellowship of one
another throughout time without end.
On Board the Cunard R. M. S.
"Berengaria"
July 12, 1927.
Dear Brethren
During a recent visit to Great Britain it was the privilege of Sister
Read and myself to meet a number of the friends of Jesus. We were impressed by the
fellowship in Christ existing between us and them, fellowship in testings and trials as
well as in joy and hope, and we took occasion to consider this condition in three classes,
viz., Glasgow, Forest Gate, and Letchworth, which we found opportunity to serve in the
order named.
In the course of our discussion of this and related subjects we
introduced four quotations from writers of years gone by. So many of the friends have
expressed a desire to possess these extracts that we are including them here in the hope
that you may be able to find space for them in the pages of the "Herald."
Before proceeding with them, however, we must first mention how
appreciative the friends were of the greetings we carried to them from the conventions in
Dayton, Ohio, May 28-30, and Brooklyn, New York, June 4, 5. As we delivered these messages
of peace and, love, it was a joy to realize the blessedness of the tie that binds. The
sentiment of the friends towards their brethren in Christ in America. was manifested in
very warm terms of affection, which we were commissioned to bring back with us, the
following Scriptures being cited as expressing their brotherly interest: Eph. 3 :16-19
(Weymouth); 1 John 1:3; Psa. 133:1-3.
Coming .now to the quotations previously alluded to, the first
relates to the importance of a right division of the Word of Truth
"Distinguite tempora et concordábunt scripturae (Distinguish
the periods and the Scriptures will harmonize)."
The second relates to the same important subject:
"'Election, partial and opposed to universal (worldwide)
redemption' has been the verdict of thousands who have replied against God, knowing little
of the range of His eternal plan. 'Election, gracious, and preparatory to universal
(worldwide), redemption' is the discovery which a deep pondering of the Holy Scripture
reveals."
The third emphasizes the importance of an individual search for and
finding of truth.
"Truth is to be discovered . . . for every man by himself. This
is evident from innumerable texts of Scripture; but chiefly from those which exhort every
man to seek after Truth, and which connect knowing with 'doing. We are to seek after
knowledge as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures; therefore, from every man
she must be naturally hid, and the discovery of her is to be the reward only of personal
search. The Kingdom of God is as treasure hid in a field; and of those who profess to help
us seek for it, we are not to put confidence in those who say, Here is the treasure, we
have found it, and have it, and will give you some of it; but in those who say, We think
that is a good place to dig, and you will dig most easily in such and such a way.
"Further, it has been promised that if such earnest search be
made, Truth shall be discovered: as much truth, that is, as is necessary for the person
seeking. These, therefore, I hold, for two fundamental principles of religion -- that,
without seeking, truth cannot be known at all; and that, by seeking, it may be discovered
by the simplest. I say, without seeking it cannot be known at all. It can neither be
declared from pulpits, nor set down in Articles, nor in any wise 'prepared and sold' in
packages, ready for use. Truth must be ground for every man by himself out of its husk,
with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern labor of his own. In what
science is knowledge to be had cheap? or truth to be told over a velvet cushion, in half
an hour's talk every seventh day? Can you learn chemistry so? -- zoology? -- anatomy? and
do you expect to penetrate the secret of all secrets, and to know that whose price is
above rubies . . . in so easy a fashion? . . .
"As surely as we live, this truth of truths can only so be
discerned: to those who act on what they know, more shall be revealed; and thus, if any
man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God. Any man -- not the
man who has most means of knowing, who has the subtlest brains, or sits under the most
orthodox preacher, or has his library fullest of the most orthodox books -- but the man
who strives to know, who takes God at His word, and sets himself to dig up the heavenly
mystery, roots and all, before sunset, and the night come, when no man can work. Beside
such a man, God stands in more and more visible presence as he toils, and teaches him that
which no preacher can teach -- no earthly authority gainsay."
The fourth quotation is taken from a paper read to students about to
leave college. After pointing out some of the things in life to avoid, the writer suggests
a number of things worth while, amongst them being friendship, and proceeds to enlarge
upon this in the quotation which follows
"I used to think that friendship meant happiness: I have learned
that it means discipline. Seek how we may, we shall never find a friend without faults,
imperfections, traits, and ways that vex, grieve, annoy us. Strive as we will, we
ourselves can never fully fulfil the ideal of us that is in our friend's mind: we
inevitably come short of it. Yet let us not give up friendship, though we have found this
true. To have a friend is to have one of the sweetest gifts that life can bring: to be a
friend is to have a solemn and tender education of soul from day to clay. A friend gives
us confidence for life. A friend makes us outdo ourselves: A friend remembers us when we
have forgotten ourselves, or neglected ourselves: he takes loving heed of our health, our
work, our aims, our plans. A friend may praise us, and we are not embarrassed; he may
rebuke us, and we are not angered. If he be silent, we understand. It takes a great soul
to be a true friend -- a large, catholic, steadfast and loving spirit. One must forgive
much, forget much, forbear much. It costs to be a friend, or to have a friend: there is
(perhaps) nothing else in life . . . that costs so much. It not only costs time,
affection, strength, patience, love -- sometimes a man must even lay down his life for his
friends. There is no true friendship without self-abnegation, self sacrifice.
"Let us . . . (lay hands on no man suddenly, but having done so,
having once made friends), let us pray that neither life nor death, misunderstanding,
distance, nor doubt, may ever come between us to vex our peace. Let us be patient, let us
be kindly, let us be self-possessed in our friendship. There are so many ways of grieving
a friend -- shall we not walk softly before him? Let us be true to our friends, and then
believe that they are and ever will be true to us. True love never nags; it trusts."
When we reflect that such a high standard as the foregoing was held
out to those of whom perhaps few, if any, had made a covenant with God by sacrifice, what
shall we say, we who have heard His call to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and who are
seeking to realize this privilege in our. daily experience? Surely these words will
inspire us as in the spirit of humility and love we endeavor to keep the unity of the
spirit in the uniting bonds of peace:
With love in the Lord, and prayerful good wishes in which Sister Read
joins, I remain,
Your brother in Him,
P. L. Read
"Behold, the fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart front evil is understanding." -- Job 23:28.
TRULY the Bible places a very high premium upon wisdom. We read,
"Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get
understanding." All the world recognizes to some extent the value of wisdom; that
wisdom is necessary at the very beginning of any project or matter that would result
favorably.
Briefly defined, wisdom is "Knowledge and the capacity to make
due use of it; knowledge of the best ends and the best means; discernment and judgment;
discretion," etc. In other words, wisdom is the right and proper application and use
of knowledge; knowledge rightly applied. "We conceive," says an eminent
authority, Whewell, "prudence as the virtue by which we select right means for given
ends, while wisdom implies the selection of right ends as well as of right means."
Wisdom then signifies the union of high mental and moral excellence. Still another
authority, Paley, says, "In strictness of language there is a difference between
knowledge and wisdom; wisdom always supposing action, and action directed by it."
"Knowledge
and wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."
The First Important Lesson
Logically, in proportion as wisdom is valued, it is craved and sought
after; and the majority even while going in divers directions, would profess to be seeking
to walk in wisdom's ways. How important it is that we discriminate as between that which
is true wisdom and that which is so frequently misnamed wisdom -- knowledge not used or
improperly used and which is really folly. One of the first lessons of life to be learned
is that our own judgments are unsafe; and even those who are least, unbalanced by the fall
and who therefore may be nearest to perfection, are as liable as Mother Eve was to make
the mistake of seeking wisdom in a wrong direction -- leaning to their own understanding.
Apparently Mother Eve in her perfection had a craving for wisdom but inadvertently took
the wrong advice and the wrong course in seeking its way. It would appear that the very
basis of her temptation; through which she fell from Divine favor and into sin was the
exercise of this laudable ambition to be wise. She perceived that the serpent was the most
cunning, mast wise amongst the beasts and she perceived that the serpent ate the fruit of
a particular tree of which Adam and herself had been forbidden to eat. She gave credit to
the tree and its forbidden fruit for the wisdom of the serpent and concluded that its
fruit was "To be desired to make one wise." The desire for the wisdom led to
disobedience -- to the fall from Divine favor under the penalty of sin, death, and its
associated troubles and miseries.
The proper and wise course
for Mother Eve would have been to. acknowledge that she knew comparatively little, was
seriously lacking of wisdom, and that God, the very embodiment of wisdom, was also the
embodiment of love and her truest friend; and that His command was the command of wisdom.
Had she followed the Divine counsel, trusted the Divine wisdom, she would have been saved
from her great mistake and its terrible consequences. She needed to learn that "The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and obedience to Him the completeness
of wisdom. Had she been obedient to the Lord, no doubt in due time and in a much better
way He would have granted her all the wisdom she desired and was capable of using. The
same principles hold true with Eve's children: All who would walk in wisdom's paths should
learn that all true wisdom "comes from above" and that any other is
"earthly, sensual, devilish." Similar to Mother Eve many of her children are
seeking wisdom in a wrong direction and like her are reaping undesirable and unhappy
consequences. How important it is therefore that those who would take the wisest course,
should promptly admit their own unwisdorn and seek for Divine direction and understanding.
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not." -- Jas. 1 :5.
God Has Chosen the Weak Things
Alas, how few are disposed to accept the wisdom that cometh from
above! The majority have so large a degree of selfishness that they seem indeed to make
miserable failures out of the best opportunities of their lives, before they realize that
they lack wisdom. and :need guidance by the great Teacher. Hence, as the Lord declares,
only the humble, only the "poor' in spirit," are in the way that leads to
eternal life and the Kingdom-because only these will seek for and obey the heavenly wisdom
from the great Counselor. This class alone is in the condition to be taught of God; and
concerning all who shall attain to the fullness of Divine favor it is written, "They shall all be taught of God."
It is for this reason that, as we look about us in the world, we find
just the condition of things which the Apostle describes, namely that "not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the [worldly] wise; and God has chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world,
and things which are despised, hath God chosen." Do we not see that as a rule the men
and women of largest natural ability, and greatest natural wisdom, fail to obtain the
riches of Divine grace in knowledge and in experience, which some of the less favored
naturally do attain? Surely, the reason of this generally is that the greater our mental
poverty, the greater our humility, and consequently the greater. our trust in the Lord's
wisdom, and reliance upon His instruction, and obedience thereto.
Not always is this true, of course; for we find that some of the most
haughty and self-conceited of our race are really the most poverty stricken as respects
real ability; and occasionally we find some possessed of rare abilities, who are extremely
humble minded and very reliant upon God, but neither of these cases is the rule; they are
exceptions to the rule. Gather together a company of God's devoted, consecrated people in
any place and scan them critically, and you will be convinced that not many wise; or
great, or mighty are being chosen; but chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith to be
heirs of the Kingdom. The worldly-wise today are not to be found among the open scoffers
and infidels, for worldly wisdom dictates to them a different course; they are to be found
rather in the most respectable and aristocratic congregations of professed Christians.
Many of them are too honorable to be open
hypocrites, and therefore rarely take part in meetings or say anything respecting their
inmost convictions -- their inmost thoughts or doubts respecting the creed of their own
church and the creeds of all other churches; nevertheless they feel that it is wise to support Christianity; because of its moral
influence on their families, their employees and their neighbors; besides even the
doctrines which they at heart repudiate have; they believe, a restraining influence upon
the "lower classes": hence their wisdom, worldly-wisdom, guides them into the
support of Christianity, but forbids them to go to any extreme, such as annunciation of
faith in Christ or full consecration to His service.
Heavenly Wisdom for Every Step
For the humble, however, God has provided true wisdom in Christ. His
words no less than His example show us that we are sinners and that "no man cometh
unto the Father" except by Him. He tells us of the Father's pity, and of the
redemption provided through His own blood, and of our privilege to accept of Divine grace
onto full forgiveness and reconciliation, and of our need of the heavenly wisdom for every
step of the journey, if we would walk the Narrow Way, which leads to the glory of the
Kingdom and life everlasting. And all who accept this "call" accept the great
Mediator's instruction and guidance as the very essence of Divine wisdom. With varying
degrees of promptness and after varying degrees of wandering from this Good Shepherd, and
being sought and found by Him, the faithful eventually reach the position where they put
no confidence in themselves and their own wisdom, but all confidence in the wisdom of Him whom God hath appointed to be our wisdom --
"who of God is made unto us wisdom." When this degree of progress has been
attained, a measure of rest and contentment takes possession of the true sheep, which
permits them to look up to God with confidence in every matter and at every time --
especially in seasons of distress and ''grief and trial. They learn not to trust to their
own wisdom any longer; but to trust implicitly to the wisdom and goodness of the great
Shepherd.
But not for a considerable time is such a development of confidence
in the Lord's wisdom attained. Meantime, they have many battles and contentions against
the wiles of Satan, who would tempt them to use their own wisdom or the wisdom of other
men and to doubt the results of following the Divine wisdom and its program. On every
hand, the flesh; assisted by the devil, offers inducements and seductions to follow its
way and to cease to follow in the Lord's way. In business affairs, in church affairs, in
home and family affairs, the temptation is continually advanced, that we should choose our
own way, follow our own' preferences and thereby reap larger and better results. It is
only after considerable experience, and frequently after many failures, that the
"pilgrim" for the heavenly country learns to trust no wisdom but that which
cometh down from above and is in accordance with the Divine Word.
Christ as Their Wisdom
Describing the attitude of the true children of God, abiding in
Christ as branches in the vine, the Apostle says: "He hath abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of His will." -- Eph. 1:8,
9.
"We also pray for you and desire that ye might be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all wisdom anti spiritual understanding, that ye might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in
the knowledge of God." -- Col. 1:9, 10.
Let your hearts be "knit together in love, and unto all riches
of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and
of the Father and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." -- Col. 2 :2, 3.
Notwithstanding the fact that those who accept Christ are the
"meek," "the poor in spirit," and lower than the average standard
along the lines of worldly wisdom and power and wealth, yet nevertheless, the acceptance
by these of Christ as their wisdom makes them
really wiser than others; 'not only in respect to the greater riches Which they are laying
up in heaven, but also wiser in respect to the most ordinary affairs of this present life.
This is not because they miraculously receive new brains or a better and more orderly
arrangement of the brains they have, but because submitting their judgments on every
subject to the will of the Lord, and walking according to His directions in every matter
and in every particular, they have His wisdom,
His Spirit, to guide them. Hence, although their own minds are imperfect and
unbalanced, as much or more than the average of the race, the Apostle is able to say of
such, "God hath given us the spirit of a sound mind." -- 2 Tim. 1:7.
The spirit of a sound mind enables its possessors to view things more
correctly than they would be able to view them of themselves; for instance, it cautions us
not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but according to the measure
of the Lord's Spirit possessed. Yet while cautioning us to be very humble, it guards us
against being, fearful, men-pleasers, sycophants. While constraining us to be peace-lovers
and peace-makers, and kind, and forgiving, and generous, without maliciousness or
vindictiveness, it nevertheless cautions us to be firm respecting principles of
righteousness and truth. We may and should gladly yield bur own preferences to those of
others, for the sake of serving others or doing them good, yet we must never do so at the
expense of the truth, and principle. In the family, love is to be the rule, blended with
mercy and justice, kindness and generosity; nevertheless, -- the rod is not to be spared
if its use be necessary to the proper training of the child. And the Christian father is
not only to be "kind and gentle toward all," but is to "rule his own family
well, having his own-children in proper subjection."
We Reap as We Sow
As the Christian by experience and study of the Divine will advances
in understanding and in the wisdom from above; he realizes that the sum of the entire
matter is that God has placed the responsibility with each of His children of obediently co-operating with Him that
the course and conduct of life may be so ordered that he will experience the desired
transformation to the likeness of Christ and be qualified for the enjoyment of the
presence of God throughout eternity. In terms of solemn instruction the Apostle sums up
the very essence of Divine wisdom: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we
faint not." The thought of sowing is that of planting with a view to development. The
sowing of today will bring the reaping of tomorrow. Little by little the character is
formed and the thoughts and actions of life have their influences in its development.
Whoever therefore truly seeks for the heavenly treasures, joint-heirship in. the Kingdom,
etc., plants or sets out in his mind, in his affections those qualities and graces which
the Lord declares are essential to the character that will be meet for the future
inheritance. Like weeds, earthly affections and desires spring spontaneously from seeds
which come -- we know not whence. The Christian therefore who would succeed, who would
keep his heart in the love of God, must not only persevere in planting good seed, keep
setting his affections on heavenly things; but he must keep rooting out the weeds of
earthly desire and affection.
Above All Put On Love
The Apostle enjoins, "Be not deceived." The question
properly arises, Is there danger that we may not know whether we are sowing to the Spirit
or sowing to the flesh? The language implies that there is danger of being deceived along
this line. The Scriptures represent that the flesh is very crafty; that the natural mind
is deceitful above all .things and desperately wicked and that the new mind needs to guard
continually lest it fall into a trap of the old nature. If one is living according to the
flesh, 'he may expect to reap from that direction. Though others may be deceived, God
cannot be mocked by our outward service of Him and His truth while we inwardly live
according to the flesh. If we plant corn, we reap corn; if we sow wheat, we reap wheat. In
all the various ways and circumstances of our lives we are either encouraging and building
up the old life that we have covenanted to lay down in the Divine service, or faithfully
seeing to it that the deeds of the flesh are mortified and killed, that We may prosper and
properly grow in the spiritual life.
The Apostle, as the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, is a thorough
instructor in heavenly wisdom. Not only does he tell us what disgraces to put off and what
graces to put on, but viewing the Lord's Body arrayed in those grand qualities of heart --
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patient endurance, forbearance, and forgiveness,
he adds, "And above all these put on love which is the bond of perfection." It
then seems that love is thus pictured as the girdle which binds and holds in place the
folds of the robe of Christ's righteousness with its various graces. Not only so, but the
Apostle would have us understand that these qualities of the Christian character must be
seen in us not merely as matters of courtesy or policy but as the real fruit, the logical
outgrowth of the power of the renewed spirit within.
Heavenly and Earthly Wisdom Contrasted
We might multiply the various counsels of the heavenly wisdom, as it
enters into the lives of those who are fully devoted to the Lord and gives them wisdom and
grace for the affairs of life far beyond any that they would have had without it. After
exhorting us that "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God," the Apostle
James says, "Who among you is a wise man and endued with knowledge? Let him show out
of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have strife in your
hearts, glory not [to think yourselves led of the Lord and guided by His true wisdom], and
lie not against the truth. This wisdom [which in selfishness seeks its own gratification
and advancement envying others and striving selfishly for its own advancement] descendeth
not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there
is confusion and every evil work; but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them
that make for peace." -- Jas. 3:13-18.
Let us remember well this analysis of the wisdom that comes from
above.
First, it is pure, guileless, sincere, honorable, open, above board:
it cometh to the light, loveth the light, it is not of the darkness, nor of sin, it is
utterly opposed to secret whisperings; back bitings, and all slanderous and underhanded
works and ways. It takes the Lord at His Word, receiving the pure word of wisdom into a
good and honest heart. It is honest: it does not deceive itself into believing that
self-will is the Lord's will.
Second, It is peaceable: that is to say, so far as is possible and
consistent with honesty and purity it is peaceable. It loves and desires peace, harmony,
unity; but since peace is not first, but purity first, therefore it can only be fully at
peace and fully in harmony with that which is pure and honest and good.
Third, It is gentle -- it is not rude, course, rough, and has no
sympathy with such a spirit and such methods. It is not only of God, but Godlike.
Nevertheless, its gentleness follows its purity and peaceableness: those who receive this
wisdom are not first or primarily gentle, and therefore peaceable and pure, but they are
primarily pure, sanctified with the truth, and therefore are peaceable, and therefore
are gentle, and therefore are easy to be entreated. But they can be easily entreated only
in harmony with purity, peace and gentleness; they cannot be easily entreated to assist in
any evil work of bearing false witness, slandering, or evil- speaking; nor to engage as
scandal mongers, nor in any of the works of the flesh and the Devil.
Fourth, It is full of mercy and good fruits: it rejoices in mercy,
because that is a part of its very self ; mercy and all the good fruits of the Spirit of
the Lord are sure to proceed from the heart, in which rules the spirit of love, honesty,
purity, peaceableness, and gentleness. But this mercy, while taking hold upon the ignorant
and the unintentional evil-doers with sympathy and help, cannot have the slightest
sympathy or affiliation with willful wrong-doers, because the spirit of wisdom is not
first mercy, but first purity; hence the mercy of the spirit of wisdom can exercise itself
only upon the unintentional wrong-doers, or the ignorant wrong-doers.
Fifth; Without partiality (which would signify injustice): the purity
and peace, gentleness, mercy and good fruits of the spirit of wisdom, lead us to be no
respecters of persons, except as character shall demonstrate real, value: the outward
features, the natural marl, the color of his skin, etc., are ignored by the spirit of the
Lord, the spirit of wisdom that cometh from above. It is impartial and loves that which is
pure, good, peaceable, gentle, true, wherever found and under whatever circumstances it
exhibits itself.
Sixth, It is without hypocrisy. This heavenly wisdom is so pure, so
peaceable, so gentle, and so merciful, toward all who are worthy of consideration or
notice, that there is no necessity for hypocrisy where it controls. And it is bound to be
out of harmony, out of sympathy, and out of fellowship with all that is sinful; and in
fellowship and in sympathy with all that is pure or that is making for purity and peace
and gentleness -- so that it has no room for hypocrisy.
Let us, dearly beloved, as children of God, more and more fully
accept Christ as our wisdom, for all of the affairs of life-little as well as great,
temporal as well as spiritual. Let us seek to be more and more filled with the spirit of
true wisdom that cometh from above, Whose ultimate teaching is holiness to the Lord.
"Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." --
Titus 2:13.
THE CHRISTIAN above all other people of the earth has a worthy object
for which to live, a goal set before him. He has a purpose to achieve, the value of which
even he himself cannot now properly appreciate because of his general limitations and
imperfections. The reason for this particular advantage of the child of God, as the
Scriptures clearly set forth, is that he has been received into the fellowship of God; and
as promised by Jesus has been given to understand. the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.
There have been manifest to him the Divine counsels and a revealing of the pathway of
life: This blessed heritage is his because the grace or favor of God has appeared unto him
or in his behalf. Those enjoying this happy state have not yet attained unto salvation in
the ultimate and final sense. They are now in the way or process of attaining salvation or
deliverance. If the acceptance back into the Divine fellowship, if the various
manifestations of God's grace now given to such are properly received, it will mean that
the Lord will bring such through those conditions that will effect their salvation, their
full recovery from sin and death and imperfection, into the full life and perfection and
liberty of the sons of God. The object therefore before the Christian and the goal toward
which he is striving is that of eternal life on the plane of the Divine, nature and of
being a partaker of immortality.
A revolution of conduct, a transformation of the entire outlook of
life must take place in these runners for the heavenly prize. It is of this that the
Apostle specifically speaks. He says the grace of God by which these have been called to
such glorious heights teaches them certain important things. It teaches them that the
pathway leading to joint-heirship with Christ in His Kingdom and to immortality is a way
of self-denial; a denying everything that is in the nature of ungodliness, everything that
is contrary to their highest conception of the Divine character and will; the denying also
of every worldly love or desire or ambition or influence, or the riches of this world.
Instead of aiming and striving for these things, those who desire the salvation which God
promises, are to live to the contrary of these, "Soberly, righteously, godly
[godlike] in this present world" not expecting worldly honors and advantages, neither
expecting this world to be a friend to grace to help us on to God.
"I Will Come Again and Receive You"
But if we as followers of the Lord. Jesus are thus to live
self-denyingly in this world (Age) that we may attain to the grace of God in the next
world (Age) -- "The world to come" -- what are we to have before our minds as
the means or agency of our deliverance and toward which we are to look with longing and
interest and comfort of heart? Ah, the Apostle's answer is most eloquent. He hold up
before us the grand consideration toward which all our ambitions are to turn, in which all
of spur hopes are to center and in which our hearts are to find their treasure,
outweighing and outvaluing every earthly consideration. He thus describes this hope,
"Looking for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ." -- Revised Version.
It was the great Head and Captain of our salvation who originally
inspired His followers to love and cherish this blessed hope. Addressing His disciples in
the darkest hour of His earthly career, at a time when their spirits were in great
distress, He said, "Let not your hearts be troubled; . . . In My Father's house are
many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself;
that where I am, there ye may he also." In what more simple yet definite and positive
manner could our Savior have expressed that blessed hope to His Apostles? Then about forty
days later when Jesus was carried up into heaven and thus finally parted from His chosen
Twelve, we read of how as the cloud received Him out of their sight they looked
steadfastly toward heaven as if to say that henceforth all their hopes, purposes and aims
in life would be centered in the direction of the return of Him who had so loved them as
to give His life in their behalf.
Trained to Far-Sighted Vision
Another has beautifully commented on this dramatic scene of those
early disciples with their heads uplifted to heaven
"How significant is it that in the first glimpse we get of the
primitive Christians we find them 'gazing up unto
heaven'! This attitude was by no means rebuked by the angels, as has sometimes been
supposed, but encouraged and confirmed by the
promise of Christ's literal return, and thus simply changed from an attitude of reluctant
farewell to one of glorious and eager expectation. And this posture became the permanent
one; through all the apostolic age we find that the disciples 'looked steadfastly towards heaven.' In other
words, Christ's living person on the throne became henceforth the object of faith, and His
personal return in glory the object of hope. And do we not see how God thus trained His
Church at the outset to far-sighted vision? It is exactly the reverse of our earthly
habit. We let near objects cut off our view of heaven; God would have distant objects cut
off our view of earth. By gazing at some prize of worldly ambition we hide the crown of
glory. God would rivet our eye upon the crown of glory that we may become oblivious to the
prizes of earth. We get weaned from heaven by casting down our eyes. God would wean us
from earth by lifting up our eyes. Even the philosopher has struck this mighty secret.
"Hitch your wagon to a star," says Emerson, little knowing that he was but
repeating the words of Him who taught His disciples to fasten all their life and hope and
expectation to Him who is 'the bright and
morning star,' gazing amid all their toils and trials upon His invisible person, and amid
all their discouragements and defeats 'looking for that blessed hope and glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.'
Some Whose Hearts Are Wedded to Earth
"And how real is the power of such a habit as it appears in the
actual life of the Christian. Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles were all longsighted
men . . . . 'These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth.' Ah! it is only
such far vision that can make pilgrims of us. Near-sightedness makes Christians contented
citizens of earth, naturalized and acclimated dwellers in this transitory world. It makes
them unpack all their goods and invest all their capital here, as though they were to
remain, on the earth forever. It sets them to planting and building and hoarding, tearing
down their barns and, building greater, increasing their stock, and multiplying their
investments. 'Why,' exclaims the astonished worldling, 'they do just as we do -- love the
world just as much, dig just as deeply, build just as expensively. We thought you called
them "pilgrims and strangers"; but we don't
see them carrying the pilgrim's staff, or speaking with the stranger's accent, or pining
with the sojourner's homesickness. Pray what aileth them?' Ah ! it is spiritual
ophthalmia. The heart is wedded to earth, because the eye is sundered from heaven.
Short-sightedness towards God has begotten far-reaching ambition towards the world. Oh;
what is it, you ask, that can enable one to utter sincerely that sublimest confession
recorded in Scripture: 'For our citizenship is in heaven'? The secret is told in the next
words, 'from whence, also, we look for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.' The eye is the
index of the soul; where it points thither will the soul's affections tend; the longer its
reach of vision towards the sky the shorter our outlook of desire and aspiration towards
the world. Here is the secret of the endurance of the martyrs who loved not their lives
unto death; of all sturdy workers who have counted all things but loss for Christ.
"Oh, wondrous victory! We walk not by sight, but by faith; but
when faith becomes so kindled and intensified into spiritual sight that it can pierce far
into the heavens, and see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, how unconquerable it can
make us!
Who Gave Himself For Us
It is in consideration of all that we know our Lord's presence and
the Kingdom of God will mean to this earth and humanity that we realize special
inspiration and special incentive to perform our whole duty faithfully as footstep
followers of Jesus. Whoever has been truly blessed with this grace of God and has had the
eyes of his. understanding opened by the Word of Truth, causing him to see that this
salvation is to be brought unto him at the revelation of Jesus Christ, is sure to know and
to feel that the chief object in the present life is to attain Christlikeness, which will
constitute for him a "good foundation against the time to come." His treasures
henceforth will be in the nature of character qualities of mind and heart that are in the
sight of God of great price. If some of the Lord's saints happen to possess talents or
influence or wealth, these will not be regarded as their treasures but merely their
servants; that they are not the possessors of these, but merely the stewards whose
privilege it is to use them as best they know how in the Master's service and to the
forwarding of the interests of righteousness in the preparation of themselves and others
for His appearing and Kingdom.
The Apostle presents in another consideration why we should be
exercised by this blessed hope of the Lord's Second Presence and our gathering together
unto Him as His elect Church. It is not merely that we should. think of the life
everlasting and glory in which we might share, but that we should think also that this One
coming in glory and to whom we hope to be joined everlastingly as members of the Bride to
the Bridegroom, is none other than lie who gave Himself for us, who sacrificed His own
life for our redemption. A further important consideration is that the purging away of sin
and the instruction and cleansing which the Word of Truth is to do for us in the present
time as the Apostle has set forth, is to the intent that the Lord may "purify unto
Himself a peculiar people" -- a people different from others, possessed of a special
love for that which is just, that which is pure, that which is noble, that which is good;
and who, despite the imperfections of their mortal bodies, are striving to cultivate these
graces more and more in their hearts and to keep their bodies in subjection. Moreover,
says the Apostle, these peculiar people will be "zealous of good works,"
earnestly desirous and striving to do good unto all men as they have opportunity,
physically, mentally, morally, but more particularly unto the household of faith.
"Look Up and Lift Up Your Heads"
Truly, as the Scriptures repeatedly point out, all those who follow
such a course of life, such a course of strict obedience and loyalty to the will of God
will find it to be a Narrow Way, a way of difficulty, pain and suffering, even unto death,
so far as their humanity is concerned; but these are the conditions of securing the great
reward, as the Apostle specifically states -- if we suffer with Him, we shall. also reign
with Him. And in proportion as we are able to grasp the meaning of that blessed hope we shall be enabled. to reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed m us.
"Is it a mere theory? Is it the romance of Christianity, which
can only be admired, but riot realized; this kindling the soul and rendering it
indomitable under suffering and trial and defeat, by the spiritual sight of that far-off Being-that One of whom an Apostle speaks
so beautifully, 'Whom not having seen we love, and in whom, though now we see Him not, we
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory'? No, it is not fiction. It is a fact that
has its illustrations in common life. I was reading this very week of the perils of a
bewildered and storm-bound party on one of our western mountains. Pressing on in the
blinding snow, the track lost, the cold increasing, one of the party at last sank down to
die. In the drowse of approaching death no persuasions or expostulations could induce him
to go forward, and he sank into a bank of snow to die. But taking from his pocket a
picture of his wife and children for a farewell look, the vision of the dear ones in that
far-off home suddenly broke upon his heart. It was resistless; what threats and entreaties
from those near at hand could not effect, was done in
an instant by that one glance. He saw afar off his happy home, and he aroused himself to
press on to it; with the new power coming in from that sight he pushed forward, and
reached a place of safety.
"It is but a pattern and facsimile of God's dealing with us.
When we are faint with toil and sinking under weariness and ready to yield the battle, we
hear His voice, 'Let us therefore run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the crass, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of God.' And when we are appalled at the ravages of sin, and
are ready to despair, we hear Him saying, 'Look up, and lift up your 'heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh.' This is our attitude in spite of all that tends to make us hang
the head and close the eye. 'Unto. them that look for Him shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation.'
"May the Lord keep us from the downcast, shamefaced, earthward
look, that implies that earth. is all we have, and that for only á little while. May the
Lord lift up our eyes in joyful, triumphant expectation, as those that have 'turned from
idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven."'
"Of all
the beautiful lessons
With which God's book is filled,
This one, of wonderful sweetness,
Hath most my being thrilled.
Oh, wonderful care of the Father!
Oh, wonderful love so free!
To know that the Maker of all things
Careth so much for me?
"'The
said that the temple, so stately,
That crowned Moriah's hill,
Was built without sound of hammer,
The toilers working so still.
Far off from the grand foundation
Was all the noise and strain
Of fitting one store to another,
From base to turret's fane.
"And when
all were brought together,
The stones of every size,
The columns, so strong and graceful,
Each in its place to rise
They formed so grand, a temple
As never before was seen;
So true in its great proportions,
So bright in its glittering sheen.
"Yet
there is a greater temple,
And God is He who plans;
Now gath'ring His stones together
For His 'house not made with hands.'
And each 'living stone' will be there,
Which evermore, day by day,
He's fitting for this great temple,
Which will last for ever and aye.
"Our
pains, temptations and perils,
Our sufferings, sighs and tears,
Are God's chisels, tools and hammers,
Until the Master appears.
Let no one shrink from the process,
Let none of the Lord's complain;
But wait with a meek submission,
'Twill not be long nor in vain."
"But the God of all grace,
who loath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a
while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." -- 1 Pet. 5:10.
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the Scriptures constantly associate
with the Christian life, experiences of trial, discipline, suffering and testing of faith,
there are those who have gained the impression that on receiving favor of the Lord, His
truth and grace, and rejoicing therein, they have come to the end of all trouble and have
entered the Beulah land of rest and peace henceforth never again to be disturbed. But this
is a much mistaken impression. Such results on entering the Narrow Way are not only not
only not in keeping with the Divine purpose concerning the Church's present career, but
additionally our great adversary, Satan, is not disposed to let the children of light
undisturbed into the heavenly Kingdom and its establishment and against all the
prospective, probationary heirs he is an inveterate enemy, and his power is not yet
restrained. The children of light, the heirs of the Kingdom, are therefore the special
targets against which his fiery darts are aimed. For as soon as they escape from the
kingdom of darkness and begin to walk in the light they may expect to find snares spread
for their feet, stumblingblocks placed in their
way, and a variety of experiences, that will mean trial and testing.
Why Faith's Testing?
The question is a reasonable one that many have asked, Why does the
Lord permit the sufferings of His people, including the strong delusions and trials of
faith which frequently result in the overthrow of the faith of some who profess to be on
the Lord's side? A satisfactory answer to the question is realized only by those who have
learned from experience what bearing, trials, difficulties and tests of faith have upon
the development of the character of holiness and godliness. The Apostle answers the query
further also, when he says, "For this cause God shall send them [those who received
not the Truth in the love of it] strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that
they all might be condemned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
Thus plainly we are told that God not only permits but that He also
desires that the faith of His professed, people. Should be tested. And there is but one
conclusion to be reached with regard to these who undertake the Christian life but drop
out by the way, or who fail to meet properly the conditions of discipleship: Many indeed
receive the truth and grace of the Lord very much as a child receives a new toy. It is a
curiosity, something new to be enjoyed for a season and then laid aside to be superseded
by something that temporarily pleases the fancy. Or the truth is valued as a cudgel
wherewith to gain the honors of victory in arguments with disputing opponents. Or, again,
it affords relief to some from long imposed bondage to fear, because of misapprehension
respecting the future, and for this alone it is chiefly valued. They never did enjoy a
position of nearness to the Lord in fellowship with Him, nor have they enjoyed the
prospect of heavenly glory, and often feared that they were not quite good enough to
escape an unhappy happy future and ultimately be admitted into the heavenly home.
Obvious it is that those who thus lightly esteem the Divine blessing
merely to minister to their selfishness are unworthy of it and-it is the will of God that
all such should lose it. Hence the divinely permitted and desired testing of faith to make
manifest who have the unselfish consecrated spirit of devotion to the Lord and those who
are of a reverse attitude. The truth concerning the grace of God. was never intended for
the listless or the ungrateful: "Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the
upright in heart."
The Goal of a Ripened Christian Character
But the true children of God love and treasure the truth, and
realizing the object and purpose of God in giving it to them, they humble themselves under
His mighty hand and give close attention to what He has offered them of Divine
instruction. They learn to love righteousness, to love their fellow men and desire to
bless and help them. They recognize the importance of developing large benevolence and
brotherly kindness. They are meek too, and not anxious to make a show of self and to glory
over their fellows in arguments; nor are they mere curiosity hunters. As they grow in
faith and in those rich spiritual qualities of heart, they value the instruction of the
Lord more and more; they prize it and meditate upon it. They view the Truth as a grand and
systematic embodiment of the ideal of righteousness, love, and benevolence.
Recognizing their call to the high office as Christ's joint-heirs and
judges of the future world, all of these recognize the wisdom of God in causing them to
pass through the disciplining and pruning experiences of the Narrow Way as indicated in
the path that Jesus trod.
As the early disciples of Jesus began to realize the meaning of
following Christ, that it signified a course of trial, hardship, difficulty, they prayed,
"Lord increase our faith." They evidently felt that to continue in the
acceptable discipleship would require a growing faith which would rise to every emergency
of the Master's requirements, and they were quite right in their reasoning; for the Lord
also clearly shows that the true disciples make progress in the school of Christ toward
the full overcoming of the spirit and influence of the world. And this progress can be
achieved by faith only by such full, implicit confidence in His teaching and training as
will keep them continually as earnest, diligent pupils under His guidance and instruction.
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." This, by the
way, is suggestive of what it signifies to be an overcomer to whom pertain all the
exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel of Christ. It is simply this -- that
day by day we attentively heed and patiently carry out the instructions of our infallible
Teacher and Guide in full; unquestioning faith in His wisdom and . love; no matter how
heavy will be the daily cross or how severe the discipline. It ís indeed a tedious, life-long process, but the end
will be glorious; and even the daily discipline patiently and meekly borne will bring the
present reward of conscious progress in the great work of overcoming and of a nearer
approach to the goal of a ripened Christian character. All of this is implied in the
beautiful words so expressive of the faith and fervent devotion of true discipleship,
"Nearer,
my. God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me."
Sweet Rest Beyond
Another has given expression to thoughts along this line that touch a
responsive cord in the hearts of those who have been some time in the Christian way.
"There are few who have taken a prominent place in the history of the Church of God
whose course has not been marked, in a special manner, by vicissitude. Nor is this the
case merely with prominent characters; almost every Christian, be his path ever so retired
and noiseless, knows something of this vicissitude. Indeed, it would seem as if no one
could run the race which is marked out for the man of faith without finding inequalities
in his way. The path through the desert must be rough, and it is well that it is so; for
there is no right-minded person who would not rather be set in a rough than in a
'slippery' The Lord sees our need of being exercised by roughness and hardness, not only
that we may find the rest at the end sweeter,
but also that we may be the more effectually trained and fitted for the place we are yet
to occupy.
"True, we shall have no need for trials in the Kingdom, but we
shall have need of those graces and habits of soul which were formed amid. the trials and
sorrows of the wilderness. We shall yet be constrained to acknowledge that our path here
below was not a whit too rough, but that on the contrary we could not have done without a
single exercise of all those that had fallen to our lot. We now see things indistinctly,
and are often unable to see the needs-be for many of our trials and sorrows; moreover our
impatient nature may often feel disposed to murmur and rebel; but only let us be patient
and we shall be able without hesitation, and with the full assent of every thought and
feeling, to say, 'He led us forth by a right way, that He might bring us to a city of
habitation."'
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